Nothin' Beats Lancaster County Shoppin' :)

Neck pumpkins, cup cheese and lots of goodies from Earl Weavers.....great finds, great prices and getting to spend time with some folks I haven't seen in a while :) That's a great way to spend your time!
I got some research done, worked on a few other projects and came home laden with goodies from Lancaster County too :)
This is going to be a great weekend!
Lots of cooking to do, and a few more of Nanny's recipes to post sometime this weekend :)~

A New Look!

I chose this particular template because it reminded me of being a little girl :) I loved Pixie Stix!
They were just one of my favorite buys at Gus Mandros' store on Lemon Street.
I still love that store.
This was back in the day....I could actually walk to the store in the early evening or anytime of the day, actually, and not fear strangers.
Gus, Athena and the family were like extended family.
I have memories of my best friend's Italian grandmother's house on a Saturday morning. I believe it was bread baking day on Saturdays. I can still remember the wonderful aroma of hand-kneaded and home-made Italian bread filling the kitchen of her Lemon Street home.
Good times :)
And I figured, I give part of myself to my blogs. I take them seriously and they aren't meaningless no matter what the subject. I spend my time, offer my thoughts, memories and emotion to the blogs. They need to reflect me. And they need to be taken care of. Hence, the Pixie Stix!
Besides, this template is just FUN!

Nanny Kelley's Black Joe Cake

This cake is the absolute best chocolate cake on the planet! Moist and rich, we usually make some creamy peanut butter icing for it but it is also wonderful with a light and airy cooked icing too!
This is the cake that everyone asks me to bring to any pot lucks, community dinners and get togethers. It has withstood the test of time!
Enjoy!


Nanny Kelley's Black Joe Cake

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa (I prefer Hershey's, naturally) Suze's note!
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup hot black coffee
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tablespoons mayonnaise

Sift all the dry ingredients and add oil, coffee milk and mayonnaise. Mix for two minutes. Add the eggs and the vanilla flavoring and mix well for two minutes more. This batter will not be thick.
Pour into two greased and floured 9 inch cake pans.
Bake at 325 degrees for 25-30 minutes or longer depending on your oven. Start checking with a toothpick at 25 minutes and take it from there.
Cool the cake for fifteen minutes before removing from the pans. Cool the cakes on wire racks.


Light and Airy Cooked Icing

I cup milk
5 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Combine milk and flour in a saucepan and cook until thick. Cover and refrigerate. In mixing bowl, beat butter, shortening, sugar and vanilla till creamy. And the chilled milk and flour mixture and beat for ten minutes or more. Frost the cooled cake.

Nanny's Cracker Pudding

This cracker pudding is incredible! Sweet, creamy with a little bit of the cracker lumps...Just what I needed after a long, hard day at ........ school! :)

Nanny's Cracker Pudding

1 quart milk
2 eggs
Scant 1/2 cup sugar
Vanilla to taste
1 cup Ritz crackers
Baker angel flake coconut (short kind)

Heat milk but don't scald or burn. Add sugar and dissolve. Crush crackers and add to the milk.
Turn off the heat under the milk. Take a small amount and slowly beat into the eggs, making sure the pudding base is cooled a bit.
Once its well mixed, put it back into the pudding base and cook a bit longer.
Add the coconut, stir.

Nanny's Roly Polys!

There really is no recipe for these treats but I never want to forget them!
My grandmother often made pot pie. Usually chicken, sometimes beef and on rare occasions I can even remember sugar pea pot pie and once made with clams.
When she had leftover pot pie dough, which I remember as being every time, and now I doubt by accident, she would make us these little pinwheels as a treat!
They were so good and to us they were so special!
Play with the level and sweetness and spice that suits you!

Nanny's Roly Polys

Leftover pot pie dough, rolled into a rectangle
Sugar
Cinnamon
Softened butter


Spread the softened butter over the rectangle of dough.
Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar, to taste. (I usually use the ratio that we like for cinnamon toast).
Roll the dough as you would for a pumpkin roll, etc.
Slice into 1 1/2 inch pieces and place cut side down on a lightly greased cookie sheet.
I use Pam, and only use it sparingly since the butter from the polies will melt out onto the sheet.

Bake until light brown and bubbling. I used a 350-375 degree oven.

Enjoy!

Nanny Kelley's Bread Pudding

This comes from a fading piece of paper, now tan with the 'receipt' written in ink, by my grandmother herself, Belva A Kelley.

This was a favorite of my late husbands. He adored her and her cooking. And she adored him right back :)

Nanny Kelley's Bread Pudding

1 1/2 cups of stale bread cubes
3 cups of milk
1/3 cup of sugar (you may alter this to taste)
2 eggs
pinch of salt
vanilla (I usually go with two tsps)

Scald milk and soak bread in it till soft.
Add sugar, beaten eggs, salt and flavoring.
Bake in moderate oven. The paper shows 325 degrees but there is a note in the margin that
says "I use 360 degrees.)
Note: She also wrote: You can add raisins if you like them.
Bake for 45 minutes.

I can tell you that I have always had to double this recipe. It disappeared too fast otherwise!