Saturday was about enjoying slices of the chicken, really one of the best I've had, tender, and the flavor of the herbs just right, with shells tossed with my mayo, broccoli bits and capers.
Then I made a figgy demerara snacking cake, Melissa Clark, NYT. Except I used plums, natural cane sugar and extra vanilla because I didn't have brandy, or figs or demerera sugar. The sugar is sprinkled on top as well as mixed in the batter.
I love this recipe, which makes quite a few pieces, the cake part rich with butter especially if you use lovely Irish butter which I did, then the plums just a bit tart and juicy.
Here's the cast of characters, the plums prepped a couple of days ago, when I felt like it. I used part white, part chickpea flour.
Here it's going into a 400°f oven for about 40 minutes.
It's a sort of sheet cake, which I slice with a pizza cutter, approx one plum quarter per piece.
I completely forgot to take pictures of the baked result, but a couple of pieces with a pot of tea went over so well.
I've put a box of them in the freezer in case Handsome Son visits this week. He's working the holiday, as usual, but it's time and a half $$ Sunday and Monday, nice boost. His day off is midweek.
Then a neighbor came over to give me more dill, she's got a glut, and I gave her sage and thyme. We talked hearing aids and she's decided since I'm doing well, she'll go to my doctor and try to get my audiologist, nice Dr Han.
Her situation is different, since cancer treatment caused her hearing loss, but the result is the same. She was impressed at the almost invisibility of the aids. I'm mainly happy they don't fight with my glasses!
Maybe Gary will also get around to it. He did get them made, but never went to pick them up! Men seem to be much more reluctant to use them than women, for some reason.
Anyway up to now they're going smoothly, and there's a significant drop in tinnnitus when I wear them. Right now I'm listening to crickets cricketing away. I thought we hadn't any this year.
Turns out I wasn't hearing them, peaceful summer evening sound. At first I even thought it was tinnitus, until I realized how it varied. Oh, kerrrickets.
And now lookit, suddenly it's September. With Edith Holden showing it to us. That's a European goldfinch.
Happy day everyone, I hope your crickets are the good kind, not the being ignored variety.
Every busy, you. That cake looks good, different from what I thought it would be. As you know, Mark is one of those men who put the money into hearing aids and has not put them in his ears. I don't get it. I'm so happy you hear the crickets!
ReplyDeleteI wonder if it's like taking out a gym membership but not actually going? Mark is missing the crickets!
DeleteI think you need to call it non-figgy-but-plummy, non-demerara-but-cane-sugar snacking cake.
ReplyDeleteThat's catchy.
Deletemy brother got hearing aids and he said the same thing about tinnitus. if I get them it will be because of that.
ReplyDeleteIt's quite a relief. Also I'm now watching a movie of Emma, all Brit, without subtitled, yay! No guessing what they're saying.
DeleteI love that you made figgy cake with no figs. That's cooking creativity!
ReplyDeleteI recognize that goldfinch. Maybe I need to plant thistles?
They love thistle seeds. So do American gold finches. Go for it!
DeleteGlen has been wondering if hearing aids would help with his tinnitus and now I can tell him that yes, they very much might! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome. I asked the audiologist about it, and she explained that tinnitus is the brain creating sound in the absence of hearing. Improve the hearing and usually the tinnitus diminishes.
DeleteMakes sense to me.
DeleteI love the way you adapt recipes and still call them by the same name - my grandfather's axe (3 new handles, on its second head.... same name). What is it with men and hearing loss? Glad to read yours are going well, and interested in your remark about reduction in tinnitis.
ReplyDeleteI haven't got as far as chicken cacciatore without the chicken, but I'm heading in that direction. Like the old axe joke. Here it's George Washington and the hatchet he used to cut down the cherry tree.
DeleteI suspect men buy hearing aids to pacify their families but without actually promising to use them.
I'm happy to report that Mike wears his hearing aids faithfully (as do I). But then again, he's an outlier (in many ways).
DeleteChris from Boise
Maybe he could lead a support group for men who need encouragement to use their hearing aids. It could be a noisy meeting.
DeleteI remember one evening around the dinner table, the grands were complaining the tree frogs were keeping them awake at night. And I smugly said they do not bother me! "How do you do it, Gramma?" "I take out my hearing aids."
ReplyDeleteBingo!
DeleteFiggy Demerera sounds like the name of a character in the musical “Grease.”
ReplyDeleteFull disclosure: it's my stage name.
DeleteIt’s a great drag name... and may have just become your nickname. Like Ms. Moonsigh.
DeleteMy MIL hasn’t taken to her hearing aids like you have, Boud. I am glad they are working so well for you.
ReplyDeleteI love how you make so many recipes your own!
Hearing aids seem to carry a lot of fear. I postponed getting them for ages, wrongly thinking they might not help, then worrying about the cost, then about fiddling with batteries. I'm glad I finally did it. They do help and they're rechargeable, no fiddling with batteries. I'm still reeling from the cost though.
DeleteI think recipes are suggestions, more than commands!
It was hearing crickets in the country that helped me to realize that I had tinnitus. This was because I knew that my hearing was too terrible to actually hear them. Now I seem to hear motors more than crickets.
ReplyDeleteA friend who has unaddressed hearing loss said she hadn't realized how much she'd lost until she thought she heard those very noisy cicadas, and was told there weren't any. Tinnitus.
DeleteInteresting to read all the comments re hearing aids and the use/non-use by males. I am planning to start saving up to see if RC will agree to get them. I suspect it will be an uphill chore.
ReplyDeleteI think we hear from the non compliant people. No doubt there are men, including in this blog, who use them faithfully.
Delete