Rainy Day Endeavors .....

And then it rained ..... and rained!!  I'm so happy for all the beautiful rain in California, filling our dams and reservoirs.  I'm not so happy about all the water flooding the wood chips out of my flower beds.  In the last two days we've had 2-1/2 inches of the wet stuff and it's expected to continue until this afternoon.

I vacuumed the house, did the laundry, played with Cooper, watched TV .... boring!!!  I know ... I'll zip it up a little by getting into a big argument with the Direct TV person on the phone.  At least this one could speak English.  Here's what she told me (I'm a new customer since the neighbor's kids shot out my dish).

They start you out with a $40 a month package and lots of freebies.  In three months, all the freebies go away and your price goes up to $50 (just because they can).  If you have it put on standby while you vacation, that time is added on to your two year contract time.

As the months go by, they drop channels so you will call and order the next package up.  Now it's $65  for the basics, at which time they begin tacking on $5-6 a month until your bill is $76.  If you want to watch the Giants baseball games, THAT will cost $175.00 more.  There are no "specials" or additions you can get that don't cost you a LOT more, even if you threaten to cancel.  After all she said, they have you under contract.  Once the contract is done, they have all kinds of "deals" to keep you around.  I guess there's something to be said for honesty.

My choice was to pay $608 total for the rest of the year or cancel (costing $160) and go to DishNetwork, with whom I already have service in my RV.  I think I'm going with Dish!  I'll make THAT phone call today.

What would make me feel better after THAT lovely conversation?  Why CAKE of course!  If any of you haven't tried Duff's new cake mixes, please do so.  This is NOT your ordinary cake mix.  Kind of hard to locate in the sea of cake mix boxes at the store, but well worth the look.

They come in all kinds of wild colors and flavors .... Pink Cadillac kind of caught my eye.  I recommend 8" cake pans, but mine disappeared, so I used 9".  While it cooled on the counter, I went to make frosting .... alas, no powdered sugar.  Now what???

It was then I remembered the old-time 7-minute frosting my mom used to make.  PERFECT!!  I got out her 1949 Betty Crocker Cookbook and found I had all the ingredients.  Sugar, water and egg whites, cooked in a double boiler.  It amazes me that we actually had a double boiler in the old days .... after all, we were pretty poor farmers!

My substitute for that was a big bowl over a saucepan of boiling water, but don't let the water touch the bottom of the bowl.  As the water simmers, you beat constantly with your hand mixer until it's thick and gorgeous.  Be careful the cord doesn't get too close to the gas flame ..... it melts!!  #%!&!#$!!   And don't worry about all those frosting splatters all over the stove and kitchen walls ..... it will clean up nicely with the hot water left over in the pan when you are done.

Now OFF the heat, you mix in your favorite flavoring ... I chose vanilla ... and beat for another couple of minutes.  I had a fleeting thought about the humidity being too high from the rain, but it seemed to work just fine.  It's a cross between the divinity my Grandmother used to make and marshmallow fluff!!  

Once frosted, take a spoon and smush it on the top, lifting up .... making nice peaks.  When you cut your first piece ... Surprise!!! ..... it's just as gorgeous as on the package.  Almost anyway, at least it's the same color!!  The taste you ask??  My oh my!!  This is the most deliciously tender cake I've ever eaten ... even better than bakery cakes!!  To top it off, the frosting doesn't have all the fat and calories of butter!!!  I'm going to buy six more boxes!!

One slice of cake wasn't enough .... by the end of the day I had eaten TWO!!  To counteract the calories (actually about 150 a slice), I whipped up a shrimp salad/salsa kind of thing.  I couldn't go wrong here ... just cut everything up and mix it in a bowl with some lime juice.  Shrimp, avocados, onions, cucumber and tomatoes ..... yummy!!  

I really wanted to make it THREE slices of cake, but used all my willpower to say no.  Actually, I put the cake in the laundry room so I wouldn't see it.  That worked perfectly!

Today I'm spending the afternoon in the rig watching Giants baseball on Dish Network ...... while I eat CAKE!!!