Chronicles of Whistling Duck Cottage
Week Five — Baking & Celebrating
Week Thirty of 52-Week Writing Challenge
Sunday, my husband and I had a celebration dinner party for those people who helped us acquire our new home. But, before that happened, my grandchildren spent Saturday with me. We baked cream cheese brownies for the dinner party but the recipe came from a standard cookbook, and the end result was disappointing. In fact, I chose to send the brownies home with the kids rather than serve them at the dinner party. The brownies were too sweet and too dense for my taste.
Before tackling the brownies, the kids and I planned some fun time at the community pool but a storm put a halt to our plans. My Weather Bug app showed the storm would be long-lived. Since we were stuck inside for an hour, I came up with a fast baking project to keep the kids occupied — easy guava-cheese pastries. This recipe is super simple. My grandchildren — 8 and 10 years old — were able to prepare these tasty tidbits with almost no interference — I mean, help — from me.
All you need is guava paste, cream cheese, and crescent rolls. And, if guava paste is not available in your town, feel free to use any other fruity concoction — even jam will do.
Open the rolls and separate the triangles. In each triangle, put one or two pieces of guava and cream cheese.
Roll up the triangles, making sure there are no openings for the guava and cream cheese to escape. The kids created their own unique shapes, competing with one another of the most creative and the most weird. Bake according to crescent roll instructions.
Cool the pastries and eat!
These are simple and fun, especially on a rainy Saturday!
After the rain stopped, we headed to the pool and then returned to make the not-so-successful brownies. I was particularly disappointed with the brownies because the recipe was time-intensive, required the dirtying of many bowls and pans, and the end result was simply not worth the time, effort, and mess.
Sunday was rainy. Fortunately, with the rain came cooler temperatures — something Floridians don’t experience often in the summer. Preparing for our dinner, I spent a large portion of the day cleaning. It was a relief to open our doors and allow a cool breeze to sweep through our townhome. We usually cannot indulge in such a delight until October!
Once my Cinderella duties were done, I needed to address the fact that we had no desert for our dinner since the brownies were a bust and went home with the kids. Fresh blueberries are plentiful, so I pulled out one of my favorite recipes and made a blueberry cake.
Put 3 cups of all-purpose flour (I prefer King Arthur and I use a mixture of white and whole wheat) in a large bowl with 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp of baking soda, and a pinch of salt. Mix and set aside.
In a another bowl, cream together 2 sticks of softened butter and 2 cups of sugar until fluffy. Add 1 tsp of vanilla, 1/2 tsp of almond, and 6 eggs (one at a time). Beat on medium-low for about 2 minutes, scraping down bowl as needed. Add half of the flour mixture and beat on low. Add 1/2 cup of plain or vanilla Greek yogurt and beat until combined. Add rest of flour mixture, another 1/2 cup of yogurt, and 2 tbsp of cinnamon. Beat until combined — be careful not to over-beat. Dust 2 pints (4 cups) of fresh blueberries with 2 tbsp of flour. Fold blueberries into batter by hand.
Pour batter into a greased and floured bundt cake pan (I used Baker’s Joy spray to prepare the bundt pan). Spread the batter to smooth it out. Bake at 325 degrees for 60 to 75 minutes. A toothpick inserted in the cake should come out clean. Cool for a least 30 minutes and carefully turn upside-down on a plate. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream. Or, as we did with the leftover cake, serve with coffee for breakfast — yum!
For our meal, my husband prepared his homemade pasta sauce — making a meat sauce and a vegetarian version because we were feeding 4 vegetarians and 4 carnivores. If I hadn’t been so busy myself, I would have documented his sauce but that will have to wait until another day and another post. To go with the sauce, he prepare gnocchi pasta. His mother would have made them from scratch but he wisely opted for the packaged gnocchi.
I will mention that his pasta sauce includes chunks of white and sweet potatoes — a recipe I’ve never seen before. Besides the gnocchi and sauce, I prepared a fresh green salad with vine-ripened tomatoes, and we had white dinner rolls and multi-grain bread from a local bakery. There was fresh mozzarella to sprinkle on the pasta. To compliment the dinner, we had a choice of iced tea, Sprite, and spring water for the non-drinkers and Malbec, Chianti, Blackberry, and Citrus wines for the drinkers. And, of course, blueberry cake and vanilla ice cream for dessert.
The dinner was something we imagined since moving in. We wanted to thank the people who were instrumental in the acquisition of our new home:
My 20-year friend, Anita, who told me about the townhome long before it was scheduled to be listed and who invested time and sweat helping us move, and her wife, Sandra, who graciously accepted Anita’s absences while Anita was helping us at various stages of our move;
Kathy, the long-time owner of this home, who took such meticulous care of it and who has become a friend (she moved to the next neighborhood!);
Stacey, the loan officer at my credit union, who made the loan process almost painless and who, like Kathy, has become a friend;
Lisa, the paralegal at my client’s office, who prepared the closing and patiently answered my numerous questions and who has been a dear friend since we started working together seven years ago, and her husband, Scott, who tickled us with his humor all during the dinner.
Our dinner party was a huge success! Everyone ate well, talked a lot and laughed even more.
My husband and I enjoyed entertaining for the first time in our new home, and entertaining these very special people made our first soiree extra-special.
