Since I last posted, Ted has continued to have a rough time, resulting in a second major surgery on November 2nd and six more days in the hospital. With a grand total of 26 days (divided among three visits) in the hospital, he finally came home November 7th. We are crossing our fingers that we are hopefully on the real road to recovery this time.
Sweet and Sour Dessert Sauce
I prepped the recipes from the 49th episode of Good Eats over the course of a couple weeks. This episode was all about honey, or as Alton referred to it, “bee backwash.” After hearing that quote, I think I shall perhaps never look at honey quite the same again!
The first recipe in this episode is for Alton’s honey dessert sauce. Really it does not get much simpler than this one. To make Alton’s sauce, you will need only honey and sour cream.
Honey and sour cream.
For the honey, Alton recommends a light honey, such as wildflower honey. I will confess that I used the honey I had on hand, which had no specific varietal on the label. To make the sauce, pour 1/4 C honey in a stainless steel bowl and heat it on a burner, just until warm.
Honey, heating slightly on a burner.
Into the honey whisk 1 C sour cream.
Sour cream added to warm honey.
Sour cream and honey, whisked together.
Serve the sauce over fruit, cake, or anything else you can think of. I served the sauce over the orange cake that was also featured in this episode (see below).
Alton’s dessert sauce, served over cake.
The sauce had a nice balance of sweetness and tartness and was pretty thin in consistency. I thought this sauce was just okay; it did not wow me in any way and I probably will not be making this one again.
Honey Mustard Dressing
Growing up, my brother would order honey mustard dressing every time he ordered a salad at a restaurant, so I instantly thought of him when making Alton’s honey mustard dressing. This is another super simple recipe, requiring only three ingredients: honey (medium-bodied like sourwood), Dijon mustard, and rice wine vinegar.
Rice wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, and honey.
For this dressing, I used the same honey that I used in my dessert sauce (above). To make Alton’s dressing, whisk together 5 T honey, 3 T smooth Dijon mustard, and 2 T rice wine vinegar.
Honey in a bowl.
Dijon mustard and rice wine vinegar added to honey.
Alton’s honey mustard dressing.
Serve this as either a dressing or dipping sauce. I eat a lot of salads, so I served this over a large entree salad I made for myself.
A salad with Alton’s honey mustard dressing.
I thought this dressing was really quite nice. I have found some honey mustard dressings in the past to be too sweet, but this had a nice balance of sweetness, acidity, and tang. As a bonus, this dressing does not separate in the refrigerator as oil-based dressings do. If you’re a honey mustard fan, this is one to try. I served it to my brother, the honey mustard expert, when he was visiting and he seemed to really enjoy it.
Honey Plums
The third honey recipe Alton made was for honey plums. Again, this is another simple recipe. For this one, you’ll need wildflower honey and under-ripe plums or figs. I could not find plums or figs at my grocery store, so I opted for firm D’Anjou pears.
Honey and pears.
Begin by covering the bottom of a pan with honey and heat over low.
Honey covering the bottom of the pan.
Add your fruit, cut side down, and cook for 5-6 minutes. Increase the heat to high for a minute before removing from the heat.
Pears added to honey in pan.
Pears after cooking in honey for several minutes.
Serve the honeyed fruit over ice cream.
Honeyed pears served over vanilla ice cream.
I liked this and it reminded me of the poached pear phase my mom went through. This was another one that was just okay for me, but I think I’ll have to try this again when plums are back in season.
Aunt Verna’s Orange Cake
Of the recipes featured in this episode, I was most excited about this one. Alton claims that this cake recipe came from his Aunt Verna, but who knows if he really had an Aunt Verna?
Orange cake ingredients: eggs, flour, orange zest, baking powder, butter, baking soda, and orange blossom honey.
For the cake, begin by whisking together 1 C orange blossom honey and 4 eggs.
Eggs and honey.
To this mixture add 1 T orange zest.
Orange zest added to honey/egg mixture.
Sift together 1 1/2 C flour, 1 t baking powder, and a pinch of baking soda, and slowly add the flour mixture to the liquid ingredients.
Flour, baking soda, and baking powder sifted together.
Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, or until a wooden skewer comes out dry.
Batter poured into the pan.
Alton’s orange cake.
My cake took about 45 minutes to be done. I sliced my cake and served it with Alton’s sweet and sour dessert sauce (above).
Alton’s orange cake, sliced.
I found this cake to be highly disappointing. It did have a lot of orange flavor, but the cake was quite dry and the outside of the cake was a bit darker than I would have liked. For me, this one was a bit of a flop, and I will not be making this one again. In fact, I would say that this episode of Good Eats (and the recipes featured) was one of my least favorites thus far.
Allison Cooks Alton's Good Eats 
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