Dawn and the Colored Pencils

Christmas is a colorful time with many activities to fill the days. Dawn got her
colored pencils out to make some pretty cards and to write her Christmas letter.
But all those plans fell through the cracks because she was very busy getting ready
for her children to come home to visit. This caused a lot of excitement and much
hurrying and scurrying about. When a family is all together much food is consumed.
In fact, you could say it disappears at an alarming rate.

 

One day Dawn decided to bake a cake. First she drew a kitchen with a wooden table
in the center of the room. Then she drew a white stove and a white refrigerator beside it.
She drew a sink and cupboards and a counter. The cupboards had a warm honey gold finish.
The first thing she drew on the counter was a coffee maker. Dawn measured coffee and cold
water and started to brew a pot of very strong coffee. Then she drew a cookbook with a tan
cover opened to the cake section. Dawn drew a white mixer with beaters and a big red bowl.
She drew a blue canister set and clear glass measuring cups and yellow measuring spoons.
She measured sugar into the bowl, then butter. Using the mixer she had drawn she creamed
the sugar and butter together. Dawn drew two brown eggs and carefully broke them into the
bowl. She drew the vanilla bottle out of the cupboard and poured some into the mixture.
She measured milk into a cup then added a splash of vinegar to the milk and stirred it in.

 

A green bowl was drawn out of the cupboard. Into this the dry ingredients,
flour, cocoa, soda and salt, were measured. Dawn drew a big spoon and stirred the
powdery mixture. She poured the dry ingredients into the bowl of sugar, eggs, milk and
vanilla. Next Dawn drew a cup of very hot coffee and poured that in the bowl, too.
Then she held on to the mixer with one hand and a red scraper (spatula) with the other
and beat the cake batter until it was completely mixed. She drew a cake pan and greased
the bottom and sides of the pan. After that she poured the batter into the pan. She drew
the open oven door and the pan sitting in the oven. The door was closed so the cake
could begin to bake.

 

Dawn poured coffee into an orange mug then drew hot sudsy water in the sink.
She enjoyed drinking her cup of coffee while she washed the dishes and placed them
in the cream colored dish drainer she had drawn. By the time she was done washing dishes
there was a lovely smell of chocolate cake in the air. She drew a chair beside the table and
sat down to enjoy a game of Boggle with her girls
. . . and drink another cup of very good coffee.

 

The whole family was invited to the home of some friends for dinner on New Year’s Day.
Dawn made her favorite chocolate frosting, frosted the cake and took it along to share. The
evening was a special time of visiting and playing games and, of course, eating delicious food.

 

At last it was time to go home. By this time Dawn was very tired. She looked at all the
lights in all of the houses they passed. So many houses in the country. She wondered which
one was hers. Then she remembered seeing the moon set in the western sky through her bed
room window. She drew the silvery moon in the western sky. She drew a window around the
moon. Then she drew her bed with the blue blanket. Dawn climbed into bed, dropped her
colored pencils on the red rug beside her bed and fell fast asleep.

A parody (3rd definition in Encarta, by Dawn) of Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson

I would like to give credit to my friend, for introducing me to the book,
Harold and the Purple Crayon. In all the years of growing up I had never
heard of it until recently. Well, kind of recently. Within the last ten years.

And I didn't learn about parodies at my school either. Or - if I did - I forgot.

 

Recipes

Cornmeal Scrapple

1 cup cornmeal
1 cup milk
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 ¾ cups boiling water
8 oz. bulk pork sausage (cooked, drained and crumbled)
Combine first four ingredients in a saucepan, stir until smooth, add hot water gradually.
Stir with a wire whisk. Cook until thickened and bubbly. Reduce heat, cover with lid, simmer
ten minutes longer, until very thick. Remove from heat and stir in sausage. Pour into greased loaf pan. Cover and refrigerate. To prepare: slice, dip in flour and fry in butter. Serve with syrup.

 Sometimes when I am cooking this delicious recipe I forget to turn the burner down low enough. When I lift the lid and peek into the pan a splash of hot cornmeal erupts from a tiny volcano, flies through the air and hits my arm. Youch! It hurts.

It’s kind of like unexpected “bursts” of emotion that hit me. One day before Christmas I was driving along singing O Holy Night . . .  It was a lovely day, sun shining in a beautiful blue sky.

Then I switched to Little Drummer Boy.
We used to get a darling book and record* out of the library and listen to it by the hour.

(A record is a round black disk placed in a record player where it spins and a little arm with a needle is positioned on the spinning record and in this way music is played).

We listened so often that Jeremy learned it by heart and went around singing it. I can remember the pictures in the book but not all of the words. The last two lines hit me and there I was, driving to town with tears raining down my face, worshipping my Lord, Emmanuel.

“Then He smiled at me, pa rum pum pum pum,
Me and my drum."

     

 

Christmas Party for the Youth

Pam asked me, “Can you send along your chocolate cake?
With maybe a hint of mint?”                                                                              

I experimented with Andes crème de menthe baking chips.

Here is the recipe for Jiffy Chocolate Feather Cake, the very first cake I ever made.
This is the one I still bake.

2 cups sugar

1 cup shortening (any combination of margarine, butter, or vegetable shortening)
Cream together then add:
2 eggs
1 cup sour milk (splash some vinegar in the cup of milk)
2 tsp. vanilla

Beat all together.

Dry ingredients:

3 cups flour

1 cup cocoa powder (I use half this amount)
2 tsp. soda
1 tsp. salt
Mix with sugar/shortening mixture and add
1 cup hot water or hot coffee

Mix all together, pour into 9x13 cake pan.

For a touch of mint sprinkle mint chips over batter, spread around
with table knife. Bake at 350* for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick
stuck in the center of the cake comes out clean.

(Ovens vary) This cake might even take 45 minutes in some ovens.

Frosting:

Bring to boil in saucepan
1 stick margarine

4 T. Cocoa (melt more of the Andes mint chips along with the cocoa for a hint of mint)

6 T. Milk

Turn off burner and add (my recipe says one box powdered sugar)

That tells you how ancient my recipe is. Yes, this is the frosting recipe for
Texas Sheet Cake. So I am assuming it is a one pound box? Add:

Half a bag of powdered sugar (if you buy powdered sugar in two lb. bags)

1 tsp. Vanilla

1 cup walnuts (optional)

Mix together and spread on cake.