Re: [gardeners] Re: Daiquiris -- a long night, long message
margaret lauterbach (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Fri, 14 Jan 2000 07:35:22 -0700
At 01:48 AM 1/14/2000 -0500, you wrote:
>.
>Well Ron, I made up the Daiquiris according to your recipe last
>night -- ummm, that is to say, sorta.
>
>We are out of all kinds of staples here because both Jimmie and I
>have been ill since before Christmas, and my back-up lists have
>back-up lists. . Obviously, I had no passion fruit juice. I was going
>to try cranberry when I remembered that we had pineapple juice
>open and waiting.. So out came the Waring Blender from it's
>hiding place down the back hall, and I stared at your ingredients
>for a long time, trying to make sure that you really had meant for
>me to use 2/3rds of a cup of light rum. Into the mixer it went.
>
>Next one was rather difficult. I ALWAYS have both light and dark
>brown sugar, but not this time! No light package up there... all
>right, nobody's looking so I'll include half the suggested amount of
>brown sugar (wrong kind) and then add half the amount in white sugar!
>
>Juice of 15 passion fruits...??? Well, let's just settle for 3/4 cup of
>pineapple juice. And now he wants me to add THREE CUPS OF ICE?
>My goodness, that's just too much! In went one cup. And I turned
>on the blender. . . Funny looking color, I must say.. And I took a sip.
>
>Good grief Charley Brown, choke, choke, this is a catastrophe!
>Cannot waste it, goes without saying, so I shook up the pineapple juice
>and dumped some in. Better add some more sugar, while I'm at it.
>And another cup of ice. Turned it on and filled my old fashioned glass
>with a sample. Uggh, I admitted to the four walls, needs more
>pineapple. Or something. And so I poured the rest of the jar in.
>
>NOW it tastes like something! At least I can swallow it.. And on that
>basis, I refilled my glass.
>
>It must be time to start the cake baking -- I had to make 3 sponge cake
>bottoms for Jimmie's birthday dinner's Baked Alaskas. I made the three
>waxed paper liners for the pans with an indent, and then took out the
>cook book... I chose the Orange Sponge Cake, and proceeded. Let's
>see now, 5 egg yolks and 7 or 8 egg whites. Now I've seen plenty of
>eggs with double yolks, but I've NEVER seen eggs with double whites!
>It made me thirsty just wondering about this, so I had another glass of
>Ron's daiqueri. Why not.? It was warming the cockles of me heart,
>anyway!
>
>The phone rang. It was Jimmie calling from New Jersey to say that he
>had just finished repairing his cousin's computer, and they had not yet
>gone out to dinner, so he would be very late and not to worry. Me worry?
>I didn't have a worry in the world. At the same time I was listening to
>Tommy Maken & The Clancy brothers singing their very sad Irish songs,
>and trying to sing along...
>
>Now back to the cakes. Reading further in the recipe, the book said that
>if you didn't have any cake flour, you could substitute the 2-1/4 cups of
>this item with 2 cups of regular flour, only change the eggs from 5 to 7.
>Whad-it-say? If you didn't have any cake flour you could substitute the
>2-1/4 cups of this item with 2 cups of regular flour, only change the
>eggs
>from 5 to 7. Oh, my goodness. Really? They must have heard me
>screaming that I didn't have any cake flour.... Well I had to scream
>since
>The Clancy Brothers were shouting at me from the twin speakers --
>luckily I had never installed the quadriphonic sound in the kitchen.
>
>The cook book next said 3 tablespoons of orange peel. I've NEVER
>heard of using 3 tablespoons of orange peel inside a cake! And that
>was besides the orange juice! Are you sure you read it right? Yup,
>never fear. That's quite right. Fine! In they went. I v-e-r-y carefully
>separated the 7 eggs, and didn't even mix them up -- whew. And so
>slowly but surely the cake batter got mixed, the egg whites got beaten
>stiff -- the book said, in large print, STIFF, not just like an angel
>cake.
>Am I supposed to know how stiff to beat egg whites for an angel cake?
>I'm having enuff problems just baking 3 orange sponge cakes!
>
>Of course it was a thrill to find that the batter was just enough for
>the 3 cake pans -- how did I ever manage that...? And I opened the
>oven door and immediately decided that the racks were not in their
>best position for such large pans, so I moved one to the top. In
>went the cake pans, and just before I shut the oven door, I grabbed
>the top rack which needed an extra push. YEOUCH. What's the matter
>wth you tonite, Penny...?
>
>So, armed with a napkin full of ice in my left hand, and a fresh glass
>of Ron's daiqueri in my right, I started up the timer and came to sit
>down
>by my computer..... And right then I could hear the garage door
>opening,
>and that meant that Jimmie was home an hour early. The kitchen was
>in absolute chaos. But Penny wasn't. I was mellow jello hello, dear,
>welcome home!
>
>Penny, NY
>
Oh, rats! Jimmie's home just as Penny was about to open her bog bix of
petards...er, forecrackers...and drop a ball of ice as she sang "Old chaise
longue..."
Penny, you better give Jimmie a grocery list (and include aspirin) to fill
after he finishes shoveling snow today. Pineapple juice and rum sounds even
worse than the tea we used once to "unneat" rum. Dontcha hate being out of
stuff? You didn't stock up anything for y2k? Oh, except petards...Margaret L