Completely Homemade Chocolate Cake

A couple of weeks ago I was in the mood for Chocolate cake.  I didn’t have a mix or frosting, so I started digging through my cook books.  I told you a while back that one of the ways that I store recipes, is in a photo album that my mom gave to my for a Christmas gift one year.  I found this recipe in that photo album. 
Wacky Chocolate Cake
I don’t know where my mom got it but, it is so easy and so good.

I mix together the dry ingredients first.
3 cups Regular Flour
2 cups Sugar
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
6 tablespoons Cocoa

Next I added in:
2 cups Cold Water
3/4 Cup Vegetable Oil
2 Tablespoons +2 teaspoons Vinegar

Whirl them together for 1 minute.  Fold into a 9x13 ungreased pan and bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 min. 

As you can see, nothing by looking at it is wacky.  I think it gets it’s name from the unusual way it is made.  NO Eggs?, Don’t grease the pan?  So, Wacky!!
The frosting is a regular butter frosting that I found in my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. This is my favorite Cookbook.  It has everything in it.
3/4 Cup Butter, softened
8 1/2 Cups Powdered Sugar
1/2 Cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1/4 Cup Milk
2 Teaspoons Vanilla
Beat this altogether and have a little milk on hand in case it is to heavy.  You want it to be kind of light and fluffy.  By the way this makes a ton of frosting.  You can either store it for later or cut it in half.
Hope that you enjoy this Cake as much as we did.  Oh yah!  It’s gone!  I can only make this every once and a while or I will be as big as a house.  So Good.
Jeannie

On American Motherhood

I found this speech from Theodore Roosevelt the other day when I was looking for material for my son’s schooling.  As I read it I knew that I needed to share this.  He puts, the way that I feel about Motherhood and what I feel is the problem with our society today, so well.  It's just amazing, this was written in 1905.  It is a little long but so worth reading.
Head over here to read.
Enjoy!!

Jeannie

An Internet Surfing Accessory

As I was writing a post the other day I was about to put a link into the post to a scripture verse, which I forgot to do, because I was thinking about…

What a great internet surfing accessory- The Bible.

So many of us look around at the inspirational blogs and run across a post that has a reference to God’s word.  Many times the person who posted will put a link or will even write out the verse they are speaking about.  I want to remind you of how God works.  You all know this but I’ll say it anyway.  God teaches us through things that we run across in our daily life, a song, a radio program and also a blog posting.  So, if a post or verse really jump out or speak to us then what a better time to pull out you Bible and see what else God has to say to you.



You may not need it every time you poke around the web, but you just never know and if you have it handy you are more likely to grab it and surf the Bible as well.  This is just a tip on making you internet time purposeful and meaningful.





Happy Blog Hopping!!

Jeannie

What do you Put on your Face in the Morning?

I have been reading in I Peter this month.  Today I was in chapter 3, it was about wives submitting to their husbands and I won’t get into all of that today but after that part it talked about not adorning yourself with braids and gold jewelry.  Does that mean I can’t wear jewelry? No!  What it says is that we can’t have our beauty come from our adornments. 


A woman with eyes that sparkle with the love of Jesus, cheeks that glow from being madly in love with your husband and smiles that send messages of love to your children.  Those are the adornments that make us beautiful. 
If your face is unable to display any of those things, turn your heart towards Jesus and ask Him to clothe you with the character necessary to possess such lovely adornments.
Ladies, those last two paragraphs are straight from the Lord to you.  All of that came to me this morning and I just knew I needed to share it with you.  I hope it blesses you on this possible bad hair day. 
Ask anyone what they remember most about their favorite Grandma and I tell you, it won’t be her earrings or her lipstick. 
Thank you Lord for that reminder. 

Jeannie

Homemade All-Purpose Cleaner

This is my all time favorite household cleaner.  I use it for everything.  It is especially great on Carpet stains.  The main thing I use it for is my kitchen cleaner.  Between the alcohol and the tea tree oil you have a great disinfectant.
  plus   
I am currently out of the Castile soap.
This is the recipe:
1 cup Castile soap with Tea tree oil
1/4 cup of Rubbing Alcohol
1 teaspoon Baking soda
Fill the remainder of the spray bottle (32 oz.) with water.  Fill very slowly or you will end up with tons of bubbles.
Once you have add the Water, put the top on the bottle and then gently shake until baking soda is dissolved, check the bottom.

Jeannie

Confident Mom Organizing Planner Review

I just ran across this planner recently.  It is a great weekly planner that helps you to remember to get each and every thing done in your home and yet is not overwhelming.  Below you can view an example of the planner.

http://www.theconfidentmom.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Page1-Weekly-Household-Planner-2012.pdf

She has thought of everything.  She has a check off for daily tasks to help you get it all done and to help you see it all done and feel accomplished.
Some of the features are:

• A daily quiet time with scripture references to get you through the Bible in one year.
• A place to put “What’s for Dinner”
• A place for notes
• Weekly inspiration
• and More…

Check out the PDF above and take a look.
Jeannie

The Best Banana Bread

This really is the best Banana Bread.  It is slightly crunchy on outside and soft and sweet on the inside.

The recipe calls for Sour Cream but I was out once and used plain Yogurt and it worked fine.  Just to give you a lower fat option. 

I use fresh off the counter bananas or some out of the freezer.  Either works fine.  I always throw browning bananas into the freezer for later.  Also, if you peel the bananas and place them in a ziplock bag they are great for smoothies.  Just pop them in the blender frozen.

They are cooling.  I do have a funny story.  I didn’t think it was at the time,but now it is.  We all nibbled off of the half loaf up there and them I put the other in foil to give to friends.  I went up stairs.  When I came back the half loaf was gone.  I do have a teen age boy but even he doesn’t eat that fast.  Our stinkin’ dog Max got up there and ate it.  We were so mad.  His did the same thing with a roast in the crock pot a few days later.  Yeah, the kennel came back out and he is in there when we leave now. 

1 1/2 cups Sugar
1/2 cup Butter
2 Eggs
4 Tablespoons Sour Cream or Plain Yogurt
1 1/2 cups Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 cup Bananas (2-3)
1/2 Chocolate Chips (optional, but totally necessary in our house.)
Mix all ingredients together in this order and then bake in a well greased bread pan at 350 degrees for 55-60 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.  The bread does turn a dark brown color.  You are not burning it unless you let it cook after the inside is done.
I warn you if you make it, make sure you put some aside or you won’t get any.  Enjoy!!

Jeannie