Zwetschgenkuchen

Is that a zwetschgenkuchen?

My mom has a plum tree in her backyard that’s dropping plums faster than LiLo’s career. Every morning my sister wakes up and picks the fallen plums off the ground to avoid attracting hungry rats. If nobody picks them up, rats infiltrate our backyard, drive our dogs nuts, and then we all suffer – well, not the rats.

Plums are in season May through early October. To combat the onslaught of plums our tree produces, my sister and I decided to make Zwetschgenkuchen, a German dessert.

We didn’t make the Mürbeteig Crust from scratch, instead we used one of the circular, 9-inch roll out ones from Pillsbury.

Zwetschgenkuchen filling:

1/3 cup peach preserves
1/4 cup no sugar added, natural applesauce
1 teaspoon ground flax seed
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 pounds Shirley Olerich’s plums, washed, quartered, and pitted
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
A few shakes of nutmeg
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind

1. Preheat oven to 375 °F.
2. Optional: pre bake the pastry for a few minutes, take it out, and fork the bottom and sides.
3. Mix peach preserves, applesauce, flax seed, and vanilla extract and spread on the crust.
4. Starting on the edges of the 9-inch pie plate, place the plums in a circle, overlapping each slightly, eventually form a spiral into the center. Keep spiraling in until you run out of plum bits.
5. Mix the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and lemon rind, and sprinkle over the plums.
6. Bake about 40 to 50 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and the plums juicy. At about 35 minutes I put tinfoil over the top so the crust wouldn’t overbrown.

Step Four plums going right round like a record player

Step Five sprinkly sprinkly do daaah!

Our snack while the pie bakes!

Shirley's beautiful flower arrangement

How to find a ripe plum: look for plump, nicely colored fruit that yields to gentle pressure – sort of squishy. Avoid the ones with shriveled skin and extremely mushy spots. Refrigerate ripe plums for up to three days and ripen the unripe ones in a loosely closed paper bag for a couple of days.

We sprinkled toasted oats (oats, cinnamon, dark brown sugar over a skillet on medium heat for a few minutes) on the top as a crunchy garnish.

Tastes like: "The pie's slightly gooey consistency made a spoon necessary to enjoy this delectable dessert. The first bite was different from most pies I've tasted - there was a tart sweetness, but also hidden hints of cinnamon throughout. The toasted oats on top and the hardened pie crust provided the perfect amount of crunch to accompany the soft plum/jam filling."

Pros: yummy dessert, starving rats, quiet dogs, German pride, truly organic plum baking, creating something new with Nicole, something to do on Sunday.

Cons: baking in 100-degree weather, waiting for it to cool when all you want to do is try your creation, this will only subdue the barking dogs, hungry rats, and over-fertile plum tree for a day.

Mills-Monterey! Day 3

After a loooong night at Mucky Duck we woke up with unpleasant physiological effects, to put it nicely.

We began making cupcakes for the day. We went with a yellow buttermilk cake. Simple and delicious. We paired the cake with two different frostings - raspberry buttercream and hazelnut buttercream, made by combining raspberry puree and Nutella (respectively) to an Italian Meringue buttercream base.

Once the cupcakes were frosted, Kerry got to work decorating them with sprinkles. She is a pro decorator.

We got into the car and headed to Vanessa's grad party in San Jose. She had a lot of family and friends over for a BBQ. She graduated from San Diego State University in June! Congratssss!! Vanessa, if you are reading this, where are the pictures that your mom was snapping?

Kerry and I had to leave to go to my Aunt Cori's house for a birthday BBQ/pool party. My cousin Collin's birthday the previous Monday and my 23rd birthday the previous Wednesday. Mills and I went swimming and then Nicole showed up with a beautiful French braid and she went swimming. Katie was splashing all over the place - oh the joys of being under 10.

Kyle came too! I got to be with some of my favorite people!

We had delicious salmon, tri tip, salad, veggies, etc.

For dessert, Cori had a chocolate/mint chip ice cream cake for Collin and a decadent chocolate cake for me. Don't forget that we also brought a bunch of cupcakes! Needless to say the options seemed endless...

After we ate, we played around on the trampoline. It was Katie's first time playing "crack the egg" and she LOVED it. She kept asking us to crack her. She also gave us nicknames. Slappy (Kerry's nickname the night before) became Kirby. I asked to be Sonic. Kyle was dubbed Ganondorf. And Katie was Zelda (yeah?) - all characters from Super Smash Bros.

On our way out of the Bay Area we went to Psycho Donuts. Kerry and I both OD-ed on sugar the whole weekend, but we were going to at least get donuts for Monday morning because Psycho Donuts are so effin AWESOME.

HOWEVER, they decided to close early! We left a note for them expressing our sadness and then they sent me a tweet on Tuesday apologizing! Can't wait to try out the Stone Cold Psycho Psandwich! Donuts and ice cream. Kind of scary thinking about how much sugar that would be BUT let's get real - it's ICE CREAM AND DONUTS. Can't pass up something like that.

When we got back to my place we crawled into bed and slept like babies. Trampoline workouts and long car drives are truly exhausting!!

Sister Sister

Tonight I drove up to San Jose to hang out with Nicole. I saw her Monday night after camping (also in SJ) but I guess I just can't get enough time with her before... dun dun dun...she goes all the way to San Diego :'( for college TEARZ.



When I got home we began baking. (Boo Radley has an order for cupcakes this weekend!!) On the menu is a fruity, decadent Sangria cupcake. Also being served is a moist chocolate Guinness cupcake - probably the most requested cake flavor!


For dinner we drove to Pasta Pomodoro. I love their bread and olive oil-green dipping liquid thing (pesto-y?) ... While Nicole and I discussed her college future, incl. classes, social ish, and how much she will miss me, we waited eagerly for our angel hair/pesto/shrimp/sun-dried tomato dish and butternut squash ravs. Yum. Yum. I am excited to eat our leftovers tomorrow at lunch!! (aka a nice break from frrrrozen meals thank gawd)




Next up: our dessert of choice - froyo! We went to Whimsical off Curtner and endulged x2! Finally we drove back home and continued baking...




Nicole is such an amazing kitchen helper I'm so lucky to have her with me, especially when there's a lot on my plate (har har). I don't say it enough but thank you so so so much Nicole!

The cuppies turned out great! I'll get some pictures up soon hopefully! Night!

ps vanilla beans are so cool! Must find a cheaper place to buy them!

Location:Desert Flame Dr,San Jose,United States

Saturdayte DT San Jose

For my Dad's 50th birthday, family and friends got together at Black Angus (1011 Blossom Hill, San Jose). Balloons, streamers, fried appetizers, crab, and... cupcakes! What else do you people expect?

My dad's favorite candy bar is the 100 Grand: chocolate krispies outside with a caramel center. I developed my own take on it, in cupcake form: chocolate cupcake, cored, with a salted caramel filling, topped with a rice krispie treat wafer, adhered with caramel syrup.

My dad's ultimate pastime is billiards. Via one of the many cupcake blogs I follow, I saw a picture of someone's billiard ball cupcakes. I instantly knew I HAD to make these for my dad. Check out the result! So awesome :)

Nicole and Kyle both helped out so much. You've got to be patient with me when I'm in the baking zone. Nicole even said 'what do you want me to do because you know the plan and I don't' ... That was after I yelled just a little bit when the caramel mixture's temp went 5 degrees past 360 F. Glad they let me be slightly scatter-brained!


After dinner, Kyle and I went on a bit of a date. We drove to downtown San Jose and watched an improv comedy show called Comedy Sportz. It was in a tiny theater (35 seats maybe) within Camera 3's movie theater building (288 S. 2nd Street, San Jose). The two battling three-person teams were hilarious! (Read more about their shows on Yelp.)

There were about seven different rounds, each featuring an improv game. The winning team was determined by audience applause and awarded points. By the end of the show, the Blue Team won it all. I recognized a girl from the Red Team, so I had been mostly rooting for them to win. Turns out, she went to Joy of Dancing with me back in the day! Small world!

We paid the student price of $12/ticket ($3 off)

After that we walked over to the Fairmont (170 S. Market St, San Jose). Since December, I've wanted to dress up all snazzy, sit in the lounge, listen to the live music, and dance with my turkey-legged boyfriend. The "Lobby Lounge" redefines opulence (according to their website). Twist the night away with live music six days a week... Friday & Saturday from 9:00 pm until midnight: weekly scheduled bands playing jazz and pop dance hits.

I need to find a fall back drink. This one isn't it.

We ordered two drinks, a Cable Car for me and a Corona for him, and snacked on their Boca bar mix (you know, the kind with peanuts, pepitas, wasabi balls, pretzels). I was shocked at how many martini options they featured on their bar menu. OVER FIVE HUNDRED! Too bad I have that vodka aversion.... sigh.

When the band returned for their final set, Kyle and I took the dance floor and were put to shame by the older other dancing couples. They were so good! By the time I'm 65 I want to be able to dance like they were. Plus, one of the old ladies was channeling Lady GaGa - she wore the craziest multi-tiered bow/headband/top hat type thing.

Location:San Jose, CA

Fashion Show at The Fairmont

On Friday night I drove to the Fairmont (170 South Market Street) in downtown San Jose and watched my sister in the annual Presentation High School Fashion Show. The theme this year was One Common Thread (I think). I really enjoyed watching the show and I thought all of the designers were great picks. My sister lucked out and got the two most amazing outfits in the entire show. The one above is from a designer who is actually a pres alumni. None of the clothes are for sale yet because the designer, Megan Sasaki, is still doing the patterns and what not. Her entire segment was fierce though! Loved the patterns.

Before the show there was an alumni cocktail hour. It was really nice to have the opportunity to catch up with some '05 graduates. It's strange that we have all been through so much these past four and a half years, our paths have grown further and further apart, and yet we effortlessly fell into laid back girl chit chat. One common thread is right...

The finale of the show is a daughter/sponsor walk. My mom escorted Nicole down the aisle and I'm not going to lie, I teared up. The fashion show's finale is sort of a symbolic rite of passage into the graduation phase of senior year. It marks the beginning of the end for Nicole. The beginning of easter break, AP tests, finals, the last dance recital, senior dinner, awards day, and then, before you know it: your last A day and B day. The last time you [are required to] wear your Pres skirt. (After all, there's always Halloween and other occasional reasons to pull out the good ol' plaid :)

After the show it was my turn to congratulate my sister on a terrific job in the show. She looked beautiful on stage. It wasn't just the hair, clothes, makeup, etc though. She has more. She has brains and confidence and I couldn't be more proud of her....

Weekend of 13 - 15 February

Right now I'm watching Keeping Up with the Kardashians on E! and Kim is celebrating her birthday in Vegas. I'll be there in three weekends! Yay! In fact, all of my upcoming weekends seem to be action packed. This weekend I went home to San Jose and spent time with my family and my fella.

After work on Friday I went to the mall with Nicole. I was looking for a cheap Vegas-appropriate dress from Forever 21 and had no luck. I did, however find a cute work-appropriate sweater thingy. Nicole bought a shirt to wear with her spankies for her solo. For dinner we went to California Pizza Kitchen and ordered the Asparagus & Arugula salad ($5) from their Small Cravings menu and the Kid's Original BBQ Chicken Pizza ($5.50). The A&A salad had arugula, asparagus chunks, and sun-dried tomatoes tossed in their homemade lemon-herb vinaigrette, topped with almonds and Parmesan shavings.

We drove home and then I made a quick trip to my dad & Lauretta's to drop off some of those strawberry cupcakes. After that Kyle met up with me and we pretty much just looked at People magazine and went to sleep (EXCITEMENT!)

Saturday I woke up and went with my mom and David to Nicole's Dance Competition at Monte Vista High School. She did great in her solo and her team dominated! I never realized how long sitting through an entire competition is! Good thing my aunt Cori and cousin Morgan were there! I had fun tossing around LOST theories with Morgan. She suggested Doc Jensen's blog on EW... I will check that out later.

After the competition I went back to my mom's and I made some more cupcakes with Nicole's help. This time I baked German Chocolate cupcakes (pictures to come). They were a Valentine's Day treat for Kyle. For dinner I went to my dad's for taco night! Yum! (extra yum points for the Cookies & Cream ice cream). When I got back to my mom's, Nicole and I watched three episodes of Make It or Break It. Great show! Guilty pleasure :)

Sunday I woke up and made breakfast with Nicole. We used the leftover pancake batter my mom had left. Banana walnut pancakes? I think? I don't know, they were yummy! Why do I use that word so much? Ick. Must use a synonym next time. Okay so.... I went to the gym and then came home and showered blah blah blah. Stressed out that it was already the afternoon, and I really needed/wanted to get up to Mountain View.

My Valentine's Day was wonderful. I won't get into the details, but we went to see Crazy Heart and made a delicious dinner afterwards. Sole, stuffed mushrooms, and baked sweet potato chips (with a bottle of wine). I was sad to leave this morning, but had to get into work. I'm saving up holiday time for another Vegas weekend! I hope you all had a fabulous weekend!

Leaving "home" for "home"

Just woke up and had a bowl of cereal. I need to pack up Lukefrancis (broken chain - remember), some clothes, and the tools that I borrowed from my mom. I find it a little funny that I'm going back home so quickly. In my defense, I've got a lot of cool stuff to look forward to this weekend!

1. Avenue Q tonight at the San Jose Rep. Going with Nicole and Lauretta!

2. Steve's (stepbrother) homecoming bbq on Saturday.... he is bringing his overseas girlfriend!

3. Aaron (cousin) will be in town. He is taking the first actuary test. I reeealllly hope he passes it. They are extremely hard and he's been studying a lot, he deserves it!!

At grandma's when we were young : )

4. Hanging out with Megan and her law friends in Palo Alto!

5. Seeing Jan Hagel