What topsy turvy tips Verena has! I like my tips a little more on the practical side. Here are a few of my favorites:Put a dab of lighter fluid on a paper towel and you can pick up all those ugly skid marks left by your wedgies off of your linoleum.
Lighter fluid will also remove stamps that have been stuck down – just saturate the back of the envelope under the stamp and it will lift right off. Just don’t try and lick it after that…
Having problems moving that heavy dresser across your hard wood floor without scratching it? Try putting some old socks on the legs and it will slide like a charm!
And speaking of socks, try pinning them together at the toes with safety pins before washing them – you won’t end up with mismatched pairs and lost mates.
As odd as Verena’s tips were her chocolate cake recipe was just delightful! As promised, here it is:
Grandma Bea’s Chocolate Cake
You'll need:
1/4 pound (1 stick) butter
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 cups flour
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup hot water
Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a mixing bowl, cream together your butter and sugar. (Baking recipes always seem to begin with this step, don’t they?) Sift all the dry ingredients together in another bowl and set them aside. Add the eggs to the butter and sugar mixture one at a time, and then add the vanilla. Alternate adding dry ingredients and sour cream in three parts, mixing well after each, then add the hot water and mix well. Pour into two greased and floured 9-inch round pans. Bake 30 to 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Julie says the cake needs no icing, but we like to gild the lily, don’t we? I suggest cream cheese or butter cream icing. Remember if you’re icing the cake with white icing, coat it with a thin layer and then chill it in the fridge until the layer has set, then ice the cake again and you won’t have little chocolate flecks in the top layer!
