Congratulations Nina!

The winner of the Diversity Guest Cake is Nina! Her Avatar was chosen by my six year old son. Quite frankly I thought he would go for the bear cub but his little finger pointed at the rose and he said "I pick that one," so there you have it, he's a gardener after my own heart.

I had quite a birthday with merriment lasting past 10 am on a school night. I've reserved tomorrow as a baking day for The Winning Cake and for my Fish Mold Pudding!

Congratulations Nina and happy me, I finally get to make my pudding!

A Theory for the Cause of Autism

(I sent this theory to doctors across the nation. Citric Acid was mentioned on CNN the very next day.)

Citric Baby – A Theory for the Cause of Autism
By Katharina M. Jaggi ©2008

According to scientists, the cause of autism involves missing proteins usually found in the intestinal lining, in the brain and other places in the body. Has our polluted planet caught up with us, or are we eating a combination of foods that are detrimental to our bodies?

Ceviche is a dish made up of raw chopped fish meat that changes protein composition just by soaking in lime juice. Imagine meat tissue being “cooked” just by marinating it in citric acid. According to a famous chef’s recipe, on the Food Network’s web site, it takes just 3 hours to marinate the raw fish before tossing in the other ingredients and BAM, serving it.

Autism is on the rise, it’s most likely not genetic since now 1 in 150 children are expected to get it. If it’s not genetic then something in our environment is also on the rise. I propose that a huge factor could be excessive abuse of Citric Acid in our diets, especially in our children’s drinks. Citric Acid is a widely used additive and considered safe. I’m questioning if small children should even have it during their important developmental years, which happen to coincide with vaccinations.

What happens when you combine Citric Acid and Aluminum? The Natural Homemaker says it makes a great scouring powder for her dishwasher. Actually in our bodies it combines and turns into a soluble salt and gets flushed from the system. Before it gets flushed however it chelates and is easily transmitted across the intestinal lining and past the blood brain barrier into the brain. Usually the foods we eat have nutrients in them that help expel aluminum, but what if we are ingesting too much to process? Autism sites are promoting Vitamin C in massive doses before vaccines. What would happen if you unwittingly chose Vitamin C in a weak form heavily laced with Citric Acid, instead of pure Ascorbic Acid and then added Fluoride to the mix?  It’s really bad news if Richard Dabrowski’s quote on Hints-n-Tips.com is accurate. There is a natural blood brain barrier in our system that prevents aluminum from entering the brain; it’s a membrane that serves to protect the brain from chemicals in the blood.  Fluoride allows aluminum to pass through the blood brain barrier into the brain and Citric Acid can increase the amount deposited by over 100 times.

Given that this information was gleaned from Google and still needs to be verified I still have valid reasons to accept the knowledge that absolutely NO Citric Acid should be in my baby’s diet and especially not around shot time. Excess abuse of Citric Acid in our foods and medications combined with Fluoride, soy based Manganese, and or Aluminum might be wrecking havoc in our systems.

Imagine a baby’s small intestine made of delicate tissue coated with the mucus that helps aid digestion, now add citric acid on a daily basis; the baby has to work to regenerate “cooked” cells while it’s trying to develop. The first thing that dissolves in the intestine would be the mucus and then the walls of the intestine would weaken. The body is an amazing organic regenerating machine but some small systems just aren’t up to the task. If the baby was exposed to high levels of citric acid combined with Fluoride and Aluminum while in the uterus then he most certainly was exposed to cell damage before birth.  At birth, he’s already been hard at work and it’s only his first day out. Citric Acid, Fluoride and Aluminum combined might pass through the placenta and through Breast Milk. If that’s the case he will have signs of a weak digestive tract at birth and not be able to tolerate cow’s milk formula which naturally contains citric acid. The answer is to put him on a soy based formula which in itself is questionable due to the excessively high levels of manganese present in the soy, another toxin if overused.

Is Autism the result of Aluminum and or Manganese poisoning caused by excessive overuse of Citric Acid in food products, which when combined with Fluoride allows Aluminum to cross over the intestinal wall into tissue and into the brain? And does a menu disastrously low in Sulfur-rich foods mean that our children are no longer expelling Aluminum naturally? Or is the weakened digestive tract the issue, causing nutrients not to be well absorbed? How about a diet lacking in calcium, magnesium and iron which blocks Aluminum uptake? Would our children be included in the “subset of children” mentioned by Julie Gerberding on CNN who are at risk for developing Autism after vaccination? Given that Citric Acid is added to our supposed “healthy” food products then that “subset of children” would include nearly all American children, even the Amish. In fact I think it affects us all, even the health food gurus, and it explains many other ailments.

When I pondered how my dear friend who loves health food could possibly have had a son diagnosed with Autism the story unfolded in my mind. It started with a memory of my mother’s Aluminum potato pot.  I played with it in the sandbox after Mom was advised to stop cooking in Aluminum. That pot must have left traces of Aluminum in my system. If the aluminum pot had to be discarded, then why do I still see huge amounts of aluminum in our foodstuff?  How much Aluminum is safe? What has changed?

It’s been noted that Alzheimer’s patients have high levels of aluminum in their systems, and children diagnosed with ADHD have high levels of Aluminum in their hair. The principal symptom of aluminum poisoning is the loss of intellectual function and heightened sensitivity. Perhaps babies never attain full intellectual function and can’t bear to be touched or make eye contact for the same reason.

Aluminum is everywhere; it’s the most abundant metal in the earth’s crust. Exposure to limited amounts of aluminum is not thought to be harmful, but exposure to high levels can cause serious health problems. The symptoms of Alzheimer’s, Aluminum Poisoning, and Autism have correlations such as, hypersensitivity, irritability, loss of verbal skills, inability to mentally focus and, short-term memory loss. Aluminum may not be found in the body if it has chelated into a Lewis Acid which can become undetectable in water. That’s why hair studies are important.

What has changed between 1970 and now? I believe it has to do with advice my Dutch grandmother gave me as a young girl when I was pouring a drink for my baby brother back in 1974. “No, no, no Karen, you don’t give orange juice to a baby, the acid in it is much too strong and their little systems are much too delicate. They are small and still developing, better to give him watered down apple juice.” She worked in a medical children’s camp in Holland coaxing babies and small city children back to good health with sunshine, the outdoors, and a good diet. Is her knowledge lost? Children currently are consuming massively high quantities of Citric Acid in processed juices with trusted names, in attractive fruit chews, in athletic drinks and sodas and in the form of candy, vitamins and medications.

It made me wonder what exactly is Vitamin C? It’s L-ascorbate to be precise and it’s an essential nutrient for humans, primates and bats. Eskimos had to be meat eaters because they got their necessary Vitamin C from animal liver. Without it we get Scurvy the dreaded disease of sailors of old who ate very poor unbalanced diets. Not all Vitamins C is equal and I didn’t realize a huge debate was flying across the internet when I went to do my humble try-to-get-it-right research. In my personal opinion I would rather feed a small child the purest Ascorbic Acid I could find, as opposed to the weaker formulas being made that are laced with citric acid.

As a Mom I want to know what my Vitamin C Is made out of. Apparently it’s not always from oranges. I asked a dozen people, to include firefighters and teachers, “Where does Vitamin C come from?” They all consistently said citrus fruit. Why is that? Probably because TV taught us that orange juice is a good source of Vitamin C. Oranges are quite high in calcium but not really that high on the Vitamin C content list compared to Elderberries and Red Peppers which contain much higher levels.

Vitamin C added to food products invariably includes Citric Acid for taste and is produced in mass quantities in China by a process which involves the fermentation of glucose with the aid of the mold Aspergillus niger. It can also be obtained synthetically from acetone or glycerol. Walk down the aisles of our grocery stores and recognize that we’re pumping our kids full of a weak formula of synthetically produced Vitamin C laced with Citric Acid. In my mind it's become poison.

This brings to mind another self-named poison. A red dye called FD&C Red No. 40 – Allura Red AC, and E129. most people falsely believe this dye to be derived from the Cochineal bug. No, this dye does not come from an insect, it’s made from coal tar and is banned in Denmark, Belgium, France, Switzerland and Germany. Now there’s a possible Control! How are those countries doing in comparison to the US? Denmark currently has the lowest rate of autism. They don’t add Fluoride to their water but they purchase bottled water with hidden fluoride. Water companies are not required to list Fluoride on the label. Do their foods contain Aluminum and high levels of Citric Acid? Not until recently. What do their kids eat on a daily basis? I can tell you from personal experience far more fish and vegetables than our US kids.

In Europe where I grew up yogurts were all white even the flavored ones and kids slurped them down with gusto. Fruit drinks were gentle transparent colors of amber and amethyst and sometimes my Oma poured a touch of grenadine in them to make a magical pinkish layer.  I was attracted to an athletic drink recently that had the beautiful watered down appearance of the drinks of my past. I snapped out of it when my mind registered dye not beet juice. This lovely appearing drink is heavily consumed by children although it was originally developed for adult athletes. It contains Citric Acid. Dentists are advising to “stop drinking so much soda” on TV but not such a big focus on athletic drinks to my knowledge, after all they hydrate.

Red Dye No 40 has been proven to give hives to some people. Our country adds it to our kid's medications. Related dyes include Sunset Yellow FCF, Scarlet GN, Tartrazine, and Orange B. If our children are being born with sensitivities to the environment it would be madness to encourage them to ingest a drink that causes hives and skin rash. Imagine what that’s doing to their intestines? Why do we need added coloring in our children’s foods and medications? Coloring should encourage us to examine the label carefully for Citric Acid additives.

Let’s begin by doing the math regarding excessive abuse of Citric Acid. Daily doses of Vitamin C are prominently advertised on aisles of Children’s foods, some containing 100% of the daily recommended dose in a single serving, it’s the weak stuff laced with citric acid for taste. Does that mean we give them water for the rest of the day instead of another daily recommended dose of juice? I would think so, but some parents don’t realize this. If the child’s had a box of juice can I still give him his bag of fruit chews? Well, some of them also contain 100% of the daily recommended dose. How much is too much and should kids even be getting this harsh type of Vitamin C with citric acid added? Many preschools and child cares services serve juice boxes, fruit chews and a finger-food style cracker at snack time. Translated into chemicals the kids have just been served 2 daily doses of citric acid,  a heavy dose of coal tar derivatives, and a source of aluminum. Now send them to the drinking fountain for their Flouride. To me it's a no-brainer, these kids are ingesting a poisonous cocktail.

In the US Aluminum can be found in ALL the processed foods that toddlers and teens love. When my Swiss niece came over to visit she commented that our cheese “tasted like chemicals.” She lives on a dairy farm and eats cheeses daily. She’s got great sensory perception, just one slice of individually wrapped processed cheese can contain up to 50 mg of aluminum. The cheeseburger may contain one of the highest aluminum contents of any food. Why do we need Aluminum in our food?

There are six aluminum salts that have been approved as food additives in the United States. The big news to me was the fact that these six sodium aluminum phosphates are sometimes listed simply as “salt” on the ingredients label. These salts are added to cake mixes, frozen dough, pancake mixes, self-rising flours, processed cheese and cheese foods. Maybe it’s not just the gluten in the flour causing sensitivities as some Autism experts are saying, maybe for some it’s the rising agent which contains Aluminum. Parents who have noted improved results from dietary changes tend to go all organic and not use the processed or self-rising flour products.

I called my friend who has an Autistic son and asked what his favorite drink was around 18 months. She said “I used to take two oranges, and pinapple, and some strawberries and blend them, he loved it.”  I called my other friend who has two autistic boys and asked her the same question. She said “they both love my homemade lemonade.” My grandmother would have cringed at this. My friend with the two autistic boys admitted to craving Alka Seltzer while she was pregnant. Aluminum.

We can garner some pretty extreme advice online. There are no controls, no fact checkers. Parents desperate to find answers and treatment need to use careful discernment when collecting information. Please get your information validated. I advised my friend to give her son a small amount of Bragg apple cider vinegar in his drink to help boost his Ph. and she said "Noooo, yeast thrives on vinegar!" I was shocked, “Where did you learn that?” I asked. She said off the internet. I went and checked. Apple Cider Vinegar is still a great home remedy for too much yeast but White Vinegar feeds yeast. You learn something new.

I asked a Chemist about Citric Acid and he said I shouldn’t’ make it out to be a villain. I’m not. I’m trying to point out excessive overuse. He reminded me that the body uses the amount of citric acid it needs and pees the rest out. My point is that it takes about 3 days to flush out citric acid from the system but it only takes 3 hours to marinate raw fish in lime juice to a cooked state. Any Mom worth her salt just knows there’s cell damage on contact. Over time the damage worsens because cell regeneration can’t catch up. Test it for yourself, pour citric acid juice over raw liver then feel the membrane with your fingers. Within minutes it gets softer and eventually shreds. That’s somewhat equivalent to a baby’s digestive tract wouldn’t you think?

A parent knows in their gut when a child changes from being a healthy little bouncy baby to being a lethargic overly sensitive confused child. After shots what spikes the child’s fever and causes signs of Autism to later show up? My best guess is that the body is desperately trying to repair cells damaged by Citric Acid while battling against an invasive amount of Aluminum (or other metals) which has just been dumped into the brain compliments of the combination of Fluoride and Citric Acid that brought it there. Add a coal tar irritant to the mix in the form of colored medication or even just a juice box and that small system has to go into overdrive to start regenerating cells and repairing damage. Some children pull through with mild symptoms; and some, possibly those suffering from deficiencies and lacking in a sulfur-rich diet, just don’t have the nutrients in their systems to pull off a full recovery.

With compassion I propose we become proactive about this situation. We must accept the important obligation of shielding ourselves from the earth’s pollutants and metals which are also currently used in our vaccines as an important adjuvant, we must return to a healthy sulfur-rich diet that naturally expels aluminum from our body, we must ingest our daily dose of DHA which was given to our grandparents as children in the form of a spoonful of fish liver oil to coat those brain cells and keep them safe. We must filter our water ourselves to insure removal of Fluoride and scrutinize our bottled water, we must monitor our doses and types of Vitamin C, and most importantly we must take on the role of Informed Nutritionalist for our kids. Mom and Mr. Mom need to know best, they are their children’s first advocates. You don’t give citric acid to a baby. My grandmother said so. (She said you don’t introduce sugar to them either unless you want them to quit eating healthy, in this case lifesaving, foods.)

Points to Ponder:

·         Citric Acid is a powerful meat tenderizer.

·         The brain and small intestines of a developing human fetus are very delicate meat.

·         It takes 3 days for citric acid to leave the system.

·         It takes 3 hours to prepare a dish of raw fish cooked in lemon juice.

·         Citric Acid is highly available in most of our drinks, foods, supplements and medicines. It is a harsher form of Vitamin C than Ascorbic Acid and was as a rule not typically given to small developing children in my grandmother’s day.

·         Citric Acid mixed with Fluoride is an even more powerful meat tenderizer. It can pass through the placenta and carry aluminum with it. Does a developing fetus stand a chance?

·         Fluoride is available in tap water and some bottled waters. Water companies are not required to list Fluoride on the label.

·         Fluoride can carry Aluminum through the body past the Blood Brain Barrier into the brain

·         The diet that protects us from Aluminum is the Sulfur-rich menu including: garlic, onions, cabbage, lentils, beans, and egg yolk. How many kids like this stuff?

·         The majority of Children’s Menus in American restaurants consist of macaroni and cheese, cheese burgers, pizza and sweet white foods containing high levels of citric acid and aluminum, and virtually no system protecting sulfer.

·         Autism might be Aluminum poisoning. When tests show that no Aluminum is present in a child have they taken into consideration that a combination of Citric Acid and some undefined ingredient and Aluminum may form a Lewis Acid which is undetectable in water? That is why hair testing is important.

·         Fluoride began to be added to water in the US in 1940. The EPA is currently sending out a public message that you can review what’s in your tap water by location.

·         First case of Autism recorded in US 1943

·         Citric Acid production and usage in foods is on the rise. 1990’s

·         The popularity of Sulfer-rich foods are at an all time low

·         Vitamin C can be found in a cup of green peas (which if you recall in the movies kids were forced to sit at the table and eat.) Peas are a natural finger food and are gentle on the system.

Proposed immediate action if this theory proves to be accurate: A strict diet must be enforced before, during and after vaccinations involving absolutely NO intake of Citric Acid, including lower forms of Vitamin C tablets which are heavily laced with Citric Acid. (Exactly the opposite of what has been proposed by Autism sites online). Instead a high intake of sulfur-rich foods and fish oil is encouraged. Water for the child must be filtered. Idealy the child’s diet must be verified by a doctor’s questionnaire until the public is educated. Instructions to fast from Citric Acid in any form should be given in writing before vaccinations are administered along with a list of common products containing Citric Acid so that uneducated parents understand the requirements. Naturally a child needs Vitamin C and is encouraged to consume it in natural Ascorbic Acid form preferrably several days before and after the shots. Aluminum can be purged from the body by use of sulfur-rich foods and clay baths. It can be blocked by calcium magnesium and iron. It’s a balancing act. This proposal is nonintrusive and involves no medications.

Watch the giant food corporations quietly change their ingredient labels.

Watch what's in your food. http://foodfact.net/index.cfm

Diversity Guest Cake wins “Most Delicious” at local competition

There's an old North American Indian term called Three Sisters. It has to do with putting together three things that are compatible and that assist each other. I've discovered the Three Sisters of dessert. I recently used the flavorings in a cake that I entered at a 20th Birthday Cake Competition sponsored by Summerlin and hosted at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Las Vegas. I won “Most Delicious!”

My little introduction card said something like this:

"I deeply embrace the various cultural characteristics of my neighbors. In honor of diversity I came up with the “Diversity Guest Cake.” In this cake I used my favorite ingredients: Almonds, Lemon, and Cardamom."

The basis for this cake comes from the original called “Company Dessert Cake” which has been circulated through several small town newspapers over the ages. In the good old days company meant guests and a lady could honor and impress her guests by going all-out with this multi layered cake. Any woman worth her salt knew the effort that went into it and was appreciative.  I added two layers to the cake, inverting the top layers. To give mine a look of elegance I topped it with a glassy smooth cooked white icing. I covered the rather messy looking sides with toasted slivered almonds for that Viennese Bakery look. Most importantly I used my special ingredients: almonds, lemon, and Green Cardamom.

I was introduced to Cardamom when my husband brought some back from Kuwait after serving in the military there. I like to think of him walking along the market stalls picking out small treasures to bring back to me. This is one of my favorites. Cardamom is used widely in the Middle East, India and the Nordic countries. You can find it here locally at Wholefoods and several of the local specialty stores. It comes in a green seed pod form.

I think Cardamom represents diversity well. It is not well known by many in the US but is quickly embraced and accepted for its unique difference once you get to know it.

(Our Aunt Vee joked that you need a budget for this recipe. You will need 11 eggs, two sticks of butter and a Costco-sized bag of sliced almonds. Along with the exotic seed pods, it adds up! This recipe is not for the faint of heart, being at peace of mind before you start is recommended!)

Preheat the oven to 325°F

Step 1 – The Cake Layers
(you will be repeating this part twice so double up on the shopping list)

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon sea salt
½ cup unsalted butter
½ cup granulated cane sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 egg yolks 
6 tablespoons milk

Cut parchment paper bottoms and grease and flour two 9 inch round layer pans. Sift the dry ingredients together, cream the butter and sugar and then slowly mix in the wet and dry ingredients. The batter will be stiff and not seem like enough. Spread it evenly in the prepared pans with a rubber spatula and set them aside. Be prepared to repeat this step again.


Step 2 – The Garnish (as is)

2 cups sliced almonds

While the oven is hot spread at least 2 cups of sliced almonds on a cookie sheet and toast on the top shelf for just a few minutes. You want them lightly toasted, just a light golden color, not yet brown.

Step 3 – The Meringue Layers
(you will be repeating this part twice so double up on the shopping list)

4 large egg whites
1 cup granulated cane sugar
½ teaspoon fresh finely grated lemon peel
½ cup sliced almonds
a pinch of ground Green Cardamom seeds

Beat at a high speed until firm peaks form then reduce the speed to medium and very slowly add the sugar. Beat again at high speed until high peaks form. Then reduce the speed to slowest and run the mixture for just a few rotations while you add the lemon peel, the almonds and the cardamom. You will need to crush 10-12 cardamom pods. Some people crack them open with their teeth. I prefer to crush them and pull out the hulls. Pulverize the seeds to a very fine powder. I use a mortar and pestle. Spread half the egg white mixture evenly over each of the cake batter layers and place them on the middle shelf of your oven for 30 minutes. After they’ve cooled enough to touch run a knife around the edge and ease them out upside down on cooling racks so they don’t break. Don’t worry about the cracks in the meringue. To make the four-layer cake repeat steps 1 and 3 again. Some people may bravely double the recipe. I can’t accommodate the volume in my small mixer.  Important note here: I believe I used LESS sugar that the original recipe. I am not a sweet tooth so I always cut back. If you choose you can go with 1/2 cup of sugar, it will not affect the recipe. I confess I was playing when I made this cake so recreating what I did has been a challenge.

Step 4 –  The Cooked Custard Filling (as is)

3/4 cups granulated cane sugar
4 tablespoons cornstarch
2 pinches of sea salt
3 large egg yolks
3 cups milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 teaspoons Italian Volcano Lemon Juice (dreamfoods.com) OR, use freshly squeezed
1/4 teaspoon finely ground cardamom
1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 pinch of powdered saffron mixed in 1/4 teaspoon of warm water for yellow color (optional, I used this in 1/3 of a batch for the center layer just to be creative)

Stir together the sugar, the cornstarch and the sea salt in a large saucepan. In the blender mix together the egg, milk and wet saffron until smooth. Gradually stir the blended yolk mixture into the dry mixture and cook over medium-high heat stirring constantly with a wire whisk until it thickens, about 8-10 minutes. Turn the heat to low and cook a little longer, stir in the dry cardamom powder, stirring briskly. Remove from the heat and continue to stir gently for about another minute. Then stir in the vanilla and lemon. Set the custard mixture aside to cool to room temperature. In your mixer whip the whipping cream until very stiff. It must make rigid peaks. Place the whipped cream in the refrigerator for 30 minutes then combine the whipped cream in a bowl with the cooled custard mix, gently folding in, a large spoonful at a time. If your custard is even remotely still warm it will melt your whipped cream. Let it all cool. NOTE: For my winning cake I actually reserved plain custard for the very middle without the added whipped cream. It was a separate 1/3 of a batch colored with saffron. Place the mixture in the refrigerator to keep it chilled.

Step 5 – Cooked White Icing  (as is)

2 large egg whites
1 ½ cups granulated cane sugar
5 tablespoons cold water
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon light corn syrup
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon very finely micro grated fresh lemon peel
1 large pinch of ground Green Cardamom

Blend all the ingredients except the vanilla, lemon and cardamom flavorings on high speed in a blender until smooth. Pour the mixture into the top of a double boiler and heat over rapidly boiling water for 8 solid minutes, beating constantly with a whisk. No resting, no breaks! Remove from heat, beat in the vanilla, lemon peel and cardamom flavorings and transfer to a mixer. Beat until the icing thickens.  (Note: I got the Microplane 40020 Grater/Zester in my Christmas stocking one year. It's still one of my favorite tools; lemons being one of my favorite ingredients.) Important note here: My husband prefers this cake without the icing. If you are not a sweet tooth the icing will be too much! You could use home-made whipped cream, flavored with just a little sugar and a few drops of vanilla instead.

Step 6 - Assembling the cake

Place the first cooled cake layer meringue side up then spoon a generous amount of the custard cream over it. Add another cooled cake layer meringue side up and spoon either another layer of custard cream, or, as I did for my winning cake, use large spoonfuls of plain saffron-tinted custard in the very middle without the added whipped cream.

Next turn the third layer of cake so that the meringue is face down over the custard. On top of that spoon a generous amount of the custard cream mixture. On top of that place the last cooled cake layer, meringue side down. Gently push the layers into place to make it look even all around.

Now spoon all the icing over the top of the cake in the middle and let it ooz. It will have the consistency of white school glue that’s been left open. Very carefully nudge it around with a cake frosting spatula so that it flows flat across the top and globs over the sides. Next, without touching the top, which should by now look like a sheet of milky glass, run your spatula around the side of the cake spreading the globs of icing to act like “glue” for the toasted sliced almonds.

Don’t worry about what it looks like. It’ll look pretty bad. Next, with a cupped hand, pat a handful of toasted sliced almonds along the side of the cake over a cookie sheet. Turn the cake as you work. Keep scooping up almonds and patting them until you’ve covered the sides all around. I strategically placed the prettiest almonds along the top edge to give the cake a more polished look. Chill overnight in the refrigerator.  (Note: for the contest I didn't have enough time to allow the icing to set, you can see it's oozing down on the sides.)

This decadent creation serves 12-16 
Let me know how yours turns out! Mine was gone within minutes.

Karen Jaggi lives with her husband, their three kids, and a rescue dog (who is still learning his manners). You may contact her through her blog, she has been known to talk friends through the steps in her recipes.

KM Jaggi Copyright 2010. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

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RECOMMENDED READING:

Sylvia Thompson's book came highly recommended to me.

Herbs on Everything

Every season my cooking methods include a gardening goal. "I will put fresh herbs on everything I cook and I will grow all the herbs I need." This is no easy feat in the desert which is why so many people here turn to hydroponics or the grocery store. I personally must have dirt. I'm a closet composter quietly snuggled up in the suburbs, on a very small pail scale, and every ounce of black gold I manage to convert just makes me happy.

This year my Tarragon is surviving. I found out that if I place the pot near the grassline just under the shade of my Bottlebrush tree then the late evening watering sends a fine delicious mist over it; the soak is just enough to keep the delicate plant satisfied in our desert climate.

Even with the drought I'm not giving up my grass, which needs frequent waterings. This little patch keeps me sane. I love the fresh cut smell and I enjoy knowing that it's giving off good clean air around my house. My dog loves it too for his own personal reasons.

Life is a series of tangents as far as I'm concerned so while I'm mentioning fresh green grass I absolutely need to quote from a book I just read, and thoroughly enjoyed. This quote had poignant meaning for me since I spent several days early this past Summer hiking through France near the place the author is describing. Having experienced the smell in person reading this quote causes me to breath deep and wistfully remember.

"We took the train to Paris and later a car south into Cevannes. In the mornings I worked on two or three essays in my increasingly lucid French, to mail back to school. I still have one of these; even now decades later, unfolding it returns me to that feeling of the untranslatable heart of France in May, the smell of grass that was not grass but l'herbe, edibly fresh, as if all French vegetation were fantastically culinary, the ingredients of a salad or something to stir in cheese."  ~ excerpt taken from The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova.

The reviews on her other book, Swan Thieves, indicate it's just as supurbly written. Something to look forward to!

I'm getting all excited because that Fall crispyness is in the air and it's time for our second growing season of the year. The so-called crispy air starts with a semi-cool morning that climbs to 95°F by noon. (That's roughly 35°C for my friends across the pond.) Still it's cooling off from those searing triple digits.

I am itching to make a Fish Mold recipe right now but that little project absolutely has to wait until my birthday in December. So, to take my mind off the wait I've decided to make a small raised garden bed of my own design for the desert climate. I'll be using the portland cement recipe mixed with dolomite and peatmoss to make a manageable sized, suburb-oriented (hopefully desert-proof) raised vegetable garden. I'll be designing the tiers and collecting the materials next week.

Meanwhile, here's what I fantasize doing with my healthy green herbs:

• Snipped bunch of Parsely played off my fingers over the morning eggs covered in melted Gruyure.
• A sprinkle of Thyme casually dropped onto the cottage cheese heaped across the toasted Irish Soda Oat Bread.
• Raw Shallots sliced thin and carefully arranged with delicate perfection across the cracked wheat crackers heavily loaded with homemade liver pate.
• Chives chopped on an extreme angle strewn over the fingerling potatos already rolled in a bit of butter and sprinkled with sea salt.
• Basil leaves rolled and finely sliced in one fell swoop practically covering the dish of sliced tomatos drizzled with Balsamic Vinegar and Olive Oil.
• Tarragon leaves embedded with Garlic in the beef.
• A handful of Tarragon stuffed inside a roasting chicken and doused with a glass of wine.
• A handful of parsley chopped fine and immersed in the salad dressing, laced with a small spoon of plain greek yogurt.
• Broad leaves of Cilantro or Italian Parsley and quartered cherry tomatoes gently folded in with tuna and buried with Garbonza beans. Oh, and copious amounts of fresh chopped garlic in homemade salad dressing, all served on a bed of leaf lettuce. (We call that one Aunt Bee's Salad, it's a great protein fix and a quick dinner.)
• Rosemary chopped fine and flung across a baking pan filled with garlic roasted potatoes.

Mmmm! Inspired to write an herb haiku!

Basil leaves cut fine;
Cutting board stained juice green.
Rise sweet leaf odor.

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The Smoke

(Setting: 24 years ago in an upper apartment in Holland)

My Godmother who is also my aunt drew in deeply from the Virginia Slim she had just lit. I sit there quietly sipping white wine, listening to a male voice croon to us in French from her record player… something about life being for our amusement and death being the time to rest, The singer's name is Moustaki.

My aunt has long brown hair that she likes to pin away from her face with a small clip. She sits back in her favorite easy chair, legs crossed, an ashtray carefully balanced on the overstuffed arm, and asks me a question.

“Karen, who do you love?”

She asked this of me with her gorgeous Dutch accent just out of the blue, blowing smoke upwards around the tops of our heads. She gives her cigarette a delicate tap over the ashtray and looks directly into my eyes. I stared at her through the downward drifting haze and pondered her intensity. She meant to get the truth from me... for me. I slowed down my breathing.

“The one I love is the golden love of my youth.”  I offered.

“Is he still available?” She asked.

“I think, maybe, yes” I said without certainty, peering up at the smoke caught in the light between us.

“Then find him.” she replied.

Her own story rolled across my heart unspoken. I pondered the difficult task of honesty at hand. I was grateful for that curtain of blue-white moving space between us. I stared at the swirls vaguely amazed that I hadn’t started coughing yet. Smoke in a room tends to set me off into hacking fits requiring water and a swift couple of whacks on my back. To this day I still associate the awareness that I had to track down my soul mate with a cloud of smoke. His return into my life is associated with a solid question lingering in visible drifts of air tinted with a melody to Live.

“Who do you love?”

He is a Firefighter. I awkwardly broke off an engagement from a distance and took a ferry across the English Channel to talk it over with him. It had been several years. He met me at the dock and took me by train through London to his military base. The whole time we never stopped grinning. The air around us shined.

On our first day together as a married couple in our snug little British apartment, I confessed to him the seriousness of my smoke allergy. I think he already knew based on how I reacted when we stepped into the local pubs. Bruno’s was the worst with their low ceiling but we kept coming back for their espressos; they rubbed the rim of the cup with an orange peel. At home he would sit on our snow covered front step and smoke. I never asked him to quit but he did within two weeks. He still likes to have a cigar with the guys once a year on some momentous guy day.

I love watching him prepare for the ritual of enjoying a cigar. He wears an English waxed overcoat that he refers to as his “smoke coat.” It keeps a lot of the smoke from settling into his clothes. He pours cognac for the guys and they sit outside next to the chiminea like a displaced men’s club from another time. I’ll glance at them with outward disinterest while I water the plants, checking really to see their togetherness. They are puffing in front of each other like dragons, occasionally turning the lit tips of their rolled brown leaves inward to have a glance at the burning ends.

I remember my aunt’s intense question. Are the guys asking each other questions of deep intensity? They’re probably discussing g-strings under knits. Does the smoke draw out the truth? I know the cognac will do that. Love draws out the truth; love of a dear aunt whom I respect. I gave her a truthful answer and changed the course of my life. I remember how I thought the smoke helped hide my confusion. Actually the smoke and Moustaki artfully softened the moment.

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