I’m sorry, everyone, that the post has been so late… I’ve been booked solid with meetings today, and it doesn’t promise to get any better tomorrow. Tomorrow Women’s Ministries will welcome the long-awaited new Associate for Racial Ethnic Young Women Together, Bridgett Green, into the office. And for those of you who read my initial post announcing Bridgett’s hiring, you’ll have to forgive me—Bridget Young is the name of my dentist.

Now, we all know what a new staff person at 100 Witherspoon means… party!!! I’ve already mentioned that I feel Women’s Ministries, an infinitely superior department in every other way, is a bit lacking in the party arena. I look across the atrium and see Worldwide Ministries Division throwing a bash at least once a week. It usually takes a cataclysmic event, like a birth in the office, to bring the food our way. So when Mary Elva asked how we were going to commemorate Bridgett’s arrival at Thursday’s staff meeting, I volunteered to make or buy the cake. As we all know from the August 25 post (everybody now): It’s not a party without a cake.

So let’s get domestic—does anyone have an awesome cake recipe that I can bring back to Women’s Ministries, one that doesn’t require lots of baking hardware? Because living alone means that a stand-up mixer is a bit beyond my means. In fact, even a large cake pan is pushing me a bit. And last time I baked a cake (for Ann Crews Melton’s birthday), it was not very good.

I don’t know how many of you college folks out there cook or bake. I never had time for it in college myself, and why cook when you’ve already paid for good food in the dining hall? For those of you who have moved off campus, though, cooking may be a necessary evil. I didn’t start cooking until after I graduated and moved to Louisville, where frankly, I needed something to fill all the spare time I had without homework.

If there were one cookbook I would recommend for the college student or young adult, though, it would be Jane Doerfer’s Going Solo in the Kitchen. My friend loaned me this book when I first moved to Kentucky. For those of us who are not mathematically inclined, it is great to have recipes already listed in one-serving proportions. Plus, the book details some great storage tips for how to keep food edible long after you cook it.

A final story about cooking… once upon a time, David and I decided to make a recipe I had pilfered from NNPCW alumna Kristy Graf for chicken pesto pasta. Now, this recipe called for “3 toes garlic.” Now, I knew what a clove of garlic was, but I’d never heard of a “toe.” So I assumed that this meant three bulbs of garlic were supposed to go into the recipe. David was a bit dubious about putting three bulbs of garlic into our little pesto sauce. But I’m not Type A for nothing—I insisted that we put in at least two large bulbs of garlic, since that was what the recipe called for.

So David started mashing garlic as best he could with the blender, while I worked hard at peeling clove after clove. When my roommate at the time walked in, she immediately wanted to know why the apartment reeked of garlic. So she sat down in the chair and watched as David and I finished cooking and sat down to our fresh, homemade pesto pasta. He took a bite, and I took a bite. I said, “Man, that’s pretty strong garlic.” David replied stoically, “It’s not too bad,” and kept shoving it in his mouth.

Mary later said that the funniest thing about the tableau was that neither one of us said a word to the other—we just tried to eat the nasty, rancid chicken pesto pasta with complete concentration. Finally I put down my fork and said, “I can’t do this anymore.” We both had garlic breath for a week after that.

“For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him.” --Romans 10:12

Kelsey

Two days late and at least a dollar short, but here's a great and super-easy cake recipe!

Triple Chocolate Cake
1 small package instant chocolate pudding mix
1 package devil's food cake mix
6 oz. chocolate chips
1 3/4 cups milk
2 eggs

Combine ingredients in a bowl and stir by hand for 2 minutes. Pour into greased and floured bundt pan. Bake at 350 for 50-55 minutes, until it springs back.

Rebecca Morrison
Coco, 1995-98
Co-moderator, 1997