Hey guys…how are ya? We hope all is well, and things are looking good for you all. Be thankful for the many blessing God provides for us, and stop and take a look around. If you’re like Deb and I, we don’t have to look far to see how fortunate we really are.
So, if you haven’t done so lately, why don’t you take a couple minutes, look around, and see for yourself just how fortunate you are.
Anyway, we have had some beautiful weather lately, and the okra is still doing really well. I looked today in our storage room, and we had 181 pints of pickled okra. We’ve had to have given 50-60 pints away easily.
From Saturday before last, until this past Saturday, we pickled 72 pints…last week. Again, up until we get a hard frost the okra will keep on putting out. That suits me just fine!
Our mustards are doing well too. We’ve had 6-8 small salads out of them, and they’re fixing to be doing very well. Once those things start coming in, we’ll be able to put up quite a few quarts of them also.
Man, I love em, and my Mom makes a chili sauce that we serve over them that’ll knock your socks off, which most times you see me during “green season,” I’m barefooted…they knocked my shoes AND socks off!
I’ve asked and asked for her recipe but the woman hasn’t let me have it yet! She’s my Mama too for goodness sakes!
Both today’s recipes came from the cookbook, “Best Kept Secrets of the South’s Greatest Cooks.” It is from the editors of Southern Living.
I’ve enjoyed going through it, though Deb hollers at me from time to time. She claims while I’m going through it, many times she catches me literally… “foamin at the mouth!” I just tell her that shoot, at my age, food is one of the few things that still…excite me! Dad-gummit!
Well, before we fire off a cook stove in Miz Judi’s Kitchen this morning, let’s tell a joke. This is from Roger in Virginia once more…
Skinny Dipping
An elderly man in Louisiana had owned a large farm for several years…
He had a large pond in the back. It was properly shaped for swimming, so he fixed it up nice with picnic tables, horseshoe courts, and some apple, and peach trees.
One evening the old farmer decided to go down to the pond, as he hadn’t been there for a while and look it over. He grabbed a five-gallon bucket to bring back some fruit.
As he neared the pond, he heard voices shouting and laughing with glee. As he came closer, he saw it was a bunch of young women skinny-dipping in his pond.
He made the women aware of his presence and they all went to the deep end.
One of the women shouted to him, ‘we’re not coming out until you leave!’
The old man frowned, ‘I didn’t come down here to watch you ladies swim naked or make you get out of the pond naked.’
Holding the bucket up he said, ‘I’m here to feed the alligator.’
Lemon-Coconut Cake:
- 3 large eggs
- 1 (8oz.) container sour cream
- ¾ cup vegetable oil
- ¾ cup cream of coconut
- ¾ teaspoon coconut flavoring
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 (18.25 oz.) package white cake mix with pudding
- **Lemon-Coconut Filling
- **Fluffy Lemon Frosting
- 1-1/2 to 2 cups sweetened flaked coconut
- Garnish: lemon wedges
Beat eggs at high speed with an electric mixer for 2 minutes. Add sour cream, vegetable oil, cream of coconut, coconut flavoring, and lemon extract, and beat well. Add cake mix; beat at low speed until blended. Beat on high speed for 2 minutes. Pour batter into 3 greased and floured 9 inch round cake pans.
Bake at 325 for 20-25 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes; remove from pans, and let cool completely on wire racks.
Spread Lemon-Coconut Filling (see below), between layers. Spread Fluffy Lemon Frosting (see below), on top and sides of cake. Gently press coconut into frosting. Garnish, if desired.
**Lemon-Coconut Filling:
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 tablespoons corn starch
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
- 2/3 cup fresh lemon juice
- 1/3 cup water
- 5 egg yolks
- ½ cup butter or margarine
- ½ cup sweetened flaked coconut
Stir together sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a heavy saucepan. Stir in rind, juice, and water. Bring to a boil over medium heat; boil, stirring constantly, 1 minute. Beat egg yolks until thick and pale; gradually stir half of hot mixture into yolks; add yolk mixture to remaining hot mixture, stirring constantly. Cook, stirring constantly, 1 minute. Remove from heat; add butter and coconut, stirring until butter melts.
Cool completely.
**Fluffy Lemon Frosting:
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup water
- 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
- 2 egg whites
- ¼ cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
- ¼ teaspoon lemon extract
Stir together granulated sugar, water, and corn syrup in a heavy saucepan over medium heat, and cook, stirring constantly until clear. Cook, without stirring, until a candy thermometer registers 232 degrees (thread stage).
Beat egg whites at medium speed with an electric mixer until soft peaks form; continue to beat, quickly adding the syrup mixture. Add powdered sugar, lemon rind, and lemon extract, beating until stiff peaks form and frosting is spreading consistency.
Buttered Rum Pound Cake with Bananas Foster Sauce:
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 2-1/2 cups sugar
- 6 large eggs, separated
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 (8 oz.) container sour cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon lemon extract
- ½ cup sugar
- **Buttered Rum Glaze (see below).
- **Bananas Foster Sauce (see below)
- Vanilla ice cream
Beat butter at medium speed with a heavy duty electric stand mixer until creamy. Add 2-12 cups sugar, beating 4-5 minutes or until fluffy. Add egg yolks, 1 at a time, beating just until yellow disappears.
Combine flour and baking soda; add to butter mixture alternately with sour cream, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Stir in extracts.
Beat egg whites until foamy; gradually add ½ cup sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until stiff peaks form. Fold into batter. Pour batter into a greased and floured 10 inch tube pan.
Bake on 325 for 1 hour and 30 minutes or until a long wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10-15 minutes; remove from pan, and place on a serving plate. While warm, prick cake surface at 1 inch intervals with a wooden pick; pour warm Buttered Rum Glaze over cake. Let stand 4 hours or overnight before serving. Serve with Bananas Foster sauce and vanilla ice cream.
**Buttered Rum Glaze:
- 6 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
- 3 tablespoons light rum
- ¾ cup of sugar
- 1-1/2 tablespoons water
- ½ cup chopped pecans, toasted
Stir together butter, rum, sugar, and water in a heavy, 1 quart saucepan; cook over medium heat, stirring frequently until mixture comes to a boil. Remove from heat, and stir in pecans.
**Bananas Foster Sauce:
- ¼ cup butter or margarine, cut into pieces
- ½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
- 1/3 cup banana liqueur
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 4 bananas, peeled and sliced
- 1/3 cup light rum
Stir together butter, brown sugar, banana liqueur, and cinnamon in a large skillet; cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture begins to bubble. Add bananas, and cook 2-3 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Remove from heat.
Heat rum in a small saucepan over medium heat. (DO NOT BOIL) Quickly pour rum over banana mixture, and immediately ignite with a long match just above the liquid mixture to light the fumes (not the liquid itself). Let flames die down, serve immediately with Buttered Rum Pound Cake.
Thanks for the Lemon Coconut cake recipe. Birthday boy will be coming around for his birthday cake on the 14th. His favorite cake was coconut and he always got one on his birthday. I bought the coconut and he grated it and I baked the cake. Due to the passing of time I no longer buy the coconut and he says he is a mature man now and
won’t grate the coconut. Needless to say the cake on the table without any candles
comes from the finest grocer in our area. (Tastes like cardboard) But birthday boy and I still have great memories of that special day in November when we baked a very special cake just for him. Be well all. Thanks Deb and Dub for all your columns that
make us smile every day.