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July, 2012

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Chocolate Chip Cake Recipe – A Birthday Family Favorite

Monday, July 30th, 2012

One of the best things about having a food blog is having the ability to be able to save all of our family recipes to a safe-locked place besides in an old book in the second bedroom.  Having said this, sometimes family favorites are favorites because of the nostalgic flood of memories that come along with each bite.  Of course, every family has their own set of a particular family faves. All of us having so much stuff these days means that the best thing you can pass down, in my opinion, are a couple of family keepsakes such as a book of family favorite recipes. My brother and I have a small book of handwritten family recipes and then we’ve added some of our new favorites over the years. We cherish our little family recipe books and use them all of the time.

This is a cake that my husband remembers being baked and served by his Granny in North Carolina.  It came from a Community Church cookbook where everyone shares their favorites, pretty great if you think about it.  Actually, I need to look back through that book and see what else I can find – hopefully it isn’t filled with jello salad recipes that were popular in the Midwest at least!  You know it, even jello salad can be a family favorite recipe – like I said, it can be all about the nostalgia.  Have you heard the word nostalgia stated enough in this post? It had just been too long, I had to get back to this bad word that flowed like butter from the mouths of my fellow grad students back in the day.

Chocolate Chip Cake Recipe

  • 1/4 lb. butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 8 oz. sour cream
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 1 tsp. water
  • 2 cups flour, sifted
  • 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
  • 1 tsp. baking soda

Topping:

  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 6 oz. package of chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F.

Cream together butter, sugar, and eggs. Add sour cream, vanilla and water. Sift flour, resift with baking powder and soda. Add to mixture.  Grease 9×13 inch pan. Spread half of batter in pan (can be a bit hard to spread, but it works). Then sprinkle half of the topping mixture over it.  Spread the remaining batter on top.  Now sprinkle the rest of the topping.

Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey • Denver

Saturday, July 14th, 2012

Stranahan’s is different.

Get a bottle of this for a Whiskey loving friend and you will seal the deal.

  • It isn’t a Bourbon and it’s not a Scotch.
  • But it is similar to a Bourbon.
  • It is certainly not a Canadian.
  • Incredibly smooth is a good description we’d say.
  • Stranahan’s has a bit of a sweet flavor (apparently from Mountain grown barley).
  • 94 proof (47% alcohol by volume) is another thing that makes it different from the typical 80 proof Whiskey.
  • Drink it neat, if you can handle the alcohol, or with a bit of water, cold.
  • If you go to the Distillery in Denver, order the pretzel bites. They are no joke!
  • Oh, and watch out for the elevation in the mile high city. ONE DRINK IS LIKE TWO! Chug water on the plane before you arrive.

Find out more here about cloudy vs. clear, age, and its small batch production.

For the time being, they are only distributing Stranahan’s in the state of Colorado

If you are ever in Denver, go for a distillery tour and buy a bottle there, cause’ you can’t get it in CA!

200 South Kalamath St, Denver, CO 80223