Harlequin and My Mom - A Long History

Tex here, and today I'm talking more memories than food. You see, my men have been gone for the last eleven days, returning last night, so I haven't done a whole lot of cooking. Of course, I rustled up a big batch of chocolate chip cookies for their homecoming. You can find that recipe here. And since I was making cookies anyway, I made extra for y'all. So grab a cookie and pull up a chair while I tell you about my Mom's long history with Harlequin Books.

This is my mom, and we celebrated her 80th birthday this past Saturday.

 

Mom loves to read, but alas, it's now a bit of a challenge for her. But does that stop her from trying? Of course not.

 

Mom has always been an avid reader. I don't recall ever seeing her without a book. When I was a teenager, I used to make fun of her for reading all those Barbara Cartland romances. I still remember the picture of that woman - dressed in an evening gown, stretched out on her chaise with her little dogs. At least I think she had dogs. I do remember her opulent surroundings, though, and used to wonder if she lived in a castle.

 

But I digress.

 

Mom always had boxes and boxes of romance novels in the basement. I probably shouldn't reveal her secret, but she worked at a five and dime (no, that's not her secret). But when the books they carried didn't sell in a certain amount of time, they would tear the covers off to send back. Except she'd keep the books. She didn't care if they had a cover or not. She read every last one of them, starting a new book every day or so.

 

But then the store closed and she quit working. But that didn't slow down her appetite for romance. Instead, she discovered Reader's Service.

 

Recently, we had to move Mom to an assisted living and I had to cancel her subscriptions with Harlequin. The gal I spoke with on the phone commented about how long Mom had been with them. But don't feel bad for Mom, she still has plenty of books to read.

 

 

It's hard to tell, the way I have them packed, but there are over 300 books here, every one of them a Harlequin romance. Lots of all three Love Inspired lines, some Intrigues, Super Romance, and who knows what else. I found all of these while cleaning out her apartment, and she's probably only read a quarter of them.

 

Of course, she enjoys some of our most favorite authors.

 

I imagine God had a bit of a chuckle when I used to tease Mom all those years ago. Because only He knew that I would one day write those same books?

 

Guess the nut doesn't fall far from the tree, because I love LOVE.  

 

Thanks, Mom.

 

Of Mice and Men and Cakes

Hello all! The Fresh Pioneer is back and even though we're in the thick of produce heaven. I thought I'd share my recent cake adventure. (Also, I'm hugely competitive and saw Mindy's post on chocolate cake. I just can't let her get away with that kind of thing. So, watch and learn. Nominate your favorite. Winner gets.... cake at midnight with no guilt.)

  Now, I saw this recipe in a cookbook at the library and jotted it down. (Those last three words are important. I have notoriously bad handwriting. And am lazy. And take lots of shortcuts telling myself I'll remember what language I was writing in later, "for sure"!)

 

  It was for a green grasshopper cake. Not the bug, the flavor. It looks sort of like this.

 

But with chocolate inside, so maybe sort of like this. But also a bit like this...

(pictures removed so we don't get sued for copyright!)

You get the gist. I had some ingredients and some VAGUE idea of the order and an even vaguer idea of what it was going to look like, except that is was going to be stunning. And everyone would ooh over it and think I should take up professional cake decorating. All my friends would want one for their birthdays, I just knew it!

The recipe called for heavy cream. That should have been my first hint of impending disaster. Heavy cream and lemon juice mixed together in a bowl?? Probably wrote something down wrong but I told myself it would be FINE.

(Side note: the worst thing my husband has ever called me is 'stubborn woman'. Not too bad, eh? But in his conservative culture, being a stubborn woman ranks right down there with psychopathic axe murderer. Now, I've been raised to embrace that stubborn streak. It's got me where I am today! Which is... making this cake.)

Now, I added and mixed and melted chocolate and turned around three times with my arms in the air. It came out of the oven looking like this. SUCCESS!! Of course I celebrated because I KNEW this would be beautiful.

And my first clue was this sad little layer. But hey, it's on the bottom. No one will notice.

Um, you know, a little of that pretty green frosting with peppprmint extract and we still have a chance. I KNOW IT WILL BE AMAZING! So, I mix the frosting with (I think it said this, pretty sure... sort of) more heavy cream, cup of real butter, powdered sugar.

Um. Um, um, um. I'm sweating now. Where is the pretty cake?? Don't panic. THINK. Kids are in the next room, excited to see the work of art. Husband is... I think he gave up and went outside somwhere around the time I couldn't read the instructions, about an hour and a half ago.

So, I have these leftover pieces of the cake when it fell apart. Maybe this? Maybe not. Looks like a gangrenous zombie bear gone bad.

Okay, zombies, scary... Hey, it's close to Hallowe'en! We usually straddle the line somewhere between All Saint's Day (dress as your favorite martyr, the bloodier the better) and avoid those crazy costumes that scare small children. We always have candy for the trick or treaters, carve pumpkins, celebrate the fun holiday, and go to church the next day. So, hey, I'm all over a Hallowe'en cake... in September.

Um, after some hair and eyes and blue pimples...

He needed a mouth! A scary red mouth...

Now, this is why everyone should be surrounded by young children at least once a day. Because whatever you do is AWESOME. He thinks this is wayyyyy better than that other green one with the chocolate shavings. This one has a MOUTH.
  Don't know what I'll do when they're teenagers and can't be distracted by candy eyeballs.
 My oldest daughter looked at it and said, "Hey this reminds me of that poem with the mouse. You know, the one who loses his nest?"

 Ohhhhh, right. Here's the famous part that Steinbeck made more famous.

"But little Mouse, you are not alone,

In proving foresight may be vain:

The best laid schemes of mice and men

Go often awry,

And leave us nothing but grief and pain,

For promised joy!"

 
  If he were here, I'd offer Mr. Burns a bit of this cake. I think he might appreciate the tragedy of it all. He could have a slice with some hair AND some eyeballs. Because we disappointed types have to stick together.


So, go ahead and vote for the one you'd want to see on your table. (Sorry, Mindy, I already know what they're going to say. Who'd want to see that sky-high tower of chocolatey goodness when they could have a cake with HAIR??)

Making the Ordinary Extraordinary!

Mindy here. Last week I shared that we'd celebrated my daughter's birthday with pizzas on the grill. Of course, that wasn't all we had. After all, a birthday isn't a birthday without the birthday person's cake/dessert of choice. In this case, she likes chocolate cake with buttercream frosting. She also adores cupcakes. So I decided to go the cupcake route and spruce things up just a bit.

First I made their favorite chocolate cake--Duncan Hines Devil's Food Cake. Easy peasy. Since she was having friends over, I made two batches, all in cupcake form.

Now I knew my boys would not eat the cupcakes with buttercream frosting. They only like 'em with Duncan Hines Classic Chocolate Frosting. And heaven forbid I should veer from that course. I made one of them this luscious chocolate cake one time. It had ganache that was to-die-for. He said it was okay, but he really wanted just the regular, my usual, chocolate cake. Like I've said before, they have no taste.

Of course, when we're talking buttercream icing, it has to be homemade.

Here's my recipe:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 8 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• A few drops of food coloring (optional)

Place butter in a large mixing bowl. Add 4 cups of the sugar, milk, and vanilla. Beat until smooth and creamy. Gradually add remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, until icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency. Add food coloring, if desired, and mix thoroughly. Miss's favorite color is aqua, so that was my color of choice.

 I put as much as I can into a pastry bag with a large star tip (D2 or 2D, something like that). Twist the end closed and pipe/swirl the frosting around the top of the cupcakes. Trust me, this is easy. Then I did the same with a can of chocolate frosting. Aqua and brown are such hot colors right now, so it all worked together.

But they were too pretty just put on a plate. Instead, I got two cake pedestals of different sizes (you could use more) and set the cupcakes on those, alternating the colors.

And what a pretty centerpiece it made.

That is, until my grandpup decided to sample them.

The brat. Apparently she likes buttercream frosting too.

Lucky for her, I had plenty of extras.

How do you take the ordinary and make it extraordinary? And it doesn't have to be just food.

Later, y'all.







Low-Cost Fancy!!!

My niece was  here a few weeks ago and we got out the punch set. The punch set ties into my Seekerville post today, because it cost $2.97 from Eckerd's or Rite Aid or some such a VERY LONG TIME AGO!!!! It was a Christmas present from Dave's sister Beverly and I've used it multiple times, every year, for every purpose known to man...

And it survived all these years. See the gold "carnival" glass look?

Haley calls it 'fancy'.  And she sighed and said "Aunt Ruth has such nice things..." with a hint of longing in her voice.

I was no way, no how about to correct her, LOL!

And my grandkids LOVE THESE CUPS.  They sparkle. They reflect the light. The punch shimmers inside!!!!!

:)

I love simple things that stand the test of time, so do you have any cool things you bring out for special occasions? They don't have to be pricey, just something that makes a memory?

Here's a pic of the cupcakes my daughter-in-law Lacey made for Easter:

Simple. Making memories. Not necessarily spending more money.

Jon made fancy Jello, like my mother-in-law used to make for my kids... And Emma LOVED IT!!!

 Layered Jello, sparkling in glassware. That's pretty fancy-schmancy in six-year-old world!

So what fun things do you like to do to make things special?  Share them with us... Over really good coffee and tea, of course!