Caramel Cherry Upside Down Cake

This week, Nolan housesat for his parents while they were in Mexico. For me, I stayed home with the dogs and chickens and did the usual chores. I pulled the couchbed out in the living room and sprawled my books and writings and computer and bags of chips across the flannel sheets and sat in silence, save for the dogs snoring and the rain gutters overflowing.

There's a routine to the way we live now. The way we argue. The way we spend our Sundays. The way I do the chickens and the way I play with the dogs. It's not mechanical, but it is familiar. I like it. I myself am a frenetic ball of stress, so the calmness of monotony is good for me.

And when I am home alone, I don't eat that great. I pick like a bird. I graze on candy and yogurt and forget to eat. I'm too wrapped up in the small luxury of expansive hours of reading to care. And when I wanted to bake this weekend, I did it in the simple way--thrown together with leftovers from the fridge.

Caramel Cherry Upside Down Cake

Ingredients:

• 15 oz frozen cherries
• 1/4 cup caramel sauce
• 10 TB unsalted butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs + 1 egg white
• Zest and Juice of 2 lemons
• 1/2 cup whole milk or buttermilk
• 1/2 TB vanilla extract
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 cup AP flour
• 3/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375*F
2. Heavily grease and line the bottom of a 12-inch cast iron skillet
3. Pour cherries and caramel sauce onto parchment and evenly distribute with a rubber spatula
4. In a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar
5. Add eggs, zest, juice, milk, and vanilla
6. Sift together your dry ingredients
7. With mixer on low, slowly add in flour mixture a 1/2 cup or so at a time
8. Mix on high for one minute
9. Pour over top of cherries and caramel
10. Bake for 40 minutes. Because of the moisture of the cherries, it may not be done at this time, so keep checking every five minutes until middle is tanned and set
11. Allow to cool for about 15 minutes before turning onto a plate

Brown Rice Pudding

We came from German stock, from Britain and France. My family has been in America for a long, long time but still my mother held onto the Pennsylvania Dutch heritage of her mother's family. My mother, with her easy-to-tan skin and her copper-lined face, declared her family history, passed down, passed down, passed down from people I have never met. Her mother, who died in 1981, lives on in the stories I can coax out of my own mother every now and then.

When the timing is right.

When there's nothing to talk about on the phone.

When we find old photographs wedged in a Bible.

We didn't grow up comfortable, but we grew up satisfied in what we could do. My mother, a coupon collector and tectonic force in our house, was able to work the night shift and still have time to make dinner. My mother, who made boxed soup and stayed home with us when we were sick. My mother, who I associate with the smell of fresh sheets and open windows and the burning embers of a dying candle. 

My mother, who has invited us down to their house in North Carolina every time I talk to her this week.

And while I am not able to go, not able to see her as much as I'd like, there are pieces of her I still hold close.  Like pouring milk and sugar over leftover rice. A recipe my mother says is from her ancestors, but I do not know this for sure. A mix of economical forces and the vestigial remains of immigrants' milchreis is probably more like it. But it has always been a favorite of mine, and for which I turned into a proper pudding below.

Almond and Cherry Brown Rice Pudding

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 3-5 sage leaves
• 1 1/2 cup brown rice, cooked by factory directions
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 TB butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/3 cup dried cherries
• 1/3 cup sliced almonds

Directions:

1. First, infuse your milk mixture by combining cream, milk, brown sugar, and sage leaves in a small sauce pan
2. Heat on medium-high until bubbles form on the rim of the milk
3. Cover, remove from heat, and allow to steep while you prepare your rice
4. Prepare your rice according to instructions on your bag
5. When rice is done, remove sage leaves from small sauce pan and transfer milk mixture over your rice
6. Simmer on a low heat until thickened (about 10 minutes covered, then 10 minutes uncovered, stirring occasionally)
7. In a small bowl, vigorously stir a bit of your rice mixture into your yolks, tempering them
8. Add the yolks and butter, simmer for about 5-10 minutes. It should be very thick by now
9. Add remaining ingredients, take off heat, and enjoy! It can store for up to 5 days in the fridge

Easy Cherry Lemon Poppyseed Turnovers!

We finally started to clean out the last room of our house. It's a mess right now, but it's slowly getting there. We went to Target and looked at night lights and zoo animals--for Lana or some other toddler who will run around our feet.

We found all these old documents from California. Pictures and letters and little trinkets we through in a box and called it a memory. I told Nolan it's hard to look at those things, to think that we were so different just a year ago and how we have a farm in the Ligonier Valley now. How we just ate to pass the hours and fought to fill the gaps between work and sleep. We were different then; but it makes me nervous to look at those relics and think maybe we were exactly the same.

I remember the second meal we had in California, in the northernmost part of San Diego county where we were living at the time. It was just Starbucks, nothing fancy. But it was hot out and we never got the hang of just relaxing back then, so we went for somewhere with air conditioning. I got an iced coffee and a turnover. We kept calling it a turn-up and couldn't tell why it didn't sound quite right.

I paid $4 for a pastry I could have made at home. But now, now I am different. I make things myself. I save money where I can. I do it myself and make it at home. I don't want to run away to other places as much anymore.

Cherry Lemon Poppyseed Turnovers!

Ingredients:

• 2 sheets puff pastry (10" x 10"
• 8 oz cherry pie filling
• 1 vanilla bean, scraped (or sub 1 TB pure vanilla extract)
• Zest of 2 lemons, separated
• Juice of 2 lemons, separated
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 TB melted butter
• 1 TB heavy cream
• 2 cup confectioners sugar
• 1 TB poppyseeds

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400*F and prepare 2 half sheets with parchment paper
2. Cut puff pastry into 8 equal squares (4 per sheet at 2.5")
3. Mix cherry pie filling, zest, vanilla, juice of one lemon, white sugar, and salt together and mix with a wooden spoon
4. Equally arrange your 8 squares on your prepared sheets
5. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of filling into the center of each square
6. Brush all edges with butter and turn each pastry on a diagonal
7. Crimp edges with a fork to seal (obviously, I did not do this step too well as mine opened up...but it was prettier this way!)
8. Repeat with remaining
9. Brush all with butter on top as well
10. Pierce with a fork to vent out a bit of air
11. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown and puffed
12. Allow to cool. While cooling, mix together remaining lemon juice and zest, cream, and confectioners sugar to create a thin icing
13. Pour over your turnovers and sprinkle with poppyseeds and enjoy!

Corn and Cherry Blondies: in Partnership with Bob's Red Mill

The summer days I’ve slept through sit at the periphery of my mind. I like when the sheets are untucked. I like when a boy is curled up next to me. I like when the sunlight wakes me up. I drink some water, fall back to sleep. I don’t do it much anymore. I have too much on my plate, but not that hungry anymore.

I think of goosebumps as marginalia. I think they’re a secret language I haven’t learned to read yet, scribbled in the corners of someone else’s mind. I think about all the secrets I’ve kept—how I used to hide cigarettes underneath a bridge by my house, how I kept warm beer in my closet and threw the cans away at work, how I’ve forgotten my grandmother’s name and the last thing my grandfather said to me was when he called me the wrong name.

I’ve learned to be someone else while home in Pennsylvania. Cautious, careful. I’m alone more often than I should admit. I may eat chips for dinner one day; then barely rinse out my coffee cup. I don’t think much of my future right now, I just like the idea of being free.

So that’s how I’m spending my weekend—independent. Cautious. Lazy. Alone. Secretive. Curled up. Smoking. I’ll spend a day at a lake and a day at a river. I’ll spend it eating what I want and hardly rinsing the dishes off. And I’ll be grateful for the three-day weekend. Grateful for who I am today. Grateful to be more myself than ever before. And grateful to make food that represents who I’ve always been: cornfed and Appalachian. Born in the Rust Belt, a little freer than I thought I would be this time last year. 

And below is a recipe for a corn and cherry blondie. But first, a couple reminders...

•  I will be taking over the feed feed snapchat on Sunday at 10:00 am EST. Make sure to watch me tour the JQ Dickinson Salt Works in West Virginia! Snapchat username: @thefeedfeed. Make sure to follow along and see this amazing company in action. And if you are interested in learning about the JQ Dickinson Salt Works, I suggest the Southern Foodways Alliance's Gravy podcast they did, found here.
• Secondly, have you all nominated this blog for the Saveur Blog Awards? If not, please do so! It would mean so much to me!

Corn and Cherry Blondies

These are cakey, crumbly, and a cross between a cornbread and a brownie and perfect for the 4th of July. Makes 9 in an 8x8 inch pan.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup AP flour
• ½ cup Bob’s Red Mill corn flour
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¾ cup light brown sugar, packed + more for sprinkling
• ¼ cup white sugar
• 8 TB unsalted butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• ½ TB clear imitation vanilla (can use pure vanilla extract, but I like the palatable kitsch this brings to the blondies)
• 1 ear of corn, grated with pulp and liquid reserved
• 2 TB whole milk
• ¼ cup dried cherries (I do not recommend fresh cherries for this recipe solely due to the amount of liquid the cherries bleed)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*F and prep an 8x8 cake pan with butter and parchment paper
2. Sift together flours, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together sugars and butter until light
4. Add eggs, one at a time, then vanilla
5. Add the pulp and liquid of one ear of grated corn. Some kernels may get into this mixture and that is expected and even welcomed for this dish
6. Your mixture may look a little curdled, but it will come together when you add your dry ingredients
7. With mixer on low, slowly add your flour mixture, a little at a time
8. Dough will form, but may be a little dry; add your milk
9. Turn mixer off and use a rubber spatula to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl to ensure everything is fully mixed, but make sure not to over mix or your dough may get tough
10. Fold in dried cherries
11. Turn dough out into your prepared pan and smooth out with spatula. You may want to pat it into the pan with floured fingers
12. Sprinkle a little more brown sugar on top and bake for 25-30 minutes
13. Blondies are done when golden brown, the brown sugar is slightly caramelized, and the middle is puffed but set
14. Serve immediately or store for up to 3 days

Note: I am fortunate enough to be a Bob's Red Mill brand ambassador this year and will be partnering with them more and more throughout the year. While Bob's Red Mill supplied the ingredient, corn flour for this post, all opinions are my own. Check out their website for more information on all the amazing products they have to offer! You can also find them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!