Cooking With Grandma

As I sit here in my freshly painted, newly redecorated kitchen watching the snow fall my mind wanders back to a day when I was in the kitchen with my Grandma Fields baking a cake for my Grandfather. She had come across this new recipe she thought we should try out so into the kitchen we went.



As my Grandmother always did when she was in her kitchen, she turned on her radio and began to pull out all of the necessary items for the cake. As she sang along to the music she asked me to grab the Mayonnaise for her. It was close to lunch time and I thought she was going to make us a sandwich. I quickly reminded her that I did not like Mayo on my sandwich so please hold mine. She let me know that the Mayo was for the chocolate cake we were baking and not for lunch. I immediately started to protest and told her that I was sure Grandpa wouldn't like this very much. She laughed, kept singing and began to mix all of the ingredients together, including the Mayonnaise. As I again began to protest she reminded me of something God had said, "Ye of little faith, why are you so afraid?" So as the Chocolate Mayonnaise cake went into the oven I asked God to please make it come out of there tasting good. I put all of my faith in Him that he would take care of this cake with the Mayonnaise and that my Grandfather would love it when he tasted it after dinner that night.



As we were cleaning the kitchen the timer on the oven went off and out came the cake. After it had cooled it was time to make the frosting and put the finishing touches on our cake. When Grandma opened the cupboard to find food coloring, I insisted that we put a colorful frosting on it, she saw that the only color she had was green. I knew that Grandpa would be ok with this

after all, there was Mayo in the chocolate cake.



When my Grandfather came home from work that night I met him at the door and told him we had a surprise for him. I told him that Grandma and I baked him a cake and he was going to be so surprised when he tasted it. I didn't tell Grandpa, but all afternoon I prayed that God would make that cake taste really good. I was so scared when he took his first bite. Was he going to have a funny look on his face, was he going to smile and tell me how good it was while spitting it into his napkin? Oh I was a very scared little girl. I didn't have to wait long until Grandpa started telling me that it was the best cake he had ever eaten and he even had a second piece. I will never forget the excitement that I felt. Grandma and I shared a secret that day when we put Mayonnaise in the Chocolate Cake. She taught me two things that day without even knowing it. One, is to have faith in God for He will take care of us and our cake. The other was that you can add many different, strange and sometimes bizarre things to your food and they will turn out to be the best you have every had. Just ask my Grandpa!!!



With this story being told I will tell you that I made Zucchini Apple Bread with a Crumb Topping yesterday that contained lots of ginger. The recipe is below. I hope you enjoy it.



Have a wonderful and blessed day.



Zucchini Apple Bread

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

3 teaspoons cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

3 heaping teaspoons ginger paste

3 eggs

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar firmly packed

1 cup vegetable oil.

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 cups grated zucchini

3 cups apple chunks

1 cup chopped pecans (optional)



Topping

1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1 dash ground cinnamon



Preheat oven to 350. Stir together flour, salt, soda, cinnamon and baking powder. Beat eggs and stir in ginger paste. Add and mix well sugar, vanilla, and oil. Add zucchini and apples to egg mixture. Add dry ingredients, mixing well. Stir in nuts if desired. Pour into 2 ungreased loaf pans. In a small bowl combine flour and sugar. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle over the loaves of bread. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake for 1 hour.