Chocolate Mocha Cake

My favorite birthday cake flavor is mocha.  
Sometimes it's not easy to find a mocha cake.  

I adapted this recipe this week to include 
a bit of coffee.  
I also substituted the white sugar in it with sucanat.  
Guess I'll be making my own birthday cake 
from now on! 

This is seriously the best chocolate cake I've ever had. 

It's rich, dense and so chocolate-y, but not too sweet. 

After rereading the ingredient list, 
I realized it's vegan too,

in case you want to share it with a friend 
on a restricted diet due to allergies or personal choice.

Moist Chocolate Cake

3 C unbleached flour

2 t baking soda

1 t salt

6 T cocoa powder (I use dark)

2 C sucanat (or sugar)

3/4 C light olive oil

2 C cold water

1 T vanilla

1/4 C coffee (for mocha)

1 T apple cider vinegar

Step 1

Mix all dry ingredients in large bowl.  
Stir with a whisk to aerate.

Step 2

Add water, oil, vanilla and coffee (for mocha) to bowl.

Stir well.  Add vinegar last and gently mix.

Step 3

Pour batter into lightly greased 9 X 13 X 2" pan.

(You can probably use a bundt pan as well.)

Bake 30-40 minutes.  

Let cool for at least an hour before slicing 

(if you can wait).

Serves 10-20 chocolate lovers.

*This cake gets better the longer it sits. 

It's sweet enough for us, so we don't ice it.

Enjoy!

Signs of Life

After the recent onslaught of winter weather,

it's so nice to see these signs of life.

There is hope after ice...

Work, Organized

Aside from homeschooling, I work at night as a tutor. 

I am blessed to be able to do what I love.

I use a lot of games, manipulatives and

home-made file folder creations with my kids.

I find that it makes it less like a lesson

and more like fun, and they are more likely

to stay focused on the skill at hand.

I've gotten rather lax about my materials

and decided it would be a good project

to tidy this area up so that I can find

just what I need to get my lessons done.

before

after

Simply adding a container to house the workbooks

and labeling each item gives the eye somewhere to focus.

I can see what I have at a glance

and it makes visual sense.

It pays to keep things organized. 

It helps me find exactly what I need

so that I can have time for other things

(like more time outside in the garden).

 

A Key is Never Just a Key

I realized the other day that in the past few weeks
I've been given keys. 
One key was for a new job I started and the other
was given to me by the park ranger
at Lake Kissimmee where I volunteered. 
Now, if you're most people, you think they're just keys. 
Me, I don't work that way. 

I got to thinking that it must mean more. 
(Some folks have said that I think too much.) 

These keys were both given to me
when I started something new. 

Keys open doors, and these new experiences may very well

open up new possibilities for me
 in my homesteading journey. 

 It's something to think about (at least, if you're me...)

Along the same lines,
I wanted to share something that happened this week. 

It was about 5ish and hubby was in the living room
watching tv before getting ready for work. 

I was awake, but still in bed.  I heard a change of pressure
in the house.  Hard to describe. 

Anyway, I came out to the living room and I noticed
hubby was standing out front. 

He said someone had tried to walk into our house. 
When the door wouldn't budge,

the person peered into the glass on the door. 
They must have seen hubby, and took off. 

Of course, we called 911 right away and they were here
in just minutes. 

We're okay and nothing was damaged,
but I thought I would share
an idea one of the deputies recommended to us. 

He said to replace the 1 1/2-inch screws in your strikeplate
with 3-inch screws for added security. 

It provides more strength to the door. 

Needless to say, I've had our resident handyman
working on that. 

I know this is off-topic,
but I thought it was important enough to share. 

If it keeps one person safe, it's all good.

Be safe out there.

Thrifty by Marjorie Harris
*****

"Here are solid tips on how to haggle, how to find fashion deals, maintaining home and hearth on a budget, 

and money-saving ideas on gardening, travel, and entertainment. Thrifty is full of savvy advice drawn from Harris's own experiences, and those of frugal friends."

This book delivers. It's packed with simple, easy ideas 

for getting what you need (or want) at the best possible price. It's a how-to written with a bit of wit and lots of practicality, which appeals to me. An easy read filled with ideas about gardening, homekeeping, cooking and how and when to haggle or barter.

One of my favorite tips on gardening was 

"Make sure you have someone you'll be sharing your harvest with. Deciding on who grows what can turn 

an individual garden into a community garden 
with very little organization." 
Just think, we could feed each other right in our own neighborhoods!