It's winter break time at the Olson house, and nobody knows what day of the week it is. That's just the way we like it. Neither Sarah nor I have had to go to work now for almost two weeks and won't be going back for a couple more days. Time for projects! Time for playing outside! Time for cooking! Time for family and friends! Time for family and friends to be subjected to sixty year-old recipes! I intended on making a few more recipes than I did, but there is still time to do one more after this, I think. As I mentioned previously, we are into our second time through the cook book. I skipped
appetizers and
breakfast cakes, as those are pretty short sections, and have moved onto the pretty large section on cakes. If you'll remember, last time in this section, I made
Scripture Cake, which was something of an adventure. While there are some unanswered questions in our recipe this time around, it isn't quite as mysterious as the Scripture Cake was.
Making the sour milk orange cake was another case of me not looking at the recipe very closely before jumping in. I got started making the cake before realizing that I didn't have dates. I'm also not sure I would have picked this recipe had I seen it required dates. I am not the biggest fan of dates. Maybe it's just a matter of not having had good dates or fresh dates, I don't know. Dates will always remind me of a long car ride with Sarah and her folks maybe eight years ago from
Sierra Vista, Arizona to San Diego. It was a long day of driving along I-8 through lots and of desert. After several hours, we were in need of gas and a rest stop, so we stopped in
Dateland, Arizona. There were signs advertising date products of all sorts and that seemed to be about it. Desert, and dates. We all got out of the car to stretch our legs and made our way to a building where we could get a snack. I don't recall whether or not we got a "world famous date shake" or not, but we probably got some ice cream. At the counter was a rather bored-looking teenager. Making friendly conversation, I asked her what she liked to do in her free time in Dateland. She replied without hesitation, "think about getting out of here."
So now every time I have anything with dates, I think about that bored, stuck, teen-aged girl in Dateland. Hope you made it out of Dateland and to somewhere more interesting.
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| There's no place like home, right tragic teenager?? |
