{"id":1722,"date":"2005-09-02T23:43:00","date_gmt":"2005-09-02T23:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elitemporaryblog.wordpress.com\/2005\/09\/02\/stashing-summers-last-gasp"},"modified":"2015-09-24T03:54:17","modified_gmt":"2015-09-24T03:54:17","slug":"stashing-summers-last-gasp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orangette.net\/2005\/09\/stashing-summers-last-gasp\/","title":{"rendered":"Stashing summer\u2019s last gasp"},"content":{"rendered":"
When I left Seattle this morning, the city was still tucked snugly under a heavy blanket of clouds. It\u2019s been this way for a week or two now, with autumn beginning its slow, sad tease<\/strong>, sending in an advance guard of low gray clouds every morning and sneaking the daylight away earlier and earlier every evening. Six-thirty this morning found me at the chilly bus stop with my wet hair and full suitcase, New York<\/strong><\/a>-bound and knowing too well that when I return, the Pacific Northwest summer may have already had its last gasp<\/strong>. The season will subtly shift its mandate from plum clafoutis<\/a> to purple cabbage<\/a>, from outdoor lamb roasts<\/a> to oven-roasted chicken<\/a>, and from test-kitchen beer floats<\/a> to tea.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not so bad, really. I\u2019m a soups-and-stews girl at heart, anyway, and cool weather is as good an excuse as any to spend more time at the stove. But before I relinquish my halter tops, flip flops, and the oscillating fan, you can be sure I\u2019ll stash a bit of summer in the freezer, in the form of a raspberry-blueberry pound cake<\/strong>.<\/p>\n This recipe has been my mother\u2019s summertime standby for nearly twenty years, since it first appeared in Bon App\u00e9tit<\/em> in July 1986. When the season calls, she opens the recipe card-catalog she keeps in a drawer in the kitchen, pulls out the index card reading \u201cBlueberry-Raspberry Pound Cake,\u201d and takes it, reference librarian-style, to the closet that houses her food magazines from the \u201880s to mid-\u201890s. Today, the pages of that old Bon App\u00e9tit<\/em> are yellowed around the edges and suffering a sort of low-grade rigor mortis, but the cake is no worse for the wear. Simple and sophisticated, its tight, buttery crumb is scented with kirsch<\/strong> and shot through with soft summer berries<\/strong>.<\/p>\n