Let Them Eat Cake

Ok here it is.. those of you who know me well or who have sat at my table or hung out with me know I love to cook, experiment in the kitchen, and feed people. This cooking =food thing changes over time and competes with my other love of reading and writing. Sometimes both actvities compliment each other sometimes not so much. I love sharing ingredients to see what folks will do with them and trying new things. I still like to cook but generally have no one to cook for. As my own dietary needs morph and change, I am also seeing that the ways I nurture myself shift from day to day. I love posting food memories so I can share what I am cooking and eating and have you “taste” things and imagine you coming over to eat with me.

The Cooking competes with Writing and I am in a flurry of writing right now!

I also tend to burn things; forget they are in the oven or on the stove and get called away or distracted. On the farm, my kitchen was in eye view. Here the kitchen is behind me and a bit separate from my writing studio and reading space. Reading on the computer and digitally is different. My cookbooks (real) and digital may get me started but I rarely follow a receipt closely or repeat the same one. Sometimes it is the substitution of an ingredient, or I just want to see what happens. This recipe that many of you have asked me to share will double as a blog post…

If I mess something up… I tend to want to eat it anyway or to share with the birds or squirrels or compost heap. It is so hard to throw things away. I think that my trash is someone else’s treasure. The benefit of being the daughter of a depression era mom and someone who loved to cook. I also have the notion that if I keep eating it or tasting it, I can figure out where I went wrong. I also don’t always want to share. I just want to eat and prepare something just for me.

Vernessa and I are sharing fewer meals and mealtimes. Some of it is dietary restrictions. I am hungry, she is not and a lot depends on health and wellness and forgive me when we last pooped and all of that. It used to bother me as I thought we were growing apart and lonely for someone to eat with but now it doesn’t and I enjoy eating alone or tasting and not sharing or asking her to pick up something for me that I know she doesn’t like or wont eat or wont lie and say she likes something when she doesn’t. I see it as a sign of maturity in our relationship and sharing kitchen and cooking space. She does not like to cook, but loves to eat and loves to clean. We are a perfect match.

I am also learning the hard way to say when I do want to share a meal or am feeling lonely around food. I want to have a sit down and get agreement before hand so I am not pouting or missing a friend or food experience that has nothing to do with her or anyone but me and my own memories or hunger.

I LOVE cooking for folks… like my love of breastfeeding; nursing my babies and watching people react to my food .. it works for me… I don’t mind tailoring the meal or the menu to the taste of the other .

I also LOVE when people give me the long list of what they don’t/can’t /won’t eat and I say OK and then they try something on the forbidden list quietly or secretly and a wall is broken or they say I love you, I love this food. You nurture me! This is nourishing because you made it. Nothing you make will ever harm me.

My mother always commented that my vegetarians or non- pork -eating friends fell into this category. We would smile and caution me not to say anything and reminded me to never “make a plate” for someone and allow them to serve themselves without commentary.

When someone asks for a recipe, she said they really want to watch you cook it. Sit with you or see what you do, it’s not something they want to have you write down. It is better if they write it down. I suppose this is the beauty of you tube gardening, farming and you tube cooking. You get to watch the person in the kitchen.

It is one of the most favorite things I do with my eldest grandson. He is usually very hungry. It is a bumpy facetime call directly from the grocery store. We walk the aisles, he is on speaker-phone, others comment or laugh as they eavesdrop or listen in. They could be grocers, other shoppers, or just within listening distance. He usually has a tight budget or he has a taste he wants to create or re-create. We read ingredients together. It’s hysterical and communal.

This is different then setting up the phone or computer at home with the lights and music and I watch him cook or assemble he moves the phone so I can tell him when to turn something over… when it’s done or not…

The pots and utensils and knives are important and he loves cooking in the pots I or his mom gave him. Later before he eats, the meal, he takes the photo as in a you tube blessing and sends it to me before he eats… I bless it and usually won’t hear more for days or weeks. When I want him to call me, I text him with an ingredient or something I have cooked and we’re good.

So with that, here is the recipe for the healthy no so sweet cake I posted on Facebook. It is really delicious. I just had some with my eggs and coffee and wrapped the rest up. Some to Vernessa’s mom, the rest to the freezer. I now put dates on things… and begin to think of how to re-create a moment in time and how something tastes and how I enjoyed preparing it… with what I had on hand. Something I thought I needed badly at the time.

Get a large mixing bowl your favorite… and a large wooden spoon or rubber spatula.. think you are going to make muffins… or some kind of quick bread

3 cups of the best thickest buttermilk you can find

2 cups of oats ( I had a choice of old fashioned and my dense scotch oats) I used the old-fashioned Quaker oats

Dump the oats to soak in the buttermilk

Add two eggs

1/2 cup of vegetable oil (neutral)

1/3 cup of honey

One small box of raisins (kid snack size)

½ cup of walnuts

I large teaspoon of vanilla extract

Sprinkle some pumpkin spice on top of the wet gloppy mess and stir the wet stuff up and oats will have softened

Pick out a favorite bundnt pan, even if non stick oil/ or grease well dust with flour so it wont stick

Then grate two carrots on a box grater, I wash but don’t usually peel them and add them to the gloppy thickened wet mixture

If you have GOOD self-rising flour like King Arthur or some other organic brand or something from the south great… a second best would be Bisquick or even pancake mix/flour or jiffy… the goal here is to not go to the store…or to get dressed and to eat really soon after the first cup of coffee or after a morning poop…

Turn the oven on preheat to 325

Add two cups or so of the self -rising flour…if you don’t have enough or any, add a teaspoon of baking powder to the wet stuff first and mix it in really well and see if the whole thing starts bubbling a bit… if you don’t have self-rising flour…

You will be adding at least 2 cups of an all-purpose or whatever other flour you have and it will need some leavening even though you have eggs and buttermilk or it will be very dense like pound cake. Some of you know I still am working on my 50 pounds of high protein bread flour.

Mix it in to the wet stuff, then add ½ cup of sugar or comparable sweetener like stevia or truvia if it still seems too wet add a bit more flour less than 1/2 cup, the batter is thick and scoopable like a wet biscuit dough or thick muffin batter.

Let it sit a bit. I made a few tester muffins in my silicone muffin cups because I am starving. Let the mess rest… and percolate…

Dump it all in the prepared Bundt or tube pan. Bake till done. Let it cool a bit and then I flip mine over on a cooling rack and if it doesn’t fall out after prayer, I wait until it is completely cooled off after a few hours and dig gently around the edges with a spoon or a knife as it’s usually the tube part holding the cake in…

The warm tester was sweet enough for me lathered with butter, maple syrup or jelly would have worked. As I like butter on hot bread. Since it was not sweet enough for Vernessa or anyone not diabetic with a sweet tooth.

I made a glaze with about a cup of heavy cream and added confectioner’s sugar to thicken it up and drizzled over the cake the next day and sprinkled dried unsweetened coconut on top. The glaze soaked in nicely. I would have added more chopped nuts of any sort, pecans, walnuts, almonds or pumpkin seeds as I like the crunch and sticky topping. It freezes well wrapped sliced or in a chunk if you live alone and don’t want to eat a whole cake or don’t share well..

It is really good… if you have a birthday, put a candle on a cake and sing.

Thanks for asking for the recipe. Try it out some time! Taste and see!