orangette's lemon cake and frozen yogurt

I find orangette's blog extremely comforting. I have no idea if the real person Molly Wizenberg has a life that feels like the blog does, that has that urbane tone, or even if it's possible for a life to be like the blog that chronicles it. The blog brings into existence a world and a narrator who are about beauty, pleasure, leisure, and fulfillment. I guess correspondence to reality is beside the point. Narrative in general is comforting to me, even if some of the details are upsetting. Orangette definitely has that spark of narrative magic.

One great benefit of unemployment is that I've had ample time to read. It's great. I've torn through a couple books this week, and I love the drug of getting swept up in narrative. Also, I've been making use of the public library, so the pleasure is guilt free. No books accumulating around the house; no shameful amazon packages arriving. I read Amanda Hesser's Cooking for Mr. Latte and All the Way Home: Building a Family in a Falling-Down House by David Giffels. Both are enjoyable reads. Giffels is quirky and brilliant and a terrific writer. Hesser's a well-known food journalist and the book has recipes, none of which I've tried yet, but they look good.

I've been dipping into Orangette's recipes, as I read her archived posts. I recently made her French-Style Yogurt Cake with Lemon. Actually, I made it twice, once using eggs, another time eggless (replacing eggs with extra yogurt and some Ener-G Egg Substitute, if I remember correctly). The eggless version tasted good; the texture was crumblier than the egged version. It's a simple cake, not flashy. I love the fresh lemonyness of it, clean and elegant. I did jazz it up with a side of frozen yogurt, which is the easiest possible frozen dessert and delicious.

Vanilla Frozen Yogurt

4 cups Brown Cow Cream Top Plain yogurt
1/4 cup agave syrup (you might want to start with less and add more to taste)
1 t. vanilla extract

Whisk the yogurt with agave syrup and vanilla extract. Taste and add more syrup if necessary. Freeze in ice-cream maker according to basic instructions. I use agave syrup here because it mixes directly into the yogurt and has a nice clean taste. Honey or maple syrup would be tasty too, but would contribute more flavor to your final blend. Or you could use presweetened vanilla yogurt. I haven't found a yogurt that I like as well as Brown Cow.