On Saturday we were home all day and I cooked like a maniac. My 1955 Good Housekeeping Cookbook hasn't seen this much action in decades, I'm sure!I had the following things to accomplish:
- Saturday night's dessert (Hot-Milk Spongecake)
- The filling for the dessert (Clear Lime Filling)
- Sweet tea for a neighbor (She just had a baby and we're taking the tea with pizza and salad for a meal on Sunday)
- French toast for Sunday's breakfast (instead of stopping at the convenience store on the way to church)
- Saturday night's supper and Sunday's lunch (Potato Chowder)
I discovered two things that I need in my kitchen. One is a zester. (It was very hard to zest the lime on my grater and my knuckle became a casualty.) I also need a stand mixer. For the spongecake I had to use my hand mixer and blend it for five minutes on high. My forearm became a casualty in that activity.
I'd like to comment on the spongecake. I have never made a spongecake, but I have made an angel food cake. They are not the same. Spongecake is, well, sponge-like! It was very moist and it was fun to make. The Clear Lime Filling had lots of flavor, but was pretty gelatinous. I had hoped that it would soak into the spongecake, but it sort of just mounded up and sat there. They were both good, though.
The Potato Chowder was low in calories, but too liquid-y. We like soups that hold the spoon vertically when it is inserted.
I had TWO servings of the spongecake, so my calories were more than they would have been, but still under the 2000 calorie cap I set for last week. It was too limey and good to resist!
Calorie count: 1852
Water: 6 glasses
Exercise: Still a resounding no. I need to do something about this.
6 comments:
Wow! You are doing really well. I made tapioca pudding and had two helpings...
Yes, you need a stand mixer - a good one. wink wink
Remember all those 40s and 50s Good Housekeeping and Woman's World mags I got at that yard sale last summer? At the same yard sale was a 1950s white stand mixer.
I debated about it. I never even asked the price. I figured that it wouldn't be a good electrical risk.
Now I'm wondering if I should have gotten it?
Repent at leisure, eh?
One note about stand mixers...if you're going to get one, get a good one. Mine is a probably low/mid grade and I've been less than thrilled with it. They are so expensive, so I went for a cheaper option and well, you can tell. It doesn't mix all the ingredients well without lots of scraping of the bowl by hand...it's worth the extra expense for a slightly better one if you're going to get one.
Klutzymama--Thank you for the first-hand-experience advice. I was indeed considering one of the cheaper models and now I think I'll wait.
My sister just got a super-duper high-end model. She's been waiting for 20 years for it! She does a whole lot more baking than I do, some of it as a side job.
I'm just a beginner baker!
I'd like to add a note about stand mixers. My good old Hamilton Beach from the 50s (bought for $12 at a flea market) served me well for many years, and never screwed up a recipe from my Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook of a similar vintage. Then my husband gave me a new Kitchenaid for my birthday one year, and I haven't been able to get an old recipe to work on it for anything. New recipes are okay, but the old ones probably require some adjustment that I can't quite figure out. :-)
MJ--That is REALLY interesting. I wonder what is different?
I had a chance to buy a 1950s stand mixer last summer. I passed it up because I wasn't sure about how the wiring would hold up. Now I'm beginning to regret it because those babies were made to last, unlike the cheap stuff we have available now.
(I'm thinking about a $120 toaster oven I bought that lasted less than a year. I'm sure Kitchenaid has a higher quality level than that toaster oven!)
I really, really want a stand mixer . . .
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