Wacky Cake

This is an old, familiar cake for me. One my mother used to make for all sorts of occasions that always got rave reviews. Now, I usually bake a cake a week to send to work with the man and most often the guys at work pick what sort of cake they want but this week, well, no one came up with a, ‘do you think she could bake this kind of cake’ so I was left to my own devices so I pulled out my mother’s old stand by. I did some research on this cake and learned it was a depression era cake because it doesn’t call for eggs or milk which were rationed. Most were served without any topping or at the most with a dusting of powdered sugar but ours, as I remember it, had a sort of candy bar topping. (Oh and there was one person who said they would lay Hershey bars on the top and melt them. Yikes!)

This recipe is for a small cake baked in an 8 X 8 pan, I doubled mine and it was perfect for my 13 X 9 pan.

• 1  1/2 C  All Purpose Flour
• 1  C        Sugar
• 4 tbls     Baking, unsweetned cocoa powder
• 1 tsp      Baking soda
• 1/2 tsp  Salt
• 1 tsp      Vanilla
• 1 tbls     Vinegar
• 6 tbls     Oil
• 1 C         Water

Sift together the dry ingredients. Stir in wet ingredients until well blended. Pour into a greased and floured cake pan and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 30-40 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. (Well it’s going to come out chocolatey colored, just make sure it’s not doughy) You can let it cool and dust with powdered sugar or top it with our topping.

Topping

• 1/2 stick of butter melted
• 1/2 C    brown sugar
• 1/2 C    shredded coconut
• chopped nuts, about 1/2 cup
• 1/2 bag of chocolate chips

Stir brown sugar into melted butter until dissolved, (you can add a bit of milk if you like for more of a German Chocolate cake topping) then stir in coconut until blended and pour over cake fresh from the oven. Cover with chopped nuts and top with chocolate chips. Return to oven until chocolate chips just begin to melt. Remove from oven and let cool completely before serving.

10 Things About Me…The Jinxy Version

1. I cannot go 24 hours without making a sound effect. Simply, cannot do it. I managed it once but according to the man, saying ‘brrrr’ when asked what the weather was like broke a nearly 24 hour record.
2. My parents paid for dance lesson in the hopes I would develop some sort of balance if nothing else. I think after two years they realized that was never going to happen. I am still gracefully challenged and according to Misty, I can trip over air or the pattern in a rug.
3. I had my first paying job when I was thirteen years old at a local family owned fast food restaurant. (Hey, it was good enough that Sammy Hagar ate there when he was in town.) Since then, I have had a variety of jobs from medical office manager to over the road truck driver and from fish monger to pre-school teacher.
4. I made a transcontinental move from California to Florida to move in with a man I met through the internet. I made that move sixteen years ago and we’re one of those freaky success stories few really believe. Granted, the men he works with have little problem accepting I was a mail order bride. Ah, welcome to the South.
5. I am told, (by Misty and the Man) that I am eclectic and I suppose I am. I just find joy and pleasure in a wide variety of things and my home and life reflect that.
6. I learned to embroider when I was five years old. My grandmother taught me by drawing a daisy on a piece of scrap fabric. She showed me the basic stitches and I went from there. She was a very patient woman because I sewed it to my skirt more than once.
7. I used to be terribly, painfully shy. As a child I would cling to any trusted adult so I wouldn’t have to speak. Reading in class was like walking on hot coals and shards of glass. Then in the sixth grade I was caught by the eighth grade teacher and informed she had signed me up for a city-wide speech competition. It was my worst nightmare come to life at the hands of a woman I admired and feared so there was nothing I could do but do what I was told to do. Many thanks to Mrs. Wussler for seeing something in me and taking action to help me over come a fear that likely would have held me back.
8. I have a horrible habit of mentally redecorating people’s houses when I come to visit. I rearrange furniture, move pictures, repaint the rooms all in my head. Granted I never say anything unless I am really close to someone but if I come over and get quiet, don’t worry I am just redesigning something in your home.
9. I love playing cards. I wanted to play Go Fish with my dad when I was little, before I even started school and he told me he was going to show me a ‘real man’s game’ and taught me five-card draw poker. I still love playing cards but I admittedly suck at Spades and Pinochle.
10. I have what I can best describe as loose joints. Not that I could be a contortionists or a modern-day Gumby, but suffice to say I can go to the beach and put sunscreen on my back without missing a spot. I won’t even go into how my feet and hands can bend but I will boast I can make the Vulcan live long and prosper sign with my toes.

Quiche — Jinxy’s Version

Quiche you wonder? Yes, quiche because I have an abundance of fresh eggs coming in at the tune of a dozen a day while we are caring for Uncle Bully’s flock. That and since spring is springing up here in Central Florida, I am always looking for something that isn’t going to be in the oven for hours. With a thirty minute bake time, quiche is wonderful.

So, since I have never made a quiche, I went in search of a great recipe and let me tell you, there are a lot of them out there. Most all call for heavy cream and others get poor ratings for tasting ‘too eggy’. Really? Too eggy? Isn’t supposed to be eggy? So I read countless recipes and then opted to just make my own taking the main elements from all those I read and tweaking them more to my tastes (and what the man likes) to come up with what I served up for supper.

For the crust, I used this recipe, thanks to my niece for sharing it with me it’s my go to for pie crust.    Of course, you can use any store bought pre-made crust as well and have great results as well.

Ingredients: 

1/2 C     Light Condensed Milk at room temperature
1/2 C     Non-fat Milk at room temperature
8 oz.     Ham steak, diced
8 0z.    Shredded Swiss Cheese
1 C        Raw spinach, chopped
5 lg.     Eggs at room temperature
1 tbsp.    Melted butter
Salt, Pepper, Cayenne Pepper to taste

Place diced ham in the pie crust shell. Whisk together condensed milk, non-fat milk and eggs until well blended. Stir in melted butter and seasonings. Fold in shredded cheese and spinach and pour over ham in pie crust shell.  Bake at 375 for 30 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes before slicing and serving.  Serves 8.

Nutrition Facts
Servings 8.0
Amount Per Serving
calories 318
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 22 g	34 %
Saturated Fat 8 g	40 %
Monounsaturated Fat 3 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 1 g
Trans Fat 0 g
Cholesterol 170 mg	57 %
Sodium 635 mg	26 %
Potassium 102 mg	3 %
Total Carbohydrate 25 g	8 %
Dietary Fiber 0 g	0 %
Sugars 11 g
Protein 18 g	37 %
Vitamin A	13 %
Vitamin C	3 %
Calcium	20 %
Iron	10 %

 

My Musical Mantra

In Misty’s intro-blurb about me, she mentioned my inner peace. It’s something I have worked on and something that I do my best to feed into daily. A big part of that is, as this song is titled, living in the moment. I can’t undo my past, I can’t control the future so I work on what I have, right here, right now in this moment and make sure to do my best. I knew when I heard this song that it was ‘my song’. It’s one I listen to every morning to remind me I have today and this moment.