Carrot Cake

This is from the recipe drawer of Ora. Now I never had a chance to dig through Ora's recipe drawer, but passed around the family, as all amazing recipes are, I do have this recipe in my own recipe journal. I am sure that I wrote it down from some slip of paper that my mom had, but I don't have a picture of the old recipe. So that means you are going to have to use your imagination to picture this fantastic decadent cake.

• 2 c. sugar
• 1 1/2 c. oil
• 3 eggs
• 3 c. flour
• 2 t. baking soda
• 2 t. salt
• 1 t. cinnamon
• 3 c. grated carrots
• 1 c. chopped pecans
• 1 t. vanilla
• 1  - 20 oz. can crushed pineapple, untrained
• 1 c. raisins

*Preheat oven to 350°.
*Cream together sugar, oil and eggs.
*In another bowl, blend together flour, soda, salt, and cinnamon. Add to creamed mixture.
*Then add remaining ingredients.
*Grease and flour layer cake pans or a 9 x 13 baking dish. Add batter to pans.
*Bake layers for 30-35 or 9 x 13 for 1 hour.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 1 box of powdered sugar
• 1 stick of butter
• 8 oz. cream cheese
• 1 t. vanilla

*Sprinkle top of cake with chopped pecans.

Although there are no specific directions on the frosting, I am quite sure it is straightforward.  I am hoping you will give this one a try. It is extraordinary!

Salmon Ball

This is from the recipe drawer of Maxine.  So as I came across this recipe it made me wonder just how many different ways can you mix up cream cheese with a variety of ingredients to serve in a ball shape with crackers?  It seems that we are pretty obsessed with cream cheese balls...well, I know that I for one love them!!!

1 - 1lb can salmon

1 - 8oz pkg cream cheese

1 - T. lemon juice

2 - teaspoon grated onion

1 - teaspoon horseradish

1/4 - teaspoon salt

1/4 - teaspoon liquid smoke

1/2 cup chopped pecans

3 Tablespoon parsley

Drain & flake salmon; remove any skin or bones

Combine the salmon & cream cheese and all seasoning

Mix thorly (I assume this means "thoroughly")

Combine the pecan & parsley

Shape salmon in ball

Roll in nut mixture

Chill well

Serve with assorted or rye crackers

I must admit...this is a little more sophisticated than most cheese balls I am familiar with.  Maybe I'll try it for the next game and see if I can "up" the sophistication just a little bit.

Corn Dip

This recipe is from the drawer of Maxine.  As we near the beginning of football season, many of us begin to look to our stand by dip recipes... and then we begin to wonder if there are any "new" dip recipes we could try this year.  Well, I found one in Maxine's drawer.  So maybe this one will sound good enough for you to try, and see if you want to add it to your recipe standbys.

8 oz.  1 pkg. cream cheese
1 pkg. ranch dressing mix
1 can whole corn (drained)
1 can chopped black olives (drained)
Green or Red pepper (chopped)
Green chilies  4 oz  (chopped)

Serve - Lg. corn chips (scoops)

Well, I have to tell you, that I spent quite a bit of time having to decipher that first line.  I couldn't understand what "83" meant.  You know, this is one of the ways that recipes like this, that are hand-written, get changed and tweaked; sometimes it can be difficult to read the hand writing.  But I definitely think that the 8 oz makes since, especially since we are talking about cream cheese.

Another way that recipes get changed, is if the new cook doesn't particularly like one of the ingredients.  If I decide to make this dip, it will not have black olives in it.  So, it will be just a little different than Maxine's.  What we won't ever know, is if her version was maybe just a little different than the person she got it from.  Happy dipping!

Hummingbird Cake

This is from the recipe drawer of Maxine.  Hummingbird Cake...it is certainly a traditional, southern dessert.  This is my sister's favorite cake.  And since her birthday is this month, I thought this recipe would be appropriate. I remember my mom making this cake, but only on very special occasions.

3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 - 8 oz. can crushed pineapple
2 cups chopped bannana
1 cup nuts

1.  Sift dry ingredients together.
2.  Add all others
3.  Stir until mixed well - do not beat
4.  Bake in 10" tube pan 350 degree oven 1 hour 10 mins or until cooked.  Cool in pan.

Frosting

2 - 3 oz. cream cheese - softened
1 stick margarine
1 tsp. vanilla
1 box confectionery sugar

Since I knew that this was my sister's favorite cake, and I have actually made it for her a couple of times from a recipe my mom gave me, I thought I would look up her recipe and see if there was very much of a difference.  What I found was an almost identical recipe...the only differences were these:

*2 cups of nuts instead of 1
*Bake in 3 layer cake pans instead of a tube pan.  Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.
*Basically double the frosting recipe:  2 - 8 oz packages of cream cheese, 2 sticks of margarine, 2 tsp. vanilla and 2 boxes of confectionery sugar.  This will be enough to frost the three-layer cake.

By the way... I can highly recommend this cake, but be careful... it is very rich!