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Blueberry-Lavender Coffeecake
September 3, 2008 |
It’s been a strange week. We went camping to the Grand Tetons over the long weekend. We spent a day there (instead of two, as planned), and left early because of an impending hail storm. Drove through lightning and torrential rain on our way back. After three days of being on the move - 1100 miles in all - we got home. We were so looking forward to a hot shower only to find the taps dry.
8 p.m. on a Sunday night. We called the emergency contact number for the water company. We’re told, “You haven’t paid your bill.”
Ummm… log on to your system, will ya?? Our current bill says our last payment was on x date for y amount, and that we have no arrears….
Oh, well, he can’t verify any of that. He doesn’t work for the water company and he doesn’t have access to their computer system. He works for a subcontractor who is paid by the water company to answer the phone 24/7 and simply tell hundreds of people daily that they haven’t paid their bills.
Corporations put human beings into cubicles and convert them into little automatons. They subcontract tasks to faceless entities. To the subcontractor, the customer is the corporation, not the corporation’s customers.
We asked automaton to put us through to someone who actually works for the water company. “I can,” he says, “but if he comes over and the water’s been cut off because you didn’t pay your bill, he’ll charge you $30 to restore service.”
What if we’ve paid the bill and they’ve disconnected the supply? What would they pay us? **crickets chirping**
You want to throw an automaton off keel and get him/her to pay attention to what you’re saying? Here’s a neat trick we learnt from the late Randy Pausch’s Time Management Lecture. As soon as you are put on hold with some torturous music coming off the speakerphone (always use a speakerphone), note the time. **Torturous music continues**
Automaton answers the call. “Hello, this is John, how may I help you today?”.
If you didn’t catch the name: “Sorry, I didn’t get your name. Is it John?”
Automaton: “That’s correct.”
You: “Hi, John, I’ve been on hold for 3 minutes and 22 seconds.” Make him feel guilty. If you think it’s like trying to draw blood from a stone, well, if they’re not guilty, at least they are paying attention. Then, begin every sentence with his name.
“John, I came home today to find no running water.”
Automaton: “You didn’t pay your bill.”
You: “John, I have a statement that says … blah blah blah.”
Be calm, be measured, and repeat his name each time. Automaton suddenly begins to sound para-human, like he/she just got a blood transfusion.
While waiting for the guy from the water company, we logged into our site to find a rude comment from a reader. She takes issue with a post we wrote more than a year ago.
The emergency technician came over at 10 p.m. - a real human who understands what it’s like to have no water after you’ve returned from camping in the wild and a long road trip. He checked the meter and said something was wrong with a valve inside our house. We needed to get a plumber. And no, we didn’t need to pay $30 for the visit.
It’s close to 11 p.m. We are exhausted and have no hopes of getting this fixed that day or the next. (Monday was Labor Day - a national holiday in the U.S.)
We call around - three numbers - and get this. ALL THREE companies had an emergency plumber on call who was willing to drop in either right away or the next morning. Two of them said they would charge the “emergency rate”. One said they’d charge the regular rate (about half the emergency rate). He showed up the next morning and was done in five minutes.
Living in a small town has its advantages. Try finding a plumber to come to your home at 11 p.m on a Sunday night in San Francisco or New York. And try not getting ripped off.
Meanwhile, rude reader’s been putting in overtime for no pay. Seven comments, increasingly strident and hateful. When our spam filter kicks into gear, she decides to dispatch her “Lesson in Moral Sense” through e-mail.
Here’s a revolutionary idea. If you don’t like what someone has to say, don’t read their site. There are millions of sites out there. If you look around, you’ll find many that subscribe to your views. Or start your own.
The most depressing event of the week, though, was the Republican Convention where John McCain introduced his VP candidate Sarah Palin as “a devoted wife and mother of five.” C’mon now, Hillary supporters, so what if your candidate lost? Here’s another creature with the requisite body parts.
We know how much McCain reveres women. And ‘family values‘.
Plus, she’s a foreign policy expert, ‘cos as Cindy McCain informs us, she lives in ALASKA, which is next door to Russia!!!!!! Yeah, like 1300 miles ‘next door’.
Can they make it more obvious in how much contempt they hold the electorate?
To heck with the automatons, the trolls and the political scum. People survive and thrive in spite of them. Let’s have some cake.
We wondered about the difference between a ‘tea bread‘ and a ‘coffeecake‘. Here’s what we found.
tea bread (from here)
[noun] sweetened buns to be eaten with tea
Coffeecake (from Merriam-Webster)
[noun] a sweet rich bread often with added fruit, nuts, and spices that is sometimes glazed after baking
About five years ago, we saw Elizabeth Alston make Loads of Blueberries CoffeeCake on the Sara Moulton show. It’s from her book Tea Breads and Coffeecakes.
As the name suggests, this cake does use loads of blueberries - three cups. It’s the one to make when you get that large box from Costco. Guess what? That box comes with about 5 cups of berries. So we’ve found a way to use the extra two cups in the same recipe. They get served alongside, macerated with honey, lemon and Cognac.
This is the third time we’ve made this cake, and each time we’ve tweaked it a bit. The last time, we made it vegan, and it turned out well. Vegan substitutions have been provided for certain ingredients in the recipe.
This time, we added some homegrown lavender and lemon. They really enhance the flavour and aroma.
In many recipes that have berries, nuts or dried fruits, the recipe may suggest tossing them in flour before adding them to the batter to prevent them from sinking to the bottom. The flour tip does not work.
With this cake, the berries never have sunk to the bottom - with or without the dusting of flour. It’s the consistency of the batter that makes all the difference. The thicker the batter, the less likely the berries or nuts are likely to sink. Some cakes have a thinner batter than others, and no matter what you do, the floating thingies will be unable to defy gravity during baking.
If you don’t have lavender, try basil. Or make it without the herbs. It’s low in fat, moist and delicious.
BLUEBERRY-LAVENDER COFFEECAKE
Preheat oven to 350F.
This batter will stick to the pan even if it’s non-stick. If using a round or springform pan, grease it well and line the bottom with parchment. If using a square pan, grease it, then put a rectangular piece of foil one way across with overhang, then the other way, so that after the cake is done, you can lift it out by lifting the foil.
If using a bundt pan as we did this time, grease it well on the sides and in the middle.
To macerate the berries, toss together
2 cups blueberries
1 tbsp honey/sugar
1 tsp lemon/lime juice
1 tbsp Cognac or orange juice
Cover it and set it aside.
Mix together
1.5 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or all purpose flour)
0.5 cup fine whole grain cornmeal (or more wheat flour)
2.5 tsps baking powder
a pinch of salt
Whisk together until smooth
3/4 cup milk (or soymilk)
half cup egg whites (about 4 egg whites) or 2 whole eggs (or half cup silken tofu)
2 tbsp almond butter/regular butter/oil
2 tbsp unsweetened applesauce (or butter/oil)
a dash of vanilla extract
1/3 cup lavender honey or regular honey or sugar
**1/2 cup if you are not using applesauce (or upto 1 cup if you like it sweeter)
2 tsps lemon/lime juice
1 tsp lemon zest
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and fold gently until just mixed.
Add
3 cups of blueberries (if frozen, do not thaw)
1 tbsp dried or fresh lavender blossoms
If using a bundt pan, bake for 32 to 35 minutes. If using a round or square cake pan, you may need 50 minutes. The cake will start to pull away from the sides of the pan, and a toothpick inserted in the middle should come out clean.
Let it cool for about 10 minutes before taking it out of the pan. Then let it cool on a wire rack for another 20 minutes.
Serve with the macerated berries.
Blueberry-Lavender Coffeecake goes to Ulrike from Kuchenlatein for Weekend Herb Blogging.
~ Bee and Jai
Blueberry, Cornmeal, Flour, GARDENING, Lavender, Lemon/Lime, MUSINGS, vegetarian recipes, Wheat
[...] previously posted recipes with lavender: Blueberry-Lavender Coffeecake Lavender-infused Chocolate Pudding Baked Strawberries with Lavender and [...]
Wow… what a crazy week! I enjoyed reading about it. I am sorry for your water bill issue. We can sympathize with all of what you are saying. We have moved twice in the last year and both times it has come with issues like those. I hope it is all resolved now and you got some ‘I’m sorry’ out of the deal. But most likely not.
I have an odd question for you. I have a recipe on my blog that I make called “Dishonest Blueberry Jam”. I am currently looking for a photo of Lavender and blueberries together. I googled it and found this image. I enjoyed your blog so much that at first the picture wasn’t even noticed… but once I did take a look, I realized that it is perfect for what I was looking for. I usually use my own pictures as much as possible, but blueberry season is now over here, as is lavender season. May I use your picture for the labels for my jam?
The recipe is here:
http://goddesshobbies.blogspot.com/2009/09/dishonest-blueberry-jam.html
I would only need a portion of the picture above and would gladly link this blog when I put up the labels.
Please email (BlueRoseMama @ hotmail.com) soon and let me know, either way (I will not take offence if you don’t want me to use it).
Thank you!
Blessings,
Val