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Old Time Recipes

This was a popular cake during the Great Depression. At the time that this cake was invented it was hard to buy ingredients to make many desserts, so they made cakes and cookies out of any ingredients avaliable. This is a wonderful dessert and I am sure you will make it again and again.

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{GREAT DEPRESSION CAKE}

~2 c. sugar~
~1 c. black coffee~
~2 c. raisins~
~1 apple, peeled & grated~
~1 stick butter~
~2 c. flour~
~1 tsp. baking soda~
~2 tsp. baking powder~
~1 c. chopped walnuts (or pecan)~
~1 tsp. each cinnamon, ground cloves, allspice & nutmeg~

Bring raisins to boil and rinse. In large saucepan simmer first five ingredients 10 minutes. Cool 10 minutes. Blend together other ingredients and stir into wet ingredients. Pour into well greased and floured 13"x9" pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted in middle. Better second day. Very moist cake and needs no icing.

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  I hope you will use this recipe. Serve it with a hot cup of tea. In the words of Albert Einstein, "I never think of the future - it comes soon enough."

Sincerely,

~Mary-Ann~

Dear Reader

  Well, yesterday was a barn day. First I went and bought animal feed with Mother and unloaded it on the other end. We found that the barn was to dirty to put the bags of feed in so they were put in the goat kid stall that is inside the barn. Mother took Sarah to the Doctor and I was left home to clean up the barn.....in the rain. It was a good thing it was a warm rain (except for the thunder part) or I would have complained to myself the whole time. I finally got the barn cleaned and then I said to myself, "Why not clean the horse stall since I am already dirty and today is one of the days to clean it." So I started in on cleaning the horse stall. I racked all the manure into a pile in the center of the stall and went to get the wheelbarrow. Upon returning I tripped on the gate (I was backing up into the stall) and fell on my rear right in the center of the manure.

   I then laughed at myself (I couldn't do anything else) and figured now that I am REALLY dirty I may as well do some more cleaning, so I cleaned just about every thing except for the goat pens as I am afraid that I will have a replay of day before yesterday's accident. I fell out of the goat manger and onto the feed bin and now have a nice bruse on my knee. We have no gate on the pen right now so the only way to get in is over the manger.

Well, I have to go feed animals and get ready to put up fencing for the horse paddock. In the words of Oscar Wilde, "Arguments are to be avoided; they are always vulgar and often convincing."

Sincerely,

~Mary-Ann~ 

Brownie Cameras

 I have added two new cameras to my collection. Once again I will share an ad and the brief history information on these to cameras. I will also share a photo of mine and how much I paid for them.

This is both of the together.

  Kodak Brownie Starflash (Black model)

  This is my "Brownie Starflash" camera. Five models of this camera were made. The american model, "Black", the french models, "Blue, Red, and White" and then there was the Coca~Cola promotional model. This camera was introduced in March of 1957 and was discontinued in June of 1965. The original price of this camera was $8.50. Today the black model is worth $7-$15. The blue, red and white models are worth $13-$20. The Coca~Cola model is worth $100-$120. I spent $5.00 on it at our local Antique shop.

This is an ad from a Kodak promotional in 1957. 

Kodak Brownie Bull's-Eye (Black model)

  This is my "Brownie Bull's-Eye" camera. Two models of this camera were made. The black model and the gold model. This camera was introduced in August of 1954 and was discontinued in October 1960. The black model was originally $13 and the gold was $15. Today the black model is worth $12-$18 and the gold is worth $18-$30. I paid $7.50 at our local Antique shop. (No ad for this was found.)

  I hope you enjoyed looking at these. In the words of Aristotle, "Happieness depends upon ourselves."

Sincerely,

~Mary-Ann~

Dear Reader

  We have had some good news and bad news since I got home. I will start with the good news, because no one really cares for bad news.

  Since I got back I have turned eighteen, that happened on the first of this month. The day before I turned eighteen we found out that my Brother and his wife will be having a baby in October. CaraDD's goat had her babies. That is all I can think of for now.

  Now for the bad news. I came home to find my goat Sparky with red sores around her mouth and no one knows what they are from. My Aunt Karen had a stroke and is in the hospital. Sarah has a cold. Kristina  has a worse cold. And our chicken coop is still not complete. That is all the bad news which I think out numbers the good.

  Well I will post more a little later. In the words of Bejamin Franklin, "A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over."

Sincerely,

~Mary-Ann~

Old Time Recipes

   This is an old recipe from the 1800's. This was a when people made very interesting drinks and food to please there taste on a warm summer day. Now we find a soda pop or a cool glass of water or milk a rather pleasing drink. True, they did have soda pop then, but it was not as common and was much more expensive. They made it a treat, a thing you only had once in a great while. So when they had get-togethers it was not like what we have now where we just fill a ice chest full of cans of soda pop or had enough milk to fill many glasses. Milk either came from a small bottle that was delivered once a day or it came from the family cow which would not be enough for their rather large parties. They had mostly water to drink but they needed something that others would enjoy drinking, for it was much to warm to drink hot tea during the summer days.

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{Sherbet}

 ~Six Lemons~

~Eight sweet Oranges~

~Sugar (if needed)~

   Slice both the lemons and the oranges and remove the seeds, put the sliced fruit in one gallon of water and sweeten to taste. Feeze or use ice.

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   I hope you enjoy this summer treat. In the words of Pablo Picasso, "I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it."

Sincerely,

~Mary-Ann~

Dear Reader

   I wanted to share a few photographs I took while I was in California. These are different things I found to take pictures of around my Grandparent's property. I hope you like them.

This is their cat "Trouble".

I thought these were lovely flowers that were growing wild on the edge of the woods.

This is in the woods behind the house. This was one of many trees that burned during a wildfire that happened many years ago.

Here is another picture of "Trouble".

I could not figure out if this picture looked better in black and white or in color.

These are some pictures of my Grandmother's gnomes, which live all over her property. (I do not like the name gnome, I prefer to call them wood nymphs, it sounds much nicer.)

This is the last picture. I think this was very neat looking.

  I hope you enjoyed these pictures. Thank you for looking. I will post more interesting material tomorrow. In the words of Mark Twain "You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus."

Sincerely,

~Mary-Ann~ 

Dear Reader

  I know I have not posted in awhile, that is because it has been rather busy around here. I am ready to go home now.

  Last week was very full. On Saturday my good friend, Brenda, visited and spent the night. We had a good time. She helped me see why I am glad I was home schooled. She is very much of a people pleaser because of her standing in school. She spends her time shopping and having her hair done, and when she is not she spends her time talking about it. I do not think I would like to have to do things like this just to have people like me. I do not care much for the sense of humor she had from being in public school either. At one time Brenda was home schooled but in eighth grade her parents let her chose wether or not she wanted to go to public school. Other then the speeches on clothing I had to endure we had a good time seeing one another.

  Well I need to make this short. In the words of W.C. Fields, "Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people."

Dear Reader

    Well I made it to California in one piece. The Seattle airport was not the most exciting place to spend 3 hours. They had many shops and places to eat but the shops were much to expensive to shop at and I just did not feel hungry. I could not bring myself to spend eight and a half dollars for a small box of tea or twelve dollars for a jar of raw honey, so I decided to forego the shopping and looked around for my gate.

    I had to follow many signs down a long corridor to a flight of stairs that I had to desend and came to an underground train that traveled very fast and was not easy to stand up since all six seats were taken. When I got off the train I had another flight of stairs to climb. I found my gate, but still had almost two hours before departure so I sat and read for a while until I started to feel a bit hungry.

   All resturants on this floor were packed and I only had half an hour to eat so I did quick and easy and decided to eat "Buger King" (which, in my family we call this revolting place "Booger King"). I got my food rather quickly and I sat down to eat. In the middle of my meal the intercom boomed out " San Jose will be boarding early in ten minutes." S I threw away the rest of my meal went to the bathroom and by the time I was down trying to find my gate again it was time to board.

   I boarded the plane just to find that half of creation was also flying to San Jose, most were head down to San Diego for vacation and had to board a connecting flight in San Jose. I sat next to a family that was headed to San Diego and their children had never been on a plane before so they all wanted to look out the window (I had the window seat, of course). I really just wanted to close the blind on the window and fall asleep but I did not want to be rude so I left it open and endured the headache from these three children that argued over video games and books for an hour and a half.

   Finally the plane landed and I met up with my Grandmother. We went and did the shopping for the week and around six we made to their house. We ate dinner and Morgan begged me to watch "Ghost Busters" with him. I Finally gave in an we watched almost all of it when Morgan fell asleep. I carried him to bed and stayed up to watch the rest since I was waiting for my other nephew, Theron, to come back from his Father's. I was so tired that I fell asleep before the movie was over just for my Garndmother to wake me up to help her tuck in Theron who had just arrived.

   Finally I got to sleep.

   In the words of Herman Melville, "A man thinks by mouthing hard words he understands hard things."

Sincerely,

~Mary-Ann~

Dear Reader

     Some already know that I fly out day after tomorrow to California to help take care of my Nephews while my Sister (Keri) recovers from surgery. I will be gone until the twenty-seventh of this month. I do still plan to post while I am gone. I feel bad that I will be flying out on my Mother's birthday but we found out when my Grandfather was booking the flight that this is the time everyone decides to travel because it is the off season (I think more people travel in the off season then in the vacation season). I am weary about flying alone and the three hour delay that I am going to have in the Seattle Airport. Such is life. We will be celebrating Mother's birthday on Saturday because my flight leaves at 9:25 in Sunday morning.

     On a happier note, today is very nice so we are going to do some work outside. We need to build a goat pen for the Nigerian Dwarfs. We are going to start working on the sewing shed and the garage. I also think we are going to start planning the garden. We are going to go to CaraDD's house to pick up the Nigerian Bucks (that is way we need to make the pen). Then we need to pick up animal feed.

     Well, that is our day in a nutshell. In the words of Albert Einstein, "Imagination is more important than knowledge..."

Sincerely,

~Mary-Ann~ 

Dear Reader

I know I am not suppose to post until tomorrow but I wanted to post for Valentines Day. I want to Share Different old Valentines I found on the Computer, I think they are lovely. I wish they still looked this way rather than the ones you buy in a box of Sixty. They seemed to be given with more heart rather than just given because it is the thing to do.

~To My Old Fashion Valentine~

(Now I will get into some of the loveliest cards I have ever seen.)

I hope you enjoyed these cards as much as do, have a happy Valentines day.

In the words of Michael Drayton;

"Must, bid the Morn awake!

Sad Winter now declines,

Each bird doth choose a mate;

This day's Saint Valentine's.

For that good bishop's sake

Get up and let us see

What beauty it shall be

That Fortune us assigns."

Sincerely,

~Mary-Ann~