Wednesday: 3/10/10

God has given us two hands:- one to receive with and the other to give with. We are not cisterns made for hoarding; we are channels made for giving.|

Billy Graham

Oatmeal Cake
1 ¼ cups boiling water
1 cup rolled oats
½ cup butter or margarine, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon of cinnamon
½ teaspoon of salt
¼ teaspoon of nutmeg (we used this and then freshly grated some to go with it.)
Combine water and oats in a small bowl; set aside.

Place butter, brown sugar, and sugar in bowl. Attach bowl and flat beater. Turn to speed 4 and beat 1 minute. Stop and scrape bowl.

Add vanilla. Turn to speed 4 and add eggs, one at a time, beating 15 seconds after each addition. Stop and scrape bowl. Add oat mixture, flour, soda, cinnamon, salt, and nutmeg. Turn to speed 4 and beat 30 seconds.

Pour batter into greased and floured 9 x 9 x 2-inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 50-55 minutes. Cool cake in pan. When cool, top with Broiled Coco-Walnut Topping

Yield: One 9-inch cake

*My notes* We doubled the ingredients (started with the Kitchenaid but I made a mistake with the oatmeal so we needed to double it so I transferred everything to the Bosch mixer) and I added more nutmeg and chocolate chips --- ideas from my creative DIL!
I also put the topping on the cakes while the cake was hot and it was delicious!

Broiled Coco-Walnut Topping
¾ cup shredded coconut
½ cup chopped walnuts
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup butter or margarine, melted
3 Tablespoons heavy cream

Combine all ingredients thoroughly. Spread on top of cake. Place under broiler until topping is bubbly. Cool before serving.
From: The KitchenAid Cookbook

Wednesday with my DIL and three of my grandlittles was today and what a day it was! The first part of the morning consisted of me doing laundry, mopping the kitchen floor and doing some basic tidying and my DIL taking three kids in the rain on errands without an umbrella!

I wanted to bake something so the warmth created by the oven and the comfort of home baked goods would make things inside more welcoming.

We had salads for lunch (left overs from last night and I’ll share that in another post) and ended up adding French bread and roasted garlic hummus. So good!

We bounced babies on our knees while going through cookbooks and Brandy found the Oatmeal cake recipe. Great idea!

This was well loved by us and the three teen girls who came talking and laughing in from school later this afternoon.

We watched a movie (“Murder In Coweta County” --- a true story and had Andy Griffith and Johnny Cash in it) and visited until this evening. We were both so tired and longed for naps but those are pretty non-existent. {Smile}

Tuesday Night Dinner

[I looked up a recipe I could use left over mashed potatoes and gravy, green peas, and carrots. This one did it! Most of what went in this was taken from a previous meal and the carrots and cream cheese in the cake needed to be used from the fridge, too! ]

Shepherd’s Pie

½ recipe for Mashed Potatoes, p. 412 (I just used left over mashed potatoes from a previous night’s dinner and added some I made from instant potatoes)
2 cups cut-up, cooked roast beef, lamb, veal, or pork (I used a blend of cooked ground turkey meat and lean ground beef)
1 T. flour
2 T. fat or salad oil
Leftover gravy
6 small onions, cooked, drained (I sautéed three medium onions)
1 cup cooked, quartered carrots (I used sliced, steamed carrots)
1 cup of cooked or canned peas, drained
1 egg, beaten

Grease 1 ½ quart casserole. Prepare mashed potatoes. Start heating oven to 425 degrees F.
In bowl, lightly roll meat in flour until coated. In hot fat, in skillet, brown meat lightly on all sides. Add 2 ½ cups leftover gravy (or as much gravy as you have on hand, adding enough hot water to make 2 ½ cups in all; season to taste; thicken if necessary). Add onions, carrots, peas. Heat; then pour into casserole.

Fold egg into potatoes; arrange in ring on top of meat. Bake until gravy bubbles and potato rings I slight golden brown ---- about 10 to 15 minutes. Makes 4 servings.

Pg. 255 from: The Good Housekeeping Cookbook

First recipe I made from this book since Mom gave it to me yesterday. It was her first (and only for awhile) cookbook. She used recipes from it to make pies and sell them to a local restaurant.

14-Carat Cake

This flavorful cake keeps 2 to 3 weeks in refrigerator if covered

2 c. sifted flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 ½ tsp. baking soda
1 ½ tsp. salt
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 c. sugar
1 ½ c. salad oil
4 eggs
2 c. finely grated raw carrots
1 (8 ½ oz.) can crushed pineapple, drained
½ c. chopped nuts
1 (3 ½ oz.) can flaked coconut (optional)
Cream Cheese frosting

· Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Add sugar, salad oil and eggs; mix well. Add carrots, pineapple, nuts and coconut; blend thoroughly.
· Pour into three 9” round layer cake pans that have been greased and floured.
· Bake in moderate oven (350 degrees) 35 to 40 minutes. Remove from oven, cool a few minutes in pans. Turn out on racks and cool thoroughly. Fill layers and frost top and sides of cake with cream cheese frosting.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING: Combine ½ c. butter or margarine, 1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese and 1 tsp. vanilla; cream well. Gradually add 1 lb. confectioners sugar (sifted if too lumpy), beating well. If mixture is too thick to spread, add a small amount of milk.

Pg. 380 of: Farm Journal’s Country Cookbook