When Life Gives You Lemons, or Too Many Eggs...

...MAKE POUNDCAKE

A report was published in August of this year by the Natural Resources Defense Council claiming America as a country throws away 40% of our food every day, the equivalent of 20 pounds of food per person each year.  Not all is household waste, of course.  There is much American food production that never reaches the consumer. Nevertheless, the statistic is astounding to me. Forty percent is a surprising number, yet I know with surety our household contributes regularly to this waste.

Our garbage goes out to the curb on Sunday and Wednesday nights and I usually choose Sunday night as my night to clean out the refrigerator--purge the vegetable crisper, get rid of the overripe cheeses, empty the leftovers that didn't make the cut, pour out milk past its prime--you get the picture.  And let me say by way of apology composting is on my "to do" list.  My intention, as is yours I am sure, is to use what I have and not be wasteful.

I recently found myself behind the curve on egg acquisition. I am in a produce club here in town that grants me an array of local goodies each Monday afternoon consisting of fruits and veggies, milk, eggs, cheese, a meat item, fresh baked bread and an assortment of other surprises like honey, granola and jams. Yummy and thank you Windmill Market! But when I joined, I had just bought eggs and a good friend had surprised me with another dozen from his yard. The second week rolled around and I was looking at a stack of eggs in my fridge. I counted 3 dozen of the little suckers, most of them big, beautiful, brown farm eggs produced by free range local chickens, some of whom were known by name to their owner. At the risk of sounding a little bit like a bad impression of Bubba from Forrest Gump, let me say that I had made deviled eggs, egg salad, scrambled, poached and fried eggs, omelets, a Cobb salad studded with boiled egg quarters and STILL couldn't seem to get ahead.

I ponder these problems at spin class, a necessity when one has been cholesterol loading for the past week on farm eggs. What to do, what to do?  And I remember as I pedal in time to the music that one of my Christmas gifts from my mom was a tube pan, yet to be used. So my first thought was angel food cake.  Don't they take something like 12 egg whites?  But if I am honest, I just don't get that excited about angel food cake.  Poundcake excites me. Especially when I am on a spin bike. My mother makes a killer poundcake and although she generally doesn't give out the recipe, I am special. I understand I am not supposed to blog her poundcake recipe, but I am fairly sure if I adapt it and change it just enough, she will not banish me, nor will she cease sharing her best recipes with me. So here goes. I used all ingredients I had on hand, in particular making a container of whole milk ricotta cheese the star of this poundcake because that's what I had in my refrigerator.  I bought it for a pasta dish that didn't happen and felt good about repurposing it for this cake.  The results did not disappoint. You will notice I was so anxious to taste the warm cake I was not able to get a photo first.  I offer no apologies!

LEMON RICOTTA ALMOND POUNDCAKE

1-1/2 cups softened butter (3 sticks unsalted)
8 ounces whole milk ricotta cheese
3 cups sugar
6 large eggs (room temperature)
1-1/2 tsp. almond flavoring
1 tbs. lemon zest
1 tsp. lemon juice
3 cups sifted all purpose flour (sift first, then measure)
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 cup sliced almonds, lightly toasted

1.  Preheat oven to 300 degrees or 275 degrees for convection.  I put my almonds in a pan and let them toast in the oven as it preheats.  This works perfectly in my oven, but make sure you don't have a hot element that will burn the almonds instead of toast them.

2.  Grease and lightly flour a large tube pan.  I use Crisco because my mom does.  You could use butter if you don't keep Crisco in your pantry.

3.  Sift flour and measure 3 cups.  Mix in salt.

4.  In a large mixer bowl, combine the butter and ricotta cheese at low speed.  Beat 2 minutes until creamy.  Add sugar and beat 5-7 minutes, scraping the bowl often.

5.  Add eggs one at a time, beating just until the yellow disappears.  Add the almond flavoring, lemon juice and zest.

6.  Add the flour mixture gradually, beating at low speed just until blended.

7.  Pour batter into the pan and sprinkle the top of the batter with the toasted almonds.  Bake for about 1-1/2 hours.  Use a cake tester to make sure the cake is done.  Cool about 10-15 minutes before removing from the pan.  I use a small cooling rack to remove from the pan and then flip the cake very carefully so that the almonds are facing up on another cooling rack.

Note:  To any of my egg farming friends who read this, do not hesitate to share your eggs with me.  I need an occasional glut so that I can justify baking splurges such as this!