Happy Birthday!

I know six people who were born on February 17th...not the same year granted, but it is the most highly populated birthday date in my calendar. In honor of Roger Jablonski, Linda Michaels, Amanda Deppert, Adam Wolff, Marie Belzer, and Victoria Brinton, I give you Rum Cake.

But not just any Rum Cake. This is Grandma Rich's Rum Cake. I don't know who Grandma Rich is...but her granddaughter works with my husband. And she brought this cake in to the office once, and despite my best attempts to provide him with a rum cake, none could stand up to this recipe. She was kind enough to share the recipe...

Grandma Rich's Rum Cake

1 boxed yellow cake mix...with pudding in the mix

1 large box vanilla pudding

1/2 c water

1/2 c oil

1/2 c Captain Morgan Spiced Rum

4 eggs

Grease and flour a bundt pan. Mix the above ingredients, pour into the bundt pan, and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Turn the oven down to 325, and bake another 25 minutes...or until it's done. Leave the cake in the pan. While it's cooling, melt...

1 stick of butter

1 c sugar

1/4 c water

Bring it to a boil and let it boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add 1/4 c (perhaps a splash or two more) of Captain Morgan...by now the cake should have pulled away from the sides of the pan a bit...pour the glaze over it, and shimmy the cake around a bit, so the glaze gets into all the nooks and crannies. Save a little bit of glaze to fill in any uncovered spots when you tip it out of the pan.

*****



It's great with ice cream. It's great with whipped cream. It's great plain. It's great with coffee the next morning for breakfast.

Before you wash the serving dish, makes sure you scrape up the crunchy bits and eat those. It might seem gluttonous, but you won't care, once you do it.

Missing Grandma Rita

Grandma Rita, my dad's mom, was a pretty special gal. She was a stubborn lady, a hard worker, a fierce crocheter, and a great cook. Some of her traits and skills have been passed on to me...anyone who knew Grandma Rita might sum up my physical resemblance to her with two words: Wagner Thighs!

I had the foresight in my early 20's, when I was living in the same town as her, that I needed to take advantage of this unique time of my life. I was single and had some spare time on my hands. I also knew my grandma would not live forever. We shared a lot of meals, a few road trips, and countless soap operas in those three years. She helped me move a couple times too! She shared with me a lot of wisdom, some great life skills, and maybe some secrets too...

Grandma Rita didn't feel well for most of the summer before she died...a secret she kept fairly quiet. She lost weight, and her color changed. She was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in middle of August and died in the middle of September. We didn't have a lot of time to talk in that last month. There were lots of other people who needed to see her...people who hadn't had the same of opportunity and life circumstances I had to spend a lot of time with her. My life had changed a lot by then...I had met and married my husband and moved 100 miles away. I had a one-year-old little girl and a baby boy on the way, whom Grandma Rita didn't get to meet (not on Earth anyway).

What I have now is a grateful heart for the time I spent with her...a collection of special recipes for food she used to make...an emerald ring my grandpa gave her...the silver-rimmed mirror where her perfume stood on her dresser (now used for the same purpose at my house), a doughnut punch... and her last crochet stitches (an unfinished baby blanket for my son) .

Here are some of my favorite pictures of Grandma Rita and my daughter...

February 2008

May 2008 (they both have big, brown eyes!)

Grandmas HAVE to cuddle sleeping babies. It's a rule...

The bottom two pictures were taken 3 1/2 months before she died.

I don't know why I'm missing her so much more lately...maybe it's because I recently scrolled through my cell phone contacts list and realized that after two and a half years, I still can't delete her number.

I bought doughnut pans this week...thinking I should find a way to make a healthier version of the Potato Doughnuts she used to make. If I ever get a hold of a deep-fryer to make the original, super-bad-for-you recipe, I will not over think the nutritional content...instead I'll just make a cup of strong, black coffee...and think about the way I used to play with the veins on her hands in church, the smell of coffee and food and warmth in her house, and the amazing woman she was...

Potato Doughnuts

2 heaping tbsp butter

2 c mashed potatoes
2 c sugar

3-4 eggs

1 c sweet milk

5c or so flour

4 tsp baking powder

Mix the butter in the potatoes while they're still hot. Mix the rest in the order given.
Roll out, punch, cook in hot oil.

Simple and delicious...

Sicilian Pizza

I've been trying to be more creative and budget-minded in the kitchen. This has involved a survey of the contents of our cupboards, refrigerator and freezers...a detailed plan of meals and snacks, and a careful pondering of how to make meals out of what I have, coupled with what is in the grocery store sale flyer. Today we are having Sicilian Pizza...a recipe I cut out of the newspaper before I moved to this house, before I had kids, and before most things I now consider as definitions of "me". Perhaps you'll enjoy Sicilian Pizza at your house someday...we enjoy it at ours often...

Sicilian Pizza

2c Hot Water (110 degrees)
2 packets of yeast
1 Tbsp Sugar
-Combine these three and let sit for a few minutes. Then slowly add up to...

5 c flour (I use a 50/50 blend of white and whole wheat flour)
-Stir until a soft dough forms. Put it in a greased bowl, cover, and let rise until doubled in size. Meanwhile...

Grease a pan...9x13 if you like super-thick pizza or a 12x17 cookie sheet if you like slightly thick pizza...coat the pan with cornmeal, if you like that sort of thing...

When the dough has risen, spread it in the prepared pan. Let this rise about half an hour. For toppings...

1 lb mozzarella, cubed in 1/2 to 1 inch cubes
1 large or 2 small cans of Italian style tomatoes
Meat and other stuff is totally optional
Shredded parmesan cheese
Italian bread crumbs
Olive Oil
Garlic Powder
Italian Seasoning

First, press the cubes of cheese into the crust. Place tomatoes on the crust, between the cheese cubes. Top with meat and other stuff. Then sprinkle bread crumbs, seasonings, and parmesan cheese. Drizzle some olive oil over it all and bake it at 350 for about 30 minutes.