After a week of simple cooking, I must say it has freed me up to do oh so many things. 1. Not going to the store to buy a wig to patch up bald spots (bad recipes, hair pulling, you know the gist). 2. Swapping ‘A Bat Invaded Our House and This Is How We Freaked Out’ stories with my mother-in-law. 3. Zombie-ing out on Pintrest as my poor pantry (the one that has a chest of five drawers and a waist high, 3-shelved book case to hold my life’s necessities upon) is getting remodeled and oh, I have so many ideas. 4. Working on reorganizing, revamping, updating, and giving an overall face lift to the red spoon a surprise (shhhhh). And 5. Making a perfect pound cake.

Pound cakes are nothing new for us. I’ve made them before, typically winding up on our table during summer months as few things can go wrong when topped with a bright and fresh berry medley. This, however, is an entirely different story. I almost think of pound cake as the dessert you make when all you have on hand are the basics: eggs, flour, sugar, butter (read in anguish: where has all my ice cream gone?!) and need that last final course to be something great, yet not too heavy to be crammed in any of the spare cracks you may have left. I think of it as a vessel in which dripping, juicy fruit can be shoveled in our pie holes. And now, it is the straw in which I drink coulis, the juice of life. Or at least it should be. Folks, the winner here is not the pound cake, though by all means you will not go wrong if you make it. It is in fact incredibly moist and flavorful, but what I would like to discuss is coulis. Forget berry compotes and cooked syrups. Coulis takes all of 30 seconds to make and will leave you wondering why you ate dinner in the first place. It can be slightly tart and sour if you’re like us, it can be dolled up with a little scrape of vanilla bean, or parred down up with citrus zest, a glug of bourbon or anything else your little heart could conjure up. Or it could be left as is and no one would miss a thing.

Oh, and in case you were wondering about the bat: my mother-in-law found this video that pretty much sums up exactly how my husband reacted to our little intruder. Differences being:

• a much higher pitch involved on our side
• a dirty, ragged, pink bath towel draped over, cough, someone, as if the bat was the source of the contagion epidemic
• the tennis racquet was, for us, a broom being swung, swooped and gyrated wildly in the air
• there was no anger, just fear
• it took place at 3 a.m., waking me up from and deep sleep as I paw my eyes wondering why there was a shrieking woman in my house and where my husband was to protect me. And due to the shuffling I thought there was also a burglar, or a shrieking woman burglar. A definite fail on her part.
• The Ave Maria, however, totally happened in our version.

One Year Ago: Blackberry Almond Shortbread

Two Years Ago: Mache Salad with Radishes and Mozzarella

Simple Pound Cake
From Jacques Pepin via Food and Wine

This is a perfect, simple pound cake as is, but I think it would be fantastic with some white chocolate chips sprinkled throughout as white chocolate raspberry will always be a favorite duo in our house.

Makes 1 1-pound loaf

2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 large eggs
1/4 cup milk, at room temperature
2 1/2 cups cake flour

Preheat the oven to 325°F.

Butter a 10-by-5-inch loaf pan. (Mine is a 1-pound 9×5 inch pan, and it worked fine.) Line the bottom with a strip of parchment paper that extends 2 inches past the short ends of the pan.

In a bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter with the sugar, vanilla and salt at medium speed until fluffy, 3 minutes. Add the eggs, 2 at a time, beating between additions. (It will start to look curdled at this point, but it’s okay. Once you add the flour it will be fine.) Beat in the milk. Sift the flour over the batter and whisk it in until smooth. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the surface.

Bake the cake for 1 1/2 hours, until it is cracked down the center, golden on top, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then unmold the cake and let cool completely.

Do Ahead: The cake can be kept at room temperature, covered, for up to 3 days.

Raspberry Coulis

This could easily be done with any berry you have on hand, though you will have to adjust the sugar accordingly.

Makes about 1/2 cup – next time I would double up on the coulis if serving the entire cake.

2 cups fresh raspberries
1/4 cup granulated sugar*
1 tablespoon water**
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

In a blender or food processor combine berries, sugar, water and lemon juice. Blend until combined and berries are pureed smoothly. Pour mixture into a sieve placed over a bowl to strain out seeds. Use a spoon to run back and forth inside the sieve scraping and pressing as much juice out as you can. Discard seeds and spoon the coulis over your cake.

*We liked our coulis a bit more tart than average coulis and thought it went well with the somewhat sweeter pound cake, but add sugar accordingly. If you blend it up and it’s too tart, just add a bit more until it’s the right sweetness for you.

** I originally added a 1/4 cup of water and it was way to runny. I would start with a tablespoon. It should be thick like a syrup, not runny like water. If too watery, strain out seeds, then strain again through cheese cloth or several layers of paper towels until some of the water has been drained out.