Well, how bout all you Mothers? Did ya’ll have a great Mother’s Day? I know Deb and my Mom did. We went to Moms and had a great time. All of our kids and grandkids made it, so yes, Deb was in her environment!

My Mom as well had all her children, and was only missing one granddaughter from having all her grandchildren as well. All in all we had a great meal, a great time visiting, and a great day as a whole! We hope you guys did too!

Well, how about we take a look at what our good friend Gary sent to us…it’s about golf.

Two women were playing golf. One teed off and watched in horror as her ball headed directly toward a foursome of men playing the next hole. The ball hit one of the men.

He replied: It feels great, but I still think my thumb’s broken!

I thought that was hilarious, and thanks Gary for sending it.

Well, let’s fire off a cook stove and bake up a cake or two…

Milky Way Cake

• 8 milky way bars
• 2 sticks oleo
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2-1/2 cups flour, plus ½ cup more if flour is sifted first
• ½ teaspoon soda
• 1-1/4 cups buttermilk
• 1 cup chopped pecans

Melt Milky Way bars and 1 stick oleo and set aside. Cream sugar and 1 stick oleo; add eggs. Add alternately flour and soda with buttermilk. Add melted candy mixture. Add pecans; fold them in. Bake in tube pan on 325 for 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean.

Icing

• 2-1/2 cups sugar
• 1 cup evaporated milk
• 6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup marshmallow cream
• 1 stick margarine

Cook sugar and evaporated milk to soft ball stage. Add chocolate chips, marshmallow cream and oleo. Stir until all melted. Spread on cooled cake.

Shirley Patterson

VV’s Chocolate Dump Cake

• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• ½ cup Crisco
• 1 stick margarine or butter
• 1 cup water
• 4 tablespoons cocoa
• ½ cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix flour and sugar in large bowl. In saucepan, bring Crisco, margarine, and cocoas to a boil, stirring often. Pour over flour and sugar. Add baking soda to buttermilk and add to above mixture. Add eggs beaten with vanilla. Bake in large, greased and floured pan on 350 for 20 minutes or until cake is done.

Icing

• 4 tablespoons cocoa
• 6 tablespoons milk
• 1 stick margarine or butter
• 1 box powdered sugar
• 1 cup chopped nuts
• 1 teaspoon vanilla.

Five minutes before cake is done, mix and heat cocoa, milk, and margarine to a boil, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and add sugar, nuts and vanilla. Mix thoroughly and pour over cake while hot.

Patty Sue Walters Griffin

Chocolate Apricot Fruitcake

• 1 cup dates, coarsely chopped
• ¾ cup dried apricots, coarsely chopped
• ¾ cup raisins
• 1 cup Grand Mariner
• 2/3 cup flour
• ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup walnuts, chopped
• ½ cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 3 eggs, room temperature
• ½ teaspoon baking soda

Combine dates, apricots, raisins and grand mariner. Cover, let stand 2 days. Stir occasionally. Then drain fruit, pressing lightly to extract excess liquid. Reserve liquid. Place fruit in another bowl. Butter, then flour a 8-1/2 x 4-1/2 x 2-1/2 in baking pan (loaf).

Stir flour, cocoa and baking powder in small bowl. Add walnuts and set aside. With an electric mixer, cream butter with sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, blending well after each addition. Gently fold in flour mixture and fruit. Spoon batter into pan.

Bake for 50 minutes on 325 or until tester comes out clean. Remove from oven and glaze cake by brushing on ¼ cup of reserved liquid. Cool cake completely. Unmold and wrap in plastic. Store in container and let mellow for one week before serving. (Can be made ahead and frozen for up to 3 months.)

Jane Leathersich

Dirt Cake

• 1 (20 oz.) package cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies
• 1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese
• 2 (3 oz.) packages French vanilla instant pudding mix
• 3-1/2 cups milk
• 1 (12 oz.) carton non-dairy whipped topping

Blend cookies in blender until they look like potting soil. Set aside. In large bowl, beat cream cheese until light. Beat in dry pudding mix. Stir in milk and combine well. Fold in whipped topping. In clean 8 x 10 inch clay pot, alternate layers of crushed cookies, and cream cheese mixture, ending with a thick layer of crumbs. Decorate with silk flowers, if desired, and serve wityh a trowel for a spoon. Serves 8 to 10.

Bev Bray

Our friend Edith sent this video to us, and we thought we’d share it with you guys today. It’s very short, but if you’ve raised any children, especially “male children, “ then I’m sure you can relate!

This too comes from Edith…

A Sunday school teacher asked her children as they

were on the way to church service,

‘And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?’

One bright little girl replied,

‘Because people are sleeping.’

We have another friend who contributes “funnies” to us quite a bit, ole Diane up in Virginia. She sent us some animal pics the other day that were pretty funny, but cute as well. Anyway, at the end was a quote that got me to thinking…

“Life is short…smile while you still have teeth!”

Well, today’s recipes come from a cookbook we purchased at a supermarket here in town. We’ve used it before and again, there are some good recipes in it. It’s called, “Taste of Home…Casseroles and One Dish Meals.”

Today’s recipes are breakfast dishes, but, if you’re like Deb and I, there are many times we eat breakfast…for supper!

Baked Apple French Toast

• 20 slices French bread
• 1 can (21 oz.) apple pie filling
• 8 eggs
• 2 cups 2% milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

Topping

• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• ½ cup cold butter, cubed
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 2 tablespoons corn syrup

Arrange 10 slices of bread in a greased 13×9 in. baking dish. Spread with pie filling; top with remaining bread. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Pour over bread. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Meanwhile, place brown sugar in a small bowl. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in pecans and corn syrup. Sprinkle over French toast.

Bake uncovered, on 350 for 35-40 minutes or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean.

Beverly Johnston, Rubicon, Wisconsin

Bacon and Cheddar Strata

• 1 pound bacon strips
• 1 medium sweet red pepper, finely chopped
• 8 green onions, thinly sliced
• ½ cup chopped oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes
• 8 slices white bread, cubed
• 2 cups (8 oz.) shredded cheddar cheese
• 6 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1-1/2 cups 2 % milk
• ¼ cup mayonnaise
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon ground mustard
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper

In a large skillet cook bacon in batches until crisp; drain on paper towels. Crumble into a large bowl. Add the red pepper, onion, and tomatoes. In a greased 13×9 in. baking dish, layer half the bread, bacon mixture and cheese. Top with remaining bread and bacon mixture.

In a small bowl, combine the eggs, milk, mayonnaise and seasonings. Pour over the top. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Remove from the refrigerator for 30 minutes prior to baking. Bake, covered, on 350 for 40 minutes. Uncover and bake 5-10 minutes longer or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean. Let stand 5 minutes before cutting.

Deb Healy, Cold Lake, Alberta

Sausage-Potato Bake

• ½ pound bulk pork sausage
• 3 large potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced.
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon pepper
• 1 jar (2 0z.) diced pimientos, drained
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup 2% milk
• 2 tablespoons minced chives
• ¾ teaspoon dried thyme or oregano
• Additional minced chives, optional

In a large skillet, cook sausage over medium-heat until no longer pink; drain.

Arrange half the potatoes in a greased 8 in. baking dish; sprinkle with salt, pepper and half the sausage. Layer with remaining potatoes and sausage; sprinkle with pimientos.

In a small bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, chives and thyme; pour over pimientos.

Cover and bake on 375 for 45-50 minutes or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean. Uncover; bake for 10 minutes longer or until lightly browned. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting. Sprinkle with additional chives if desired.

Ruth Rigoni, Hurley, Wisconsin

Reuben Quiche

• 1 cup, plus 3 tablespoons finely crushed Rye triscuits or other crackers
• 1 tablespoon rye or all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons plus 1-1/2 teaspoons butter, melted

Filling

• 5 green onions, chopped
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1-1/2 cups (6 oz.) shredded Swiss cheese, divided
• 1 package (2-1/2 oz.) deli corned beef, cut into 2 in. strips
• ½ cup sauerkraut, well drained
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup half-and-half cream
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon ground mustard
• ¼ teaspoon salt

In a small bowl, combine the cracker crumbs, flour and butter; press onto the bottom and up the sides of an un-greased 9 in. pie plate. Bake on 375 for 8-10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.

Meanwhile, in a small skillet, sauté onions in butter until tender; set aside. Sprinkle ½ cup cheese over crust. Top with corned beef, sauerkraut, and remaining cheese. Whisk the eggs, cream, flour, mustard, salt and reserved onion mixture; pour over cheese.

Bake, uncovered, on 375 for 25-30 minutes or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean. Let quiche stand for 5 minutes.

Barbara Nowakowski, North Tonawanda, New York

Well, today I’ve been back in that dern cookbook, “White Trash Gatherings,” and found a few more recipes I’d like to share with you. I get a kick readin through this cookbook, and it’s about my 4th or 5th pass in it.

It’s really entertaining to read, and if you guys were born in the South, around my time, much of it brings back memories. Good, old, down home memories. I think of my Granddaddy Troy, his wife and my Granny Margaret, and my Mom’s mother, my Nanny Murphy.

Boy, what a different age we live in today. Life was so much simpler then. Don’t get me wrong, life was hard, and you WORKED for what you got…there were no such thing as… “ENTITLEMENTS!!!!”

If there had of been, most would have been too ashamed to have taken them! Don’t get me wrong…people did help people, but it was neighbor helping neighbor. They didn’t need, nor wanted “Uncle Sam” minglin in their business! They took care of one another.

They did love their Country deeply, very deeply as a matter of fact, and didn’t hesitate to respond if duty called, yet their business was just that…THEIR BUSINESS! Once more, Uncle Sam had his place, and it wasn’t tellin them how to live…they wouldn’t tolerate such.

Yet today, we have created an environment of…gimme, gimme, gimme, OR, what’s yours is MINE TOO! It’s expected that we give part of our hard-earned money to people who mainly…just don’t want to work. Get this…it’s expected, and even worse, the ones we’re givin it to, no longer appreciate the fact that we’re doin just that…givin it to em.

Plus, many of the ones expectin, and takin…aren’t even citizens of our Country! What have we come to? What used to be a Nation of achievers, the very best on the planet, is fast becoming a Nation of…YOU OWE ME’S! My thoughts on this…##%**!!…**??!!

Let me get back to these recipes before I DO get angry, and mess around and burn down Miz Judi’s Kitchen by not payin attention to this dad-burned cook stove! 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10. Okay, okay, I feel much better now.

Take a look at pickin up this cookbook. Again, it was written by, Kendra Bailey Morris, and published by ten Speed Press. Revisit your past, and take a stroll down “memory lane!” It’ll do us all some good!

Pinto Bean Pie

• 1-1/2 cups dried pinto beans
• 3 medium, or 2 extra -large eggs, beaten
• ½ cup white sugar
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 1 (13 oz.) can evaporated milk
• ½ stick butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1-1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon salt
• Whipped cream for serving

Cook up your beans in a plain ole pot of water until real tender, about 3 hours at a low simmer. Strain, and reserve ½ cup of the cooking liquid.

Turn your oven on 450.

Get out your blender and puree your beans with the ½ cup liquid. Your mixture should look like thin mashed potatoes. Add the rest of your ingredients and mix real good. Pour your bean filling into a 9 inch pie shell and bake for about 15 minutes. Turn your oven down to 350 and cook your pie for another 45 to 55 minutes, or until it sets up. Serve warm with whipped cream.

Miss Oma’s Grape Jelly Meatballs

• 1-1/2 cups Burney Papper’s Chili Sauce (recipe below)
• ½ medium-sized jar grape jelly (more if you like it sweet)
• 1 pound ground beef
• 2 tablespoons bread crumbs
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup chopped onion
• ½ teaspoon prepared horseradish
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• Salt and pepper, as much as you’d like

Put your chili sauce and grape jelly in a crockpot set on medium-low heat.

For your meatballs, mix together the ground beef with the rest of your ingredients. Carefully shape the mixture into small balls, taking care not to roll the meatballs too tightly.

Fry the meatballs in a shallow pan of hot oil until they’re brown on all sides. Add them to the grape jelly mixture and simmer until nice and tender. Serve straight from the pot with toothpicks.

Burney Papper’s Chili Sauce

• 1-1/2 cups white vinegar
• 1-1/2 cups brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon salt, plus more as needed
• 9 cups chopped tomatoes
• 1-1/2 cups chopped onions
• 2 whole jalapenos, sliced in half
• 1 whole cinnamon stick and 1 teaspoon whole cloves, tied up in a cheesecloth

Get your vinegar, brown sugar, and salt to boiling in a good sized pot. Add your tomatoes, onions, and peppers. Add the tied up spices. Cook, uncovered, on low heat until thickened (about 1-1/2 hours), stirrin every now and then. Skim off your foam from time to time. For a thinner sauce, cool and puree in a blender. Store in pint jars.

Ollie V.’s Gingerbread

• 1 cup molasses
• ½ cup butter, softened
• ½ cup very hot water
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• ½ teaspoon allspice

Turn your oven on 350. Grease up an 8 inch square baking pan.

Stir up your molasses, butter, and hot water and add your egg. In another bowl, mix up your dry ingredients. Add your molasses mixture to your dry ingredients and mix everything up real good with a wooden spoon. Scrape the batter into the pan and bake for about 20 minutes, or until a knife inserted comes out nice and clean. Serve warm with a dollop of fresh cream.

We hope you guys enjoyed today’s recipes, and we’d like to thank Kendra Bailey Morris once more for her cookbook, “White Trash Gatherings.” Deb and I have enjoyed it immensely!

Before closing this morning we’d like to share with you guys…”Praying Hands.” It was sent to us by our friend Gary, and we felt you guys would enjoy reading about this well-known painting and the story behind it…

The Praying Hands

Many of you would have seen the picture of “The Praying Hands”, which is present in many Christian homes, but would almost certainly not have heard the moving story behind this popular picture. Here is the story.

THE STORY BEHIND THE PICTURE OF THE PRAYING HANDS

Back in the fifteenth century, in a tiny village near Nuremberg, lived a family with
eighteen children. Eighteen! In order merely to keep food on the table for this mob, the father and head of the household, a goldsmith by profession, worked almost eighteen hours a day at his trade and any other paying chore he could find in the neighborhood.

Despite their seemingly hopeless condition, two of the elder children, Albrecht and Albert, had a dream. They both wanted to pursue their talent for art, but they knew full well that their father would never be financially able to send either of them to Nuremberg to study at the Academy.

After many long discussions at night in their crowded bed, the two boys finally worked out a pact. They would toss a coin. The loser would go down into the nearby mines and, with his earnings, support his brother while he attended the academy. Then, when that brother who won the toss completed his studies, in four years, he would support the other brother at the academy, either with sales of his artwork or, if necessary, also by laboring in the mines.

They tossed a coin on a Sunday morning after church. Albrecht Durer won the toss and went off to Nuremberg . Albert went down into the dangerous mines and, for the next four years, financed his brother, whose work at the academy was almost an immediate sensation. Albrecht’s etchings, his woodcuts, and his oils
were far better than those of most of his professors, and by the time he graduated, he was beginning to earn considerable fees for his commissioned works.

When the young artist returned to his village, the Durer family held a festive dinner on their lawn to celebrate Albrecht’s triumphant homecoming. After a long and memorable meal, punctuated with music and laughter, Albrecht rose from his honored position at the head of the table to drink a toast to his beloved brother for the years of sacrifice that had enabled Albrecht to fulfill his ambition. His closing words were, “And now, Albert, blessed brother of mine, now it is your turn. Now you can go to Nuremberg to pursue your dream, and I will take care of you.”

All heads turned in eager expectation to the far end of the table where Albert sat, tears streaming down his pale face, shaking his lowered head from side to side while he sobbed and repeated, over and over, “No. ..no…no. ..no.” Finally, Albert rose and wiped the tears from his cheeks. He glanced down the long table at the faces he loved, and then, holding his hands close to his right cheek, he said softly, “No, brother. I cannot go to Nuremberg . It is too late for me. Look …look what four years in the mines have done to my hands! The bones in every finger have been smashed at least once, and lately I have been suffering from arthritis so badly in my right hand that I cannot even hold a glass to return your toast, much less make delicate lines on parchment or canvas with a pen or a brush. No, brother …for me it is too late.”

More than 450 years have passed. By now, Albrecht Durer’s hundreds of masterful portraits, pen and silver-point sketches, watercolors, charcoals, woodcuts, and copper engravings hang in every great museum in the world, but the odds are great that you, like most people, are familiar with only one of Albrecht Durer’s works. More than merely being familiar with it, you very well may have a reproduction hanging in your home or office.

One day, to pay homage to Albert for all that he had sacrificed, Albrecht Durer painstakingly drew his brother’s abused hands with palms together and thin fingers stretched skyward. He called his powerful drawing simply “Hands,” but the entire world almost immediately opened their hearts to his great masterpiece and renamed his tribute of love “The Praying Hands.”

The next time you see a copy of that touching creation, take a second look. Let it be your reminder, if you still need one, that no one, no one, ever makes it alone!

“In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.”

Proverbs 3:6

The Praying Hands

Thanks Gary, and sendin our regards, buddy!

You guys have a great day, and God bless you and yours. Deb says to keep a smile on your face, and one in your heart!

Dub and Deb

You know, ole Deb and I kinda like piddlin around a cook stove ever once in a while, and we do pick-up, or somebody will send us a cookbook. Actually in today’s cookbooks, many times you can also read up on the “back in the day” lifestyles, and some are very entertaining, and good reads to boot. We enjoy them.

Anyway, we’ve shared some other recipes from the cookbook we’ll be using today, and it falls into the funny, “back in the day” category. But it also has some very good, “down home cookin” recipes as well.

Its title once again is, White Trash Gatherings,” and was written by Kendra Bailey Morris. It was published by Ten Speed Press.

I’d come back in this morning after a couple cups of coffee, sat down in my easy chair and picked up this book once again. Yep, you guessed it, ole Deb was still sleepin…how else could I have possibly sat down in my easy chair? Once Deb gets up, there ain’t much takin it easy after that!

So, while Deb’s sleepin in, and our “little girl,” girl, Cheyenne was gnawin on a bone in the floor beside me, I flipped through the “White Trash Gatherings” once more. Readin through it, I came upon those dern “Drunken Weenies” again and thought to myself…I’m gonna post them rascals today, so, let’s get started!

Drunken Weenies

The author states in her book that “these little weenies really pack a wallop. Made with a good amount of bourbon, these little guys are as liquored up as YOU”LL be after eatin em! (Caution: Keep away from children unles you want their game playin to consist of “Quarters” and “Keg Stands!”

• ½ cup bourbon
• 1 cup ketchup
• 1 cup brown sugar
• Cocktail weenies

Mix all your ingredients in a pot and cook, uncovered, on low for 30 minutes. Transfer to your favorite crockpot and serve right outta the pot with a toothpick.

Remy and Max’s Dried Apple Snacks

• About 12 tart cooking apples, peeled and quartered
• 2 cups apple cider
• ½ cup honey (use more or less to suit your own taste)
• 45 cinnamon red hot candies (again, use more or less to suit your own taste)

Put your apples and cider in a big ole pot and bring up to a simmer. Stir every now and then so it doesn’t stick. Cook your apples on low-heat until you get a sort of watery apple butter. Then cool the mixture and throw it into your blender(if you have a fancy food processor, now’s the time to pull it out). Mix it up good. Then throw it back in the pot and add your honey and candies. Cook until your mixture starts to look like thick apple butter.

Put some parchment paper on a baking sheet and spread out your apple mixture about ¼ inch thick. Then stick the mixture in the oven on real low heat (about 120 degrees) to dry it out. Keep the oven door just a bit ajar so all the moisture can escape. This will take about 14 hours.

Take it out of the oven, let it cool, and then peel it off the paper and roll up jelly roll style. Cut into slices. Store in a Ball jar.

Big Butt Bea’s White Trash Nachos

• ½ box buttery crackers
• ½ pound sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded (use more if you like it cheesy)
• ½ pound bacon, cooked and crumbled
• Pickled Jalapenos (optional)
• Sour cream, for serving
• Salsa, for serving

Turn oven on to about 400. Line up a casserole dish with buttery crackers. Sprinkle with some cheese. Top with crumpled bacon and jalapenos. Bake it until your cheese is good and melted. Serve with sour cream and salsa. Play a little mariachi music in the background for added Mexican flavor.

Devil’s Delight

Beat your cream cheese with an electric mixer and then add the rest of your ingredients. Mix it up real good. Then put it in the fridge and set back and relax while it chills. Serve with chips or Melba toast.

We hope you guys enjoy these. Before we take off today, our good friend Gerry, up in Western Canada, sent us a story about curtain rods. Deb loved it, but then again…it sounds just like something she’d do!

Thanks Gerry, and God Bless ya buddy!

Curtain Rods…

On the first day, she sadly packed her belongings into boxes, crates and suitcases.

A week later the man and his girlfriend stood smiling as they watched the moving company, pack everything up to take to their new home ……. and to spite the ex-wife, they even took the curtain rods!

You guys have a great day, and God bless. Despite the curtain rods, Deb still says to tell you all to keep a smile on your face, and one in your heart!

Dub and Deb

Our recipes today come from a cookbook we’ve used in the past. Deb and I both have gotten a kick out of readin it, and there are some good, down home recipes in it.
It’s called “White Trash Cooking,” and was written by Ernest Matthew Mickler. It was published by Ten Speed Press.

Mammy’s Date Cake

• 1 cup sugar
• ½ cup Wesson oil
• 4 eggs (whites beaten separately)
• 1 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1-1/2 to 2 pounds dates
• 1 quart shelled pecans, chopped

Cream sugar, oil and egg yolks until fluffy. Mix nuts and dates with ½ cup flour. Add 1 teaspoon baking powder to the other 1/2 cup of flour. Add salt and combine with creamed yolk mixture. Add flour, nuts, dates, and mix well. Add beaten egg whites and vanilla extract. Mixture will be stiff as a board. Do not moisten. Will have to mix with hands. Place in tube or loaf pan (greased). Bake on 300 until done (brown). If you’re not sure…test with a broom straw.

Reba’s Rainbow Ice-Box Cake

• 1 cup confectioner’s sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 cup pecans
• 2 boxes cherry Jello
• ½ cup oleo
• 1 No. 2 can Dole crushed pineapple
• 2 boxes lime Jello
• 1 box (medium size) Graham crackers

Cream your sugar, oleo, egg yolks, and then add your strained pineapple and nuts. Beat your egg whites stiff and fold them in. Then place a layer of Graham crackers on the bottom of a pan, pour in the mixture, and put into the ice box to chill.

Now fix your cherry jello as for regular use, except use pineapple juice for one cup of water and the other just plain water. Don’t pour this mixture over the other mixture in the ice box until it’s ready to congeal.

Next, fix your lime jello and let set in the ice box until ready to congeal. Then whip with the egg beater until fluffy and spread it over the pan of mixtures. After this has all congealed, whip one half pint of cream and cover the whole thing.

Slice and serve topped with cherries if ya got em; if ya don’t, ya don’t.

Stewed Fig Cake

• 2 cups flour
• 1-1/2 cups sugar
• 1 small spoon (teaspoon) baking soda
• 1 small spoon ground ginger
• ½ small spoon ground cloves
• 1 sight, small spoon salt
• 1 small spoon allspice
• 1 cup of melted shortening
• 1 cup of buttermilk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup of stewed figs (chopped and reserve the juice)
• 3 tablespoons whiskey (optional if you’re Baptist)

Mix all the dry ingredients in one bowl. Mix all the liquid ingredients, except the shortening and the figs, in another bowl. Add the liquid to the dry, and mix well. Now add the figs and the shortening. Pour into a cake pan with a hole in the middle and bake slow, (on 275) for 1 hour. Check center for doneness. Depan when cool and use the stewed fig juice with the whiskey to pour over the cake.

Betty Sue says, “You’ll never eat that ole gingerbread cake again.”

Gerdie’s Groundnut Candy

• 1 quart molasses
• 4 cups shelled peanuts, roasted
• 1 cup brown sugar
• ½ cup oleo

Combine all ingredients except nuts, and boil for half an hour over a slow fire. Then add roasted and shelled peanuts and continue cooking for 15 minutes. Drop on lightly greased cookie sheet. Make little cakes or cookies of the candy and let harden.

If you’re on a diet, or just tryin to eat more health wise, forget about hangin out, although I do tell Deb these cakes do have SOME fine, healthy ingredients. You just have to look, and use your own definition to the term…healthy.

If you look though, you can read into it what ya want. Let’s see now, hmmm, I see right off the bat…oranges. Those are good for ya, right? Then I see cloves. There’s two right off the bat, huh?

Shoot, I’m lookin now at an ingredient that just has to be beneficial to us all…coconut! Okay Deb, I’m three for three! Last but not least I spy something that “back in the day,” I dearly loved. Loved it so much I’d only buy it by the gallon.

BOURBON…yes sir, good for pretty much whatever ails ya! Medicinal purposes were my main use. My head hurt…I’d take a shot. Sometimes several. Stress, shoot, there ain’t nothing no better. Cough or sore throat, you betcha!

On top of all that, it’s supposed to be very, very good for…snakebite! So good in fact , that me and several of my good, doctorin buddies just like myself, would always tote small snakes in our pockets.

So as you can see, the recipes we’re sharin with you guys today, all CAN be described as healthy! It’s just like anything else in life. You get out of it, only how you read it!

These recipes come from one of my Mom’s cookbooks. It is a church cookbook we’ve shared from before, and was put out by the Presbyterian Church in Apopka, back in 1990.

Mom and Dad don’t attend this particular church, but many of their friends do. The title is, “Treasures and Pleasures.”

Why don’t we fire off the dern cook stove and get started. Miz Judi TOLD me a while back, “Why don’t you do a whole lot less talkin, and a whole lot more cookin?” I asked her if she was telling me this, but she said she was…only suggesting. Yeah, right! LOL!

She tried to explain it to me as simply as she could. Less communicatin works out to be more, “profit makin!”

Simply put, these days you better be into much, much, more “profit makin,” cause our current administration condones getting your wealth… “through takin!”

Let’s git started!

Clove Cake

• 1 cup butter (or Crisco)
• 1-1/4 cups sugar
• 5 eggs
• 3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon cloves
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• Pinch salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon soda

Beat eggs and add to creamed butter and sugar. Sift flour and spices. Add alternately with buttermilk mixed with soda, ending with flour. Bake on 350 for 45 to 55 minutes in a 10 inch tube pan. Check center for doneness.

Mary Green

Four Day Four Layer Coconut Cake

Day 1

• 2 cups sour cream
• 2 cups sugar
• 16 oz. frozen coconut, thawed

Mix all ingredients. Refrigerate for 24 hours.

Day 2

• 1 box yellow cake mix

Mix up a Duncan Hines yellow cake mix. Substitute milk instead of water. Mix and bake according to box. Use 2 round cake pans. Let cake cool. Cut rounds in half crosswise, making 4 rounds. Put icing between layers and cover the top with icing too. If icy happens to be too soupy, just add more dried coconut.

Cover in tight cake storage container.

Days 3 and 4…Must remain in refrigerator before eating.

(Note from Dub…Deb would have her hands full tryin to keep me outta that mutha for days 3 and four!!)

Lynn Goodwin

Bourbon Pecan Pound Cake

• 1 cup solid shortening
• 2-1/2 cups sugar
• 6 eggs
• 3 cups sifted flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 cup sour cream
• ½ cup bourbon (I usually set out 3-4. Don’t want to be coughin and hackin, while bakin)
• 1 cup finely chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 325. Grease and flour 10 inch tube pan or Bundt pan.

In large mixer beat shortening and sugar till light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until very smooth. Meanwhile, sift flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg; add to sugar mixture alternating with sour cream and bourbon- beginning and ending with flour. Beat just till well blended; fold in pecans.

Turn into prepared pan and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, checking center for doneness. Turn out onto wire rack to cool. Pour glaze over cake; decorate with pecan halves if desired.

Bourbon Glaze

Mix 2 cups sifted confectioners sugar, 1 tablespoon bourbon and enough water, about 2 tablespoons, to make a pourable glaze. Beat until very smooth and pour over cake.

Sis Pitman

Little Orange Chiffon Cake

• 2 egg yolks
• ½ cup egg white (4 whites)
• 1 cup, plus 2 tablespoons sifted flour
• ¾ cups sugar
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ cup salad oil
• 1-1/2 tablespoons orange rind
• ¼ cup, plus 2 tablespoons orange juice
• ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

Sift flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl. Make a well in mix. Add egg yolks, orange rind, juice and oil. At medium speed, mix until smooth. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar to very stiff peaks.

Slowly pour first mixture over whites. Fold in gently until just blended. Pour into a 3-1/2 inch deep tube pan. Bake on 325 for 50 to 55 minutes. Check center for doneness. Cool as you would an angel food cake.

Betty Mountan

We’ve been telling everybody how pretty the weather’s been lately, and shoot…today’s even prettier. High of about 85, a good breeze blowin, and spring’s bearin down upon us! Boy, it’s so nice to be alive and kickin, isn’t it?

Today we’ve hung another set of shelf racks in the greenhouse, planted 20 strawberry plants, and are now mowing a few high areas with the little push mower and bagger. Getting some fresh, green grass clippings to go on the compost pile.

Ole Deb’s been rakin leaves under a big oak tree where she’s fixin her up a flower bed. She feels great and is busy as a dern bee! She’s a mess, I know that much! She’s into something constantly!

We’re taking her leaves and they’re going in the compost pile too. It’s time to get that mutha fired off again, so we’re loadin it down, and fixin to start turning it a couple times a week. The weather is warm enough now to heat that baby up!

Until we started doing this site, I never had used compost. Honestly. We’d use manure or commercial fertilize, and we still do, but commercial is used much less. We kept hearing of the benefit of compost from many of you guys and shoot, next thing I knew, I was getting up some soil, some leaves, hay, paper, manure, grass clippings (went and bought a small push-mower with a bagger?? ) That set me back some guys…thanks! LOL!

Deb started saving our vegetable scraps, egg-shells , banana peels, even the pulp leftover from our morning juice. Which had some tomato seeds in it, by the way. They’d “volunteered up,” so we stuck em in some 5-gal. buckets with compost from the pile, 9 of em. Then, we kept them until we finished the beds in the greenhouse.

We set them a couple weeks back, and this morning we counted 90 plus tomatoes on them. Talking about working hand in hand? So, today we compost. LOL!

Then I kept stoking that thing up” with grass clippins, juice pulp, vegetable scraps, stirring it up, wettin it down…getting it HOTTTT!

Then I didn’t water it for a few days, or stir it…and I burnt up a pasture! Dern thing spontaneously combusted…I’d created…a MONSTER! Not really. I call it kiddin ya’ll…Deb calls it lyin to ya! LOL!

BUT, we do believe in, and use compost anytime we can, plus everything you need is right here. No cost.

Anyway, that’s some of what we’ve been up to. Ya wanna fire off a cookstove? Let’s do it!

Today’s recipes come again from “Bless This Food at the End of the Fork.”

It was a gift from Deb’s “older sister,” Louise, and was put out by members of the church Louise attends. These women, and men, can cook! Louise is a good cook for sure, and I can vouch for that personally!

I keep waitin on her to call one Sunday and say, “Hey Dub, we’re havin dinner on the grounds Sunday…ya wanna come?” So far…no call? I think I worry her.

Mini Fruitcakes

• ½ lb. candied cherries, chopped
• ½ lb. candied pineapple, chopped
• 1 small pack coconut
• 2-1/2 cups pecans, chopped
• ½ can self-rising flour
• 1 can condensed milk

Mix cherries, pineapple coconut, nuts and flour. Add condensed milk and mix. Use mini cup cake pans, fill about ¾ full. Put small pan of water in bottom of oven and bake on 325 for 15 to 20 minutes. Cool before taking out of the pan. Makes 48 mini cakes.

Dean Griffin

Buttermilk Pies

• 3 cups sugar
• ½ cup self-rising flour
• 1 stick butter
• 6 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 pie crusts

Melt butter and mix with sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating until mixed good. Add flour, buttermilk and vanilla. Pour into your two pie crusts and bake on 350 for 45 minutes, or check center for doneness. If you’d like, you can sprinkle cinnamon on top prior to cooking.

Marie Caraway

Bread Pudding

• 2-1/4 cups milk
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 cups bread crumbs
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ½ tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup raisins

Combine milk and egg and pour over bread crumbs. Stir in remaining ingredients. Place in a shallow pan and bake on 350 for 45 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean.

Ruby Young

German Chocolate Upside Down Cake

• 1 cup coconut
• 1 cup chopped pecans

Grease bottom of 9 x 13 inch pan. Sprinkle mixture into bottom of the pan.

Cake

• 1 box German Cake mix
• Ingredients listed on cake box

Prepare by box directions and pour on top of coconut and pecans.

Topping

• 1 (8 oz.) box cream cheese
• 1 stick butter
• 1 box confectioners sugar

Mix together and put on top of cake in small spoonfuls. Bake on 350 for 45 minutes, or until center is done.

We got this in an e-mail yesterday. Read closely, then sink it in. We did an old post a few months back called “Please Don’t Feed the Bears,” covering this same topic.

Isn’t It Ironic?

Meanwhile, the Park Service, also managed by the Department of Agriculture, threatens to prosecute those who “Feed Wild Animals,” because the animals may grow dependent upon us and not take care of themselves.

To all of you people out there who haven’t come to grips with the fact our government is going to tank us through these types of entitlement programs, whether they be passed out to their “have-not constituents,” or the public sector pension plans, buy-outs, double and triple-dipping, health care, and more of, “We’re the Power…” read the statement above once more.

It says it all!

You guys have a great day, and God Bless! Deb says be sure to tell you guys to keep a smile on your face, and one in your heart!

Dub and Deb

First off…we got the outside of our greenhouse finished yesterday…YES! Man we’re so proud we’ve finally got it “buttoned up,” and this is gonna be a WHOLE lotta fun! I have to admit that there’s nothing more fun to me…than watchin Deb work! I could literally watch it for hours on end! LOL!

I used to be of the belief that Deb could be doing one thing, while I was on another project, and for most of our lives that was the case. Deb would handle the “homefront,” while I’d be out tryin to make us a livin. It worked really well.

Then, the day came that ole Red grabbed ahold in our business, and became an integral part of it. The man can work. Honestly, he’s a dern “workin Trojan,” and if one of the crew ain’t pullin his weight, shoot, ole Red will send em packin, and if the need be, will carry their weight on the job too. On top of this, all our customers love the guy.

He’s a great young man, a great Father, a HARD worker, and is full of it in regards to his personality…must come from his Mama, huh?

But to him not listenin to any flak on the job, and not toleratin poor performance with his crew, this has it’s not so good points as well. Why? Well, about 4 years ago he fired one of the employees that had been with us over 14 years…ME???

The man told me he could get more work done, with less hassle, if I’d take an “early retirement!” I was shell-shocked! I tried to argue with him for all of about 15 seconds or so, then saw that no matter how hard I tried to convince him he still needed “the old man,” I gave up.

I just hung my head, and acted very despondent over his decision while walking off. Yet, the whole time this was bein played out, my inner self was sayin, “YES!! God Bless him for his actions!! LOL!

So, after “suckerin ole Red” into runnin me off, I wouldn’t talk to him for quite a while….maybe 30 minutes or so. At that point I called him on the jobsite and told him that I’d not let his firin me interfere with the rest of our lives together…explained to him that I “was a bigger man” than that! LOL!

So, by Red firin “the old man,” this allowed Deb and I PLENTY of time together. You see, Deb and Red have always had a very, very close relationship, but after about two weeks of “my retirement,” she realized that havin me home with her 24-7 wasn’t what she thought it’d be cut out to be.

To this day, I’m not so sure if Deb has ever forgiven him…for “letting me go!”

Quickly, back to the point I was makin earlier in regards to Deb and I both bein on separate projects at the same time, well, my attitude over that statement has changed. Since having more time to spend around her, I’ve decided that although we don’t get quite as much done, it is actually better if we work on a project…together.

By doin so, this assures that by doing things in this fashion, I can share my VAST knowledge and intellect with her. This also insures that through my sittin around watchin her, and pointin out the ways “that I’d do it,” she in fact does a better job at what SHE’S doin. You could say that now we get it right…the first time, every time! LOL!

So you see, I’m not the type of man to keep the better ways of doing things all to myself. I like to share with Deb anyway I can…to help her out, you understand! What better way could there be…to show your love towards your spouse??

So all you other women out there, don’t be too despondent that your own husband may not treat you in quite the same manner. You need to try and come to grips…that ole Deb, just got lucky I guess!! LOL!

Before we fire off the dern cook stove this morning, we’d like to share a video with you guys. Be sure and listen to the story of my little dog…Skipper! I sure miss the little feller, and at one point durin the video…I almost broke down!

Today’s recipes come from Deb’s sister Louise’s church cookbook, “Bless This Food at the End of the Fork.” Deb says to be sure you guys understand that Louise is Deb’s… “older sister!”

Hot Dog Relish

• 5 cups grated cucumbers
• 3 cups grated onions
• 3 cups grated celery
• Hot pepper, if desired
• 2 sweet red peppers, ground
• ¾ cup of salt
• 1-1/2 cups of water
• 1 quart white vinegar
• 3 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons mustard seed
• 1 to 2 teaspoons celery seed

Combine vegetables and add water and salt and let stand overnight. Drain, heat vinegar, sugar, mustard and celery seed. Bring to a boil, add vegetables and bring to a boil once again. Cook slow for 10 minutes. Pack in hot, sterile jars and let them seal. Do not hot water bath.

Diane Ackerman

Cream Cheese Bars

• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 1 stick butter
• 1 large egg
• ½ cup chopped nuts
• 1 (8 oz) package of cream cheese
• 2 eggs
• 1 box confectioner’s sugar

Soften butter, mix cake mix, butter, and 1 egg together, then add chopped nuts. Put in a 9 x 13 inch pan and pat smooth. Mix cream cheese, 2 eggs, and sugar together and pour over first layer. Bake on 350 for 45 minutes; or until tested done. Cool and cut into squares.

Louise Flowers (Deb’s older sister) …LOL, Louise!!

Easy Pecan Cookies

• 1 cup butter
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 cups self-rising flour
• 1 cup chopped pecans

Cream butter and add brown sugar. Add egg yolk, flour and pecans. Roll into small balls and flatten with a fork dipped in flour. Place on baking pan and bake on 350 for 30 to 45 minutes, or until done.

Margaret Clark

Cake Mix Cookies

• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 cups quick cooking oats
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup oil
• 1 cup pecans, chopped
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350. Mix cake mix, sugar and oats together. In a separate bowl, mix eggs, oil, pecans, and vanilla extract together. Mix all together now, and place tablespoons of dough onto a greased cookie sheet, and bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

JoAnna Neely

The weather’s begun to warm up again, lows in the mid-fifties at night. We’ve been wanting to set out some seeds, but with the nights being a little too cool for seedlings to germinate, we’ve waited. We didn’t want to start them in the house.

But Tuesday afternoon Deb and I put out quite a bit of seeds. We dropped the curtains and we couldn’t believe how the greenhouse heated up. This is brand spankin new to us, so we’re kinda feeling things out, but still probably in too big a hurry! LOL!

We set out 413 tomato sets. I know, that’s a lot I guess, it is to us, but we’ll use 40 or so ourselves. Shoot, right there alone means we’ll only have in the upper 300’s left! LOL! These we’ll give away to family and friends. We can’t wait to see the percentage of germination number one, we’re curious to see how well they grow off, and what varieties we prefer.

It’s overkill this time around, but we’re having a ball messin around with it so far. This is going to be a BIG boost for us nutritionally, and we can’t wait to see how the tomatoes will do year round. I keep a pretty sad face if tomato season goes out anymore!

Well, that’s about all we’ve got goin on in the greenhouse right now…unless you want to hear about the 160 or so pepper plants we just seeded…well, do you?? LOL! We did plant that many peppers though. Tomorrow or Thursday…who knows??

Today we’re sharing three recipes that come from a church cookbook out of Apopka, where Mom and Dad live and have now for about 42 years. It’s called “Treasures and Pleasures,” and it has some very good recipes in it. I think today, let’s talk cakes…

Feather Sponge Cake

• 6 egg yolks
• ½ cup water
• 1-1/2 cups water
• 1-1/2 cup sugar
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• ½ teaspoon lemon or orange extract
• 6 egg whites
• 3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1-1/2 cups flour

With mixer beat egg yolks well and add ½ cup water. Add sugar, vanilla, and lemon or orange extract. Add flour and 1-1/2 cups water mixing well. Beat egg whites with cream of tartar and fold into mixture.

Pour batter into a greased and floured 10 inch tube pan. Bake on 325 for approximately 1 hour or until done when tested…straw comes out clean.

Mary Land Miller

Orange Slice Cake

Mix together

• 1 cup shortening
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon soda
• ½ cup buttermilk
• 3-1/2 cups flour
• ½ teaspoon salt

Cut Up

• 1 package (16 oz) candied orange slices
• 1 small package dates
• 1 (3-14 oz) can flaked coconut

Add

Mix orange slices, dates, coconut and flour together. Add to cake batter. Bake in two loaf pans (greased and floured) or one tube pan (greased and floured) for 1-1/2 hours on 275.

Have next ingredients ready to pour on when taken out of the oven…

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 cup orange juice
• 1 grated orange peel (optional)

Bring to a boil. Pour over cake while still hot and let cool in pans. Store in refrigerator.

Lorena (Jack) Standard

Lena McCormack’s Hillbilly Cake

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup chopped dates or raisins
• 1 cup water
• ¼ lb. margarine
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon allspice

Mix above and boil two minutes. Cool, then add

• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup pecans

Mix and bake in a greased and floured 9 x 13 inch pan on 350 for 20 minutes. Remove from oven; while warm, spread icing:

• 1 stick margarine
• 1 cup pecans
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• ½ cup coconut
• 2 tablespoons milk

Return to oven and bake 20 minutes more. Test for doneness. This is very good served warm.

Lou Lynch Rye

Closing out today with a little something from Bill and Sandi…out Mobile way.

When asked by a young patrol officer
“Do you know you were speeding?”
This 83-year-old woman gave the young officer an ear to ear smile and stated:
“Yes, but… I had to get there before I forgot where I was going.”
The officer put his ticket book away and bid her good day.

You guys have a great day, and God Bless. Deb says…keep a smile on your face, and one in your heart!

Dub and Deb

Miz Judi convinced Deb and I about a year ago to start Ridin Out the Recession in Miz Judi’s Kitchen, and we’ve had a lot of fun with it. Better yet, we’ve met so many good people that it’s amazed us both. It was, and still is just a hoot to be involved in!

While we’re on the subject of cookin this morning, I just want to say that up until just recently, the last couple weeks or so, we’d forgotten what a young man could eat like. Then all of a sudden we had the chance to once again witness such a feat…with TWO of em!

Mark had gone on vacation, so I utilized the two guys that help him in our business out here on the place.

Now I gotta say that I’m very impressed with them both. They’re absolutely great kids, excuse me, young men, they’re both good workers, and very polite, and respectful. Traits we don’t see nearly as much as we should these days.

All this bein true, but dad-gum, we fed those two the last couple weeks at lunch, and good night a livin, those guys…CAN EAT! They’re bottomless pits, I ain’t kiddin!

Corey, who has been with us over a year, is 21, and Elmo who has been with us a couple-three months, is 20 or 21. At one meal, Deb served them meatball subs with chips, TWO subs each, and after finishing Elmo asks, “Got any more subs?” I was like, “Get your rear-end back out there and get to work!!” LOL!

They ate like that every time they sat down for lunch. Two growin boys…man I’m glad ours are grown now!! Really, Deb and I could care less how much they ate, we actually got a kick outta watchin em shovel it down, but it was amazing since we hadn’t been around kids of that age very much anymore at mealtime. PHEW!! LOL!

I just thought I’d share that with you guys today, it tickled us both, and I had a ball pickin at em over it.

Next, let’s take a quick gander of a joke my Aunt Ann sent to us…

Three Holy Men & a Bear

A Catholic Priest, a Baptist Preacher, and a Rabbi all served as chaplains to the students of Northern Michigan University in Marquette .

They would get together two or three times a week for coffee and to talk shop.

One day, someone made the comment that preaching to people isn’t really all that hard, a real challenge would be to preach to a bear.

One thing led to another, and they decided to do an experiment.

They would all go out into the woods, find a bear, preach to it, and attempt to convert it.

Seven days later, they all came together to discuss their experience.

Father Flannery, who had his arm in a sling, was on crutches, and had various bandages on his body and limbs, went first.

‘Well,’ he said, ‘I went into the woods to find me a bear. And when I found him, I began to read to him from the Catechism. Well, that bear wanted nothing to do with me and began to slap me around. So I quickly grabbed my holy water, sprinkled him and, Holy Mary Mother of God, he became as gentle as a lamb The Bishop is coming out next week to give him first communion and confirmation.’

Reverend Billy Bob spoke next. He was in a wheelchair, had one arm and both legs in casts, and had an IV drip. In his best fire-and-brimstone oratory, he claimed, ‘WELL, brothers, you KNOW that we don’t sprinkle! I went out and I FOUND me a bear. And then I began to read to my bear from God’s HOLY WORD! But that bear wanted nothing to do with me. So I took HOLD of him and we began to wrestle. We wrestled down one hill, UP another and DOWN another until we came to a creek. So I quickly DUNKED him and BAPTIZED his hairy soul. And just like you said, he became as gentle as a lamb. We spent the rest of the day praising Jesus..Hallelujah!

The priest and the reverend both looked down at the Rabbi, who was lying in a hospital bed. He was in a body cast and traction with IVs and monitors running in and out of him. He was in really bad shape.

The Rabbi looked up and said: “Looking back on it, …….circumcision may not have been the best way to start.”

Well, once we finally fire off the cook stove this morning we have some “good groceries” to share with you guys today. All these come from my “Mama Ruthie’s” cookbook she’d gotten from some of her “buddies” in Apopka.

It was put out by the Presbyterian Women from the First Presbyterian Church, Apopka, in 1990. Let’s take a look…

Pressure Cooker Stew

• 1 tablespoon fat
• 1 lb. round steak cubed, in 1 inch squares
• 1 large onion, sliced
• Salt and pepper to taste
• ½ cup water
• 4 small white potatoes
• 1 cup green beans
• 4 small carrots
• 1 cup canned tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon flour
• ¼ cup water

Heat pressure cooker and add fat. Brown meat and add onions, salt, pepper, and ½ cup water. Place potatoes, green beans, carrots and tomatoes over meat. Close cover securely.

Place pressure regulator on vent pipe and cook 10 to 12 minutes at 15 pounds of pressure. Let pressure drop of its own accord. Make a paste of flour and ¼ cup of water. Stir into stew to thicken.

Joe Connelly

Pan-Fried Cabbage

• 2 tablespoons bacon drippings
• 1 small head of cabbage, shredded (4 cups)
• ¼ cup vinegar
• ¼ cup water
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• Dash cayenne

Heat drippings in skillet. Add cabbage, vinegar, salt, water, sugar and cayenne. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until cabbage is lightly browned, but still crisp. About 10-12 minutes.

Marvin Bridges

Carrot Nut Bread

• ½ cup corn oil
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1-3/4 cups un-sifted flour
• 2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 cup shredded carrot
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup chopped nuts

Stir together oil and sugar. In large bowl stir together flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon; stir into corn oil mixture. Stir in carrots. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in nuts. Turn into a greased 8-1/2 x 4-1/2 x2-1/2 inch loaf pan.

Bake on 350 for 55 to 60 minutes, or until cake tester comes out clean.

Cheryl C. Hoffman

Granny’s Relish

• 11 cups ground green tomatoes
• 4 cups ground green peppers
• 2 cups ground onions
• 4 tablespoons salt
• 3 cups vinegar
• 6 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon dry mustard
• 1 tablespoon celery seed

Mix tomatoes, peppers, onions, and salt together and let stand for 1 hour. Drain and transfer to large kettle. Add vinegar, sugar, mustard, and celery seed. Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer, uncovered for 20 minutes. Seal in sterile jars.

Sis Pitman