Ana bakes a cake from a French children's recipe: a unit cake!

When Ana landed on Earth, all our foods were new to her, of course: thousands of cuisines, tens of thousands of flavors, millions of recipes. We shouldn't be surprised that some of her attempts at cooking should be unusual and innovative. (They weren't all successful, either.)


One of her early baking experiments was from a French recipe used to teach children how to cook. It's called, as far as we know, a "unit cake," because it can be made using whatever unit of measure (preferably small) one cares to use. Ana used a simple graduated cup measure, and that's what we recommend for this recipe. The teaspoon is the only other unit needed.

You will notice, in the recipe below, that "well-greased" is underlined. That is because Ana's first cake stuck to the pan, and when it was turned out on a plate, developed some unsightly cracks. Making sure the pan is well greased will likely avoid this.

Her husband Matt, no slouch in the kitchen, came to her rescue, making a butterscotch/pecan sauce to cover the imperfections (see above). After all, their house is surrounded by thousands of pecan trees.... This sauce is not really needed, and you are on your own if you want to duplicate it. (Hint: Matt added a few sprinkles of rum to the cake before pouring on the sauce.)


Unit Cake with Yogurt

1 unit yogurt (one cup works well; a smaller measure is also fine)

1 1/2 units flour

2 units sugar (less is OK)

3/4 unit oil

1 1/2 t. vanilla

lemon or orange zest

1 t. baking soda

1 1/2 t. baking powder

chopped fruit (2 apples or pears work well)

Bake in a well-greased bundt pan @ 350º for 30 minutes--not longer, or the cake will be dry

Let it cool 15-20 minutes before turning onto a plate.


See lots more of Ana's unusual and/or favorite recipes in the column to the right, beneath the photo of cranberry-apple pie, including:

Authentic Czech kolaches

Killer Méndez Family salsa

Oodles of pizza experiments

Thai-style crepes

Korean carne al pastor?? Ana??

A bizarre, delicious bruschetta?

Authentic cattle-drive Méndez family frijoles

Edible roses??

Why not meet Ana Darcy?

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Spanish food? A tortilla??

The Méndez family, before Ana Darcy became a part of it, being good New Mexicans, had never heard of a "Spanish tortilla." It wasn't long after that Ana (from another planet, after all) joined them, exercising her powerful curiosity about the cuisines of the world. She discovered this simple, savory dish--thanks to her Spanish professor friend, Charo Silva (in Distant Cousin).

The photo above shows most of what one needs to know about it: it's a sort of omelet, with potato cubes and onions sauteed in a pan, and an egg slurry poured over them. There's no need for a recipe here--they are easy to find with any search engine. The picture is worth many words.

The Méndez clan like theirs with their favorite salsa on top, but we have it on good authority that many Spaniards slather theirs with homemade mayonnaise or aioli!

There are many more recipe ideas in the right column under the photo of cranberry-apple pie, including:

Méndez family traditional frijoles recipe

Cranberry-orange relish

Thai-style coconut shrimp

Thai-style crepes for the holidays

Korean carne al pastor

Czech kolaches

Plus at least a dozen creative pizza ideas!

Now, meet Ana Darcy!

New Mexican food!

After having just shown some photos of Mesilla's most famous restaurant, La Posta, it seems the perfect time to show some photos of New Mexican-style food! No one could be surprised that someone from another planet, like Ana, would love it. Everyone loves it.

Here's a shrimp salad with strips (rajas) of fresh green chiles from Hatch, New Mexico. These chiles are NOT picante. They are barely sauteed, fresh, crunchy, and delicately tangy, and probably cannot be duplicated anywhere outside of the region.

Here's a thin steak, Tampequeño style, laid on a red tomato sauce and white cheese, with sauteed tomatoes, onions, and chile rajas on top. Awesome!

Next, we have caldo de pollo (chicken soup). This was a small bowl!

In a bit of cross-cultural pollenization, here's a pizza with fresh chile rajas. ¡Sí, señor!

And finally, we have fresh chiles from Hatch, New Mexico, purchased at a farmer's market. The ones on the right are fresh, of course. The ones on the left have been roasted and peeled and then frozen, saving one the work of doing it at home. If you have a choice, this is the way to buy them. For the gardeners, we are told that the chiles most prized are Anaheim and Big Jim varieties.

New Mexican food

Excellent salsa recipe

Méndez family frijole recipe

Tortilla soup & other Mexican soups

Meet Ana Darcy!

See more food ideas in the column to the right under the photo of cranberry-apple pie a la mode-->

Ana's Italian appetizer inspiration: pizzete!

Readers of Distant Cousin will remember Ana's first encounter with pizza, only a few days after she came to Earth. It made quite an impression on her--she's loved pizza ever since. Here's an example of how she has adapted and extended the idea of pizza.


Ana was shopping for a small party she and Matt were going to have, and in so doing, came up with an idea for an appetizer which, like many of her cooking ideas, turned out not to be entirely original. One of her Italian guests, a professor, was delighted to recognize them from his childhood: pizzete ("little pizzas"). So while not quite an original dish, it is unusual, and we present it here as an idea ripe for improvisation rather than as a fixed recipe.

In the grocery store, she spied a dozen tiny pastry shells in tiny, disposable baking dishes. Everyone likes pizza, but pizza, with its large, floppy slices, makes an awkward appetizer. Ana took several dozen of the pastry shells home to elaborate upon.

This was her procedure:

First, she put small slices of smoked gouda cheese in the bottom of each pastry shell. Then she tossed fresh cherry tomatoes from her garden in olive oil, salt and pepper and a touch of oregano, and added one on top of each slice of gouda. Finally, she added a small slice of her fresh mozzarella cheese and a garnish of basil on top of each cherry tomato. Then she roasted them under a flame until the tomatoes started to collapse, to bring out their sweetness.

Presto! An entire pizza in one bite! To use one of her favorite English words, they were yummy!

More Italian-related recipe ideas:

How to make fresh mozzarella

Bruschetta

Pizza dough & sauce

Pizza experiments: one two three four five
Meet Ana Darcy!

See other Ana-related recipe ideas in the column at right, under the picture of cranberry-apple pie a la mode!

Ana discovers the Italians' best use of the frittata

Ana Darcy Méndez has always enjoyed talking to people from other countries. In her first years on Earth, she occasionally asked embarrassing questions, but she soon learned to use her cover story, of being an immigrant from Argentina, as an entree to a discussion. It never failed--people are invariably pleased to enlighten interested listeners about their homelands.


Now, married into a locally prominent New Mexican family, she takes pleasure in hosting international visitors and guests, many associated with the local university. It was from one of these, a faculty member from Italy, that she learned that a frittata is not merely an omelette, no indeed. It's a way to make leftover pasta into a new and tasty dish!

The photo above shows the result. She started with a bowl of leftover spaghetti and sauce, wonderful the first time around, but now a little dry. Using the knowledge she gained from her Italian guest, she packed it into a pan, covered it with an egg slurry, added some grated cheese on top, and fried it. (A few minutes in the oven helped melt the cheese and brown the top.) Served garnished, in wedges, it was delicious. The origin of the dish would be nearly impossible to guess!

Ana's other food ideas and recipes:

Savory frijoles

Outstanding, quick salsa

Tortilla soup

Tropical Mexican cocktail

Many pizza improvisations!

Thai-style coconut shrimp!

Korean-style carne al pastor!

Ana makes fresh mozzarella--easy!

Czech-style kolaches!

Cranberry-orange relish: sheer poetry!

A Kolache Recipe from a Czech Grandmother

Who would have expected a woman from another planet to experiment with the cuisines of Earth? As a Kindle Board member said, “It's always a pleasure to read a book where the character is so fleshed out that I feel I would know him/her if I met them on the street. Not only would I know them, I'd have invited them to lunch so we could chat!” Learn more!

Wheat was new to Ana when she came to Earth—needless to say. Thomans have many sources of carbohydrates (starches), some of which are similar to several of our grains, but wheat and corn, to name just two, are among Ana’s favorite grains on her new planet.

She loves baked goods, and baking. Here’s a recipe that came to her second or third hand from an honest-to-goodness Czech grandmother. It’s for kolaches, the traditional, much-loved Czech pastry. There’s nothing experimental about this recipe. It comes from the old Czecheslovakia to Texas, where it almost certainly has been used daily for over a hundred years.


True Czech Kolaches

1 cup of milk
1/2 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of butter
1/4 cup shortening or lard
1 teaspoon of salt
1 package of yeast
1/4 cup of warm water
2 eggs
4 to 5 cups of flour

Scald the milk. Dissolve sugar and salt, and melt butter in milk. Cool.

Proof yeast in water. Add milk mixture and eggs. Work in flour, keeping softer than for bread. Let rise one hour.

Shape into balls. Depress center. Fill with fruit of your choice. Place close together on greased pan. Let rise for 30 minutes.

Bake at 350 degrees, until light brown.


(Many more recipes in the right column, halfway down)

Meet Ana Darcy!

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Wearable art Ana loves from Mexico, Ecuador, and Guatemala