To eliminate the need for frosting and/or to have the cake ready to eat as soon as it is cool enough, some cakes can be made with a topping spread on the batter before baking. They are quick and easy to make and eliminate the necessity of frosting the cake after baking. Baked toppings are best on cakes baked in square or oblong pans. The following recipes will make enough topping to frost them. If you are making a cake in a large jelly roll pan, double the recipes.

BAKED CHOCOLATE - NUT TOPPING
1 cup grated semisweet or sweet chocolate
½ cup chopped pecans or walnuts

When I roast a turkey, everyone in my family goes for the white meat. I am the only one opting for the drumstick or thigh. That is, until I fix Turkey Legs and Gravy. Years ago in the 60s, turkey legs in the meat case at the store went for thirty-nine cents a pound. I could afford that. The problem was to figure out a recipe that my family would eat.

We have gotten away from the club sandwich. McDonald's and Burger King have spoiled us with their tasty hamburgers and fries. I remember seeing my first Mickey D's. There was no going back to just plain sandwiches, or even club sandwiches. Back in the day, every lunch counter had their specialty club sandwich. They were made fresh as you watched the counter girl pile on the goodies. Most homes didn't have fresh tomatoes or lettuce out of season. What a treat!

This is a good dish to make at Easter time when you have an abundance of decorated hard boiled eggs. Don't use any that have been out of the fridge over a few hours. This is a good dish to serve on toast or hot biscuits for lunch. Sometimes we forget how versatile eggs can be. Don't let hard boiled eggs go uneaten. Fancy them up either as Deviled Eggs or Creamed Eggs.

These days, there are a number of types of chocolate to use in our dessert making. For instance, we use Baker's Sweet Chocolate for making German Chocolate Cakes. A variety of chocolate chips find their way into our candy and cookie recipes. But I like baking with cocoa.

Back in the day, cocoa was cheaper than chocolate baking squares. On a limited budget, cost was everything: almost. I could get more mileage from a box of cocoa than I could from those skimpy chocolate squares. It had a longer shelf life as well. That made cocoa a winner for me.

When the heat source is wood or coal embers, use a long-handled wire popper. Put only enough corn in popper to cover bottom. Shake gently to get tender puffy kernels.

When popping on your kitchen range, use a large kettle or deep skillet. Add about 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil or shortening. Don't use butter or margarine. Add ½ cup popcorn to hot skillet. Cover and shake gently and constantly over medium heat. You can hear when the popping stops. Remove from heat to a large bowl and add salt. 1 cup unpopped corn makes about 5 cups when popped.

I like coconut in just about anything sweet. This is an easy quick recipe that is cheap to make. Do you have all your ingredients measured out before you make a baking recipe? It is wise to do so even if you have made it a dozen times before. Forget any ingredient and the recipe will suffer for it. There is nothing worse than to start on the process of stirring up a batch of cookies and finding you only have one egg when you need two or three. It is also wise to measure everything out in their own dishes so you won't add too much milk for instance.

This is a good dish to make for a Sunday after church potluck, or for any occasion when you are short on time. Put it together the night before, refrigerate, and bake the next morning while getting the family ready for church. Since the casserole is chilled, it will take a little longer to bake than the time given below.

Anyone who knows me knows of my taste for black walnuts. When my kids were small and money was tight, I would load the three youngest ones in the pickup. After a fall's hard freeze, we would head for my favorite walnut trees along country roads. Each child would have his or her own pail. “Pick 'em up as fast as you can,” I would yell.

Sometimes, neighbors took offense with our picking up the walnuts, even if the walnuts were out in the roadway. We did get run off occasionally, but it didn't take long to fill the pickup bed with the ones we could get.

I like corn salsa. It is best made in the summertime with fresh vegetables. Red tomatoes in the winter don't taste as good as tomatoes fresh from the garden. That goes for sweet corn, too. We like sweet corn freshly cut from the cob and fried with butter, salt and sugar. Oh well, that is another dish. For this salsa, canned whole kernel corn can be used as well. I learned to appreciate red onions while working at Arby's in Halls. I was introduced to jalapeno peppers when we moved to Tennessee. Before that, I only used the yellow hot banana peppers.