Every time I see a magazine photo, TV commercial, or attend a Viking Cooking School demonstration, I secretly covet some of the beautiful brand-spanking-new cookware I see being used. I still have the original wedding gifts we got when we married 34 years ago. Several years ago, my sister gave me some new cookware with glass lids — I was thrilled! She told me “out with the old” and “in with the new,” but I just couldn’t part with my old stuff. I have become very sentimental as I get older, and simple things take on a whole new meaning. I have some of my grandmother’s things from her kitchen, and even though they aren’t much to look at, I think of her every time I cook with them.
When my son was a college student, I was making an Easy Chocolate Cake to take to State for our Saturday picnic. The cake was baking in the oven, and I was rinsing off and putting dishes in the dishwasher. I noticed that the small spatula that I was scraping the batter out of the bowl with was missing the top part —there was nothing but a stick!! Oops. It wasn’t missing before. Where could it be? I looked at my cake baking in the oven, and I knew that the only place it could be was in the cake. I didn’t have time to bake another cake because we had a Friday night ballgame, and I was headed there as soon as the cake was out of the oven and frosted. As soon as the cake was done, I started poking around in the cake with a toothpick until I hit something hard — Pay Dirt — the top to the spatula was found perfectly intact. I frosted my cake, cut out the section where the spatula was found and wasn’t even late for kickoff.
I was reading a magazine recently when I read a story about a “Supermom” who had to bake five dozen brownies for her daughter’s school bazaar. She had the brownies baked, frosted and individually wrapped and tied with ribbons of the school’s colors. As she was cleaning up her kitchen, she noticed that a bolt was missing from her “aged” mixer. It was no where to be found. “Supermom” packed her brownies in the car, drove to the emergency room, and politely asked the attendants if she could please run her brownies through the X-ray machine. The bolt was discovered, the brownie discarded, and she was off to the bazaar. Now that was quick thinking! When it comes to moms, where there’s a will, there’s a way. Here are some great treats to try. Hope you will give them a try. Thanks for reading.
EASY CHOCOLATE CAKE
2 cups plain flour
2 cups sugar
1 stick oleo
½ cup shortening
4 tablespoons cocoa
1 cup boiling water
½ cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon soda
2 eggs, well beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
Combine oleo, shortening, cocoa and water and bring to a boil. Mix flour and sugar together and pour hot cocoa mixture over it. Put soda in buttermilk and mix well and add to mixture. Last, add eggs and vanilla. The batter will be thin. Pour into a greased and floured 11-by-16-inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. Ice with the following frosting while cake is still hot.
Icing:
¾ stick oleo
4 Tbsp. cocoa
5-6 Tbsp. Pet milk
1 box powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)
Combine oleo, cocoa, milk and heat. Add powdered sugar a little at a time and beat well. Add vanilla and nuts. Frost cake while warm and still in the pan. Cool and cut into squares.
PECAN PIE BARS
2 cups flour
½ cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
¾ cup butter or margarine, cut up
Combine dry ingredients, cut in butter to resemble fine crumbs. Press mixture into a 13-by-9-by-2- inch pan. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
½ cup butter or margarine
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 ½ cup chopped pecans
1 tsp. vanilla
Combine brown sugar, light corn syrup, and ½ cup butter in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring gently. Remove from heat. Slowly stir eggs into hot mixture mixing gently the entire time. Stir in pecans and vanilla. Pour over crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until set. Cool completely on wire racks in pan. Cut into bars when cool.
SPEEDY BROWNIES
2 cups sugar
1¾ cups flour
½ cup cocoa
1 teaspoon salt
5 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Combine the first seven ingredients in a mixing bowl. Beat until smooth. Pour into a greased 13-by-9-by-2-inch pan. Sprinkle with chocolate chips. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack. These are good without frosting, but if you like a frosted brownie, use the frosting for Easy Chocolate Cake — they are delicious!
