Update on my Father

Last week I accompanied my father to his PET scan.  The scan is pretty much a walk in the park but it gives us a little bit of quality time together.  We always go out to lunch which he loves and I love it because I know that he's eaten at least one good meal.  It's not that he can't cook, cause he can, but for him it's trouble so he'll do something easy instead of what is really good for him.

We had our follow-up yesterday with the Dr. and here is what is going on.  
There are two spots in the groin area that are lit up...that means that there is "activity" and that means he is out of remission.  It's not that his current treatment is not working...it's just not working as well as it has and so we have to change his treatment.

The Dr. wants him to have a bone marrow scan on the 7th of Oct.  If they find the cancer in his bone marrow then they want to do a new chemo treatment and then he'll go back to the Retuxan.  But instead of his Retuxan treatment being 4 treatments every 6 months he'll probably go to 1 treatment every 2 months or every other month.  That is still to be determined.  But this is all in hopes that they can once again get on top of this cancer. 

If they don't find any cancer in his bone marrow then they just want to do radiation.  No problem with that except that my father does not want to do radiation.  And that is because he is pretty sure that my mother's health really started to go downhill after her radiation treatment.  And it would be with the same Dr. who treated my mother and I tend to want to agree with him.  It's his life after all and he does have a right to decide how he wants to be treated. I think that he'd much rather (regardless of the outcome) just do the chemo and Retuxan. 

He's understandably disappointed in his results.  We had gotten use to "no changes" and so you sort of forget that he's sick other than his physical appearance.  And by that I mean weight.  He's pretty skinny and I think he would look better with about 15 more pounds on him and he agrees.  It's just hard for him to put on weight.  If I only had that problem. 

So that's where we stand right now.  I'm going to hope that the cancer has not spread to his bone marrow...I think there is a good chance that it hasn't because all his blood work looks good.  His Dr. actually said, if someone looked at his blood work they wouldn't be able to tell that he had cancer at all.   So fingers crossed, that this all turns out better than we anticipate.  Onward....

Cold Oven Poundcake w/ Apple, Pear and Plum Compote

Let me just start this post by saying that I am not much of a cake eating person.  For my birthday for as long as I can remember I have always asked for pie...Lemon Meringue Pie to be exact.  My mother just made the best and as good as a cook that I am, I have not been able to replicate the dessert.  I make a pretty good one but not as good as hers.  I think it has to do more with who you are making it for rather than who is making it.  So the love I cannot replicate but the ingredients I can.  Deep thoughts for a Wednesday afternoon. 
So why a cake and why a poundcake.  Heaven only knows, I just thought that it sounded good and I wanted to give it a shot.  I saw this on Trisha Yearwood's Food Network show.
I've made poundcakes before but this started with a cold oven and I was curious to see how it would all turn out. 
Poundcake takes its name from its classic recipe, which includes 1 lb. each of butter, sugar, eggs and flour; in France, the same cake is known as quatre-quarts, for "four quarters," because each of the four ingredients makes up a quarter of the batter.  There's your lesson for the day. 
So let's assemble our ingredients:

So we have flour, sugar, eggs, butter, whipping cream (although I had 1/2 & 1/2) and Vanilla extract and I happened to use Vanilla Paste.

You also want to grease and flour the bottom, sides and tube of a 9 inch tube cake pan.

So take the butter and sugar and put them in the mixer and cream them until smooth.

The above picture does not show the mixture smooth but it's in the process and because I'm not an expert at this...I'm not always thinking about pictures and text going together....forgive me.

Then you start to add the eggs.  One at a time mixing well after each addition.

See all the eggs are added and the mixture is relatively smooth. 

Now you start to add the flour and the cream alternately, beginning and ending with the flour.

Then add the vanilla.

Pour into the tube pan and put in the oven.

TA-DA!!!  Isn't it lovely.   Now I realize that this post is called Cold Oven Poundcake w/ Apple, Pear and Plum Compote but I somehow wigged out and completely forgot to take pictures of the making of the compote so you'll have to use your imagination there but trust me when I say this...it's excellent and the perfect compliment to the cake.   Was that just the longest run-on sentence ever?  Yes, I think it was.  So here's the recipe.

COLD OVEN POUNDCAKE
*1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
3 cups sugar
6 large eggs, at room temperature
3 cups all purpose flour, sifted
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:
Do not preheat the oven.  Grease and flour the bottom, sides and tube of a 9-inch tube cake pan. 

Cream the butter and sugar until smooth.  Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition, but do not overbeat.  Se the mixer on slow speed and stir in the flour and cream alternately, beginning and ending with the flour.  Add the vanilla and stir well.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and put the cake in a cold oven.  Set the oven temperature to 325 degrees F.  Begin timing now and bake the cake for 1 hour and 15 minutes.  Test of doneness by inserting a toothpick in the center of the cake.  The toothpick should be clean when it is removed.  Cool in the pan for 30 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to continue cooling.
*this recipe does not specify salted or unsalted butter.  I always have unsalted butter in my kitchen and that's what I used. 

APPLE, PEAR AND PLUM COMPOTE

2 cups peeled Granny Smith apples, cut into 1-inch cubes (about 2 medium apples)
2 cups peeled ripe firm pears, cut into 1-inch cubes (about 2 medium pears)
2 cups unpeeled diced plums (about 3 large plums)
1/4 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS;
In a large pot, combine the apples, pears, plums, 1/2 cup water, the honey, vanilla and cinnamon.  Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, cover and cook for 30 minutes.
Remove the lid and continue cooking until the syrup is reduced and the fruit is tender, another 30 minutes.  Cool completely, cover and store in the fridge until ready to serve.  Serve alone or on cake or with just ice cream.  It's delish...trust me.