Sometimes when I’m baking at home, the hardest thing about starting is trying to select some music to listen to. Two birthdays ago, B bought me an iPod with a cute set of speakers, as my kitchen sound system. What I did prior to this was to turn up the volume of the speakers in the lounge room, so that I could hear the music while in the kitchen, several walls away. Of course, the arrangement I have now is much better.

While B has quite a large CD collection that I can pick and choose from, I find there tends to be just a few albums that get played repeatedly when I cook. If I’m chopping or kneading, it’s usually something by the Chilli Peppers. Lately, if I’m doing any baking, I’ve been listening to Sufjan Stevens or Neko Case. This cake was made entirely with her album Fox Confessor Brings the Flood :

There’s a packet of dates (purchased eons ago) that has been staring me in the face every time I peek into the pantry. They are looking very dry now, so I didn’t fancy eating them straight from the packet.There are always some things that you find are way out of *date*, but in your mind you’re thinking, “it’s still good, it’s still good” (…this applies to several items I own, including a jar of vegemite that is two, almost three years out of date, and that I’m still working my way through). So I’d been saving these dates for a time when I felt like making some kind of date-y dish. The most obvious thing that comes to mind is sticky date pudding. But rather than proceed with the same recipe I always use, I thought it was time to try something different. In her Book of Baking, Sue Lawrence calls this a “warm date cake with fudge topping“. The sauce is made and poured over the cake half way through the baking process, and the result is a beautifully moist cake with a little something extra that sets it apart from the bog standard sticky date pudding : I don’t know if this was intended as part of the process, or maybe it happened to me by accident, but some of the sauce that was poured over the cake, formed a little chewy toffee layer around the edge of the cake, which I absolutely love.

Sunday afternoon. We took a drive over to Cremorne to visit Mir who was throwing a little lunch gathering. I thought it was going to be a few crustless sandwiches over a well mannered napkin, so I had breakfast beforehand. BIG mistake. Nevermind wishing I had bought a bunch of flowers : I wish I had brought an empty stomach! Once we had negotiated the insane three tiered security system of Mir’s apartment block, we arrived at an open door with the sound of a Dyson punishing the carpet, and discovered that an almost-three course meal was in the works. A bowl of tomato bread soup, followed by fantastic chicken schnitzel, potato salad and green salad, and a whispered rumour of a cheesecake. Later, settling back with a mug of gingerbread tea, I wish I could have stayed there forever.

It’s funny what you learn about people when you eat with them. Afterall, what you eat, is what you are; to paraphrase Brillat-Savarin. I know someone who is allergic to things like shellfish but will happily eat a prawn because it’s too good to pass up. One person simply will not eat watermelon or chocolate, while someone else will try anything at least once, and there’s one guy who in his own words, is “not very good” with pretty much all kinds of food except plain pizzas.

And it was only today that I realised I’ve known Mir for 10 or so years and never knew that she had a fetish for the colour blue (crockery, side tables, beanbag, chairs.., apron…).

Thank you Mir for a Sunday well spent!