Go Green Cake Bake

Hi Folks,

I posted my intention to bake a cake on Facebook last night and Mary Valk asked for the recipe if it turned out well. I won't taste it until tonight, but it smells great so I'm sharing the making if the cake, now. This is not the healthiest cake in the world, but I'm going for a natural cake without chemicals. I did make and exception with the cherries. 

Bottom Layer for Cake

Heat oven to 350 Degrees. Put about 1/2 stick of organic butter in a 9 X 13 inch pan and melt it in oven. Take pan out cover the bottom with as much raw turbinado sugar as you want (or use organic brown sugar). Slice fresh pineapple and place in pan. Put Maraschino cherries in pineapple holes. Fill in other spaces with chopped pecans.

Set aside and get out three bowls

All ingredients should be at room temperature.

Bowl one - Fill with 3 ¼ cups whole wheat pastry flour ( I used King Arthur white whole wheat)

1 ½ tsp. baking powder (Use non aluminum version - regular baking powder has aluminum which is linked to Alzheimers)

½ tsp. baking soda

Mix all these ingredients and set aside

Bowl two - fill with one cup of plain yogurt  (try Horizon with the fat - be sure to stir the cream in from the top before using - this is the best yogurt I've ever tasted - I only eat milk products on special occasions - most people do not do that well with dairy products) and two teaspoons of real vanilla (notice the imitation is made of chemicals). Set aside.

Bowl three - Two sticks of salted organic butter, 1/2 teaspoon sea salt (I like pink Himalayan sea salt - Celtic sea salt is good too).

1 ½ cups organic sugar (fair trade evaporated cane sugar) http://www.greenamericatoday.org/proGrams/fairtrade/products/sugar.cfm

 

Whip these together until fluffy - or do the best you can. Fluffy might be an overstatement of what's possible here.

 

Add four room temperature organic locally produced free range eggs (help end factory farming for chickens - the chickens suffer unmercifully in these big farms, not to mention how unhealthy the eggs are - chemicals, etc injected in hens).



Add 1/3 flour mixture to sugar mixture, then 1/3 yogurt mixture and continue until all ingredients are mixed. Put mixture on top of the pineapple concoction.




Time to tasty - wow gooood!

 





Put it in the preheated 350 degree oven on top shelf. Smell the wonderful kitchen aroma. Wait about 30 minutes and check the middle to see if it's done. My oven cooks pretty fast but put it back if it's not done. Pardon me on this, I'm sure you have this much sense.



Baking away.







It's a done deal.

 Will turn it over later tonight before I go to my friend's home.



And don't forget to compost the waste.



http://www.howtocompost.org/

Now this is a healthier cake. Healthier for my friends and myself and healthier for the planet. Go green.

WARNING - do not cook in a glass pan. The outside gets done too fast. Use metal pan. I dumped the cake out and found the center to be raw. I didn't find this out until it was cool. It passed the toothpick test so I didn't know there was a problem. I did not want to turn it over again - one time over was a feat. So I then cooked it 40 minutes longer with the pineapple side up. I just kept putting butter (it seems if I add butter or rum to anything it tastes great) on it so it wouldn't dry out and it tasted yummy. I think I used three sticks of butter in this cake so you know it was rich.

Posted by Anne Sermons Gillis

No Post Ends in Environmental Rant

Do not toast my post for no post is near.
But I’m having a good time; I’m in good cheer

And soon I’ll get back to quips and words

But for now I’m content just looking at birds

By the river, by the pond and by the lake

so check back again and make no mistake

I’ll be back to add my voice or just forget this blog it’s all your choice.

Okay maybe a I’ll write a little something.

I really have been looking at the birds. Yesterday we turned the sprinkler on our parched garden and backyard. Within just a short time the birds came in mass. I’ve never seen so many cardinals in one place. They just sit in the trees and water showers them. We have a little bird bath and I saw a big – ish bird bathing there – a thrill for me. Today I see honey bees at the bird bath.

Since last week my husband and I have been in Wimberley, TX in a cabin, on River Road, tent camping on the Guadalupe, gotten in a short visit to Palmetto State Park and a day at Huntsville State Park. Since Jim retired we have had plenty of time to drink in the magic weather and to spend time in nature. Our little dog, Lucy, got a piece of the action and today she road in a canoe for the first time. She did great and we think we have a good boat dog. Well, we haven’t tried her in a motor boat.

Tonight I’m going to another meeting about stopping the toxic injection wells in Conroe, Texas. As the crow flies, that’s pretty close to me and it’s in a urban setting. http://www.stopthetoxicwells.com/ We have been working for years to stop this egregious crime against our water, the air and the people who live in this area. Our governor, Rick Perry, appoints the commissioners to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. They rubber stamp every application for new business unless there is enough outcry to defeat them. Certainly that wasn’t enough for the Baytown citizens who just lost on the new coal mine issue. Yes, we need more mercury in the air, more acid rain. We have the support of all the politicians in this area, thousands of citizens and reports that prove this is a bad move. People and agencies against the wells have spent well over a half million dollars in protest. And people want get democracy in other parts of the world. I’m waiting for it in our country.

What's the Difference Between Being Nice and Just Keeping My Mouth Shut?

False "being nice" means unconscious behavior that keeps us stuck in avoidance of how we feel, how it is for now and what is really going on.

True "being nice" flows - it's a natural behavior that doesn't require much thought. When we feel safe and no longer need other people to feed our need, we are genuinely nice.
Keeping our mouths shut can be the conscious decision to see things another way - to define the situation so we decide to forgive the other for their unconscious behavior or perhaps we put our inner reality on the shelf at the time and then take time when we are alone to see what bothers us about the situation and how the situation might serve us.

Keeping our mouths shut can also be avoidance. If we keep out mouths shut and work through our issues about the circumstance, we are freed, but if we keep our mouths shut and never deal with the issue, we add to the numbness of our souls.

If keeping our mouths shut helps us not to blame others or take their inventory, it's a good thing.

If keeping our mouths shut means not to yell and scream at someone, it’s a good thing.

It is our responsibility in our healing process to find a compassionate way to express our feelings. Giving unsolicited feedback to others is usually not a good idea. Most people complain so they can work through their feelings. The solutions they seek are on a feeling basis not an action basis. All these ideas are slippery because each action and behavior has a light and shadow side. It takes consciousness, compassion and awareness to determine which action to take.

I think the topic could be a book something like: "What I Thought and Didn't say Keeps me in Perpetual Trouble."

Life is Not Serious

I have a slogan, "I'm sincere, but not serious." It's easy for me to write little sing-song poetry. It's trite, yet I like the whimsical nature of the rhythm and rhyme.

So here's one of my little ditties.


I am okay but I forget


That I am whole and hold regret

For things I’ve said and all I’ve done.

Why can’t I let the past alone?

I am not bad or wrong or crass

I am a wonder not my past!



I’m not an outcast, I want to see

that all the world belongs to me

and yes in turn I want to know

that I belong to it also.

I’m sane and smart and I am one

with everything under the radiant sun.



I am one with sky so blue

With friends, strangers and family too.

I’m not alone, I hold your hand

And together we’re more, we take a stand

To love, protect and cherish life

To end our struggle, toil and strife.



I take my freedom, it’s my choice

Not to listen to that imprisoned voice

I can not do my life alone

I have to live in a welcome home

of care, good-will where life abounds

where no one’s lost where all are found.