AFTERNOON CAKE/(APRICOT) SKILLET UPSIDE DOWN CAKE — Small Victories
My plum tree is doing its thing, so I sort of mashed these two recipes together, essentially just turning the Afternoon Cake into an upside down cake, with plums instead of apricots. The topping part of the apricot upside down cake (aka the part of the recipe I sort-of used) is bog standard: butter, brown sugar, a bit of salt, and sliced fruit. Only I didn’t follow her instructions to butter the sides of the cast iron skillet, then work together room temp butter and brown sugar and spread it over the bottom of the skillet, which seemed like unnecessary busy work for a vessel that goes on the stove. Instead, I melted the butter in the skillet, brushed it around the pan and added the brown sugar to the bottom. The afternoon cake batter, I made as written, using almond flour for the nuts and a dash of almond extract in addition to the vanilla.
This made a lovely cake: moist, just the right sweetness with the topping (since the afternoon cake doesn’t have a lot of sugar), and flavorful. It was nice the day it was baked, but better the following day, when the flavor was more developed as is usual with almond cakes, and everyone loved it.
Ha! I’ve made these before but had no idea they were hers - someone must have shared the recipe here or on Chowhound (RIP…) and I made them based on the I recommendation. I liked them even without the nigella seeds; I may have added some onion instead per the notes.
LOW-AND-SLOW BAKED GREEK CHICKEN + POTATOES from Simply Julia
Very nice!
Very familiar too, I’ve always liked oregano, lemon, and feta together.
Prep is easy, just mix chicken pieces and chunked potatoes in olive oil, juiced lemon, dried oregano and salt, chicken stock.
It bakes 11/2 hours at 300F (covered halfway through) then half an hour to brown at 400F. The sauce is yogurt + feta cheese, a little dill.
Very little work, very much flavor. We both will enjoy it again.
AFTERNOON CAKE from Small Victories
This Turshen person is becoming very useful in my kitchen! She keeps things simple and sensible but then wow, another winner.
I used pecans (thought they’d go good with the orange juice and zest) and did make some crème fraîche (suggested in recipe) to go with.
I love the name of this cake, it sounds so --civilized-- almost British haha.
Doesn’t mention any kind of celebration (b-day! wedding! – isn’t there even a cake called Better Than Sex?)
No, this is an Afternoon Cake – it has good manners and so should we
In Small Victories, she has Happy Wife, Happy Life Chocolate Cake, which is a pretty typical chocolate layer cake that she says is her wife’s favorite, and in Now and Again, she has Healthy, Happy Wife Cake, which uses almond flour and coconut sugar.
RATATOUILLE + R̶I̶C̶O̶T̶T̶A̶ BOURSIN BAKED PASTA — Simply Julia, p.28
I lit on this recipe because I had Boursin to make use of (every so often I can’t resist the three-pack for $9.99 at Costco), and it would make a good upgrade from ricotta. Not that this is a revolutionary idea — either roasted ratatouille, or combining this vegetables with pasta. This is more ratatouille-inspired than actual, since it is a bunch of chopped roasted vegetables, rather than having the stewy consistency of ratatouille.
This calls for the usual suspects (zucchini, eggplant, sweet bell pepper, cherry tomatoes), but for some reason no alliums. Huh? I added a red onion, though I didn’t bother with garlic because the Boursin takes care of that. I basically halved the recipe, though I just guesstimated rather than weighing (including the pasta, which was about two-thirds of a 13 oz box of De Cecco whole wheat fusilli). For seasoning, she calls for dried oregano and optional fennel seeds. I was out of oregano, so subbed thyme and did use the fennel seeds. I generally followed her prep, down to using two sheet pans, though mine were quarter sheets. I deviated when it came to baking the assembled dish. Turshen spreads it all on one of the pans used for roasting the vegetables, in the interest of more crispy bits and fewer dishes, but I decided I’d just as soon be able to pop the things with the creamy dairy, etc. in the dishwasher, so since my pasta pot was too small for everything anyway, I threw the vegetables into a Pyrex bowl as I chopped and tossed them with the oil and seasonings, then used the same bowl to combine everything before baking in a Pyrex pan.
This wasn’t revelatory, but it made for a very tasty dinner. Nothing I really needed a recipe for, but useful inspiration. I think it would be a little underwhelming as written, with just ricotta and parmesan and no onion or garlic or fresh herbs or other seasoning beyond what she calls for, though.
You’re right, and I’ve done something similar to tiktok pasta with just roasted tomatoes, aromatics and boursin, come to think of it. It brings a lot of flavor and makes a creamy sauce when combined with hot food, for great ROI in effort.
I think ricotta would be fine here had she included any aromatics in the recipe. The omission is odd to me, especially given her cooking style. I do like ricotta with a simple marinara or pesto.
I’ve come a bit late to the ricotta party, but I had some leftover from a cake I made, and dolloped it onto a broccoli/sausage (no tomato) pasta, and it was so good! Will definitely do again after the next ricotta cake.
Embarrassed because I never heard of tiktok pasta, though I know sheet pan dinners. (I may have 30 or 40 + years on you, explains that!)
I agree with CaitlinM about the onions.
ZUCCHINI, GREEN OLIVE + FETA FRITTERS from Simply Julia
Ooh too salty, I think. And recipe calls for Xtra salt sprinkled on top, too.
The usual flour, egg, baking powder fritter ingredients (cornstarch too. in this recipe.) Nice idea worth rethinking, I think, but I’d use milder olives and no extra salt. The yogurt sauce helped, but I salted that too!
She has a zucchini fritter recipe in Small Victories without the olives or feta. I hate frying but those pan fried little nuggets of deliciousness are worth doing. They have nigella seeds, which add a lot.
