A Special Night at the Malta Drive-In

Last night Katie and Bill invited me to join them for a trip to the Malta Drive-In to see Cars 2 with their little family.  At first I thought to myself "No, I'm too tired, just want to stay home and relax" but then thought about what I'd be missing -- Henry's excitement at this rite-of-summer experience that we, in this part of the country, are still able to enjoy.

The preparations were mighty as Katie and Bill prepared for the evening.  There was the transferring of car seats from the car to the truck.  The kids were outfitted in pajamas.  Pop corn was popped (the real deal, not microwave) and portioned into individual paper sacks with our names on them.  Favorite blankets were gathered and we were on our way.

We arrived at the drive-in just as darkness fell, and the highway was illuminated by a procession of headlights making their way toward the entrance from north and south of Route 9.  Seems a lot of people thought it was a good night for a night at the drive-in.  We were too late for the dancing hot dogs and "10 minutes to show time" but we tuned the car radio to the designated station and could hear previews before we pulled in.  At $8 an adult and $3 per child (Pete, at 8 months, was given a pass!), we paid for our tickets and pulled in, backwards, to our spot.  As Adirondack chairs were arranged in the truck bed, blankets passed around, and pop corn bags doled out, we settled in to enjoy the show in the damp, cool night.  The annoyance of mosquitos was balanced by the dance of fireflies in the night, and fireworks were visible in the distance, probably from the speedway down the highway.  Pete was sound asleep in his car seat in the truck.  Henry sat in his chair and from what I could tell never moved a muscle for the entire length of the movie.  He was mesmerized!  I thought of how lovely a night it was, how cool it was that Henry was experiencing something that I enjoyed as a young girl and teenager, that my own children remember so fondly that Katie wants this experience for her children, too.  To top it all off, last night was the 60th birthday of the Malta Drive-In, such a milestone when so many drive-ins have disappeared.

Everything seemed different last night, as if we had traveled "Back to the Future," and for those couple of hours, all was just perfect with the world.

Photo:  http://www.maltadrivein.com

Hattie, Lena, and Maxine

Today was a nostalgic day, bringing to mind the early 70s when Saratoga Springs was a very different place.  Late this morning, just before my lunch hour, Katie called and asked if I wanted to meet her and the boys at the new Hattie's near the Wilton Mall, an off-shoot of the original Hattie's Chicken Shack on Caroline Street in downtown Saratoga.  Enjoying the grilled chicken salad with its wonderfully sweet  yet vinegar-y house dressing, I accepted the french fry that 3-year old Henry presented to me.  Well, actually, he fed it to me and kept going!  He had Hattie's home-made chicken tender nuggets, served with the MOST amazing home-made buttermilk ranch dressing.  I just have to, somehow, duplicate that dressing.  It was light and fresh and bright, and much less heavy than anything found in that hidden valley!

I've had dinner at the original Hattie's a few times (fried chicken, of course!), and even provided the wedding cake for a couple whose reception was held there a while back.  It was one of my first wedding cakes, and it was simple and lovely, a smooth buttercream finish to to tiers, adorned in fresh rose petals.  I remember assembling the cake in the then (and perhaps still?) un-airconditioned dining room.  When I think of Hattie's, I think of that wedding cake.

Entrance to Cafe Lena
Saratoga Springs

The other grand lady of Saratoga I came in contact with today is the Cafe Lena, named for her founder Lena Spencer.  One of my good friends from high school, Max (Maxine Train Marquis) invited a bunch of us to come hear her sing at Cafe Lena's open mic session tonight.  If you ever have a chance to attend an open mic night at Lena's, I encourage you to do it.  It'll be the best $3 you'll ever spend.  They had a full roster of performers tonight, and waiting for Max to perform was a very pleasant experience as we were able to enjoy quite of number of talented people as they strutted their various and assorted musical stuff.  I am in awe of the self-confidence and courage it takes to get up in front of a group of people and throw caution to the wind, to let it out, to share such an intimate part of one's self.  I couldn't do it, not in a million years.  And here's Max, who was the  quiet (if not fun-loving) girl in high school four decades ago, transformed into a confident vocal artist, comfortable in her own skin,  right before our eyes!  Way to go, Max!  It was a privilege to share the night with you!

Maxine Train Marquis
performing at Cafe Lena, 6-30-11

Photo:  http://blog.timesunion.com/realestate/files/2010/09/hatties.jpg

Cafe Lena photo:   http://www.caffelena.org/

Interesting Facts About You

Over the 2-plus years that I've been writing Adirondack Baker and sharing my life and recipes, you may have learned a little bit about me, but I've also learned a little bit about you, my readers.  Here are some interesting facts:







Of the 441 posts so far, and a total of 36,579 page views, the number one  page visited is  "Make Your Own Payday Candybar" (one year ago today, June 30, 2010)  with 1,211 page views.
 

You are a wide and varied audience and come from diverse locations including (but not limited to):

• US with 30,328 visits
• Canada with 11,410 visits
• UK with 1,635 visits
• Germany with 331 visits
• Australia with 279 visits
• Italy with 130 visits
• India with 111 visits
• Belgium with 107 visits
• Iran with 105 visits
• Russia with 102 visits

There have been 293 comments left for 441 posts (special thanks to Diane Loviza, Carolyn Bradford, and Colleen Barber!). 

Thanks to my 48 followers, in appreciation for the 12 we started and stayed with for a long time before there were 13, and then 14!  I hope to continue to bring you delicious things to read!

Photo credit: http://scm-l3.technorati.com/10/07/01/14453/blog.jpg

Oreo-Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookie!

Evidence of my taste "test"

OK, I could get arrested for this one.  I mean, with my WW mentality and exercising more days than I'm not, this flies in the face of good nutrition, or even just mediocre nutrition.  But it's an Oreo....an Oreo stuffed inside a home-made chocolate chip cookie.  Either one on its own is good, but together, well, it's a marriage made in chocolate-lovers heaven.  The odd thing is, I could take either or leave it, depending on the day.  On Saturday, at Teresa Loviza's bridal shower, this cookie was beautifully displayed along with my shower cupcakes and chocolate-dipped strawberries.  I couldn't help it.  I took it.  Tina made them and it would have been RUDE, I tell you, to pass it by (right?).  Have to admit, I was intrigued more than anything.  Really, why stuff a cookie within a cookie?  Just not necessary - like deep-frying a Ring Ding or pickles or even green beans for that matter.  Why ruin a good thing?  But then I tasted it, and I looked around at others who were just tasting it as well.  We shared a reaction, and it was "Oh my God!!!!"  The sum is more than its parts.  Just try it once.  You never have to go back there again, but an Oreo-stuffed chocolate chip cookie is a confectionary experience not to be missed!

OK - just remember, you have a mind of your own.  Don't blame me!

OREO-STUFFED CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE
(recipe courtesy of Picky Palate)

• 1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 package Double Stuff Oreo cookies

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cream butter and sugars together with a mixer until well combined.  Beat in eggs and vanilla.
3. In a separate bowl mix the flour, salt and baking soda.  Slowly add to wet ingredients along with chocolate chips until just combined.
4. Using a cookie scoop take one scoop of cookie dough and place on top of an Oreo Cookie.  Take another scoop of dough and place on bottom of Oreo cookie.  Seal edges together by pressing and cupping in hand until Oreo cookie is enclosed with dough.  Place onto a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet and bake cookies 9-13 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

Photo:  my own, while I had a chance

Talkin' about a Beach Wedding Cake

Today I met with a lovely mother-of-the-groom to discuss the beach-themed cupcake wedding cake I'm making for her son and his wife.  The party is in July, a local celebration for a wedding that already took place far away from home.  Cindy (the M.O.G.) was referred to me by our mutual friend Chris, for whom I've baked a number of important family cakes in the past, including individual pineapple upside down cakes for her son's rehearsal dinner a few years ago.  Those were really pretty cakes!

Cindy and I met at Uncommon Grounds in Saratoga, over my lunch hour.  We hadn't met previously, but she recognized me from having seen my blog profile picture, and I was probably the only person carrying a box of cupcakes!  For her sampling, I made Paula Deen's red velvet cupcakes (recipe posted a few weeks back).  Last night, when I thought my baking for the weekend was behind me, I remembered that I had promised my son-in-law Bill scones for his coworkers, as his way to greet them and a new week on a Monday morning.  So, I whipped together a dozen-and-a-half chocolate chip walnut scones (which were so well-received that Bill got requests for the recipe!), and later realized I needed to provide a sample for M.O.G. Cindy today.  I'd gone through two 10-lb. bags of King Arthur flour in a week (!) and there was barely two cups of flour left.  It could be done -- I took Paul Deen's recipe and halved it, coming up with almost a dozen red velvet cup cakes.  This morning, before work, I made about a quarter of Paula's corresponding recipe for cream cheese frosting, and took the iced cupcakes with me to work. 

Paula's recipe!

I really enjoyed meeting Cindy and talking about the way the cupcakes will be decorated -- with fondant sand dollars, sea shells, and little teddy graham sun bathers lolling on fruit-stripe gum towels.  She wants the cupcake display to be lively, colorful, and fun-loving.  It will be, I promise.  Can't wait to see how it comes out.  I'll keep you posted - there's about a month to go before this cake makes its debut!In the meantime, there's always time to enjoy my buddies!

Hank (l., with haircut) and Pete (r. with cuteness!)

Lovely Weekend

There's a lot to be said about taking time "to smell the roses."  Between work and baking, I've been so busy lately that it was necessary to consciously stop to enjoy life a little bit.  This past Friday night some of my highschool classmates and other friends met for a "mini-reunion" at the Seven Horse Pub in Saratoga Springs.  I hadn't been in that building since it was home to Mother Goldsmith's, a place where my parents used to enjoy a New York-style deli sandwich back in the 1970s.  With all the baking orders I had pending for this weekend, I thought that I didn't really have time to join my friends, but realized that it was important to make the time, to deliberately carve out part of the weekend to reconnect, to enjoy familiar company, and once again to remember why we are periodically drawn to spend time with each other at least once every year or so.  With social media as a catalyst, spurred by fellow classmate Cindy Kahn Kansky, the ball was rolling by word-of-mouth (or I should say "word-of-facebook") and there were more than twenty of us gathered in the upstairs dining room of the pub for a few hours Friday night.

SSHS '72ers at Seven Horse Pub

Terry Valentine McCue and
Nancy Hinckley Stevens, SSHS '72!

After enjoying that little break, I woke very early Saturday morning to begin baking again.  There was a graduation cake for Abby (I've been baking her birthday cakes since she was a little girl), and bridal shower cupcakes for my "honorary" neice Teresa Loviza.  While we're not blood-related, my family and the Lovizas have been friends for years and our children grew up together.  Teresa and my daughter Tricia were great friends as little girls, and it's lovely to see what beautiful women they've become.  Teresa is marrying Nick Rauscher in August, and Tricia will be married to Jeff Ayers in September of 2012.  It's an exciting time for all our families. 

Lovely bride-to-be Teresa Loviza

Carrot cupcake
with cream cheese frosting

Teresa's bridal shower was hosted by her family and friends at the home of her sister, Tina Rosato.  Tina has a future in either catering, food design, or interior decorating.  She is an artist in the way she creates a beautiful atmosphere for celebration.  Her home is a reflection of her talent, a joyful and visually beautiful place, and an intimate setting for hosting a shower for her only sister.  My contribution to the shower was carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, decorated with fondant flowers, displayed on my trusty custom-made cupcake stand (one of the best investments I've ever made!). 

I came home to a little more baking which I took care of while Russ was off playing nine holes of golf at Brookhaven.  I spent a little time with my boys, Hank and Pete, and later Russ and I enjoyed dinner at Winslow's in Wilton.  It was a lovely first-half of the weekend.  Today finds me with no baking to do at all, and time to reflect on the weekend still left to smell the roses!

Pete, now 8 months cute!

Henry the builder

Claira's Cake



It's busy baking season.  Ask anyone who bakes regularly, and they'll tell you that June is intense.  Since I am not a professional and bake mostly for requests from friends and family, the impact is not as intense for me as it is for the pros.  Still, for the past month or so, I've been baking an average of three cakes a weekend, and next weekend will be busy as well.  There are special cakes lined up for graduations and also for a bridal shower for a very special young woman I've known since the day she was born, Teresa Loviza.   I'm very excited about that one and will provide a step-by-step photo journal of its creation.

Sometimes, looking forward toward a busy baking weekend, I wonder  how I'll be able to get it all done.  Days before, the creative process kicks into gear and I begin to build a cake in my mind.  I spend days with inspired motivation, mentally revise the cake a few times, and ultimately sketch out the final design.  Even then, the cake can take on a different design as it is being created.  I really never know what the actual cake will look like until it's done.

This past weekend I made a birthday cake for Claira, my 5-year old great neice.  Claira is a beautiful little girl, with dark brown eyes, warm chestnut hair, and a shy smile.  Her mom, my neice Louise, called Saturday to ask if I was planning to make Claira's cake.  The week had gotten away from both of us, so a cake wasn't planned but I was very happy to make a cake to mark this first "big" birthday, even with one day's notice.  Five years old is a big deal.  I remember when I turned 5.  That morning I woke up thinking I was taller and that I could definitely run faster.  It's the first milestone birthday that a child will remember.  I wanted Claira's cake to be something she'd remember along with her special day, to join in her memories of her first big-girl bike (a 2-wheeler, pink and white, with all the bells and whistles).

Birthday girl Claira - with self-applied
make up (washable!)...

Henry checking out Claira's
new birthday bike!

Louise said Claira requested a chocolate cake with choclate frosting, and for the design..."just something pretty."  I went to my standard Hershey cake recipe, for both the cake and frosting (found on the back of the cocoa tin). I decided to make a cake with flowers, and a bumble bee, and a few lady bugs.  Louise is an outdoors-type mom who has always loved nature and growing things.  I figured Claira would appreciate the same.  So, I got out the fondant and food colorings, and went to work.  It took a couple of hours of creative energy, and I made a big mess in the process and was glad to be finished,  but when I saw the look on Claira's face as she first laid eyes on her cake, it was all worth it.  It's always worth it!