Aunt Cowgirl Crisp's Strawberry Cake with White Chocolate Icing

Birthday girls (and boys) get to special-request homemade cake, and Cherry loves pink. I’ve made this one before, but the fresh fruit and better-than-shoe-shopping frosting pushed it over the top. Cowgirl gave me the recipe, handwritten on an index card, over thirty years ago. Still works!

Strawberry Cake

• 1 package white cake mix
• 3 T flour, sifted
• 1 box strawberry dessert gelatin, dry
• ¾ cup cooking oil
• 4 eggs
• ½ cup frozen strawberries, thawed
• 1/2 cup water

Add flour, dessert gelatin, water, oil and unbeaten eggs to cake mix in a large bowl. Beat two minutes with a mixer on medium speed until smooth. Add frozen berries. Beat one minute. Pour into two nine-inch prepared cake pans. Bake at 350° for 30-35 minutes. Cool completely before frosting.

White Chocolate Icing

• 4 oz white chocolate chips
• ¼ cup heavy cream
• 2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened
• ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 T vanilla extract
• 2½ cups confectioners’ sugar

Place white chocolate and cream in a small microwave safe bowl. Microwave on high 15 to 30 seconds; whisk until smooth. Let stand 2 minutes; cover with plastic wrap and chill. In a large bowl beat the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla with an electric mixer on medium high for 2 minutes. Beat in cooled white-chocolate mixture until blended. On low-speed, add confectioners’ sugar in batches and beat until combined. Increase speed to medium-high and beat until fluffy, about one minute.

Assemble, with icing and fresh sliced strawberries between the layers. After the entire cake is frosted, use whole fresh strawberries to hold the birthday candles.

Eat first! Life is short.

Cook a pound of angel hair according to package directions. Do not over cook.

In a wok or giant skillet heat 2 t. canola oil and then add: 1 package precut broccoli slaw, 1 chopped onion, 2 cloves chopped garlic, 1 cup cooked cubed meat. (Any leftover chicken or pork works.) ½ cup frozen, pre-shelled edamame. Do not thaw first.

In a bowl combine: 2 cups chicken broth (1 can is good), 2 T. soy sauce, 1 T. corn starch, ¼ t. crushed red pepper.

When veggies are crisp tender, add the liquid mixture. Turn the heat to high and reduce the liquid by half.

Drain the pasta, place in a large serving bowl. Add 2 T. sesame oil. This is the secret ingredient. Do not use it to cook the veggies because it burns at a low temperature.

Pour the veggies and meat over the noodles, combine gently. Serve in bowls with chopsticks. Drink jasmine tea.

This year’s crop was lush, until a single afternoon when our bird friends claimed half of them. Mockingbirds don’t care if the grapes are tart. We couldn’t let the thieves eat them all, so we picked every unclaimed globe. Here’s our harvest in pictures:

Recipe for Sour Grape Sorbet

Wash and de-stem three cups of grapes. Place them in a heavy pan with one cup of sugar and one cup of water. Bring to a boil, and then, turn the heat down to simmer until the grapes are very soft. Pour all of the mixture through a sieve into a bowl, mashing the solids through with a pestle. I used a big wooden one my mother gave me years ago. Discard the seeds. Return the mixture to the pan, heat again on medium-high. Dissolve 2 T cornstarch in half a cup of water, whisk into the grapes. Stir until it’s thick enough to coat a spoon. Pour it into a glass bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and freeze until completely solid. Cut the frozen pieces into chunks with a knife and blend until smooth. I used a hand mixer with a blade, but a food processor would work. Scoop into bowls and serve immediately.

The sour grapes are sweet and sharp like cranberry sauce. A small serving packs a lot of taste.

We do the same thing every Halloween. At dusk we meet our neighbors and travel the cul-de-sac together. The older, childfree couples ooh and ahh, and give special treats to the kids, and call one another out to check the costumes. On the next block, our friends give Bacon a beer. All of us eat snacks before trick or treating that cul-de-sac. Back at our friends’ house, the party is still going on. Bacon has another beer. We talk a while before walking home. By this time, Coco’s candy bag is too heavy for her to carry, and both girls take off parts of their costumes because it’s hot in San Antonio on October 31. Cherry and Coco dump their candy sack on the table, eat all they can, and pick 20 pieces to keep for tomorrow. I buy everything that’s left for $10.00 per kid. In the end, it’s cheaper than paying the dental bill.

For dinner I make Halloween Soup.

Halloween Soup

1 small sweet pie pumpkin (Split in half, deseed, and cook in a pan, rind-side up for 1 hour in a 350° oven in an inch of water. Scoop the flesh out into a crock pot) or 2 cans pumpkin puree (not pie filling)

2 apples, peeled, cored and diced

4T butter

2 cans chicken broth

1T honey

½t cinnamon

½t nutmeg

½t kosher salt

Combine and cook all day on low in the crockpot. Before serving, blend and add 1 can fat free evaporated milk. Stir. Do not boil after adding the milk or it will break. Garnish with a lump of brown sugar, and serve with slices of crusty bread.

BBC1 (Big Brother Crisp #1) is here for Cherry’s birthday. She’s nine. I baked her favorite cake and bought cupcakes for school because you can’t bake your own cupcakes to take to school anymore. I wrapped the presents. We’re ready to celebrate first thing in the morning. It’s our tradition to eat birthday cake for breakfast.

I’m posting the cake recipe below.  It’s a family thing, passed down from my dad’s mother. The description of the cherries shows how old the recipe is.

Cherry Crisp’s Favorite Angel Food Cake

1½ cups egg whites
1 t cream of tartar
1½ cups of sugar
1 cup flour
Juice and Maraschino cherries from 10 cent bottle
¼ t salt

Beat egg whites with salt and cherry juice until foamy; add cream of tartar and beat until stiff. Sift flour and sugar together. Fold in. Add cherries cut up. Bake in ungreased tube pan at 375 degrees for 35-40 minutes. Invert pan to cool.

I married my one true love at age 30.  I had a teaching career for 21 years.  Instead of settling in for 10 more years of work, I quit cold-turkey to be come a mom. I was 42.  The second child came when I was 44. After spending days, nights, and weekends with other people’s children, I decided to hang around the house to raise my own.  I haven’t regretted the decision.  When people ask, “Do you miss teaching?” I answer with a question. “Do you miss a toothache when it’s gone?”

Now, I’m a writer, too.  The funny thing about writing is no matter how many craft books you read or lectures you attend, the only way to be a writer is to write.  No one can tell you how to manage your life when you work on your own.  I have tremendous days of personal insight and awareness. Then, I have days when I’m a blathering idiot.  It keeps me humble.  Just when I think, “A-ha! I know the secret to the universe.  Follow this roadmap to publication.” The earth quakes, and I shudder.  Darkness falls all around. Every good idea I ever had falls out of my head and into the circular file next to my desk.  

Last weekend BBC2 (Big Brother Crisp #2) and my wonderful sister-in-law, Cookie Crisp, came to visit.  My family gave me a fabulous birthday that included my favorite dessert, Symphony Brownies and ice cream. (Symphony Brownies are like a bacchanal for chocoholics.)  We had a great time.  

BBC2 and Cookie headed home Sunday morning.  I judged a few writing contest entries for my RWA Chapter, and  I wrote four pages yesterday.  This morning, I woke up  to discover I had lost rhythm. It happens.  When it does, I have to take a little time to get myself back together. Author, Julia Cameron advocates taking an artist date.  For me, it was an excuse to push a basket around Target for an hour.  

Now, I’m back.  E.L. Doctrow once said, “Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” Here’s to finding my way back to the road in the dark.

Symphony Brownies

2 boxes Ghiradelli Brownie Mix 

3 extra large Symphony Chocolate Bars with Toffee Chips

Preheat the oven to 350. Following package directions, mix one box of brownies and pour into a 11 x 13 inch pan sprayed with PAM.  Unwrap and place the three chocolate bars side by side on top of the batter. Mix the second box of brownies according to package directions.  Pour on top of the chocolate bars.  Bake for 40 minutes.  Cool completely before slicing.