Persimmon Custard

Some of you paleo and primal types are always on the lookout for some dessert that passes muster with the pre-industrialized shopping cart rules.  No sugar, for instance.  This has fruit, which in this dish is ridiculously ripe, and therefore super sweet, but it's still not added sugar.  ...so all is right with the world (the pre-civilized world, of course).

Persimmon Custard

Makes 4 tiny servings, 2 satisfying ones, or one meal.

4 eggs
1 inch of vanilla bean
1/2 cup of "milk" - almond milk, milk, coconut milk, etc.  Your choice
1 large EXTREMELY ripe persimmon - it needs to be soft and sweet, "spoon ready," baby!
1 tsp rum
2 or 4 small ramekins or stoneware dishes
1 high rimmed cake pan or baking dish large enough to hold all of the above dishes

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Heat a few cups of water to boiling.

Split and scrape the inside of the vanilla beans into a blender jar.  Add the eggs.  Spoon the inside of the persimmon into the jar, taking care not to let any peel into the jar.  Blend well, until well combined and emulsified (about 30 seconds to a minute).  Add your choice of milk and briefly mix to combine.

Pour the egg mixture into the dessert cups. Place dessert cups in the baking dish so that they don’t touch one another. Pour the hot water from the pan into the baking dish so that it comes up to the level of the custard on the outside of each dish.

Put the pan in the oven and bake until they are set around the edges (about 40 minutes). Serve warm or set further by refrigerating for at about 2 hours.

Note - this was delicious, but possibly the ugliest dessert I've ever made.  It looked like solidified split pea soup.  I don't know what to do about that.

Gingersnap Pumpkin Cheesecake (Happy Thanksgiving!)

Gingersnap Pumpkin Cheesecake


This is not healthy, it's cheesecake that you only have on special occasions.

Not paying attention to what I was doing led to a big oops.  This was going to be a plain ol Pumpkin Ginger Cheesecake, and it still has all those things, but it's just totally different...

I wasn't paying attention and failed to stir the pumpkin into the cream cheese mixture, so I had to come up with a pumpkin layer to add to the top.  It came out sort of ugly and and swirly, so it was a good thing I was planning a sour cream layer on top of that.  Turned out delicious, and it ended up looking pretty nice, too.


Crust

3 cups ginger snap crumbs -- like my 6.2 package of Nyaker's Gingersnaps from World Market or Anna's from Ikea, if possible.  Fancy, crispy, and with a bite.
3/4 cup butter, melted
2 teaspoons sugar

Combine crumbs, sugar, and butter.  Press mixture into bottom of a spring pan


Filling

16 ounces Neufchatel cheese
3 eggs
2/3 cup sugar
1 inch of vanilla bean

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cream cheese until smooth.  Scrape the vanilla bean with a spoon, adding the seeds to the bowl.  Blend in eggs and sugar.  Mix well, until smooth.  Gently pour into crust.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.  Remove from oven and raise oven temperature to 425.  Let cake cool for 15 minutes.


Pumpkin Layer

1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 tsp powdered ginger
1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs

Blend pumpkin, ginger, eggs and sugar.  Mix well, until smooth.  Gently spoon over the cheesecake, tilting and using the back of a spoon to spread evenly.

Return to the 425 degree oven and back until a knife comes out mostly clean (about 30 minutes).  It's okay if the top center of the pumpkin is a little soft.  Remove from oven and let cool for another 10 minutes.


Topping

1 cup light sour cream (at room temperature)
2 tablespoons sugar


Combine room temperature sour cream and sugar.  Mix well.  Spread gently over baked filling.  Return cake to 425 degree oven and bake for 10 minutes.  Cool for 30 minutes, and run a knife around the rim of the pan to free it.  Chill in the pan for several hours or overnight.

Eat.

Weekend Observations and Randomness

A new weekend, so I'm in a positive mood today.  However, there are a couple of WFT moments that I want to bring up without wasting too much mental energy.

#1 --  If you work at a fast food place and your job is to refill the napkin holder, why don't you know that the stack has to go in a particular way?  It has to leave the open end exposed so that we can grab a loose edge to pull one (and just one) out?  The same thing with the paper towel dispenser.  I know you're annoyed that people are so rude as to leave huge piles of "unused" napkins and paper towels near the dispenser, but realize that it's all you, not us.  If there's nothing to grab, we have no choice but to dig out a huge wad.  Maybe you need a mentor.

#2 -- I've always loved Shakira, but why won't someone tell her that her dancing isn't sexy.  Robotic, yes.  Sexy, no.  At least not to me.  Sexy to robots, I have no comment.

#3 -- Before I picked up the kids yesterday, I had to submit some electronic "paperwork," so I stopped by Starbucks.  I've avoided this one for a long time because it's always too cold in there, but there it was.  I wrote a letter to corporate a year and a half ago, so I was sure it was fixed.  Nope.

It's 62 degrees outside, and I go in and find it colder than outside.  62 degrees outside and I had to work at the table outside!  62 isn't COLD, but you don't sit down and work at 62 degrees, much less at whatever temp it was inside.  The air was gently blowing in there, providing a nice cool breeze for my shaven head, too.

• At least 5 customers came in and left without a purchase.  Including people with computers, who just gave up.  Some said things like "I forgot it's always cold here."
• Most customers were seen clutching their arms to their chests as they waited for their drinks.
• Every customer commented on the cold.   
• Fun responses from the "associates." were "We can't control it," "It's controlled from somewhere else," "It's controlled from corporate," "We can only turn it off and on, but then it gets warm back here in a while," ...and, in answer to the question of whether it's been reported to corporate, "I haven't, everyone knows it's cold."  That's like an alarm going off on your street and ignoring it.  "It's a Neighborhood Watch, someone will cal."

Think of how much money they are wasting on AC.  A year and a half of non-stop cooling to ridiculously low temperatures.

Shivering, I forwarded my letter of a year and a half ago back to "management" with some new comments added.

#4 -- Shakira also sounds a little like Elmo, so her appeal as a performer is better than the sum of her parts.  It's a bit nebulous.

The Fall of the Berlin Wall, 20 Years Ago

I'm not much for politics, but this subject means a lot to me.  I will admit, however, that I didn't remember the anniversary on my own.  I was reminded by my virtual-blogger-facebook friend Petya (who I've never met in person) at the beginning of the week.

I've meant to blog of the subject since Monday, but haven't had time with all of my work.  However, I don't want it to be perfect before I mention the event.  It's important.

At this point, I'll suffice it to say that I didn't know how much of what I'd learned about communism was true.  Media, propoganda, movies, books, school, rumor, etc. were my education.  I didn't live it.

Here's a short list of learning influences, good, bad, accurate, and inaccurate.  Communism, oppression, repression, the Cold War, etc.  overlapping, analogy, metaphor...

Duck and Cover
Gotcha!
We The Living
"Four legs good, two legs bad"
Red Dawn
"We will bury you"
Bond girls
Anthem/2112
1984
"Ich bin ein Berliner"

None of these paint a picture of what life under Communism must have been like.  Turns out some was accurate and some not...

If I never come back to update this and flesh things out, I leave you with my own little story of that day.

I was in a vanpool, coming home from my job at USC, when I heard about the Wall on the radio.  This was before everyone had a cell phone, and I was anxious to get home to call my dad.  My father is from Germany, was once a Berlin Wall guard in the American Army, and we'd talked many times about how awful that wall was.  I wanted to see how he was doing after the news.  I called him an hour later, and I could tell he was crying a little.  Just so you know how a few average Americans took the news, there were some tears in the van, too.

Bulgarian Mystery Tea

You know I love coffee, but I have huge boxes and bags of tea, too.  Tea is like background music.  Coffee is something to get into.  Classical, jazz, etc., is tea.  Rock and pop is coffee.

An attempt to drink up some of my tea (which I do actually like, just don't get excited about) leads me to the mysteries of "tea from Bulgaria."  I also have "herbs from Bulgaria," but that's going to be covered down the road.  Equally mysterious, I might add.

Last time Gal was here, she brought boxes of tea for me.  The printing is in Bulgibberish, so I asked her what they were.  "That's tea from the mountain."  I held up another.  "The other mountain."  Another.  "That's for bedtime."  One more.  She pointed to the fruit on the box-- a bergamot orange.  "That's got that thing in it."

Since the bergamot one tasted pretty much like Earl Grey and I have a ton of that at home, I took it to work.  It's pretty good, although I'm sure there are some mysterious other ingredients in the mix, as you'll gather from the teas below....

As you can see from these boxes, there's really no telling what's what.  I finally had Gal look them up and translate for me.  Now I know which ones to make when I want something that tastes like tea and what to make when I want something that tastes like chicken.  You think I joke?  Well, it's not that far from the truth.

 Good Night Tea

This is that "for bedtime" tea.  I'm not sure what's in it.  She says it has "mint."  Not just any mint though.  It's freakin' catnip!  mmm...

I actually have used fresh catnip in place of regular mint, but I will never admit it.  It was in a delicious yogurty sauce and I was out of actual mint leaf.  Don't tell those guests, please.

However, catnip makes cats crazy, so the idea of catnip in a "good night tea" seems odd.

It also might have valerian root, which is another crazy cat herb.  Weirdness from Bulgaria...

 the red box of tea from "the mountain"

It has elderberry leaves, mint leaves (not catnip), blackberry leaves, thyme, oregano.

Oregano and thyme?  I'll use this in my chicken stock in a pinch.  It's actually good, but don't stand there with honey at the ready.  It's not that kind of tea.  Weird, but good.  A whole new meaning to herb tea.

the "other mountain"

She says "this has herbs that don't exist for you."  Oh.  And we see colors that don't exist in Bulgaria, dear.  So there!

It contains something that's a little bush that looks like a juniper, but is sour.  Rose hips from a dog rose flower thing.  Leaf of white yarrow.  Forest strawberry leaves.  Quince leaves.  and more thyme.

This tastes less like chicken soup and more like vegetable broth.  It's good, now that I'm used to it.  Savory tea for the win! 

I kinda want to salt it, though. Is that so wrong?