If it's June.... (Mud Cake Recipe)

Yesterday was Joe's birthday. In the morning, while I was working in the kitchen, K called.

K is our third daughter and lives in a tiny village in the north of Ghana where she works for the Peace Corps. She remembered it was her dad's birthday, and as we talked I asked her to guess what I was doing...

She said "baking a cake" (Hmm... good guess), so then I asked her what kind of cake?

Without hesitation, from more than 6,000 miles away, she knew the answer... "Mud Cake"

She probably didn't even have to think to answer that question, since I have made mud cake for Joe for his birthday every single year since we got married... I've been making that yearly mud cake since Jimmy Carter was president!!

It started off one of those new wife things... Joe used to tell me how wonderful his mother's food was, and how every year for his birthday she made him a mud cake from his grandmother's recipe... and how there was nothing as good as that mud cake.

So of course I had to get the recipe from his mom and take over the tradition...



I've kept the tradition because mud cake is such an amazingly delicious treat...

It's an old, "from scratch", recipe and it's full of sugar and oil. This is not health food.

But it is rich and sweet and packed with gooey chocolately deliciousness.

And it's a fool proof recipe... it ALWAYS turns out! (It's also a great cake to share with neighbors, bring to a pot luck, etc.)



Want to try it?

Here's the recipe...

Mississippi Mud Cake

2 cups sugar

1 scant cup oil

4 eggs

1 & 1/2 cup flour

1/3 cup cocoa

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

3 tsp vanilla

mini-marshmallows

Cream sugar and oil, add eggs. Mix dry ingredients, add to sugar mixture. Stir in vanilla. pour into 9 x 13 pan and bake for 325 for 35-40 minutes. Cover cake with marshmallows and cook for 8 minutes more. Frost warm.

Mud Cake Frosting 

1 stick butter, softened

1/4 cup cocoa

2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup milk

Mix together sugar and cocoa, add remaining ingredients, mix well.

If you try it, let me know what you think! 

Chili Rellenos

My most favorite dinner of all time is chili rellenos. I don't make them often because all the cheese, and way they are cooked, make them hard for M to digest... but a few times a year, at least, I make a big batch of rellenos.

They are easy to make (although a little time consuming) and I thought I'd share the recipe here for anyone who would like to try them.

You don't need a lot of ingredients, just some egg roll wrappers, a can of whole green chilis, cheese (I usually use colby jack) and oil for frying.

Here you go... Vegetarian Chili Rellenos.

Ingredients: 1  27 oz can of whole green chilis



`

1 package of egg roll wrappers (found in the produce section of the store)



`

sliced cheese... cheddar, colby, pepper jack, or whatever sounds good, you need as many pepper sized slices of cheese as you have egg rolls wrappers... usually about 15-17  1/4" slices

oil for frying

First the prep work... Open the chilis and drain. Slice your cheese, if you haven't already. Set out egg roll wrappers, a paper towel to remove more liquid from chilis, and have a little water handy to wet your finger for sealing the edges.

Now you make your rellenos... Take one egg roll wrapper (careful, they stick together) and lay it in front of you (not square to the edge of the counter top, lay it diagonally... it will make folding it easier).





Take one chili pepper, open it up and blot on paper towel. Lay it cross ways (square to you) on egg roll wrapper. Put a piece of cheese inside, and close it up again. (If you want meat in your rellenos, you can add a little seasoned, cooked, ground beef or chicken inside at this point.)



`



Roll up relleno, fairly tightly... you want the edges to be sealed... no pepper showing. Start by pulling the bottom flap up, then the sides in... like an envelope... and finally wrap the top around and seal with a wet fingertip.



`



`



Set relleno aside and make the others the same way. Once they are all made, heat up your oil in a thick fry pan. (I use my big cast iron skillet for this, but have also used a regular fry pan, or you could also use a deep fryer if you have one...) You don't need a lot of oil... it doesn't have to cover the rellenos... I'd say an inch or a little more of oil in the pan is plenty. It does have to be hot though...





I heat my oil and cook my rellenos on "high", only turning the heat down a little if I'm making a huge batch and the oil starts getting too hot. (You don't want the oil to smoke or burn... phew!) The oil does need to be hot before putting any rellenos in, I usually test it by adding just the tiniest drop of water to the oil... if it dances around, and splatters a little... it's hot enough.



`



`

Add the rellenos a few at a time, cooking on one side until they are golden brown, then turning them over and cooking the other side. (Be careful with the turning... the oil is burn-your-kitchen-down-HOT!)



`





Drain on a paper towel. Once your whole batch is done, serve with some green chili, sour cream, guacamole, whatever sounds good...



`

Mmmm... there is nothing better than some nice hot rellenos!



`

Enjoy!

tomato time

We've just started getting our first tomatoes out of the garden. They are soooo good... there is nothing like fresh garden tomatoes. There hasn't been enough to can yet, we've been eating them pretty quickly...

Last night I made Granny's Tomato Lutece recipe... It's a favorite here, everyone loves it, so I thought I'd share...

Enjoy!

Tomatoes Lutece

8 (or so) sliced tomatoes

1 clove garlic, crushed

2 tbsp sugar

1/4 c oil

2 tsp prepared mustard

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

2 tbsp vinegar

1 tsp tarragon

Mix dressing ingredients, pour over sliced tomatoes. Let stand one hour before serving.

Simple, quick, easy and delicious...the perfect recipe!

Making Yogurt

I'm so tired of pulling and chopping weeds I could scream, so I decided it was a good day for inside kinds of work.

So first thing this morning I started working on tightening all of R's locs. It's something that has to be done every couple of weeks or so, as her hair grows, and it takes a good hour or two depending on how much work her locs need.

`

I love R's hair this way. The locs are mostly all locked now, and her hair looks and feels so soft and natural. Once her hair grows a bit more and we can trim the straightened hair off the ends, it will be easier to see the locs. I've been braiding the locs around her face into a "headband" to keep her hair out of her face... She also pulls them all back into ponytails or a bun, and we curl them sometimes. I'm so glad her hair is locked, I just wish we had done it years ago!

While I worked on her hair, I started a batch of yogurt. I've been eating store bought for awhile (feeling too busy to take the time to make homemade) but decided today was the perfect day to replenish my supply of homemade yogurt.

The recipe I follow is super easy and has turned out well each time I've made it. I start by heating a (scant) gallon or so of milk on the stove. I just use as much milk as will fit in my dutch oven without filling it too full, and I use the milk we regularly have, which is skim, and it seems to work fine... although I've been told that my yogurt would turn out thicker if I used richer milk. I'm fine with the consistency so I'm going to keep using skim.

I heat the milk (stirring frequently) on low heat, to 180 F, then turn off the heat and let it cool to 110 F.

Once it cools down to 110 F, I add my starter. I use store bought yogurt (plain, with active yogurt cultures) for starter... I measure it into 1/2 cup dollops, and then freeze it so I always have some starter when I need it. So far this method has worked fine. I take a 1/2 cup of frozen yogurt from the freezer and let it thaw while I'm heating and cooling the milk.

Since the yogurt needs to be kept at a fairly uniformly warm temperature, I use my hot water canner to "incubate" the yogurt. I fill the canner with enough water to come to the shoulder of my quart canning jars and heat the water to 110 F.

`

I put my milk/yogurt culture mix into quart jars and once the water in the canner hits 110, I add my jars. (Yes, I reused some can lids... but since I'm not really "canning" and the yogurt is going to kept in the refrigerator... not on the shelf... I don't see any reason to use new ones each time.)

They need to be kept at about 110 F for 6-8 hours, so I just keep my canner on the stove, turning the stove on low from time to time to keep the water the right temperature. I found that 5 minutes or so of low heat every 45 minutes to an hour keeps the temperature about right... I do use the thermometer though too... just to make sure.)

It's an all day process (remembering to check the water temperature and heat it back up when needed) but the results are wonderful... four quarts of fresh, delicious yogurt (At a cost of less than $2.00!) My favorite breakfast is a bowl of plain yogurt fancied up with a little honey and raisins. Mmmmm...

Zucchini Bread

Yesterday's sun is gone and it's been snowing off and on all day... It's too cold outside to go out and enjoy the snow, so we've been staying inside... looking for things to do.

Since I have enough zucchini (run through the blender and frozen) to last until approximately 2015, I thought it might be a good day to make zucchini bread.

Here's the recipe, just in case anyone else is wondering what to do with a freezer full of zucchini...

(Mostly) Healthy Zucchini Oatmeal Bread

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup applesauce

1 tbsp maple flavoring (I buy "Mapleline" brand, Wal-Mart usually has it)

2 cups blended zucchini

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp salt

1/2 cup regular oatmeal (not flavored or instant) plus a little extra to sprinkle on top of loaves

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

Mix first 5 ingredients, then add remaining ingredients and mix well. Pour into greased and floured 9 x5" loaf pans (recipe makes two loaves), sprinkle top with extra oatmeal if desired. Bake at 350 for 1 hour or until done.