Grandma Heisey's Snack Cake

Today I got to make dinner for a friend whose little boy is allergic to eggs and I wanted to include a dessert.  I suddenly remembered Grandma Heisey had a recipe for snack cake that was eggless.  I jazzed it up a little by adding walnuts and chocolate chips. The frosting recipe is straight off the can of Hershey's cocoa powder.

Snack Cake
Heat oven to 350°
Grease a 8X8 pan
Mix dry ingredients:
1 2/3 C flour
1 C brown sugar
1/4 C cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp.salt
Add wet ingredients:
1 C water
1/3 C vegetable oil
1 tsp. vinegar
1 tsp. vanilla
Bake at 350° for 35-40 minutes

Frosting
1/2 C butter, melted
2/3 C cocoa
3 C powdered sugar
1/3 C milk
1 tsp. vanilla
Add cocoa to melted butter and mix well. Alternate adding powdered sugar and milk.   Add vanilla.

Chelsea's Zucchini Bread

In the fall when we have an abundant crop of zucchini, I'm tempted to try all sorts of creative recipes with zucchini.  However, nothing can beat the time-honored favorite: zucchini bread.  Plus Chris begs me to make it every week! The recipe here is one that Chelsea brought home years ago from Activity Days.  I've tried several this fall but this one is Chris's favorite.

Preheat oven to 325°
Mix together in large bowl:
1 C oil
2 C sugar
3 eggs
1 Tbs vanilla
2 C shredded, raw zucchini

Add the following and mix in:
3 C flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 Tbs cinnamon

Chop and add:
1/2 C walnuts
Grease 2 loaf pans and dust them with flour.
Pour into the 2 pans.
Bake at 325° for 1 hour.  10 minutes less if using a convection oven. Let cool for 10 minutes.

Here is the recipe in Chelsea's own little girl handwriting!

Harvest Salad

In October, when we harvest our Bosc pears, we always have way more than we can eat fresh. Because I'm not a fan of canning and no one wants to eat a frozen pear, I dehydrate them instead. I don't know where you can buy them already dehydrated, maybe at a health food store. The Bosc are superior for dehydrating over other pears because they have a firmer texture and hold up well under processing.  Here's a link if you'd like to know more about Bosc pears:

http://usapears.com/Recipes%20And%20Lifestyle/Now%20Serving/Pears%20and%20Varieties/Bosc.aspx 

This salad is packed with nutrients and is very satisfying with it's complex textures and flavors.  I usually dress it simply with lemon juice and olive oil, salt and pepper, but you can make a balsamic vinaigrette (1 part vinegar to two parts olive oil) or use any sweet store-bought dressing.  The Costco balsamic vinegar dressing is very good!

6 C spinach
1/2 C dried pears
1/2 C walnuts
1/4 C dried cranberries (optional)
1/4 C blue cheese, crumbled

Combine and enjoy!