Fruit Cake - Friend or Foe (Advent Calendar - Day 14)

A guest blogging appearance from my mom, to discuss Fruitcake:

I never knew, growing up, that some people just didn't like fruit cake. It was just a given that at Christmas time fruitcake was in the store and we always got one. I remember it was the Old Fashion Fruit cake. It's been a long time since I had any fruit cake so I told Valerie that in honor of the blog today, we would just have to run down to Kroger's and get one. I remembered it had very distinctive label with white, black and red and said OLD FASHIONED on the label and I would know it when I saw it. Sure enough there it was. Several displays filled with old fashioned goodness. The name is Claxton's Old Fashioned Fruit cake and little did I know that it is made right here in Georgia in the town of Claxton.

I don't know when Mama quit buying fruitcake but I do remember she made one once. It turned out to be quite expensive because of all the candied fruit she had to buy. You couldn't find a container with all the different fruit mixed up. And then there were nuts also. And you had to have rum. We were a non alcoholic household but she found out she could use non alcoholic artificial rum flavoring. It didn't actually go into the cake, she poured it into a little glass that sat down in the hole in the center of the cake and sealed it up in a tin so the flavor would seep in. I don't think it turned out like Mama expected but I thought it was good.

Valerie read the label and we found out the fruitcake is best when chilled so it is in the fridge now. Maybe that's why some people don't like fruitcake. Maybe they just don't know to chill it. And that brings up another point. . . Why do people re-gift? Why give someone something you don't like. Do they really think "WOW! What a great gift! I think I'll give it to someone else!" I have never re-gifted fruitcake but then I've never given it as a gift either. I know my kids just don't eat things with nuts in it. They don't like the crunch. Kenny, my husband doesn't seem to care for fruitcake either so it looks like this one will be all mine. Maybe I'll call my sister and find out if she likes fruitcake. Maybe we'll start a new tradition and share this one. Of course if she doesn't I have a feeling it will keep a long time in the fridge.

So how do you feel about fruitcake?

In The Kitchen - Carrot Cake

For the three major holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter) there were certain dishes that each family member was responsible for. For my mom, one of those was Carrot Cake. This recipe comes from a bag of Colonial Sugar. My grandmama found it after trying many recipes. She said that it was the cake closest to what she was looking for.

For me, the making of this cake is required for the holidays - even though I don't hardly eat it. If we didn't have this cake on the table, it wouldn't be the holidays.

Here's the recipe, on the cards my Grandmama originally wrote them on:

In The Kitchen - Salmon Patties

This is one of my absolute favorites! And it's easy.

Ingredients:
3 cans of Salmon (boneless & skinless)
3 eggs
2 heaping soup spoons of sea food flour
1 heaping tsp cornmeal

Instructions:
Mix it all (not too dry!) and fry it in a pan of veggie or canola oil.

Try putting a pattie between a biscuit and have a salmon pattie sandwich - yum!

Monday Memories - Dinner Time, pt 2

This is the second part of an interview I did with my mom about dinner time when she was a child. The first part of the interview was about home cooked meals. This second part is about fast food - something that was brand new at the time.

(audio not visible in some blog readers)