Sugarcrafter

Friends of Ivory Hut

September 2, 2010 | Print | E-mail | Filed under

Yesterday morning started off like any other morning…coffee, e-mail, Twitter…that is, until I got to a tweet sent by Erika of The Ivory Hut and suddenly felt like I’d been kicked in the stomach:

Our house burned down last night. Barely made it out alive. Homeless, possession-less. But we’re all safe & together. Still richly blessed.

I immediately went to her blog to see if she’d been able to write anything else, and was relieved to find out that her and her family were all okay, and that nobody had been injured…they had all made it out safely and were staying at a friend’s home. She writes on her blog:

A mere hour or so later—and instant, really—we were outside, in our shirts and shorts, watching our house crumble as it was engulfed in flames. I’ll never forget that hissing and crackling noise as my husband’s home of almost 30 years practically disintegrated before our eyes.

But we were safe. All of us. Our son Tim, without hesitation, ran back inside when he realized his grandmother was sleeping upstairs. By the time he got to her, it was too late to try and exit the house the same way he came in. Fortunately, Tom had devised a fire escape plan years ago, and Tim was able to bodily carry his feeble 82-year-old grandmother out the window, onto the roof, and eventually down on the deck. The sight of this brave son of mine carrying his grandmother as he ran down the lawn and away from the house is one I will never forget.

Obviously, none of us slept last night. We are fortunate to belong to a congregation that is as close to us as family, and one of our dear friends drove to our house last night to pick us up and take us to her home, which is where I sit right now, typing this.

Though I only just met Erika recently, she is a great inspiration to me as a blogger, a photographer, and a person. She has a quiet strength and a heart of gold, and it is my sincere hope that we can all rally around her and help in any way that we can in order to lessen the stress of what she’s going through. As of right now, Alice of Savory Sweet Life and Maggy of Three Many Cooks have created a site that allows you to give monetary donations that will be sent to Erika immediately. She lost everything in the fire except the clothes on her back and currently has no access to a bank since all of her identification was burned in the fire, so please consider visiting Friends of Ivory Hut and making a donation to help her afford basic necessities until this is all sorted out. Thank you!

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Noir Bars

September 1, 2010 | Print | E-mail | Filed under cheesecake, chocolate, ganache

Note: This post was originally published March 30, 2009. I’ve modified the recipe since then (and I’ve also updated the photos). Enjoy!

First things first; fall is here! If you don’t know me by now, you know that fall is my absolute favorite season. Yep, I’m that crazy person who starts putting fall decorations up around the house in mid-August, much to my husband’s chagrin (although I do wait to put the fall wreath up on the door until September 1st, so that our neighbors won’t know how crazy I am. Sad, but true). I also wanted to point out that a good friend of mine, Heather, has updated my header for the season – and I’m in love with it (see, I waited to put it up until today!). If you’re looking for any kind of graphic design work, check out her site and shoot her an e-mail. And now, on to the post!

Sometimes, when you’re having a really bad day (or week), you know the only thing that’s going to make it a little bit better is chocolate. A simple candy bar isn’t going to do it, or even a pint of good chocolate ice cream. I’m talking a really bad day here, when what you need is the “you’re-probably-going-to-gain-5-pounds-after-you-even-look-at-this” kind of chocolate. Well, this is that kind of chocolate. They’re called noir bars since “noir” means “black” in French, and there are three layers of chocolatey goodness – a layer of ganache, which tops a layer of chocolate cheesecake, which tops a layer of chocolate cookie. Just remember to cut yourself a small piece – it’s so rich, one little square is enough!

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Leek and Prosciutto Puff Pastries

August 30, 2010 | Print | E-mail | Filed under cheese, leek, pastry, prosciutto

In addition to all of the lovely goodies that everyone brought to the Big Summer Potluck, we were also given a few products to sample, including some amazingly creamy goat cheese. There happened to be some left over at the end of the day, so our hostesses generously gave it to us to take home…and even though I had to drive for several hours, I couldn’t pass it up! I made a makeshift refrigerator with some cold soda bottles, and it was totally worth it. When I got home, I baked up these savory puff pastries before I could devour the rest of the cheese on crackers. With store-bought puff pastry on hand, they were easy appetizers! I made these for me and the hubby, but you can easily double the recipe for company.

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Daring Baker Challenge: Baked Alaska

August 27, 2010 | Print | E-mail | Filed under daring baker, ice cream, pumpin

The August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. For the first time, The Daring Bakers partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event and Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a Baked Alaska or in Ice Cream Petit Fours. The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop.”

Since I’ve never made (or eaten) Baked Alaska before, I decided that it would be my challenge for this month’s Daring Baker. However, even though it’s an ice cream dessert that is perfect for summer, I’ve been really getting in the mood for fall lately and had to do a little tweaking. Instead of vanilla ice cream, I used the pumpkin ice cream I made a couple days ago. And instead of brown butter pound cake, I made pumpkin bread. The final dessert was nutty, spicy, cool, and creamy…a perfect dessert to meld together the seasons.

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Pumpkin Ice Cream

August 24, 2010 | Print | E-mail | Filed under ice cream, pumpkin

With the summer winding down and cooler weather beginning to arrive, I finally decided it was time to get out my ice cream maker and make some ice cream. Why it took me this long I’m not really sure, although perhaps it had something to do with my newfound addiction to canning everything in sight. In any case, I thought it fitting to bring the two seasons together by making pumpkin ice cream, which I’ve had on my list of things to try ever since I saw it on David Lebovitz’s blog. And since apple picking season will be underway soon, I’ll be looking forward to trying out a scoop of this ice cream on top of a slice of warm apple pie.