Eggless butterless milkless cake? That's not thrift, it's stupidity - or starvation. Cake with no ingredients but flour, sugar, and water - a recipe for one or other blood sugar crisis. How many people eating this on a regular basis lived past middle age? Or didn't they? If it was only cake, and they were thrifty, and Quaker, maybe they didn't eat alot of cake? My mother, not Quaker, but seriously thrifty, let us eat cake only when it was someone's birthday. When we got home from school we cuold have four small cookies, and that was it for sweets. Our diet didn't quite match the food pyramid even then, but we got three glasses a day of milk, a serving of veggies, sometiems two, a serving of fruit, three servings of protein EVERY day, and one with each meal, and only moderate amounts of fats and carbohydrates. In fact, we had one serving of carbs with each meal except two with lunch. We ate better than classmates whose parents made the same income. Failing to put milk, eggs and butter in the cake would not have occurred to my mother; she'd probably have thought it was throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Now, I know they ate a little strangely in those days - lots of beef, pork, pork fat, eggs; cornmeal, bread, their estate inventories never seeemed to have heard of a vegetable - but cake with no milk, eggs or butter? Uh-huh. Yup. Uh-huh. I'm going to have to go over on the Quaker research list and find uot who if anyone was eating this stuff. Yours, Dora Smith Austin, TX [email protected] ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kim Spangrude" <[email protected]> To: "Sandra Ferguson" <[email protected]>; "PaOldChester" <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, December 20, 2009 3:09 PM Subject: [PaOldC] A Holiday Query For the PA Old Chester List > Well said, well said, my friend. OK here is a change of subject: > > Dear List Members, > > During the holidays I am so always very busy preparing large family > meals, making menus, compiling lists of who to invite including > extended family and friends, who I will ask to bring side dishes, and > where everyone will be seated. It is a busy but very fulfilling time > of the year, and satisfying in terms of making memories and traditions > for the young ones who are looking forward to the food and presents. > > My own memories always travel back to traditions my family had when I > was a child, such as the traditional and thrift-conscious "eggless > butterless milkless cake" that many generations of Townsend women, > both Quaker and non-Quaker, made through the years. It makes me > wonder what else was on the table of my ancestors, and who were > invited to partake in the family meal, say in the year 1790, after the > Revolutionary War when the country was young and there was much > excitement to be had. A couple of years ago another list I belong to > started a fun thread that went along these lines: If you could invite > any of your deceased ancestors to your holiday gathering, 1) who would > it be, 2) why would you invite this person in particular, and 3) what > would you ask them that you have been wanting to know about them, or > an aspect of their life? > > Just choose one ancestor and give a bit of background info (dates, > places, spouse, children, why they may be a mystery) when you answer > the above question - then send it to the list. When I first took part > in this a couple of years ago, it generated quite a bit of new > information for the list and was great holiday fun. I will contribute > my answer after we all hear from some of you. > > Blessed holidays to all, > > Kim Townsend Spangrude > On Dec 20, 2009, at 1:47 PM, Sandra Ferguson wrote: > >> Friends....as I said to you all earlier, my current health problem >> dictates that I not upset myself unnecessarily at this time, but I >> have >> been made aware, personally, by several of you, that some are >> unhappy with >> the list leadership, etc....I am asking that you remember the >> season and >> act accordingly.......fingers crossed, I will again be up to my >> 'fighting >> weight' and able to once more be involved in one of my great >> loves....genealogy.... When that day arrives I will visit the >> archives, read >> the old posts I have missed, and answer them accordingly. Till >> then, as >> always, post ONLY things that directly involve genealogy , and >> help your >> fellow listmembers with their research... is that so hard to do? For >> goodness sake...it's Christmas! >> >> S. >> >> >> ------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >> [email protected] >> with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and >> the body of the message > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Maybe it's El Nino or something but 'tis the Season to be jolly and kind and yet there's an incredible amount of nastiness going on. Dora, maybe you didn't mean to sound like you were calling someone else's traditions stupid but that's definitely how it sounded. Milkless, Eggless, Butterless cake is it only flour, sugar and water. Check it out online, there are a ton of recipes for it. Also known as Wartime Cake or Depression Cake it became popular during WWI and WWII because milk, eggs and butter were rationed and hard to get. For anyone who is lactose intolerant or allergic to eggs this is a great cake. There are chocolate versions and versions that look and sound alot like fruitcake to me. BTW: Vegetables deliver more and better calcium to us than milk which gets promoted since so many people drink it anyway. And in countries where milk is not consumed as it is here and in Europe (Japan in particular) there is a much lower rate of breast cancer. So throw out the milk and have some cake ... Kathi Jones-Hudson, National Coordinator Tombstone Transcription Project http://www.usgwtombstones.org/