September 2018 – yellow room upstairs

Thirty seven years ago, at the end of a whirlwind romance, I got married. We met on a blind lunch date (with two other women) for lunch at a cafe that had recently witnessed a attempted organized crime hit. That was in mid November. After a lunch of enormous hamburgers, during which a truck backfired outside and my future husband comically tried to hide under the table, we dated for six weeks and became engaged at the end of December. On the day after Valentine’s day, we were married. We had twenty wedding guests at a lovely inn and then went off to a driving trip to New England and the temperature on Boston Common was 72 degrees.

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We returned to a lovely rented carriage house that we shared with a raccoon and about fifty mice.

I had determined that we were going to be cozy. Big mugs of tea. Pots of soup. Homemade breads and cakes. And to that end I found a very simple recipe that I made weekly, called Cheerful Morning Apple Cake. And so it was.

Hardly anything went as planned those first few months and yet, we’re still together. But we were in love (still are) and everything was (still is)beautiful. Maybe it’s the apple cake.

This cake is very simple to make. The batter is stirred with a spoon. Of course I used a wooden spoon.

Ingredients:

for the dough:
Mix together–
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup of room temperature butter
1 egg

Stir in:
1/2 cup milk

Then, add:
1 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

for the streusel mixture:
Mix together —
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 Tablespoons flour
2 Tablespoons melted butter
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 to 4 apples, peeled and sliced thin

Directions:
1. Mix the dough well with a spoon. Spread half of the dough in the bottom of a 9×9 inch pan (I lightly grease the bottom of the pan).

2. Cover the dough with apple slices and the streusel mixture.

3. Top with the other half of the dough.

4. Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit until lightly golden brown or for 25 to 35 minutes

I can’t guarantee that mornings will be cheerful because of this cake…but I can guarantee that the cake is simple and delicious and with a mug of tea, coffee, or cocoa…well…..

Apples are available at The Collingswood Farmers’ Market at Fruitwood Farms, and Schoeber’s.

Believe it or not this long weird-weather summer is coming to a close. The produce is changing at The Collingswood Farmers’ Market. Apples are here. Winter squash is popping up. And baskets of lima beans made their first appearance at A.T. Buzby’s table this weekend!

I am fortunate to have a grandson who enjoys cleaning lima beans. He has fun opening the pods and popping the beans into a bowl. Lucky for me!

What follows is a simple recipe for making succotash. The recipe uses corn, lima beans, tomatoes, and butter. It’s easily assembled …with help shucking the corn (husband!) and shelling the lima beans (grandson)… and easily cooked. One pot does it all and all at once.

Ingredients:
Fresh corn (your ratios can differ…I used 4 ears of corn and a 1/2 cup of lima beans)
lima beans
2 small tomatoes (I used San Marzano plum tomatoes)
4 tablespoons butter (as I used sweet butter I added salt to my taste right before serving)

Directions:
1. Melt butter in a pan
2. Drop in chopped tomatoes following by corn and lima beans

3. Let them cook in the melted butter for about five minutes. Put a lid on the pot and cook at least five minutes more. Check lima beans for doneness. They should be soft, but not mush.