Bayfront Marin's Pirate Rum Cake

Ahoy, ye maties!!!

St. Augustine's new pirate museum opened this week, and the hub and I were two of the first people in line. Look for a blog with more information in the next few days.

While you're waiting for that, I'm going to share something else that many of you have been waiting for.

It's the recipe for Heloisa's Utterly Amazing Rum Cake.

Renamed the Pirate Rum Cake (this week only) in honor of our city's newest attraction.

Now, if you're going to make this cake, I should warn you: there is enough rum in a slice of this cake to fell a mighty pirate. If you're a mighty pirate, or even an empowered wench--you should eat it at your own risk.

And the risk of the wimpy landlubbers around you.

Heloisa's Utterly Amazing Rum Cake

Cake:
1 butter recipe golden cake mix
1/3 cup of sugar
1 8ounce container of sour cream
1/4 cup of white rum
1/2 cup of cooking oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs (added to the batter one at a time)

Mix all ingredients, adding the eggs one at a time to incorporate.

Pour mixture into a very well greased bundt cake. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes at 350 F.

Glaze:
1 stick of butter
1/2 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of rum

Boil butter and sugar for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and add 1/4 cup of rum.

When the cake is baked, let it cool for 15 minutes. Remove the cake from the bundt pan, and add half of the rum glaze into the pan. Put the cake back into the bundt, and pour the other half of the rum glaze over it. Set aside for 1/2 hour.

Remove cake from bundt pan onto serving plate.

Serve with good friends and lots of laughs.

Drop Dead Bread

My grandmother has been known to skip an entree entirely and just have bread for dinner.

When faced with a big bowl of glop, something that even the starving children in India might pass on, she has been known to say "A good roll could save this meal."

The rolls at The Tasting Room to Go, an offshoot of the wildly popular Tasting Room , could save more than just a meal. They could save humanity.

I'm sure you're anxious now to just run out and get one of these game-changing yeasty treasures. Not so fast, junior. It's not so easy to find. The Tasting Room to Go is at 39.5 Cordova Street, down a little path, behind the Floridian restaurant.

It's not a sit-down restaurant, although there are a handful of tables and umbrellas in the cute courtyard in front of the building. Inside, it's just a long deli counter. You order at the counter, pay for your meal, then go out in the courtyard and someone will bring the food when it's ready.

The hub and I went yesterday for lunch...and then we went back for take-out lunch today. Yesterday, he got the muffaletta, a salty olive-y mixture on one of the most heavenly pieces of big round bread you can imagine. I got the quiche of the day, a light concoction with a phyllo crust. Both were awesome.

Today, we both opted for cuban sandwiches and a long loaf of Italian, for dinner tonight. We also tried the lentil salad, which was even better than it looked, with crunchy pieces of onion and yellow pepper, and some soft feta cheese on the top. I'm not sure it's the traditional accompaniment to a cuban sandwich, but it was wonderful in its own right. (Note: you can tell that Mike was ordering--he of the "I picked up some brussel sprouts to go with the pasta tonight" fame. One time, when we were in St. Barth, he ordered some horrible combination of food and the waiter literally said "But no, sir. I can not leet you do zat." And then he proceeded to order something completely different for the hub).

But back to The Tasting Room to Go. My only complaint is that the counter closes at 4:00. And I'm just starting to think about dinner around 7. That would be a nice time to run over and grab some fresh bread (hint, hint, owners).

But, until they decide to have longer hours, I'll just have to write myself a note. And set an alarm for 3:00 in the afternoon.