Christmas!
Here I sit at my friends John and Linda's house, watching episode three of Heroes; it's been a good Christmas for me this year. I had the day off, got up and cooked Blackberry Bread (I'll post the recipe below), Banana Pudding and Carrots Epicius; then we all headed over here and sat around drinking wine and watching these eps and the new Doctor Who Christmas Special. Nice, relaxing day; tomorrow I go back to work, and then tomorrow evening (Happy Boxing Day, Tav and Kiro and Hauntress and Loqui and any other Canadians I know!) we come back here to do a White Elephant present-exchange. ^_____^
So! Santa brought me a great ferret calendar (that'll go with me to work), a POTC calendar (that one's for home), a couple of sweatshirts, a copy of the first season of Heroes, a gift-card for a local store, some really nice jewelry, shoes, a bunch of other stuff. Good prezzies all.
But the best? Good friends, all together. I had a really nice day. Happy holidays, everyone.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and butter a square 8" x 8" or a rectangular 9" x 5" pan
2 cups blackberries (frozen works fine)
2 eggs
1 3/4 cup sugar
1 stick butter
2 cups plain flour
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
1. In a food-processor, pulse blackberries and 1/2 cup of the sugar until pureed; set aside.
2. In a deep bowl, blend remaining sugar, butter and vanilla together until fluffy; gradually add everything else except for blackberry puree. Blend until thick and smooth.
3. In your pan, spread a thinnish layer of batter (it'll be close to the consistency of peanutbutter); top with a good bit of berry puree; add another layer of batter, top with puree again, and finish with remaining batter. Don't worry if things mix up a bit; just don't stir.
4. Bake at 350 F for an hour to an hour and a quarter. Allow to cool a bit, slice and enjoy.
This recipe was based on a cranberry-coffeecake recipe that I found on epicurious.com, which I would've tried except that I couldn't find fresh cranberries for love or money. Being that I dearly love blackberries, I consider this to be serendipity. And I'm pretty sure you could use damn near any fruit to make a good result; wonder how pears would do, or lemon curd, or thick-cut marmalade, or fresh nectarines? Hmmmmmm...
So! Santa brought me a great ferret calendar (that'll go with me to work), a POTC calendar (that one's for home), a couple of sweatshirts, a copy of the first season of Heroes, a gift-card for a local store, some really nice jewelry, shoes, a bunch of other stuff. Good prezzies all.
But the best? Good friends, all together. I had a really nice day. Happy holidays, everyone.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and butter a square 8" x 8" or a rectangular 9" x 5" pan
2 cups blackberries (frozen works fine)
2 eggs
1 3/4 cup sugar
1 stick butter
2 cups plain flour
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
1. In a food-processor, pulse blackberries and 1/2 cup of the sugar until pureed; set aside.
2. In a deep bowl, blend remaining sugar, butter and vanilla together until fluffy; gradually add everything else except for blackberry puree. Blend until thick and smooth.
3. In your pan, spread a thinnish layer of batter (it'll be close to the consistency of peanutbutter); top with a good bit of berry puree; add another layer of batter, top with puree again, and finish with remaining batter. Don't worry if things mix up a bit; just don't stir.
4. Bake at 350 F for an hour to an hour and a quarter. Allow to cool a bit, slice and enjoy.
This recipe was based on a cranberry-coffeecake recipe that I found on epicurious.com, which I would've tried except that I couldn't find fresh cranberries for love or money. Being that I dearly love blackberries, I consider this to be serendipity. And I'm pretty sure you could use damn near any fruit to make a good result; wonder how pears would do, or lemon curd, or thick-cut marmalade, or fresh nectarines? Hmmmmmm...