elvis presley's favorite pound cake

given elvis' tendency towards the heart-unhealthy in his diet, i'd normally be loath to shill for food of the heart-clogging type, but this pound cake was just unusual enough to make the cut. i assure you that i do actually have a conscience, and that i don't actually run amok in my kitchen sneaking gallons of pork fat into everything...really. at least, this pound cake doesn't have any pork fat in it!

i read a bunch of reviews, looked at the picture, looked at the structure of the recipe. this one is unusual in several ways: it has no leavening, has a TON of eggs (7!), and a heck of a lot of sugar (3 cups!). so don't think this isn't unhealthy for you, but it's not the greatest trespass either. i was curious to see whether it really was to eggy, and whether the extreme mixing (almost 10 minutes on that butter) would be enough to leaven the mixture. i suspect that the beating of the eggs also contributes to the leavening, as does the thorough mixing of batter to develop the gluten.

the verdict: well, i suppose i'll have to update this tomorrow, after the pound cake has sat for longer than an hour - it's still warm. but so far, i can report that the texture is lighter than a typical pound cake, but that it is fine-crumbed, very slightly eggy, and very nicely browned on the exterior. i'd be interested to see how well it keeps, and whether the texture will change tomorrow. so far, i'd make it again - it's pretty easy to make, after all is said and done, and after you disregard the shocking amounts of things. keep in mind that it makes a bundt cake!

elvis presley's favorite pound cake (adapted from epicurious)
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened, plus additional for buttering pan
3 cups sifted flour (not self-rising; sift before measuring) plus additional for dusting
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups sugar
7 large eggs, at room temperature 30 minutes
1 cup heavy cream

10-inch tube pan (4 1/2 inches deep; not with a removable bottom) or a 10-inch bundt pan (3 1/4 inches deep; 3-qt capacity)

1. put oven rack in middle position, but do not preheat oven. generously butter pan and dust with flour, knocking out excess flour.

2. sift together sifted flour (3 cups) and salt into a bowl (do not skip the sifting!!!). repeat sifting into another bowl (flour will have been sifted 3 times total).

3. beat together butter (2 sticks) and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes in a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment or 6 to 8 minutes with a handheld mixer. beat eggs with a whisk (i really like my new kuhn rikon whisk, because it's really got the air-inducing factor going with its many spokes) in a pyrex measuring cup. add in several batches to the butter and sugar, beating well each time. reduce speed to low and add half of flour, then all of cream, then remaining flour, mixing well after each addition. scrape down side of bowl, then beat at medium-high speed 5 minutes. batter will become creamier and satiny.

4. spoon batter into pan and rap pan against work surface once or twice to eliminate air bubbles. place pan in (cold) oven and turn oven temperature to 350F. bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in middle of cake comes out with a few crumbs adhering, 1 to 1 1/4 hours. cool cake in pan on a rack 30 minutes. run a thin knife around inner and outer edges of cake, then invert rack over pan and invert cake onto rack to cool completely.

cake keeps, covered well with plastic wrap or in an airtight container, at room temperature 5 days.

[serves 10-12]

and a bonus! these are light, fluffy, slightly sweet, and everything you could want from shortcake. i made these with spiced plums.

best shortcake ever
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3/4 cup half and half

1. preheat oven to 375F. Whisk first four ingredients in medium bowl to blend.

2. add butter; rub in with fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal. add half and half; stir just until dough forms.

3. knead the dough in the bowl with a large fork or a pastry fork, about 8-10 times until the dough becomes slightly more elastic - it should be somewhat discernable as a coherent mass, ie, your fork shouldn't just squish through the whole thing. it's important not to overmix.

4. mound small handfuls of dough onto a baking sheet and bake until a tester comes out clean, about 15 minutes. remove from oven and cool until warm, then top with fruit.

biscuits can be made 8 hours ahead; cool completely and store in airtight container at room temperature.

[makes 6 large biscuits or 8 smaller ones; vary the size as you like, but watch the cooking time, which will change accordingly]

tomato love and dilled chicken stew

so i found out a couple days ago that i got a full-tuition scholarship for this coming school year (!!!), and celebrated by cooking for the entire evening. i had chicken thighs that i needed to use, and i was envisioning chicken in a dill cream sauce as i walked over to star. i also wanted to try slow-roasting tomatoes - where slow means 6-8 hours slow.

the chicken with its dill cream sauce turned into something completely different, but the slow-roasted tomatoes looked like this coming out of the oven. the darker flecks are thyme, except around the edges of the tomato where it has caramelized. carrien and i plan to eat these on sandwiches or pasta. they smell wonderful when they come out of the oven, too - they actually smell like caramelized tomatoes.

the chicken with dill started out innocently enough - i bought onions, dill, thyme, celery, mushrooms, chicken stock, and some cream to go with the chicken. i intended to have chicken thighs, tender so the meat falls off the bone, with a thickish, chicken-based cream sauce with lots of onions and dill. so a cream sauce like that would generally be white, right? i don't know why i was in the mood for white food at the time, but it turns out that the browning of the chicken thighs at the beginning of the whole thing caused it to turn brown. this wasn't a problem, just surprising. i had cooked the vegetables in the rendered chicken fat, and then added the chicken broth and chicken thighs back in (classic braise-style), and i wanted the chicken to be more tender than it was in the chicken cacciatore, so i cooked it for a while. i'm not exactly sure how long it was, but it was probably about 2 hours, boiling away in the chicken-y sauce. i also wanted a sauce with some heft to it, so i let it simmer until the sauce reduced by a few cups. turns out, when you cook chicken that long in a more watery sauce, it falls off the bone for you. so i took all the bones up and the whole thing became a stew. where's the cream, you ask? i added it at the end with some sour cream and let the whole thing simmer a little bit more, to thicken it. i had also made some rice as the chicken cooked, and i had just started thinking about what size tupperware each one would need when i realized that i should just mix them. so there you have it - not what i was expecting, but equally good, if not better.

dilled creamy chicken and rice stew
3 1/2 lbs chicken thighs (about 8), patted dry and dredged in flour
1/2 bunch of dill, leaves picked off stems and chopped fine
2 large onions, sliced into thin strips, about 1/4"x1 1/2"
2 packages mushrooms, sliced thick
1 can chicken stock
1/2 bunch celery, sliced
sour cream and heavy cream
1 1/2c (dry) short-grain rice, cooked

1. heat 4T butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. brown the chicken thighs on each side, until crispy on both sides. remove chicken thighs to a plate, and pull off skin and discard.

2. add onions to the skillet and reduce heat to medium. use a wooden spoon to scrape up browned bits off the bottom of the skillet. cook onions until translucent, then add celery. add half of dill and stir. let cook 10 minutes, then add mushrooms. cook 5 minutes, then add broth.

3. add chicken back into skillet (transfer to larger pot if necessary) and add remaining dill. add water if chicken isn't covered by liquid. let simmer until meat falls off the bone, about 2 hours. remove bones and cartilage and shred the remaining meat.

4. add cream (heavy and sour) to the mixture until it reaches the desired consistency, about 1 cup of cream total. add rice and stir. remove from heat and serve.

[serves 8-10]

oven-roasted tomatoes
4 lbs vine-ripe tomatoes, halved, cored, and seeded
5T olive oil
thyme (optional)

1. preheat oven to 200F. toss tomatoes with olive oil and thyme to coat. place on a baking sheet (crowding them is fine) in one layer.

2. roast tomatoes 6-8 hours, until tomatoes are caramelized on the edges but haven't fallen apart. let cool. keep the juices to cook with.

[makes about 1 1/2 to 2 cups]

chicken cacciatore

i was disgruntled because i hadn't cooked all week; if you know me, i get kind of grumpy and unsettled when this is the case. so since i had no plans for the weekend, i decided to make chicken cacciatore. i had made the joy of cooking version with rocco a few weeks back, and it didn't require much in the way of ingredients beyond mushrooms, tomatoes, herbs, and some chicken stock and wine. i decided, as i often do, to make a labor-intensive version of it. i looked at my joy of cooking - which i have to say, in my kitchen, serves more as a reference than a real cookbook - and noted the ingredients, then looked online at epicurious to see what the range of ingredients was from recipe to recipe. i found one that roasted the vegetables, which sounded really excellent, but the thing i liked a lot about the one rocco and i made was the thickness of the sauce - ie, the vegetables and the sauce are equally important.

essentially, i combined the two recipes, and modified them to the proportions that i like. i used a combination of fresh and canned tomatoes, to try to balance flavor versus my pocketbook. luckily, it's summer, so tomatoes are cheaper than they usually are. i also probably doubled the mushrooms: i like mushrooms. especially sliced thickly, which doesn't usually happen - most restaurants either use tiny mushrooms that don't need to be sliced, slice them thinly, or slice them in half. and i like mine sliced thickly. i also increased the amount of onions, because onions are good...

anyway, this recipe is somewhat time intensive, requiring a fair amount of mise en place. but the end result is more than rewarding - thick, satisfying, hearty, with a lot of depth of flavor. so if you're bored one day, you're craving comfort food, or you want to impress someone - go to it.

chicken cacciatore
2 10-oz packages baby bella mushrooms, sliced thickly (slices should be a little less than 1/2" thick, about four slices per mushroom)
2 large red onions, one sliced into thin rings, one diced
6 cloves garlic, minced finely
1 package fresh sage, chopped fine
1 package fresh basil, chopped fine
2 1/2 lbs fresh tomatoes, chopped coarsely
3T olive oil
2T balsamic vinegar

1 can tomato paste
1/2c red wine
1 28-oz can whole tomatoes in juice (not ground or diced)
1 can chicken stock

3-4 lbs chicken thighs (or mixture of chicken parts; not chicken breast)
flour for dredging
vegetable oil

salt and pepper

1. preheat oven to 400F. in a large bowl, combine half the mushrooms, half of the tomatoes, and the sliced onion to the bowl. add about a third of the fresh herbs and half of the garlic to the bowl. toss with olive oil and balsamic vinegar until evenly coated. spread on a large baking sheet in 1 layer and roast, stirring about every 10-15 minutes, until roasted and no liquid remains, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

2. heat 3-4T vegetable oil on medium high heat in a large pot. dredge chicken thighs in flour and fry until browned on each side. remove chicken to a plate when browned. add the minced onion to the pot with the remaining garlic, and saute about 10 minutes. add tomatoes and tomato paste. add red wine and turn heat down to medium, simmering the sauce about 10 more minutes. add the remaining mushrooms and the chicken stock. crush the canned tomatoes by hand and add to the pot. simmer the mixture for 10 minutes.

3. remove the skin from the chicken thighs and add to the pot. when the roasted vegetables are done, add to the pot. simmer over medium heat, stirring every 10 minutes or so, for at least an hour, until the chicken is ready to fall off the bones and the sauce is thick. season with salt and pepper and serve with pasta (i like barilla's pipette pasta - for this recipe, pasta with ridges is best) tossed with olive oil and fresh basil.

[serves 8-10, depending on how many chicken thighs you buy]

how could you not want to eat this?

this is a davio macaroon; if this doesn't inspire instant desire on your part, then you're a cold, heartless person. look at it! the coconut is all delicious-looking on the inside, no long tendrils of shredded coconut; the outside is golden brown and crispy, and you can see a bit of the translucency from the gloss of the batter; most of all the interior looks so pillowy and soft...this is a work of art.