THE GARDEN

This picture was way back in the spring when I first planted the garden after digging up the garden, I added a bunch of cow manure and mixed it in, but I was told that I should have aged it first. The tomatoes are at each end, with lettuce on the left, two rows of green beans in the middle and puny black-eyed peas on the right. I had some squash, they made one harvest and then died, I planted a second batch with some lime added to soil and they died. No squash next year I guess. I have had the best year of tomatos ever with about 2 dozen tomatos harvested. They were really good. I have planted some "celebrity" tomatos in pots for the fall, we will see.

The lettuce has been really good. It is black english and has really produced. I just wash in, put in spinner and serve.

The green beans have produced about three times and with the help of Julia Childs they have been good. This is what she says to do: Wash the beans in very hot water the moment before cooking. A handful at a time, drop the beans into rapidly boiling salted water. Bring the water back to the boil as quickly as possible and boil the beans slowly, uncovered for 10 to 15 minutes; testing after 8 minutes (usually worked for me as I had fairly small amounts each time). A well cooked bean should be tender, but still retain the slightest suggestion of crunchiness. Drain the beans as soon as they are done. To serve immediately turn the beans in large saucepain and toss them gently over moderately high heat by flipping the pan (?). This will evaporate their moisture in 2 or 3 minutes. Now if you are going to serve later, you run cold water over the beans for 3 or 4 minutes. This will stop the cooking and the beans will retain color, taste, and texture. Drain, spread them out on a clean towel and pat dry. She does not say this but I freeze them now and serve later. When you are ready to serve either now or later, you toss beans in saucepan over moderately high heat, add salt and pepper, turn into serving dish and add butter.

Bon Apetit

Mindy English's Cake Catastrophe

The Great Cake Catastrophe

A couple of years ago when my daughter-in-law was expecting our grandson I decided to host a baby shower for her. I had been watching FoodNetwork and specifically the cake shows. They always worked with fondant icing and it always looked so nice. So I decided to bake the cake for the baby shower and frost it with fondant icing. I had grand design plans. It looked so cute in my mind's eye! I got a fondant recipe from my sister and after baking the cake and setting it on cooling racks I began to mix up the fondant. I had spent almost $30 on the ingredients as it called for egg white powder, clear butter flavor extract and a couple of other finishing tools that could only be found in the Wilton cake section and prices reflected this. I was now short on cash but long on imagination! I put the ingredients in the bowl and turned on the mixer. In about one minute with a grind and a puff of smoke the mixer was toast! So I put everything in the fridge and ran to Wal-Mart. Keeping in mind that I am now low on cash I purchased the cheapest mixer I could find and returned home. Pulling everything back out of the fridge, I proceeded to mix again and with a second gind and puff of smoke that mixer was toast as well! At this point, determined to finish I rolled up my sleeves, washed my hands and plunged into the fondant with both hands. Finally it was mixed well and I plopped the wad of fondant out onto a powder sugar dusted sheet of waxed paper. The next step was to roll it out but when I ran the rolling pin across it the whole wad encircled the rolling pin like a fat tire! Finally using tons more powdered sugar I was able to roll the fondant out into a semi-flat product that I could work with. Stacked the 2 layers with a strawberry cream cheese frosting between them. I carefully laid the fondant on top of the stacked cake layers and turned around to get a sharp knife to trim around the bottom. When I turned back to the cake the fondant had split right down the middle like The Great Divide and was lying on either side of the stacked layers! So I pulled it off, dusted a new wax paper with confectioners sugar and adding more sugar as I went, re-rolled the fondant into a dryer and thicker layer than before. Laid it back over the cake, trimmed around the edges, piped regular frosting onto one section to make a VERY BASIC stroller. I added 2 big frosted oatmeal cookies for the wheels. I went to sprinkle on crystallized sugar for the stroller hood and it rolled right off the cake every time! So I got the distilled water spray bottle that I use for ironing and sprayed that section, leaned the cake carefully and SWATTED crystallized sugar onto the cake so hard that it had to stick!
I will NEVER work with fondant again! I am attaching a pic of that silly cake. It doesn't reflect all the hours, money and heartache I spent on it!
Ha! Ha!

Mindy

THE CAKE

Actually it was the third cake, the first cake was for Mimi's birthday (Anna's mother). Anna was having a luncheon for some ladies for the big 90th birthday and I asked her what kind of cake she wanted. She requested a carrot cake. I had never baked a cake before so I went to Paula Dean online and got son Bobby's carrot cake and I baked it. Then I baked another for a Realtors luncheon and it was auctioned off for $20. The recipient said it was good.
So now for The Cake, 40 years ago we had 15 weddings from the single adult group at the First Baptist Church of Arlington. Anna and I being one of them, since that time this group (none divorced, but several have passed away) has met from time to time for dinner. Since we are now spread out we mainly meet once a year at Greg and Mary Jim Allen's big farmhouse in Bremond (between Waco and Bryan). Anna did not get to go as her mom just had cataract surgery on Thursday (it was successful). I went by myself on Friday afternoon and came back on Saturday. I volunteered to bring a cake. Luckily Anna spent Thursday night at her mother's, so she missed the "Baking of The Cake". Since I recently joined NetFlicks I had just gotten a movie, "The Kingdom of Heaven". This 5 hour epic is about the crusades with Jerusalem being The Kingdom of Heaven. It was 5 hours of battle, fights and much excitement to add to the drama of baking the cake. I used two cakes mixes (the easy kind) and filled the two cake pans, not realizing that each cake mix was for two pans. I soon found my mistake as burned smells started coming from the oven. I look in and to my dismay both cakes were running over and spilling onto the bottom of the oven. I decided to let them cook and clean up later. I began work on Julia Child's chocolate butter frosting and louder smells came from the oven. Looking in I found small fires burning with the spilled cake mix. I wet a dishcloth and smothered the flames. They were just little flames. I continued to smother flames until the cakes were done. Of course that were overflowing the pans which had to be later trimmed and sampled. I now have every fan in the house on, the windows open, candles burning and room spray often to try to kill the "burn" odor. So back to Julia's frosting, it was long and laborious and I knew that it would be good. I sat down to watch some of the battles on the TV and let the cakes cool. After sufficient time, I went back to the kitchen to frost the cakes. After frosting the first layer and no frosting left, I reread the recipe to find that the frosting was for ONE layer not two. I got out my mom's Better Homes and Gardens cookbook and got an easier recipe and made another batch of frosting and finished the cake. I sat down to watch the rest of the battles, then I tackled the kitchen with every possible pan, pot, cup, spoon and a multitude of other utensils which were all dirty. Finally about midnight I got it all done, the odors mainly gone, the windows closed and went to bed. Whew! The cake was a big hit in Bremond. It was a yellow cake with chocolate icing. Bon Apetit!

THE BEGINNING

Last fall Anna, my wife, starting working parttime as a receptionist at an assisted living facility with Monday, Wednesday & Friday hours of 3 to 7 PM. Several nights I would fix something for dinner, like salad or canned soup. In January, I decided to borrow a South Beach cookbook and try to loose a few pounds that I had picked up over the holidays. It worked out pretty good.
Then we went to see "Julia and Julie" and I really became interested in cooking. I watched several Paula Dean and Gaida shows on the Food Channel. I started copying the recipes and that is where we begin.