Strawberry Crumb Cake

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've all heard the phrase "the power of social media" and I've mentioned here before that I have a twitter account.  I follow several people/organizations but I don't often tweet.....usually to promote a blog post, but a few times I've used it as a tool to get something accomplished because all other ways have been exhausted.  Like yesterday.

A year ago we built a pool house with an outdoor kitchen.  Because I had a good track record with Viking appliances, I opted to purchase their grill, refrigerator, and ice maker.  Let's just say the train fell off that track.  We've had nothing but problems with all three items and to make matters worse, the store where we purchased them in Birmingham has been less than helpful.  Their "repairman" needs to head back to repair school and the sales staff needs some customer service training.  And the owner of the store?  Well, he could care less.  Is business really that good???  In a bad economy shouldn't companies want to do everything they could to keep customers coming back to their place of business?  Apparently not.

So this past weekend when the ice maker quit making ice ONCE AGAIN and the appliance store basically brushed us off, hubs and I had had enough.  He called Viking hoping to get some satisfaction, AND THEY BLEW HIM OFF TOO!  Instead of asking how they could help rectify the situation, they told him he'd have to call the regional distribution center.  Which he did.  They've yet to call us back.  So yesterday, I took to twitter to air my frustration.  It's amazing how quickly a company can respond when they know thousands of people are reading negative reviews of their products.  I had a twitter response from Viking in 10 minutes and an email follow-up within an hour.  Really?

So, as of this morning, Viking has all the pertinent information.  Let's see what they do with it.  I'd really like this shizzle fixed.  It's a little hard to enjoy a pool in 100+ degree heat with NO ICE!!  How's a girl to make frozen margaritas over the Fourth of July with NO ICE??

Speaking of the Fourth, what's on your menu?  I'm keeping it simple.....grilling and firing up the pizza oven.  Oh and dessert, of course.  I made this strawberry cake a few weeks ago after finding a bucket of what were probably the last of the Alabama strawberries for the season.  It was absolutely delicious.  I'm going to try this with fresh peaches this weekend, but if you can get fresh strawberries where you live, I highly recommend this.

Here's the recipe:

Strawberry Crumb Cake

Food and Wine

Ingredients:

Filling:
3 lbs (8 cups) strawberries, bulled and halved
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch disolved in 2 1/2 tablespoons water
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped

Crumb Topping:
1/2 cup lightly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Pinch of salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed and chilled

Cake:
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup buttermilk

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 deg. F.  In a large bowl, toss the strawberries with the sugar, lemon juice, cornstarch slurry and vanilla seeds and let stand until the berries release some of their juices, about 30 minutes.  Pour the fruit filling into a 9 x 13 inch glass or ceramic baking dish set on a sturdy baking sheet.

For the crumb topping:  In a medium bowl, mix all of the ingredients with your fingers until a coarse meal forms; press into small clumps.  Set aside.

For the cake:  In a medium bowl, whisk the flour with the baking pwder and salt.  In a large bowl, using a handheld electric mixer or a stand mixer, beat the butter with the sugar at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between additions.  Beat in the vanilla extract and scrape down the bowl.  Add the dry ingredients to the batter in 3 additions, alternating with the buttermilk.

Spoon the cake batter over the fruit filling spreading it to the edge.  Sprinkle with the crumb topping.  Bake in the center of the oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes until the fruit is bubbling, the crumb topping is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached.  Transfer to a rack to cool slightly.  Serve the crumb cake warm or at room temperature.

Wines of Bordeaux - Lynch-Bages, Sociando-Millet, Mouton Rothschild

For our day two tastings, we headed north of where we were on day one to the Medoc.  Let me see if I can explain this whole Medoc shizzle.  There's Medoc the region (Left Bank) and Medoc the appellation.  If you see Medoc on the wine label, that refers to Medoc the appellation.  Our first visit on day two was to Lynch-Bages,  in the Pauillac appellation, which is in the Medoc region.  Got it?  The French don't make anything easy.  There's also the Haut-Medoc, the hoity-toity Medoc, but we won't go there right now.

Lynch-Bages was classified a Cinquemes Cru, or fifth growth, in the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855.  Yes, 1855.  Talk about living in the past.  Seems London had this big ass World's Fair type exposition in 1851 that everyone was raving about.  Well, hating to be outdone, French Emporer Napoleon III decided he'd throw his own little bash in Paris in 1855 and show the English how to par-tay.  Since he was planning on showcasing the best wines of France, he decided these wines should be ranked or classified.  So the wine know-it-all's got together and ranked Bordeaux's best wines based on price and reputation, which back then directly related to the quality of the wine.  More than 150 years later, those classifications still apply.  But don't be fooled.  Things have changed a little since 1855 and those lowly "fifth-growths" are damn good wines....including Lynch-Bages.

This whole winemaking thing has been going on in Bordeaux for a few years now.....since sometime around 50 AD when the Romans established the vineyards so the soldiers would have something to drink!  Few things have changed in the actual process of winemaking, but obviously the equipment has been modernized over the years.

What was unique about Lynch-Bages was they've paid homage to the past by keeping the old equipment and barrels in place for visitors to see.

It was a beautiful room.

That's where Lucy and Ethel stomped the grapes.   Did Lucy and Ethel ever go to France?

I'd love to have some of these old pieces.

Where the grapes were pressed.

And back into the 21st century.  Since this is Medoc and Cabernet Sauvignon is king, Lynch-Bages is usually 75-80% Cabernet, 10-15% Merlot and the remaining 10% a mixture of Cab Franc and Petit Verdot.  I personally cannot drink this wines young.....I think regardless the vintage they need some age on them to be enjoyable.  This was one estate we had the opportunity to taste the 2010 (which are still aging in the barrels for about another year....a total of approx. 18 months) and I couldn't spit it out fast enough.  The tannins will slap you silly.  But give it 10-20 years and it will slap you silly in a really great way!

We got lucky and got to watch them bottle the 2009 vintage the day we were there.  I snuck a few bottles in my purse when no one was looking.  What?  It's supposed to be a killer vintage.

Actually, all we got were a few corks.

We also got to taste some older vintages (I swallowed!!) along with their second label, Echo.  Most Chateau's produce a second label of their wines and I highly recommend giving some of these a try.  Same vineyards, same grapes, same winemaker.....the only difference being the blend.  In this case, Echo contains a higher percentage of Merlot and Cab Franc, resulting is a softer, slightly less complex wine that doesn't need to be aged quite so long.  You also don't have to shell out the big bucks for these.  I think they're great values.

Isn't that a delicious sight?

The beautifully quaint village of Bages.

We then moved on to stunning property of Sociando-Millet sitting on the banks of the Gironde.   Even with a direct view of the nuclear power plant across the river, I thought this was the most beautiful property we visited.

It's been said that the vines with the best view of the Gironde produce the best wines of the Medoc.  These must be some great wines.

Sociando-Millet is owned by Jean Gautreau, whom I've never met, but I already like him.  He plays by his own rules.  Rather than be classified as Cru Bourgeois, he raised the symbolic middle finger at the classification system.  He chose not to engage  in the petty politics of the system and operate on the outside. He instead chose to just continually produces great wine year after year.  I love a rebel.

The Chateau is located just north of St. Estephe in the Haut-Medoc appellation and grows 55% Cab, 40% Merlot and the remaning 5% Cab Franc and Petit Verdot.

I loved their underground barrel room.

Especially this painting.  It would look great in my wine cellar.  Actually it's way too big for my meager little cellar, but a girl can dream.

While we're at it, I'd like a couple of these for my cellar, also.  They're Neduchadnezzars!  They contain the equivalent of 20 regular size bottles of wine.  Just enough for me and a few friends on a Saturday night!

They were also bottling the 2009 vintage while we were there.

That's St. Estephe there in the distance.......

....where we had a delicious lunch at Le Peyrat with a beautiful view of the Gironde.  After lunch we had an appointment at Mouton-Rothschild which was the only disappointment of the trip.  In their defense, they are undergoing a huge renovation project, but we were shuffled in an out so fast I didn't even have time to take one picture.  We were shown a 5 minute video on the history of the property and then had a very quick tasting of the 2009, then shown the door!  As I said, it was our last appointment of the day, so maybe we all just smelled bad or something!

Since we had some extra time, Thomas drove us around to get a little peek-see at some of the more famous Chateaus, like Cos d'Estournel.

And this is Cos d'Estournel's extremely famous neighbor, Lafite-Rothschild.  Beautiful property.

Chateau Pichon-Longueville

 Chateau Branaire-Ducru.

Very cute wine shop in Margaux where we may have purchased a few bottles!

Main Street in downtown Margaux!

Chateau Margaux.

Chateau Palmer.


Next up.....day three in my personal favorites, St. Emilion and Pomerol.  Cheers!

Happy Father's Day, Pop, said with Peaches and Bourbon!

Since the 'rents live in Florida and I just saw them last weekend I knew I wouldn't be spending Father's Day with papa 'rent.  Doesn't mean I couldn't make a dessert just for him.  Sucks he wasn't here to eat it, because it's right up his alley!  Peaches and bourbon.

If my dad is in Alabama during peach season, it's practically mandatory dessert has to be a peach something or other.  He's also been known to occasionally enjoy a glass of Jack Daniels on the rocks, so I decided to combine those two in his honor....Upside-Down Spiced Peach Cake with Bourbon Ice Cream with Toasted Buttered Pecans.  

Oh, Pop, you would have loved this!  I'm not a bourbon lover, but this ice cream from the new Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home is ah. maze. ing.  This is the second recipe I've made from this book (I just got it on Tuesday!) and this is the creamiest ice cream I've ever made.  It's like your tongue is being coated with velvet.  I think the secret is the cream cheese.  Not an egg to be found anywhere!

And it paired beautifully with this cardamom-spiced cake, although if bourbon's not your thing, this would be fabulous with a vanilla bean ice cream as well.  This cake is delicious.

Sorry you weren't here to enjoy this, Pop, but I certainly thought about you with every bite!!  I hope you have a great Father's Day anyway.  Love you!

Here are the recipes:

Upside-Down Spiced Peach Cake

Bon Appetit Desserts

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, divided

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar

1 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamom

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup sugar

1 large egg

1/2 cup plain whole-milk yogurt

3 small or 2 medium ripe peaches (about 1 pound total), pitted, thinly sliced (I pealed mine also)

Directions:

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350 degrees F.  Generously butter 9-inch diameter cake pan with 2-inch-high sides.  Melt 2 tablespoons butter in heavy small saucepan over medium-high heat.  Stir in honey and brown sugar.  Boil until mixture darkens slightly, stirring often, about 2 minutes.  Immediately pour honey mixture into prepared pan to coat bottom completely.  Let stand while preparing batter.

Whisk flour, cardamom, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl to blend.  Using electric mixer, beat sugar and remaining 4 tablespoons butter in large bowl until fluffy.  Beat in egg.  Mix in half of flour mixture, then all of yogurt.  Add remaining flour mixture and mix just until blended.

Arrange peach slices decoratively over honey mixture (it will be firm), covering completely.  Drop batter by spoonfuls evenly over peaches and gently spread batter over peaches to cover completely. Bake until cake begins to pull away from sides of pan and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. (Mine was done in 30, but my oven tends to run hot)  Cool cake in pan on rack 5 minutes.  Run small knife around pan sides to loosen cake.  Place platter over pan.  Using oven mitts or pot holders as aid, firmly grasp pan and platter together, then turn over.  Gently lift off pan.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

Bourbon Ice Cream with Toasted Buttered Pecans

Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home

Makes about 1 quart

Ingredients:

2 cups whole milk

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch

1 1/2 ounces (3 tablespoons) cream cheese, softened

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 1/4 cups heavy cream

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1/4 cup bourbon

3/4 cup Salty Buttered Pecans (recipe follows)

Prep:

Mix about 2 tablespoons of the whole milk with the cornstarch in a small bowl to make a smooth slurry.  

Whisk the cream cheese and salt in a medium bowl until smooth.

Fill a large bowl with ice and water.

Cook:

Combine the remaining milk, the cream, sugar, and corn syrup in a 4-quart saucepan, bring to a rolling boil over medium-high heat and boil for 4 minutes.  (It's important to have a 4-quart saucepan, because the milk expands rapidly once it starts boiling)  Remove from the heat, and gradually whisk in the cornstarch slurry.  Bring the mixture back to a boil over medium-high heat and cook, stirring with a heatproof spatula, until slightly thickened, about 1 minute.  Remove from the heat.

Chill:

Gradually whisk the hot milk mixture into the cream cheese until smooth.  Stir in the bourbon.  Pour the mixture into a 1-gallon Ziploc freezer bag and submerge the sealed bag in the ice bath.  Let stand, adding more ice as necessary, until cold, about 30 minutes.

Freeze:

Pour the ice cream base into the frozen canister of your ice cream maker and spin until thick and creamy.  Pack the ice cream into a storage container, press a sheet of parchment directly against the surface, and seal with an airtight lid.  Freeze in the coldest part of your freezer until firm, at least 4 hours.

Salty Buttered Pecans

Ingredients:

3/4 cup nut halves or quarters

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Combine the nuts with the butter and salt in a bowl, tossing to coat.  Spread evenly on a baking sheet and bake for 10 to 15 minutes, turning once, until crisp and aromatic.  Let cool completely.

The Wines of Bordeaux - Chateau Sigalas-Rabaud and Chateau Larrivet-Haut-Brion

(Let's just start this right off with a little disclaimer.  I DO NOT CLAIM TO BE A WINE EXPERT.  I don't even claim to be a wannabe wine expert.  I like wine.  A lot.  I like to drink it and share it and learn about it and visit where it's made.  That's it.  So if there happens to be a few inaccuracies in my post, get over it.)

You thought I'd forgotten, didn't you.  Or maybe you were hoping I would.  If wine isn't your thing, then skip on over to Pioneer Woman's site and read about some cows for a few minutes because we're about to talk about grapes.  Bordeaux grapes......like Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot and Cab Franc.   But we're going to start with dessert first in the form of some Sauternes, which means, in Sigalas-Rabaud's case, we're talking about mainly Semillon, but Sauternes can also contain some Sauvignon Blanc and possibly some Muscadelle.

Sauternes gets it's sweetness from something called botrytis, or noble rot.  But in this case rot is not rotten, it's a very good thing.  The rot causes the grapes to "raisin" which means all the sugars begin to concentrate resulting in pure yumminess!  And because the grapes botrytize at different rates, harvest is not done all at one time.  It can sometimes take as many as six trips through the vineyards with everything being harvested by hand.  Which might explain why Sauternes can be a bit pricy!

These are the vines of Sigalas-Rabaud, the smallest premier cru producer of Sauternes, with only about 14 hectares.  If you look in the above picture you may be able to see the Chateau in the distance.  That would be Sigalas-Rabaud's more famous neighbor, Chateau d'Yquem, the only classified premier cru superieur in Sauternes and one of Bordeaux's most expensive wines.

It's typically aged in new oak for 12-15 months before bottling.  In all my winery visits over the years, I've never got to do a barrel tasting, but we were offered this option in just about every Bordeaux Chateau this trip.  Frankly, the Sauternes was the only one that didn't make me immediately want to spit the wine out.  I don't get how Robert Parker can taste that stuff and find fruit in there anywhere.  I couldn't get past the tannins that made me want to rip my tongue out of my mouth and never put it back.

Yeah, they were real generous with offering up the barrel tastings, but not once did they ask if I'd like to try something from 1855.  Wassup with that?

If you click on the above picture and notice the difference in the colors of the wine from bottle to bottle. Also notice the vintages.  The color of later (the 2007 on the left) vintage is much lighter than the 1989 in the larger bottle.  They say the perfect time to drink a Sauternes is when it's the color of a dark copper penny, but whatever.  I may not live that long to enjoy it!  

This is Laure Compreyrot, the owner and first female winemaker at Sigalas-Rabaud, which I found interesting only in the fact that there are only about 20 female winemakers out of approximately 12,000 in all of Bordeaux and her more famous neighbor, Chateau d'Yquem, also has a female cellar master!  

Go get 'em girls!

So that was the only Chateau we visited in Sauternes.  Next, we headed north in the Graves region to Chateau Larrivet-Haut-Brion.

This Chateau produces both red and white wines with the majority of the vineyard dedicated to red....50% Cabernet Sauvignon and 50% Merlot.  

Wines are aged 18 months in new oak barrels.  Most of the time the Chateaus buy their barrels from several different manufacturers in order to get different nuances in the wine when it's time to blend them all together before bottling. 

Chateau Larrivet-Haut-Brion is located in the Pessac-Leognan area of the Graves region which is home to the first growth estate Chateau Haut-Brion.

This is the tasting room at Larrivet.  I'm always a little excited to see the barrel rooms and tasting rooms at any winery.  I think they give a small hint into the personality of the owner/cellar master of the property and maybe a hint into their philosophy on wine....big and showy, sleek and sophisticated, over the top, etc., etc.,.........or maybe not!!

So that was our first day in Bordeaux.  Since the ship didn't dock until mid-afternoon, we only had time for a few visits before it was time to head back into town.  On the way back to the boat, Thomas (our driver for the week) took us by the Bordeaux cathedral.

Sorry for the poor quality of the pic but it was taken from the car as we were driving by!  This is the bell tower of the St. Andre Cathedral which happens to be separate from the cathedral itself.

We didn't go in.  I was all cathedraled out!!

Only in France would you find a naked little one playing in the local reflecting pool.  Or maybe Alabama, but for totally different reasons.  Just sayin!

This is the Miroir d'eau or the Water Mirror at the Place de la Bourse and was about a half block up from where we were docked.  It's a favorite of locals and tourists alike.  The locals bring their children to play in the inch of water and the for the tourists it's a great photo  op......especially at night when you can catch a beautiful reflection of the lights of the stock exchange building across the street.

Directly across the river from the boat was this restaurant, L'Estacade.  The food was good but the setting was better.  A perfect place to sit on the deck and have a post-dinner cocktail and watch the sun set.

Stunning views.

So that was day one!!  Day two includes tours of Medoc, or left bank, wines including Mouton Rothschild!