Wacky Cake

This recipe has been around much longer than I have.  My mother got it from Jane Edwards, our neighbor across the street in Wilton, Maine.  Jane was born in 1900, and she was also my first babysitter.  So who knows who old this recipe might be?  All I know is that it's always been one of my favorites.  It requires only a measuring cups & spoons, something to stir with, and an 8" square baking pan.  It's quick, tasty, cheap, simple, and vegan! 

Wacky Cake

1½ cups flour

1 cup sugar

3 Tablespoons cocoa powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

5 Tablespoons melted shortening or flavorless vegetable oil

1 Tablespoon vinegar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup water

 powdered sugar for dusting

1.Preheat oven to 350

2.Mix dry ingredients in an 8” square baking pan. 

3.Add remaining ingredients and mix until smooth.

4.Bake 40 minutes.

5.Cool in pan on wire rack.

6.Dust with sifted powdered sugar.

Team in Training

In case you hadn't heard, I'm currently training for a triathlon that will take place on April 4, 2011.  I'm participating in Team in Training with the Luekemia & Lymphoma Society, and it has been a great experience so far.  My teammates are high-energy, positive people who make training in soggy, dark, wet conditions way more fun!  You can help the LLS improve patient care and fund research by throwing a few bucks at my fundraising page: http://pages.teamintraining.org/wa/lavatri11/eadamsbcrb Thanks!  I have a standing offer of a dozen chocolate cherry almond oatmeal cookies for anyone who donates $50 or more.

You Know When the Kitchen Is Gone

For my first trick, I've stolen the name of my first blog post! Thanks Cheryl!  She and I both recently read You Know When the Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon, and my kitchen was partially destroyed by a ruptured pipe in during the intense but short-lived Snowpocalypse 2011.  That happened last Wednesday (the night before Thanksgiving), and today the contractors came and took out about 85% of our kitchen cabinets and cutting a 2-foot high section out of one of the walls in our living room.  Our landlords have said that it will be roughly 4-6 weeks before we have new cabinets, "but you can help pick them out!" 

You Know When the Men Are Gone is a collection of linked short stories about living at Fort Hood, Texas, primarily focused on the wives of soldiers living on post while their husbands are deployed in Iraq.  I read the whole book in a day and thoroughly enjoyed it.  In a way it reminds me of Sherman Alexie's book The Lone Ranger & Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, providing a window into a community and experience through linked short stories, where some characters turn up in more than one story.  A few are set in Iraq, but they deal primarily with the soldiers' relationships with those they've left behind and why the transition back to civilian life can be so difficult.