GoofingOff Sewing's Mid Week Rummage: Devil's Food Cake

During a recent thrifting expedition, I ventured out of the sewing pattern section into the books. I can get lost in old books. I love books, especially old ones. I love the look and feel of them. Well, I had the good fortune to find a copy of Baker’s Famous Chocolate Recipes. “What makes this special?” one might ask. This copy is from 1936 and in very good condition. The cover graphics remain sharp and the pages are not brittle. While there is light yellowing throughout the book it is in incredibly good condition.

What does chocolate cake have to do with sewing? Coffee and cake to keep you going…and chocolate is a necessary part of life.

Post by Eileen of GoofingOff Sewing.

A Bagful of Etsy, Picking Out the Good Ones MissEileen’s Etsy Picks October 28, 2011

Halloween weekend is upon us with the cute little trick or treaters out in their adorable costumes, mom and dad trailing behind. By the time the kids make it back to the house they are all sugared and caffeined up, jabbering about the loot in their bags and the fun they had. I remember going through the candy with my sisters. We would dump the candy in piles on the kitchen table so Mom and Dad could check it out, then pick out our favorites. My favorites were anything chocolate. Anything, just had to be chocolate. That was long before I tragically became allergic to chocolate. I didn’t know other flavors existed. I didn’t understand why Baskin & Robbins had 32 flavors of ice cream; they just needed to make one as far as I was concerned.

Sorry, got carried away. Today is Friday and time for Miss Eileen’s Etsy Picks. Like a bagful of Halloween goodies, I’m picking out the good ones and I’m in the mood for my forbidden treat, chocolate. Here’s what I’ve found this week:

      Vanilla and Chocolate Wreath by Charisma Gift

                      Baby booties little loafers cream and  chocolate with gift box by Cath94170

      Coffee Liqueur Chocolate Metallic Gold Circle Necklace by Roe Design

   6 Caramel or Chocolate Covered Apples by Sweets Fairy Bakeshop

                       Friendship Bracelet - Chocolate Brown Leather Woven with Swarovski Turquoise Crystals by Kes T Designs

  Chocolate Brown Knit Fingerless Gloves by Woolmint

       Klimt and Starry Night Gold Pendant by Creative Art Center

    Chocolate Linen Rayon Pleated Jacket by Carey Dion

OK, those are my picks. What do you think? I love the colors in each item. They all look so rich and yummy. Voting starts today and ends next Thursday. Shop with the most votes wins a feature interview with me, Miss Eileen.

Shameless plug…..new fabrics in the GoofingOff shop, new and vintage patterns, too. I found some amazing Pyrex and other fantastic vintage, too. I’ll be listing those in the Miss Eileen shop. Stop by when you get a chance. Coffee’s always on, served in vintage cups, of course.

Cookie Bake Double Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Cookies

The December holidays, Chanukah and Christmas, bring the task of baking. I’ve been baking holiday cookies for years. Some of my daughter’s favorite memories were of baking meringues. I loved the thumbprints even though they seemed to be the messiest in the bunch. One year I baked every cookie in my recipe file only to find some were difficult or didn’t taste as good as they looked by the time I was done. I guess the good thing about age is you filter through the muck and pick out the best. After all this time I found the cookies everyone seems to like the most, at least when I bake, are Double Chocolate White Chocolate Chip.  I use a recipe I found on a cake mix box a long time ago. The cookies are soft and chewy, great for traveling, and surprisingly easy to make.
To make these cookies you’ll need cookie sheets, cookie racks to cool the cookies on, a mixer (a potato masher will work if you mixer is uncooperative), an oven (these are baked cookies, not no-bakes), and the ingredients listed.
Get the cookie sheets ready by spraying lightly with non-stick spray. Extra insurance is always good.
My mixer, a gift from my daughter. Pretty, isn’t it?
The recipe calls for:
one box of cake mix
1 large egg
1/2 cup of butter, softened (margarine works, too)
1 bag of chips, white or dark chocolate
3/4 cup of nuts, pecans and walnuts work well
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Cream the butter.  Add the egg. Now add the cake mix slowly. Too fast and it will blow all over the place. Don’t ask me how I know this, just take my word for it. Stir in the nuts and the chips.

When you are done mixing and stirring, make balls of the cookie dough and flatten on the cookie sheet. How big of a ball? Use a tablespoon and the cookie will be big enough. Place the cookies about 1 inch apart. Place in the oven for 8-10 minutes. Take out and let them cool before transferring them off the sheet. The cookies will be soft.
Transfer the cookies to the rack, let them cool, and pack them up. Don’t worry if the cookies aren’t decorated. Place the cookies on a Holiday plate or in a cute tin and they’ll be fine. Wait until you taste them. They don’t need icing and will become a family favorite.  You can even be crafty and put them in a take out box or make a box out of gift wrap or something to show off your other crafty skills. That’s what I’m going to do.
Have fun baking the cookies.  Enjoy!                                                                            

Dolls, Puppets, and Ventriloquists

TV in the 50's and 60's was magical, at least to a child growning up then. TV may have been in its infancy, as many say, and the programs may have been simple, but the shows for children were so much fun to watch. In New York City, we had a couple of TV channels that had programming for children (that's cartoons) in the early evening, and on Saturday morning. Back then, we didn't have 500 channels to choose from or networks dedicated to cartoons and children so the time we did have was very special. It didn't matter if the shows were in black and white, all TV's were black and white. My sisters and I didn't care, we stayed glued to the TV set every evening and every Saturday morning. Not only did we have cartoons, lots of cartoons, but we had ventriloquists with their puppets, or dummies as they were called. Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff, Lambchop, Danny O'Day, and Farfel the Dog were just some of the puppets around at the time. Like Howdy Doody, they often had their own shows and kids watched them every night. Farfel the Dog was a "spokesdog" for Nestle's Chocolate. Convinced me. Here's a Danny O'Day doll from GrannysCranny.etsy.com shop. Just looking at him makes you want to sing about chocolate milk.