One hundred and eight years ago today, Fannie Merritt Farmer opened the door to Miss Farmer’s School of Cookery in Boston. 

I’m sure most of you have at least heard the name Fannie Farmer and are aware that there is a famous cookbook that bears her name.  But how much do you know about the woman herself?  Fannie Farmer was a woman of keen intelligence, unusual motivation, avid curiosity and personal courage.

Fannie, born in 1857 in Medford, MA, to Mary Watson Merritt and John Franklin Farmer, was the oldest of four daughters.  Her father was an editor and printer and both parents placed a high value on education – it was expected that Fannie would go to college.  However, when Fannie was 16 she suffered a paralytic stroke and could not continue her education.  For a number of years after her stroke she was unable to walk and remained in her parents’ care.  It was during this time that Fannie developed an interest in cooking. 

At the age of 30, Fannie, who now walked (though she would have a pronounced limp for the remainder of her years), enrolled in the Boston Cooking School. This was at the height of the domestic science movement and the school utilized a scientific approach to cooking and food preparation.  It also trained women to become cooking teachers at a time when their opportunities for employment were limited.  Fannie attended the school for two years, learning what was considered the most crucial elements of the science – nutrition and diet for the healthy person, cooking for convalescents, methods of cleaning and sanitation, techniques of baking and cooking, and general household management.  During her time as a student, Fannie studied under Mary J. Lincoln, who published the Boston Cooking-School Cook Book.  This cookbook was used in a number of cooking schools, most of which were established for the training of professional cooks and cooking instructors.

Fannie proved herself to be one of the school’s more outstanding students and was kept on as assistant to the director after she graduated.  During this time, Fannie started exploring the association between eating and health.  She went so far as to take a summer course at Harvard Medical School to aid in her understanding of this connection.  Eventually she was appointed school principal and then, in 1894, director.  It was just two years later, in 1896, that Fannie revised and reissued The Boston Cooking School Cookbook.  The publication of Fannie’s book was a highly significant event in cooking history.  Before this publication, ingredient measurements were imprecise, using  subjective notations such as ‘the size of an egg’ or ‘a teacup full’.  Such vague measurements made it very difficult to duplicate results from cook to cook.  Fannie’s cookbook introduced the idea of using standardized measuring utensils with an emphasis on taking care to use level measurements..  In addition to the more than 1800 recipes, the book included scientific explanations of the chemical processes that occur during cooking as well as essays on housekeeping, the importance of cleanliness in the kitchen, canning and drying produce and nutritional information.

Little, Brown & Company, who produced the book, had doubts that the book would do well and so only produced 3000 copies, which were published at the author’s expense.  However, the book proved so popular that Fannie saw twenty-one editions printed during her lifetime.  It has remained a standard work and it is still available in print today, over 100 years later.

Fannie continued to serve as director of the Boston Cooking School for eleven years, then resigned and went on to establish her own school.  Miss Farmer’s School of Cookery, as it was known,  emphasized the practice of cookery rather than just theory.  Its target students were housewives rather than future academics.  Fannie also focused on developing cooking equipment for the sick and disabled.  She became a highly respected authority in this field and was invited to deliver lectures to nurses, women’s clubs and even the Harvard Medical School.  Her lectures were printed by newspapers across the country making her influence widespread and her name a household word.  She also wrote a popular cooking column for a national magazine, the Woman’s Home Companion, which ran for ten years.

In addition to the 1896 Boston Cooking-School Cookbook (Later known simply as the Fannie Farmer Cookbook), Fannie published five other cookbooks.  They are:

• Chafing Dish Possibilities,  1898.
• Food and Cookery for the Sick and Convalescent, 1904.
• What to Have for Dinner,  1905.
• Catering for Special Occasions, with Menus and Recipes, 1911.
• A New Book of Cookery, 1912.

Later in life, Fannie suffered a second paralytic stroke that confined her to a wheelchair for the last seven years of her life.  However, that did not prevent her from carrying on her responsibilities.  She continued to lecture, write, invent recipes and travel.   In fact, just ten days before her death, she delivered a lecture from her wheelchair.  Fannie died in 1915 at the age of 57.

For those of you interested in taking a look at the original 1896 Boston Cooking-School Cookbook here is a link to the online version  http://www.bartleby.com/87/

Hello everyone.  I’m going to be out of town most of the day today on family business but thought I’d offer you this short post sharing some links I like to visit from time to time.  The first group is provides links to several sites that list cowboy slang and idioms along with definitons and usage.  The second is a group of links to cowboy recipes – I especially like the cowboy candy, but warning – it is not for those who shy away from spicy dishes!

Links to COWBOY WORDS & WISDOM

Western Slang & Phrases

Old Slang, Lingo, & Phrases 

Famous Cowboy Sayings of the Wild West and Modern Day

Cowboy Bob’s Dictionary

Cool Western Slang

Cowboy Quotes, Sayings and Wisdom

Links to COWBOY & TRAIL RECIPES 

Cowboy and Ranch Recipes

Old West Cookin’ 

Cowboys Recipes That’ll Put Hair on Your Chest 

Cowboy Cooking Trail Recipes 

Cowboy Candy Recipes!

Hello everyone.  I’m coming off of a hectic week.  My local writer’s group, the NOLA STARs, held their annual conference this past weekend (had a great time!), and since I was co-chair of the event I’ve been head’s-down busy for the past several days.  (Side note – fellow filly Tracy Garrett was there so we had fun catching up with each other). 

Anyway, I’m using this as an excuse to cheat a little.  Rather than drafting something original, I’m going to give you an excerpt form a 1902 cookbook titled Crumbs From Everybody’s Table.  This cookbook was compiled by Mrs. R.L.Porter and Mrs. H.S.Ball for the ladies of St. Paul’s Guild of Salinas, CA.

The dedication of this book is one I particularly love:  DEDICATED To those plucky Housekeepers who master their own work instead of letting it master them.

The excerpt I want to give you is not recipes but is instead taken from a section of household hints titled Things Well Worth Knowing.

• To keep celery two weeks, roll it in a brown bag, then in a towel, and store n a cool place.  Before serving, place celery in a pan of ice-cool water for one hour
• To restore curdled mayonnaise, place a tablespoon of butter in a round-bottomed pan and gradually work in the mayonnaise.
• To prevent cracking and chipping of new enameled cooking utensils, keep the insides greased with butter.
• To clean bottles, decanters, and glass jugs, cut a lemon into small pieces, put into the glass container with a little water, and shake vigorously.   A slice of potato may be substituted for the lemon.
• To prevent glass from breaking when pouring hot water into glassware, first put in a silver spoon or fork, and then pour the liquid.  Allow the silver to remain in the glassware for a few minutes.
• To ensure the best textured baked potato, leave the skin on and cut off a small piece at the end before placing in the oven.  When done, take the potato out with a cloth and pres all the sides well with hands
• To prevent scalded milk form curdling, add a pinch of soda before cooking
• To get rid of a fish bone stuck in the throat, immediately swallow a raw egg
• To remove wine stains, pour boiling water on the splotch before it has time to dry, and then let it remain in boiling water for a few minutes.
• To clean zinc, use a piece of soft flannel moistened with kerosene.  To clean badly tarnished brass, rub it  with salt and vinegar, or oxalic acid.  Wash with soap and water and then polish brass vigorously.
• To freshen the air in a room, place half an ounce of spirits of lavender and a lump of salt of ammonia in a wide-mouthed jar and leave uncovered
• To fix the colors in cotton goods, use salt.  Dissolve a pint of salt in 4 gallons of water and soak the garments for an hour.  The water must be kept cold.

I hope you enjoyed this little peek into the ingenuity of the housekeeper of yesteryear.

I love stopping by Petticoats & Pistols in the role of guest blogger.  It’s always a fantastic experience for me.   Mainly because I like to think some of the amazing-ness of the lovely, talented Fillies will rub off on me.  (Hey, a gal can hope.)  I also enjoy focusing on one of my favorite topics/passion—all things Western, especially all things Old West.

I have no idea when my fascination with the Old West first started.  Unlike my husband’s side of the family, I have no direct connections to the area.  My family came from Scotland in the early 1700s (they were outcast Highlanders).  The Andersons settled in Virginia, migrated to Georgia and ultimately ended up in Jacksonville, Florida sometime in the latter part of the nineteenth century.  But that’s a whole ‘nother story that goes back to that outcast thing.

On the other hand, my husband’s family—the Halversons—came to this country much later.  They traveled directly from Norway and settled on the fertile Midwest prairie.  This was really just an interesting factoid to me until I signed on to write my latest Love Inspired Historical, HEARTLAND WEDDING: Book 2 in the AFTER THE STORM historical continuity series.  Waving to Vicki Bylin, one of the Fillies who wrote Book 3 in the series, KANSAS COURTSHIP, which will be out next month.  Valerie Hansen wrote the Book 1, HIGH PLAINS BRIDE, which came out last month.  Both books are fabulous!!!

But I digress.  One of the great things about HEARTLAND WEDDING is that it features a Norwegian Immigrant heroine.  Rebecca Gundersen is a cook at the local boarding house in High Plains, Kansas.  I loved researching Rebecca’s background because it afforded me the opportunity to explore my husband’s heritage as well.   

In my research, I came across many of the reasons why people left Norway.  I’m going to give you what I think are the top six.

1. The promise of fertile land.  This was true of many of the pioneers, but especially true of the majority of the emigrants from Norway.  These Scandinavians were mostly farmers.  Settling in the Great Plains made sense, especially the Dakotas, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.  This area was often called “New Norway” since over eighty percent of Norwegian immigration settled there.
2. Heavy promotion by emigration agents and newspapers.  These entities worked tirelessly to advertise the benefits of a new life in the United States.  The Norwegians liked what they heard and took a chance on the promise of a new life.
3. Railroad and mining companies promoted the stellar employment opportunities.  Jobs in American cities also offered more work at higher wages than was available in Norway at the time.  Are we seeing a pattern here?  Opportunity, opportunity, opportunity.
4. Handbooks were published and distributed throughout Europe, and especially Norway, praising the climate and stellar living conditions in the United States.
5. Political freedom and the opportunity to vote.  Although there wasn’t universal voting in the United States in the nineteenth century, the right to vote in Norway was only available to an elite minority of the population.  The majority of the Norwegians who came to the United States were not in the upper class.
6. Word of mouth, or rather letters sent to friends and families back home.  The sender often urged the receiver to join them in America. 

So, there you have it, the top reasons for Norwegian (and most other) immigration to the United States in the nineteenth century.  Aside from learning about the Norwegian’s motives, one my biggest pleasures throughout the research phase of this book was learning how to cook some of my husband’s favorite Norwegian dishes.  Most of Norway is above the Arctic Circle so of course these dishes are rather harder.  

Although I was bred on southern cooking, I took it upon myself to make a few of the easier Norwegian recipes in my own kitchen.  Unfortunately, I managed to fail more often than not.  I will never mastered Kumla, one of my husband’s favorites.  Essentially, Kumla is potato dumplings plopped into a boiling broth and cooked until the dumplings are cooked through the middle.  Not as easy as it sounds.  Here’s a typical recipe for Kumla:

 
Cover with water about 1/2 the depth of ham.
Boil from 2 – 3 hrs., or until tender and done.
Cook the ham in a large kettle with a lid.
When the ham is done, take out of the broth to be served later with the potato dumplings.

How you make the Dumplings:
Start preparing the dumplings about an hour before the ham is done.
5 cups grated and peeled raw potatoes
About 6 cups unsifted flour
9 tsp. baking powder, should be level

Taste the broth to see if it is salty- if not salty add 1 tsp. or a little more salt.
Mix flour, baking powder and salt together. Add to the grated raw potatoes.
Stir together, should be like biscuit dough.

Take some of the dough the size of a small baseball, roll in flour to absorb some of the
stickiness, shape into round dumplings with your hands- drop into boiling ham broth.

Boil very gently for 1 hour, turning dumplings for more even cooking.
Do not put too many in kettle, allow some room to raise.  Use the cover when boiling dumplings.  Serve with lots of butter!

ENJOY!  If you dare.  Remember, most Norwegian recipes are very, uh…hardy.  This one more than others.

Thanks again, to all the Fillies for having me here.  I’m giving away three copies of HEARTLAND WEDDING.  Leave a comment and you’ll be entered in the drawing.

Renee Ryan is a multi-published author with Steeple Hill.  She writes for both Love Inspired and Love Inspired Historical.  Find out more about her upcoming releases at www.reneeryan.com

Thanks to everyone who stopped by Wildflower Junction today and left a comment. It was a pleasure to visit with you.

 I placed all of your names in my cowboy hat and drew out three:

Vickie McDonough

Julie Steele

Karyn Gerard

Please send your address to me at: SaintJohn@aol.com, and I’ll get your autographed book out to you!

And for the rest of you, I’m posting the recipe for the cake that’s in the picture with my critique group. A couple of you mentioned it, and it’s one of my favorites to make and serve. I got the recipe from a neighbor many years ago, and have made it regularly since. Enjoy!

The super easy recipe calls for a Bundt cake pan. I have a silicone Bundt pan now and LOVE it! You just stick it in the dishwater and when it’s dry, stuff it into a baggie and tuck it away. I also have silicone muffin pans. Best invention ever! No more rusted tin or scraped-up Teflon.

 Black Forest Cherry Cake

1 pkg (2 layer) chocolate cake mix (not pudding in the mix)

¼ cup olive or canola oil

3 eggs

2 cans (21 oz each) cherry pie filling

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine oil and eggs with a wire whisk. Add one can of cherry pie filling and beat with electric mixer until batter is smooth.

Pour into sprayed 12 cup Bundt pan and bake 45 minutes or until done. Cool in pan about 20-25 minutes, then invert onto rack to finish cooling. If you use a silicone pan, you can cool a little longer and the cake won’t stick, then invert directly onto cake plate.

Heat the other can of cherry pie filling and pour over the top and into the center of the cake. Slice and serve with whipped topping.

We’re going to start and end this week with research books. On Monday, Winnie gave us a wonderful look at a book containing information and recipes from San Francisco in the late 1800s. Now I want to share a really cool book I discovered a couple of years ago. I mentioned it during our fun week of recipes back in September, but I didn’t get into what a truly great research resource this is.

THE ORIGINAL WHITE HOUSE COOKBOOK

A Comprehensive Cyclopedia of Information for the Home,

Mrs. P.L. Gillette & Steward of the White House Mr. Hugo Ziemann, 1887 Edition

To the

Wives of Our Presidents,

Those Noble Women who have

Graced the White House,

And whose Names and Memories

Are dear to all Americans,

This Volume

 Is affectionately dedicated

The Original White House Cook Book has a wealth of information that isn’t restricted to a single locale, a single setting in our history. There are complete menus showing family dinners or how a fancy dinner was put together in the late nineteenth century in America; dyeing or coloring cloth–and eyebrows; how to repair a hole in a silk gown; even table etiquette.

Here’s an example. General Grant’s Birthday Dinner started with clams, went to Consomme Imperatrice Bisque de Crabes (crab bisque), then to a variety of hors d’oeuvres, followed by trout, mushrooms, filet of beef… and then they got to the entrees! They served chicken and veal with green beans and asparagus, followed by sorbet to cleanse the pallet. Next came squab and salad, then fruits and pastries. The meal ended with glace, or glazed fruit, petit fours and coffee.

I feel stuffed just reading about it.

The book includes the seating arrangements for a dinner when the President was in attendance, how glassware should arranged on the tables, even what to put in the ladies’ corsages and the men’s boutonnieres.

Toward the back of the volume is a section dedicated to caring for those who visit the White House; how colds are caught; how to clean black lace; and how to render muslin clothing less likely to catch fire. In the author’s words: “Remember this and save the lives of your children.”

You can even learn how to make Rose Water or Bay Rum, Cold Cream or Hair Invigorator. Or my particular favorite, how to remove freckles. And no, I haven’t tried it yet – but I might.

This is a fun book with a wealth of helpful information. For example, if your heroine is a mail-order bride who grew up working in a wealthy household, you can find what kinds of skills she might have learned in this book.

THE ORIGINAL WHITE HOUSE COOKBOOK 1887 Edition, Mrs. P.L. Gillette & Steward of the White House Mr. Hugo Ziemann [I located it on Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com; Borders.com has a different edition available]

Have you discovered a research book that you feel is exceptional? Share it, please.

As I’ve mentioned here before, I love browsing thrift stores for old books. I came across one the other day that just called out to me – Sumptuous Dining In Gaslight San Francisco 1875-1915. Its sub-title is ‘Lost Recipes, Culinary Secrets, Flambouyant People, and Fabled Saloons and Restaurants from a Golden Era’ – how’s that for intriguing.   The inside jacket reads, in part “From the bawdy Barbary Coast to imperious Nob Hill, San Francisco has always projected a vitality and playfully corrupt character that are irresistible to all. And nowhere is this style more gloriously reflected than in the city’s fabled cuisine.”
There are a multitude of wonderful tidbits in this book about the people, eating establishments and social mores of the time. But what I thought I’d share with you today are just a few of the recipes, along with the snippets of information that went along with them, that are contained within the pages of the book. Naturally, I focused on the desserts. 
According to the author some of the original recipes have been slightly modified to take current cooking methods into account.  So let’s take a look at a few of these recipes and their stories:

Charles Schmidt was the chef at the Old Poodle Dog restaurant (don’t you just love that name?). He shared one of his most elegant dessert recipes with the folks at Sperry Products to advance the sales of their flour and so the recipe has been preserved to this day.

SOUFFLE ROTHSCHILD

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons sugar
8 macaroons
Brandy, to cook’s touch
½ cup milk
1 tablespoon flour
3 eggs, separated
1 ounce glace fruit, chopped into small pieces
½ ounce semi-sweet chocolate, grated

Preheat oven to 350F. Rub a tablespoon of the butter inside a medium sized soufflé mold and sprinkle it with a teaspoon of sugar. Crumble the macaroons into a little Brandy, and let them soak for several minutes. Boil half the milk with 2 tablespoons of sugar. Dissolve the flour in the remaining cold milk, add this to the boiled milk and cook it for 2 minutes. Remove the milk from the heat to cool before adding the egg yolks, thoroughly beaten. Bring the mixture to a slight boil, then remove it from the heat. Beat the whites of the eggs and the remaining teaspoonful of sugar until stiff peaks form, and fold them into the warm soufflé mixture. Then, in quick steps, pour half of it into the mold and top it with the fruit pieces, crumbled macaroons and grated chocolate. Pour in the rest of the soufflé mixture and slide it into the preheated oven. Bake the soufflé for 25 minutes and serve it at once.

———————————————————–

Delmonico’s. one of the five great restaurants of San Francisco of this era, burned down in the Great Fire of 1906. The following recipe, which is popular to this day, was developed in remembrance of this disaster.

FRIED CREAM

1 pint heavy cream
3 teaspoons white rum, plus additional for flambéing
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup sugar
1 stick cinnamon
3 tablespoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons milk
3 egg yolks
1/3 cup finely grated almonds
1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup saltine crackers
Oil

In a small saucepan, scald the heavy cream. Add the rum, salt, sugar, cinnamon, and cornstarch. Dissolve ingredients in the milk. Simmer long enough to remove the starchy taste, then add the egg yolks and transfer the cream to the top of a double boiler. Over boiling water, cook it, stirring constantly, until it is thick. Remove the cinnamon stick and pour the cream into a flat dish to a depth of about ¾ inch. When the cream is cool and firm, turn over the dish and slide the cream out on a flat board. Cut the cream into oblongs and roll in the finely grated almonds. Then dip each oblong in the beaten whole egg and roll it gently in cracker crumbs. Chill the cream. When it is firm, fry the oblongs in oil heated to 400 degrees F just long enough to turn the almonds golden. Pour additional white rum over the fried cream, carefully set it afire and serve the dessert flaming.

———————————————————–

After the Gold Rush, an increasing number of no-nonsense Yankee women arrived in San Francisco, ready to set up housekeeping with their own brand of strict traditions and overall thriftiness. The following recipe was taken from an 1872 collection and printed in its original form

CANDIED ROSE LEAVES

Select the desired quantity of perfect rose leaves, spread them on an inverted sieve and let them stand in the air until slightly dried but not crisp. Make a syrup form a half-pound of granulated sugar and a half-pint of water, and boil the mixture until it spins a thread, then lift the leaves in and out of the hot syrup using a fine wire sieve. Then let the leaves stand for several hours on a slightly oiled surface. If the rose leaves then look preserved and clean they will not require a second dipping. Then melt a cup of fondant (basic vanilla icing) and add 2 drops of essence of rose and 2 drops of cochineal (herbal rose food coloring) to the melted icing. Dip the rose leaves into the mixture, one at a time. Dust with fine confectioner’s or powdered sugar and place on oiled or waxed paper to harden.     Then pick daintily and enjoy as you would candy drops!

There are many more recipes and stories just like these.  If you enjoyed reading them  I’ll be glad to share others with you from time to time.

Margaret Brownley

If you depend on a morning cup of coffee to get the old blood flowing, you can thank a bunch of frolicking goats.  According to legend, coffee was discovered more than a thousand years ago by a sleepy-eyed goat herder who noticed that a certain berry gave his goats insomnia. After making himself a berry brew–and spending the night dancing with goats–he named the concoction Kahwa, the Arab name for wine.

Though coffee became the drink of choice for rebels after the Boston Tea party, its appeal was limited.  Sold green, the chore of roasting beans baffled housewives and chuck wagon cooks alike.  According to one old timer, beans had to be clean-picked, placed single layer in a roasting pan and stirred constantly.  One burned bean would ruin the whole batch.  Once the beans were roasted, they quickly lost flavor and aroma.  The short shelf-life meant that roasted beans could be sold only in big cities. 

John Arbuckle, a Philadelphia grocer, had an idea.  Why not coat the roasted beans with something to keep them from deteriorating?  He bought a roaster and got to work. He tried coating roasted beans with a glaze consisting of Irish moss, gelatin, isinglass, white sugar and eggs and it worked.  Eventually, this glaze was simplified to only white sugar and eggs.  This coating allowed him to ship roasted beans all over the country.

Not only did John Arbuckle solve the roasted bean problem, he pretty much invented the whole concept of marketing.    He was the first to use premiums to encourage the sale of coffee.  A peppermint candy was included in each one pound bag.  “Who wants the peppermint?” was a familiar cry around chuck wagons.  This call to grind the coffee beans got a rash of volunteers.  No rough and tumble cowboy worth his salt would turn down peppermint candy.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Never one to rest on his laurels, Arbuckle next came up with a voucher plan. He printed a coupon bearing his signature on each package. A given number of coupons would earn the bearer one of a hundred items available in the Arbuckles’ catalog– the wish book of its day.  Items included everything from a toothbrush to a double-action revolver.  A young man could even order a golden wedding ring for his lady love.  Claiming to mail out 80,000 rings a year, Arbuckles became known at the biggest distributor of rings in the world.

Not only was the coffee a life saver to those early westerners, so was the packaging. Coffee was shipped in sturdy Maine fir crates, 100 one-pound bags to the lot.  The crates were used to make furniture, coffins and cradles.  The Navajo Indians even used the wood to make hogans, and the trademark flying angel that emblazoned each package of coffee adorned many a western Christmas tree. 

The next time you brew a pot of coffee, just think:  all this happened because a bunch of caffeinated animals got one man’s goat.    

Leave a comment and I’ll send one of you a pound of—what else?—Arbuckles coffee.  Yep, there’s a company in Arizona that still makes it.  If coffee’s not your cup of tea, there’s nothing to be done but send you peppermint candy instead.

Margaret’s book in bookstores now.

 She’s an outlaw; he’s a preacher. 

Both are in need of a miracle.

A Lady Like Sarah Presents Stagecoach Etiquette; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prY2q9Oasp4 

  www.margaretbrownley.com

Christmas Fruit Pizza

one pkg yellow cake mix

 (orange, butter pecan & fudge work too)

two eggs

one-fourth cup water

one-fourth cup butter

one-fourth cup packed brown sugar

one-half to one cup chopped nuts

Mix together, it will be thick. 

Spread in a circle on large cookie sheet and bake 10 -12 minutes at 350, or until golden brown. 

Cool.

Spread top with whipping cream (Cool Whip works, too). 

Use any kind of fruit to top the whipping cream. 

Melt apricot jam and brush on the fruit.

Ideas for Christmas: 

Kiwi slices cut in half for leaves. 

Strawberries cut in half for poinsettia leaves and pineapple tidbits for center of flowers. 

Green grapes work well, too.

See examples below.

Merry Christmas! 

Looking for a way to unwind from the stress and bustle of Christmas?

I have just the thing for you. It’s quick and easy and makes you feel like a pampered queen in as little as fifteen minutes.

* * * * *

SINFUL CHOCOLATE CAKE IN A MUG

1 coffee mug

4 Tbsp. cake flour (plain, not self-rising)

4 Tbsp. sugar

2 Tbsp. cocoa

1 egg

3 Tbsp. milk

3 Tbsp. oil

Small splash of vanilla

3 Tbsp. chocolate chips, optional

Add dry ingredients to mug, mix well with a fork. Add egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in milk, oil, and vanilla. Mix well. Add chips if using.

Put mug in microwave, and cook for three minutes on high. Cake will rise over the top of the mug–do not be alarmed!

Allow to cool a little; tip onto plate if desired. Eat!

(This can serve two if you want to feel less guilty.)

And if you drizzle some ice cream fudge topping over the cake while it’s still warm, you’ll think you’ve died and gone to heaven. Yummy!

Here’s a tip: Measure out the dry ingredients and store them in an airtight jar. Then when you get ready to indulge your sinful craving, just dump into your mug and add the egg, milk, oil, and vanilla.

Grab yourself a throw and sit in front of a cozy fire. It’s the ultimate guilty pleasure!

Happy New Year everyone!