Recipe of the month: Hummingbird Cake with Apples and Coconut

 

I adore this recipe, and so did Princess Diana. She chose this recipe for her wedding cake.

1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
3 eggs, beaten with mixer
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
8 ounces crushed pineapple, with juice
1 1/2 cups chopped bananas
1 cup chopped apples
3/4 cup coconut
3/4 cup chopped nuts

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour the bottom of a 9 x 13-inch pan.

Mix together the oil, eggs, sugar and vanilla extract. Sift the dry ingredients; add to mixture. Add remaining ingredients. Bake for 48 minutes.

Cool, then frost with Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature

3 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

2-3 cups confectioners sugar, depending on how sweet you like it

1 teaspoon vanilla

 

The circle of life

I’m woefully behind on blogging, but I have good reasons. A few weeks ago our daughter gave birth to her second child, an adorable little girl. What joy! Just two days later, my 91-year-old father took a turn for the worst. I flew down to Florida to spend his last days with him. I posted a bit about that on Facebook.

Dad was a beloved pediatrician, who raised several generations of kids. When I was growing and later, too, we couldn’t walk down the street or go anywhere without someone coming up to greet him. He retired at 78, and only because he felt his hearing was no longer good enough to hear clearly through the stethoscope.

I learned so much from my dad–a true love of life, a great enjoyment of books and learning, how to listen to others, and to always keep an open mind. Dad didn’t swear much, but not for the usual reasons. “The English language is so diverse and rich,” he said. “Why demean it with swear words everyone else uses?”

Grief is an interesting emotion. It fills me with an awful sorrow, and at times I am literally sick to my stomach. Five minutes later I am ravenous. As for creativity, I find that I’m not up to focusing on writing fiction, but there are so many stories I want to tell, and I know that will soon pass.

That’s all for now.

Thanks for letting me share. I’ll post again soon, I promise.

Got Stress? This Might Help.

My friend, NIna, forwarded this to me. It’s so filled with wisdom, I had to share. Enjoy!

A Great Lesson on Stress

A young lady confidently walked around the room with a raised glass of water
while leading a seminar and explaining stress management to her audience.
Everyone knew she was going to ask the ultimate question, ‘Half empty or
half full?’ She fooled them all.

“How heavy is this glass of water?” she inquired with a smile. Answers
called out ranged from 8 oz. To 20 oz. She replied, “The absolute weight
doesn’t matter. It depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a
minute, that’s not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I’ll have an ache in
my right arm.

If I hold it for a day, you’ll have to call an ambulance. In each case it’s
the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.”

She continued, “and that’s the way it is with stress. If we carry our
burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly
heavy, we won’t be able to carry on.”

“As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest
before holding it again. When we’re refreshed, we can carry on with the
burden – holding stress longer and better each time practiced.

So, as early in the evening as you can, put all your burdens down. Don’t
carry them through the evening and into the night. Pick them up again
tomorrow if you must.

1 * Accept the fact that some days you’re the pigeon, and some days you’re
the statue!

2 * Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat
them.

3 * Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle
of it.

4 * Drive carefully… It’s not only cars that can be recalled by their
Maker.

5 * If you can’t be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.

6 * If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was
probably worth it.

7 * It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a
warning to others.

8 * Never buy a car you can’t push.

9 * Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you
won’t have a leg to stand on.

10 * Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance.

11 * Since it’s the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.

12 * The second mouse gets the cheese.

13 * When everything’s coming your way, you’re in the wrong lane.

14 * Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.

16 * Some mistakes are too much fun to make only once.

17 * We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty and
some are dull. Some have weird names and all are different colors, but they
all have to live in the same box.

18 * A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.

19 * Have an awesome day and know that someone has thought about you today.

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY

20 *Save the earth….. It’s the only planet with chocolate!*

Today someone asked me if I liked you. I laughed, and said, “Ha! That’s
funny!! I absolutely LOVE that woman (or man—hey, I’m all for equal opportunity here)!! She’s funny, caring, crazy as heck, sweet, beautiful, she’s reading this email right now and I love her!!”

Be the kind of person that when your feet hit the floor each morning the devil says~~ “Oh crap, she’s up!”

Happy Wednesday!

I am finally coming up for air to say hello. I’ve been working away on the last Saddlers Prairie book and having a wonderful time.

I live in Seattle and it’s cold right now. We haven’t had rain in over a week and the city has posted a burn ban. That means no fires! I miss those and hope that we get a good rain or a nice blast of cleansing wind in the near future.

 

Back to work, but I’ll visit again soon.