A few weeks ago, my CSA had a Meet & Eat Potluck gathering in Carroll Gardens. Obviously, I did not want to buy anything new to bring to the event. Since we had been receiving 12-14 plums every week from the CSA, I googled plum recipes and found this from Barefoot in Paris.

I loosely followed the instructions and filled the bottom of a baking dish with lots of plum halves, cut side down. I browned a mix of Sugar in the Raw and water (I had to guess because it was brown to begin with!) and poured it over the plums.

I also made two baby ones for taste-testing purposes:

Then, I smeared batter over the whole thing. I used yogurt instead of sour cream, lime zest instead of lemon zest, unsweetened coconut flakes instead of vanilla extract, 3/4 whole wheat flour and 1/4 white flour instead of all white, and somewhat less sugar than required, given that the whole thing was doused in that melted sugar caramel concoction.

I baked it and cooled it and then inverted it.

I was obviously in love with how pretty it was and could not stop taking pictures.

Sprinkled with coconut (instead of powdered sugar):

When I cook things for myself, I tend to go nuts on the substitutions and make it as healthy as possible. I have to reign in those instincts when I am cooking for others. I think I made a good compromise on this cake and was excited to share it at the potluck.

Aside from the cake, we had tons of delicious food including lots of salad, pesto pasta, wheatberry salad, freshly baked homemade bread, and the list goes on.

The cake was a hit 🙂

Yay, CSA!

P.S. If you were cringing at my disgusting stovetop in those cake pictures, do not fear! I also did a big scrub-down when I finished with the cooking saga:

Much better! It’s amazing what some steel wool can accomplish. The End!

At the very end of September, right before I took the LMSW exam, I decided I needed a break. I needed water, and I needed dessert. I researched a way to get both.

Erik and I took the free IKEA shuttle bus out to Red Hook and started following the beach grass:

Red Hook is a formerly industrial area turned residential and swanky. We passed IKEA …

… and eventually sighted water!

Back behind IKEA, there is a whole world of waterfront parkway honoring the industrial history of the area.

We did some modeling …

… and then continued on our dessert mission.

This sign was not incredibly helpful with helping us locate our destination, but we forged ahead nonetheless.

A ha! Getting closer …

Warmer …

Finally, when we thought we could not follow one more arrow, we arrived!!

We each ordered a swingle, the dessert of my dreams.

A swingle is a 4-inch key lime pie tart, frozen on a stick and dipped in dark chocolate.

Pretty much the best dessert imaginable:

Right across from Steve’s Authentic Key Lime Pie shop, we saw this:

The best garden ever to go with the best dessert ever!

The garden was lush with tomatoes, peppers, beans, eggplant, and tons of other beautiful veggies, including some Italian zucchini craziness!

I had never seen anything growing like this before! They looked like giant, thick pea pods growing from overhead vines. I had to call in the expert (my mom) to ascertain their exact identity.

We walked out past the garden to more waterfront parkway and enjoyed the view. Once again, note the industrial-turned-residentialness of it all:

Plus the swank of a departing cruise ship:

And prime viewing of the Statue of Liberty.

Waves!

We took a quick run through this adorable old barge/museum:

Fishing:

We relaxed with the water a bit more and then set out for our secondary destination:

Fairway!

We stocked up on some extras that we don’t get through the CSA and then meandered back toward IKEA to get the return bus.

We were sidetracked, however, into making a record-time swing through the showroom, since Erik had never been.

I feel in love with some bedding, so we did make a small purchase, too.

Yayyyy, new duvet set 🙂 I am so excited to sleep under these pretty sheets every night now. I spent the next week studying on top of them and eventually passing my test. So there is something to be said for the motivation potential of water, swingles, and new bedding. And Brooklyn for providing it all.