Plums

The backyard of our house in Brussels has an apple tree, a plum tree, some grape vines, and raspberry bushes.

It also has a hammock swing, a laundry line, a trampoline, a shed that I can't get into, and a tiny pond with one lonely goldfish. Lots of cat visitors too, but that might stop once Waffle moves in at the end of the month.

Miles has already built sweetgum fortresses around the yard.

I promised that I would return to recipe writing but I don't know if I've figured out how to really cook here yet. Something I did make though: plum torte. It's an old New York Times recipe that they used to run every September and could not be easier. The tree was dropping plums and the wasps and butterflies were very happy.

Preheat to 350 (here it's 180! what?). Soften 1/2 cup of butter on the countertop and cream it with 3/4 cup sugar. Add 1 cup flour (I used pastry flour this time around because I could not figure out the flour types at the store but you know what? it worked really well), 1 teaspoon baking powder (I don't think I found that correctly either so I used maybe bicarbonate?), plus salt, and two eggs. Mix mix mix, then spoon into your landlord's springform pan. Be not like me and do cut a circle of parchment paper for the bottom please. Cut a lot of plums in half, chucking the ones with worms out, and toss them in the speculoos seasoning that you found in the drawer (or cinnamon if you are in your own house with your own things). Put the plum halves, skin side up, into the batter. Make it snug! Bake for about one hour. I think you could probably sub in some almond flour for a nice marzipan effect.