I’ve been keeping myself happily busy.

We had such a delightful break with Don off of work for three weeks that I’ve been able to keep the momentum going. During Don’s time home, and the boys’ holiday break, we did a lot of cooking and baking in the kitchen. I don’t know if his siblings would find it surprising that Don’s a rather good cook and gets excited to try new recipes or not, but it’s a treat for me to have some of the meal planning “stress” taken off my shoulders once in a while. 🙂 Now, this doesn’t happen on what I would consider a regular basis since he does have an erratic working schedule, which is why it tends to happen a lot when he’s on vacation time.

During break he discovered my love for the Pioneer Woman. If you’ve never been to her site, do yourself a favor and go! I’ve done several of her dishes in the past, comparing outcomes with my Sister-in-Law Jenna for the past couple of years, and now with my Sister-in-Law Heather, too. (I have a lot of Sisters-in-Law, which I enjoy; having come from a family of two) Don would either go on-line or pull her cookbook off of the shelf and we’d decide what we’re having for dinner that day. I’d make up the shopping list and he’d go to the grocery store, which I greatly appreciated, then return ready to cook. It was nice to only worry about getting part, if any, of the meal done.

This cooking frenzy led to me getting to a family recipe that I’ve been meaning to make for my Dad for years, which you see in the picture above. Years ago I pilfered the recipe collection my Grandma Arlie (my Dad’s Mom) made many, many years ago. It’s a double ring, hand-typed treasure trove of recipes from her. The recipes are divided into sections and the recipe cards have beautifully yellowed around the edges from age. I believe she typed a set up for each of her five children’s families. (Good gracious, I hope I remembered all my Aunts correctly or it’s off to Genealogy Boot Camp for me) I can’t begin to imagine the time it took. I remember typing on a typewriter.

I’ve spent a lot of time looking thru the recipes and mentally noting the ones I remember her making. She passed away when I was still in Elementary School, so having the recipes reminds me of the happy memories I have of arriving to my Grandparents’ home for family vacations. Grandma’s cookie jar was always full of freshly baked cookies. The kitchen was quaint, with a pull out dishwasher and a delightful collection of glasses with cartoon characters such as Tom and Jerry. I loved those glasses.

Out of all the recipes in the collection, there’s been one that stood out in my mind and, honestly, disturbed me.

Sauerkraut Cake.

2/3 cups of sauerkraut.

My Dad’s been insisting that you’d never know there was sauerkraut in the cake, that’d you’d only think it was “just a good chocolate cake!” His words.

I finally made it this year, in the form of cupcakes.

And you know what? It’s just a good chocolate cake!

You’d never know there was sauerkraut in the cake.

And we passed them out, never telling what was in them.

Nobody has died.

I wonder what’ll happen if they read this and realize they were one of the recipients of the sauerkraut cupcakes.

I think I’ll try my Grandma’s Potato Chip Cookie recipe next.