This & That

Wednesday Jason and I made our annual visit to the Broadway Market on the east side of Buffalo. Formerly the hub of "Polonia" or Western New York's predominant polish community, the Market is a mere shadow of it's former glory. Despite the dwindling number of vendors and patrons, the Market still retains some of it's charm, and it is a visit I look forward to making. The smells of the meat markets and baked good stands is still enough to get one's mouth watering, and there is more than enough kielbasa, pierogie, and pastries to suit every one's taste.

The Broadway Market is famous still for their butter lambs. There is a shop there which has been selling these homemade butter lambs since the early days of the market. I always have to make a trek just to SEE these lambs on display, and usually contemplate buying one for Easter Sunday dinner. They can be a little pricey though, and my family would not really appreciate it... let them use CountryCrock. As fate would have it though.. I was destined to go home with a butter lamb in hand... sorta.

Jason and I went antique shopping up and down Hertel Ave. in North Buffalo. In one of the shops I found an old cast iron mold used to make the famous Broadway Market style butter lambs (and cakes). I picked it up, then put it down, but kept my eye on it. For the cost of three edible butter livestock, I was able to purchase an Easter keepsake that would last longer than the main course... and own a piece of nostalgic history too.

My Uncle came in from out of town today, and took the family out to breakfast. I've been having a hard time sleeping, and declined the breakfast offer in favor of sleeping in. I took advantage of the quiet home, and got some baking for Sunday done. Jason's boyfriend Nick gave me a recipe for "Lemon Meringue" cake. It's not overly difficult, but it is time consuming. There were a few things in the recipe that as the work progressed were a bit annoying. Each cake layer had to be cut in half, leaving me with four FLIMSY cake layers, which started to tear more than once. Next time I will most likely NOT cut the layers, and make it a regular two layer cake.. like it matters to the taste at all?

The meringue part had me worried. I had heard people saying what a pain it can be if not made right, and if it did not come out thick. When I made it according to the directions, it just didn't seem right. I added more of this, more of that.. it still didn't look right. I tried adding more sugar to it.. and come to find out that was a big "no-no". That will make it gritty. Damn. I took the cake out of the oven, with a nice browned meringue, but I kept envisioning people spitting it out for tasting too sweet, and too gritty. So, my rule about NEVER CUTTING UP A CAKE BEFORE IT'S SERVED went out the window. I took a small sliver of the cake to see whether or not it was even edible... and it tasted AWESOME! My mind is much more at ease knowing it came out right, and I'd rather have my family tease me for putting out a desert that was missing a slice, than for one that tasted awful. St. Julia Child.. pray for us! =-)