Bernese Mountain Dog puppy turns one

Little Miss Jackie the Bernese Mountain Dog turned one year old this week. She weighs in at over 90 pounds, quite a change for the "runt" of her litter! In honor of her birthday, I made a dog birthday cake. After searching for recipes, I found that there are very few good ones out there, so offer up my own version of a whole wheat, carrot, banana, peanut butter cake.

Dog Birthday Cake

This is completely edible for humans, too!

Jackie wants some cake! "When do I get some?"

Queen for a Day

Whole Wheat Doggie Cake

1 C whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 C natural ( no sugar) peanut butter
1 mashed banana
2 shredded carrots
1/4 C. olive oil
1 egg
2 Tbsp. honey
1/4-1/2 tsp. cinnamon

This is a very simple cake. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Oil small (6 in x 3 in) springform cake pan. Mix dry ingredients. Mix wet ingredients and add to dry ingredients. Spread batter in the oiled pan. Bake 40 minutes or till cake springs back when touched. Cool on rack.

Frosting

2 oz. cream cheese
1/4 C. peanut butter
2 Tbsp. yogurt
1 Tbsp. honey

Cream the peanut butter and cream cheese, add yogurt and honey and frost as you would any cake. Decorate with doggie treats, carrot slivers, banana slices or other special goodies your dog loves.

The cake is actually quite good. For dogs, do not add nuts, raisins or other indigestible or dangerous ingredients! Jackie had no problem digesting the cake.

Here she is gulping her first bite!

Roasted quince, pear and apple tart

For my dear friends and owners of a mature quince tree, I'm including here a recipe for a roasted quince, pear and apple tart. Karen and Bob have shared their Carneros quince with us for several years. Our young quince tree set many fruit this year, but I had to pinch most of them off so that they would not break the spindly branches. In a few years it will be as sturdy as the persimmon tree we planted by the dining room windows.

I found a recipe on Epicurious for a roasted pear, apple and quince crostada. Unfortunately, each piece has 923 calories, and the recipe uses three sticks of butter and over one and one-half cups of sugar. I changed the shell and the filling and made them gluten free.

Here's the adapted recipe.

 

Roasted quince, pear and apple tart

Roasted fruit
2 quince, washed, cored
2 firm pears, washed and cored
2 firm apples, washed and cored
1/2 cup sugar
3 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 Tbsp. chopped fresh ginger
1 cinnamon stick, broken
4-6 whole cloves
2 Tbsp. Lucero Lemon White Balsamic Vinegar
dash salt

Tart shell
1 1/2 cups packed almond meal flour
4 Tbsp. butter, melted, cooled
3 Tbsp. sugar (or ginger flavored sugar)
2 Tbsp. ice water

Almond filling
1 cup almond paste
1/4 cup egg whites (about 2 large eggs)
dash freshly ground cinnamon

Sugar topping
1 1/2 Tbsp. Turbinado sugar
1/4 tsp. sea salt

Method
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Wash, quarter and core quince, apples and pears, then cut in  one inch chunks. Toss with lemon juice, sugar, ginger, cinnamon stick, cloves and balsamic vinegar in a bowl. Transfer to large shallow baking pan, and roast, stirring once or twice, until fruit is soft and caramelized - about 1 to 1/14 hours. Remove from oven, cool on rack (about 30-45 minutes), discard cinnamon and cloves.

Meanwhile, make tart shell. Mix almond meal, sugar, butter, and ice water with fork till mixture clings together. Press into 8 inch tart pan and up sides.

In food processor, mix almond paste, egg whites and cinnamon till light and fluffy.

For sugar topping, mix Turbinado sugar and sea salt in small bowl.

Assemble tart by spreading the almond filling in the tart shell, arranging the cooled fruit over the filling, and sprinkling the sugar topping over the fruit filling.

Bake on baking sheet till filling is slightly puffed and fruit filling begins to brown. This should be about one hour. Cool to warm, remove side of tart pan, and place on serving plate.

The very best accompaniment is Tahitian Vanilla ice cream from the recipe of Goitsemedeme Booq, cook for Mrs. Constantine Nurt at her estate in Napa, Gottalottaguapo.

after dinner music

Cover of Ludwig van Beethoven











It appears that scribefire, a blog editing tool, is not supporting youtube video clips. Back to the onboard editor for this post.

Yesterday was an eight hands/two piano session which turned into a marathon of sorts, beginning at noon and lasting till ten in the evening. There were breaks early for lunch, for afternoon refreshment, then for dinner - but the pianists continued after dinner.


Music for the afternoon included Haydn, Mozart, Liszt, Joplin, Beethoven (two complete symphonies, including all repeats), and Wagner. In honor of my recent concert at the Napa Valley College where we had a chorus of over 100 singers plus orchestra performing the final movement of Beethoven's 9th symphony, John and friends played the entire symphony.  Launching into the chorus section prompted a choral outburst from at least two pianists - "Freude!"



For dinner we had southern California style tacos courtesy of John, Rancho Gordo beans, a fresh vegetable platter, guacamole, and olive oil citrus cake described about a year ago. After dinner, another light piece by Wagner:

Where in Napa is...

This brightly painted house is in one of Napa's earliest neighborhoods. Where might that be?



While enjoying a visit from my brother John Inman and his wife Patti, we walked around this neighborhood. There are some lovely hydrangeas on the same block:



We also had an opportunity to go to the Saturday farmer's market by the Oxbow Public Market:



Our visitors were very impressed with Napa. The farmer's market trip was prompted by a dinner at Grace's Table and a quest for the smoked olive oil used in one of the dishes. It is definitely available at the Saturday market.