A bit of happiness

Do you want to be loved forever? Make this dessert and you will never lack for friends. Easy Sticky-Toffee Dessert is exactly what it says, super easy and incredibly satisfying. It ranks in the top three of desserts I've ever had/made. Give it whirl.

Easy Sticky-Toffee Dessert, recipe courtesy Nigella Lawson, 2007
Time: 60 min Level: Easy Serves: 6-8 servings

Ingredients for the cake
Butter, to grease baking dish, plus 1/4 cup, melted
Scant 1/3 c dark brown sugar, packed
1 c plus 2 Tbsp self-rising flour
1/2 c whole milk
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 c plus 2 Tbsp chopped, rolled dates

For the sauce
3/4 c dark brown sugar, packed
Approximately 2 Tbsp unsalted butter in little blobs
2 1/4 c boiling water

Directions for the cake
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and butter a 1 1/2-quart capacity baking dish. Combine the sugar with the flour in a large bowl. Pour the milk into a measuring cup, beat in the egg, vanilla and melted butter and then pour this mixture over the sugar and flour, stirring with a wooden spoon to combine. Fold in the dates then scrape into the prepared baking dish. Don't worry if it doesn't look very full; it will by the time it cooks.

Directions for the sauce
Sprinkle the sugar over the cake mixture and dot with butter. Pour over the boiling water (yes really!) and transfer to the oven. Set the time for 45 minutes, though you might find the dessert needs 5 or 10 minutes more. The top of the dessert should be springy and spongy when it's cooked; underneath, the butter, dark brown sugar and boiling water will have turned into a rich, sticky sauce. Serve with vanilla ice cream, creme fraiche or heavy or light cream, as you wish.

minnesota

minnesota is so much more than just a location where i happened to fall and sprout. it is the story of my journey to find my heritage and in the process, discovering myself.

minnesota is the smell of sweet, cut hay suspended in the humid, summer air.

minnesota is the sound of nothing but the sun setting, the gentle lapping of 10,000 lakes on the shore and the gossiping of the crickets and cicadas about the bullfrogs.

minnesota is minnesota public radio and a prairie home companion.

minnesota is snowfall and buried vehicles.

minnesota is the automatic addition of vests (down, fleece, flannel, wool) to everyday winter wear, both inside and out of doors, as necessary as ones' underpants.

minnesota is dark coffee and kringla.

minnesota is the st. olaf college choir's christmas concerts.

minnesota is the breathtaking colors of fall, turning leaves on the north shore, dying, falling and crunching quietly underfoot.

minnesota is the cracking of ice and the rush of melting snow, determined budding trees, giddy songbirds and the ethereal scent of new grass.

minnesota is throngs of people awaking from winter slumbers and descending upon summer art fairs and open air music festivals.

minnesota is training your eyes to spot loons on a choppy lake and falling asleep to their plaintive cries.

minnesota is the minneapolis institute of arts and the american swedish museum.

minnesota is arctic cat jackets and flannel-lined jeans, carhartts and mad-bomber hats.

minnesota is cheap beer, bonfires and mosquitoe repellant.

minnesota is a long drive up to the north shore, camping, kayaking, portaging and sleeping under the stars by lake superior, then gorging at betty’s pies on the way home.

minnesota is lutheran choral music and norwegian hair ribbons.

minnesota is when with the significantly fewer hours of daily sun and frequent overcast days I only use my sunglasses 2-3 days in any given winter month.

minnesota is when you step outside to start your car on a winter morning and it feels so much warmer than the last couple days, only to discover that today’s high temp of +4F feels so much warmer than the last couple days’ highs of -10F.

minnesota is having the luxury of your car double as extra fridge/freezer space in the winter.

minnesota is detailing your dirty car outside while its 25F and snowing and seeing nothing out of the ordinary with that.

minnesota is a drive up to duluth and wandering the historic port town, viewing the tug boats in two harbors and catching the sunset in grand marais.

minnesota is getting every inch of your skin eaten alive when the week your family picks to go camping in ely in the late spring also happens to be the peak week of biting black fly season.

minnesota is going to bed for the night with the sleeping, winter ground bare and waking up to 4 inches of beautiful, sparkling, fresh powder.

Temperance

There is such a sweet beauty and attraction in temperance, a refreshing place in the land between excess and denial. Its residents enjoy the simple delights and bounty of life, but own the strength of will to not be enslaved by them. Overindulgence is no one’s master and the goodness of life is enjoyed in moderation and gratitude as a fine gift. A person of true temperance (not just of temporary self-denial) is an oasis in the wilderness of obsession. They are alive and astute to recognize and receive with grace and gratitude the excellent things but their respect for themselves, the beauty of those good things and the Giver of good things maintains an unwillingness to mar the purity of these good things by excessiveness. Their deference to beauty and purity is a refreshing reminder to revisit reverence often. These ones have not forgotten that reverence for God involves recognizing His characteristics and goodness in all of His gifts, accepting them all as good and right, even necessary in this, though temporary and mortal life. Delighting in the goodness of His provision they enjoy with temperance the perfect gifts He has given, practicing moderation by neither refusing all in the name of self-denial or over-indulging, playing the glutton.