Good Fall Recipe

Pear Cake

2 cups sugar

3 beaten eggs

1 1/2 c cooking oil

3 c flour

1 tsp bkg soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

2 tsp cinnamon

3 c peeled and chopped pears

Combine ingredients and bake at 350 for 45 mins or until done. I used the crunchy huge Asian pears that I found for sale in an alley in Zushi - so they were like apples when they cooked - soft, but a solid piece. You could try some soft ripe "regular" pears also.

Caramel Icing

5 Tbsp butter

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 c milk

Boil gently for 3 mins and then let cool. Add

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup pwd sugar

Beat until the right consistency and then spread. Yum!!!

Unfortunately after yesterday's communal dinner we had in the courtyard, I do not have any evidence :)

Our dinner:

chicken breaded and deep fried: first coated in flour, then rolled in beaten egg, then Japanese panko crumbs. Yuri made this with the pile of chicken everyone had in freezers.

Japanese potato salad: imagine American potato salad, with mashed potatoes

salad

corn on the cob

chicken wings: spicy and regular barbecue sauce for the kids

broccoli with butter and toasted almonds, salt and pepper

rice

bakery bread from Zushi

After dinner one family moved a fire pit into the middle and lit some logs, and while we scrounged for mashmallows one family went to the mini-mart for hershey bars and graham crackers. Frankie sat by the fire for a couple of hours. Nate enjoyed it too, but soon after getting his share of treats, he and his best pal William began their long "Ben 10" DVD watching marathon and had a sleepover in our downstairs. They stayed up till 4 am, apparently. I am not sure, I faded away by 9:30. What a night owl. His mother and I are taking turns, and the boys are planning a sleepover at William's house next Thurs when they are off of school on Fri. Yay!