This rusty old car has sat by the road near where we live ever since we've been here, and probably, by the looks of it, for much longer than that. Every time we pass by I tell my hubby I wish he'd stop and let me take some pictures of it. Why? I don't know. It intrigues me. It's in my DNA. My 2 brothers and father loved old cars. My next to oldest brother Clifford has made it a hobby to restore old cars ever since I can remember...I think he started with an old junkyard car when he was about 14...maybe younger...and he's now over 75 and still loves to tinker with old cars...so it was inborn in me to be fascinated with old cars.
Frosting for German
Chocolate Cake
·
1cup sugar
·
1cup evaporated milk
·
1/2cup butter or
margarine
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3eggs, beaten
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1 1/3cups flaked coconut
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1cup chopped pecans or
walnuts
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1teaspoon vanilla
In 2-quart saucepan, cook 1 cup sugar, the evaporated milk, 1/2 cup butter and 3 eggs over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture begins to bubble. Remove saucepan from heat. Stir in coconut, pecans and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.
All was well until I realized that the only can of evaporated milk I had was "fat-free", but worse than that, it had expired in 2020!!!!! It was a can that kept getting pushed back in the pantry because I had bought the fat-free can by mistake and never wanted to try it in my pumpkin pies, etc., so I guess I'd lost track of how old it was. So I opened it and poured it into a measuring cup first to see what it looked like. I wish I'd taken a picture for you. But you should be glad I didn't. It had totally separated and there was a kind of clear amber looking liquid that came out of the can first. Then came the clabbered chunks of very old "milk". And this was even after "shaking well" first. So glad I poured it into something other than the rest of the ingredients for the frosting first! That would have been disastrous!
So now, what to do? I didn't want to go back to the store again. (must save gas!!)
Well, back to the drawing board, or online I should say. I checked for substitutes for evaporated milk and found out that if you just cook whole milk until it boils and then let it boil down, stirring all the while, (using about 1 &2/3 cups of milk first so it will cook down to make 1 cup). Well, I stirred and stirred and waited and waited and it wasn't cooking down very fast. So I poured it into a pyrex measuring cup and put it in the microwave to try and cook it a little faster. I let it cook for about one minute (on high in the microwave) and then brought it out to stir it. When I put my wooden spoon in the cup, the milk kind of "exploded" and overflowed the measuring cup and went all over the kitchen counter. Thankfully I was out of the way fast enough and didn't get burned! Talk about a mess! LOL.
Anyway, it still wasn't quite down to 1 cup of "evaporated milk", so this time I set the microwave for only 70% of power and let it cook one more minute, and it did fine. After letting it cool, I mixed it in with the other ingredients and cooked them on the stove as directed above. Now I am waiting for it to completely cool before I frost the cake. Oh, I didn't do a layered cake like you are supposed to for a German Chocolate cake, but did a 13x9" pan instead. Won't be as pretty as the layers, but hopefully the cake will taste good, and that's all that really matters here in this household! LOL.
Okay, I'd better wrap this up and go wrap up some gifts for Scott. One more special thing for tonight. You'd think with all my cooking "prowess" that I could at least bake some home-made yeast rolls for my son's birthday! LOL. Not this girl! But thankfully his most favorite dinner roll is the Hawaiian Roll, so we are always sure to get plenty for any special dinner where Scott will be eating. One package is never enough!
