Recipe: Southern Lemon Cake

I recently read “Under the Tuscan Sun” by Frances Mayes. A rather excellent book I must say. Lots of food and recipes and Italy in general. I was deeply enthralled from page 1.

I have since discovered that she does sell the oil produced in her Italian home (though I don’t know if its exclusively her olive trees at work for the oil if you read the page). And only $285 including shipping for a CASE (12 bottles in 500 ml size – $23.75 a bottle) of olive oil. Not too bad really. And its a cold press olive oil too. Hard for me to resist. Really it is. And since the deadline is Dec 10 I still have time for this year’s harvest. Hmmm.

Anyway I digress. In her book she had a recipe that I knew I had to make as soon as I read it. I just changed it a bit to suit me since I really rather dislike lemon zest. But my love of lemon is too much. This was an awesome cake. In her book Mayes suggested serving with pears, cherries or strawberries. Any and all of those would have been delicious but it was very good on its own!

1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup lemon juice

Glaze – 1/4 cup butter (I used real butter for this)
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice

Link: Eddie Ross

My god the man does it again! This time he’s posted all about his new butler pantry in his beautiful old home he just moved into – and is the pantry and display ever beautiful!! Check it out…I’m completely envious!

Bento Comics

A few bento related comics from Real Life Comics. Read the 4 in the series. I think my favorite has to be this one, however. 😀

First read these on On a Bento Frenzy.

Happy 1 Year Anniversary to me!

Yup, 1 year ago I started this blog. I’ve never had major viewership so its allowed me to change things, experiment, and re-work them as I like. I’m going to continue to do so in the future, I just hope I still enjoy writing in this here blog! If I never get major viewership that’s okay with me, I’m more worried about doing this as long as I enjoy it, and it doesn’t become a chore. It is just passions and hobbies afterall.

As for my new focus, everything I was writing about before stays. I’m still doing recipes, vintage cookbooks and bentos. None of that is leaving. That’s still my life in some ways. But I also have deep interests in design, interior decorating, crafts, scrapbooking, World of Warcraft (thanks to my boyfriend Brad!), books, photos, thrift storing, computer programs, cats, all sorts of things. So from now on, a little more general, a little more me.

Hope you stick around for it!

My New Header

I created the new header using 2 of my favorite things – the program involved is Poladroid (kind of a digital Polaroid creator) and the images came from Stock.Xchng (a free stock photo site). Mostly I use stock photos for wallpaper and screensavers on my computer, but it has come in handy for all sorts of things, including my new header. It takes a little bit to set up an account with them (not sure why really) but its worth it, some amazing photographers submit beautiful things there!

And since Polaroid is no longer making this type of film, at least I can have the next best thing. It pops up with a camera to which you can drop a photo. It snaps the photo then you have to wait. Just like a real Polaroid. Shake if you want, but that doesn’t seem to hurry it, just like the actual film. And it will “ding” to indicate when it will be done. At that point it can be saved or deleted.

So please support this wicked program!

ETA: Forgot to mention that the pictures come out at 1392 by 1692 pixels.

New Look

New header, new look, more or less the same name, same url. Different emphasis. I hope you still enjoy coming back!

Bento #94: Salmon and Couscous

Another simple bento

Lemon baked salmon

Lemon and honey carrots

couscous

Tastykakes chocolate cupcakes

Bento #93: Squid, Seaweed and Rice

Very simple meal and bento

Layer of rice on the bottom topped with squid salad and seaweed salad. The little bottle holds rice vinegar which helped tremendously.

This was packed not in a bento box (as if I lack those!) but in a regular old food storage container by Rubbermaid. Easy peasy.

Bento #92: Chicken Salad and Veggies

A very full dinner!

broccoli and carrots

chicken salad

spinach and romaine salad with italian dressing in the monkey

slab of homemade bread (a bad attempt at a new recipe, but tasted fine)

This blog…

Its slightly more than a week until my 1 year anniversary of starting this blog. I’ve never gotten the viewership that would rival the big dogs. None-the-less I enjoyed it. Until I started tracking IP addresses. That was my big mistake. I just wanted to know who the return visitors were. Turns out I’m not getting very many. (Thank you to those that have!)

And that’s ok. No really it is. As lately writing has begun to feel like a chore. I’m still interested in food, but it really has seemed like work which almost no one has been reading. Further my life has changed some, I have more interests than just food…so the theme of this blog will be changing come February 4 (the 1 year anniversary).

The name and url remains the same, its just a slight content change. From now on my new focus includes not just bento or food, recipes or vintage cookbooks. It will also include everything else about my life that makes me…me. My “Pieces of Earth” if you will and the pieces of life that influence me and my experiences. Yes, it will become a personal blog…but I am going to continue to post just bento items, recipes and vintage cookbooks. Now there will just be the other stuff in between.