Star Trek and Lemon Sour Cherry Cake
May. 20th, 2009 07:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
liralenIt's nearly the end of Jet's school year and things are going nuts. Just lots of things to take care of before summer hits, and hopefully the pool will open and we can cool off. It's been in the 80's the last couple of days, should be back in the 60's again tomorrow. Colorado weather.
One of the things we're doing is seeing movies that Jet isn't interested in, and Star Trek was up this time. And the funniest thing kept reoccurring in my brain, which was This is just like a GREAT AU fanfilm of the original series!! Okay, I know that not everyone on this list reads fanfic; but this was like someone sat down one weekend with the DVDs of all of the original series, watched the WHOLE THING THROUGH TWICE, and then sat down to answer the question that ALL of us had when watching the original series: "Okay, what IF someone didn't obey the rules and went back to deliberately mess with the time line?" And they did it really, really *well*.
I mean, they brought in all the characters, with really good form for what they were originally like and with the backgrounds they had. It was also really cool that they really emphasized and magnified why each of the characters was really cool and why someone could really fall in love with them and minimized the less than likable bits that had accumulated with the series.
I loved Kirk, every single thing about Kirk, from the flops and the falls and the impossible fights and the "Is there anything I can help you with, officer?"
They got all the lines, the mannerisms, and jokes from those very things. They had a great, separate entrance for every named character. They HAD THE RED SHIRT. They added the Romance that Should Have Been, that all good AU fanfics have, and brought all the characters in with the coolest coincidences *ever*. And like all good fans, they really kept track of ALL the coolest things about each character, like Checkoff being an ensign and starting out gawdawful eager and young. Though Sulu's "fencing" turned out to be far more kendo-like than rapier-like, but then he was going up against a BATTLE AXE. Ahem.
And they really *changed* the world, the continuity, and really did their research on exactly what that would and wouldn't change.
Scotty's line in the preview, "My GOD I love this ship, it's all so EXCITING!" Really works in context as well as in the preview. *laughs*
Gosh, I really loved it, as it's really obvious that the people that did it really, really liked the old franchise.
So, in the rest of my life, I'll confess to the fact that I've never actually baked a cake from scratch before. I've used mixes, and while I've done quick breads, like banana, zucchini, etc. in spades, along with scones and muffins from scratch. I've just never done a cake from scratch before. It's always kind of just intimidating to read two sticks of butter and five eggs and wonder what in the world is going to happen if I mess this up? There's the additional problem of being at altitude. At 5000 feet, everything behaves a little differently than at sea level. Water boils cooler, so it goes away faster and baked goods dry out sooner. Leavening has less to push against, so everything rises a little higher.
Seattle's Macarina Bakery published a book a year or two ago, that had all their favorite recipes, and one of the cakes that they had which I've bought a "slice" of (which was actually like a 5 inch thick CHUNK of cake) was the sour cherry lemon coffee cake. I loved that slice of cake. Ate it over three mornings when I was in Seattle and pined for more.
But it's been over a year since I got the book, and every time I looked at the recipe I kind of backed off. But two days ago, I actually went ahead and did the whole thing from start to finish. Creaming the butter, doing the eggs, adding the lemon zest, etc. It went well. Though I had a moment of panic when the egg mixture curdled after the addition of the lemon juice. But alternating the flour and yogurt smoothed everything out. I also panicked when the batter was nearly to the rim of my Bundt® pan, so I pulled some out into a muffin tin, just in case. It turned out that I didn't have to do that... but everything worked out beautifully.
The cake turned out exactly like the one in Seattle, with no alterations for the altitude. I was very impressed. It's very dense, rich, fine of crumb and the sour cherries really cut the sweetness well. It's great morning coffee cake as it lasts all morning with all the eggs and butter in it and it really helps make a cup of coffee taste really, really good. It's not bad with a pot of Typhoo tea, either.
The garden's overflowing with spinach, lettuce, and random greens. I planted a sweet mesclun mix, alternating with spinach, carrots, and Walla Walla sweet onions. The mesclun and spinach are HUGE, and ready to pull/pick. The onions and carrots are sprouted and starting to grow between the big leaves; but they're going to be happier when I've cleared the greens. So we're eating salads every day, nearly two times a day, for the last week, and it's amazing to just go out into the garden, grab handfuls of food and go in to wash 'em and eat. My garden's organic through laziness. We just worked a bunch of our kitchen compost into the raised beds, and that's it. I don't feed anything, it just grows like mad.
The radishes are all in. The green onions are providing lots of garnish. The sugar snap peas are flowering and starting to give little pods, the tomatoes are flowering. I haven't seen zucchini, yet; or corn. But they're coming, I'm sure.
The basil's coming up, as it the NEXT batch of lettuce. *laughs* Cilantro is sprouting in its bin, and the thyme is coming up from seed in bursts.
So lots of summer food and the neighborhood pool isn't open yet. *laughs* It will be soon, I think.
One of the things we're doing is seeing movies that Jet isn't interested in, and Star Trek was up this time. And the funniest thing kept reoccurring in my brain, which was This is just like a GREAT AU fanfilm of the original series!! Okay, I know that not everyone on this list reads fanfic; but this was like someone sat down one weekend with the DVDs of all of the original series, watched the WHOLE THING THROUGH TWICE, and then sat down to answer the question that ALL of us had when watching the original series: "Okay, what IF someone didn't obey the rules and went back to deliberately mess with the time line?" And they did it really, really *well*.
I mean, they brought in all the characters, with really good form for what they were originally like and with the backgrounds they had. It was also really cool that they really emphasized and magnified why each of the characters was really cool and why someone could really fall in love with them and minimized the less than likable bits that had accumulated with the series.
I loved Kirk, every single thing about Kirk, from the flops and the falls and the impossible fights and the "Is there anything I can help you with, officer?"
They got all the lines, the mannerisms, and jokes from those very things. They had a great, separate entrance for every named character. They HAD THE RED SHIRT. They added the Romance that Should Have Been, that all good AU fanfics have, and brought all the characters in with the coolest coincidences *ever*. And like all good fans, they really kept track of ALL the coolest things about each character, like Checkoff being an ensign and starting out gawdawful eager and young. Though Sulu's "fencing" turned out to be far more kendo-like than rapier-like, but then he was going up against a BATTLE AXE. Ahem.
And they really *changed* the world, the continuity, and really did their research on exactly what that would and wouldn't change.
Scotty's line in the preview, "My GOD I love this ship, it's all so EXCITING!" Really works in context as well as in the preview. *laughs*
Gosh, I really loved it, as it's really obvious that the people that did it really, really liked the old franchise.
So, in the rest of my life, I'll confess to the fact that I've never actually baked a cake from scratch before. I've used mixes, and while I've done quick breads, like banana, zucchini, etc. in spades, along with scones and muffins from scratch. I've just never done a cake from scratch before. It's always kind of just intimidating to read two sticks of butter and five eggs and wonder what in the world is going to happen if I mess this up? There's the additional problem of being at altitude. At 5000 feet, everything behaves a little differently than at sea level. Water boils cooler, so it goes away faster and baked goods dry out sooner. Leavening has less to push against, so everything rises a little higher.
Seattle's Macarina Bakery published a book a year or two ago, that had all their favorite recipes, and one of the cakes that they had which I've bought a "slice" of (which was actually like a 5 inch thick CHUNK of cake) was the sour cherry lemon coffee cake. I loved that slice of cake. Ate it over three mornings when I was in Seattle and pined for more.
But it's been over a year since I got the book, and every time I looked at the recipe I kind of backed off. But two days ago, I actually went ahead and did the whole thing from start to finish. Creaming the butter, doing the eggs, adding the lemon zest, etc. It went well. Though I had a moment of panic when the egg mixture curdled after the addition of the lemon juice. But alternating the flour and yogurt smoothed everything out. I also panicked when the batter was nearly to the rim of my Bundt® pan, so I pulled some out into a muffin tin, just in case. It turned out that I didn't have to do that... but everything worked out beautifully.
The cake turned out exactly like the one in Seattle, with no alterations for the altitude. I was very impressed. It's very dense, rich, fine of crumb and the sour cherries really cut the sweetness well. It's great morning coffee cake as it lasts all morning with all the eggs and butter in it and it really helps make a cup of coffee taste really, really good. It's not bad with a pot of Typhoo tea, either.
The garden's overflowing with spinach, lettuce, and random greens. I planted a sweet mesclun mix, alternating with spinach, carrots, and Walla Walla sweet onions. The mesclun and spinach are HUGE, and ready to pull/pick. The onions and carrots are sprouted and starting to grow between the big leaves; but they're going to be happier when I've cleared the greens. So we're eating salads every day, nearly two times a day, for the last week, and it's amazing to just go out into the garden, grab handfuls of food and go in to wash 'em and eat. My garden's organic through laziness. We just worked a bunch of our kitchen compost into the raised beds, and that's it. I don't feed anything, it just grows like mad.
The radishes are all in. The green onions are providing lots of garnish. The sugar snap peas are flowering and starting to give little pods, the tomatoes are flowering. I haven't seen zucchini, yet; or corn. But they're coming, I'm sure.
The basil's coming up, as it the NEXT batch of lettuce. *laughs* Cilantro is sprouting in its bin, and the thyme is coming up from seed in bursts.
So lots of summer food and the neighborhood pool isn't open yet. *laughs* It will be soon, I think.
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no subject
Date: 2009-05-21 02:16 am (UTC)Best review ever! I can't wait to see it. Been too tired every night so far, but soon.
Also, you just made me really nostalgic for my old neighborhood pool.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-21 03:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-21 03:56 am (UTC)But, yeah, it's all raised beds or containers. My summer lettuce is all in containers because it gets too hot in the beds; but now the hot and sweet peppers are all going into the really sunny beds where the greens do just fine when it's still freezing elsewhere in the garden.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-21 03:54 am (UTC)Yeah, the neighborhood pool is such a blast, and all the neighborhood teens do the life guard thing and it's fun to just go and hang out with all the other families...
no subject
Date: 2009-05-21 03:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-21 03:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-21 04:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-22 04:43 am (UTC)yay for the succulents!!
Yeah, here things wilt because of the SUN, not the rain, adn the spinach is starting to get fried, a little, by the heat... bleh.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-21 04:49 pm (UTC)And yum, that cake sounds good. I'm so tempted to run out and get the cookbook, but I bet it'd be way longer than a couple of years before my cake got made. :)
no subject
Date: 2009-05-22 04:44 am (UTC)Yeah... I know the feeling abuot that last. *laughs* I should just send you a cake this winter. That would be good, still.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-23 06:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-21 06:30 pm (UTC)Also, I am super impressed with your cake. My biggest confectionery accomplishment is Jello No-Bake Cheesecake. >_>
no subject
Date: 2009-05-22 04:44 am (UTC)Woohooo! No-bake Cheesecake! Hmm... now I'm hungry for cheesecake and strawberries....
no subject
Date: 2009-05-25 04:56 am (UTC)Yum! Homemade cake and a delicious garden! :D
no subject
Date: 2009-05-25 05:20 am (UTC)Heck, I HAVE to see the new Terminator movie, too... but I'm into the character abuse movies, too. *laughs*
The garden has been really amazing... I'm very happy I've been taking better care of it this year. Whew.