Sept 1 to 3 Crazy Cake Chocolate Faiiure and Canned Chicken Soup Success

Contestant: Chocolate Crazy Cake
Original Recipe:
Flour Cooking Oil
Sugar Vinegar
Cooking Cocoa Vanilla
Soda Cold Water
Salt

Courtesy of an old Peg Bracken recipe I’ve baked off for years. As it is
egg-less, this recipe probably originated by those crafty cooks making do during
WWII.
My family loves this cake so much that it is often the requested Birthday Cake
leaving me free to concentrate on the rest of the party… It is that great, no
need for icing either…but a lovely scoop of ice cream on the side make it
terrific.

THE CHALLENGER-Crazier-Chocolate Crazy Cake with the plan to be Gluten Free,
Wheat Free, Dairy Free, Nut Free, Egg Free Goodness!
Dry Ingredients-
1 ½ Cup Arrowhead Mills Organic Brown Rice Flour www.arrowheadmills.com
3 Tbs. Hershey’s Cooking Cocoa www.hersheykitchens.com
1 Cup Sugar
1 tsp. Baking Soda
½ tsp. Salt
Wet Ingredients-
5 Tbs. Pompeian Extra Light Olive Oil www.pompeian.com
1 Tbs. Mizkan Nakano Rice Vinegar www.mizkan.com
1 tsp. Spice Club Vanilla www.ALDL.com
1 Cup Cold Water
DIRECTIONS:
Mix dry ingredients in un-greased 8x8 square pan
Make 3 grooves in the dry ingredients
Put oil in one, vanilla in next, vinegar in 3rd
Pour water over all and mix thoroughly with fork to blend until smooth and
mixed.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes until done

RESULTS: It doesn’t look so good…my cake batter was very thin after I blended it
and the usual bubbles when the vinegar touches the soda bits in the dry
ingredients didn’t happen at inclusion.

The cake baked in the normal baking time but it obviously blew up too
high and jumped over the edge of the pan as it was baking. Now it has cooked
onto the bottom of my oven so it isn’t pretty as the usual crowned top has
collapsed as well.

Now for the taste test…Lousy!
Too much soda perhaps too, but there is no glue to keep it from crumbling…not
uneatable with ice cream, but better off becoming squirrel or raccoon food. I’ll
try again soon.

SECOND THOUGHTS on FAILURE:
This rice flour/rice vinegar attempt failed so badly, both my husband
and I decided it needed to be thrown out…not even fit for the scavenger
creatures of the forest. AND I never throw away good ingredients! That’s where
our Rum Balls come from…
But it had been a tough week with my cooking buddy daughter out of town, two
sick dogs and an emotional mood to match. Soooo…with all this failure going on I
realized I’d forgotten to grease the foil muffin cups for my South Beach Diet
“Veggie Quiche Cups To Go” from Pg. 134 of the Phase One Recipes
www.SouthBeachDiet.com/Rodale or www.prevention.com/sbdiet. that I’m enjoying.
Pleased with my concoction of Daiya Foods Dairy Free Cheddar Style Shreds
www.diayafoods.com and some leftover grated peppered-jack cheese, my spinach
filing altered with healthy dash of Blessed Botanicals Planet Garlic seasoning
blend www.blessedbotanicals.com had been terrific…albeit, they all stuck to
their wrappers!

I NEEDED SOME MOOD ALTERING SUCCESS!
HENCE MY; September 3,
2010
“Crazy-Brand Chicken Noodle/Rice Soup for the Stormy Souls”

Anyone who knows me well…knows as an inspired, creative and frugal
shopper, I LOVE the damaged-discounted and discontinued section of my two local
Winn Dixie Stores; each has their own personalities and selections reflecting
the differing tastes of the shoppers who purchase there.
My Island store will offer more up-scale brands and higher-end products than the
in-town store that caters to the down-home folks; I lov’em both because of those
diversities.

But last night I concocted a wonderful soup that would reach out to all kinds of
eaters…as I was remembering the taste and family gatherings around the “End of
Harvest” Pennsylvania Dutch Chicken Corn Soup I’d eaten as a child.
But it didn’t start out that way…I began very late in the day scouring my pantry
shelves for SOMETHING to have for dinner.

Our daughter was driving in late after skirting south beside Hurricane Earl as
it traveled north threatening the Carolina coastlines. We were to meet her in
town to unpack her baggage… so the knowledge that either our dinner or her
dinner would be delayed, kept me struggling.
The result was a delightful blending of four different brands of chicken soup
reconstituted or not, per the labels directions plus the addition of a can of
Green Giants Chipotle White corn, www.greengiant.com some leftover steamed
carrots, about 8ozs. additional water after adding a single package of Goya
Brand chicken bouillon for some needed “salty-ness” and some Mrs. Dash
www.mrsdash.com …this cook’s best friend.

The four soups arrived in my pantry though the commingling of many discounted
shopping trips and the recent relocation from the North Carolina Mountains to
the combined recycled food pantry of our www.ConvertibleCooking.Com efforts.
Two are Campbell’s of Camden, N.J.,U.S.A.08103-1701 products…a 15.3 oz. “Select
Harvest Savory Chicken and Long Grained Rice” that comes in a cute heat and
serve tub I’m going to recycle under one of the African Violets that I love and
recently re-potted. For another one that’s blooming I used the clear container
top from my package of CD’s for my computer. It’s clear and water tight and
just…this is taking me down a different path from my soup!

Next I added Campbell’s Light Chicken Gumbo at 70 calories, 10 3/4ozs.and a
whopping $.83 price tag plus a can of Southgate Brand Condensed Chicken Noodle
Soup, 10.75oz. “packaged by the Vietti Foods, Div. of Choice Foods of America,
LLC, Nashville, Tenn. 37203” that more than likely hit the shelves of the Dollar
General Store in Hot Springs, N.C. before finding it’s way to Southeast Georgia
to blend it’s magic flavors with a 10.5 oz. can of Ingles www.inglesmarkets.com
Laura Lynn Brand CHICKEN NOODLE as the label proudly displays with the needed
three cans of water thrown in to reconstitute them.
At last thought if I’d had a can of cooked chicken I might have added it in just
to make it “heartier” but I added about 4ozs. cubed Firm Style Tofu from The Soy
Shop P.O. 47749 Atlanta, Ga. 30362 as I’m trying to find good ways to sneak it
in to our diet more often…and the 8oz. package had already been opened… Duh!
(Also the package tells me to write for more recipes, so I might send them this
idea!)
While tasting my way through this exercise I heard my husband from across the
room muttering;
“I hope there’s going to be more than JUST soup for dinner?”
So a DiGiorno Rising Crust frozen Supreme style pizza from Kraft Foods,
www.kraftfoods.com I had stashed away in my freezer came to mind…and Voila!

Some sliced cucumbers with a splash of vinegar for a quick salad-side, set the
oven timer for the pizza while planning ice cream for desert; and dinner was
going to be ready when ever we were ready for it. Perfect!
Now, the reason I write all this today after receiving our,
www.MonsterMotorGirl.com daughter, home safe and sound after a long and
difficult drive with her fully loaded car and trailer and TWO new rear tires
courtesy of the nice salesman at Sears, Spartanburg, S.C.; …was my man’s
reaction to my soup!

After LICKING the side of the bowl where the dribbles went down onto his plate
was to say, “An amazingly good soup!” Wow…I’m thrilled. This silly combination
of rice and noodles made my day.
Never to be duplicated in the same fashion perhaps except for another meal of
low cost dinning for three at my house…
and space for more interesting discounted and discontinued food items from the
store shelves as they present themselves to me for cooking and writing
inspiration. Savoring the sweetness of his remark tastes as good to my heart and
mind as ever a soup does on my tongue.
Almost nothing else in my kitchen of fun and frolic gives me the sense of joy I
get from “Cooking with Cans”. I love the results, the speed and efficiency and
the magic of my can opener plus I always have a meal handy when pressed, am too
busy, lazy or un-inspired by my day’s tasks.
I have a favorite “Cheesy Chowder” recipe that a college friend gave me back
when my husband was in school that has been a staple in my meal planning for 44
years…I always have those 4 cans on my pantry shelf in case an unexpected guest
arrives.

Having been taught resourcefulness as a young wife living in the snowy New
Hampshire woods, 35 miles from the nearest grocery store stays with me today,
even though my current Winn Dixie is less than 5 blocks away. A few little
tricks with cans… let me eat well at dinner and sleep well at night...

Here's to some good eating and the sweet smell of success,
Carol