I'd've a Baked a Cake! - But Nancy Did it for Me

I previously shared with you the delicious breakfast casserole recipe I so enjoyed at a recent college dormitory reunion with old friends. The last two reunions have been held at this breathtaking home built in Fredericksburg a few years ago and aptly named Inspiration Hill.We gather, we reminisce, we eat, we drink, we laugh, we cry, and we eat and drink some more.

Another recipe we always request is for this Rum Cake baked by our friend Nancy.Every year Nancy brings this and we stand or sit around it promising how this year we swear we won't eat another 4 slices over the course of 2 days, typically all muttered while eating yet another slice. We make excuses - if we eat it standing up, it doesn't count. If we eat it off a napkin and not a plate, no worries. Or, if the slice is teensy enough it doesn't matter that we are having our 11th serving.  Truth be told, this cake has our number.  Big time.  

Here is the recipe with notes from Nancy:
Nancy’s Rum Cake
Pound Cake
3 cups sifted flour
1/4 teaspoon soda
Pinch salt
1 cup butter
3 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup buttermilk

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour large bundt or tube pan.
Sift flour, soda, and salt together; set aside. Cream butter and sugar.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add
vanilla. Add sifted dry ingredients alternately with buttermilk,
beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Beat only until combined.
Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven for 50 - 70
minutes, or until cake tests done. (Baking time will depend upon size of
pan. I always like mine to be a little less dry so if the toothpick does
not come out completely clean, I am not too worried.)

Rum Glaze
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
3/16 cup rum (or a little more - can't hurt)

Melt butter with sugar over low heat while stirring constantly. Remove
from heat and stir in rum. Pour over WARM pound cake while it is still
in the pan. Let stand in pan approximately 2 hours before serving. (I
usually do the cake the night before when I actually want to eat it so it has
plenty of time to absorb all of the glaze. I also run a knife around
the pan before inverting to remove - I do not want the edges of the cake
to stick).

You can see for yourself this cake is no low calorie deal. But when you are visiting with friends, or having a cup of coffee, or better yet doing both, there is something about the buttery, sugary, rum laden goodness that simply can't be beat. You won't want to wait until you are visiting with friends to try this out.But if you are worried about the calories, sharing with a group of friends is as good a way as any to make sure you don't eat the whole thing yourself. This cake is that good.

To close today, here is a mystery poppy that has shown up as part of a wild flower mix that I typically buy each year at Wildseed Farms when this group of friends gathers in Fredericksburg to visit.I am uncertain what type of poppy it is specifically - but it sure enough gorgeous, don't you think? If you like to look at floral photos and read about garden spaces, then check out an April report from our own gardening efforts right here. Bye for now and Y'all come back!

A funny thing happened this past weekend...

We were all set to meet friends at this great house in Fredericksburg we rent out once a year.

View from the house

It is fairly isolated, up on a hill with a great view, has a fabulous kitchen and is for us yet strategically close to the places we like to hit in the 'Burg.I'd spent the morning of the day we were to leave town making various goodies to take along. More on that in a moment.

Our friends have family in the area and so are more familiar with certain go-to spots, like a great breakfast buffet (Andy's), the hot place to get fresh tortillas (Hilda's)and we are the ones with the longer term CenTex gardening chops so we lead the way to Wildseed Farms where the butterflies were swarming and beetles were, well, ahem!,and new this year, a leisurely tour of the Herb Farm. Whenever I travel it is never a matter of "did I forget something" but always a question of "what did I forget?".

This year, I made eggplant butterand a batch of bread pudding for dessert. The eggplant butter I remembered but the pudding I accidentally left at home. That was karmic as my friend left her iced pumpkin bars at home as well. Fortunately I did not forget the steaks or the tilapia for our Friday/Saturday night dinners and she did not forget the bucket of Margaritas. Some things are clearly more important than others.

All that said, we were off to a bit of a weird start as one thing led to another and my hub and I were there in the house by our lonesomes for a couple of hours before our friends actually arrived. After getting unpacked and settled in, he retired for a nap and I settled in with a book. It wasn't more than 5 minutes before my reading was interrupted by the plaintive mewing of a very small cat outside a screened door.I answered (I have spoken fluent cat since early childhood) and we held quite the conversation. I approached the screen door triggering hissing and backing away. At least partly feral, this kitten was clearly torn between wanting food and companionship and her strong instinct to stay away from what life had taught her were potentially dangerous human interactions.

Trigger major "Awwwwww, kitty!" reflex.

Folks arrived, the kitten disappeared, and that should have been that. But it wasn't.Unbeknownst to me, my weekend companions were not only who they appeared to be on the surface, but were also channeling manifestations of the implacable Buddha, Snow White, and St. Francis of Assisi.

This meant I found myself in the aisles of a large store some several hours later, being "educated" about the best cat toy, the proper pet carrier, commercial cat food, and tossing around terms such as "operant conditioning".

Fast forward a few more days and we apparently have ourselves a new kitten here at the Agrodolce house. Or more accurately, she (and we think she is a she) has us. She is mostly staying outdoors overnight, but is gradually trusting us enough to spend more and more time indoors despite our noisy blustering around. She has totally savaged her toy,

RIP kitty toy

is exploring more adventurously, jumps up on our table and kitchen counters persistently, and has pooped at least once on the rug. In terms of kitty adoption protocols, I think that means we are hers.

It has been about 18 months since the death of our last cat, the sweet ancient Tigger. Tigger ruled our roost for around 21 years. Hers was a long and happy reign.This unanticipated return to being a catted people means many things, one of which being I won't have as much free time to blog for a while. I will be spending time with the cat, Bijou, holding, petting, feeding, playing and talking with her in order to retool what was obviously a rocky start to her cat/human interactions.

My new editor

As these things go, if I am successful, she will begin to mostly ignore me soon enough and I will be back with more frequent updates. Hopefully, a bit of an absence will find both you and I enjoying the prospect of regular posts enhanced. Until then!!

Meow for now! 

Getting Down to Busy-Ness

A friend and I were talking about how hard it is to coordinate getting together with people. Everybody is so busy.

My friend was trying to put together a dinner with two other couples. She asked them to indicate, on a calendar displaying four weeks including weekends, when they were available. One couple, out of town for 10 of those days and busy for many of the others, indicated one day they had free and clear. The other couple, (did you see this coming?) is free nearly every night except that one.

We were also talking about weekends and how precious they've become. This woman and her husband have a lake place south of San Antonio that is very remote. No telephone service there, no television set. Whenever they visit they are completely out of touch until/unless they head into the nearby small town and check the store there for newspapers and access to a phone.

When asked if she looks forward to retiring there full time she claims she wouldn't do it. She says, even if she is not going to participate, it is important for her to know about and feel at least marginally connected to the outside world.

She cited as her example, how in the Austin paper there are all these listings of concerts, speakers, museum openings, art shows, festivals, rallies, and retreats. The events and activities are varied and constant. She and I have in common with regards to this amazing array of potential fun that we mostly don't go. But we both DO like knowing about the activities.

We also talked about holiday seasons and how it had become important to each of us to be very selective in what we chose to do. (Only how many shopping days left?...sorry...) There are hundreds of activities that are all good choices individually, but trying to do them all runs counter to their purpose, enjoying the season. So we choose.

I mention all this for two reasons.

First, my husband and I will spend the weekend in Fredericksburg in a very cool lease house called "Inspiration Hill" with another couple we've known for years. We two couples haven't weekended together before, so this is new and we are all really looking forward to the extended time together.

We will be exploring Fredericksburg and the surrounding environs the weekend BEFORE the annual Food and Wine Fest in the area. Bad timing? I don't think so. I'd tried booking the house (a long time ago) for that weekend but it wasn't available. The more I thought about it, the more I began to appreciate that the 4 of us will be exploring on our own without the hundreds or thousands of extra visitors they might expect to show up for a designated weekend.

So we will wine and dine and make our own fun, which we are quite capable of doing. And we will do so without more than the usual crowd surge expected for the area in lovely weather on a regular weekend.

The other reason I say this is an opportunity I will unfortunately miss even though it represents La Dolce Vita. Life in Austin is indeed sweet. So is life out of town when it involves a weekend with dear friends.

I believe it crucial to create opportunities to spend time with people who are important to you. It is equally important that those shared times have as part of their structure, SHARED TIME, and not just time spent in proximity along with hundreds of other people.

A good balance is required so you are fed both personally and experientially. And that, my friends, is my basic recipe for La Dolce Vita - the sweet life.

An important side note: Thursday, October 18th is National Meat Loaf Appreciation Day! Whether or not you make one - be sure to appreciate a meat loaf, won't you?