Ask Happy Homemaker! (page 30)

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Is my assumption correct that I am addressing Raven Madd?

Be that as it may or mayn't, I shall, at this wee hour, seek to help you conjure up a belated confection for your worthy friend's need-for-sweets palate. Please see below:

5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE

4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
a small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again.
Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts (high). The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed! Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.

EAT! (this can serve 2 if you want to feel slightly more virtuous).

And why is this the most dangerous cake recipe in the world? Because now we are all only 5 minutes away from chocolate cake at any time of the day or night!

Hope this helps!

Happy Homemaker!

P.S: Dump Cake is always a viable option!

cameo-d

Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts (high).

Why would I do that? I have already been to the tanning bed this week.

Anyway, I just decided to make my version of gingerbread men for my friend's birthday.

So here you go........

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Dear R.M:

Your burnished countenance - your "mug" - is positively serene as you poke and prod your hapless G-men!

I would be agog and aghast were I not the jaded and world-weary connosewer that I am.

Thumbs up to your panache and elan and moxie and chutzpah and ...

Hope this helps!

Happy Homemaker!

cameo-d

Happy Homemaker,

I must say, you are always so gracious.

You just pretend not to notice that I overshot the yeast and forgot the raisins for the eyes.

Maybe I can drizzle some icing on them.

Confectioners sugar and some food coloring.

Maybe that would help, you think?

What color would you like....red or ....red. That's all I have on the shelf.

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Dear R.M:

I'm a great believer for using what I have on hand. Red - or red - is certainly acceptable. I read recently in The Cat Who Brought Down the House that, in some recipes, the raisins must needs be diced to lose their visual identity, not their delicate sweetness, however.

Might we not apply the above to more than mere men of the gingerbread variety?

Hope this helps!

Happy Homemaker!

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TV commercial, circa 1950: Manners the Butler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyaa-Vz1lKA

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Dear Happy Homemaker,

I'm in the midst of an out-of-state move and am overwhelmed by the amount of stuff I've accumulated over the years. Of course, I can't bring it all with me. But I know I'll be sorry if I toss some items I've held onto for years and could not easily replace in the remote area where I'm relocating. Without a doubt a lot of it is trash. No problem there. However, I'm getting very anxious and wringing my hands a lot.

Any suggestions?

Movin' Marvin

Dear M.M:

I see no difficulty other than the fact that you're sweating the small stuff. It's just a move. People do it everyday in all parts of the world, poor rustics who haven't the education and luxuries you most likely take for granted. Not to mention that wild animals migrate yearly to greener pastures. Do they work themselves up in a lather over the trek of a thousand miles? I shudder to think.

Get a grip, OK? It's really all very simple. Set aside an area cleared in advance of the sorting for your toss 'n save agenda. But wait! There's more. The maybe category. Place three barrels, boxes, whatever large containers you can get your hands on. Label them as follows:

1) Save

2) Toss

3) Maybe

Numbers 1 and 2 require no explanation. How about number 3? Deposit therein whatever you're not certain of. You can wait till the last minute on making a decision for that batch. Meantime, you'll have already made a few trips to the county landfill or transfer station. For large pieces or ones of such awkward dimension that they will not readily be seated in an ordinary container, you may designate three areas as 1, 2 and 3.

Got it?

Hope this helps!

Happy Homemaker

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Dear Happy Homemaker:

I am stuck in a time warp of sorts, decor-wise.

My childhood home was very nice but dull and uninspired. Mother had good taste and Dad allowed her to buy any furniture she wanted. It all came from a rather tony establishment, H.H. Croft and Sons, as I recall. It wasn't that the furniture was unattractive. The problem was the artificial and impractical arrangement of the pieces in the living room and dining room, in particular.

While my husband and I haven't the means to go out and buy like my parents did (I do have some of my parent's upholstered furniture and occasional pieces), I find myself reverting to old patterns that are pleasant to look at but say "You may look but do not touch!" We want to live in all our rooms and not be neurotic about a little clutter or an odd but novel approach to things.

Do you have any suggestions just for starters?

Thank you for your time.

Joan Clover

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Dear Joan:

Our beloved Sassy Stuart [aka HH] is on a buying junket in Istanbul but has, nevertheless, been forwarded your inquiry of supreme sartorial importance [whoops! sorry, that was meant for Ms. Singer Taylor].

Let us say, in the absence of His Eminence, that decor circa 1950 [I am estimating your era and that of your parents] was an incalculable misdemeanor of faux pas dementia, and you are certainly justified in coming to your designing senses, no disrespect intended toward your poor misguided but, well ... misguided parents! May they rest in peace [they have passed on, I assume?].

We'll chat later about cozy, intimate areas for meaningful conversation amongst friends who pay you a visit, how to render more open and accessible traffic areas, how to emphasize minimally through understated elegance, spatial concepts with regard to opening up a tiny room visually [no need to go hammer-and-tongs with a sledge hammer ...].

A bientot, Ma Chere!

Staff Dweeb

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Dear Joan:

Backatcha with a thought or two that have crossed my mind.

Let's consider your dining room, for example. A static, typical dining room do that is so totally devoid of imagination and oomph is the traditional heavier-than-Rock-of-Gibraltar table and drone matching chairs, but for those at foot and head that are armed.

Why not try this: I gather you're on a budget. Retain at least two of what I am assuming are your six dining room chairs. Scrounge around second-hand stores, flea markets, yard sales (Sassy Stuart has no compunctions whatsoever about going a la cheap [but the pieces must have a significant element of elan about them]) for two top-to-bottom upholstered chairs (i.e., feet not showing), and two delicate, curvy boudoir chairs (for example).

The point here is that your seating arrangement will consist of unmatched chairs. Be bold in your newfound acquisition of imaginative design, though I would advise settling on a binding thread of at least one element of similarity to tie the differing chairs into a congruous unity.

Let's see where this goes!

S.D.

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