Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

When it comes to pineapple-upside down cake, I'm sure there are easier recipes, but I've never tasted one quite this delicious. Maybe it's the cast-iron pan, or maybe it's the beaten egg whites. Whenever I serve this cake, there are never any leftovers.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Meanwhile, over a low flame, melt 1/2 cup unsalted butter in a (pre-seasoned) cast-iron skillet. Spoon in 1 cup (packed) brown sugar. Mix and turn off the heat.

Gather:
one 20-ounce can pineapple slices (drain, reserving 1/4 c juice)
Maraschino cheerries
pecan halves
Arrange the pineapple slices over the brown sugar mixture. Cut left-over slices in half, and use them to line the sides of the skillet, cut sides facing in. Stick a cherry in the center of every pineapple circle. Press the pecan halves between the pineapple slices.

Prepare
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 egg yolks (reserve whites in separate bowl)
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla (real vanilla)

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt, then run your hands through it. Or, if you are the finicky sort, use a sifter. Plug in an electric mixer and beat the egg yolks until they are thick. Very slowly, add the sugar. Spoon in the flour, baking powder, and salt mixture. Add the vanilla.

Pour the mixture of egg whites into a deep bowl. Beat them with a mixer on high. When stiff peaks form, stop beating. Using a rubber spatula, fold the whites into the batter. Gently spoon the batter over the pineapple.

Bake 50 minutes.
Remove from the oven and invert, without cooling, onto a serving platter.
Yield: 12 servings

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Two Tarts

Welcome to Foodie Friday!

This week, I made two easy tarts.
Apricot-blueberry with lemon curd...
and strawberry-apricot with lemon curd

As always in Gollum's kitchen, the recipes are a snap.
What You Need:

Pepperidge Farm puff pastry sheets, thawed

1 jar lemon curd

canned apricots (reserve liquid)

blueberries

1 jar strawberry ice cream topping

For the apricot-lemon curd tart, I thinned the lemon curd with apricot juice and spread it onto the pastry. After arranging the apricots (I added the blueberries *after* cooking), I popped the pan into a preheated 400 degree oven and cooked 20 minutes.

For the apricot-strawberry tart, I mixed lemon curd with the strawberry topping.

Same proceedure, minus the berries.

Simple.

These tarts will be "wiggly" when you pull them from the oven. After cooling, they will collect themselves and solidify.

Enjoy!

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Foodie Friday: A Rooster Tale

A few weeks ago, my husband, the Big Guy, decided to enter his favorite rooster in the county fair. The rooster was caught without much fanfare. All it took was watermelon--and a hen eating the melon. My husband swooped down, caught the rooster, and didn't get spurred. But he experienced a few nail-biting moments, because the competition was fierce; all the other chickens had been bathed, and ours was a bit dusty.

But Roo won a blue ribbon.

After we brought Roo home, my husband asked me to take their photo. But the rooster flew out of the crate and escaped into the front yard. He was fast!

Big, Bandwidth, and I ran around like the Three Stooges, but Roo outsmarted us. Now he's living by the pool, crowing at dawn. He can't find the barn, and we can't catch him.

It's a definite smile-maker to glance out the window and see the rooster strutting up the driveway or pecking in the grass. My husband brought Roo a hen for company, and we thought a happy ending was at hand. The next morning, the hen was in the barn, and Roo was alone. Again.

Solution: Put out chicken scratch and buy his 'n her earplugs.
I'm linking to the Barnyard Bash at Happier than a Pig in Mud.
Welcome to Foodie Friday. Mr. Linky awaits your blog info:

KitchenAid Give-away

Kendra Haden at Haden News has won the mixer. Thanks to everyone who entered. If you didn't win, guess what? Another KitchenAid giveway starts Monday. The deadline is November 1st--just in time for Thanksgiving. To enter, leave a message and add the words "mixer" and "pumpkin pie."

Foodie Friday

There's still time to enter the KitchenAid give-away. Just leave a comment below. The winner will be announced this Sunday.


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