Rustic pear almond cake with chocolate

I am calling this cake rustic because the batter is more of a quick bread recipe, but it bakes up light and tender, and the crunchy/sparkling almond topping gives it an addictive texture.

1 cup all purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cups sugar
2 eggs and one egg white
1 stick of butter, melted, cooled
2 ripe pears peeled and sliced
1/2 cup of dark chocolate chunks or chips (keep the bag handy for snacking)
1/2 cup sliced almonds divided
preheat oven to 375. Grease a 9x9 baking dish with butter.

wisk first three dry ingredients.
Beat eggs with sugar about two minutes in a large bowl. Add butter and beat well.
Mix with dry until just combined.
Spread half the batter in pan. Lay half the pear slices  evenly over the batter and sprinkle with half the chocolate. Cover with the rest of batter and repeat with pears/chocolate.
In a food processor mix 1/4 cup almonds with 1/4 sugar until finely ground. Add egg white and mix til smooth. Drizzle over cake and finish with the rest of the almonds.
Bake about 25/30 minutes, or until a toothpick or very sharp knive comes clean. (I never seem to have a toothpick around when I need one...)

Weekend SnowStorm- Crispy French Toast, Sourdough Bread, Rustic Pear Chocolate Almond Cake

 There are so many good foodie bloggers, the last thing I want to do, even if just for my own self-esteem, is feel like I'm competing with them. But the one thing I create every day, no matter how busy, is food.

 This weekend we've been delightfully blustered by a nor-easter. We were supposed to be having friends over last night so i spent most of the day baking sourdough jalepeno cheddar bread, pear almond chocolate cake, and andoulie kale and white bean soup. And it hadn't even started snowing hard enought o be called Snowed In!

 So, this morning we woke at the liesurely time of 7am, and I made french toast. French toast always makes me think of my Dad. His always seems to turn out exactly like french toast should, but somehow I can never remember how that is.
This morning I tried an idea I had seen of crushing cereal and dipping the egged bread into the crispy bits before friying it. It had potential, but the cereal held the bread above the pan surface so that it stayed soggy. Now that I've spelled it out like that, maybe the potential was only in my mind...
Anyways, it felt good it eat while the sun was fully above the horizon without any cars on the road outside.

Easy-Peasy Sourdough

This bread is flabbergastingly easy to make. And if you're someone that likes good bread this could literally be a life-changer. And it has saved some friends of mine over forty dollars a month.
You can find a great video on TheStoneSoup
http://thestonesoup.com/blog/2010/10/rustic-sourdough-the-secret-to-making-amazing-bread-at-home-5-ingredients-simple-baking/#
Some notes on variations:
She makes a very wet dough that spreads out into a thinner loaf. This gives you a lot of surface area for a good crusty bread. For sandwiches, though, I add more flour and shape it into a soft oblong loaf that stands up more is a little less pocketed with air holes.
So if you're not sure what you like I would highly recommend giving yourself license to play around with the water to flour ratio. And however you do it, it's soul-soothingly amazing hot with butter.

Wrapping My Hands In Wool...

It's cold, still. It should be cold for another two and a half months at least. I really don't mind, either, as long as I feel like I'm using this time of year differently than other times.
In the summer I don't usually feel like baking sourdough bread in a 500 degree oven for 45 minutes, so I've been doing a lot of that...
In summer I really don't want to spend an hour catching up on the ironing when I could be outdoors, so I'm trying to keep up with the crumbled dress shirts...
And I really don't want to wrap my hands in wool when it's anywhere over 70 degrees, so I've been knitting a sweater for a friend whose baby is due tomorrow.
As you can see, I still have a quarter of the way to go, but it's a little bigger than newborn size (depending on the size of the newborn, I guess), so it can wait a bit. I think I can get it done this week/wkend. Hoping!
So, here's hoping the baby comes hearty and healthy, and when it's a little bit bigger it can be wrapped in raglan wool... hopfully before it's 70 degrees outside.