Here We Go!

Last 2 days at the lake.

Last 2 days with family in Seattle.

Fly to Tunisia on Monday.

Thankfully the "To Do" list is keeping my mind occupied so that I'm not in a total state of anxiety. We need to get the house cleaned and organized, pack up what is left here, and find some interesting ways to use up what food we have left.  If you happen to have a recipe that uses blackberries, 2 stalks of celery, half a loaf of sourdough bread, and 3 veggie burgers to feed a family of 4 I'd love to see it!

Last night was the final BBQ. We spent a slightly chilly evening sitting around a fire in the backyard of an old friend talking about life and the path that it has taken. It wasn't the path that either of us had expected, for him there have been many painful moments of late but goodness is coming. I can just feel it. For my family, we hadn't set out to live overseas, but we have embraced it and we have grown, and we love this funky little life we have. I think we are ready for this move. We've read about Carthage, where we will be living. We have seen pictures of our new home and imagined a bit about what life will be like there. We have taken French lessons so we can communicate (sort of). We have talked, and prayed, and cried, and dreamed as a family. Yes. We're ready.

We took a dessert to the BBQ. I needed to use up what was left of our flour, sugar, butter etc. So I settled on a pound cake as it would use up the most of what we had.  So here you have it, the last recipe from summer 2011.

See you in Tunisia!

Lemon Blueberry Pound Cake

Adapted from Sara Foster, The Foster's Market Cookbook

Serves 12

For the Cake: 

3 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 ½ cups butter at room temperature

8 oz cream cheese at room temperature

3 cups granulated sugar

6 eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 tablespoons of lemon zest

2 cups of blueberries, fresh or frozen

2 tablespoons of flour

For the Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

juice from one large lemon

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour a 10 cup bundt pan.

In a mixing bowl place the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to combine and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl beat until well combined and slightly fluffy the butter and cream cheese. Add the sugar and beat until fluffy and light in color, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla and lemon zest and mix well to combine.

On low speed add the flour mixture and mix well.

Toss the blueberries with the 2 tablespoons of flour. This will prevent the berries from sinking in the cake. Gently fold the berries into the batter.

Spoon the batter into the prepared bundt pan. Bake for 1 hour-1 hour and 15 minutes or until a tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. While the cake is baking mix together the powdered sugar and the lemon juice. Stir until the sugar dissolves then set aside.

When the cake is removed from the oven allow it to rest for 10 minutes. Turn cake out onto serving platter and while still warm drizzle the glaze evenly over the top of the cake.  Allow to cool completely before serving.