No Substitutions....

This is a story from the book 

LIFE LESSONS 

FROM

MOTHER'S OF FAITH

I loved this story so much....I typed the entire thing word for word cuz I wanted to share it!!! 
(don't tattle if you find typos)

and it even came with a vintage recipe!! BONUS!!

NO SUBSTITUTIONS

by Sandra Stallings Jenkins 

The best part of coming home from school every day was finding my mom and giving her a hug. She was the center, the hub of our family, where things happened. Once I had checked in with her, I would fix a piece of home-made toast. Mom made four loaves of delicious bread every Saturday. I would slice through the golden buttery crust and slide the thick bread into the toaster. Meticulously, I'd spread the butter from edge to edge and then saturate it with honey. Watching Gilligan's Island and eating my toast was the perfect way to relax. 

Living on a farm, our lives were very scheduled and so were our meals. If it wasn't time to feed the animals, it was time to feed the family. Mom cooked three meals a day every day of her married life--and what a cook she was. She was determined that her girls would learn to cook while they were young, but I certainly proved a challenge for her. It wasn't that I was unwilling--I was just a slow learner. And lucky for me, I now have a bread mixer because kneading bread was something I never got the hang of.  I would end up with big mittens of dough stuck on my hands instead of a nice smooth ball of dough. My mother would try to give constructive advice, but in the end, she would rescue the bread from me while I tried to get the mittens off. 

On dark winter nights, we'd make taffy, and Mom would always pull the biggest, hottest piece. Flaky pie crusts would surround fruity fillings for holiday treats, but the crown jewel of Mom's creations was a spice cake with brown sugar frosting.

Only special occasions would warrant the effort this cake took. Mom usually made this to celebrate their wedding anniversary because it was Dad's favorite cake. I think it seemed even more special because Dad would ration the pieces to make sure it lasted. Only on medium-sized piece was allowed, so it had to be savored.

When I finally merited enough confidence in my mother's eyes, she would let me help with the cake and watch her her make the frosting.  We would get the recipe out before going to the grocery store, which was half an hour away, and Mom would say, "See what we need to make the cake and the frosting because with this recipe, there are no substitutions!" 

Butter and heavy cream were the items she was talking about. In some recipes, you can cut down on the butter and use milk instead of cream, but with this frosting, it just wouldn't turn out. "It's not worth the bother of making if if you aren't going to make it right," she'd say. Once we were into the project and my interest and attention were waning, she would encourage me instead of let me go: "You've got to stay with it. You can't leave it once you've started." I often hear her voice of encouragement, as if she were sitting on my shoulder, coaching me to do my best. "Stay with it!"

The pretty much summed up her philosophy of life, too. Do it right the first time, stay with it, and no substitutions. No substitutions for integrity, honesty, hard work, or devotion to family. 

"I learned my lesson about getting things right early on in my married life," she would say with a genuine shiver, bracing herself as if a cold bucket of water was about to hit her in the back.  Only a time or two did she tell the story, but you could see the pain from the experience even years later.

"Your dad had farmed with his dad his whole life, but he wanted to start out on his own. We had saved a little money, all that we could, and we put all of into some registered Holstein cows. Just about everybody had a few cows but not registered Holsteins. They were expensive but good milk producers and not so much butter fat. We were on our own now, and your dad worked so hard," she recounted. "In our high mountain valley, fall came very early, with warm days and frost at night. There was something about the third crop of hay that always caused problems for the cows."

"If they ate too much third crop hay or we left them in the pasture too long, they could bloat up and die within a short amount of time, so we were always watching them closely, checking on them all the time. Well, of course, one of them bloated up," she said. "the remedy then was turpentine. Your dad got a halter on the cow and got her in the barn and told me to run to the shop and get the turpentine. He put a section of hose down the cow's throat and poured a small amount of turpentine in through a funnel. We stood back to wait for it to reduce the bloating and calm her down, but instead, a few minutes later, she keeled over dead."

"We were dumbfounded! What had gone wrong? Our precious cow! All the work and money we'd put into her was suddenly gone. Speechless, we looked at the can of turpentine, but it wasn't turpentine--it was paint thinner. In the shop with the paint cans and brushes, the turpentine and paint thinner looked the same. To a paint brush, it didn't matter whether we used paint thinner or turpentine, but to a cow this substitution was deadly."

"So remember to be careful and not settle for cheap substitutes in your life. In some places it won't make much difference, but you need to know when and where it will," she said quietly. "When it comes to how you live your life, don't cut corners. There's no substitute for hard work and integrity. Be the kind of person people can count on. If you say you're going to do something---do it and do it well."

SPICE CAKE

1 tsp vinegar 

1 cup half & half cream

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup shortening

2 eggs, well beaten

1 3/4 cup flour

1 tsp. baking soda in

1 Tbsp milk

Cinnamon, a couple shakes

1 cup ground raisins

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Add the vinegar to the half & half and let sit. Cream sugar and shortening; add eggs and beat. Stir in flour, half & half mixture, soda/milk mixture, and cinnamon, Gently mix in raisins.

Pour into greased 8 inch rounds. Bake for half hour or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool.

FROSTING

2 cups brown sugar

1 tsp butter

Enough cream to be able to stir

Bring to a boil and let boil slowly, Don't stir! After about ten minutes, test. (Call mother at this point for reassurance.) When it reaches earliest soft-ball stage (it gets bubbles on top), take off stove and let cook about twenty minutes. Beat until its ready to spread. It will still be somewhat warm. Spread quickly before it cools completely and sets up to firm. 

~Margaret Stallings

LOVE IT.. LOVE IT.. LOVE IT!!

If you don't have the book.....get it.

#thanksmom!!

#hugstimesfive