Seeking Beauty: the last weekend of summer, part 3

I am posting this on the autumnal equinox.  Last night (in the wee hours of Monday) it finally rained, breaking a long dry spell.  

For the Beauty of the Earth.
The Toddler Common Household Son,
photoshopped standing on the moon.

Part 3: Sunday

First we sang “For the Beauty of the Earth”, which includes this verse about neuroscience:  

For the joy of ear and eye,

For the heart and mind’s delight,

For the mystic harmony

Linking sense to sound and sight:

Lord of all to thee we raise

This our hymn of grateful praise.

We heard the hopeful passage from Isaiah 65 with new heavens and a new earth, no more weeping, the wolf and the lamb getting along splendidly.  “They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.”  Seems like pie in the sky but I’m all for continuing to hope for pie and peace.  There’s no alternative but to hope.

We can also maintain hope for earthly pie. 
I mean, not mud pies, but pies to enjoy
in our current times.  

And then the gospel of John, chapter 19, the crucifixion story, where the beauty in the midst of pain and strife is shown by Jesus’ deep concern for his mother and his friend. He needs them to know they will have each other.   

Pastor preached a wonderful sermon based on the Beatles song “Let It Be” which we sang during the sermon.  Part of the sermon reminded me of the deep love shown when my mother would visit my father in the nursing care unit every evening, ending their visit by singing “Fairest Lord Jesus.”  Every single evening.  

Main point of her sermon:  “Let it be” does not mean sit around and do nothing.  And so, taking the sermon lesson to heart, I left church before worship was over, so I could get to the “No Kings in Our Neighborhood” rally in time.

Ralliers stood on all four corners of this intersection.

My bestie J with the "No Kings / No Princesses" sign
and me in the purple shirt.

These rallies are necessary in these times.  If you are likeminded with me, and are able, I highly encourage you to attend one.  Without them, we can start to believe the lie that we are alone.  YOU ARE NOT ALONE.  We gave away all 100 “Vote Yes to Retain Judges” yard signs!  I saw activists I haven’t seen in a while.  A joyful time!  But also a scorching-hot-sun time.  After an hour we were glad to head home.

Use it or lose it.

I stopped off at Trader Joe’s for honey, but the store was utterly full of long lines.  Nope.  Rested for two hours at home, then went to the other grocery store to get honey.  Since this post is about beauty I will not tell you how much I spent on two bags of groceries.  ‘Cause that’s ugly.

Not only did I procure honey, but I bought the one in the bottle shaped like a bear.  Because the Common Household Husband had mentioned more than once that this is the way honey should be jarred.  

Honey bear watches over cake.

I made the recipe below, which is straightforward and quick.  I made a square 8x8 cake, as the recipe called for.   Events so far in 2025 made me forget that the usual shape of All Things Jewish New Year is the circle.  This denotes the cycle of our lives, with the year being renewed in a circular fashion.   This is why it is traditional to have a round challah on this holiday.  

We are going with whatever honey cake we have at hand.  Happy New Year to those who celebrate.  Yes, I dare hope that all may be inscribed for a good year, but I am not putting an exclamation point on it because it seems inappropriate to be overly enthusiastic.

Honey Applesauce Cake 

 

1/2 cup oil

1/3 cup honey

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup applesauce

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1/4 tsp. ground cloves

 

Mix it all together. Pour into a greased 8" x 8" pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes at 350 degrees.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Have you seen beauty anywhere recently?  Baked anything round or square?

Here is part 1: Friday

Here is part 2: Saturday

End-times pie

For the moment of this slice of pie,
we are happier than a bird with
a french fry.

Yesterday by the grace of God I made a peach-blueberry pie.  I have had this pie in mind for about a year.  Last year I had purchased canned peaches for such an endeavor but it never happened. Partly because I doubted that a pie made from canned peaches would match the platonic peach pie.

On Friday the Common Household Husband (CHH) and I made a trip in town to Penzey’s Spices, a place I had longed to go to.  I was delighted to replace some spices that had been bought about 10 years ago, just about when the current toddler-tyrant thought of riding the escalator to bring us all down with him.  Penzey’s is a good place to shop in defiance of that descent.  

Penzey’s reminded us that the CHH can’t smell much of anything these days.  He comprehends the stink of approaching fascism, but couldn’t register the heady aroma of garam masala, reminiscent of my Dad’s own delectable garam masala.  I bought a large jar of Penzey’s cinnamon, with current and future pies in mind.  The pie of the realm of God, if you will - already and not yet.

On Saturday I bought 12 not-quite-local peaches at the local farm up north. 

The peaches were from Chambersburg, PA, a spot dear to my heart because

my mother went to college there AND they produce marvelous peaches there.  

In one’s life one can hope to experience at least one delicious peach.  This year may be a calamity, but the peaches are marvelous this summer as we rage against the regime.  Some solace along the way.  On Sunday and Monday I had fresh peaches at breakfast and lunch.

On Tuesday the afternoon stretched before me.  All the ingredients were at hand.  The peaches were ripe.  I set to work.  Just as I finished making the bottom crust, with flour all over the floor,  the CHH arrived home unexpectedly early.  We both jumped with surprise.  Wisely, he beat a hasty retreat from the kitchen.

I defied the directions for this pie.  The recipe assumes there is peach juice, from canned peaches, and said juice is to be cooked on the stove with corn starch and cinnamon.  Nope, not happening.  Lattice crust?  Pfft!  No. I proceeded boldly with a spirit of non-cooperation, something that is required of me far more these days than I had imagined would be.

I asked the family if they thought the filling would fit in the pie pan.  Responses:  Older Daughter: “100%.  Anything extra will disappear.”  CHH:  100%.  The family are good estimators.  It fit just fine, but it was VERY soupy.  A bit did spill over during cooking but most of it was retained inside the pie.  Just as our Pennsylvania judges should be retained when we vote in November.

The juices are very near the top of the crust.
Think of the juices as PA judges.  We want
to retain them in the courts so that we can
continue to have the rule of law,
reproductive rights, fair elections, and
to avoid chaos.

Reader, the pie is fitting for our times.  It doesn’t look perfect, but provides a moment

to glory in the taste.  Things may feel like the end-times are coming, but for a few

minutes let’s forget the troubles of now and sit at the table with pie and steaming-hot tea. 

Stop by for a piece.  I predict it won’t be here for long.

Let us not die in bitterness of soul, never having tasted of good. (Job 21:25, in a chapter

bemoaning that the wicked go unpunished.)  Yes, the wicked go unpunished, but we

can rejoice that we have each other, that the earth continues to turn, and that there’s

a damn good peach crop this year.

The aftermath.
We ask the question: who will clean up this mess we are in?

​​Peach pie

(for peach-blueberry pie, add 1 cup blueberries, and perhaps subtract 1 cup peaches.)

 

Ingredients

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

4 to 7 cups sliced peeled peaches

Pastry for double-crust pie (9 inches)

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (or leave this out and put in ½ tsp cinnamon)

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon 

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon butter

 

 

Directions

In a large bowl, combine sugars; add peaches and toss gently. Cover and let

stand for 1 hour (or for as long as it takes you to make the pie crust

and roll out the bottom crust). (In my opinion for a 9 inch pie you

need way more than 4 cups of peaches.)

Line a 9-in. pie plate or cast iron skillet with bottom pastry; trim even

with edge. Set aside.   

Drain peaches, reserving juice.

 

In a small saucepan, combine the cornstarch, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt;

gradually stir in reserved juice. Bring to a boil; cook and stir until

thickened, about 2 minutes (OR LESS). Remove from the heat;

stir in lemon juice and butter. Gently fold in peaches. Pour into crust.

 

Roll out remaining pastry; make a lattice crust.  (OR use cookie

cutter to cut out shapes and place on top of pie, leaving spaces,

just like a lattice crust would have some spaces.)

 

Trim, seal and flute edges. Cover edges loosely with foil.

Bake at 400° until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly,

50-60 minutes. Remove foil. Cool on a wire rack. If desired,

serve with vanilla ice cream.

Please note: Blogger was behaving horribly for this post. It took me nearly as long to post it as it did to make the pie.  Maybe it's time to look elsewhere for simple blogging software.

Unexpected gifts of joy

A friend gave me three peaches, which she had received from an entity called The Peach Truck. A good peach is a precious gift.   I waited two days and then cut up one of the peaches into my morning porridge*.  Deeeelicious.  I saved one peach for the Common Household Husband, who is suspicious of fresh fruit not being up to his standards.  This one was.

Late last week I had, in a fit of ambition, bought a pint of fresh blueberries.  And then lost the ambition and didn’t do anything with them for three days.  Didn’t even add them to my porridge.

On Tuesday I was so glum at having to spend megabucks to fix my car (the biggest cost was for the parts, which makes me wonder if tariffs played a role) that I just had to bake something.  What could I make with one peach and a pint of blueberries?  A pie!

No.  One doesn’t make a pie when one is bereft of ambition.  

Peach Quickbread, enhanced with Blueberry.  Yes.  Easy peasy.  I have a half-recipe for peach bread which makes the right amount for just me (the CHH no longer eats things made from refined flour; I, however, would go insane if I tried to make it through our current times without refined flour).  

I hauled the all-purpose flour from the top shelf and found there was only ½ cup of it.  The project suddenly became less than easy peasy.  The only other flours in the house were old bread flour, old whole wheat flour, and old cake flour.  Oh, and self-rising flour, which the CHH bought when I asked him to buy all-purpose flour 8 months ago.  I found that the self-rising flour has an unpleasant metallic taste.   

The internet advised me to add a little extra cake flour to substitute for all-purpose flour.  My flour measurements were imprecise (which seems appropriate for our era, in which nobody wants to count or measure anything, even items and people of importance), but joyful (it felt really good to be baking).  

All people are of importance and ought to count.  This is a very difficult thing for our society to carry out.

The Common Household Husband arrived home while I was in the middle of my little project, and in shock said, “WHAT are you DOING?” because I haven’t baked anything in months. He wisely announced he was leaving the kitchen for safer territory.  Good.

There was almost too much batter
for my little loaf pans.

The original peach bread recipe calls for a glaze, but the unambitious baker opts to scrounge around and find the decorator sugar instead, you know, the kind with bigger crystals than table sugar.  Ain’t nobody got energy to make glaze, I mean, come on!

It turned out okay, I think.  And it’s stored in the freezer, pre-cut, for me to enjoy when glum times ahead call for a taste of summer.  I am grateful, even joyful, for the gift of three delicious peaches, the old cake flour, and the unambition to bake two tiny loaves.

* Steel-cut oatmeal.  My uncle, who was Canadian, called it porridge, and so do I sometimes, in remembrance of him, and of all things Canadian.  The very existence of Canada gives me hope.

Still life of peach-blueberry bread 
with sweet onion

Easy Peach Bread, recipe ingredients halved, 

to make 1 8x4 loaf or 2 3x6 loaves.

1.5 cups all-purpose flour

½  tsp baking soda

½   tsp baking powder

½   tsp salt

½   tsp ground cinnamon

¼  tsp ground nutmeg (optional)

½  cup vegetable oil

3/4 cup granulated sugar + 2 Tbsp

1.5 eggs

½ tsp vanilla extract

1 15-oz can diced peaches in juice, drained and juice reserved (OR about 1 ¼ cups fresh peeled and chopped peaches) - up to 1 ½ cups of fruit.

Glaze ingredients: 2 TBSP peach juice, ¼ tsp vanilla extract, ½ cup powdered sugar

Optional, if not using glaze. - decorator’s sugar (coarse sugar)

On July 23, made with a fresh peach given to me by S.M, and fresh blueberries from the grocery store. 

I didn't use the mixer. I had to use some cake flour because I didn’t have enough all purpose

flour.  I used 2 eggs because 1.5 eggs is a pain.  I used ¾ cup diced peach, and ¾ cup

blueberries for a total of 1 ½ cups.  It was almost too much fruit.  Sprinkled

decorator’s sugar on top before baking.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350F and grease two 6x3" loaf pans (or one 8x4 pan).

2. If using canned peaches, drain the juice, reserving it if you plan to make the glaze.

3. In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and (nutmeg). Set aside.

4. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix together vegetable oil and sugar on medium speed.  (Forget all that.  I stirred everything with a fork or a wooden spoon.)

5. Reduce speed to low and add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

6. Add vanilla extract and diced peaches, mixing to combine.

7. With the mixer still on low speed, gradually add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, mixing just until fully incorporated.

8. Divide batter among prepared pans. Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

9. While the bread is cooling, prepare the glaze, if using. Begin by adding 2 TBSP peach juice and vanilla extract to the powdered sugar, whisking well. Add more juice as needed to achieve your desired consistency. Drizzle over bread that is still warm.

The original recipe for Easy Peach Bread.

Truckload of Veg with Secret Sauce

Sheet-pan Veggie Shawarma (variation)
So good!

Last Friday (Feb 21st) I actually remembered about a recipe I saw via Suzanne’s blog at Life of a Doctor’s Wife.  And Friday was the day I went shopping, and got some ingredients - a bag of fresh cauliflower, 6 Brussels sprouts (in honor of Europe), and mushrooms (in honor of Pennsylvania).  And then decided that was enough fresh veg for the two of us.  

On Monday I remembered that I had remembered the recipe and the shopping.  At 4:30 PM I got myself up off my butt and cooked the recipe.  Or my version of it.  As I started assembling the ingredients - cauliflower, sweet onion (I didn’t have a red onion, which is purple), mushrooms – it was looking like the result would have an overwhelming white and boring hue. 

I scrounged around in the fridge and found an orange bell pepper of unknown provenance and age, but it looked okay.  And rediscovered the Brussels sprouts buried under the veggies that the Common Household Husband uses in his breakfast every day.  Boom!  Color!  I added frozen shrimp, which turned pink when cooked.

Slightly more pizzazz here

It took me FIVE MINUTES to find the cumin. Just when I had pushed my existential angst away for the day, it came rushing back as I searched in spice-panic mode.  This reveals how long it has been since I cooked anything interesting.  The cumin was pushed back in the corner, with the label to the wall.  This was a wrong to be righted!  Cumin is one of the best spices.  I didn’t bother with the turmeric (don’t like it), coriander (mine is so old), or paprika (don’t have it).  

Truckload of raw veg
with raw frozen shrimp.

And, as luck would have it, we had all the ingredients for the secret sauce.  Be sure to make the secret sauce, O Best Beloved!  Tahini, lemon juice, and maple syrup.  Oh, yes.  OH, YES.

I told my husband I had made Truckload of Veggies Avec Shrimp.  The actual recipe title is Sheet Pan Veggie Shawarma with Lemon Tahini Dressing. 

I reeeeeally liked it.  It was relatively easy to make.  And the CHH liked it.  A keeper.

Bonus photo: cocktail design by a friend
at an event I attended.
Please click to embiggen and
read the description.