Good Morning Everyone,
New stories are hard to find this year so it may be an oldie but it is one of my favorites, and there is a recipe to boot. I have actually made this and it is great!!
Todays Story:
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Poor Man's Spice Cake
I grew up on simple and healthy food. My mom would listen to
a nutritionist named Carlton Fredericks almost every day on the
radio. Those were the days when the milkman delivered full-fat
whole milk to the back door, the bread man delivered full-of-air
white bread to our front door, and sex came after marriage. Well,
both Mom and Dad agreed on the first and the third, but as for
that full-of-air white bread...Mom told the bread man that white
bread just had to go.
Our family was the only one I knew of that had heard of
whole-wheat bread, no less actually swallowed it. I knew I was
doomed to sissyhood. I knew it for sure one day when Bobby Mack,
the best football player in town, said yes when I asked, "Wanna
drop by for lunch after tomorrow's game?"
I thought I was home free when Mom gave in to my pleading to
get white bread just once. But Bobby spotted the old whole-wheat
bread hidden in a cupboard. When he begged for it, said it was
great for building muscle, and made me plot to tell his mom to
get it for him, well I developed a sudden fondness for whole-
wheat bread and gained an intuitive understanding of the value of
celebrity endorsements, even from guys who hurt themselves to get
attention.
As great as Mom was about nutrition, when it came to cooking
for crowds (defined as anything more than a family of four), it
overwhelmed her. So Dad cooked on the holidays - the greatest
homemade white and whole-wheat bread, turkey, stuffing and what
he called "Poor Man's Spice Cake." Fortunately, I didn't know
what a calorie was, much less a fat gram, so after a 50,000-
calorie meal and a week's worth of fat grams, nothing deterred me
from my favorite Poor Man's Spice Cake.
When I got married, I enjoyed my wife's family's fabulous
Christmases. By Thanksgiving I could smell Christmas
coming...well, almost. One smell was missing. When my wife asked
me what it was, the only thing I could remember was something
about powder and a musket. Wrong smell, she said. Dad's was the
last stop on Christmas rounds, and when I went to the oven, there
it was, the smell of Christmas, the moistness of Christmas, the
taste of a cake that knew to never let the orchestra of baking
powder drown out the song of the Muscat raisin.
Poor Man's Spice Cake
Makes 8 to 10 servings
1 box (15 to 16 ounces) seedless 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
Muscat raisins 2 cups water
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter 2 cups flour
1 cup sugar 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground allspice 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon salt
1. Preheat oven to 350(F. Grease a 9x5-inch bread pan.
2. In a medium saucepan, combine raisins, butter, sugar,
spices and water. Bring mixture to a boil. Let cool.
3. Mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and
salt and mix into the spice mixture. Bake for 1 hour, or until
just firm - spice cake is best when moist.
By Warren Farrell
Have a great day all !!
wb |
