Rum Cake

The first time I ever tasted a Rum Cake was in 2002 when I was working as a waitress at Macaroni Grill. One of the manager’s wives had made several Rum Cakes and they were dispersing them as gifts to other managers. A manager who received the cake as a gift was kind enough to give me a piece of her cake. I had never tasted anything like it. It was extremely moist, not too sweet, not too dense with an out of this world flavor! I went to the manager whose wife had made the cake and told him it was absolutely delicious and that I just had to have the recipe. He refused to give me the recipe saying that it was “in his family”. So, I searched for four years for this recipe. I tried one recipe after another thinking that it would be it with no success.

In the fall of 2007, my family and I had lunch with a couple of Charlie, my step-dad’s, relatives. Somehow we got on the subject of cakes and I mentioned the Rum Cake and my frustration in not being able to find the recipe. Charlie’s Aunt Vi piped up and said she had the recipe and would be happy to send it to me! Within two days, I had the recipe, cut straight from one of her cookbooks. I made the cake that day. Aunt Vi helped me hit the jackpot. The recipe is below. It is amazing, unique and wonderful.

Aunt Vi passed away last weekend. She was in her eighties and had a good life. She loved Jesus and I'm sure she's loving Him right now. Her funeral is tomorrow and I made a Rum Cake tonight for her sweet daughter who will miss her very much.


Rum Cake
½ cup chopped pecans
1 box yellow cake mix
1 small package instant vanilla pudding mix
½ cup light rum
½ cup water
½ cup vegetable oil
4 eggs

Grease and flour Bundt pan or 10” tube pan. Spread nuts in bottom of pan. Place cake mix and pudding mix in large mixing bowl; add rum, oil, water and eggs. Mix for 2 minutes. Pour batter into cake pan. Bake at 325 for 60 minutes. Remove cake from oven and immediately pour on Hot Rum Glaze. Hot glaze will cause cake to settle but don’t be alarmed for cake will be yummy. Cool cake for thirty minutes then remove to plate.

Hot Rum Glaze:
1 cup sugar
1 stick butter
¼ cup light rum
¼ cup water

Place ingredients in a small saucepan and boil for 2-3 minutes.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

After much experimentation I have perfected my recipe for laundry detergent. The recipe along with a few tips and suggestions follow:

Homemade Laundry Detergent

36 cups water
1-1/2 cup Washing Soda
1-1/2 cup Borax
1 bar Soap (grated) I use Dove white

• In a large pot, heat 18 cups of water. Add the grated bar soap and stir until melted. Then add the washing soda and borax. Stir until powder is dissolved, then remove from heat.
• Then add 18 cups water to the heated soap mixture. Transfer to storage containers. I reuse big liquid detergent or fabric softener containers. The mixture will gel and will need to be stirred or shaken a little before each use.
• Use 1/2 cup per load.

When I make this I make the whole thing in my huge stainless steel stockpot…it holds about 14 quarts. Do not use a coated or Teflon pan, the borax is a cleaning agent and will strip the inside of your pot. Trust me on this one. A key is really letting the bar soap heat up quite a bit until the shreds are almost dissolved. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just be sure the shredded soap is not in any big clumps. Then, when I add the borax and washing soda (both of which I buy at Kroger in the section with cleaning products), they dissolve quickly.

A few tips to using this detergent:

• It is not color safe. Do not mix your reds, blacks, or dark blues with any light colors. Tide spoiled me and kept me from really doing the best sorting job.
• If you are doing a load full of black clothes, add an extra rinse cycle. Occasionally, my black pants will come out with white streaks or spots on them from the soap.
• When I wash white towels, I will often throw in a scoop of Oxyclean (I buy the Wal Mart brand, Sun Oxygen Cleaner). This is not necessary, but our white kitchen towels get really nasty and need a little extra whitening.
• The detergent is not perfumed at all. You can add essential oils if you want to go that route.
• I use Sauvitel fabric softener, which is gentle on my babies’ sensitive skin and mine. I also really like the scent of Sauvitel, so it makes up for that fresh Tide smell that I miss.
• Making my own detergent has saved us quite a bit of money. Dollar for dollar, I don’t know how much cheaper it is than store-bought detergent. I do know that one box of Borax and one box of Washing Soda (each less than $4) has lasted me nearly a year and I do a lot of laundry.
• This recipe is very easy to make in smaller quantities. When I first started making my own detergent, I made one third of this recipe and it turned out great.
  

Below is my huge pot of detergent:

I use a funnel to transfer the detergent into an old container.


Both fabric softener bottles were filled with detergent and the ice cream bucket was a little over half full.

And, the babies: :)

My Man

How do I love my husband? Let me count the ways.

• He is intentional about relationships. He loves with his whole heart. He rejoices with his friends and weeps with them, too. He isn't afraid to say "I love you" from one man to another. (top pic, J and Uncle Copas with the big boy at ten months old. bottom pic, the big boy and one of J's best friends, Matt)
  

• He doesn't lose it when our kids lose it. He doesn't lose it when I lose it. He stays cool, calm, and collected. He delights in our children. Sometimes, we laugh when they cry. See below.

• He loves me unselfishly. My husband is a servant. It is not uncommon for me to come home from running errands and find the house straightened and kitchen cleaned. He knows I love order and cleanliness, but I'm busy with our three babes and the house is not my top priority. :) He used to do this same thing for his Mom when he lived at home. And, I have to mention, my husband has great parents. The selflessness was learned by the example his parents set before him. He always puts me and the kids before himself. J with the parentals at his 30th birthday part-ay.
  

• He lets me talk his dang ears off. I can talk the paint off a wall and my sweet, somewhat introverted husband asks the best questions and listens to my 30 minute long answers.
  
• He gives great hugs.
  
• He still opens my car door when we go on dates.
  
• He tells me I look good almost every single day.
  
• He likes the way I dress.
  
• He lets me decorate our house the way I like it with few exceptions.
  
• Even when we didn't have much extra cash, he still let me spend a little mulah on things to make our home beautiful because he knew that mattered to me.
• He will sit and play with the big boy for hours.
  
• He won't let our baby girls wear two piece bathing suits. Ever. When I was pregnant with the twins, I brought home two 6 month sized mini skirts. My man thought they were a little too short. :)
• He is a man of courage. He doesn't shrink back at a challenge.
  
• He prayerfully makes decisions and moves in faith.
• He constantly reminds me to look at the bigger picture. That Jesus is our hope, our life, our love.
  
• He doesn't talk bad about people and he won't let me either.
  
• He reminds me to have hope, even when my prayers seemingly go unanswered.
  
• His biggest fear is not following Jesus.
• He is not materialistic.
• He is committed to being in community with other believers.
  

I could go on and on and I already have a bit.

Thank you, J, for being a wonderful husband and selfless father. Thank you for following Jesus. The more I know you, the more I love you. You are a dream.

Ice Cream Cones and Cupcakes

Last week sometime, I heard our little guy yelling in distress, "Mommy! Help me! Waaawwaaawaaa....." over and over. Our son rarely cries from pain, so I knew he was either mad, scared or hurt. I found him the pantry.

He had climbed up the shelves to get this out of the box.



















I found him like this. He was stuck.






















I made some yummalicious cupcakes last week. They were quite good...fresh orange cake with whipped cream/buttered rum frosting. Found the recipe in my newest cookbook...thanks, Ma, for the Southern Living Cookbook circa 1989. My Mom has fed my addiction to cookbooks by purchasing me the Southern Living cookbooks year by year as she finds them at estate sales.













I also repurposed my cookie scoop...two scoops make the perfect cupcake. Check it out. I love kitchen tools that save time and create more fun for moi.

It's Like Buttah

At long last, here's my post about how I churn my own butter. Let me start this by saying that if you know how to turn on a blender, you can make/churn butter. It is super simple and easy. Here's how:

First off, I start with some yummy raw milk. By raw, I mean, unpasteurized, nonhomogenized, straight from the cow's teat milk. Why would I drink raw milk? There are many great reasons. You can go here if you'd like to read them. Our fam has been drinking raw milk for about three months now. I wasn't a believer at first, but now I am. This is the longest period in the girl's lives that we have not been to the doctor for any sick child visits. Our big boy no longer says that his tummy hurts after he drinks a glass of milk. Anyhow, you can make butter from heavy cream bought at K-Roger or any other local grocer, but I've only done it with raw milk. First, I skim the cream off the top of the milk. Forgive me for not having a picture of the milk with the cream separated at the top. I grab a soup ladle and get out as much yummy cream as I can and put it in my trusty blender. Then, I plug my blender in, turn it on high and let it run for 3-5 minutes or until the cream looks like this:

You can see the butter is kind of spongey and it has separated from the buttermilk. Then, I pour the contents of the blender over a fine mesh strainer and give it a few minutes to drain. Next, I take the butter and form it into a ball (or two) using my hands and immerse it in a bowl of ice water. I let it sit there for just a minute till it hardens (this makes it easier to work with) and then I squeeze it till I get out as much of the buttermilk as I can. This takes just a couple minutes. I usually divide the butter in half so that I can squeeze more buttermilk out of each piece more effectively. Here is the result:

Note I've already generously salted my butter pieces with coarsely ground sea salt. I am a huge fan of sea salt. It's all we have around here. It's salt that tastes great and it is actually good for you (loaded with trace minerals and doesn't dehydrate your bod). Then, I stirred the butter and salt together. For this post, I decided to pipe my butter through a pastry bag to make it pretty. It turned out not so pretty and kind of snakey:

On the left is my homemade butter made from free-grazing, mostly grass and grain fed cows. On the right is my regular ole great value butter. Note the difference in the color. The butter I made is more yellow because the cows were eating lots of new, green grass, which is another nutritious benefit. Oh, and are you wondering why butter is better than margarine? Just read this.

Since I am not one to waste anything, I save my buttermilk.

This buttermilk is great in fruit smoothies, recipes that call for buttermilk, or as an agent used to soak grains. I'll get into grain-soaking later. I don't want overwhelm you all with grain-soaking, butter and raw milk all in one post. :)

So, that's how I make butter. We eat it and it's good. It's real good. Don't forget the salt. This kid likes butter, too. He wouldn't eat it till I started making it. :)

If you are wondering where I get my raw milk, leave me a comment and your email address.

Contest Winner

Sorry so late, peops.

Leslie Smittle wins the Millionaire Next Door! YAY, Leslie!

Email me your address and I'll send the book your way!

Posts to come:
tutorial on butter making
family pictures
fresh orange chiffon cupcakes with whipped cream/buttered rum icing (delish)

I heart Dave Ramsey

It is with great joy that I post the following:

We're DEBT FREE!!!!!!!!!!

After two years of enveloping it month after month and counting our pennies we no longer have any debt aside from our house. Thanks to my wonderful pal, Mar, I read the Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey a couple years ago. I told my baby-dad all about it and being the frugal nerds that we are, we jumped right on board. The Lord has completely provided every single dime it took to get us out of debt. We have always tried to see the money in our bank account as His money and to hold onto that money with open hands. Our main debt was my student loan...after four years of being a mom, five years of having a Bachelor's Degree and a mere three months of using my degree in the work force, I am so glad to be rid of that dang student loan. It followed me around like a dark cloud and now it's gone, baby, gone! So, to celebrate this wonderful, bless-ed event, I am giving away a copy of the Total Money Makeover to a randomly selected commenter. If you already own a copy of TMM, I will be happy to give you another book that spurred me on over the last two years: The Millionaire Next Door. These two books, (along with the B-i-b-l-e) really kept me on track financially during our debt payoff. I have a picture of me clicking the mouse to pay off our debt electronically that I planned on posting, but like a dork, I am holding up the statement from my student loan that includes all kinds of personal information that does not need to be broadcast via blogger. If you want to know how we did all this debt paying off business, leave me a question in the comments or shoot me an email.

Winners will be announced sometime Thursday. No entries accepted after midnight Wednesday. Peace.