There’s a thing that happens to bloggers. Well, at least THIS blogger. When I can’t WAIT to get to my computer to write up a post about a recipe, you can pretty well be assured it’s a winner of a dish. I haven’t exactly felt that way about any recipe I’ve made in the recent past. But oh, this one, yes indeedy! A winner. Apples cloaked in the lightest of crispy crusts. Serve warm. To raves.

The day I made this I was a bit frazzled. I’ve been that way a lot as the workers are finishing up the work I’ve had done to my house. I’m so ready to have them be gone-gone. I want peace and quiet – not just at 7 am when they show up – but all day long. As I write this they’re finishing up the roofing. The compressor runs pretty much all day long. Shorting out things, tripping the circuit breakers. It’s all very frustrating. My pool filters were off for days and I didn’t even realize it. Vigilance is the word of the day. The word of the hour. Our neighborhood had a power outage the other night (nothing to do with the work at my house since this was at about 8pm), for about 30 minutes. I was watching TV, and grabbed my iPad mini, opened up the lid and it provided enough light so I could locate the flashlight. Some candles were lit. That tripped some breakers too. More frustration.

Anyway, I have 2 ladies that come to clean my house every 2 weeks. I’m grateful for that. Ever so grateful. But if they come later than usual, then they’re still cleaning the kitchen when I need to be in there (they arrive about 2:30 pm and are here for about 3 hours). This week they were later than that, and I was already behind schedule to prepare a dessert for my bible study group. I didn’t start on it until 6:10 and my guests were arriving at 7:00. Oh my. The cleaning ladies were still cleaning the far side of my kitchen as I began work on this. I whipped out my 8-inch springform pan, madly peeled 4 apples (the recipe calls for Granny Smith, but I had 2 of those and 2 other kinds). The apples are tossed with a bit of sugar and lemon juice, then poured into the springform pan. Meanwhile, you mix eggs, sugar and almond extract. That gets mixed until the batter is very light and ribbony, which takes about 10-11 minutes. I did that while I was prepping the apples. The batter is spread on top. The recipe said to let it sit for 5 minutes to allow the batter to ooze down into the apple layers, but I had no time for that, so I just rapped the pan on the countertop a few times and watched as the batter moved some. Into a 350° oven it went.

It bakes for an hour – a long time considering the apples were thinly sliced, but I trusted the recipe (it was in Food & Wine, and is credited to Matt Danko, a superlative chef – he used to be in Cleveland). Anyway, this recipe is his Russian father’s (I love to read about recipes with that kind of heritage).

I allowed it to cool for about 15 minutes maximum, because my guests had arrived and my dessert wasn’t ready. No worries, I served it warm as we sat at my dining room table discussing the history of Paul (Romans). It needed not a smidgen of any garnish – I didn’t have enough ice cream, nor enough cream to whip, so I served it as is, plain and simple. Oh-la-la.

What’s GOOD: everything. All of it – flavor, texture, toothsomeness, sweet, tart. The top is a wonderful thin crispy crust – you top it with some powdered sugar – and some of the batter does ooze down inside. It actually oozed clear to the bottom in some places. It was easy to cut, and everyone liked it for sure. I’d definitely make this one again. It’s also VERY easy. It couldn’t have taken me more than 15 minutes total to put it together, maybe less. The oven had just reached temperature when I put it in. Do let it sit, and do serve it warm. It’s also relatively low in calorie – 200 calories per serving.

What’s NOT: I can’t think of a single thing I didn’t like about it. The original article in the magazine suggested you’d never want for another apple dessert after you’ve had this one. I tend to agree! The left overs lost their crispy crust – so try to eat it all up in the first sitting.

printer-friendly PDF and MasterCook 14/15 file

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That’s the Sussi & Chuma safari camp, near Livingstone, Zambia. We’re on a boat out in the Zambezi river. My cabin is on the left, nestled down low in the middle of those green trees at the left – you can barely see it. On the far right was the bar where we enjoyed drinks both nights, along with the bugs. At the center right is the pool – an infinity pool actually (where the speck of red is). The lodge itself is back behind those buildings. If you go to the website you can see a beautiful shot of the lodge.

We flew from Johannesburg to Livingstone – about a 90-minute flight. Livingstone is named for the 19th century Scottish explorer who lived in and around this area on many of his expeditions. Susi and Chuma were his loyal attendants through all of his years in Africa. Per his wish, upon Livingstone’s death, Chuma & Susi (both spellings of Susi or Sussi are found) removed his heart and it’s buried nearby. His body was shipped back to Scotland. So, the safari camp took the Chuma and Sussi names to give it some local credence, I suppose.

At the airport we paid $50 for a visa that would allow us to visit several countries in this area – good thing, as we ended up going to Zimbabwe to see Victoria Falls. Entering Zimbabwe hadn’t been on the itinerary. Also at the airport someone stood near the passport control and pointed a small hand-held box at our heads (not in our ears) to take our body temp. That’s how they check for Ebola. None of the countries in southern Africa have had Ebola, thankfully. From the airport we took our first bouncing rides into the remote bush.

Once we arrived at the camp – at every camp – we were greeted by the staff – all of them singing, clapping and dancing – and smiling as we pulled up into the camp. The guides always called ahead on the walkie-talkies to tell them we were about 10 minutes away. We were given chilled washcloths to clean our hands and faces (so welcome after being in the dusty bush), and usually some kind of fruit juice drink or iced cold water to quench our thirst. We’d walk into the camp lodge, find a seat, then we were given a little orientation, this being our first one about living in the camps. To learn things like “don’t go to your tent cabins at night without one of our guides.” Interpretation: there may be animals, snakes, the elephants may have destroyed the walkway (very common) or some kind of danger. Or, “don’t drink the water from the tap.” Interpretation: dysentery may ensue. Bottled (filtered) water was always available. “Use the air horn if you’re in danger at your cabin.” Interpretation: probably wild animals are nearby or baboons are ransacking the tent cabin exterior, or as in my case, come get me because my cabin has been surrounded by elephants for 2 hours. Or, as was the case in a couple of the camps, the power went off at the cabins, which meant in the very small space underneath the A/C units (hung on the wall up above the beds) wasn’t cool anymore, so it quickly became unbearable. In most of the tent cabins we had no way to talk to the staff (no intercom or phone) so the only way to get someone’s attention was by using the air horn. Above was our first tent cabin bed. Yes, we had to ask them to make it into 2 beds. And yes, at EVERY safari camp the mosquito netting was put down and around the bed EVERY night. And at right above is the tree house we stayed in. It’s elevated about 10-12 feet above the ground and you walk on wood catwalks to get to-fro to the lodge. We never saw elephants below ours, but many others did.

Daytimes we could make our own assessment of the safety – of walking between our tent cabins and the lodge. Many times over the 2 weeks at safari camps we encountered animals, and frequently we stepped in elephant dung. It just gets matted down and becomes part of the fauna of the paths. Fresh dung we stepped over, thank you. See why I left my pair of closed-toed Skechers behind? If elephants were around, nobody challenged them to rights to the paths – we were told to go back to our cabins and wait until they’d moved on. They’re somewhat used to seeing people at a distance away, but not up close.

All of the camps we stayed in were luxury ones. And even though our rooms were tent cabins and somewhat rustic, they were still luxury. I’m making a generalization here, but I think we had much better food than some camps (based on my conversations with other friends who have done similar tours in the last year or so). And except for one, we had an A/C unit over the bed in every camp. I think that constitutes luxury out in the bush. There is no wired electricity from a power plant – this is the African bush – they run generators, or some have solar panels too. We had ample water for showers and baths every day, although the water is loaded with iron and is discolored. See photo. I’d been told not to take white clothes because they wouldn’t come back white. And yes, I washed and showered in that water. It was clean, just loaded with iron. Most camps, the water wasn’t as dark as this in the photo (that photo taken at another camp). The camps do your laundry for you (except underwear).

In the afternoons, after lunch, all of us went to our cabins and rested. I sprawled on the bed and cranked up the A/C to full power if I had a choice, and just laid there trying to get tell myself I was getting cooler.  Sometimes not very successfully! I read a lot and rested or napped. Remember, it was about 100° every day, and even with the small A/C unit running, it brought the temp down by only 6-8° I’d guess, providing you were right under it. At night, once the mosquito netting was down, that seemed to confine the cool air some, so we were usually more comfortable sleeping and the temps did go down at night.

Above is a tree with a strangling fig killing the main tree. It takes sometimes years, but eventually the main tree dies and the strangling fig flourishes using the main tree as its anchor. Kind of sad, I thought. Sort of like mistletoe.

One of the nights we took a boat ride – a sundowner cruise, they’re called – and saw all kinds of wildlife. This was our first views of African wildlife – we saw elephant, kudu, impala, crocodile, baboons and dozens and dozens of hippos.

There were two boats of us, and those little black things beyond the boat are hippos. More pictures of them below.

I didn’t get a photo of them with their monstrous yawning jaws open. You see them in the river because of their ears – the body could possible be a rock, you’d think, except their ears are brownish pink and they flutter – then you know they’re hippos. They were feeding. Hippos walk on the bottom and then rise up to breathe. We didn’t get very close to them – it’s not advisable. There were youngsters in that group too.

The guides drove the boats into the shore near here – several hundred yards away from the hippos – and sat in them and had a sundowner (a drink – any drink – it doesn’t matter – it’s just that it’s partaken at sundown). The guides brought out all kinds of alcohol and mixers, plus nuts and nibbles for us to eat. All while sitting in the boat. Baboons were nearby playing – fortunately they didn’t bother us. I had a gin and tonic, the only type of drink I had on the whole trip, I think. Oh, other than the Amarula.

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Unless you study the art of safari travel, people don’t know that the jumping-off point for safaris for southern Africa is from Johannesburg. Jo’burg doesn’t have a very good reputation. I can’t exactly tell you why – but many consider it a dangerous place to be. We didn’t see the downtown – we drove from the airport to a remote residential area to a lovely oasis of a hotel called the Saxon. Abercrombie & Kent insisted our group should stay there, rather than at one of the plain-Jane hotels at the airport. And oh, was it ever lovely. Once through their very secure gates, behind high walls, we were treated to a luxury hotel experience. The Saxon is on a huge piece of land, all lushly landscaped. The hotel could have been anywhere – as we were totally insulated from the outside elements, cocooned inside the sprawling grounds and treated so very well. We arrived quite early in the morning, and as luck would have it, none of our rooms were yet available. So, the hotel encouraged us to go into the restaurant and have breakfast – their gorgeous breakfast buffet. We did. Then we lounged outside for awhile, even waiting long enough to need lunch. Once our rooms were ready, most of us took a nap (we’d flown all night), and then gathered on the beautiful terrace for dinner. I was very sorry to leave there the next morning. But leave we had to do. The bed above was two twins very close together. Gwenda and I gave up on trying to get rooms that had separated twin beds. There at the foot of the bed you can see our two duffle bags, one each, of course. The bathroom (see photo below) was quite luxurious.

Our next morning we had breakfast, again, in the dining room (lovely food) and I ordered a latte. It was to be my last latte for the next 2+ weeks. It was delicious.

We journeyed back to the airport by small bus and took a flight from there to Livingstone, in Zambia.

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Just one of the views from the hotel, the Taj Dubai, somewhat on the perimeter of 2015 Dubai. In another year all the empty space you see in that photo will be completely filled in with more buildings. I think I counted 9 cranes working on the rooftops of the buildings just in that view.

Let me backtrack just a little bit. The small group tour I was on (planned by my travel agent, Carol) had 16 people, including Carol and her husband (they are long time personal friends). The tour actually started in Johannesburg, but all 16 of us had to get there, and there are many ways to do that. Carol recommended I go by Air Emirates, the airline of Dubai (UAE – United Arab Emirates). It’s one of the top reviewed airlines for comfort and safety, and the price, flying business class, was reasonable, I thought. It was about $6,000. If you haven’t priced going on safari, you may be in for a surprise – it’s very pricey. Had I gone solo (without a roommate) the trip would have been over $25,000. Fortunately, I did have a roommate, Gwenda. She is good friends with others who were traveling on this trip, so it worked out well. I didn’t know her prior to this trip, but we got along very well. Having a roommate brought the price of the trip down to something in between $16,000-18,000. Even with the business class tickets.

I suggested to Gwenda that we fly to Dubai 2 days early, just so we could do a bit of touring in Dubai. I probably won’t ever be in that part of the world again, so might as well give it a whirl. Gwenda was game, so we flew from LAX (Los Angeles) to DBX (Dubai) nonstop on an A380. Just so you know, going that direction it was about 15 1/2 hours, which I find amazing. I can’t imagine how big the fuel tanks are! And wow, what a plane. There at right is my little space – it was all mine. Storage compartments under the windows, a console on the near side with an iPad to use if I chose to. The seats were very comfortable and once airborne with the touch of a button the seat moves forward and my feet went into a well in the seat ahead of me and the seat makes into a completely flat bed. We were served wonderful meals and I managed to sleep about 6 hours, I think. I watched 3 movies (nothing memorable) and read on my Kindle quite a bit.

The Dubai airport – all I can say is WOW. It is gigantic, and opulent. Vast, high ceilings, marble and sparkle everywhere. Very clean – spotless, actually. We got through customs, immigration, passport control, etc. No visa is required to visit Dubai unless you’re staying awhile. We were met by a driver who whisked us off to our hotel. The Taj Dubai is quite new and they were offering fairly affordable room rates. If you’ve never priced hotel rooms in Dubai before, you’ll be in for a shock. Most rooms are about $800-900 a night. Carol managed to get us a deal at this new hotel, at not quite half that price (and only because the hotel is new and trying to gain tourist traction).

So what’s Dubai like? It’s not normal to most people. It’s a city of skyscrapers, every bit of it, almost. Dubai (situated right on the ocean, the Gulf of Oman) didn’t exist 13 years ago. It was nothing but sand. In a way, Dubai is similar to Las Vegas in that it’s nothing but big buildings. But there aren’t neon lights, nothing blinking – just a vast landscape of tall buildings in mostly shades of gray (cement and glass) in varying shapes. Architects have had a field-day in Dubai, designing ever more elaborate ways to build a high-rise with jutting blocks or rounded shapes. In the photo at left, the far left building actually curves 90°; it was designed by an American architect.

We took a 4-5 hour city tour on our last day there and got to see some more of the high rise landscape, including the Palm Island, the one that was built out into the sea in the shape of a palm tree (picture at right from wikipedia). It’s quite a tourist attraction. The leaves of the palm are all residential, and access is denied unless you live there. But getting from the base to the far tip (up the trunk of the palm) is public, lined with huge sprawling hotels. Those are not high rises, except the one at the end. We visited the harbor area (the older part of the city) with boats of all shapes and sizes, lined with restaurants and hotels.

One important fact you need to know about Dubai – the drinking of alcohol is somewhat limited. If you LIVE in Dubai you’re issued a card that permits you to buy a minimum of alcohol in a month. They want no drunkards there. Hotels serve alcohol, and ALL restaurants are attached to hotels so they can serve alcohol. Dubai is a very cosmopolitan city – very upscale. Most everyone is well dressed (except Gwenda and me who were en route to safaris, so we didn’t have very nice clothes. Remember, they had to fit in the duffle. I wore my airplane outfit all 3 days we were there. I was really embarrassed, but I couldn’t do a thing about it.

Those pretty ceramic bottles were on a high shelf in our hotel room. We saw some beautiful ceramics in our travels around Dubai. Including this lovely piece at left, sitting on a table near the elevator on our hotel floor. I wanted to buy it and ship it home. Alas, I never saw anything like it in our shopping travels in the city.

At right was a very pretty, traditional kind of wing chair, but it had a lovely purple and gold back cushion. Quite elegant looking I thought. Behind it is the hotel lobby. We ate breakfast and dinner in the hotel. Lunches we had out – both times a restaurant in the Dubai Mall.

You may not have heard about the Dubai Mall – oh my gosh – it’s gigantic. I don’t know if it’s larger than the Mall of America, but it was 4 stories high and about the size of 2-3 city blocks. It houses an aquarium, a 4-story waterfall (pictures below right), an ice rink (only one person was skating when we walked by), a big movie theater, and one entire area with nothing but children’s stores. Probably about 40-50 children’s clothing stores mostly, maybe a couple of toy stores. Lots of mothers with their children – mothers wearing an abaya, children colorfully dressed. One day we had a Subway sandwich. You’d be surprised how many American restaurants exist in Dubai. They’re everywhere. The other day, believe it or not, we wanted to have a carbonated beverage with our lunch, and many restaurants don’t serve them (no, I don’t know why) and finally we found Coke Light at the Rainforest Café. NOT where I wanted to eat, for sure. But it was convenient. There is lots of beef in the Middle East (no pork in Dubai, obviously), and ample vegetarian selections too.

No expense is spared in Dubai. Everything we saw was quite elegantly outfitted. Lots of luscious velvet, marble, polished brass, silver, pewter, tile. And the waterfall there at right is many stories high with the sculpted divers looking like they are headed for the pool at the bottom. Nearby there is a huge Bellagio-style synchronized water fountain. Shows are offered at 1 and 1:30 in the afternoon, then every half hour in the evenings. To see it you must go outside. With the temps over 100, I opted not to watch it. We visited a Starbucks so my roomie could buy a Starbucks’ Dubai coffee mug for her son. There were many famous label designer stores there as well. And a Pottery Barn. Really!

One evening we had pub food in the honest-to-goodness British pub in the hotel. I certainly wasn’t expecting fish and chips in Dubai. There is definitely a British influence there, though.

Note the Arabic signs. Fortunate for me much of their signage is in English and in Arabic.

There was a Mario Batali Eataly store in the Dubai Mall. We walked through it – didn’t find anything we wanted – but we couldn’t buy anything as it had to go into that tiny duffle bag anyway.

No question, there is a lot of money in the Middle East. Dubai has oil money, and Saudi Arabia is just a hop skip and a jump on the freeway. The Saudis come to Dubai often, and I would guess they spend well.

See photo at right – a store for abayas. They were having a sale. I didn’t see anyone in the store. Many of the women wear only black with an almost full veil. Others were dressed with color (as in the mannequin in the middle).  Our guide on our city tour filled us in on a lot of the dress customs. Many of the men were dressed in kundara (as the man at left was busy on his cell phone in front of the fountain). We learned about studying the male head dress (you can tell where they’re from) and the shoes (men from Saudi wear black dress shoes – the Dubai men wear sandals). Cell phone use is every bit as prevalent there as it is anywhere. When we sat at the Rainforest Café a family of Chinese sat next to us. They were speaking their native language, and as soon as they ordered, all 6 people in the group began using their cell phones and didn’t talk to one another. Such a sad state of affairs!

We went up in the extremely tall spire, a focal point in Dubai – the Burj Khalifa. We zipped up the 120+ floors in 50 seconds and walked all around taking pictures of the view. At one time the building was the tallest in the world, but some other city has taken over the honors now. It was pretty amazing.

In the photo at right the bottom left is the Dubai Mall. The building next to it is one of the very popular hotels, and at the bottom is the water fountain.

At left is the famous Burj Al Arab – also a hotel – one of the earlier ones built in Dubai. Each suite in the hotel is 2 of the floors you see there. I don’t remember for sure, but I think the guide told us that the hotel rented that 2-floor suite for about $40,000 a night. I cannot imagine . . .

Dubai is a top get-away destination for people from India and other parts of the Middle East. There are people there of every nationality, and dress is as varied as you can imagine. We did see a few women in scantily clad short-shorts, but not many.

What I didn’t mention to you is that almost all of our time was spent indoors. We did our level best to STAY indoors as much as possible because it was insufferably hot and humid (100° and 100% humidity). I can’t imagine living there, yet lots of people are in love with the place. There are virtually no sidewalks – almost no one walks anywhere – you take taxis. Our hotel was close to the Dubai Mall, but there was no way to get to there, so we took a hotel shuttle, and a taxi to return. The little bit of time we spent outside was awful – we were drenched in sweat in minutes.

But, we did it. We saw it. I can now say I’ve been there, done that. No real wish to return.

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I should have taken at least one picture of my stuffed-to-the-gills duffle bag. This I took after I got home, after I’d unloaded most of what was in it. The duffle bag is about 21 inches long, about 12-13 inches in diameter. It does have a flat bottom, and each end has a pocket. Sticking out of the bag is my folded up safari hat and the top edge of a yellow manila folder that had trip documents (not tickets) inside.

Some safari camps allow more luggage, but because we took small puddle-jumper single-engine planes 3-4 times between camps, they, the fixed-wing charter airline (Mack Air) had a limit on the size and weight of the bags. Everywhere we went there were 16 of those bags piled up on the runway, beside the game drive Land Rovers. The only difference between them were the yarn tags hanging from the ends – one of our gals knit them for us, so we could identify our bags quickly. Fortunately, at every camp and hotel the staff delivered the bags to our rooms for us.

Abercrombie & Kent provided the bags. And they provided a list of things we could take on the trip. Here’s what I took: 2 pairs of cropped pants (cotton, both beige), 2 t-shirts, both beige, a few changes of underwear, a jacket for cooler nights (never used) and a rain jacket (also never used). I took a safari vest my friend Linda loaned me, but it was SO hot I only used it one day. Linda loaned me a long-sleeved safari shirt too, which was also required and I used it a lot. Also took a pair of pajamas, some took a bathing suit (I didn’t; I just used one of my outfits when I used the pools). We wore one pair of shoes (sandals, heavy-duty type, not strappy type) and packed a pair of closed-toed shoes. Some took tennis shoes (mostly the men), but I took a pair of Skechers (left them behind at our last stop as I didn’t like them) and also took a pair of flip-flops. All of our liquid toiletries had to fit into ONE quart-sized plastic bag. I took sunscreen, mascara, eye liner, brow color, one lipstick, one tube of lip moisturizer, makeup remover, my nightly nasal spray, mosquito repellant. No shampoo (it was provided), no hair spray, no gel, no perfume. I took my Kindle (read 5 books as I think I mentioned), my iPad mini (played some games during the hot afternoons), and my iPod (that I listen to when I am trying to go to sleep). I took my big honkin’ camera (Canon Rebel xSi, the one I use for all my blog photos) with the standard lens, not the zoom – there was no way I could have handled that on this trip. Fortunately we were able to charge our devices in most places. Some took a phone. I didn’t. I had to make room for my charging cords and an extra battery, an extra card for my camera and a wall plug that would fit into the southern Africa electricity. And then, I had the outfit I flew in (and wore every day I was in Dubai, and wore it a couple of nights at the safari camps) and then I wore it on the long journey home. I wished I’d taken some hair gel as those safari hats wreak havoc with any hairdo. I had my hair cut very short for this trip so all I had to do was comb it and it dried in about 2 minutes because it was so hot there.

The shampoo in all of the stays was hard on my hair. I guess I should have packed some of my own (we were told not to), but my bag was already very full. I also took a Baggalini purse, of course, which was packed solidly, and I put a few things in a tote bag I carried on. It wasn’t big or heavy; my purse would actually fit in it if necessary. I think I was the only person who took an extra small bag. At the end of the trip I left behind all of my clothes that I could, which left a bit of room to buy a couple of trinkets. I’ll show them to you eventually. Cute animal figures done in wire and beading; also a balsa wood zebra. I left the tote bag behind and was able to fit my camera and my 5×6 notebook in a very small paper bag with handles given to us at one of the camps.

In the Johannesburg airport, en route home, Gwenda, my roommate, and I visited the duty free and both bought Amarula, a delicious liqueur similar to Bailey’s Irish Cream, except this is made from the fruit of the Marula tree. It was offered to us daily at the camps, to drink in our coffee when we stopped for refreshments on the morning game drives. That’s when I started drinking it – this at about 10:30 in the morning. It was lovely in the coffee.

When we went through security in Dubai (on the way home) I got flagged for a random check. I was with 3 other people from our trip, and they made them go on ahead of me, but they wouldn’t let me take my Amarula with me. I was SO upset – it wasn’t that I couldn’t have it, it was that when you’re flagged by security you can’t take alcohol there. Why, I don’t know! I thought they were going to confiscate it, but they didn’t. Anyway, I was escorted to another floor of the building and they took a swab all over my clothing and sent it through a machine. When I was finished they put me in an elevator which promptly locked me in and I couldn’t make it go to a floor or even move. Finally had to press an alarm bell to get someone to come. The elevator required a special pass only held by the security staff. Obviously I passed the security check and was let out of “prison.” What was funny was that they told the others in my group that I was taken “prisoner.” Gwenda was very distraught. Fortunately they allowed her to carry my Amarula so I managed to get it home after all.

It doesn’t taste like  Bailey’s – it doesn’t have chocolate in it – but it’s a cream-based drink. Altogether lovely. Gwenda bought 4 bottles and got someone else to take 2 of them through customs for her. I had 2 bottles (in a 2-pack cardboard case). The customs official did ask me about it – I assured him it wasn’t straight alcohol. Am not sure but I may have bought too much, but the guy smiled at me and winked and let me go through. THANK YOU, kind sir!

I haven’t had any of it since I got home – I don’t generally drink coffee at night, but my friend Joe will be coming to visit in a week or so, and I know he’ll have some with me. The marula tree fruit is bitter, so they must add sugar or some kind of sweetening to it, then the cream. There’s a photo of the marula fruit, from Wikipedia.

On the trip I drank a gin and tonic almost every day. They’re so very refreshing in hot weather, and oh my, was it ever hot on this trip. I don’t think we had a single day when it was less than about 100° F. Miserable. Absolutely miserable. But the gin and tonic helped! On a regular, daily basis I don’t drink at all anymore. I used to drink wine most evenings – a glass only – I’m a lightweight, always have been, but I didn’t have wine anytime on the trip. It was free to everyone, but I passed. Coke Light was my drink of choice, with LOTS of ice.

Since I got home, in between feeling lousy with jet lag (it’s 9 hours difference between Los Angeles time and Botswana time), trying to sleep (not well, except last night, finally) and trying to take care of necessities, I’ve been sorting and organizing my photos. I’ve just finished them today, so now will begin to tell you all the stories of my trip. Stay tuned.

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I’ve just returned, last night, from 2 weeks in Africa, on safari, and 2 days at the beginning of the trip, in Dubai. I’ve only begun to download all my photos from my camera. I’ve got one good night of sleep under my belt, am sipping on my first cup of coffee with cream (the cream unheard of anywhere on the trip), and will begin in earnest to work on my photos. I have hundreds to sort through, many of which will go into the computer trash. The above picture I took in a gift shop in Dubai – it was a big canvas print and I thought the art itself was so interesting. No, I didn’t buy it – I had no place whatsoever, to put a tube of canvas prints! On the entire trip we never saw a camel, but it at least is representative of the African continent.

We spent (I use the collective “we” because I was with a group of 16 – and I had a roommate, Gwenda,  – and we did everything together) 2 days and 2 nights in Dubai (enough), then flew to Johannesburg, where we stayed at a magnificent hotel (the Saxon), then took a flight to Livingstone, in Zambia, and began a journey to 5 different safari camps (most of them in Botswana), some more luxurious than others and I’ll be telling you all about them. One camp was accessible via LandRover (or LandCruiser, whichever), but the others were accessed only via very small puddle-jumper planes on very short, compacted dirt and sand landing strips. Sometimes the flights were longer (an hour), sometimes as short as 10-15 minutes.

And, believe it or not, I’m going to share some recipes too. We had fabulous food – I can’t fault any of our camps for their food – they did wonders with what they had available. I don’t suppose broccoli and cauliflower are common to the African people, but we had it often. There were combinations of foods I’d not considered doing, but it worked there. In coming days or week or two I’ll be sharing a cookie recipe – I just called them safari cookies. We had hot soup nearly every evening on the trip, and I’ll be sharing a recipe for a carrot, ginger and lime soup that was exceptional. And we had a delicious hummus that I want to make. If any of you have read my blog for awhile, I made a categorical statement recently that I’m “over” being infatuated with hummus. But THIS hummus was different. I’ll make it sometime soon. We had lots of butternut squash – that must be a staple available in Africa. We had beautiful fruit (melons, papaya, oranges, limes, lemons and green apples) that must have come from South Africa. I ate a cooked breakfast nearly every morning (generally I had 2 poached eggs or sunny side up ones) with wonderful, fresh breads, and sometimes bacon or sausage. We had lots of beef, pork, kudu, chicken, guinea fowl, even some fish. Vegetarian options were available everywhere, and even on occasion some GF breads.

So, bear with me as I begin the work here at my end, categorizing and sorting my photos (is that a bird up in that picture of a tree?) and I’ll share it all in coming days. My first night home I had a Trader Joe’s salad, and let’s just say I’m savoring my coffee this morning. Home feels wonderful. Today I’m meeting my daughter who took care of my kitten for me while I was gone. I’ve shopped for groceries already. The work on my house still isn’t quite finished, but it’s almost done. My newly redecorated bedroom still lacks accessories, but it’s almost completed. And my own bed was the most comfortable I’ve been in the last 2 1/2 weeks!

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Last hurrah with peaches, made into a lovely cake style tea cake.

This could be made with any variety of stone fruit (apricots, peaches, nectarines, plums), but it was featured in Rustic Fruit Desserts: Crumbles, Buckles, Cobblers, Pandowdies, and More, the cookbook, and made with peaches. Remember, I acquired the cookbook recently. The one I said I didn’t need, but wanted anyway. And this is another winner of a recipe.

Tea cake has many meanings, depending on where you live in the world! In England a tea cake is more of a bread, sometimes with fruit and some made with yeast, but often are made into snacks or sandwiches. In Sweden it’s a soda bread to serve warm with butter and jam. In Australia and India it’s more of a sponge cake and IS served with TEA! And here in the U.S. if you’re having a tea cake in the South, it’s more like a cookie – a dense, large cookie. But elsewhere in the U.S. it’s a single-layer spiced cake. Really, I’d say this cake I made doesn’t qualify as any of those, but then I didn’t name it.

My bible study group was coming over, so it was a good occasion to bake something. I surely wouldn’t have wanted this whole cake for just me to eat, because I would have eaten it!

It was easy enough to prepare – butter and sugar are beaten together until light, eggs added in, then the dry ingredients. Only one different technique – the batter was quite sticky at that point (almost like the consistency of a cookie dough) and you stick it in the freezer for 30 minutes. That firmed up the tacky feeling and was enough to allow you to handle the dough without most of it sticking to your fingers. Half is pressed into the bottom of a 10 inch spring form pan. Then the fresh peaches are cut. I threw in a little splash of Amaretto – but actually that made the fruit too wet, I think. I won’t do that next time. Then with the remaining dough/batter, you break off little tablespoon-sized pieces of stick them all over the top. They spread out, as you can see from the picture with just an occasional peach peeking through – it makes for a pretty look. It’s baked for 30-40 minutes (and mine probably should have baked a little bit longer as the dough was a tiny bit gooey in the middle). I think I will increase the baking time of this by about 5 minutes – the top should be just golden brown. Do serve it warm, and do serve it with either pouring cream, whipped cream or ice cream. I think it needs it. It’s not overly sweet, thankfully, but it’s a cake, not a fruit torte.

What’s GOOD: the yummy peaches in a nice, warm cake. I served it with heavy cream to pour over. Very delicious. It is more cake than it is fruit, just so you know. I used 4 fairly smallish peaches (it calls for 2 1/2 cups of sliced peaches) and maybe it could have been more, but that would also increase the baking time.

What’s NOT: it’s only as good as the peaches you use in it – use nice, ripe, juicy ones only. It’s fairly easy, so I had no complaints with the making of it at all.

printer-friendly PDF and File: MasterCook 14

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Not savory cookies – no, these are the real deal – walnut cookies with a moderate jot of black pepper.

Needing some cookies to serve to my friends who were coming to play Scrabble, I saw this recipe online and thought what a wonderful combination – WALNUTS and BLACK PEPPER. And different, for sure. They were SO easy to make – I had them mixed and baked in a little more than an hour, and my hands-on time was probably no more than 20 minutes. The cookies are baked low (at 300°F) for 25 minutes. That’s a long time for cookies. I could smell the butter browning as they baked – I almost thought they were burning, but they weren’t. They bake until the bottoms begin to turn a golden yellow.

The recipe was adapted by one of the chefs at the James Beard Foundation (until today I’d never looked at their website). The original recipe came from a cookbook called Cooking with Italian Grandmothers: Recipes and Stories from Tuscany to Sicily. I don’t own that cookbook – it sounds like a wonderful one to browse through.

Actually, because I was still in the midst of remodeling the day my friends were coming, we ended up going to one of the other gal’s homes. I didn’t think they’d want to hear the pounding going on. My decks are getting completely re-done (yet more dry rot discovered), and the roofers are still pounding away. By the time this recipe airs, the roof, decks, and everything else should be finished. Thank goodness.

This is a crispy crunchy cookie (no eggs in the batter) – just butter, sugar, honey, black pepper, a dash of salt, finely pounded walnuts and flour. It mixed up in a jiffy in the stand mixer, and as usual, I had a hard time keeping my fingers out of the batter. I love cookie dough.

What’s GOOD: the combo of walnuts and pepper was different, but really good. The heat from the black pepper is subtle – don’t expect it to assault your taste buds – it doesn’t, but you’re barely aware of some residual heat once you’ve chewed and swallowed a bite or two.

What’s NOT: nothing at all.

printer-friendly PDF and FILE: MasterCook 14 (click on link to open)

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Hopefully all of you read Food52 already, that huge website, with contributors in legions, that covers the broadest possible spectrum related to food and the home. Amanda Sims did a piece recently about “Food Apps We ‘WISH’ Existed.” Certainly it’s tongue-in-cheek, but if nothing else it will give you a laugh. Here’s the link to the actual article. They invited commenters to add more (I’ve not included those).

Coffeeinate: an app that allows you to order a coffee from your favorite barista, pay for it through the app, then walk into the coffee shop and have it waiting to swipe off the counter.

The Fennel Detector: an app that saves you from eating foods you loathe (or are “allergic” to). Hold your phone over any food to scan for contaminant (like fennel) so you don’t mistakenly eat it. Settings allow you to customize for testing widely disliked foods such as cilantro and gluten.

Shop Map: maps out the shortest route to what you need in the grocery store based on your inputted grocery list. Saves time and feelings of insanity as you go back to the same aisle five times for different things.

One Dumpling: an app that delivers you just 1 dumpling, wherever you are, for when you’re not very hungry but sill want a dumpling; sister app One Scallion Pancake does the same for scallion pancakes. [Food52 originates from New York, and Chinese take-out is a daily staple.]

Lineo: choose any restaurant, coffee shop, or Trader Joe’s well-priced grocery store in your vicinity and view the status of the line or the average time of the current wait, without calling and speaking to someone who is going to lie to you anyway.

Chooser: an app for helping you decide what recipe to make from a cookbook. Open the app and see how many people have made which recipes from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone (and what their results were!) so that it’s easier to choose!

The Secret Spotter: an app that tells you when you’re getting close to a hard-to-find, locals-only, word-of-mouth type place that never shows up in the right spot on a map (imagine a kind motherly voice telling you excitedly: “You’re getting warmer! Even warmer!”)

Hotty: turns your phone into a tiny heater that will keep your coffee warm for longer; doubles as a hand-warmer on cold days (and that will make you feel less bad about holding onto your phone even when it’s in your pocket because you’re so attached to it).

The Spice: an app that will keep track of all of your spices so that you don’t end up with 3 bottles of cinnamon and 5 bottles of red pepper flakes because you always think you’re out.

Dubious Rewards: this app chooses a workout for you and then suggests a beer to drink afterwards (since experts say that beer is a good recovery drink).

Pantreater: an app that would tell you which recipes from a cookbook you could make based on the ingredients you already have in your house.

You Cheap: app that tells you where to find [an] TK item (okay, mostly breakfast cereal) on sale at grocery stores. As in, where can I get the $3.99 box of Puffins as opposed to the $5.99 supermarket price?

Avocadwoes: scan in a picture of an avocado and this app will tell you if it has any brown spots, is perfect for consumption, needs 2 days and 1 1/2 hours to ripen, or is better off pickled. Can be set, alternatively, to tell you when certain produce will go bad.

Road Food: the show, in app form—oh wait that’s in production (yay!).

Eat it Anyway: an app that encourages you when you try something new in the kitchen: “That looks right, of course you were supposed to fold it that way!” “No, no, that’s great, I like the charred bits!”

Slimdr: dating apps that show ONLY the people who are in the same restaurant or bar as you. So: That guy across the room? Let technology help you with that.

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Caramelized onions stewing in the pan make for a wonderful aroma – add some bourbon and a few other things and it’s a match with a piece of grilled steak or pork chop.

Remember, I was mentioning that my freezer in the garage is kinda full of frozen beef? Mostly steaks. I think this one was a prime ribeye from Costco since it was in a vacuum sealed bag. I can’t remember the last time I grilled a steak – I’ve had steak at my son’s home –  I never order it at a restaurant because I think I can make it better anyway. So, I defrosted a nice big steak – enough for 2 meals for me. It was 4:00 in the afternoon once it was defrosted (I plunged the sealed bag into a big bowl of cold water, put a big wide bowl on top and put a weight in the middle to keep the steak submerged). It took about 2-3 hours and it stayed very cold.  Grilled or sautéed onions with a splash of bourbon were what appealed to me so I researched several recipes online. I went off on a tangent and added a variety of things

I decided not to fire up the outdoor grill, but instead I cooked the steak in my sous vide. It needed a minimum of 2 hours at 131°F, and that was just exactly how much time I had before my approximate dinner time at 6:30. The beauty of the sous vide is that I could have cooked it for 4 hours at 131° and it would have been the same, perfectly cooked medium rare.

Meanwhile, I started making the onions. Sliced them – not paper thin as they kind of come out as a gloopy mess – a little thicker than that. They are gently sautéed in olive oil and butter. It takes awhile for them to sweat off all the liquid, but it’s enhanced with just a teaspoon of brown sugar. Once they began to brown they need more frequent stirring so they don’t burn. Once they get to a dark golden brown you can finish – or you can let them go to a full mahogany color if you’d prefer. By then it had been about 35 minutes and I was ready to eat, so I added in the liquids (Worcestershire sauce, a dash of soy sauce, mustard, and bourbon). It took another 5+ minutes for that liquid to be absorbed and simmered off – I wished I’d left just a smidgen of liquid to drizzle onto the steak, so keep that in mind if you make this.

My sous vide steak was ready to finish – it was fully cooked, but it has a kind of insipid grayish color to the outside when it’s done in the sous vide, so I fired up my stovetop grill and got it smoking hot and plopped that steak on there for about 90 seconds per side – that’s all it needed. I let it sit for about 5 minutes on a cutting board, cut it in half and served it with the onions on top.

What’s GOOD: oh my, yes, it was delicious. Loved the sweet onions – I could have eaten double the amount if they’d been there – I saved half for a 2nd meal. The bourbon flavor was very subtle. Altogether delicious. If you like bourbon, you could add more – I will next time.

What’s NOT: really nothing other than the time it takes to sweat down and caramelize the onions.

printer-friendly PDF and MasterCook 14 file (click on link to open in MC)

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