Hearing her say that was like nails on a chalkboard. Forget that it was an obnoxious thing to say after my husband worked for hours making this meal. The horror of it all is my mother is a diabetic. Her mother, my grandmother, succumbed to the disease, but not before she had to get her leg amputated.

My mom, in healthier times, before the cancer and before my dad died…

She was recently called into the doctor’s office for a sit down because her numbers were high.  She is in remission from a very hormone-resistant strain of breast cancer that she mostly likely developed because she has a TON of subcutaneous abdominal fat. Combined with her crappy diet, lack of exercise, and diabetes, she’s a walking talking pharmaceutical company’s wet dream.

A few days later I was out running errands and a call came into the car. It was Mom, demanding that I buy her a cheeseburger and fries because she was “sick of eating healthy home made food you have to cook!” I told her no, and she pulled the, “I’m your mother!” card, so I hung up. Didn’t buy the drive-thru garbage either. But when I came home, she was in the kitchen with Clo Clo making a batch of sugary and flour-y tea cakes.

Nothing, I mean, NOTHING I say has any impact on her behavior. The Hubster tells me that I should just leave it alone, that it’s her life. But it really isn’t. Because I am the only child that resides in the same state and live relatively close, if something terrible happens and she’s not able to take care of herself, I, as her daughter, will be expected to step in. She’ll expect me to feel sorry for her and take pity. She’ll make me feel guilty. But how much pity should my mother get when she KNOWINGLY AND DELIBERATELY didn’t take care of herself? And instead of four kids, I will have five.

Worse, she lies when I ask her if she’s exercising or if she visits the local farmers market to get fresher and healthier produce. She’s got one right in town, five minutes away, and never goes. She can’t be on a treadmill going 2.0 for more than five minutes. She thinks sweating is unladylike. And her eating…starting at 10AM with her breakfast (she sleeps late) up until after midnight she’s foraging in the cabinets (where the processed food is more likely to be) and eating. But here’s the thing–she’s sedentary. She doesn’t do nearly enough to earn the right to eat that much food.

And so I exercise six days a week. And I go to the farmer’s market every Saturday and grow my own vegetables. I’ve given up sugar, bread and rice. Know why? Because NO WAY do I want my kids to worry ceaselessly about how my poor health and poor choices might effect their lives. I never want to be like my mother, who KNOWS BETTER but refuses to DO BETTER.

It’s so hard to talk about this, no doubt that somebody with say or think, “How dare you talk about your mother this way??”  But let’s turn around the question: “How dare my mother deliberately not take care of herself knowing she’ll eventually be a burden and stress on her children sooner than later because of her inability to control what goes in her mouth?”

Sigh…

Ingredients:

White cake batter

1 ½ cups plus 3 tablespoons cake flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup granulated sugar

1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, warmed to room temperature

¾ cup whole milk

3 large eggs whites, warmed to room temperature

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

Supreme chocolate cake batter

1/3 cup cocoa powder

2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons boiling water (put ½ cup of water on to boil, and once it reaches the boiling point, pour 2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons of the water back into a glass measuring cup and discard the remaining water)

½ cup, scant cake flour

½ cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

¾ stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, warmed to room temperature

1 ½ large whole eggs, warmed to room temperature

½ tablespoon plus

¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

Fantastically fudgy vanilla and cocoa frosting

2 ½ cups granulated sugar

¼ cup corn syrup

½ cup heavy whipping cream

½ teaspoon salt

1 stick plus 1 tablespoon (9 tablespoons) unsalted butter, warmed to room temperature

1 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

½ cup cocoa powder

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

To make white cake batter:

1. Combine the flour, baking powder, and sugar in a large mixing bowl and mix briefly.

2. Add the butter and roughly 75% of the milk to the dry ingredient mixture and mix on low speed until the butter is thoroughly incorporated.

3. Increase the mixer’s speed to medium and beat until well combined. Then continue to beat at medium speed for 1 ½ minutes longer in order to build the cake’s structure.

4. In a separate bowl, lightly whisk the egg whites by hand to incorporate considerable air into the mixture. Whisk the whites until they are frothy (but not so long that soft peaks form).

5. Combine the remaining milk, the egg whites, and the vanilla into a small mixing bowl and add it in 3 separate batches to the batter, mixing well between each addition.

To make chocolate supreme cake batter:

1. In a mixing bowl, combine the cocoa powder and boiling water and let cool to room temperature. Transfer to a large measuring cup.

2. In a separate mixing bowl, mix together the dry ingredients for 30 seconds. Set aside.

3. In a third mixing bowl, gently mix together the eggs and the vanilla extract. Add a third of the cocoa mixture to the egg-vanilla mixture.

4. Add the remaining cocoa mixture and the butter to the dry-ingredient mixture and mix together for 1 ½ minutes.

5. Add the cocoa-egg mixture to the cocoa-dry ingredient mixture in 2 separate stages mixing for 30 seconds between each addition. Scrape the bowl to ensure that all of the cocoa-egg mixture has been added.

To make black and white cupcakes:

1. Once you have prepared both the white and chocolate cake batters, fill 2 piping bags fitted with round #8 tips until they are ½ full (I used Ziploc bags and cut off the bottoms). One bag should contain the white batter, and the other should contain the chocolate batter.

2. Prepare the cupcake pans.

3. It’s important to pipe both cupcake batters simultaneously, so ask your hone to hold one of the bags. Each of you should begin to pipe the batter at the same time, filling each liner until it is ¾ full.

4. Bake at 350F for 25 minutes.

5. Cool on a wire rack.

6. Ice your cupcakes with Fantastically Fudgy vanilla and Cocoa Icing.

To make fantastically fudgy vanilla and cocoa icing:

1. Combine the granulated sugar, corn syrup, whipping cream, and salt in a saucepan and cook on medium heat until the sugar syrup mixture reaches 239 F. Remove from heat.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a mixing bowl (if using a hand mixer), mix together the butter and sifted confectioners’ sugar on medium speed.

3. Slow the mixer to low speed, and slowly add the sugar syrup mixture to the butter-sugar mixture.

4. Increase the mixer speed to medium-high and pour in the vanilla. Continue beating the mixture until the icing is smooth and spreadable.

5. Pour half of the mixture into a separate covered container and set aside. That’s your vanilla fudge icing.

6. Add the cocoa powder to the remaining mixture still in the mixing bowl and mix thoroughly making the cocoa fudge icing.

7. You should spread the icing on the black-and-white cupcakes while it is still warm, but the cupcakes themselves should be thoroughly cooled. Frosting the cupcakes, like piping the batter, is best done as a team effort. Using offset spatulas, one person should spread the cocoa fudge icing while the other spreads the vanilla fudge frosting. Start by making 2 separate lines of the white and black frosting down the center of each cupcake, and use the offset spatulas to spread the respective colors around each cupcake half, making sure to cover the edges

Serving Suggestion:

Something tells me we’re not the only ones who get excited over beans and rice. Do you? Rarely a week goes by that we don’t have beans of some sort or another, and my mother’s chili beans with rice are a staple around here.  I found a recipe in our local grocery store circular for a Cajun red beans and rice using smoked pork shanks. (Ham Shanks)  Given the current  love affair with all things pork, smoked,  and southern, I couldn’t wait to make it. Traditional Louisiana red beans and rice also uses Andouille sausage which I did not add, (I used smoked sausage) but you could if you wanted. There was plenty of flavor, and plenty of meat with the smoked shanks.

Prep time: 10 min |Cook time: 2 hours | Yield: About 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients

1 pound of dried red kidney beans

1/2 pound of bacon, chopped

1 large onion, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 large stalk of celery, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

Freshly cracked black pepper, to taste

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste, optional

1 teaspoon dried basil

2 bay leaves

1/2 tablespoon of canola oil

1 package (14 oz.) smoked sausage or Andouille sausage(very spicy), ham bone, ham hocks, hamchunks, or any combination

2 quarts of water

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, optional

Kosher salt to taste, if needed – BUT ONLY AT THE END!

Hot, cooked rice

Sliced green onion, for garnish, optional

Hot sauce, for the table

Instructions:

Rinse and sort beans and place into a deep pot, adding water to cover beans plus about an inch or so. Discard any malformed or floating beans.

Do not add any seasonings or salt! Bring to a boil; boil for 5 minutes uncovered, turn off heat, cover and let soak for one hour. Drain and set aside in a large pot.In a separate skillet, cook the bacon until lightly cooked and still limp. Add the onion, bell pepper, and celery to the bacon and sauté the veggies until tender. Add the garlic, black and red pepper, basil and bay leaf into the vegetable mixture and let seasoning meld with the veggies for about 3 minutes, stirring. Add the bacon, veggie & seasoning mixture to the pot of beans. Meanwhile slice sausage in half lengthwise and cut into 1/4-inch chunks. Add oil to skillet you used for the veggies and lightly brown the sausage. Transfer to the bean pot. If you have any leftover ham chunks, cut those up too, brown them and add them in.

Add 2 quarts of fresh water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cooked uncovered for 1-1/2 to 2 hours, or until beans are tender and slightly thickened. When beans are just about done, slide in a half stick of butter. The butter adds richness to the beans and makes them just super delish, but is totally optional if you want to leave it out. They are good without it. If you need to thicken them up more, just remove about a cup of the beans and mash them with a fork, returning them to the pot. Serve over hot, cooked rice and garnish with sliced green onion, if desired. Pass hot sauce at the table.

~Cook’s Notes~

Note: Do not add any salt until the end, and then only if it needs it. There is some salt present from all the meats involved, so taste and adjust your seasonings toward the end of cooking, adding salt here if needed. I very often find that the pot needs no additional salt at all. Taste, add salt if needed, taste again and adjust seasoning as needed.

Serving Suggestion:

From Mark’s Daily Apple:

Sugar’s sugar’s sugar, right? That’s often the general message floating around our circle, but I’m not sure it’s entirely correct. After all, fruit has sugar, but it’s also got fiber and phytochemicals and vitamins and minerals, and it’s handled differently in the body than, say, a bottle of fizzy HFCS. Same goes for honey, for which I did an entire post where the basic conclusion was that honey was a “safer sweetener” than plain white sugar. Then again, something being “natural” doesn’t make it healthier, as is the case with agave nectar; a previous “Is it Primal?” revealed that agave nectar is treated just like sugar and HFCS in the body and that raw white sugar actually contains more antioxidants than the vegan sweetheart. Which brings us to maple syrup – where does it stand?

Well, maple syrup defeats agave nectar and white sugar in the antioxidant department, but that’s not very difficult. It’s also been eaten for centuries as a traditional food, perhaps even longer, since the native Americans were producing maple syrup when the Europeans arrived in the Americas. A recent study identified 54 phenolic compounds in real maple syrup, including one dubbed quebecol that actually forms during the process of boiling sap down into syrup. Since honey owes its unique metabolic effects to the presence of dozens upon dozens of phenolic compounds, I would guess that maple syrup is one of the safer sweeteners.

When it comes to sugar, all maple syrups, regardless of the grade, are almost entirely sucrose. Grade B maple syrup, however, is darker, richer, more complex, and contains more minerals (and, probably just like the darker honeys, more phytochemicals). Go for grade B (whose name may change in 2013), and make sure you get real maple syrup, not just “syrup.”

Verdict: Primal limbo, but use caution, as it’s still sugar.

My advice? If you’re doing the low sugar, low carb thing while working out and feel that you get fatigued, put a little maple syrup in your breakfast. Cage free eggs, nitrate-free bacon, sliced organic strawberries and a half/3/4 tablespoon of maple syrup (I like to warm up the sliced strawberries and maple syrup for about 20 seconds in the microwave first). Eat this about 30 minutes before working out and you’ll have good carbs to burn and sustained energy to complete your workouts.

But I just wouldn’t guzzle it like this guy…

Apples

Not THOSE apples…!!

People with apple shapes are sensitive to sugar spikes that can lead to insulin resistance and diabetes. The fat that accumulates on and in the abdomen, visceral fat, literally wraps around the organs and can lead to a host of diseases, including cancer, heart disease, stroke, the list goes on. If you have this body type, chances are you need to cut the sugar and junk food. No simple carbohydrates like white rice and pasta for you! The this month’s fitness challenge, cut your sugar consumption to no more than 18 grams a day. Eat low carb foods that have a high fiber content so you will feel full longer. If you’re in a pinch and can’t prepare all your foods, pick up Atkins dinners in the frozen food section. They taste good and aren’t full of perservatives and other garbage. Wal*Mart sells them the cheapest at around $3.50 a dinner. If you have an insatiable sweet tooth like me, go to the diet section of Walmart and pick up the Atkins protein bars and Endulge line of goodies. They are delicious and are sweetened with sugar alcohols that don’t register in the body as real sugar. The sweeteners are also clinically proven safe, unlike Splenda and the other aspartame-y garbage. Finally, pick up a box or jar of Nectresse, which is a natural sweetener made by Splenda, but ISN’T Splenda. It’s made from monk fruit and is a safe and tasty sugar alternative.

If you get crazy cravings and like coffee, try Nuvia Trim Gourmet Weight Loss Coffee.

I met the creators of this brand at the Natural Products Expo and I’ve been using it ever since. Here’s why it’s special:

It contains

Green Coffee Bean , which helps to balance the blood sugar and boost metabolic rate to burn more fat. A powerful antioxidant as well, it is helpful in fighting the free radicals that can damage our cells.

Raspberry Ketone, known for its effectiveness in burning calories to help accelerate weight loss.

African Mango, a popular fruit in West Africa has been found to aid in weight loss and lower cholesterol levels. The seed extract from African Mango is also rich in calcium, iron and the B vitamins.

Green Tea Extract, which helps to suppress your appetite and contributes in burning calories to aid in weight loss.

Note: if you love your coffee with milk, switch to half and half. It has less sugar. You’re better off dumping milk altogether. Milk has quite a bit of sugar, plus it creates mucus throughout the body. Who needs that?!

Other items to fight your cravings for sweets:

Clemmy’s Ice Cream

Barlean’s Omega Swirl

A few squares of dark chocolate with almonds

Zevia carbonated drinks, sweetened with stevia

A Word About Crashing

When I first gave up sugar I was tired all the time. I could sleep all night, wake up, and then go back to sleep all dang day. I had to supplement with B Vitamins and rhodiola just to function while my body adjusted to not having access to such a cheap energy source. It took me about a week to detox and then I slowly added more carbohydrates from fruits and stuff, but ate them BEFORE a work out, so that I’d have the extra energy and the carbs wouldn’t go straight to my belly. If you are pretty sedentary, you need the least amount of sugar. But if you are incorporating low carb/low sugar along with an exercise program, you’ll need more fuel to fed your muscles or you will tire too quickly. Eat a handful of berries or drink a SMALL AMOUNT of fruit juice 30 minutes before working out so you won’t pass out.

Books to reference:

Beat Sugar Addiction Now!

The Belly Fat Cure

The Paleo Solution

Pears

You pears are easy–it’s not the sugar that gets you, it’s the fat. It’s not that I’m not sensitive to your issues, but the post is over 700 words and that’s usually when I start losing people so I’m going to stop. You pears can talk diet stuff amongst yourselves in the Comments.

By the way, have you signed up for our fitness challenge? Money is involved…

Note that this post isn’t a separate challenge, but I’m adding it to help many of you get more noticable results by the end of the month. Fitness, after all, starts in the kitchen.

“But Chris! You’re already trim! What do you need to lose?!”

THIS……

YIKES…

Fact of the matter is, I do have something to lose. In the last two months, I’ve lost 12 pounds of gut, back fat and flabby thighs and at almost 40, I have never felt better. A few things I’ve learned on this odyssey:

Cellulite can go away.

It’s cool when your thighs barely rub together.

I, in fact, have an actual waist.

The fact of the matter was, in February 2013 I weighed myself, and  at 5’3, I came in at 145. That is a LOT for a pip squeak like me to carry. Yes, much of it was muscle, which is denser than fat. But the fat was there too, and I was determined to get rid of it once and for all.

It was time to up my game. I started the Ballet Body DVD series I’ve been raving about for the past month or so. Then I gave up something I LOVED–my nightcaps! No more vodka tonics. Or beer. Or malbec. I was on the wagon so I could once and for all, lose those devilish love handles. Finally, I upped my metabolism and alternated my DVD’s with cardio workouts which included sprints (3.5 brisk walk for 2 minutes; 5.2 running for 1 minute).

That did it…like, really quick.

And..(no more back fat)…

And…(no more rolly fat indentations on my arms)…

AND!!!…

AND…AND…AND!!!! A WAIST!!!

I have gone from high 145 to a weigh-in today at 133. And I feel FREAKING GREAT!!! I love the sinewy muscle definition, how long and lean my limbs have become, and watching the tape measure keep going downward–from 30.5 inches to 28.

What I’m Eating

The low-carb, low sugar lifestyle is really working for me. I actually have a relatively high-fat diet, which is great because it’s quite satiating. I never feel hungry. Ever. I eat a LOT of greens. Also avocados, salmon, sardines, eggs, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, hummus, and cheese. The outside pictures are of our backyard organic garden–we grow apples, tomatoes, soy beans, zucchini, grapes, blackberries, limes, raspberries, carrots and lettuce.

I stay away from fruit unless I eat it right before a strenuous workout. I usually prepare my own meals because processed food has become a no-no, but I’ve recently started eating the Atkins frozen dinners when I’m too busy to fix stuff–a quick look at the ingredients list and you’ll recognize that every ingredient is found in nature.

You can get these at Wal*Mart for $3.48.

I LOVE their snacks too. OMG so good…

Another GREAT find is Slenda Nectresse:

Don’t be alarmed about the manufacturer of this product–Nectresse is 100% natural, made from monk fruit, grown from the monks in monasteries in the Himalayan valley. I’m just kidding about that last part but everything else is true. Here’s some quick facts:

It has only 3 calories in a serving but a 150 times the sweetness of sugar.

So you can enjoy the sweetness without the calories.

It is also known as Lo Han Sweetener

Traditional Chinese has used Monk Fruit has been used for centuries to treat diabetes and obesity in South East Asia.

It has a low glycemic index which does not jack up blood sugars in your body so it doesn’t wreck havoc with your hormones and cause fatigue.

Test tube studies found it can stimulate insulin secretion.

You’ll be hearing a lot about monk fruit as a natural sweetener because it’s way better tasting than stevia and much healthier than the fake, aspertame-y stuff, plus, apparently Dr. Oz co-signs it, so make sure you buy it up before all the white people drive up the prices from $5.38 to $15.38. Don’t laugh…I’ve seen it happen. First with probiotics, then MSM. This stuff used to be cheap, but white people ALWAYS drive up the demand. No lie.

Time to Join Me

We’re family, right? Good, because as my family, you must be a good relative and suffer with me, otherwise I’ll gossip about you over Thanksgiving dinner. This week we’re going to start an honest-to-goodness, BB&W Fitness Challenge. Be on the look out for details. Dust off your sneakers and through out the Twinkies. Let’s get this done. Join me in the comments section so we can hash out the details of the challenge.

 This cake is so rich it does not need icing, but it does not hurt to serve a lot of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, but you can do as a layer cake with a coffee flavored buttercream icing also.  Decident to the end!!!

1 1/2 c. water

1/2 c. Jack Daniel’s whiskey

1 tbsp. oa a good instant coffee

2-1/2 sticks unsalted butter

1 c. unsweetened cocoa powder

2 c. sugar

Two eggs

2 c. flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/8 tsp. salt

One c. coarsely chopped pecans (optional)

Two tbsp. Jack Daniel’s

Gobs of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream for serving

 In a large saucepan, heat and stir the water, 1/2 cup Jack Daniel’s, coffee, butter, and cocoa until the butter melts. Remove from heat and beat in sugar. Cool slightly, then whisk in the eggs, blending thoroughly. In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Beat into the chocolate mixture until incorporated. Stir in the pecans. (Optional) Turn the batter into a greased and floured 9-inch tube pan or Bundt pan. Smooth the top of the batter with a spatula.

Bake the cake on the middle level of a preheated 325-degree oven for 60 to 75 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.

Immediately sprinkle with the 2 tablespoons of Jack Daniel’s. Let cool on a rack, and then remove cake from the pan.

 NOTE:

Serving Suggestion

I have been doing pretty good, but in order to continue to shrink my waist and at least feign an hourglass figure, I had to come to terms that I had to give up something I really enjoyed and gave me comfort: DRINKING. Now I’m not a heavy drinker, just one or two in the evening, but like, every night. And because I have a mild case of General Anxiety Disorder, the alcohol mellows me a bit and helps me shut my mind off from the whirring thoughts that keep me awake at night.

I was in denial for years about this. The Hubster tried to gently tell me–we both drink and he’s cool with it, but when I complained about why my waist couldn’t shrink he told me it’s because of the booze, and I just WOULD NOT HEAR IT. I had given up sugar. I have (mostly) given up caffiene. And Starbucks. And now I was expected to give up BEER?! VODKA?!! Malbec??? Then a really good friend of mine recently told me the same thing–give up the booze, get back your waist. I have this crazy rule that if more than one person tells me someting and the two (or more) don’t know each other, that probably means I should listen.

Why is drinking (or not) significant to weight loss? To put it simply, alcohol converts to vinegar in the body, which like sugar, is a cheap energy source and is used by the body first. Drinking also  increases your appetite, so you end up getting a bunch of calories you don’t need from the liquid and the solids. Not great if you’re trying (like me) to not scare people off the beach when you wear your bikini.

Then this past Easter I decided to wholly give it a try…no drinking, cold turkey. And…it was hard. That beer at the end of the day gave me comfort. It relaxed me. It made me happy, or at least content. I missed it and I had fight the urge the first few days not to crack open the Blue Moon that was whispering my name right through the damn refrigerator. And it was in that moment, I was able to imagine what it might be like for women who use food for comfort and struggle to overcome those urges in order to get fit. For the first time I could really understand that it’s not just about putting down the fork, it’s about giving up a thing that gives us tremendous comfort, and for many, that’s hard thing to do.

It took giving up something that I truly enjoy to get a better understanding of what it’s like for some people to finally part ways with something, while unhealthy in copious amounts, gives comfort.

It’s Day 20 of my no-drinking fast and I have to say that I’m really feeling great. After the first week my sleep improved, and I’ve found other ways to calm my nerves and my mind. More exercise and 30 minutes of cardio, coupled with some melatonin at night seems to be doing the trick.

(adapted from a recipe by Bev Shaffer)

The cassata siciliana consists of round sponge cake moistened with fruit juices or liqueur and layered with ricotta cheese, candied peel, and a chocolate or vanilla filling similar to cannoli cream. It is covered with a shell of marzipan, pink and green pastel colored icing, and decorative designs. The cassata is finally topped with candied fruit depicting cherries and slices of citrus fruit characteristic of Sicily.  The “Cleveland” cassata first appeared in the early 1920s at the local Italian bakery LaPuma Spumoni & Bakery. The children of the owners did not like traditional cassata cake, made with sweetened ricotta, chocolate chips, and candied fruit. Using what they had in the bakery, Tomasso LaPuma created what was to become the Cleveland cassata cake. The fifth generation of this bakery still continues to make the original version of this cake at their bakery of the same name on Cleveland’s Eastside.  The picture below is the one I am most familliar with, although the recipe is the traditional cake.

2 cups cake flour, sifted

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into pieces

3 eggs

1/4 cup whole milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

simple syrup

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons orange liqueur or fresh-squeezed orange juice

filling:

2 cups whole-milk ricotta cheese (a must, low fat will be runny)

1/2 cup sugar

1 tablespoon orange zest

2/3 cup mini chocolate chips or grated chocolate

frosting:

1 pint heavy cream

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar

grated or shaved semi-sweet chocolate, for garnish

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour an 8×4 or 10×5 inch loaf pan. Add the ricotta for the filling to a wire strainer over a bowl to drain off some of the liquid. Store in refrigerator.

2. In a large mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the butter and beat on low speed until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each. Stir in milk and vanilla, beat on medium until smooth. Batter will be thick.

3. Add batter to prepared pan and bake 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from center with a few moist crumbs attached. Cool in pan on wire rack 10-15 minutes then turn out onto wire rack and cool completely.

4. In a small saucepan whisk sugar and water together, cook over medium heat, stirring, until sugar dissolves. Stir in orange liqueur or juice. Remove from heat and set aside.

5.To make the filling whisk ricotta, sugar, zest and chocolate together. Keep refrigerated until needed.

6. In a large mixing bowl add heavy cream, whisk on medium until it begins to thicken, add cream of tartar and confectioners’ sugar. Beat on medium speed until stiff peaks form. Refrigerate until needed.

7. To assemble cake slice into 3 equal layers. Set bottom layer on dish and brush or sprinkle the simple syrup over top. Add 1/2 of the ricotta filling and spread evenly. Set the next layer down and repeat. Brush bottom of top layer with syrup and set on top. Frost with whip cream and sprinkle chocolate garnish over top. Keep refrigerated, cut into slices for serving.

Serves 8-10

Serving Suggestion

A timballo is an Italian molded dish, typically of pasta or rice, with a filling of meat or vegetables. Although there are many versions of timballo Siciliano, it’s typically a pasta dish containing eggplant, similar to Greek moussaka.  The name timballo (like the French timbale) derives from an ancient percussion instrument, the drum or tympanum, so by analogy, a cylindrical mold. It probably began with Middle Eastern or Mediterranean meat-filled pies. Arabic influences pervade Sicilian cuisine.  It’s really hearty and makes for a great comfort food, It’s also something of a unique dish if you’re looking for something different than your more traditional Italian dinners.

Ragu:

1/2 cup olive oil

2 green onions, diced

1 carrot diced

1 stalk of celery, diced

Dried basil to taste

3/4 cup red wine

6 ounces tomato paste

3/4 cup pureed tomatoes flavored with basil

1 pound lean ground beef and pork (beef, pork is optional to make this vegetarian) mixture

Salt and pepper to taste

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Bechamel sauce:

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons flour

1 cup milk, warmed

Salt and pepper to taste

Timballo:

Salt

2 baby eggplants, cut in 1/4-inch slices

2 tablespoons olive oil

Softened butter

Breadcrumbs

1 pound O-ring pasta

3 cups tomato sauce flavored with basil

1 10-ounce package frozen petite peas, sauteed

2 bunches green onions, chopped

1/2 pound fresh pecorino, cut in small cubes

2 tablespoons grated parmesan

Pepper to taste

Make the ragu: Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium high heat and saute the onions, carrot, celery and dried basil until fragrant. Add the pork and beef mixture and saute until browned. Add the red wine, tomato paste and pureed tomato. Stir and blend. Season with salt and pepper, cloves and cinnamon. Reduce the heat and summer for about 1 hour.

Make the bechamel sauce: In a small saucepan over low heat, melt the butter. Sprinkle in the flour and cook, whisking constantly, until the mixture turns a sandy color, 6 to 7 minutes. Slowly whisk in the warm milk and simmer until thickened, about 10 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Prepare the timballo: Salt the baby eggplant slices and let stand 1/2 hour. Rinse and pat very dry. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat and fry the eggplant on both sides until soft. Drain on paper towels.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spread butter in a 12-inch diameter casserole and dust with breadcrumbs. Cook the pasta in salted boiling water for 2 minutes and drain.

Toss the pasta with the tomato sauce and grated parmesan, pour half into the casserole, and layer the fried eggplant across the top. Combine the bechamel and the ragu sauce; pour over the top. Mix the sauteed peas with the green onions, layer on top and then add the pecorino.

Complete with the remainder of the pasta, dust with the grated parmesan and about 2 tablespoons breadcrumbs and dot with butter. Bake for 1/2 hour. Let stand 10 minutes to firm up, unmold onto a platter and serve. 4 servings.

Serving Suggestion: