12.26.2012

cardamom please

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Today, just a new project and a cake I made for Christmas Eve. I didn't have the full recipe written down, so thus I record it here. It sounds like a lot of different flavors, I know (my family was quite skeptical), but it really is delicious. Just look at how much butter is in it, after all.

Brown Butter Lemon Spice Cake with Black Tea & Cardamom Frosting
inspired mostly by Torunn, but also Food & Wine

for the cake:
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour (or spelt flour)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground Earl Gray tea leaves
3/4 cup sugar
1 vanilla bean, or 2 teaspoons extract
1 tablespoon lemon zest
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 egg yolks
1 egg
2/3 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 325. Grease and flour a small bundt cake pan or a 9 inch circular cake pan. In a small sauce pan, melt the butter. Cook over low heat until frothy and brown and the butter has a nutty scent. Set the pan in an ice water bath until the butter sets again, probably 8-10 minutes. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients except sugar. Once the butter is set, beat the butter in a mixer until creamy and light. Add in the sugar. Add in the eggs, one at a time. Add lemon juice and vanilla extract, if using. Then add in the flour mixture and the milk in alternation, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 40 minutes.

for the icing:
1 stick unsalted butter, soft
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons very black steeped Earl Gray tea
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
1/4 teaspoon salt

Beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in remaining ingredients, adding more or less tea until the frosting reaches desired consistency.

12.18.2012

nothing

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if we surrender
our bodies
to the flames
but have not love
we gain nothing.
i corinthians 13:3

[click for pc]
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12.12.2012

free our tongues

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The blonde Dutch flight attendant who sat across from me on the nine hour flight from Amsterdam to Uganda told me that Africa would have a distinct scent. And it did. The only way I can think of describing it is that it smelled red and sweat-sweet.

Whenever I have a few moments here and there as I prep for finals this week, I have been returning to the photos from when I went to Uganda in August. These are just a few. I miss Rukuri and Masaka and mosquito nets and G-nuts and the sweat-sweet scent and the sweetest bananas of all and these dear faces.
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12.10.2012

savior joan

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I am thinking about you tonight. Wish I could tell you that I miss you, or how often I look at this one funny picture of us, or how I don't think I fully understood my Mother's love for me until I met you.
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12.05.2012

strengthen our hands

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As we look for your coming among us this day,
open our eyes to behold your presence
and strengthen our hands to do your will.

This is part of the morning prayer for Advent. There always seems to be those few words from the liturgy that get strung throughout your day. It is these that follow me today. 

I am grateful to one of my favorite professors here at the art department for hosting morning and evening prayer. The psalms spoken aloud, from one side of the room to the other, the waiting, the litany and rhythm of it all in our mock chapel in the corner of classroom on the top floor of Adams Hall. It is a good way to start and end the day.

[pictures from the house, for a project I've been doing for class]
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