there's this thing i have about chocolate cake. all things
chocolate, actually. when i eat chocolate, i want it to be
so good that it feels like i'm sinning.
i found a chocolate cake recipe last week that is THAT
good.
the recipe is for a bundt cake and it was probably written
back in the 70s when bundt's were having their heyday.
it's every bit as good today.....rich, chocolaty and moist.
easy to bake as well. i hope ya'll enjoy it as much as we did.
HERSHEY'S COCOA BUNDT CAKE
This recipe was in an old Hershey's recipe give-away.
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup Hershey's cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 eggs
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups buttermilk or sour milk*
1 tsp vanilla extract
Chocolate Glaze (recipe below)
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Generously grease and flour
(or spray with cooking spray)
a 12-cup Bundt pan. In the large mixer bowl, blend flour,
sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; add
remaining ingredients except chocolate glaze. Beat on low
speed for 1 minute, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on high
speed for 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour batter
into prepared Bundt pan. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until
a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool 10 minutes; remove from pan and place on a wire rack
to cool completely. Drizzle with the chocolate glaze.
Yield: 12 to 16 servings
*If you don't have buttermilk, you can use 1 1/2 tablespoons
vinegar or lemon juice plus milk to equal 1 1/2 cups. Allow to sit
for a couple of minutes before using.
Chocolate Glaze:
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 cup Hershey's Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips or Mini-Chips
In a small saucepan, bring water and sugar to a rolling boil,
stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Remove pan from heat.
Immediately add the chocolate chips. Stir mixture with a wire
whisk until the chips are melted and the mixture is smooth.
Cool until slightly thickened. Drizzle over top of cake.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
my sinful nature.....
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
still treading water......
we're still pretty wet, but things are beginning to dry out.
there is a bloom of algae over the soil in my "used to be a garden"
and the chicken runs stink to high heaven.
i finally solved part of the problem by heaping hay in half of each
pen......when it became saturated, i'd heap on some more, sprinkle
it with DE and do the same thing the next day. i probably have about
8 inches of compacted hay in each run at this point and i'm surely
not looking forward to mucking it all out but it DID put a bandaid on
my problem.
we're going to bring in a couple of loads of sand and when the ground
dries, danny will be putting in french drains around the pens. we can
direct the water out toward the power line easement as it's the last place
to flood hereabouts. as a matter of fact, that's where our back pond drains
when it over flows.
people are really good. when i told the folks on my marans chicken list about
losing my birds to all this water, a very generous soul offered to send me hatching
eggs in an effort to replace them! his birds are out of a line i've been coveting
(bev davis) and they are truly beautiful marans! thank you robert, your
generosity is much appreciated and will not be forgotten!
all this moisture is not only affecting my birds outside, but also my incubators in
the house. out of 24 heritage black and chocolate turkey eggs, it looks like only a
half a dozen or so are going to make it out of the shell. mostly it looks like they've
drowned once they pipped into the air cell. i've been noticing that the humidity in
the bators has been way too high and the air cells were simply not big enough when
it came time for these little guys to make their way into the world. instead of air,
they met with liquid and drowned before they ever had a chance, poor little guys.
the quail are still popping like popcorn though........
thank goodness, these lil fellas will be my money crop for the
next couple of months, hopefully allowing me to meet my
feed bill, at least. looks like we'll be eating alot of beans and
eggs for the next little while.
c'est la vie, i guess. i'm grateful to have that......so many folks don't these days.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
be careful what you wish for......
remember last week when i was bemoaning our lack of water?
THIS week, we were besieged with 17 inches of rain! the ponds
have over flowed their banks, there is a ton of standing water in
the pasture, the chicken runs are under water and my garden is
dying. the dogs are terminally stinky and the fire ants are really
mad!
feast or famine. there doesn't seem to be any in between in the
lost world. so now we wait for the water to recede and then
access the damages. thank goodness we built this house on stilts!
i moved the chicken tractors under the house, so the youngest of the
growers are high and dry.......but there are dozens of chickens in the runs
that are wading and slogging thru the mud, poor things. the only critters
enjoying this are the ducks and geese.....and i'm sure THEY think it's
just fine and dandy!
danny has spent days digging ditches trying to get some of the water to
drain off......but frankly, there isn't anywhere for it to go. everything
below us is saturated, so we have no choice but to just sit tight and wait
for nature to accomplish what we cannot and dread the upcoming battle
with hoards of mosquitos that is sure to come next.
saturday night update: i'm afraid the garden is going to be a total loss.
i've seen plants wilt from the summer sun and heat, but never from
having their feet too wet. the magels are turning to mush,
the watermelon are all but gone, the tomatos,
heavy with small fruit, have given up the ghost and even the zuchinni look
to be on their last legs. most of it, i'll try to replant, in spite of the coming heat,
and keep my fingers crossed that we get some kind of harvest.
tonight, i have a new respect for those who've gone before us. i cannot
imagine the heartaches they must have endured at the mercy of the
elements.
Monday, May 18, 2009
what a weekend! oy vey!
thursday evening, i came up to the house, after feeding, to prepare
dinner. i got about halfway thru with my preps when the water in the
kitchen slowed to a trickle and then stopped. danny went out to check
and found no burst hoses, no leaks and finally, a pump that wasn't
working. they discovered friday, that the pump was dead....caput, finis,
el endo.
poor danny, he had to haul water for all the animals until sunday, which
is when we finally bought a new pump and got it installed---a whopping
expense for us right now...so whopping, it leaves me without grocery
money. thank goodness for food storage!
early sunday morning, around 4 am, i awoke hot and sweaty with a vague
sense of unease. i had pilgrim geese hatching in the 'bators, so i stumbled
over to take a look and discovered 4 cold still incubators and a non working
a/c unit. i have no idea how long the incubators were down, but they were
reading temps in the 80s *sighs*
i got them all moved and plugged in to other outlets and now i'm praying that
they weren't down too long as they are loaded with my "money crop"-coturnix quail
and some long awaited blue, black and splash ameracauna eggs and heritage chocolate
turkey eggs.
the three little pilgrim goslings hatched unscathed.........all females which means
i am STILL without a male for next year. maybe someone who reads this has
pilgrim geese that are still laying and will take pity on me by sending a few hatching
eggs my way. l i've imprinted the little goslings in hopes they will be more people
oriented than the other geese hereabouts. the first night, they slept cuddled up
under my neck and now danny calls me goose girl in addition to the crazy chicken
lady!
at any rate......we have water again and i took the longest bath of my life last
night *grins* it felt positively luxurious! i'm sure i smell much better. it was
great to wash dishes in the sink again instead of a bucket and the animals were
much much easier to water with the hose instead of dipped out of a barrel.
today is being spent mostly inside as the earth is soothed with some much
longed for and needed rain. it promises to continue thru tomorrow and already
things look much greener outside my window. with the rainly season beginning,
the ponds will fill and lessen the need for the kiddie pools i have around for the
water fowl and in doing so, relieve me of one more chore for a while.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
i've been thinking....
that i lumped all commercial poultry farms into one
bunch in my previous post.
to those of you who raise your chickens in
a healthy humane manner, i apologize. i know
there are those of you who genuinely care about
the birds you are keeping and i applaud you.
but even one factory farm, with the deplorable
conditions illustrated in that video, is too much
and we should ALL be actively working to shut 'em
down. are cheap grocery store eggs really worth THAT?
