A Fun Cake for Fall!

Hello, everybody! This here is a repeat from 2012 because as much many good intentions I have to blog ahead, most of the time I write my post at 6Pm on a Friday night! Tonight I didn't have anything to pull out of my hat (hard drive) because I just made secret recipe apple cake and posole, both of which I've done before. But I love this post because my kids look SO TINY. Even the teens! 

But rather than mope, I thought I'd post a retrospective as a bloggy sort of Psalm 148. (It's okay if you don't have it memorized, you can read it here... and then come back!).  Psalm 148
I want to go for one last glorious run through my backyard.

Fresh raspberries. Heaven on earth.

 Squash and zucchini from my friend Barb's garden.

 Piles of cukes from my stepmother's garden. We ate so many cucumbers, I'm surprised we're not green.

 Blueberries from Lampson Blueberries, just twenty minutes from our house, up in the hills. We picked over 150 lbs and they didn't even make it to October. Let's see: 8 people, 3 months, that's approximately 6 pounds of blueberries a month per person in our house. Not very much! Next year, we'll pick more. I say that every year.

Pears from my dad's pear tree. (Like my kettle? Very Pioneer-y.)

Peaches from one of our two peach trees. There were so many that I had to figure out how to freeze them. Ruthy's peach pie is my next project!

Our seedless grapes have finally rebounded from the drought of 2001. Had a wonderful crop this year and about 50 lbs went to a woman who made them into raisins. She bakes panattone for Christmas and ships it all over the US.

Pounds and pounds of perfect plums from my dad's orchard. The tree was so overloaded it was breaking its own branches. We must have picked a hundred pounds. My neighbors started pulling their curtains when they saw us coming with our bags of free plums. You can only eat so many...

Oops, how did this sneak in here?? We're supposed to be praising God's bountiful goodness. But I suppose zucchini bread with walnuts and chocolate chips is worthy of a little praise. :)

We also had bags and bags of our neighbors' goodies because we live in the sort of place that if you're growing it, you better share. It's just good manners. So we've had sweet corn and heirloom tomatoes and apricots, too.

I'm continually in awe of the massive blessings that God showers on us, for no good reason.

He's just that way. And this was a little 'taste' of the way He blesses us out here in ORYGUN.

 (And that pic was taken by Jeff Horner who works at our little hometown paper, the Walla Walla Union Bulletin. The guy is brilliant. Who knows why he lives way out here in podunk east, but we're sure glad he does.)

But as winter closes in, I'll try to remember what Mother Teresa said. "Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand."

When the memories of fresh raspberries and pears have faded and I'm staring out my kitchen window at the frost on the dead lawn, I'll just reach out and snag a toddler... and give them some loving. (Like this little dude, watching his cookies bake. He stared at them for a long time before they were 'done'.)

Hey, here's a cute one... And he's holding walnuts. Bonus.

Better yet, I'll snag a tweener or two. Hey, she looks hug-able...

This one is scaring me a bit. Too many ninja movies?

Oh, wait. This one really needs a squeeze. Cranky, naked toddler out of the bath stole her apple slices and then sat his naked tushie on her lap. Check out her face. She's thinking how much her life stinks right now. Long-suffering tweeners. Gotta love 'em.

 

So, to ease the transition to Fall, we're going to do what we do best. Make a cake!

Oh wait, I'm not good at cake. But I still like to eat cake, so I'll make one anyway. I've picked up a few tips over here on Yankee Belle Cafe, so let's go try them out.

I saw Hershey's has a chocolate cake recipe that didn't look too hard. And it's rated BEGINNER. I'll take that as a good sign...

2 cups sugar
1-3/4 cupsall-purpose flour
3/4 cupHERSHEY'S Cocoa
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
· 2 eggs
· 1 cup milk · ( we were out but I used condensed, with some water. Am I just like a pioneer woman or what??)
    1/2 cup vegetable oil
   2 teaspoons vanilla extract
   1 cup boiling water

So, I mixed everything together (really, just like that except for the boiling water and the Hershey's powder, those I mixed separately and then added them) and let Edna do her magic. (Check out that gleaming chrome. Go, baby, go!!)

I think it was Mindy who said to dust the inside with cocoa powder instead of flour. MMMMMM.

And then Missy had a great tutorial on when a toothpick comes out clean it means done. Really clean, not sorta clean, with blobs. THEN she said to let it cool completely before trying to pry it out of the pan. (*lightbulb*)

SUCCESS!!!! And now I stuffed foil in there so the aliens wouldn't mess with its chocolate brain.

No, no, no. I have a plan. and it involves real pumpkin stem. So out I go to the porch...

And mix some frosting until it's just the right shade of.... salmon pink. Whatever. Use your imaginations.
At least the green was okay. And now for the decoration... Because you know I live in a zoo.

Uh-huh. Eat your hearts out, ladies. Multi-colored sprinkles dumped on by a 3 year old.

 

And check out that shirt. HE's ready for Fall! Even if I'm not.
Even if I'm dreading the six month trek through socks and shoes and jackets and coats and mittens and runny noses and being trapped in the house all day. 
Because it will pass, and we'll have some fun while we wait for spring to come around again.

(My friend Patty Jones' pumpkins, straight from the patch! She sold them on the cheap and donated all proceeds to the Humane Society. She rocks.)

 So, I raise my cake and say a prayer for friends near and far. Because LOVE is a fruit always in season, no matter how long this winter will last.

Until next time! Pop on over to my facebook page at Pride, Prejudice and Cheese Grits where I have all my new book news, or to my blog The Things That Last. 

 

Easy POSOLE for the last leg of the writing journey!

Hello, everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back and I've got a repost from a few years ago.
It's almost the end of Speedbo and I'm very close to writing the end to my second Cane River Romance! (Even though I never officially signed up for Speedbo, it's really hard not to join in when everyone you know has taken a month to write until their arms fall off.)

When I'm working hard on the end of a book, I try to cook something that everyone will like. I don't have time to prepare multiple dishes. I just go for the favorites! And posole is a big favorite in our house.

  Posole! Say it with me! (Oh, pronunciation? Po-ZO-lay.)

So, here we go: (gratuitous shot of our attempt at Jan's garlic cheesy twist bread. Mmm.)


One whole medium onion chopped with three cloves of garlic minced, 2 TBS olive oil, sauteed in the bottom of a soup pot.

Add two cans of tomatoes and 1 tsp salt. (These are our tomatoes from the garden, I added two quarts, and the sea salt was a gift, yee haw!  I don't think it made much of a difference, but it was fun to pretend we were in Sicily... cooking posole.)

Hominy. 50% off. I have no idea where this came from, but it was in the pantry. Probably planted by my husband. This was a huge can, but even with this, it seemed a little short on hominy. So don't add a small can unless you're hoping to get a bowl without any. Add 6 cups of water or chicken broth. If not chicken broth, you can season with bouillon. If not bouillon, just let the chicken gently boil with some salt and a tsp of thyme, it will be good anyway.

At this point, you'll get it to a rolling boil, including 4-5 chicken breasts. Some recipes call for a deli chicken deboned. But who can buy a deli roasted chicken and save it for posole?? That sucker would be 'deboned' within minutes in this house. So, some frozen chicken breasts (which NO ONE wants to see) into the pot, boiled, and then simmered for 30 minutes.

During the final phase, you add the CUMIN powder. I put that in caps because don't think you can add oregeno and get away with it. That would be something else entirely.

Cumin is related to caraway which is related to parsley which is related cilantro which is related to feet. It smells a little musty, but in a good way. Cumin powder- 3 tsp. You can add some hot sauce at this point, but I didn't.

Here's a dish for one of the kids. It smells delicious!!

 Usually, there is shredded cabbage and corn chips, but I just plopped some lettuce and sour cream on there and called it good.

  So, I hope everyone is happy about their word Speedbo wordcount! True to form, I spent the first two weeks milling around, and the last two writing like I was on fire, for a total of 67K new words this month. 

More than that, I love this story, and these characters! The Pepper in the Gumbo was my favorite of all of my books until I wrote this one. Now I'm in love with a whole new crew. I'll post the cover when it's done but so far... I'm all heart-eyes. 

  Until next time!

Pass the Posole!

  Hello, all! The Fresh Pioneer is back! Fall is officially here and we're all hunkered down over our stew, wrapped in quilts by the blazing fire.

 

   Except we don't have a fire. We have electric baseboard heat, which isn't quite the same.

 

  And no stew. I love the stuff but hubby hates cooked carrots. Sometimes I make stew without them, then try and add in cooked carrots at the end, after I've separated the bowls. Sometimes I try to sneak the carrots out of his bowl... But he says he can taste them.

 I read a great quote the other day by Eckhart Tolle...

                          If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy,

you have three options: REMOVE yourself from the situation, CHANGE it, or ACCEPT it totally.

If you want to take responsibility for your life,

you must choose one of those three options, and you must choose now.

Then accept the consequences.

No excuses. No negativity. No psychic pollution. Keep your inner space clear.

Huh. Not sure what he means by psychic pollution (I'm wearing my foil hat like a good girl!) but it got me thinking about the things that drive me nuts. Like carrot-less stew. I'm in an intolerable situation with this stew deal. With carrots= hubby whines. Without carrots= I whine.
 

 

Since I can't REMOVE myself from the situation (divorce over carrot-less stew is frowned upon in my church), I could try to ACCEPT it totally. I 'ommmmmm'ed my way into the zone... imagining years of those Fall months bearing steaming bowls of creamy potato and beef stew, with just a few springs of fresh parsley and maybe some crunchy French bread on the side.

Total acceptance.

I was zen.

I was at peace.

I was hungry.

For stew with carrots.

*sigh* So, back to Tolle, and my third choice which was CHANGE.
(picture removed of people white water rafting)

 

This is how I feel about change. (What are all those people so happy about?? This is not fun, this is terrible! Get back on dry land! You're all going to die and your tombstones will read: "Happy now?")

(Edna saw Mindy's mixer had a matching spatula and cutting board. She thought we should redecorate in 50's chrome handles and pulls. Hubby feels like he's in an old space movie. I figure whatever makes Edna a happier mixer is okay by me.)

So, I'm not a fan of change, but that seems like where I was headed with the issue of the stew. I decided to think of all the delicious things that were like stew, as close to stew as I could get, yet not missing some major ingredient, or have something picky eater wouldn't touch.

  Posole! Say it with me! (Oh, pronunciation? Po-ZO-lay.)

 

So, here we go: (gratuitous shot of our attempt at Jan's garlic cheesy twist bread. Mmm.)


One whole medium onion chopped with three cloves of garlic minced, 2 TBS olive oil, sauteed in the bottom of a soup pot.

Add two cans of tomatoes and 1 tsp salt. (These are our tomatoes from the garden, I added two quarts, and the sea salt was a gift, yee haw!  I don't think it made much of a difference, but it was fun to pretend we were in Sicily... cooking posole.)

Hominy. 50% off. I have no idea where this came from, but it was in the pantry. Probably planted by my husband. This was a huge can, but even with this, it seemed a little short on hominy. So don't add a small can unless you're hoping to get a bowl without any. Add 6 cups of water or chicken broth. Of not chicken broth, you can season with boullion. If no boullion, just let the chicken cook, it will be good anyway.

At this point, you'll get it to a rolling boil, including 4-5 chicken breasts. Some recipes call for a deli chicken deboned. But who can buy a deli roasted chicken and save it for posole?? That sucker would be 'deboned' within minutes in this house. So, some frozen chicken breasts (which NO ONE wants to see) into the pot, boiled, and then simmered for 30 minutes.

During the final phase, you add the CUMIN powder. I put that in caps because don't think you can add oregeno and get away with it. That would be something else entirely.

Cumin is related to caraway which is related to parsley which is related cilantro which is related to feet. It smells a little musty, but in a good way. Cumin powder- 3 tsp. You can add some hot sauce at this point, but I didn't.

Here's a dish for one of the kids. It smells delicious!!

And here's mine. Come to Mama!  Usually, there is shredded cabbage and corn chips, but I just plopped some lettuce and sour cream on there and called it good.

  So,  I needed to check in with dear Eckhart and see what to do next.

Then accept the consequences.

No excuses. No negativity. No psychic pollution. Keep your inner space clear.

 

 

 

 

Well, there was definitely no negativity, no excuses and I'm guessing no psychic pollution. My inner space was clear, except I was full of posole.

 

 All in all, I could live with this. Stew has a special place in my heart, but posole is gaining on me. Or making me gain. Either way.

 

And my breath is killer. Cumin AND garlic. Yeee-OW.

 

  Keep warm until next time!