HERITAGE RECIPE: Hattie's Icebox Rolls

I could make this post one of my longest posts ever (don't worry, I won't). I found so much information online about the woman who submitted this recipe and I loved learning about her.

I marked her recipe at the beginning of this series as one of my "must make" recipes; however, it is an overnight recipe and I never remembered to start it the night before. This week, I planned ahead. This recipe is for "Hattie's Icebox Rolls". Iceboxes originated in 1802, and they functioned like a refrigerator--it was used for keeping food cold, only it used blocks of ice instead of electricity to do that.

This recipe for Hattie's Icebox Rolls was submitted to the Rockwood, Michigan Area Historical Society by Eva Pichan (1921-2020) in memory of her mother, Harriet "Hattie" Olmstead (1879-1972)

Eva grew up on her family's farm in Rockwood, Michigan. Eva was a "surprise" to her parents, who had two daughters (19 and 17 years old), so Eva grew up somewhat as an only child. Because of this, she loved to entertain herself by reading and looking through family books, photos, and letters--this developed into a lifelong interest in genealogy. You can read a LOT about her life on this Life Story page that I came across (like an obituary, but much more in-depth and about her life, rather than death). I also came across a video with lots of pictures of her! Here are just a few:

The reason I was drawn to this recipe was because of what Eva had written to go with it:

"These 'cloverleaf rolls' were our Sunday and special occasion treat from plain old 'homemade' bread when I was young in the 20's and 30's. One of Mom's very yummy treats from the Olmstead family farm on Woodruff Rd."

 Finally, I will get to the recipe (don't you just love the photo of her feeding the pig, though?).

As always with the heritage recipes, I am typing the recipe here exactly as it was written in the heritage cookbook. When making the recipe, I didn't use any modifications or substitutions. See my notes after the recipe. I retyped the "printer-friendly" recipe to include any clarifications from the original.

Here is a printer-friendly version!

Hattie's Icebox Rolls

1 c. boiling water
1/2 tsp. shortening
1 T. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt

Stir above ingredients together. When cool add 1 beaten egg. One yeast cake dissolved in 2 tablespoons warm water and 1 teaspoon sugar. Add to other ingredients when adding egg. Four cups flour stirred in liquids; mix well. Set bowl in refrigerator overnight to raise. Grease muffin tins well. Using small amount of flour, form 3 walnut-size balls for each muffin tin. Allow to raise and bake 15-20 minutes, until lightly browned at 400 F. Remove from oven and brush lightly with butter.

My Notes:

I did buy a fresh yeast cake for this recipe. When the recipes call for it, I like to do that so that I don't substitute any ingredients. A package of dried yeast can be used instead, though.

The directions are pretty self-explanatory. Once all the wet ingredients are added per instructions, add four cups of flour and mix well. It didn't specify whether to cover the bowl, and I debated over this. I ended up placing plastic wrap very lightly over the bowl. It rose very well overnight.

I didn't know how many rolls this would make, but it made 12 in my case. For my fellow numbers nerds, I used 25 grams of dough per walnut-size ball, so each muffin tin held 75 grams of dough. And that worked out for an even dozen. (I used this tin first; if I had known how many rolls it would make, I would have used a different one.)

I wondered if I made them too big, because they rose quite a bit!

But when I pulled them from the oven, they were the perfect size. They looked AMAZING. I brushed butter over the tops like the recipe said to. I couldn't wait to try one, so I dug in while they were still hot.

The texture was the most perfect textured roll I've ever eaten. The outside had a nice crust and the inside was very fluffy.

Unfortunately, I found that they tasted kind of bland--I think they needed more salt. (My family agreed with me.) I really loved the texture of them, though, and I am going to try making them again--only I'll add more salt to the dough (hopefully that won't mess up the rising and all that--I'm not a baker!).

This was a very fun recipe to make--not just the rolls, but reading about Eva made me feel like I knew her--she sounded like a very sweet woman!

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Friday Night Photos

All day today I thought it was Saturday. I even started working on Saturday's blog post! Eli didn't have school today because of the holiday weekend--it's so dumb that they started school three days before a four-day weekend--so it just felt like it was a weekend. Thankfully it's only Friday, and the weekend is just beginning :)

As far as photos this week, I don't have many. But here goes...

Speaking of tomorrow's post, here is a sneak peek at the recipe I made from the heritage book this week: Hattie's Icebox Rolls. I totally immersed myself in researching the person who submitted the recipe--it's an interesting one!

When I was writing a menu for this week, I included a couple of desserts. I decided to make these Peanut Butter Stuffed Chocolate Cookies that I'd posted a VERY long time ago. I had only made them once before! But I wanted to do something with Eli while Noah was at school, so we made these. (They take a while to make and it helps to make a two-person assembly line when putting them together). I am SUPER bummed that I forgot to take a picture of the inside of it! Just picture a soft cookie version of a Reese's Cup--chocolate cookie on the outside and peanut butter filling in the middle.

Duck was very needy when I was trying to write a blog post. He weaseled his way between my computer and my chest, so that my computer ended up being on my knees and I had to stretch to reach the keys. (Haha! Just as I was typing this, he did it again). Every time I stop petting him, he puts his paw on my face to remind me he's there and waiting to be the center of my attention.

This was Eli on the first day of 10th grade. I'm sure I've posted a lot of back-to-school pictures of my kids over the years--can you believe how grown up he looks? (I just saw that I apparently did a post full of the kids back to school pictures from 2007-2019--you can check that out here.) I'm bummed I didn't get a picture of the two of them--or even just Noah! (It's not too late--I'll do it next week). Their schedules are so different--Noah is taking solely college courses and he gets to sleep until noon if he wants, which is why I didn't think to get a picture on his first day. Eli has to be out the door at 7:00 every morning.

The past couple of days have been really cool outside--so strange!--and this morning felt like fall. So I got out of bed and immediately took Joey for a walk (not far, but enough to enjoy the weather).

And... the weather even inspired me to do my run outside today! I'm excited to write about it on my recap next Thursday.

I've had this recipe printed out for a VERY long time and unfortunately, I have no idea where I got it. It's called Dill Pickle Bread (I didn't realize it until I made it that it's actually like a flatbread). I'd like to link to the recipe, but I can't find it! It's none of the ones I searched on Pinterest. Basically it's a bread dough with a little pickle juice and fresh dill added. There is no sauce or anything (it's not pizza). It's topped with sharp white cheddar and chopped dill pickles. It was SO GOOD. And very filling--I ate it at 3:30 PM and wasn't hungry for a snack until after 8:30. Eli and I LOVE dill pickles, so this was a keeper for sure.

After my run earlier this week, I realized I'd been wearing two different shoes the whole time! Hahaha. They are the same shoe model and size, but just different colors.

After my run outside today, I laid in the grass in the front yard and just stared at the sky for the longest time. It was SO comfortable and relaxing.

And I saved the best for last...

Remember the heritage recipe I posted about Sloppy Joes? It was written by Jeanette Laura, who I learned lived in the house that I grew up in. (Here is the whole story). Anyway, my mom's friend Vickie showed the post to Jeanette (who is her mom) and Jeanette was thrilled--she said it made her day! It was so sweet to get the card in the mail from her--that actually made MY day ;)  I actually have earmarked a couple more of her recipes (done before I even know the story behind our connection). 

Have a great Labor Day weekend! xo

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Return to Running Recap : Week 14

Duck insisted on being in this picture. As soon as he hears me stop the treadmill, he comes running in and hops on. While I was trying to take a picture, he started stepping on the incline buttons while he tried to turn around, so the bed of the treadmill moving up. At least he didn't hit the speed buttons!

As I mentioned last week, I was thinking of adding some sort of speed work once a week to see if it will speed up progress on my heart rate training. I haven't decided on any sort of speed work pattern, but I'll just do whatever type of workout I feel like doing on that day.

I chose to do intervals again for my first workout of Week 14...

Week 14, Day 1 : 7 x (run 4 minutes easy, run 1 minute hard)

When I ran intervals last week, my heart rate didn't go up as high as I would have liked during the harder intervals, so I decided to bump it up higher this week. Last week I did the easy running at 5.0 mph and the hard at 6.0. I don't think the 6.0 was hard enough for short intervals like that (just 1 minute each).

This time, I did the same workout, but I changed the speed for the hard intervals. The first one, I did at 6.5--and it felt too easy. I did 6.6 for the second. Still not hard enough. I tried 6.7 for the third, and that felt about right. I still felt it was probably not going to get my heart rate high enough, but I think that I'm going to have to do longer intervals to get my heart rate in the high 160's-low 170's.

I decided that I would stay at 6.7 for each interval and then for the last one, I'd try 7.0 mph. The 6.7 wasn't horrible, so I figured 7.0 would be tough, but I would feel good when I finished that.

As soon as my Garmin signaled the final interval, I pressed the button and within about five seconds, I was dying. I felt like my legs couldn't go fast enough to even keep up! It was awful--I kept reminding myself that it was only 60 seconds, I could do it. But it felt like forever and I was thisclose to pushing the stop button. I couldn't believe how much harder it felt than 6.7--what the heck!

THEN, right as I hit the stop button, I realized what I did. I hit the 8.0 mph button instead of 7.0 mph. So I ran for a full minute at 8.0 mph--it was horrible! Hahaha, but I felt pretty proud that I managed to do it (even if I did pee just a little toward the end from all the jarring that my body wasn't ready for).

I knew my heart rate wasn't going to be what I'd hoped, but that just helps me to plan for the next speed work. I know that I need to increase the length of the intervals to get my heart rate up close to 170. Or run at 8.5 mph, and there is no way in hell that is happening.

My interval splits were: 152, 155, 156, 158, 157, 158, 164.

Even with my misfortune of running way faster than I intended for that last interval, I felt pretty good!

Week 14, Day 2: Run 3 miles at 5.0 mph

I simply set my treadmill at 5.0 mph and read my book while I ran. My effort didn't feel too hard, but my throat was SO dry--I tried swallowing, but it felt like razorblades in my throat. I know I should drink more water before running. I actually haven't been drinking nearly as much water as I used to.

I was hopeful that my heart rate would show that my effort wasn't too hard (I was very surprised when I saw how high it was). Maybe because of being dehydrated? I don't know. Just another thing to really pay attention to. Average heart rate was 149 bpm. (Remember, my goal is to stay in Zone 2 for the entire run--hopefully someday!)

Week 14, Day 3: Run 3 miles at 5.0 mph

I was feeling unusually energetic for some reason. My previous run was only the day before, which isn't ideal, but I definitely didn't feel exhausted. However, I could feel that my heart rate was high before I even started. Every time I decide to run, I can feel my heart rate increase--and then the more I think about it, the higher it gets. I need to chill ;) 

Again, I felt pretty good throughout the run. My throat wasn't dry, thankfully. Nothing really notable to say about it. Average heart rate was 146 bpm. 

Tomorrow I'll do my speed work for Week 15. I'll probably do intervals again; if not, then a moderately-hard tempo run. I always feel good after tempo runs!

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Wednesday Weigh-In : Week 14

I had just gotten out of bed in that photo above and it shows--haha. I didn't cut my hair, although it looks short--I just had it braided when I slept and then most of it fell out of the braid. But anyway, I loved that shirt when I was school clothes shopping with Eli, and since it was totally appropriate for anxiety-ridden me, I bought it.

Fourteen weeks. It really doesn't seem that long--it's less than 100 days.

Things that have changed in 14 weeks:

I am regularly running three miles at time; when I started, I was suffering through just one minute of running.

I've gone from not being able to squeeze into my size 10 jeans to avoiding wearing them because they are uncomfortably big (where I have to constantly pull them up). I don't now if I need a smaller size yet, but I love not feeling like I can't breathe when I wear jeans.

I've been able to add about 50% more clothes to my closet--clothes that I had put out in the garage without thinking I'd be able to get back into them.

I feel like I have hope again. Before, I really worried that I was never going to get my drive back. I felt like I was "too far gone" to get back to my most comfortable self.

I'm not dreading my physical in a couple of months. I have to get one for insurance purposes and if my weight is over 175 pounds, I have to pay a premium for insurance (having a BMI that is considered "obese"). It was stressing me out, but I am confident that my weight will be fine!

I feel like I have more control over my life now. That may sound dramatic, considering all I really changed was that I started counting calories and exercising. But it's all about discipline--adding those two things has made me take control of other areas as well.

The weight loss, even though I'm only halfway to my goal, has given me more confidence. I don't feel ashamed anymore; that was the most prominent feeling I had about myself just 14 weeks ago. I felt ashamed for "letting myself go" and for being unable (or I think "unwilling" would be more appropriate) to do what I needed to do in order to drop the weight I'd gained.

All of that said, I had a very small weight loss this week. I did everything right, so I don't feel bad about it. Sometimes, I just have weeks where the weight loss is minimal. I wish it would go faster, but I'm not going to complain as long as it goes down! ;)

I was at 167.8 today, which is down from 168.4 last week--a loss of 0.6 pounds. That brings the total to 29.2... I've been close to the 30-pound mark for a few weeks now! Hopefully I'll get there next week :)

Now, I've got to go out for a walk to get in some steps. I started my step challenge today: 8,000 per day for all of September.

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Transformation Tuesday #40 : 5-Minute Transformations

Happy Transformation Tuesday :)  When I sat down to start this post today, I realized that I didn't have any transformations to post this week!

Rather than skip the post altogether, I thought about what sort of personal transformation I could post that I haven't posted already. I didn't have time to do something very significant. And then I realized I could do a few "5-minute transformations"--things that took me about 5 minutes to transform.

These aren't anything spectacular, but considering I spent less than 30 minutes doing it today, I'm happy with what I accomplished! Here goes...

First, I tackled my bathroom sink area. It'd been collecting junk and every time I walked into the bathroom, it nagged at me. You would think I would have just cleaned it up before, but I just kept waiting for who-knows-what before doing it.

Next, I knew I had to straighten up the shoes at the front door. I am the only one in this house who actually puts my shoes on the shelves and it drives me CRAZY that my family doesn't spend the two seconds it takes to do it! I put away the shoes (if they aren't shoes that we wear frequently, we keep them in our bedroom closets; the ones at the front door are the ones we wear several times a week. (And yes, I plan to replace that rug!)

Then, I decided to organize the water bottles in the kitchen cupboards. This transformation is kind of hard to notice--I didn't get rid of more than 3-4 water bottles, so there is still a lot up there--but I flipped over the shelf because it was bending under the weight of some dishes (I need to cut a piece of wood to replace that cheap one). I put that small stack of dishes in a different cupboard. I matched up the water bottles with their lids and got rid of the random pieces. Then I set them neatly on the shelf instead of cramming them up there.

And finally, I organized the little junk-collection tray on the counter. This is supposed to be for mail and bills, but it became a catch-all and no matter how often I organize it, it'll look like the "before" picture in no time. Still, it feels good when it's cleaned up. I filed the important papers in an accordion folder; threw away the outdated junk; and sorted the rest into piles to put away where they belong.

Now... I challenge all of YOU to find a 5-minute transformation project. Pick something that nags at you whenever you see it and just decide to spend 5 minutes working on it (even if it takes 10-15 minutes, that's still worth it). Take a before and after photo! Then send it to me for Transformation Tuesday. To submit a transformation, just send me a before photo and an after photo at: katie (at) runsforcookies (dot) com. Don't forget to include your name and a description of your transformation!

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10 Things I Wish I'd Done This Summer

I really don't like starting my posts with, "Where had the time gone?!" thoughts, but seriously... when did the summer completely blow past? Eli starts school tomorrow, and even though it's not technically fall for a few more weeks, the start of school always feels like fall. Well, aside from the 100-degree temps we've suffered through this month (when it wasn't raining).

Jerry said today that he can't believe that August is over already, and we started talking about things that we had planned to do this summer and then we didn't get around to doing (which is pretty much everything we'd planned). So, I figured I'd make a list and see what we can still manage to do before it's *actually* fall.

There are "chores" that we wanted to get done, but also some fun family things and even stuff like cooking on the grill and spending summer nights sitting on the deck in the backyard. Throughout the year, something we say frequently is, "Oh, let's do that this summer!"--and we've certainly said that a lot since last fall--but summer flew by and now I can't even think of any big and/or important things we did this summer (other than going to my sister's property up north).

Anyway, here are some things we'd wanted to do but did not; and hopefully, things that it's not too late to do!

1) Plant new landscaping. The weeds were totally out of control. In the past, I would have spent a couple of mornings out there pulling weeds like crazy; ever since the pain in my hands and wrists got so bad, I can't even think about pulling weeds. So we sprayed weed killer on it and they died. But then we didn't finish prepping for new landscaping and now it's full of weeds again. Once we get that under control, we need to lay down a weed barrier and then plant some new landscaping. I'm so embarrassed of how it looks right now!

2) Go camping. I haven't been camping since probably 2009. And I really am not a fan (I hate it, actually!) but I have wanted to do it for just a single night with the kids for family time and memories. The kids have no memory of the time we went camping in 2009, and I want them to have one camping memory with the four of us. (I don't even have pictures from that time--this one below is pretty much it)

3) Go for family walks in the evenings. This is something we used to do all the time until a few years ago. The kids got to the age where it wasn't really cool to go for walks with their parents in the evenings, and we just stopped doing it. We didn't walk far--maybe a mile--but we liked to go when it was dark outside and we brought flashlights. Even if the kids think it's lame, I don't think it's asking much of them ;)

4) Paint or stain the deck and stoops. Our deck is horribly embarrassing--it's been needing a new coat of stain for probably 10 years! It's such an overwhelming task that I haven't wanted to even start it. Also, we need new siding on the house, so I've been putting off the deck until we know what will match the new siding.

(Our insurance adjuster is supposed to come this week about the roof and siding from our wind storm. He was scheduled to come last Thursday, but that morning, he fell off of a roof(!) and spent four days in the hospital because he broke two vertebrae. So, he's bringing someone with him who will go on the roof, but he's still coming.)

5) Go to the Detroit Cookie Company (ohmygosh, check them out on Instagram--their cookies look INSANE). Eli and I been talking for a couple of years now about going (we are peas in a pod when it comes to our love of sweets). It's not necessarily a "summer thing", but it was something I kept planning to do this summer.

6) Go kayaking with Eli. We got each of the kids a kayak for Christmas, but Noah didn't end up wanting his. Instead of returning it, I just gave him the money for it and we kept the kayak so that Eli could go with a friend (it's a kayak that is especially meant for fishing, so he just walks it across the street and then paddles through the canals). I planned to ask him if I could go with him one day and he could take me to his favorite fishing spots. I'm not a fan of the water or boats, but I think it would mean a lot to Eli if I did that.

7) Bury a time capsule with my family. I bought the capsule, we just haven't done anything with it yet! I really need to just make a deadline and tell everyone to gather what they want to put inside.

8) Go on a picnic with the family. This one is so simple--I bring it up probably every few weeks, but we never actually make the plans to do it. Again, I need to just pick a date and make a plan.

9) Go for a 30-mile bike ride with Jerry. Honestly, I don't know if I have the endurance for this! Haha. We wouldn't do it fast or anything; we would pack some food and picnic at the halfway point. Stop and take pictures or check out scenery at spots along the way. We went on a pretty spontaneous bike ride a few years ago and rode 26.5 miles--so that's where I got the 30-mile idea. A little farther than before.

10) Go to a drive-in movie theater. This is something I've wanted to do for such a long time! And we just got a local drive-in about 15 minutes away, so I am excited to check it out. Jerry and I want to have a "date night" (I can't even remember the last time we did that) at the drive-in. Eli actually just went on Saturday with his friend. They were showing all three Back to the Future movies, and Eli and his friend dressed in their 2020 Halloween costumes (his friend was Marty and Eli was Doc Brown). Eli told me that lots of people were asking to get pictures with them--so funny!

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September Activity Goal

Over the past week or so, I've been cleaning some stuff up on my blog (nothing really noticeable, but going through and resizing pictures and fixing broken links and stuff like that). Stuff that I should really keep up with on a regular basis!

It's fun to see how much I've changed over the years. I don't mean physically; I mean my viewpoints, opinions, priorities, and goals.

Some of it makes me feel a little nostalgic. I used to be very ambitious with goals--I would make daily/weekly/monthly/yearly goals all the time. I probably only completed about 10% of them, but it's fun to see what I was working on back then.

This photo is from back in 2013 when I was into doing the Wii Fit regularly--just for fun! I recently dug it out to play with Luke and it made me want to do it again. (Jerry snuck a video of me doing the hip hop dancing, hahahaha--this is just a screenshot of that, so it's blurry.)

I feel like I've matured quite a bit since then; my goals aren't as vain and I'm more concerned about my health than I am about my jeans size. I care more about being fit than I do about "respectable" race times (or even running races at all). And I've learned to try to find a gray area rather than think in black and white (an "all-or-nothing" attitude). I think these are good changes!

But I do miss working on some of the silly goals. One memory that pops into my head is when I was determined to hit an activity goal every day every single day for a month (this was in 2013). I remember one evening, I had a LOT of steps that I still needed to get in. I actually wrote about it:

"I was very determined to get to 100%, however, so I created a little game with the kids--and they had a blast with it! We walked single file around the house in a big loop--through the living room, kitchen, and hallway.

For each loop, we added something else that we had to do during that loop--first, we had to pet each cat as we walked by; then we had to touch each chair and pet each cat; then we had to give Jerry a kiss, touch each chair, and pet each cat; then march the loop instead of walking it while doing all those things; and so on. (It reminded me of that Father Abraham song, where you keep adding a body part to move for each verse).

It sounds completely ridiculous, but both kids said, 'This is the most funnest thing we ever did before bed!' and they loved it."

Reading that makes me smile. It wasn't at all an exciting "game", but for some reason, the kids loved it. They asked several times after that if we could "play that game where we marched around the house", haha.

I've mentioned to Jerry a few times lately that I want to get in more daily movement--not intentional exercise, but being more active in general. I miss feeling as good as I did before the chronic pain issues I've been dealing with. (After SO many various tests, my rheumatologist diagnosed fibromyalgia, but she's still looking into other causes--I have to get an x-ray of my neck and back before I see her again.)

One thing I've noticed over the past few years is that as the pain has gotten worse, my activity level has gone done. Naturally, when I'm in pain, being active is harder. However, my gut feeling is telling me that my body would feel better if I was more active. I don't mean doing anything excessive, but I'd like to get more activity (especially on the days that I don't run).

So, to test that out--as well as for nostalgic reasons--I'm going to set a step-goal for September. I still have my old Fitbit (it's just the tiny little clip that counts steps--nothing fancy). I'm going to aim for 8,000 steps per day in September. That may not sound like much to people who regularly get 10,000+, but it equates to about four miles--and I'm sure that's more than I'm doing now!

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HERITAGE RECIPE : Devil's Food Cake

My mom's birthday was on Monday and I invited Luke and Riley to come over and help me bake her a birthday cake. Since I've been baking a lot this year, thanks to this heritage recipe series, I thought it would be fun to make a cake and frosting from scratch.

There were several cake recipes to choose from, but not many that seemed like "birthday" cake. I know my mom likes chocolate, so I picked a recipe for Devil's Food Cake.

This recipe was submitted to the Rockwood, Michigan Area Historical Society by Betty Gay, in memory of Mrs. Frank Gay.

Being from Rockwood (which is literally only two square miles), I recognize just about all of the surnames of people that live there. However, I hadn't heard of anyone from Rockwood with the last name "Gay", so I was definitely curious to see if I could learn anything about Betty or "Mrs." Frank Gay.

Mrs. Frank Gay was Betty's mother-in-law, Louise. Louise was born in 1894 and was one of FOURTEEN children! Louise married Frank Gay in 1950 and they had several children. Their son, Samuel (Sam), married Betty (Betty is the one who submitted the recipe).

Sam and Betty were honorary life members of the Golden Retriever Club of America--I'm not sure what that is, exactly, but I'm pretty sure it means they loved dogs ;)  Interestingly, the couple lived on Sam's family farm, which is now the center portion of Lake Erie Metropark (that's the Metropark where I've done a LOT of race training over the years).

As I was looking for some info on Betty and Louise, I saw this nice tribute that someone wrote after Betty's obituary--it's quite the coincidence!

"Betty Gay was a passionate family historian. Pre-computer or Internet, she'd travel to courthouses and graveyards, researching. I contacted her in the late 1970s about the Shew and Bentley line. The information I received back was abundant and well researched and documented. An inspiration to all who love the hobby of genealogy."

Louise passed away in 1980 at age 86; Betty passed away in 2009 at age 80.

I have to say, Louise had a great Devil's Food Cake recipe! I really love how it turned out.

I told Luke that if my mom asked him what kind of cake it was to tell her, "It's Devil's Food Cake from scratch". He asked me a couple more times on the way to her house--I could see his mind working and that he wanted to remember what to call it. Just before we went inside, I asked him what it was called. He said, "Devil's Food Scratch Cake". Close enough! Hahaha.

As always, I'm sharing the recipe exactly as written in the heritage cookbook, and I made it without substituting ingredients or altering it at all. (See my notes after the recipe.) I've re-typed the recipe with specifics and clarifications, which you can find in the "printer-friendly" version.

Here is a printer-friendly version!

Devil's Food Cake

2 c. sifted flour
1/2 c. cooking cocoa
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. shortening
2 c. sugar
2 eggs
1/2 c. sour milk with 1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. boiling water with 1 tsp. soda

Cream shortening; add sugar. Blend, then add eggs and beat well. Mix flour, cocoa and salt together (in separate bowl) and add this mixture alternately with sour milk/soda mixture (start and end with flour mixture). Add vanilla and water with soda added. Beat well. Bake at 350 F for about 1/2 hour. Test with toothpick.

My Notes:

The only ingredient that made me pause was the sour milk. I see it in a lot of the old heritage recipes and I've avoided them because sour milk back then was not the same as "soured milk" today. Back then, sour milk was just milk that started to go bad and developed a sour taste; it wasn't yet spoiled, though. I don't know if I'd be able to tell the difference between sour milk (safe for consumption) and spoiled milk (may make you sick).

These days, we can intentionally sour milk by adding an acid (like lemon juice or vinegar) to pasteurized milk. Rather than trying to test out milk that has gone sour, I went the acid route. To make sour milk, you just use 1 Tbsp. of vinegar or lemon juice and add enough milk to equal one cup.

To make the 1/2 cup of sour milk needed for the recipe, I used 1-1/2 tsp. of vinegar and enough milk to equal 1/2 cup--I let it sit for about 5 minutes, and it was thickened and a little clumpy. Then I added the baking soda as called for in the recipe.

Since the recipe called for sifted flour, I sifted the flour together with the cocoa powder and salt (to avoid clumps of cocoa powder).

The recipe didn't specify about cake pans. I used two round cake pans--I greased them with shortening and then dusted them with flour before adding the batter.

Other than that, the recipe was pretty cut-and-dry. I baked them for 30 minutes (maybe a couple of minutes longer, if I remember correctly) until the toothpick inserted in center came out dry. (Luke liked looking at the toothpick a couple of times and telling me whether it was done or not.)

I let them cool about 10 minutes in the pan and then turned them out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

I made a chocolate buttercream frosting (I modified the recipe on a bag of powdered sugar just a little. Instead of melting chocolate chips, I just used cocoa powder and added a little more shortening.) But here is how I made it:

1 stick of butter, softened
1/2 cup + 3 Tbsp. shortening
2/3 cup of cocoa powder
16 oz. powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Cream the butter and shortening until smooth, then add the vanilla. Add the cocoa powder and powdered sugar a little at a time, beating until smooth after each addition.

I spread a layer of frosting over one of the cake layers, then topped with the other layer and frosted the whole thing. It was the perfect amount to be able to frost the whole cake. (Somehow, I was able to frost this without getting crumbs all over the place. When I use boxed cake/canned frosting, I make the biggest mess ever. I don't know if it has to do with the fact that it was homemade, but I managed to frost this pretty neatly. (I don't have a cake dish for serving, so I just flipped over a CorningWare dish for the cake! Not the prettiest, but it worked.)

Of course, top with sprinkles if you'd like! ;)

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Friday Night Photos

All day long, I kept thinking that today is Thursday. It does not feel like a weekend! Noah started school last Wednesday (he's taking all college courses now and has a tough semester ahead) and Eli starts school this coming Wednesday. It's the first time EVER that school has started before Labor Day (in my kids' schools, I mean). The start of school has always felt like the end of summer, and I just can't believe that summer is over already.

Here are some random photos from the past week...

My next door neighbor has an enormous abundance of basil in her garden which is lucky for ME--because I love basil so much! Yesterday, I made a margherita pizza on my favorite whole wheat crust (I am not a person who chooses whole wheat over white--ever--but I do love this pizza crust). The pizza was so AMAZING.

The house was extremely chaotic all at once when it was in the oven and I thought for sure I burned it, but the crust end up being perfect. I was setting out plates to pull the (mini) pizzas out of the oven when I heard Eli yell a few choice words that were a bit out of sorts from the quiet, sweet kid that he usually is. He came running into the kitchen and blood was streaming from his hand all over the floor.

He had been handling a new fishing lure that he'd bought via Facebook Marketplace--a huge lure for catching musky--when Joey jumped off his bed and bumped into him. The hook went deep into his finger (you could see where it almost came through the other side). Thank God the barb of the hook didn't go any farther in, because it would have been a much bigger mess. I checked with his doctor, and he had his last tetanus vaccine in 2018, so at least we didn't have to go to Urgent Care.

I tried to sneak up on Duck while he was sleeping to get this picture of him because he was lying in such a funny position. At the last second, he opened his eyes--but he was sleeping like this:

I made Chicken Pot Pie Bubble Up for dinner and it was SO good--total comfort food. I couldn't remember if I'd posted the recipe before, so I took a picture of it in case I hadn't. Well, it turns out I did post the recipe, which you can find here. It's super easy to make.

For a few days, Jerry was looking for his car key. Thankfully, he has two of them, so he just used his back-up. But it was bothering him that he couldn't find his key. Well, I was doing laundry while he was at work and as I was moving clothes from the washer to the dryer, I found his key--haha! I sent him this picture. (Surprisingly, the key still worked!)

Eli sent me this picture when he was out fishing. He fishes with a boy his age and the boy had brought with him a baby squirrel. He said he'd rescued it (with the help of his parents) and they'd been taking care of it for a couple of weeks. I would have liked for him to call a rescue organization, but he said his parents did their research and the squirrel was thriving. I hope so! My heart melted when Eli sent me this picture.

My mom's birthday was on the 23rd, and I thought it would be fun to have Luke and Riley over to make a birthday cake for her. I actually picked a recipe from the heritage cookbook for Devil's Food Cake, so I'll be posting that (probably tomorrow). We also made homemade chocolate buttercream frosting. Yum! I measured out all the ingredients ahead of time so that it was easy for them--they just had to dump ingredients into the mixing bowl without measuring. The cake turned out so good! Of course, they wanted to decorate with sprinkles ;)

I finally finished an enormous project I'd been working on. I hadn't been able to print anything for months and it was driving me crazy! I finally figured out that our printer is too outdated for our computers. It's a very nice Brother all-in-one printer (from 2010) that my brother gave to us when he bought a new one. I know that laser printers are very expensive, but after getting used to the laser, I just can't go back to an inkjet.

Over the last several months, I've been going through and updating all of my recipes and saving them as PDFs--but unable to print them (I have a three-ring binder that I keep my recipes in). Anyway, I figured out that if we save it as a PDF on a thumb drive and then plug the thumb drive into the printer, we can bypass the computer.

So, I finally finished formatting the recipes--nearly 200 of them--and was able to print them! I was thrilled. The next morning, I put them all in plastic sleeves and into my binder. I'm so glad that I don't have to look recipes up on the computer when I want to make something.

(We ended up ordering a new printer, though. Noah needs to be able to print things for his classes so we need something reliable. We bought the same printer, just a newer model. At least we know it will last a long time, though!)

Remember when I mentioned freeze-drying peaches after getting them from The Peach Truck? I asked Becky (she and Brian have a freeze dryer) if the peaches would work well and she said she didn't think so because of how juicy they were. So I never tried it. Well, she recently gave peaches a try in the freeze dryer and said they turned out amazing. She sent me a bag of them when Luke and Riley came over. They were such a good snack! The next time I get a load of peaches, I'm going to freeze dry a lot of them.

I wanted to get the kittens a new toy to play with and after looking through popular toys on Amazon, I ordered two of these fish--they flop around like a real fish would (they actually look pretty realistic, considering they are a cat toy). They arrived today and the cats exhausted themselves playing with them for over an hour. Chick especially loved them (he's the one with the long fur). He kept wrestling the fish and then holding it and rabbit-kicking it. It was so funny to watch the cats play!

If you have a playful cat, I highly recommend these toys! Phoebe and Estelle weren't very interested, but they're old and rarely interested in new toys, so I wasn't surprised. Duck and Chick love them though. Here is the Amazon (affiliate) link. (I like that they are rechargeable and don't need batteries.)

Well, I'm going to try to finish my book tonight so I can start another; my library queue is getting backed up. Have a great weekend! xo

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