Poppy Seed Dressing

You'll hate me for sharing this, even as you admit it is the best poppy seed dressing you've ever tasted. As it has no dairy or eggs, it is suitable for vegetarians, and keeps a very long time. Still, two cups of vegetable oil is never going to be health food, but used sparingly, it can make a fruit salad pretty darn special.

From Cooking From Quilt Country, Marcia Adams

You Will Need:

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoons powdered mustard
2 teaspoons salt
2/3 cup cider vinegar
2 cups vegetable oil
3 tablespoons poppy seed

In a large mixer bowl, combine first four ingredients. Slowly add the oil, beating until thick. Beat five minutes more. Stir in poppy seeds. Makes about 2 pints.

Bitter Molasses Candy

I know this isn't the sort of candy everyone will like as it has a very strong, burnt flavour but if you do, I promise it will quickly become addictive and you should give half the batch away before you demolish it.

This is so dead simple to make, which is another reason you should plan to give some away-it can be made as a spur-of-the-moment sort of whim with ingredients you probably have on hand.

The recipe originally called for nuts, which I omitted. If you choose to add them, include 1/2 cup in the bottom of the pan, then pour the candy over it and proceed as the recipe indicates. The original was from From Amish and Mennonite Kitchens.

You Will Need:

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup water
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons full flavour molasses

Line an 8x8 heatproof pan with parchment, then grease it lightly.

In a large, heavy pot (it will foam up so use a large pot) bring everything to a boil over medium heat. Cook until it reaches 300 degrees F. (hard crack stage). Remove from heat, pour in prepared pan, and when it begins to cool, score into neat squares. When fully cooled, break into squares and wrap tightly in wax paper. Immediately give half the batch away.

Rhubarb Juice

The recipe comes from the wonderful Marcia Adams book, Cooking From Quilt Country.

You Will Need:

8 cups coarsely chopped rhubarb
5 cups water
(about 2 3/4 cups sugar)

In a large pot, combine rhubarb and water. Simmer, covered about ten minutes or until soft. Drain through a cheesecloth lined colander into a heat-proof bowl. When cool enough to handle, squeeze out excess juice by hand. Measure juice. For each cup of liquid, use 1/3 cup granulated sugar. Return to a pot, whisk over low heat until sugar dissolves. Chill. Mix with ginger ale for a punch-type drink.

Raisin Crumb Pie

We were divided over this pie-the men loved it, I did not. Admittedly, while I like raisins, raisin pie is not one of my favourites. What I found really remarkable was the thickness of the crumb topping-look at the photograph. That's quite a ratio of fruit to crumb with the topping clearly winning. I found it too much, but again I'm biased. Mr. ETB feels that is the best part of a pie.

I followed the recipe in Marcia Adams, Heartland the Best of the Old and New From Midwestern Kitchens. This is a lovely books (as are all her books) and most of the dishes (like raisin pie) are familiar having lived in Illinois in the 60's and 70's. While some of the recipes are newer, they still reflect regional history and make use of abundant local items.

I did not use the pastry recipe Adams suggests as it relies on vegetable shortening and vinegar. I used to make that sort of a crust before they started messing with the Crisco. It is true that you will get a flaky crust with the old, "no fail" pie pastry recipes, but I get a great dose of heartburn as well. I went with an all butter crust instead. I'd stick to whatever you typically use for a 1 crust pastry, as the star of this shoe is pretty clearly the topping.

You Will Need:

A shallow 9 inch pastry shell
1/2 cup dark raisins
2 1/4 cups water
1 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons butter

Topping:

1 cup plain flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup butter, softened

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Prick pie crust all over and blind bake 5 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside.

In a 2 quart saucepan combine raisins, 2 cups of the water (reserve rest), lemon juice,
and salt. Bring to a boil over medium high heat stirring occasionally. In a small bowl, combine cornstarch and remaining water, beating until smooth. Whisk it into the raisin mixture and boil until bubbling and thick-about 2 minutes. Beat in butter. Remove from pot and cool before filling pie. Meanwhile make the crust.

For the crust: combine flour, sugar, ginger, cinnamon, and soda. Cut in butter until you have crumbs.

Assemble and bake:

Pour filling into pie crust. Top with crumbs and bake 25-30 minutes or until top is golden. Cool, and store in the fridge.

Coconut Kisses

Imagine the best part of a coconut macaroon, and the best part of a meringue-that's what these are, only better. Addictive. And sweet. So sweet your head goes all woo woo, and your teeth hurt, but you keep eating them anyway. Yeah, that's what they're like.

Adapted from, Amish and Mennonite Kitchens, Pellman and Good (I love that cookbook)

You Will Need:

3 large egg whites at room temperature
2 cups plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar (caster sugar works best if you have it)
2 teaspoons white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups flaked coconut

Beat egg whites until foamy, then add the sugar a tablespoon at a time. When about half the sugar is added, beat in the vinegar. You need to keep beating until they are very fluffy-a good 10 minutes. Beat in vanilla and fold in coconut.

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Drop by teaspoons, or pipe through a bag. Top with something festive, or leave plain and drizzle with melted chocolate laster. I made mine large, but the recipe says you can get five dozen. I got about 18.

Bake 30-45 minutes until dry. Cool on rack.

Homemade Grape Nuts Style Cereal

Made with hand grinder
Made with electric coffee grinder.


*UPDATED:

This stuff is incredible. Mr. ETB had his with yoghurt, Danny tried it with warm milk. Both thought it was superb. We all agreed that the flake-like texture from the hand grinder made for a more interesting cereal, but no one refused the finely ground ones either. I think a jar of this would make a lovely gift, perhaps with some homemade candied fruit.

Recipe, HERE.


For one batch I used the coarse blade of the meat grinder. That gave them an almost flake-like quality. For the other, I ground them by pulsing a handful at a time in a coffee grinder. I don't own a food processor. Both worked.

Tasting a nibble of each straight from the oven, the flakes have a more interesting texture, but that can change upon cooling and the addition of milk. I'll update this tomorrow after breakfast with more observations, and the recipe.

Meanwhile,

Holy crap, I made my own cereal!

Whoopie Pies

These come from Cooking From Quilt Country by, Marcia Adams. The recipe sounds difficult, but once you start it goes rather quickly. I like how the recipe is organised indicating things you can do in the next step as you wait for the cake to bake, etc. All cookbooks should be that precise.

The cookies freeze well but let's be honest (we're all friends here) freezing won't keep you from standing over the sink eating them at 3 AM. I suggest making them, and immediately giving most of them away lest you be tempted. These cookies are that good.

I used a rather dark cocoa powder for these. Adams doesn't indicate what to use beyond calling for powdered cocoa, but if you have it, this is as good a use for dark cocoa as any. I also used 1% milk which didn't seem to matter in the end with all the butter.

You Will Need:

4 cups AP flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cream of tartar
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup lard (I used shortening) softened
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs (I used large)
1 1/2 cups soured milk (add 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cider vinegar to milk half an hour before using)

Filling:

1/3 plus 3 tablespoons AP flour
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 3/4 cups icing sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets with foil.

In a large bowl sift together the flour, soda, baking powder, salt, cream of tartar, and cocoa. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl cream the butter, lard, sugar, and vanilla together until light. beat in eggs one at a time. Adams warns that the mixture may curdle but that it is OK. Mine did not curdle. Add the flour alternating with the soured milk starting and ending with the flour. Blend well, but don't overmix.

Use a 1/4 cup measure for each cookie. Place one in each corner of the sheet and one in the centre. This sounds crazy, but really, these cookies will spread. Try to make them as round as possible. Bake 6 minutes on the centre rack. Rotate pan, then bake an additional 10 minutes or until when pressed lightly on top the indentation springs back. Pull foil off baking sheet and let cool 2 minutes. Remove to a cooling rack lined with wax paper. As the cookies bake and cool, make the filling.

Place the flour in a medium saucepan and slowly whisk in the milk until smooth. Cook over medium heat, whisking until it thickens and boils. Reduce heat to low, cook 2 more minutes until thick. Remove from heat and let cool.

place the butter in a large bowl and beat until slightly softened. Add salt, vanilla, and sugar gradually and beet for 2 minutes. Add the cooked mixture a large spoonful at a time and beat well. When all is added, beat on hight speed for 1 minute. It should be smooth, light and fluffy. If it is too loose, put it in the fridge for a few minutes to firm up (mine stayed perfect).

Arrange the cookies in pairs and place a generous 1/4 cup filling on one. Top with second side and press until filling reaches the edge. Chill on plates. When firm, wrap in plastic and store in the fridge or freezer. Let stand at room temperature for a few minutes before eating. Makes 15 very large whoopie pies.

Raised Potato Doughnuts

This recipe makes a gigantic batch-about 4 dozen. Thankfully, doughnuts freeze well when wrapped in freezer paper, and then tightly with foil. Defrost at room temperature, covered.

From the wonderful cookbook, From Amish and Mennonite Kitchens, Pellman and Good.

You Will Need:

2 1/4 teaspoons granulated dry yeast (not instant)
1/4 cup warm water
1/4 cup shortening (I used Crisco)
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk, scalded
3/4 cup mashed potatoes (I ran mine through a food mill)
2 large eggs, beaten
4-6 cups AP flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Combine shortening, sugar, salt and milk. Cool to lukewarm. Add yeast mixture, potatoes, and eggs. Mix well. Add flour a cup at a time kneading well. The dough will be soft, but not overly sticky.

Place dough in a greased bowl and let rise until doubled-about 2 hours. Punch dough down, let rest 10 minutes.

Roll out dough on a floured surface to 1/2 inch thick. Cut with a cutter (or a glass and baby bottle as suggested in the recipe). Place on greased sheets to rise until doubled-about 45 minutes.

Heat oil to 375 degrees F. I used soybean oil, but that's just a matter of taste.

Deep fry about 1-2 minutes on each side, or until done. I tend to favour a bit overdone because gooey-undercooked doughnuts make me cry. So sad.

Drain on racks over a baking sheet, then toss in a bag with granulated sugar, or make the glaze in the recipe as follows:

1 1/2 lbs. icing sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons melted butter
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Warm milk-enough to make a soupy glaze.

After dipping doughnuts, return them to the rack to dry.

A Bit of Everything Cookies

-or better put, I ran out of butter and had to improvise. I adapted this from a recipe in an Amish cookbook that used sour cream and shortening. They came out shockingly well. I still can't believe how good chopped-up Andes candies are in cookies. Danny noted that they taste like oatmeal raisin cookies with chocolate in them. There is a small bit of oats in them, but really they are best thought of as small cakes-much lighter than the typical cookie. I froze half because the original recipe insisted they become moister that way. We'll see. I don't think they will remain frozen long.

You Will Need:

1 cup shortening
2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
4 cups AP flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons bicarb.
1 cup chopped semi-sweet chocolate
1 cup chopped Andes Candies (I used cherry and toffee flavours)
1/2 cup quick cooking porridge oats
2 cups raisins

preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Cream together shortening and sugar until light. Beat in the eggs until fluffy. Beat in sour cream until well mixed. Sift together flour, salt and bicarb. Stir into creamed mixture. Stir in raisins, oats, and chopped chocolate and candy. Mix well.

Grease baking sheets. Drop by teaspoons onto sheet (they don't spread too much, so you can fit them close) and bake 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden. Cool on racks. Makes about 8 dozen cookies.

Amish Corn Pie

The filling for this pie is the star of the dish, and the sauce is really little more than milk and flour. If you prefer something thicker, add more flour or make a rich white sauce. The boys both seemed to think it was excellent as it was, but they don't have the same expectations for pot-pie type dishes that many people do. It isn't a matter of right or wrong, so do what seems correct for you.

I had some tender, fresh Borlotto beans that I blanched, and added to the pie, and I used a few scatterings of imitation bacon bits, but I'm sure real bacon would be better, and the boys didn't seem to think the beans added much save for some colour.

The recipe comes from Amish and Mennonite Kitchens, Pellman and Good. The crust recipe is my own.

For the crust:

2 cups AP flour
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup chilled butter, cut into tiny pieces
4-5 (or more) tablespoons ice water

Combine flour and salt. Cut in butter until fine crumbs. A tablespoon at a time, toss on the water until you can bring the dough together in a ball with your hand. Divide in two and let rest a few minutes before rolling out.

For the filling:

3 cups fresh corn
1 1/2 cups raw potatoes diced small
3 hard boiled eggs, diced
Salt/pepper to taste
Optional fried bacon/fakin' bacon
2 tablespoons flour
Milk to cover

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Line the bottom of a deep pie plate with one crust. Pile in everything except the flour and milk. Scatter the flour on top of the vegetables and pour on enough milk to cover the vegetables. Cover with top crust. Crimp.I brushed mine with some cream for appearance, but do as you like. Vent.

Place on a baking sheet with a rim (it WILL leak, but the washing-up is easy with hot water). Bake 30-40 minutes (mine took closer to an hour) or until crust is browned and milk is bubbly throughout. I served mine still warm, but not hot.

Quick Cinnamon Coffee Cake

This recipe comes from my well-worn copy of, From Amish and Mennonite kitchens. This is a really fantastic recipe to have when you need a simple, but delicious cake-in a hurry.

You Will Need:

1 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2/3 cups sugar
1/4 cup shortening, melted (I used butter)
1 egg (I used large)
1/2 cup milk (I used whole)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (I increased this to 1 teaspoon)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8x8 pan.

Sift dry ingredients together. Add wet ingredients and meat with a hand mixer at medium speed for about 2 minutes. Pour into pan. While cake bakes for 25-30 minutes, prepare topping.

Topping:

4 tablespoons melted butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (I had pre-mixed cinnamon sugar so it was a bit stronger)

My addition-whipped cream sweetened with icing sugar


When cake is baked, remove from oven and brush with the butter. Top with the sugar and return to oven. Bake 5 minutes longer.

I served it slightly warm, and it was delicious-and actually somewhat light. This would make a wonderful breakfast on a cold morning.

Carrot Casserole

Nothing terribly fancy, but easily thrown together with food on hand.

From Amish and Mennonite Kitchens, Pellman and Good

You Will Need:

1/2 cup melted butter
1 small onion, chopped
1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon celery salt
2 cups whole milk
1/2 lb. cheese, sliced (I used cheddar)
12 large carrots, thinly sliced and boiled until soft
Buttered breadcrumbs for topping

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Butter a 2 quart casserole.

In a saucepan, melt butter and add flour and spiced. Add onion, then slowly add the milk. Stir, over medium heat until it comes to a boil, and thickens.

Meanwhile:

Layer half the carrots in the casserole. Top with cheese, and layer on the remaining carrots. When sauce is finished, pour over entire casserole and top with breadcrumbs. Bake 30 minutes.

Wheat Bread

This recipe makes 4 standard sized loaves of bread. I made three, and used the remainder for rolls. It freezes well, which is nice when baking in quantity. The recipe comes from
Amish and Mennonite Kitchens. What? You Still haven't bought this cookbook? What in the world are you waiting for? I know I keep telling you guys to buy it.

You Will Need:

4 1/2 teaspoons granulated dry yeast
4 cups warm water (for proofing yeast)
1/4 cup soft butter
1/4 cup dark molasses
1/2 cup honey
2 teaspoons salt
6 cups whole wheat flour
4 cups AP flour (I used bread flour) or more

Proof the yeast in a bowl with the water. Combine butter, molasses, honey, and salt. Mix well and add to yeast mixture. Add the wheat flour, mixing well. Add the AP flour a cup at a time until you have a dough that is no longer too sticky to knead. Knead well. Place in a buttered bowl, turn once and let rise until doubled. Punch down and let rest ten minutes. Divide in fourths and place in well-buttered tins. Cover lightly with a towel and let rise until doubled. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Bake 35-40 minutes or until they test done.

Variation:

I brushed the tops with beaten egg whites and scattered poppy seeds on top.

Baked Carrots

Yeah, that's a dreadful photograph. Sorry. Really swell carrots though.


These were simple enough to make, and quite popular at dinner.

Adapted from:
From Amish and Mennonite Kitchens, Pellman and Good

You Will Need:

2 1/2 cups cooked, mashed carrots
1 teaspoon dried onions
3 large eggs, well beaten
2 cups whole milk
3 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup soft breadcrumbs
Salt and pepper to taste

Grease a square baking dish. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Combine everything and pour into pan. Bake, uncovered about 1 hour.

Caramel Cookies

These cookies sound rather plain, but they melt in your mouth and have a wonderful caramel/nutmeg flavour. I could see crushing these as a cheesecake base. Or making a whipped cream icebox cake. Or....or...or...gosh, they're just really good.

Plan ahead as they really need to chill several hours or overnight.

From Amish and Mennonite Kitchens by, Phyllis Pellman Good and Rachel Thomas Pellman

You Will Need:

2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
2 large eggs
3 cups AP flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tbsp. water
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Cream sugar, butter and shortening together until light. Add eggs, one at a time until fluffy. Sift dry ingredients together and add. Mix in water and vanilla extract. Mix well and divide in two. Roll into logs and wrap in clingfilm and chill several hours or overnight.

Line baking sheets with parchment or silpats. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Slice cookies about 1/2 inch thick and place about 1 inch apart on sheets. Bake 10-14 minutes or until delicately browned. Cool on racks. Cookies will crisp as they cool.

Baked Macaroni and Cheese

If you're looking for a heavy, overly rich, gooey mac and cheese-this isn't it. This is, for lack of a better description, a mac and cheese soufflé. It is wonderful, and we all enjoyed it (including the ancient poodle who is now eyeing me suspiciously because he never gets table food, and probably thinks he's headed to the vet).

I made my own noodles for this, but you could certainly use store-bought. I always seem to have more eggs than I need, so making noodles makes sense for our family, but I'm not so much of a food snob to insist your mac and cheese will somehow be inferior with packaged macaroni.

Truthfully, the best macaroni and cheese was my mother's and she used to make it with No Yolks noodles and three tins of condensed cheese soup. I know, the yolkless noodles is sort of like having a diet soda with a fast food burger. It was good macaroni casserole, and the only reason I don't make a similar one anymore is because what they charge for a tin of cheese soup is robbery.

Again, I turned to my trusty Amish cookbook for the recipe. I slightly increased the proportions because I had extra noodles, but I'll post it as printed.

Adapted from Amish and Mennonite Kitchens, Pellman and Good


You Will Need:

1 1/2 cups milk, scalded
2 cups soft bread crumbs
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 tbsp. onion, chopped (I used dried)
1 1/2 cups mild cheese (I used a combination of cheddar, provolone, and Swiss)
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs, separated
1 1/2 cups macaroni, cooked
Paprika

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a casserole dish and set aside.

Pour scalded milk over breadcrumbs. Stir in butter, onion, cheese and salt.

Beat egg yolks and add. Stir in cooked macaroni.

Beat egg whites until they hold soft peaks. Fold into macaroni mixture. Pour into casserole and sprinkle top with paprika. Bake 1 hour.

Green Tomato Bread

I'm still working my way through the pile of green tomatoes. This is very much like a zucchini (courgette) bread. I like the recipe because it makes two loaves (one for the freezer). I made a few changes like adding cinnamon and dried cherries, but those are very minor changes. I may grate and drain some extra tomatoes to freeze for baking breads in December, now that I know the recipe works well.

Danny had great fun helping me measure and stir the ingredients (in other words, it is so easy, a four year old can do it).

From that wonderful cookbook, From Amish and Mennonite Kitchens, Pellman and Good
(I'm serving a casserole from the same book for dinner this evening as well)

You Will Need:

3 eggs
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups grated and drained green tomatoes (I further squeezed them dry in a dishtowel)
3 cups AP flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
`1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup raisins
1 cup dried cherries (or nuts)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two loaf pans generously and set aside. Beat eggs well. Add the sugar, oil, salt, vanilla and finally tomatoes. Sift dry ingredients together. Gradually add to the tomato mixture. Stir in raisins and cherries. Pour into pans. Bake (about) 45 minutes (mine took 55). Cool in pans twenty minutes before removing to a rack to cool completely.

German Apple Cake

I made my own brown sugar for this by mixing full-flavoured molasses into cane sugar because I wanted a stronger flavour. If you haven't tried doing this before, add the molasses slowly until you get the strength you are comfortable with. We really like strong molasses, so over-doing it would take considerable effort. I used butter instead of the shortening called for in the recipe and I used coconut instead of chopped nuts for the topping.

The recipe comes from Amish and Mennonite Kitchens, by Pellman and Good


You Will Need:

1/2 cup butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 1/4 cups AP flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
2 cups raw apples peeled and diced

Topping:

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup flaked coconut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9x13 pan

Beat the butter until it is smooth. Add the sugars and beat until light. beat in the eggs. Mix the flour and cinnamon together and mix the baking soda into the buttermilk. Add the ingredients alternating until well combined. Fold in the chopped apples.

Pour into pan and sprinkle with topping. Bake 45-50 minutes or until it tests done. It gets quite dark, so don't be fooled into thinking it is burnt-test it with a toothpick.

Cool in pan.

Chocolate Angel Food Cake

So I had all the egg whites left from making gelato-angel food cake seemed the obvious choice.

I wish I had used a smaller pan so it would have risen higher, but that's really a pretty minimal complaint. Come on, chocolate angel food cake is always going to be delicious, no matter what it looks like. With the chocolate gelato and some red berries, this will be a lovely dessert. I still have no idea what I'm serving for dinner, but who cares-chocolate abounds!

From Amish and Mennonite Kitchens, Good and Pellman:

You Will Need:

1 1/4 cups egg whites at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 1/4 cups granulared sugar, sifted
3/4 cup cake flour, sifted
4 tablespoons cocoa, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 275 degrees F.

Do not grease tube pan.

Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Gradually fold in the sugar. Fold in very carefully, a tablespoon or two at a time, the flour and cocoa sifted together. When blended stir in vanilla extract.

Pour into pan and bake 30 minutes. Increase heat to 325 degrees F. and bake an additional 30-45 minutes longer.

Invert on a funnel and let hang until cool.

Oatmeal Cake With Coconut/Raisin Topping

It doesn't get much easier than this. The original called for 1 cup of chopped pecans in the topping, which we had to skip due to nut allergy. I substituted raisins, which go nicely with oatmeal and cinnamon anyway-a perfect fit.

This is a nice, not-too-rich cake with only a couple eggs and half a stick of butter. The original called for margarine, but that's not a product I have in the house, and believe me, the butter didn't hurt the cake any. Isn't the popular theory of the moment that margarine is actually worse for you than butter? I can't keep track anymore. UM, the oatmeal and raisins are good for you.

The recipe is from one of my favourite cookbooks:
From Amish and Mennonite Kitchens.
I have literally used this book to the point where it is falling from the binding each time I pick it up. I don't care-I'm not parting with it! It survived the tornado, so I'm a bit sentimental about it. Speaking of the tornado-it will be the one year anniversary on the 4th, and I'm STILL finding cracks in the walls and bits of melted plaster behind furniture! What a mess. Our neighbours had a bunch of lumber delivered last week to re-build their hay barn (the one that ended-up atop our Volvo) so we are all getting back to something resembling normal, but it does take time-a year anyway.

Speaking of the lumber...
I spotted the pile from my kitchen window and the delivery people had spray painted the buyer's name on the side.

"Old _(last name)_____________"
"Wow." I thought. "I sure hope he knows him, to call him "old" that way."

Yeah, the only one getting "Old" around here is me-or my eyes anyway, as it read "SOLD."
Sigh. Maybe I should have baked carrot cake-I hear carrots are good for vision.

You Will Need:

Cake:

1 1/4 cups boiling water
1 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup butter or margerine
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt

Topping:

1/4 cup softened butter
2/3 cups brown sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 cup coconut
1 cup raisins or chopped pecans


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9x13 inch pan and set aside. In a bowl, pour the boiling water over the oatmeal and set aside to cool as you work. In another bowl, cream the butter, sugars and eggs together until smooth and light. Add the oatmeal and mix well. Add the rest of the dry ingredients and mix well. Pour into prepared pan and bake 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool completely in pan. Prepare the topping as follows:

Mix everything together and spread atop cooled cake. Place under the broiler for two minutes, or until mixture is bubbling and begins to brown. Remove, let cool before serving.

Make a very large cake.