I had picked out 15-4: Fruit Salad with Chocolate Sauce specifically because I didn’t think I’d have a ton of time to cook last week, since we took Memorial Day week off to work on some home improvement projects.
I even took EVERY shortcut I could think of to shrink that time commitment down even further (plus, my kitchen was out of commission most of the week), so this will be…we’ll call it truncated. You’ll see what I mean after the jump.
Late spring/early summer means the start of cherry time around here, so it’s finally time to make 16-36: Fresh Cherry Pie.
We watched Twin Peaks (all three seasons and the movie) a few months ago, and ever since, I’ve been craving a slice of damn fine cherry pie. Talk about synergy.
However, this is not quite Norma’s cherry pie…this is Simply Delicious’ cherry pie, so it of course has to include almond paste in some way. If you’re looking for Norma’s cherry pie (which is much closer to typical “cherry pie”), go here. Pour yourself a cup of coffee and watch some Twin Peaks while you’re at it–it’s awesome.
Funnily enough, Twin Peaks and Simply Delicious both exist as excellent representations of the late 1980s-early 1990s. There’s that synergy thing again.
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This one has intrigued me for years…when you’re a kid, it looks absolutely magical. Almost like Ice Cream Mountain, if you know that reference.
As an adult, 15-6: Royal Court Dessert just looks like a sugary headache. Turns out, it’s a little bit of both.
They’re right that this is a pretty quick and easy dessert to make. The hardest part (for me) was actually finding the meringues themselves. I guess I could have made them myself, but that is neither quick nor easy.
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My freezer can only hold so many desserts, so sometimes I mix it up and make breads instead. In this particular case, I made something a little different: 17-69: Crispy Cracker Bread.
These are similar to ak-mak or Wasa crispbread, if you’ve tried either of those. I like them topped with some tuna for lunch, so why not make my own?
On the heels of 19-8: Coffee, Tea, & Chocolate I, I happened to recently make a somewhat-related recipe, 15-22: Cappuccino Ice Cream. I love coffee ice cream, and so does my mom. However, this recipe is NOT what you (or I, or she) would have expected by that title.
I bring my mom up also since it’s just about Mother’s Day (or might already be by the time you read this)–maybe don’t make this one for your mom though, unless she likes coffee slushies. Again, even that sounds better than this actually is.
I have flipped past 14-18: Fried Bananas many times as I’ve gone through these books over the years, and it’s finally time to make it since I live with someone who will actually eat it.
My dad likes fried bananas a lot too–I thought our favorite Chinese food restaurant from when I was a kid served them, but I don’t see them on the menu any longer. I could have sworn I remember him eating them there.
When I searched “fried bananas Chinese restaurant”, it appears it was a 1980s thing in general. Given that both this book and I are from the 1980s, this all makes a lot more sense now.
I’ve fallen behind a little on posting once a week, but I haven’t (yet) fallen behind on making one of these recipes once a week. One step at a time. Next up, I offer you 17-7: Brioches, which is a NEW BOOK recipe.
Simply Delicious claims that the ball on top is common–I don’t know about you, but I’ve never seen that. I feel like usually you see brioche buns in more of a standard hamburger bun style, maybe with a slice or two on top. I should have gone with that instead of trying to do the ball on top.
Happy Sunday! Spring has sprung here, so I present to you a lovely, light cake option, 16-6: Tosca Cake. They even used tulips in the picture!
Tosca cake (or toscakaka) is a well-known thing, essentially a Swedish almond cake. There’s a million other recipes out there for it, but we’re here to talk about this one, so let’s do that.
Lots of brunch occasions in the springtime…this could be a great dish to bring with you or to serve at your own table if you have any upcoming plans. You can even play with flavor extracts if you want to give it that extra something.
As promised, I did keep up at least for another week–here’s this week’s dessert, 14-1: Chocolate Fondue.
Alas, there was no party to serve it at–it was a random Thursday (tonight actually) and just the two of us. But with a mini electric fondue pot and a pre-prepared fruit bowl from the market, any day can be fondue day. This, my friends, is the future.
We’re closing in on the 11th anniversary of this project, and if I ever have hopes of finishing it (which I still do), I need to figure out a strategy. I’ve spent enough time in my real life learning how to “professionally” manage projects, so I’ll apply some of that here and aim to knock out at least one recipe a week until I finish everything non-meat-related. Then I might just dump the rest online and call it a day.
You don’t care about any of this–you’re here to read about 15-46: Mousse Casablanca, right? Everyone wants to “jump to the recipe” already.
Blah blah something about how this is fancy and 80s.
Here’s the thing with this recipe–it seems too “kiddy” to be an adult dessert recipe, but is also something you most likely wouldn’t serve to kids (unless you grew up as a quasi-adult like I did). I’m not sure who this is supposed to be for?