HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO LULU

Birthday Cake
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Yes, today, October 9th was Lulu's birthday. She was born in 1906 and passed her love of cake onto both my brother and me.

The above will maybe make my embroidery followers happy, but it's a pretty bad rendition of a birthday cake and I'm to blame. I found a similar image in my files and from my copy-job it is obviously I'm no artist.

This is the only cake I'll be making today because if I made a real one, I would just have to eat it all or freeze it. G doesn't care for cake (pie is HIS downfall) and when we have one in the house, I always have to put slices in little ziplocks and fill a gallon bag with them for the freezer. Yes, I HAVE been known to eat frozen cake......

Funny family story about Lulu's birthday - I forget which one, but was one we ALL remember - maybe her 63rd? Her brother, my wonderful Uncle Roy and his wife, Nellie, who would pass away a few short months later, were visiting for Mum's birthday. We lived nearby and were invited to a family dinner. I had baked her a cake and brought it with us. When Aunt Nellie saw the cake her face brightened with a funny grin and she told me to follow her after I put the cake down because she had something to show me.

She had brought a box of the joke candles that do not go out when you blow on them and gave them to me to put on the cake. Since Mum wasn't keen on calling attention to her age, I had decorated the cake but hadn't put any candles on it.

Well, when it was time for cake, Uncle Roy lit the candles and we all sang Happy Birthday to Mum. When we were done she started blowing out the candles. None of them would go out and stay out. I remember how we all laughed at her frustration and she eventually laughed along with us. Thinking back now it makes me feel sort of sad. Mum wasn't a practical joker but Aunt Nellie sure was! I'm not sure what I'd feel like if someone did that to me - and I'm WAY older than 63!

LULU'S SUMMER TUNA SALAD

This salad was a mainstay in Lulu's summer kitchen and it sure has been also in ours. Last week I made it for perhaps the last time this year. The hot weather seems to have left us and we are now experiencing very Fall-like temperatures. G never says no on a hot day in the summer when I ask if he would like Tuna Salad. It's kind of an adlib sort of salad depending upon what you have in the house besides tuna!

LULU'S SUMMER TUNA SALAD

-One 12 oz bag of mixed salad greens, chopped a bit more

or

the equivalent other salad greens (maybe 1/2 to 3/4 of a head of iceberg chopped)

-1 or 2 cans of tuna, drained & chunked up (I usually use 2 cans)

-1/2 a basket of cherry tomatoes, quartered or halved

or

1 C. seeded regular tomatoes, cut in chunks

-1/2 C. green stuffed olives, sliced (See #3 below)

-1/4 C. to 1/3 C. diced purple onion (I use the 1/4 C.)(See #4 below)

-3 or 4 hard boiled eggs, peeled & cut up. (see #5 below)

-3 or 4 shakes of McCormick's California Lemon Pepper Seasoning

-Mayonnaise

1) In a fairly large bowl, dump the lettuce in after having cut it up a bit more in smaller bite-size pieces than it comes in the package. I've also been known to use a bag of shredded lettuce, but I don't like that as much. Lulu always used a head of iceberg lettuce.

2) Add in the tomatoes

3) On a paper towel blot the olives and slice the olives in thirds. My kids used to call these the eyeballs in the salad. If you don't like green olives, I don't see any reason you couldn't substitute a little can of black olives.

4) Add in the onion. If you would prefer yellow or white onion, you can substitute it.

5) Add in the eggs. I cut up the peeled hardboiled eggs with my handy slicer by first slicing them one way and then turning them and inserting them to slice them the opposite way. Hmmm, this is hard to explain, but hope you get my drift. If you don't have an egg slicer, just cut up the eggs.

6) Now toss all the ingredients together and sprinkle on the seasoning.

7) Add mayonnaise to desired consistency. Spoonfuls should mound. G likes this salad a bit sloppier than I do.

NOTE: Amazingly good even the 2nd and 3rd day. We always "fight" over the leftovers! Living in a very hot summer area of California when I was a kid, Mum used to make this a lot. For a fancy luncheon for her friends Lulu she would serve this in or on a lettuce leaf/cup along with other things. Back then I got all the leftovers since I was the only one left at home!

Banana Milk Courtesy of one of Lulu's GRAND Girls!

Last week when our youngest daughter was visiting with her husband and 2 children, the children asked for something I had never heard of. They wanted their mum to make "Banana Milk". When they found out I didn't know what it was, they kept asking until we finally made it one evening. Since tasting this wonderful version of what turns out to be something that may have originated in Korea, I have been meaning to post it here.

This concoction would have made Lulu SO happy. She never knew what to do when bananas got too ripe. Frugal woman that she was, she would therefore be forced to make banana bread or banana cake. I tell you, I ate so much banana bread when I was a kid in sack lunches and at home, that I gag now if I smell it. In later life, she and I found a chocolate banana bread that I'll have to share that is pretty awesome.

When my 3 girls were young and I was caught with too many fast ripening bananas, I would peel them, cut them in half crosswise, stick a popsicle stick from the cut edge up about half way. Then I would coat them with melted chocolate and freeze them. Not only did this save the bananas, but it saved us money when the ice cream man came round!

But today I want to tell you to save those overripe bananas, peel them, cut them up in about 4 pieces and put them in the freezer in a ziplock baggie! If you do this everytime you have a banana slip into retirement before you eat it, you can have the makings for Banana Milk in your freezer and always be only 5 minutes from numminess!

When you are ready for a treat:
> Remove them from the freezer, open the ziplock and dump the frozen chunks into the container of a blender or smoothie maker. One medium size banana will make enough for one really big glass or 2 fair size (maybe 8 oz) ones.

> Add milk just to the top of your frozen chunks. Don't completely cover them.

> Add a dash of vanilla or cinnamon. (or...see Note #2 below)

> Put the lid on and blend till smooth.

Note: I was out of the room when my daughter made this, but she says this is all she did. She brought me a small glass of Banana Milk and ...Oh My! It tasted just like a milk shake made with ice cream. What a great use for something that often gets tossed in the garbage.

Lulu would be proud!

Note #2 - I couldn't just post this blind - so.....I just made some with a banana I froze earlier today. G says it's a winner and so I must have done it right! I used vanilla, but next time I think I'll try cinnamon.

But who says you couldn't drizzle in some chocolate syrup! Not me!

Lulu's Grands & Great Grands

Well, it's been some time since I posted here, but that doesn't mean I haven't been cooking. And I've been cooking a lot of Lulu's recipes too because I've had a parade of her grandgirls and great grandkids through here since mid-July. Yes, my 2 youngest daughters married brothers! Gramma Lulu, aka Nana to them, would have been happy as a clam with all the excitement in this house since Mid-July. It won't be over until this coming Monday when the our youngest and her family in the bottom picture above starts off towards the Grand Canyon and then home to hot, Hot, HOT Texas.

We DO have a new recipe for you and I think Lulu would approve. My youngest made these great cookies that are SO simple. So we offer them up knowing Lulu would approve!

CAKE MIX COOKIES

CAKE MIX COOKIES

1 box of any flavor cake mix

1/2 C. Oil

2 eggs

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

-Mix all ingredients in a bowl.

-Drop by spoonfuls on a cookie sheet that you've sprayed with Pam-like spray

-Bake for 8 minutes - no longer

-Enjoy

Notes:

*When you use chocolate cake mix, as we did, they taste like Brownies!

*You can add things like mini or regular chocolate chips, nuts or coconut!

*Can be dressed up if the tops are iced and sprinkles added.

*Best eaten in a few days, but I'm also going to try to freeze these.

*One of my daughter's friends won a prize at a holiday cookie exchange by making these and she added broken peppermint candies to the chocolate dough. Then she frosted them with white icing and sprinkled the top with green and red sprinkles.

Lulu's Gingerbread

Lulu's Gingerbread
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Well, it's been way too long,hasn't it? Sorry about my disappearance there for awhile, but sometimes life just plain gets in the way of what I want to be doing.

So, you see Lulu's Gingerbread is so good that one piece is all that's left! I baked this for my local weekly stitching group meeting this past Tuesday and it was SO well received that they all asked for the recipe! So, I figure it's only fair that I put it up on this blog as well!

Mum used to make this quite often when I was a kid. In my recipe file the card says it's from "Gramma Lulu". I looked in her recipe book she never wrote where she got the recipe from; she just wrote "very good"! I'll vouch for that as I've been eating it for well over 60 years now.

LULU'S GINGERBREAD

• 2 C. Flour
• 1-1/2 t. Baking Soda
• 1 t. ground Cinnamon
• 1 t. ground Ginger
• 1/2 t. ground Cloves
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1/2 C. granulated sugar
• 1/2 C. Crisco shortening (I use 1/2 C. Crisco Oil instead)
• 1 Egg
• 1/2 C. Mild Molasses
• 1 C. very hot or boiling Water

1) Sift flour, soda, spices & salt onto wax paper and set aside.

2) In a bowl cream the sugar and oil (or shortening). Add egg and molasses & beat well.

3) Add the dry ingredients to bowl along with the water.

Pour into a prepared 8" square baking pan. I use the pan spray with flour in it. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 min. or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Notes:

*This is very moist so if you remove it from the oven before the center is done, the center will fall. It won't be so pretty, but it still will taste AWESOME!

*I find the oil instead of the solid shortening seems to make it even more moist.

* Serve with whipped cream as shown or plain. Should serve 9 but how you cut it is up to YOU!

Blueberry Muffins - THE BEST!

This recipe came from an issue of Yankee Magazine back in 1990 that I got while traveling with a friend in Vermont. The recipe was a reader's contribution and I do not recall or have the magazine that said who sent it in. Mum (aka Lulu) had helped me financially to travel to the Boston area in order to attend the Towne Family Association's annual meeting in Salem, Massachusetts. That year's meeting was the Tri-Centennial of the Salem Witch Trials which involved some of our ancestors. It was a very interesting trip, to say the least, and a tremendous meeting which involved a lot of sight seeing and education about my maternal family's past. Upon leaving Salem, my friend and I traveled to Vermont to search for some ancestor's graves and visit the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vermont. The Yankee magazine was given to me at a B & B that we stayed at in Vermont.

Again today I have been asked to share this recipe. I served these muffins this morning at a meeting at our home and they were a big hit as usual.

BEST BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

- 2 C. Bisquick baking mix
- 1/4 C. Granulated sugar
- 1/2 t. Ground cinnamon
- 1 C. sour cream (zero-fat is okay)
- 1 egg
- 1 to 2 C. frozen blueberries, rinsed
- 2 T. additional sugar

> Prepare a muffin pan by spraying with a pan spray.
> Blend Bisquick, sugar and cinnamon in medium sized bowl. Make hole in center.
> Into hole put the sour cream and break in the egg.
> Blend together with a fork.
> Fold in the blueberries.
> Sprinkle a little of the extra sugar in the bottom of each "cup" of the muffin pan.
> Carefully spoon about 1/4 C. of the batter into each "cup".
> Sprinkle rest of the sugar over the tops of each muffin "cup".
> Bake for 15 to 20 min. at 425 degrees or until tops become a bit golden.

NOTES:
1. You can use paper or foil muffin liners, but I do not. If you use the foil, watch your baking time carefully.
2. Remove from pan quickly so as to prevent over baking.
3. Serve hot or cooled. My guests didn't mind them cooled. I offered to split and warm them and provide butter, but after their first bite, they said it wasn't necessary and they raved about how moist and wonderful they were.

Enjoy!