Kraut Cake...You Bet!!!

  So, just yesterday I was writing about a little kraut cookbook I picked up at a rummage sale.  My curiosity got the best of me and I had to try the recipe for the chocolate sauerkraut cake. Guess what...It is delicious!!!

  Here are some pics just in case you are reading this thinking "You are full of it, there is no way that there is kraut in a cake!"

  I wish that I had a nicer picture of the finished cake but the kids would not wait one more minute before diving into the cake.  Cake is very rare in this house.

Kraut Conquers All...Chocolate Cake
2/3 C butter
1 1/2 C sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 C unsweetened cocoa
2 1/4 C sifted all-purpose flour
1 tsp each: baking soda and baking powder (oops I just noticed it was both, I only used baking soda and it turned out just fine)
1/4 tsp salt
1 C water
2/3 C rinsed, drained, and chopped sauerkraut

Thoroughly cream butter with sugar.  Beat in eggs and vanilla.  Sift together dry ingredients; add alternately with water to egg mixture (I never read ahead and I just dumped it all into my KitchenAid and it is fine).  Stir in kraut.  Turn into 2 greased and floured 8 inch square or round baking pans. Bake in 350 degree oven 30 minutes, or until cake tests done.

*I do not own two 8 inch baking pans so I baked mine in a larger dish and it took about 50 minutes.  Also, recipe calls for a mocha whipped cream frosting, but when I lifted the cream off of my raw milk and tried to make the frosting I ended up making chocolate butter.  So, my cake in the picture was frosted with a simple frosting made from milk, powdered sugar and vanilla.  Seriously, the kids were chanting "cake, cake, cake" at the table so I had to whip up something quick after the original frosting failure.

The recipe goes on to say:
Fill and frost with Mocha Whipped Cream
Whip 1 1/2 C heavy cream with 3 Tbsp sugar, 1 Tbsp instant coffee (I had left this out as it is something I do not have on hand...EVER), 2 tsp unsweetened cocoa until stiff peaks form.

After they all started to devour the cake I did let them in on my little secret, the cake was so good that no one cared! 

Kraut Conquers All

  One thing we really try to do in this family is to buy "used" whenever possible.  I hate how everything these days is made to be thrown away.  You buy a toaster today and you are lucky if the thing lasts a couple of years, I remember as a kid we had the same toaster for my entire time living at home and I am pretty sure my parents had it for a while before I came along.

  Because of my love for all things reused and upcycled I am always checking out local thrift stores and rummage sales.  I always head straight for the kitchen items and cookbooks.  I love to look for old   cookbooks that people now toss aside because they think the nourishing recipes are unhealthy.  Also, these days I have been doing most of my fermenting in fido jars so I am always on the look out for more.

  This week was the annual rummage sale for a very large Catholic church in the area.  I discovered this gem a few years ago and I look forward to it each July.  So of course the kids and I headed over the other day to see what we could find.  When we entered we went right into the kitchen section, sadly it was mostly picked over but I did come out with a 1.5 L fido jar and a few various sized stainless steel mixing bowls.  After we hit the toy section we went into the books.  My brain could hardly take it there were so many book.  The kids were looking through some boxes so I took a minute to browse the cookbooks.  Most of them made me want to gag!  I believe the one title was Microwave Gourmet, ok those two words do not even belong in the same room together.  There were literally shelves upon shelves of low fat, non fat, aspartame filled recipes so I gave up.  I turned to some boxes sitting by the windows and right in front was a small little book screaming my name!

  Put Some Kraut in Your Life published by The National Kraut Packers Association and I am guessing circa 1970's.  It is a great little 29 paged book with the history of kraut, nutritional value, and many recipes on how to add kraut into your diet.  This book has it all!  There are recipes for kraut sandwhiches,roast duck, kraut barbecue sauce, and all the way to kraut chocolate cake and Lemony Kraut Ice Cream.

Here is a photo because I know you are thinking that I am lying!  The recipe says "This rich fudge cake has a coconut-like texture and the kraut keeps it wonderfully moist and fresh for several days."

  The only thing I do not have on the Kraut Conquers All...Chocolate Cake list of ingredients is the unsweetened cocoa.  I think the kids and I will be heading to the store in the morning and tomorrow we will indulge in kraut cake!!

Little Moments

  The kids were playing on the back porch while I was sitting at the kitchen table finishing my coffee and checking emails.  Something caught my eye and when I turned to see what they were doing I was completely impressed.  Zola was making balloon animals for all of them from a kit she just bought last night!  The funny thing about the kit is we were over by a Dollar Tree and they each had a dollar and begged me to stop, so she picked up this balloon kit with a pump and of course the pump did not work.  We had a talk about how you get what you pay for and then I helped her hook up the balloons to the bicycle pump and it worked great.

Dogs and swords are her specialty.

Community Garden

  This year after planting our garden at our home, the kids kept talking about all of the things they still wanted to grow but we just did not have room for.  I decided to call about a community garden that we pass every time we drive out to my husband's work.  That one was already full for the season but the kind lady told me about a brand new one that was just starting this year.  The icing on the cake was that it was even closer as it was just up the street from our house.  The next morning we met her to look for a spot and we ended up with 2 raised boxes.

  The next day the kids and I went and bought 3 heirloom cabbage plants, 1 squash, and 1 zucchini.  After we paid for the plants the lady at the register told us that she received too many marigold plants and that each child could pick one for free.  They were tickled pink picking out their own color of flower.  We headed over to plant and when we got there we were offered up 6 chives plants if we had room to give them a home, so we gladly took them in.

At first we laughed at how pathetic our boxes looked compared to everything around us, but all it takes is a little patience! 

  While I went into this thinking it was mainly going to be the kids garden, since it is so much easier for them to work in than our garden at home, it has become so much more!  I can't believe the amazing sense of community that we have found at this garden, I never would have imagined.  I have made some great connections with people that are just as passionate about food as I am.  They have been helping us with our gardening questions, sharing food with us, and in turn I have been teaching them to ferment.  This is what I love for my kids to be seeing!!!  I hope that this childhood memory of "you share with me and I will share with you" will stay with them. 

 

Fat, Sick, and Really Depressed

My mom came out to visit us in May and a few weeks after she left she called to talk and went into a big speech about how she thinks I am depressed.  I took immediate offense to it, snapped at her, and didn't speak to her for a few days.  Then when I cooled down I wondered to myself why I was so upset by this...because she was right.

I have been in a downward spiral for many years, more specifically the last 4 years.  Four years ago my husband lost his job, I almost lost my dad, we had to move to WI from VA for a new job, and there have been many more losses since we moved to WI.  Shortly after moving here we lost the renters in the house that we still owned in VA and so we lost the house completely, my grandmother died and I was not able to get back to PA for the funeral, and I haven't been able to maintain a single friendship since I moved here.

This is not a big sob story...just me finally getting it all out instead of cramming it all deep down inside.  While I whine about the little things to people that bother me through my daily life, it is not often that I speak up about the big things.  No, I choose to go the lovely unhealthy route...I stay up late at night and gorge myself with the crappiest food I can find.  I secretly purchase chips and stuff so that my husband doesn't see the amount that I really consume.  There are other terrible habits as well but this is all I am comfortable sharing at this point.  I often laugh at myself because for how healthy I eat through the day with the kids, I do a complete 180 degree turn as soon as everyone is in bed.  My weight over the last year has really gone up, I have lost all motivation, and lately I have been having some health issues.  I cried the other night when my husband asked me what my current weight is for our new insurance.  I have never been this heavy, not even when I was pregnant.

So, here it is, I am just putting this out there because I feel like it will hold me accountable.  I am so tired of being ashamed of myself and feeling like I am such a fraud when I talk to people about traditional foods.  I know that it will not be that hard to see results because cutting out the calories I consume at night is more than I consume in 3 meals with the kids.

So here it is 11:00, usually when my terrible habits are just beginning, but I have had my glass of cherry flavored kombucha and I am tired and ready for bed.  Tomorrow I am getting back into the workout routine I had before I had the chickenpox in March.  I am ready for this...I can't continue down the path I am on.

I hope you don't judge me too harshly, but hell nothing you think could be half as bad as the things I think about myself some days.  Just looking for a little support.

Starting weight is 190, I would like to lose 50lbs...let's see where this journey takes me.