Grandma's Brownstone Front Cake

After organizing all the cookbooks in our new place, I decided I should really go through and try to use some recipes from each of the books.  I decided to start with the personal cookbooks that I have.  Back home in Indiana, it is a quite common fundraiser to come up with a cookbook to sell.  My mother had several from schools, churches and even festivals.  And some of them made their way into my bag when I moved out.

My childhood church, Banquo Christian Church, compiled a book for its 100th anniversary celebration back in 2000.  It has so many great comfort food recipes and lots of dessert ideas.  My grandmother has a few in there, and one caught my eye that I'd never seen before.  Apparently, this was a cake that her mother (my great grandmother, Lela) used to make for birthdays, often with colored buttercream icing.

Bingo!  I found a way to combine two of my hobbies- baking with genealogy.  I have dabbled in genealogy for over a decade now, and I love finding any kind of artifacts that are associated with my ancestors.  I have mainly focused on census records, obituaries, biographies, photographs and headstone images.  I have pretty much collected most of what is available, so my new goal is to try to find recipes that have been made by my ancestors.  I know that I have a pretty good start already in the materials I have in my home, and my other grandmother showed me stacks and stacks of recipes she has from her mother.  I'm planning to start adding some of these family recipes (as well as some genealogy tips) to this ever eclectic blog.

But back to this cake.  When I did a little research, I found that this was possibly named (its origins aren't really clear) based upon the brownstone houses in New York City.  With that information, and the fact that we just moved into our own townhouse, I knew I should go ahead and put this on my "to-bake" list.

See how it looks like a townhouse?  For a simple chocolate layer cake (all the ingredients should already be in your cupboard), it was awesome.  And I love that it has some history behind it.

Here is the recipe as in the cookbook:

Mix 1 1/2 cups sugar and 1/2 cup butter.  Add 2 eggs and mix.  Stir 1/2 cup cocoa and 1/2 cup hot water together.  Add to mixture.  Add 2 cups flour alternately with 1/2 cup milk.  Dissolve 1 teaspoon baking soda in small amount of hot water and add to mixture.  Add 1 teaspoon vanilla and beat well.  Bake in 2 greased and floured pans at 350 for 30 minutes.

Since the recipe doesn't describe the pans, I decided to use two loaf pans to give it the tall, thin townhouse look.  Brian made a quick butter and powdered sugar icing recipe and finished it up for me.  You could decide to make it into more layers, use a glaze, or even add some caramel into the icing or filling.  That part is up to you.

My great-grandmother Lela was born in 1906.  She was the oldest of the six girls in her family.  She did not marry until she was 35, and then married a widower with 5 children.  She had one daughter, my grandmother.  Her husband died when she was 42  Below is one of my favorite photos, with this family.  My grandma is the youngest girl in the pink hat.  It was for these children's birthdays that this brownstone front cake was made.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

The farmer's market opened up here recently, so we just had to start summer off with some strawberry rhubarb pie. I use an old recipe from a cookbook that was Brian's grandma's (Farm Journal's Complete Pie Cookbook-1965), and it is fail proof. You will need two crusts of your choosing to go with this recipe.

Combine 1 1/4 cup sugar, 1/8 tsp salt, and 1/3 cup flour.

Prepare 2 cups fresh strawberries and 2 cups (1" pieces) fresh rhubarb

Arrange half of the fruit in a pastry-lined 9" pie pan. Sprinkle with half the sugar mixture. Repeat with remaining fruit and sugar mixture. Dot with 2 Tbsp butter.

Adjust top or lattice however you would like, and brush with cold water and sprinkle on 1 Tbsp sugar. Cut steam vents if using a full top.

Bake in hot oven (425 degrees) 40-50 minutes or until rhubarb is tender and crust is browned.

Theodore approves of this recipe.

Grandma's Graduation

With both his great grandmas!

Feb. 22-23 Getting Theodore Joseph...

So... we have our son! After a long day, with little sleep, Brian and I became the parents of a bouncing brunette baby boy. Here is a breakdown of the timeline:

8:55 pm- We check in at the maternity ward. Actually, they didn't have our paperwork and we had to wait until they contacted the doc before we could check in... I was a little panicked that we weren't going to get to be induced.

9:15 pm- For about 45 minutes we sit in the waiting room upstairs, waiting for a room to open up. The hospital has 16 delivery rooms, we are taken to room 15.11:30 pm- By this time we have received the introduction to the unit, and I'm in bed with my IV in. The first doctor I will see comes in and starts to get me ready. The goal is to get me to 10 cm, and I'm starting at about 2. They do a procedure that should take all night, but I am farther along than they think so I get to 3 cm in a matter of seconds. We are then encouraged to sleep... me in an uncomfortable bed, with monitors attached and an IV pumping me full of fluids. Brian on a small little mattress in a very drafty part of the room. Needless to say, neither of us got very much sleep.

5:30 am- Now the ball really gets rolling. They start me on the oxytocin, which should start my contractions.

8:00 am- I am already having small contractions, and they break my water. I cannot believe just how much water there is!! For the rest of labor I will be releasing more and more water. Over the next hour my contractions get very strong and get very close together! Brian guides me through our relaxation exercises and breathing. As the contractions increase to 90 seconds apart I decide I will go ahead and try an epidural.

9:00 am- Epidural in. I'm asleep within the next half hour.

12:00 noon- I'm at 5 cm. They estimate that I'll be progressing at 1 cm an hour, and should have the baby by 5.

1:15 pm- I'm already up to 7 cm!! I'm very excited that labor is progressing so quickly.

3:00 pm- Still at 7 cm. The doctor starts to suggest we may need a C-section...

4:00 pm- Still at 7 cm. Feeling a lot of pressure with each contraction.

5:00 pm- Still at 7 cm. I puke all over the place! Something is not right between my stomach and bladder... The doctor strongly suggests we go through with a C-section. The baby doesn't be seeming to come down right, which is why I can't get the last 3 cm that I need. I'm pretty upset by this, but am in a lot of pain and very frustrated that nothing has changed in the past 4 hours except the pain getting stronger and the epidural wearing off. We agree to the procedure. There are already a few people in front of us in line, so it is going to be a while.

6:00 pm-The nurses get us ready for the procedure, I receive a spinal, and get sick again from that. Time starts moving very fast!

6:30ish-We get to the Freezing operating room and the c-section begins.

6:47-Brian gets to see Theodore for the first time! Due to his white blond eyebrows, and tints of red in his hair, every nurse and doctor proclaims a different hair color! But everyone tells me how beautiful he is.

6:58-Brian cuts the cord. Theodore has an APGAR of 9. Minus one the for color of his hands and feet.

7:00-His weight is taken... just shy of 9 pounds at 8 lbs, 15.6 oz. He's also 22 inches long!

7:01- I finally get to see my son up close. I am shaking pretty bad, and strapped down to the table, but I can still kiss him.
7:05- Getting his footprints.
7:30- I FINALLY get to hold my son after they have stitched me up (first stitches I have EVER gotten). We then travel to recovery where we spend about 4 hours... Theodore cries quite a bit, but eventually settles down. Brian does a great job with him while I'm still coming out of the shock and numbness that my body has just gone through. He gets to meet his Grandma Knight here.

Around midnight we are released from recovery and wheeled up to the maternity ward. Brian pretty much passes out at this point and doesn't remember much more... however I remember the nurse giving Theodore his first bath, and getting woken up a few hours later for an assessment and meds.
Our hospital does "rooming-in" (no nursery) so from this point forward, we are totally responsible for little Theodore, and our world has changed forever!
*We didn't officially name him for about 24 hours.*