Tonight to go along with our delicious, homemade leftover turkey soup that I'd made, I thought I'd also make some of my mom's sweet cornbread. It's totally different from what my own Grandmother McGhee used to make. Hers had nothing sweet added to it and it was usually made to be eaten at every meal. But, the treat for me as a young girl was coming to visit her and eating cornbread and milk for dinner. The large meal of the day was always eaten for lunch, so for "supper" many times the leftover cornbread was broken up and then milk was poured over on the top - something we never ate at our home. Anyway, my mom's cornbread was sweetened with sugar and smeared with margarine and jelly and tasted so good! It's rare that I ever make it anymore. In fact, it's been years since I've done so. In almost four years of marriage, I'd never made it for Joe at all. So, here's the recipe for you to enjoy sometime...
1 cup flour 1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup cornmeal (not cornmeal mix)
1 cup milk 1 egg - well beaten
1 tablespoon oil
Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar together. Add the cornmeal. Set aside. Add milk to the beaten egg. Add to the first mixture. Add the oil and blend well. Pour into a greased 8" pan and bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes.
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The recipe shown above is for my mom's "Gooey Chocolate Cake"! It's written in her own hand on a couple of recipe cards and if you click on the picture, it will enlarge it and you can actually read it clearly. Before I married your dad, one of my wedding presents was a collection of recipes that grandmother and Aunt Nancy wrote out for me and put together on a little yellow recipe holder. It's been used many times as evidenced by the mysterious food stains. Anyway, this has got to be one of the best chocolate cakes I've ever had in my life.
The cake:
1 Duncan Hines cake mix (she ALWAYS insisted it had to be Duncan Hines)
1 box of chocolate instant pudding
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup oil
Mix well and put into 3 9" pans. Bake at 300 degrees.
The frosting:
2/3 cup cocoa 1/8 teaspoon salt
3 cups sugar 1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup butter or margarine 1 teaspoon vanilla
Mix all ingredients EXCEPT VANILLA. Cook until quite thick, then add the vanilla and cook for a short while longer. Put on cake while still warm. (The she wrote: Make chocolate fudge cake into three layers. Slice each layer).
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Then there are the brownies!!! My mom was famous for these brownies. My earliest memory of these brownies is her making these when I was 1o years old and we were living in Yokota, Japan in 1961. She and the neighbors who lived in our little cul-de-sac used to get together for coffee and goodies and she was always requested to bring the brownies. (Grandmother and Granddaddy were not members of the Church at this time so they were still drinking coffee).
Place all ingredients in a large bowl...
3/4 cup flour 1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar 2 eggs - beaten
5 tablespoons cocoa 1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup nuts (you could substitute raisins too - yuk!)
Beat with mixer for three minutes. Bake in greased pan at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.
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You know that Key Lime is my favorite pie, but Red Velvet is my favorite cake! Isn't it funny that this is your favorite one too, Corey? How'd that happen?
The cake:
1 white cake mix (remember, it's Duncan Hines) 1 instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs 1/2 cup Crisco oil
1 cup buttermilk 3 tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda 1 bottle red food coloring
Mix ingredients, then fold in 1 tablespoon vinegar into the cake mixture. Pour into 3 cake pans and bake at 300 degrees.
The cream cheese frosting:
1/2 cup margarine 1 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla 1 box sifted 4X or 10X confectionary sugar
Cream margarine, cream cheese and vanilla. Add powdered sugar a little at a time until smooth and creamy.
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And, last but not least...this is the oldest recipe of all. It's my Grandmother's Pound Cake recipe. No matter how many times I tried to make it, it never turned out the way Grandmother McGhee or my mom could make it. Mine always seemed to fall - they tasted good though. Hopefully Nikki (or Corey) you will have much better luck. But no matter what, this is a fantastic pound cake.
1 cup Crisco (I think Grandmother McGhee used lard instead) 1 stick margarine
Cream together. Then add 1 small can of evaporated milk. Pour half in and beat. Add two cups sugar, beat well, then add rest of milk. Add two teaspoons each of vanilla and lemon extracts. Add three cups of flour, one at a time, beating well after each one. Add 4-5 eggs (the price of eggs being about $1.94 a dozen at this time) adding one at a time and beating well after each one. Bake at 275 degrees for 3 hours.
This is truly the old family recipe - the oldest one I remember eating throughout my life.
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So, start cooking and hopefully one or all of these recipes will inspire fond memories for you.
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