North College Hill Bakery...the best!

I just love bakery ladies...don't you?

                             

Is that a creme horn sitting next to that German chocolate cake?

This week end we went to Cincinnati to stay with Joe and Glenda for fun and to help out since they were unable to go to Hilton Head for the first time in seventeen years.  We cheered them up and I rediscovered the best bakery in the nation: North College Hill Bakery.  When I was dating Andy at Otterbein we used to go to Cincinnati for special dates and dances with his high school friends and Hilda, Andy's mother, discovered how much I liked the German coffee cake from the Greenhills bakery.  They too must have been German because this week end I found the exact coffee cakes at an old established bakery in North College Hill.  It was Saturday morning and people were actually running to get inside this tiny shop.  Numbers were given and one felt rushed to make room for other customers but I escaped with two coffee cakes; a cherry cheese one and an apple one.  There were hundreds more I wanted but the crowd the crowd.  I left the apple one for Joe and Glenda but brought home the cherry cheese one for today's lunch.  Mike ate half of it!  He remembered it from when HE was a little boy and carried on about how many of his Cincinnati memories were made up of this coffee cake. I also bought their slider buns which are terrific.  It is a place to rave about.  I want to make this style of low and long or round and thin-based coffee cake (I think I can do the top) but I can't find a recipe for it, so I am going to have to experiment, darn it.

Here are some shots of their products. And here it is. my favorite!

Did you say cherry cheese danish? Be still my heart!

And, here is a resounding review:

Best Coffee Cakes in Cincy

07/05/11 • Likes it

Diner from Cincinnati • DanH • 1 review

I moved from NCH 54 years ago and I now travel 150 miles to NCH Bakery two or three times a year to buy numerous coffee cakes...specifically double butter and apple cinnamon. I usually buy 10 to 12 (they freeze nicely). Cheese Danish is also a favorite on my list. There is no better pastry anywhere.

North College Hill Bakery

Crispy, flaky, cinnamon-sugar coated elephant ears - baked fresh today.

Is that cherry strudel? Is some of that coming home with me?

by Audrey Gose

Wedding Cake

by paula5835

Peanutbutter pie

by Dr. M. Teresa

North College...

by Dr. M. Teresa

North College...

So I am into coffee cakes and here is my rendition from this morning.  The base is more sturdy than the bakery and so I need to refine it to a more cake like base...although my base hold up much better and does not get soggy.

 

                   

Cherry cheese coffee cake. (Andy says it looks

like a pizza.) Click on this picture to get a good view of what it really looks like...and it is delicious.  I got the topping right.

Get your bibs on~

Yep, it's time to break out the ice cream maker.  This time last year we were heading for Hilton Head with the family carrying our trusty new ice cream machine with us. It got a work out every day for a week and I have not used it since.  But three things happened to call my attention to this cool goodness: Williams-Sonoma has a new product shown above.  An ice cream mix concoction which I ordered the minute I viewed it and I will let you know if it is good as it could be...or if you have already used it, I'd like to read about it. Then, my niece called to say Glenda and Joe can't go to Hilton Head on Friday because Glenda re injured her leg that has been operated on two times already. So Andy and I are going down to see them for the week end so they won't feel so badly about missing Hilton Head for the first time in seventeen years. And, lastly, the family will be here for the 4th and they better have their bibs on, because it will be an ice cream eating frenzy.  We may have ice cream as a starter.

Note:  I have a whine.  There was a blog that I have (had) on my favorites and I read it every day even before I checked my own, my mail, or my Facebook.  It was an English blog or at least it is written from England.  I just loved it and referred to it many times in my own blog. But, more and more it became ads for free products sent for testing to this woman. (Coupled with her frequent lament about her lack of funds  it became obvious and tiring.)  She still has to this day lovely recipes, good writing, and nice pictures of her food that she produces every day--all good qualities, all hard work.  But we are inundated with ads every where we turn and I don't mind learning about new products such as the ice cream mixes (above) that are entirely new to me, and paid for by me.  But showing a free blender (and who does not own a blender?) and writing and writing and writing about it and then showing some recipes she used with it is not what I want to see. So when someone commented about this on her blog, she was furious and wrote scathing replies.  So I added my two cents in a nice way, at least for me, and she was displeased again.  So, you will not be hearing another thing from her 'gimmie'  kitchen on this blog.

Note:  You know that I did not like the book Delicious.  But, I just finished Chiefs by Stuart Woods and  it was so good I hated to have it end and it was a many-paged book.  I look forward to passing it on to Andy and then Joe.  We seem to like the same type of books although Andy goes off on these historical tangents every once in a while.  He is so enjoying his summer class at Ohio State with several football players in this sports related class.  He is signed up for every day of the week starting fall semester.

DELICIOUS by Ruth Reichl Or, Gag Me With A Spoon

               A better title would be Gidget Bakes A Cake.  I cannot finish this insipid, disappointing book!                              

Guess what I am doing today?  Ruth's book arrived late yesterday or I would have  been up all night.  Instead, I am sitting by the pool and reading this cover to cover, work forgotten.  Dogs fed, dishwashers going, everyone out the door full of frititta and Ruth and I are alone at last.  I have read everyone of her books, in fact, she got me through sleepless nights in Paris many times. She has a way with words using them to draw the reader into the fold.  If you have not read her, try: Tender to the Bone; Comfort Me with Apples; Garlic and Sapphires; Endless Feasts, and, For you, Mom, Finally.

Note:

Don't rush out to buy this book.  It is not as good as I had hoped and I may have trouble finishing it.  Maybe I need Paris to enjoy her work, but maybe she is just off on this one. (Or maybe I am off and stuck on Stuart Woods' books.  (Still like his work and I have read sixteen of his books so far; one while I was trying to get through Delicious.) I am, however, still working on Delicious, hoping for the best, but fearing the worst.

picture from

David Lebovitz

Speaking briefly about France, look at these French fresh strawberries...red through and through like a berry is supposed to look. When we find them here, like this, it is a real treat.  Otherwise, forget it as far as I'm concerned.

One of the new cakes from the Country Cook, Brandi, lured me into thinking I should picture it for you and make it.  Brandi now has a 'fix' on her pictures, which is a shame because they entice people to make the cake. But, alas, until I make the Lemon cake for you, you can't see it.  It reads tasty.  Can't do it today, I am reading Delicious, but if you want to try it...

One box of French vanilla cake mix.  Make the cake with the ingredients and directions on the back of the box. Pour the batter into a greased baking dish and take a can of Comstock lemon pie filling and put dollops of it all over the cake then swirl the contents around in any design you like.  It won't matter because it is going to sink into the cake any way.  Bake the cake at 350 until your oven indicates it's done, around 40 minutes.

Cool the baked cake.  For the frosting take one tub of lemon flavored frosting and one tub of thawed Cook Whip and mix them together really well and frost the cake with this mixture.  Cool again.

Note: She and I use Comstock pie filling but if you can't find it use any canned filling or make your own.  One might even try ready made lemon curd too--haven't done that, but why not?

The Country Cook  (I made this today and it is delicious.)

Lemon Dream ~ Never mind, I figured out how to get the picture, but do try The Country Cook on Facebook and on Pinterest. She's good.

Stehlin's Meat Market~ Cincinnati

I have no idea what is wrong with this blog posting.  I have lost the last two blogs that were posted and cannot get the new one on at all. I will try it later.

                                                                                           

The start of the cheese ball.

The finished product which can nearly always be found in my frig.



The morning frittata which can usually be found waiting for consumption by whom ever wants to start their day in goodness.

Stehlin's meat market on Coleraine Avenue in Cincinnati has served the city for over one hundred years.  I have shopped there for at least forty years off and on...and now on a lot. My niece, Pam, has brought me lovely things over Memorial Day and I am putting them to very good use.  Their dried beef for the cheese ball shown above is the best bar none.  I nearly always have this form of cheese ball in the frig for drop in guests who come for drinks and a bite.  I got the recipe from a woman who was in my wedding fifty-five years ago and when Glenda (my sister-in-law) and I first saw it we raced to see who could make it first and best.  Now Glenda follows the recipe exactly but I adventure and stray to add things that make it even more delicious.  You can't hurt this recipe so if you are kitchen challenged, this is your go to recipe.  Simple take two room temperature boxes of cream cheese and then dice and chop and season with anything that goes well with a savory cream cheese...onions of any kind, chives, hot sauce (or not), olives (if you like them) herbs of all kinds and on and on.  The stores have dried beef but Stehlin's is the best.  Pam also brought two packages of ox tails which are burbling away in the crock pot as I write. They slow cook in Mr. and Mrs. T's spicy bloody Mary mix and wine with vegetables After everything is taken out one has a lovely tomato soup to enjoy first. The ox tails come in a tied bouquet and they are a delightful treat for soups, on mashed potatoes, noodles and many other combinations.  The meat falls from the bones and I put the bones in the frig for the dogs' treats.  Stehlin's bones were the first real bones my  dogs have ever chewed. (Thank you, Pam.)

  Now the frittata has a potato base and again, anything goes here even scatterings of dried beef, left over ox tail meat, sausage (which Stehlin's is known for) bacon, then top it with whipped eggs and cheese.  Start it on the stove and once the eggs are on pop it in the oven and Bob's your uncle.

Stehlin's, I am told, is the only shop to butcher their own meat out back of the store.  It is theirs, fresh, and delicious.  I am told recently a cow from there escaped and tried to get to the freeway to get the heck out of town. He didn't make it and was captured.

Make it memorable~ company's coming

                                               
                                                           

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The number of Memorial Day guests has risen to over thirty. The cooking is well on the way and tomorrow is work day indoors and out for all the Lechlers here at Many Branches. I've made two cakes so far today.  This rum cake if from the Nordic bundt cake book and, of course, this is baked in a Nordic pan.  The rum glaze is exceptional and can be used on many different cakes.  There is also rum in the batter.  If it tastes as good as I think it will, I'll post the simple recipe.

We are supposed to have 83 degrees and sunny Monday.  Sounds perfect.  This week has been fantastic for loafers and workers alike.  In between cooking and waiting for things to come out of the oven, I have two Stuart Woods books that I am reading, one upstairs and one downstairs.  Woods has around forty novels  that he has written and I just discovered him.  I've read seven so far.  That's what I do.  I find an author I like and devour him/her and then search for another that I can get attached to. Since my TV shows are gone for the summer I am into House of Cards.  It is so good and distasteful at the same time.  If  our government is really that bad, then we are in real trouble.

Well, I'm off to the next dish.  If it is pretty I will take a picture for the blog.  I am busy setting up serving stations as well for the two meals for Monday.

Note: It is Sunday and everyone came after church to eat and swim.  They are all looking forward to the Cincinnati gang's arrival.  Families are great and it is a treat that everyone enjoys the company of others.

Cook's Corner is back~

At last.  The Dispatch has hired Lisa Abraham as food editor and the section of this newly formatted newspaper is back to interesting.  I was so afraid that Cook's Corner would simply wither and die while the sports section continued to nibble taking up more and more space.  I look forward to Wednesday mornings with my coffee and the cooking section with all of its helpful information, places to go, things to try and hints such as this one: Someone asked Lisa the difference between cake flour and regular all purpose flour and it is because of the levels of protein. Who knew? If a recipe calls for cake flour and you only have regular flour this is what you do: Take regular flour and for every 1 cup of this (all-purpose) flour, remove 2 tablespoons of that and replace it with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch. Stir to combine.  Cake flour makes lighter cakes.  Today her section is full of interesting recipes such as custard-filled cake. Each time she is listing and describing a  cookbook that she has discovered to be exceptional.  She has a contest going to name a food that Columbus is famous for and of course one of the choices for which to vote would be Buckeyes. How about shaved asparagus with mushrooms and Parmesan crumble?  Shaved asparagus reveals more flavor. Who knew?  I am trying this recipe too. After I finish reading this section of the paper, I'll get back to the blog.  I have many more things to reveal from the pages of Cook's Corner. Yea! Thank you, Lisa.

Custard filled cake

1 tablespoon lemon juice 6 tablespoons orange juice 1/3 cup water 1/2 cup sugar 2 tablespoons flour 1/8 teaspoon salt 3 egg yolks 1 1/2 cups whipping cream 2 teaspoons vanilla 1 tablespoon sugar 1 two-layer cake, white or yellow

Cook lemon juice, orange juice, water, 1/2 cup sugar, flour, salt and egg yolks in the top of a double boiler until thick. Cool.

Beat cream, vanilla and sugar until whipped cream holds its shape.

Fold small amount of whipped cream into custard and use to fill cake. Pile remaining custard filling onto top of top layer of cake.

Frost top and sides of cake with remaining whipped cream.

— M.B., Columbus

SHAVED ASPARAGUS WITH MUSHROOMS AND PARMESAN CRUMBLE

Makes 4 servings

2 ounces Parmesan, grated Generous 1/3 cup walnut halves 1 pound medium asparagus 1/4 pound white mushrooms 1 tablespoon minced chives 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 tablespoon lemon juice Salt

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a silicon sheet or parchment paper. Spoon the grated Parmesan in 1-tablespoon mounds on the sheet and press lightly to flatten. Bake until the cheese is melted and browned, about 7 to 8 minutes. Remove from the heat and cool.

When the Parmesan crisps are done, place the walnuts on the baking sheet and bake until toasted and fragrant, about 5 minutes. Remove and cool.

To shave the asparagus: Lay a stalk flat on the cutting board, holding it at the base. Starting at about where the pale base turns green, use a vegetable peeler to shave the stalk in long, even strips all the way through the tip. When you’ve gotten about halfway through the stalk, turn it over and start on the other side. When you reach the point that the peeler will no longer shave the spear, rest the spear on top of the flat handle of a wooden spoon to elevate it and take the last two or three strips.

You can either discard what remains or save it to make an asparagus soup.

Trim the bottoms of the stems from the mushrooms so they’ll sit flat on the work surface. Using a very sharp knife, slice the mushrooms as thin as you can.

Combine the asparagus shavings, mushrooms and walnuts in a large mixing bowl, and toss gently.

Place the minced chives in the bottom of a small bowl and cover with the olive oil. Add the lemon juice and 1/2 teaspoon salt, and whisk until smooth. Pour all but a teaspoon or so of the dressing over the asparagus mixture and toss gently with your hands to lightly coat. Add the rest of the vinaigrette, a little at a time, as necessary. Season with salt to taste.

Arrange the salad on a platter, and crack the Parmesan crisps over the top in large pieces. Serve immediately.

You can view the entire Cook's Corner on line, but it is not as satisfying to me as holding the paper for some reason. Dispatch.com/food

Try not to kill your family and guests according to Doyle:

Wash fruits, vegetables ( I must admit, after reading this I am going to be more careful!)

Food-borne illnesses are often traced to fruits or vegetables, so pay extra attention when preparing them.

All fruits and vegetables should be washed under cold running water to help eliminate bacteria.

Even with a clean knife, the bacteria on the outside of a melon’s rind can be carried to the inside of the melon’s flesh. Take a brush and scrub summer favorites such as watermelon and cantaloupe under cold running water before cutting into them.

Tests have shown, Doyle said, that the friction from the scrubbing and rubbing eliminates bacteria more effectively than does running water.

“It’s as important or even more important as the washing,” he said.

The natural sugar in fruit makes fruit the perfect petri dish for bacterial growth, so dishes such as fruit salad and tossed salad face a greater risk of contamination than mayonnaise-based salads.

Even bacteria that would usually be harmless can multiply to harmful levels on cut fruit.

Washing fruits and vegetables, Doyle said, also helps to eliminate any pesticides lingering on their surfaces.

Prepare to be happy~

I've decided on reflection that I am going to choose to be happy.  Nothing is going to get me down.  I have a good life and it seems the lives of others have a ripple effect that can cause one to be tense, nervous, and, down right unhappy.  But their (adult) choices are not mine, their mistakes are not mine, and their troubles are not mine, so why make them such?  You give your best advice and if they don't take it and want other options then they misinterpret the meaning of ' best advice.' I have also come to the conclusion that some people thrive on drama and if that is the only way they can get attention they stir the pot until everything and everyone  is in an uproar. When I was in Paris I rented an apartment from a woman named Marion.  She was so chipper and happy and everything was just all right with her--YES, she was French. She had cancer and was on foot, but with the knowledge she was to die in short order.  Beyond that, she had many children who had this trouble and that trouble, grandchildren out of control, and a husband with a reputation, yet she one day decided to always be happy and positive and that is the way she lived the last years of her life.  It was beautiful to behold.  The last time I rented her apartment she stood on the steps waving me and my fifteen trunks good-bye and as I looked back I knew it was the last time I would see her.  Yet her lesson keeps reappearing in my mind.  You have it good, decide to be happy. She had it bad and she decided to be happy, so I am one step ahead of the game. You know the people with troubles are going to out live you and one day they are going to have to get it right and they will have to do it on their own without your best advice, which they usually don't take any way.  So why keep on keeping on?

So on to happy notes: We re having around twenty-five people for Memorial Day.  It is to be, I read, 83 degrees and sunny.  Perfect.  I have been making two dishes a day to get ahead of the game.  I'm setting up the serving areas and Andy is the store runner and the pool man. He likes those jobs.  Yesterday I nearly killed my back weeding the bricks and trimming around the pool, work that I hate. ( Oops, see, it is not easy to be positive when it comes to bad weeds.) However, I loved the results. There. I'm back to positive. (It takes practice and as long as I don't drive past the welfare offices during the first week of the month, I can maintain positive.)  I am an inside girl and that work I don't mind.  Unless I am sitting in the sun reading or playing cards and having drinks, I don't want to be doing anything more strenuous than that outdoors.

So the menu: Two meals, one around brunch time with starters, asparagus and Mushroom Frittata (why in color and under lined?), cheese boards, wings, chicken balls, ham and bean soup, ribs, pastas of many kinds, salads, pulled pork sliders, buffalo chicken sliders and pies by Pam.

 Meal two: deviled eggs, hamburgers, brats, hot dogs on the grill, fruit salads, sides. (Plenty of wine, cocktails and various drinks.)

We are celebrating Alex's graduation with honors, Andrew's return home from service for good and unharmed, and our men in service and our wounded warriors whom we should all be taking care of in as many ways as possible. Thank you for your service to our country,

Happy days ahead for all of you and a wonderful Memorial week end.

Comfort Food and Comfortable People~

Growing up we often had hamburger steak for dinner.  I don't recall ever having a regular steak at home. We had this dish with mashed potatoes and gravy made from the drippings from the frying of the hamburger steaks. Delicious.  I have to say I have never made this dish in all the years I have been married and I don't know why. I saw this picture from South in your Mouth and vow to take this on  one day soon.  I do also recall as a child the best hamburger I have ever put in my mouth was fresh beef  in hamburger form straight from the butchering.  It has an entirely different taste and one that is remembered all these years.

Then there is pizza.  Ahhh. I was a senior in high school on a date.  We went to this little place in Parkersburg, West Virginia and my date ordered this beautiful pie.  Had never seen one.  Had never heard of it.  When I tasted it it was cast in the 'memory taste' that stayed with me and it is a fond thought. I remember the pizza but forget the boy who bought it. The next year I attended Otterbein and had pizza on a regular basis.  In fact I walked eight miles for pizza with my sorority sisters on a walk for some cause--forgot the cause remember the pizza AND the eight mile walk.

It started when we were newly married in one of the very first apartment building areas in Columbus off of Olentangy Road.  Our new friends kept wanting us to come for coffee and I wondered why?  I was not a coffee drinker and my parents never had time to 'go for coffee' or 'come for coffee', so it took me a long time to get it.  Now,it is a comfort that I enjoy every day.

 

We are looking forward to today and Joe's family reunion. I don't have to cook and that is a lovely thing. I'll have pictures, I'm sure.  Even though I am not cooking we are not going empty handed: we have Joe's gift Maker's Mark and a new whiskey (to us)called Knob Creek named after Lincoln's birth place in Kentucky.  I've not seen Joe drink that, so it should be a nice treat for him.  Stuart Woods, the author of around forty novels and ones that I am really in to at the moment, wrote of Knob Creek Bourbon in many of his books. Then our niece Kathy loves brussel sprouts and eats them like popcorn.   I am taken a dish of those for her. Her husband gets Mr. and Mrs. T, a spicy bloody Mary mix that I find to my liking and I wanted him to try that.   Tom and Chee enjoy my homemade granola, so we have some bags of that for them.  Pam gets wine and George gets granola too. We five will be there with bells on in just a few hours, with pleasure.

We had a great family reunion today in Cincinnati.  Here are some pictures. Click on the pictures to make them larger.

Week end celebrations~

May is full of celebrations and we are hitting them all;  starting Saturday with Joe Lechler's 80th birthday family reunion in Cincinnati. Being the oldest, he is now the patriarch of the Lechler family and they are traveling from far and wide to honor him.. Then his grand daughter, Alex,  graduated magna cum laude with a BA in Chemistry. 
  We will celebrate this and the return, for good, of Andrew Isfort, Joe's  grandson, having served his country with honor.

 Beth's children, Brooks and Alyssa, both sported a 4.0 this year as well. This is a month of family bragging and joy and congratulations.  Then there is Memorial Day itself....The wish I have is that our veterans and wounded warriors are well taken care of by our government and thanked by the people they protected through these egregious wars.

Have a lovely month of May.

Ode to Mother's Day

                                                     

I am cooking this year for Mother's Day.  I can't stand the crowds, the lines, and the so so food that is offered in restaurants any more.  The prices for a dish of pasta makes me gag.  It's a big change.  I always wanted to go out for special occasions or no occasion at all, and now I don't.  Now when we travel to Florida in January, I don't mind breakfast at Cracker Barrel, but I do want a nice restaurant for dinner and I don't mean McDonald's dollar menu.  I don't often eat out, so I want something decent in the evenings while on a trip or at the beach house. It is only fair after cooking all year and even cooking on vacation.  I don't mind it, I actually like it, but I don't want to fight to get to go out some times while away from home.

So Sunday is prime rib day with a leek and potato gratin.  Andy has some nice lettuce growing already and a bit of broccoli, the start of a cauliflower head, some green onions and the herbs are growing wild this year.  The kale has popped up much to many family member's delight, so kale it is for the salad.  I am on a cake baking jag and just finished a Margarita cake that is delicious.  You'll want this recipe.  Brooks, the 4.0 cadet and Alyssa the 4.0  lass who took a year off and is back now focused and ready to take on her last year at Tulane will be here.  We are proud of the job Beth has done with these two and she  did it alone and should be celebrated on Sunday as a special mother. Mothers are rarely properly thanked through out the year so they should be really celebrated on Sunday. I must admit I was not always present on Mother's Day for my mother and I regret it.  I never thanked her properly or often enough for all of her sacrifices, kindnesses and love until the end, but she would have appreciated it more when she was healthy.  True, it's a regret one cannot fix now. But I miss her every day. So to all you mothers near and far, much happiness to you starting Sunday and lasting for a life time.  It is a difficult job and we don't always do it well.

           
 To Elizabeth Anderson with love and respect.

Memories

There are a lot of changes going on here at Many Branches.  With that comes unearthing pictures of special events of the past and in one case here, the future. Joe, Andy's brother, turned 80 years old a few days ago and his daughters are planning a big family reunion.  Their invitations for the event were clever and memorable.  Here is the one for Joe's party.

As we are redoing the guest apartment Matt found this picture of his father, Mike, at a basketball camp run by the then Ohio State basketball coach Fred Taylor.  Mike is adorable (as usual) and I think the family will enjoy these pictures. (Mike is now 54 years old.)

Speaking of sports:

Andy is in his glory.  His summer class at the Ohio State is filled with athletes.  Something about how to enjoy spectator sports. He could not talk fast enough when he got home.  He is paired with a guy who speaks five languages, none of which include English.  There will be debates, discussions, book reports and fun of the kind Andy so enjoys.  Many OSU football players.

How is this for a look at summer?