Friday, February 4, 2011

chilly, silly, sweet


While the temperature plummeted outside yesterday I decided to warm up the kitchen with some baking. We had been invited to dinner with our friends, Ron and Lura, to hear about their recent trip to New Zealand. My assignment: desert.

Wednesday night I asked Jay what desert he would like. He suggested a banana cake with "coconut glaze" like his mom used to make. The banana cake part wasn't a problem but I had no idea what "coconut glaze" might be. I acquired the needed recipe with a quick call to Jay's mom in Indiana...butter, brown sugar, milk, and coconut, mixed together, spread on the hot cake and put under the broiler for 2 or 3 minutes.

While the cake was baking I noticed two Humming birds feeding on the blooms of the Rosemary outside the dining room. I grabbed my coat and camera and braved the cold to capture a photo of those quick little creatures.


As quick as Jay got home from work we piled in the car and headed two miles up the road to Raindance Ranch. We shared a wonderful meal accompanied by adventure stories from down under.

The highlight of the meal was the large squash Ron had brought home from the market. It was a huge Hubbard squash like the ones he remembered his mom growing in their garden in the Midwest during his childhood years.

We had all kinds of ideas of what could be done with such a large shell.

Good food, good friends, in a cozy warm kitchen. It was a sweet ending to a chilly day.

2 comments:

Amy said...

Ummm. I'm a bit skeptical about the chilly part. Does that mean you even wore socks and long pants?

Carolyn said...

AND a thick hoody! I also pulled ice out of the chicken water and made Lily wear her pink coat all day.