It's been a hard landing, but we're back

Is this what you would call "setting the table?"

This spider cake from The Essential New York Times Cookbook is fantastic. It's fast and easy and you probably have all the ingredients in your house right now. It is also interesting. You mix together cornmeal, flour, sugar, milk, and eggs, scrape the batter into a cast iron skillet and then into the middle pour one cup of cream. Do not stir the cream into the batter. (See what I mean? Interesting.) Bake. The result is a dense, custardy cornbready cake with a narrow band of creamy filling. It should be served warm and needs no embellishment. Monday night after we were done with dessert, I kept cutting off ragged edges of the leftover cake to "even it out" while I talked to my husband. Finally, I stood up and said, "Get this away from me NOW."

Everyone in the family loved the spider cake and that's saying something. I just had another piece for breakfast, warmed in a skillet. Highly recommend.

homely home cooking

Last night I cooked the zorza -- a spicy ground pork stir-fry served with boiled potatoes and topped with fried eggs --  from Delicioso, one of the many Spanish cookbooks by Penelope Casas, who seems to have a lock on the subject, at least in the American market. I'm trying to decide if this dish was good enough to justify making Delicioso my next cookbook. It was a fine dish, but not great. The spicing wasn't balanced; it needed more salt; it was a bit dry. Very unlike the zorza we ate in Spain. Does anyone have a Spanish cookbook they love?

I've been trying to take a short movie of the goat babies, but so far haven't managed anything I could post. Owen has named the buckling Jack Frost, because he is covered with a light dusting of white fur. The doe, he named Zen. I have no idea why. It's sad that he's naming them because we can not keep them. If you would like a couple of super-cute baby dairy goats from a good family, write me.