the frig blig

By popular request, this is the recipe for the rich chocolate confection I learned to make from my mother. It’s different from typical “linzer torte” pastries.

Linzer Torte

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
3/8 lb. butter (the real thing) [1.5 sticks]
1 cup almonds, ground (I buy slivered ones & chop ‘em in a hand chopper)
3 hard-boiled egg yolks
1 raw egg
3/4 cup softened semi-sweet chocolate chips
raspberry preserves

Mix flour, sugar and softened butter. Add egg yolks, raw egg (beat), softened chocolate (melt in double-boiler), and finally stir in the almonds and mix well. Batter will be stiff. Put batter in lightly-greased (butter) square baking pan, not more than 1.5″ high. Smooth batter, spread with raspberry preserves, and lattice with remaining batter (remember to leave a little in the bowl for this step — it doesn’t take much). Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

How many turkeys died over the past week in order for north americans to enjoy their little feast? Could it be… millions?

Monsanto guilty of lying — Read all ’bout it!

De-gourded on the 31st, separated for drying on the mat.

So right there on 7th Ave near the intersection with Aurora sits the Hurricane Cafe. (It occupies the site of the former Dog House restaurant for you old-timers.)

I ask my fellow Seattleites this: when was the last time you saw a hurricane around these parts? Answer: never. Hurricanes just don’t make it up to the pacific northwest. What we do get are occasional earthquakes and volcano eruptions and lots of fog, mist and light precip.

So I’d like to suggest that the owner(s) of aforementioned Hurricane Cafe get a little more real and more local, and rename their establishment the Earthquake Cafe. Or the Slime Cafe. Or the Drizzler. (”Home of the Tsunami Burger”.) Or something besides a completely foreign weather concept.

Sometimes it’s fun to look down.

Came upon this scene on my morning walk to the Lighthouse. Not gruesome exactly but…grue-inspiring and gruiously stopped me in my tracks.

While last year if it wasn’t a Pink Lady I wasn’t interested, this year S and I have bitten into the amazingly great Honeycrisp — this season’s apple of choice in our crib. Just the right combo of sweet and tart, wonderfully crisp and juicy, and pretty to boot. What more could anyone ask in an apple?

Disclaimer: you may not like what I like.

My neighbor N had a problem with her PC, and when I volunteered to make a house call, she gave me this garnet sweet-potato pie fresh out of the oven. Golly, sometimes it pays to be nice to people! BTW that’s sugar on them there leaves, not ice crystals.