Cast Iron Skillet Cake
May 8, 2008|Comments (1)
Since I frightened so many of you with the sleeping turkey picture (I promise not to post pictures of dead critters — unless they are dressed and on a plate), I baked you a cake. Not just any cake, but a cast iron skillet cake. If you’ve never tried baking this way, then here is your chance to explore traditional American cooking.
As you use your skillet, imagine all those brave pioneer women who packed their cast iron skillet, kettle, and their Bible in a Conestoga wagon to tame the west with their husbands. Can you imagine? I can’t. I don’t even go to the grocery store without my insurance card and cell phone. Just thinking about that kind of adventure gives me goosebumps. Would I have been the kind of woman who would embark on such a trip? Would you?
Pineapple Upside-Down Skillet Cake
Topping:
- 1 can crushed pineapple*
- 2 cups brown sugar
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Cake:
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup butter
- 2 eggs
- 1 3/4 cup flour, sifted 3x
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. In the skillet, cook pineapple, brown sugar, butter, and salt until the topping thickens slightly. Set aside. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Combine all dry ingredients in another bowl and gradually add them to the creamed sugar and butter mixture alternating with the milk. Add the vanilla. Mix well and then spoon over the topping. Bake for about an hour until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
*You may notice that I used sliced pineapple but let me tell you — that’s just for looks. If I’d made this cake the “right” way (with crushed pineapple), you’d have thought it looked terrible and you would never have made it and probably thought I had lost my little homesteading mind. Let me tell you, this woman’s hips don’t lie: use crushed pineapple.
Playing Cowboy
May 8, 2008|Comments (none)
“Playing cowboy is simply not done these days. … It’s all right for kids to play Indian maidens, mainly because Disney says so. Indian maidens were sensitive to the environment. Cowboys walked in the house with cow stuff on their boots. Indian maidens communed with wildlife. Cowboys shot varmints. Indian maidens ate wild hickory nuts. Cowboys had buffalo breath.”
- Charles Memminger, columnist
As a child, I played cowboy. You bet your sweet bippy I did. I cantered a path around our house on my little stick horse making snorting sounds and whinnying while performing flying lead changes. Did you ever try to make a stick horse rear up? It’s impossible. I tried. You end up hitting your chin. Tying a stick horse is also unsatisfactory because they inevitably slide down and end up hanging from the reins looking more like a castoff cane than a gallant stick-steed. Oh, but I loved my stick horse.
It’s not respectable for an adult to go trotting around on a pretend horse making sounds like you’ve got black lung or something. People will think you are funny in the head — unless you are with a child. I can’t wait to gallop to the mailbox on stick horses with my young one(s). I have no shame. We’ll be Pony Express riders off to our next post with our shoelaces flying and the dogs chasing behind. We’ll even shout super-cool things like, “Hi-ho Silver away!” and then sing the theme song to Bonanza. Maybe we can use twigs to make Z-slashes in the air before barreling down the driveway. (You can mix all that cowboy stuff up if you’re pretending, okay?)
Saturday is our first IMPACT adoption class and I have to tell you that we are so excited. We can’t wait to be full-time parents and to be part of our child’s adventures. Lately, I’ve made lists of all the things I can’t wait to do as a parent.
First order of business: play cowboy.
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