Whoopie Cake ( Child of Whoopie Pie and Classic Icebox Cake)

Any food lover who has eaten a genuine whoopie pie has got to be cracking up over the current rage for – what shall we call it? – the new whoop-de-do : small cakes sandwiched with lots of rich filling that resemble the genuine article the way a square of ground Kobe beef filled with foie gras resembles a White Castle hamburger.        

You can read all about it in this New York Times whoopie pie story by Micheline Maynard, or just know that ever since she tapped me for an opinion about their origin,  I’ve had them rattling around in my head.

I’ve also had a container of very nice ricotta rattling around in the refrigerator. Also half a batch of the dough for Chocolate Split Seconds.

ricotta whoopie pies

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While We’re Out Enjoying the Farmers Market

Du Pont has more than 800 salespeople out helping farmers improve their yields – with genetically engineered seeds and industrial chemicals. As the Des Moines Register headlines it: In hard times, chemical industry is buoyed by agricultural need.

I didn’t put help in ironic quotes because Dupont’s reps are also offering expensive technology like satellite imaging analysis, something that is genuinely helpful when you’re managing thousands of acres.

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(Desperately Seeking) Legume Inoculant, or, A tale of two Agways

Background: The day is warm and so is the soil. I decide to push it and plant some peas, even though the forsythia is only swollen instead of blooming and

Crocus are still the main attraction.

I look in the seedbox

It's in back. I couldn’t bear to edit him out

Gee, I thought I bought some.

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