Sunday, June 21, 2009

Chocolate Cake Recipe

Some of you have asked for this recipe, so here it is. It is the cake my Mamma made for Amanda's birthday and it is SO good. I'm calling it Mamma's, but in her recipe book it's called Dianna's Chocolate Sheet Cake. My Mamma has been making it long enough that I think she can claim it now. Plus, she made it with dark chocolate this time, so she changed it a bit. In her favorite cooking notebook, this recipe is hand written and covered with splashes of batter and twenty years of cooking.

Olethia's Buttermilk Chocolate Cake

Sift together 2 cups sugar and two cups self-rising flour and set aside.

Then bring to boil 1 stick butter, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 5 Tbsp. dark cocoa, 1 cup water.

Pour over sugar and flour mixture.

Beat 2 eggs, 1/2 tsp. baking soda, 1 tsp. vanilla, 1/2 cup buttermilk.

Pour this into other mixture.

Bake at 400 for 20 minutes.

Icing:

Boil 1 stick butter, 6 Tbsp. buttermilk, 5 Tbsp. dark cocoa

Add 1 box confectioner's sugar, 1 tsp. vanilla, and 1 cup chopped pecans.

Pour over cake right out of oven, and careful not to swallow your tongue.

Amanda's Wedding Birthday Party

We have a weakness at my house. We can't resist the themed party temptation. We spend days planning, weeks really, we make fancy foods, we wear costumes, put up decorations, change out light bulbs, make special party play lists, and do so while putting off other less exiting responsibilities.


The Birthday Brides and Bride's maid.


The Grooms. Evan (top left) thought we said welding party, not wedding party. Ha Ha!

Why? I think it fits perfectly into our philosophy that relationships are the most important things in life. We laugh, dance, confess, brag, we might even cry, and we clean up the aftermath, eventually to do it all over again, hopefully sooner than later.


The Cake

So is it a waste of money? Do we worry what the neighbors will think when they see bubbles floating out our front windows, a strobe light flashing from our dining room window, or people pouring out of cars in outlandish get-ups? Not a chance.

Monday, June 15, 2009

My Review of "East of Eden"

The early 1900's California country side in graphic detail, painfully difficult father-son relationships, whores, deep moral questions, scripture translated into Hebrew, a really wise Chinese guy who shares a mysterious liquor that tastes like good rotten apples, what more could you ask for? This is the kind of book that inspires mourning when the final pages arrive.

From the first descriptions of California's Salinas Valley, I was riveted to John Steinbeck's East of Eden.  It is a page turner with meat.  It is like a twelve course meal shared with friends that lasts and lasts, but doesn't leave you feeling too full.  

The story picks up early in the life of Adam Trask and follows him through two turbulent, but ultimately satisfying generations.  The perspective that ran as a theme throughout is really a moral question that is ultimately answered in Holy scripture.  They don't call em' classics for nothing! 

I found myself inspired on a spiritual level in addition to simply falling in love with the broad spectrum of realistically flawed characters.  Thanks, Annie Thomas, for the recommendation.  You've never let me down.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Our Trip to Bama

It is always cool when work takes me back home and we sneak in an unexpected visit. I like holidays, but my favorite times are just the ordinary days like today. Amanda used her birthday money to buy a new camera, so here are a couple of the very first pics.


Ginny and I went for a swim. I was holding on tight to keep her from rushing the cows, (maybe one of her top five favorite activities in life.) Yesterday she caught a bunny. A real bunny. For a city dog, it doesn't get much better than a trip to Arab.


Here's lunch.


Mamma whipped up Amanda's favorite buttermilk chocolate cake, from scratch of course, then made sure all 29 candles were lit.


It was, hands down, the best yet of Amanda's birthday cakes. Not quite done in the middle, dark chocolate, pecans from the trees in the yard, hot right out of the oven, you know, perfect.


I was glad Mammaw felt like coming. She has been a true force to be reckoned with for her whole life. She still drives herself to dialysis after four years, but it has taken its toll. She knew Amanda and I were working on a new business, and she had several ideas to share. Her package for Amanda's birthday made it to the house a full two days before the day. If she's still breathing, her wheels are turning, considering ways she can help us grand kids.

We have big, fat, loud, and utterly delicious meals, mules, horses, cats, a new baby calf named Lloyd to bottle feed, enough fresh eggs to fill five Easter baskets, some laughs, some fights, but more love than you can shake a stick at. It's where I come from.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

What You Gotta Do

We have our strengths, we have our weaknesses. Sometimes we just have to work through our weaknesses just to get to our strengths.

Since about five o'clock last night, I have been performing a ritual. It involves lifting up couch cushions, crawling through dust bunnies on the floor, retracing steps, calling places I have been, visiting the gym, looking under the same stack of books and magazine's on my bedside table at least ten times until I finally gave up in utter dejection, picked up the top magazine to read it, and ended the ritual. It happens about once every two months or so with some regularity, yet it still holds this power over me, as if it is some kind of wicked punishment.

Today, it is the search for my wedding ring. This time, it was where I always put it, on my bedside table, it was just hiding under that top magazine. I imagine it to be buried in the back yard, mysteriously stolen, or maybe somehow blown into the outer limits of space into the black hole of lost rings, keys, driver's licenses, sunglasses, receipts, and one of my all time top lost things, my wallet.

As I frantically search, I go from extreme shame and self loathing to bitter blame, to hopefully, every now and then, somewhere in between, something like a healthy attitude. I tell myself, "It's a wonder you've kept up with this thing for five years!" And, "Don't panic, you've got a back up for just such times as this." But it doesn't help a great deal.

The disaster was averted, once again, this time. But this is a struggle that I have had since the year I lost three nice winter coats in one season as a kid. So, like the fact that I am so extremely confused by numbers that, hard as I try, I cannot calculate my score correctly in card games, or sometimes even count my reps at the gym, I must just keep plowing through the harder things in my life to get to the easy ones.

Nobody is good at everything, and I tend to think it best not to focus too much on your weaknesses. However, they have a way of showing up sometimes in places where they demand your attention.

So, full circle, you gotta do what you gotta do to get to do what you gotta do.

I gotta do my life in my own way. So I gotta put up with the fact that I'm gonna hit kinks, they are unavoidable. I just have to remind myself not to get too bent out of shape over the rough spots and soon enough I'll be flying again.