Chocolate Pound Cake

This chocolate pound cake is so quick and easy.... I made it on a whim.

I've never had chocolate pound cake.

Have you?

Where have I been....

Anyway, the other day I sold our china cabinet and buffet from our dining room.  To be honest, we don't really have a dining room right now considering it is in utter chaos, but I sold it because I don't really like it and when we finish the remodel I will want larger furniture.  So, the woman came to pick up the furniture and silly me had not even cleaned everything out yet.  As I'm taking everything out... I'm answering to questions like, "do the place mats come with the buffet"?.......  "um... No, those are my place mats.... that's why I'm taking them out".... and "why is this in here"?... "well, because until you hand me cash, it's mine"!..... and in my china cabinet I find a stack of recipes wrapped in a rubber band.  I just threw them to the side and hadn't thought twice about them.

Then, mid-morning Thursday, I remembered I had those recipes and looked through them.  That is where I found this recipe.  It was written down on a well worn piece of paper.  And... for someone like me... who always has a sweet tooth... I whipped it up real quick and baked it.

It was really good and a nice change from regular pound cake.  My husband absolutely loved it.... so I've let him eat most of it... rather than let the cake stick to my thighs.........

Ingredients:

2 sticks butter
1/2 cup Crisco
3 cups sugar
1 cup milk
5 eggs
3 cups plain flour
4 tbsp cocoa
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla

 Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Mix dry ingredients together.  Cream the butter.  One by one, add all the other ingredients.  Beat well.

Bake 1.5 hrs.  You might want to check to see if it's done a few minutes early.  You do not want it dry!

This post is linked to: Hearth & Soul Week 39

Ten on Ten!!

One photo. Every hour. Ten hours.

I was reading Under the Sycamore today and found out about A Bit of Sunshine's Ten on Ten Project.

 On the 10th of every month, you take ten photos... one every hour... for ten hours.  You put them on your blog and link back to A Bit of Sunshine's blog.  It's been so interesting to look at the other blogs on there and see what goes on in everyone's day to day life.  I thought.... I can do this.  I should do this.  I'm terrible about pulling out the camera and documenting my day.  So, I'm going to try and participate every month.  I will enjoy practicing taking photos and looking back at previous months.... things change so quickly.

Here's to my March Ten on Ten! 

Win a Tamron 18-270mm lens on MCP Actions!!

Here is a link to win a Tamron 18-270mm lens on MCP Actions site!!  I entered as many times as allowed and am keeping my fingers crossed that I could win this!  Who couldn't use a free lens for their camera?  And who couldn't use this focal length?  If I had this... I might actually be able to take some photos of my little boy without him running from that camera and then wanting to see the photo immediately!  HA

Go here to enter and good luck on winning!!

Time to Plan

It's time to plant a Spring garden!! We have gotten a little behind on our garden planning this year and are quickly trying to decide what we want to grow.  With everything going on around here, it's easy to get distracted!  We've been cleaning up the yard a little bit and attacked our grape vine a few weeks ago.  I hope we didn't kill it.... it has thick, old roots and hopefully will produce good grapes this year.  Also, we have two pear trees and an apple tree.  Yes, an apple tree in way down here!  They are very old and were absolutely full of fruit last Spring.  Unfortunately, we had not purchased the house in time last year to properly fertilize them and prune them.  Then, when we signed on the house, we had to immediately get to work on the interior, etc.  This year we hope to take care of them and see how well the fruit do.

Hank has found some great raised bed plans online and we are deciding which one we like best.

Here is The Sussex.  I really like the simplicity... just a square, uniformed shape.  Very simple.

This one is the Stafford.  The top left corner bed is not only a raised bed, but has another raised bed within it.  I like having a bench in the garden, but I'm not so crazy about the small bed in the center.  We could just leave that one out.

Next is the Westminster.  I just love the shapes of these.  Again, I really like the bench on one edge and the small circle could contain the herbs.  I don't really know what I think of the small rectangular bed, but we could decide on that as we go.

And lastly is the Trowbridge.  We like the shapes, still has room for a bench, still has the small circle to keep the herbs separate, etc. 

I think our favorites are the last two... the Westminster and Trowbridge.  We really like how these look neat, clean and orderly... season in and out.  Our yard is plenty big to do this, so size is not an issue for us.  The beds are not too big or wide and therefore should make the planting, weeding, etc easy.  I like how I should be able to reach in and get to everything... and not have to step in and ruin anything.

Which design do you like?  And what are you planting in your garden this year???  Any ideas and tips would be helpful!!

Lemon Pie

My husband just told me that this is the "no name lemon pie".  It's not quite a lemon meringue... not quite a lemon cream... but I guess a lemon pie.

Shortly after Christmas I posted my lemon meringue pie that I make for holidays and mentioned that I had been given another recipe that I needed to try.  On Christmas day, my aunt quickly jotted down the recipe that my great-grandmother used to make for lemon meringue.  I thought it would be more of a comparison, rather than a totally different texture.  There is truly no comparison.  To me, they are just different pies.

This recipe is really very quick.  I literally decided on a whim to make this today.  When the little king went down for his nap, it took me about 35 minutes to make. 

I already had some pie dough in the freezer, so I rolled it out and placed it in a pie dish.  I use PW's pie crust recipe and keep some in the freezer often.  Let it thaw for a few minutes and I try to roll it out while it's still pretty cold.

Poke the crust with a fork, line with aluminum foil and pie weights.  Bake on 400 degrees for 12 minutes, remove pie weights and foil... and continue baking for 8 more minutes or until golden brown.

Pour the condensed milk in a mixing bowl and add the lemon juice.  Mix well.

Add the egg and mix together.

Pour into the pie crust.

 Then prepare the meringue.  Take the two egg whites and cream of tartar and beat on high until frothy.  Slowly add in the sugar.  Beat until stiff peaks form. 

Scoop the meringue out onto the pie and smooth it out over the pie.  This is such a thin layer of meringue, that I didn't even try to form peaks.  I didn't want to get too far down into the filling.

Bake on 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until meringue is browned.  

The pie came out perfectly.  I have to admit... while preparing it.... I thought it was a strange mixture and it couldn't possibly be right.  I was definitely proven wrong when it was finished and I tasted it.
It's wonderful!!

Ingredients:

One pie crust

8 oz of Eaglebrand sweetened condensed milk

2 egg yolks

1/4 cup lemon juice

Meringue:

2 egg whites

1/8 tsp cream of tartar

8 tsp sugar


This post is linked to:  Hearth & Soul Vol. 35