At the farmers market this weekend, I found some really beautiful purple and green kale, which will probably find their way into some soup later this week:
There was also an abundance of broccoli — giant heads of it, and buckets of tender florets:
I received an email newsletter from one of the farmers market vendors raving about Ina Garten’s recipe for roasted broccoli. He wasn’t kidding — this is one of the best ways to prepare broccoli that I have ever tried. I never really thought of broccoli as addictive, but this put broccoli in a whole new light. The recipe below is adapted slightly from Ina’s recipe for Parmesan-Roasted Broccoli.
8 cups broccoli florets (from 2 large heads broccoli)
4 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
Juice of 1 small lemon
2 tablespoons pine nuts
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
Place the broccoli florets in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Sprinkle the garlic over the broccoli, drizzle with the olive oil, and toss together. Sprinkle with the salt and pepper. Roast for 20 to 25 minutes, until crisp-tender and the tips of some of the florets are browned.
Remove the broccoli from the oven and transfer to a large serving bowl. Toss the broccoli with the Parmesan cheese, lemon juice, and pine nuts, and serve.
3.1.09
Tossed with garlic and olive oil and ready to go in the oven
Nicely browned
A squeeze of lemon, grated Parmesan, sprinkle of pine nuts, and voila!
I found this Italian porcelain Capidomonte hibiscus at a neighbor’s estate sale. Fran, herself a delicate flower, had moved to an assisted living facility. I assume she took her nicer things with her, because there wasn’t much at the sale. But standing out among the yellowed books, aluminum cookware, and midcentury furniture, was this fragile hibiscus. It was a pretty thing among all the junk.
According to my interwebs research, in Hawaii, where the yellow hibiscus is the state flower, a hibiscus tucked behind a woman’s right ear indicates the woman is spoken for, and a hibiscus behind the left ear indicates the woman is available. I hibiscus behind both ears probably means the woman is trouble.
Muumuus — those loose, usually floral-print dresses, that hang from the shoulder are also popular in Hawaiian culture.
Lilo in her muumuu
Three’s Company’s Mrs. Roper in her trademark muumuu
If you are young and slim and tan, you can probably pull off wearing a muumuu and flip flops (those cheap rubber thongs that slap against your heel as you walk making a “flip flop” sound) with a hibiscus tucked behind your ear. But let’s face it — after a certain age, and definitely after a certain weight, a muumuu becomes a moo moo, and flip flops are more like waddle daddles, and wearing them in public is a definite fashion don’t.
Not long ago, I was waiting in line at the grocery store behind a woman over a certain age and certain weight who was wearing a moo moo and waddle daddles. I am regularly guilted into donating a dollar to whatever cause the store is collecting for — like this one at Petco, for example:
How can you say no? Well, I’ve observed that most of us manage to do so, but we do it politely, as in “Not today, thank you.” On this particular occasion, the shy young cashier looked at the moo moo woman and said, ” Would you like to donate a dollar to breast cancer?” I suppose technically she should have asked if she would like to donate a dollar to the fight against breast cancer or breast cancer research or something like that. But we all know what she meant. Except moo moo woman. She replied very loudly and very very obnoxiously, “NO, I DON’T WANT TO DONATE A DOLLAR TO BREAST CANCER. WHY WOULD I WANT TO DO THAT? BREAST CANCER IS A TERRIBLE DISEASE. OH NO, I DON’T WANT TO DONATE TO BREAST CANCER, BLAH BLAH BLAH.” The poor cashier just bowed her head and tried to avoid eye contact with her. Moo moo woman paid the cashier and waddle daddled out of the store, much to the cashier’s relief. Needless to say, I donated a dollar to breast cancer that day.
At the grocery store the other day, I found something else to do with a dollar — buy cranberries. Left behind after the holidays — much like Fran’s porcelain hibiscus — they were on sale for a dollar a bag, less than half the price they were just a few weeks ago. They were big, firm Wisconsin cranberries, perfect for baking with.
Inspired by the delicate hibiscus and the memory of the mean old moo moo woman who embarrassed the cashier over a request to donate a dollar, I bought a dollar bag of cranberries and made Cranberry Orange Pound Cake. This is a happy, sunny cake to chase away the winter blues.
¼ cup orange juice (or combination of lemon and orange juice, if desired)
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 tablespoon grated orange rind (can use lemon or combination of lemon and orange, if desired)
1-1/4 cups fresh or frozen cranberries, coarsely chopped
For glaze:
⅓ cup sugar
⅓ cup orange juice (can use lemon juice, or combination of orange and lemon juice, if desired)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 2 8-1/2" x 4-1/2" loaf pans (alternatively, you can use a 10" bundt pan, or 5 mini loaf pans).
Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Place butter in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until creamy. Beat in 1-3/4 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolks 2 at a time. Beat in sour cream, orange juice, vanilla, and orange rind. Fold in flour mixture, just until combined.
In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until foamy. Slowly add remaining ¼ cup sugar, and continue beating until soft peaks form. Fold half of whites into batter, then fold in remaining whites. Gently fold in cranberries. Spoon batter into prepared pans. Bake approximately 1 hour, until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, make glaze by combining sugar and orange juice in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer, stirring until sugar dissolves. Unmold cake onto a plate and spoon glaze over warm cake.
![Lilo[1]](https://i0.wp.com/www.tagsaletastes.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Lilo1.jpg?resize=225%2C300&ssl=1)
![mrs.-roper[1]](https://i0.wp.com/www.tagsaletastes.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/mrs.-roper1.jpg?resize=300%2C206&ssl=1)
