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Advent | Week 2 | Tuesday

Tea Time Tuesday

My great aunt Carrie personified Southern hospitality.  She loved to feed people, and she was creative in the way that she did so. 

Knowing that I hated all forms of squash but being convinced that I should learn to love all vegetables, she came up with a recipe for a pie that she informed me was made with  zucchini after I’d asked for my second slice!  When a major storm took out a gas line and required our family to evacuate our house for a few days, she was thrilled to welcome us into the home that she and my grandmother shared and to feed us  home-cooked meals until we had to roll away from the table.

I’ve always regretted that I didn’t have more time directly with her in the kitchen, learning from her, and that she wouldn’t allow me to record the wonderful stories she would tell about her nursing career that began in the 1920s and lasted for decades.  Sometimes the gifts that we offer seem ordinary to us when in fact that are deeply meaningful to those around us.

Coming up with a creative way to make zucchini taste like coconut lemon pie may not be what makes you happy, but pay attention today to the ways that you come alive when you express love.  Sometimes we’re so focused on love being sacrificial that we can forget how much fun we can have giving in the way that we are uniquely designed to care for others.  May your joy be contagious today!

Aunt Carrie’s Christmas Cake

Ingredients:

6 eggs

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup milk

2 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla* 

4 cup flour

1 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder 

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  Prepare 2 round 8″ cake pans with non-stick spray.  Mix the “wet” ingredients together.  Combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, and then slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture.   

While Aunt Carrie used either lemon or chocolate icing with this cake, those recipes have been lost to time, so I use whipped cream to frost it and then top with fresh berries.

*I also do a pistachio version of this cake by adding 2 packages of instant pistachio pudding to the wet mixture and sprinkle the top of the whipped cream frosting with pistachio nuts ground in a food processor.

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