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.