My Mom’s Pineapple Upside Down Cake

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by Deborah Taylor-Hough

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When I was a kid, about once a month or so, my mom would disappear into the kitchen while the family was watching television. The sounds of mixing bowls and ingredients could be heard quietly from the next room. Then all would be quiet again, she’d come back and join us in the livingroom (smiling smugly) … and then the unmistakable heavenly aroma of freshly baking Pineapple Upsidedown Cake would start seeping into the room. YUM! Truly one of my warmest and fondest memories of my mom. In the wintertime, she’d do the same thing with freshly baked Gingerbread. Those two treats are still two of my all-time favorites.

In honor of my mom, here’s her recipe with a few changes over the years of making it for my family, too.

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Pineapple Upsidedown Cake

INGREDIENTS

For Topping: (which bakes on the bottom)

• 1 8.5-ounce can sliced pineapple
• 3 Tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar

For Cake Batter:

• 1/3 cup salad oil
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Drain pineapple, reserving juice.
2. Melt butter in an 8-inch square baking pan.
3. Add brown sugar and 1 Tablespoon of the reserved pineapple juice.
4. Add water to remaining juice to make 1/2 cup liquid.
5. Arrange pineapple slices in bottom of pan.
6. In a large mixing bowl, stir together salad oil and granulated sugar.
7. Add egg and vanilla; beat well.
8. In a seperate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.
9. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients alternately with the 1/2 cup pineapple juice/water mixture.
10. Beat well after each addition.
11. Spread batter evenly over pineapple in baking pan.
12. Bake at 350F for 40 to 45 minutes.
13. Remove from oven. Cool at room temperature for five minutes.
14. Then, invert entire cake onto a serving plate.

Serve warm. Enjoy!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Deborah Taylor-Hough is the author of a number of popular books including the bestselling Frozen Assets cookbook series, Frugal Living for Dummies®, and A Simple Choice: A practical guide for saving your time, money and sanity. She also edits the Simple Times email newsletter. To visit Debi online, go to: www.SimpleMom.com, or follow her on Facebook at:  http://www.facebook.com/thesimplemom

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Debi’s Mix-n-Match Quick Bread & Muffin Recipe

I’m always on the look out for recipes that are quick, easy, family-friendly, inexpensive and flexible. This quick bread meets all of my criteria for a budget-worthy recipe. Plus it’s tasty and super-simple, too!

Quick Bread Tips: When making any quick bread (banana bread, zuchini bread, cornbread, etc.) be careful not to overmix. Stir mixture until just combined or it may become heavy and too dense. Also, be sure to bake in the center of the oven where the temperature is the most consistent.

MIX-N-MATCH QUICK BREAD (from Frozen Assets)
(Makes two loaves)
You can also make muffins with this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup oil
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups Mix-n-Match (see below)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped nuts or seeds (your choice)

Mix-n-Match (one or more of the following to equal 2 cups)

• Apples, grated or chopped
• Applesauce
• Apricots, chopped
• Bananas, mashed or chopped
• Berries
• Carrots, cooked and mashed or grated
• Cherries, pitted and chopped
• Coconut, grated
• Cranberries, dry or raw, chopped
• Dates or figs, pitted and finely chopped
• Lemon, 1/2 cup juice
• Marmalade (omit 1 cup sugar)
• Oranges, chopped
• Orange juice, 1/2 cup juice
• Peaches, fresh or canned, chopped
• Pears, fresh or canned, chopped
• Pineapple, crushed and well-drained
• Prunes, chopped
• Pumpkin, canned
• Raisins
• Rhubarb, finely chopped (add 1/2 cup more sugar)
• Strawberries, well-drained
• Sweet Potatoes or Yams, cooked and mashed, or grated
• Zucchini, grated and well-drained

Directions:

1. Sift together dry ingredients.
2. In separate bowl, beat eggs; add oil and sugar; cream together.
3. Stir in vanilla and your choice of Mix-n-Match.
4. Add dry ingredients; mix well. Stir in nuts.
5. Spoon into 2 well-greased loaf pans.
6. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour.

For Muffins:

1. Spoon batter into muffin tins.
2. Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes.

Tasty MIX-N-MATCH combinations:

• Carrot-Raisin-Walnut
• Pumpkin-Raisin-Sunflower seeds
• Apple-Cranberry-Walnut
• Cranberry-Orange-Walnut

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Deborah Taylor-Hough is the author of a number of popular books including the bestselling Frozen Assets cookbook series, Frugal Living for Dummies®, and A Simple Choice: A practical guide for saving your time, money and sanity. She also edits the Simple Times email newsletter. To visit Debi online, go to: www.SimpleMom.com

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Last day for my January contest!

The prize is an autographed copy of my book, A Simple Choice: A practical guide for saving your time, money and sanity (SourceBooks).  Deadline to enter for the random drawing is Midnight tonight (Pacific Time).

Enter here:  http://thesimplemom.wordpress.com/2010/01/12/january-give-away-contest/

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You know you’re from Western Washington if …

 You know you’re from Western Washington if …

1. You know what “sun breaks” are.
2. You seldom use an umbrella when it’s raining.
3. Although you never personally use an umbrella, you celebrate a festival called “Bumbershoot.”
4. You find blue skies a pleasant surprise.
5. You use the phrase “the Mountain’s out today.”
6. Your first outdoor chores in the spring are killing the moss in your lawn and removing pine needles from your roof and gutters.
7. You expect trees to be green in the winter.
8. You know where “the Eastside” is located.
9. You keep a supply of books on tape in your car for those long commutes.
10. You look at the ground when you’re out for a walk so you won’t step on a slug.
11. You keep a ferry schedule in your car.
12. You either used to, currently do, or hope to someday, own a boat.
13. You’ve worn shorts and a parka at the same time.
14. You measure distance in hours.
15. You can identify ten different apples by taste and smell only.
16. You know that Grey’s Anatomy takes place in an alternate universe where the Space Needle and Pike Place Market are both right next to a “hospital” which is REALLY the KOMO 4 News building!
17. You get angry when Dr. Bailey asks for a “mocha latté” on Grey’s Anatomy, even though those are two COMPLETELY DIFFERENT DRINKS!!
18. You feel overdressed wearing a suit to a nice restaurant.
19. You always have to specify “the state of Washington” instead of just saying Washington because of DC.
20. You know that it’s Pike Place Market, not Pike’s Place Market.
21. You know where Bill Gates lives and try to point it out whenever you’re driving on the 520 bridge.
22. You’re proud that Grunge started in Seattle.
23. When you visit another state and it rains, all the other people around you run and take cover while you continue to slowly walk around in your flip flops and shorts.
24. You know where Jimmy Hendrix is buried.
25. You consider a floating bridge a pain in the butt, not an engineering marvel.
26. You personally know someone from Alaska.
27. You’re amazed at an accurate weather forecast.
28. You can wear a sweatshirt and jeans any time of the year and be perfectly fine.
29. You’re shocked when people go to the beach and actually go into the ocean.
30. You drink tap water and think nothing of it.
31. When you’re out of state, you call the University of Washington “U-Dub” and nobody knows what you’re talking about.
32. Flip-flops are a year-round thing.
33. You still call it “The Bon” even though now it’s Macy’s.
34. You regularly pass volcano evacuation route signs when driving around town.
35. You live in utter fear of black ice
36. You miss the King Dome.
37. You don’t think the Panama Canal is anything special because it’s just like the Ballard Locks.
38. Seeing a submarine, aircraft carrier, or battleship isn’t a big deal.
39. You know the significance to the phrase, “My Oh My!”
40. You can name at least one bridge that’s collapsed or sunk in the last 50 years.
41. You see “Sonic” fast food commercials but have never been to or know where one is.
42. You’re proud that Hempfest is in Western Washington.
43. When people point out how beautiful Mount Rainier is, you say, “Oh, yeah. I guess.”
44. You don’t grab an umbrella even though you know it’s going to rain.
45. You go to Wild Waves even when it’s raining because you know the wave pool is heated.
46. You have to know what time of day someone’s traveling in order to tell them how long it will take to get somewhere.
47. You consider swimming an indoor sport.
48. You can tell the difference between Japanese, Chinese and Thai food.
49. You aren’t fazed by “Today’s forecast: showers followed by rain,” and “Tomorrow’s forecast: rain followed by showers.”
50. You can’t wait for a day with “sun breaks.”
51. You have no concept of humidity without precipitation.
52. You know how to pronounce Sequim, Puyallup, Enumclaw and Issaquah.
53. You keep snow chains in your trunk, but they’ve never been used.
54. You see a person carrying an umbrella and figure they must be a tourist.
55. Eating seafood isn’t anything special.
56. Your lawn is mostly moss and you don’t really care.
57. You’re extremely picky about your coffee.
58. You yell at the TV if they pronounce the name of a city wrong or make an inaccurate Seattle reference on Frasier or Grey’s Anatomy.
59. You rarely wash your car because it’s just going to get muddy again tomorrow.
60. You wouldn’t dream of putting an air conditioner in your house.
61. You go to Eastern Washington to get some sun.
62. You remember where you were on May 18th, 1980 (and you know the significance of that date).
63. You get a terrible sunburn on the first nice day of summer.
64. You look forward to SeaFair.
65. You assume Christmas will be rainy, not white.
66. You’ve owned the same bathing suit for years because you never have a chance to wear it out.
67. You still can’t believe the new Seahawks stadium is open air.
68. Your phonebook contains a tide table.
69. You only visit the Space Needle if you need someplace to take out-of-town guests.
70. You — or someone you know — works at Boeing or Microsoft.
71. You “Do The Puyallup.”
72. You feel guilty throwing something away that could be recycled.
73. You know more than ten ways to order coffee.
74. You know more people who own boats than air conditioners.
75. You can point to at least two volcanoes even if you can’t actually see them through the cloud cover.
76. You wear shorts when the temperature gets above 50, but still wear your hiking boots and parka.
77. You switch to your sandals at about 60 degrees, but keep your socks on.
78. You’ve actually used your mountain bike on a mountain.
79. You buy new sunglasses every year because you’ve lost last year’s pair after such a long time not needing them.
80. You design your kid’s Halloween costume to fit under (or over) a raincoat.
81. When you hear people from Eastern Washington say they’re going to “the Coast”, you assume they mean Ocean Shores (and, believe it or not, you’re wrong!). 
82. You know how to pronounce “geoduck” and know that it doesn’t quack or have feathers.
83. You get upset when a store doesn’t carry your favorite brand of bottled water.
84. You can taste the difference between Starbucks, Seattle’s Best, and Tully’s.
85. It’s not a “real” mountain unless it has snow year round and has erupted within the last 200 years.
86. You can tell it’s summer because the rain is warmer.
87. You know what a Frango is.
88. You have an earthquake story, and so does everyone else you know.
89. You can identify seven different types of rain.
90. You can identify five different cities by smell alone.
91. You think espresso was invented in Seattle.
92. You know exactly where Tom Hank’s houseboat was in Sleepless In Seattle.
93. You know the difference between a “boat house” and a “house boat”.
94. You know who J.P. Patches is.
95. At least one of your neighbors has a hot tub they haven’t used in over a year.
96. You’ve used every setting on your intermittent wipers.
97. You know you’d better enjoy the snow the first day it falls before the rain washes it away.
98. You marvel when the autumn leaves stay on the trees for more than three days before the rain knocks them to the ground.
99. You give directions using Puget Sound and the Cascades as points of reference.
100. You lose your sense of direction if you go east of the Cascades.
101. You know at least five different ways to kill slugs.
102. You know the difference between a rhododendron and an azalea.
103. You know what a Dick’s Deluxe is.
104. You know someone whose house has been partially crushed by a tree.
105. You know the difference between an evergreen and a deciduous tree.
106. You don’t know what a turnpike is.
107. You own a barbeque that’s rusted.
108. You change your wiper blades more often than your oil.
109. You prefer one mountain range to the other.

Can’t get enough?  For more great Seattle stuff, go to:  http://astore.amazon.com/seattlestuff-20

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More Kids’ Advent Resources

Daily Children’s Advent Activity Calendar: http://www.kidscorner.net/media/pdf/Advent2008.pdf

Manger Scene Advent Coloring Calendar:  http://www.sermons4kids.com/advent_calendar_manger_scene.pdf

Advent Group Activities:  http://www.sermons4kids.com/ready_for_his_return_group_activities.htm

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Thanksgiving Ideas

Later this month, the United States celebrates Thanksgiving Day. One of our family traditions for this particular holiday is making a Thanksgiving Tree.

We either make a tree trunk with bare branches out of black craft paper or we draw a tree onto a large sheet of paper.  Then we tape the “tree” to our dining room wall. We cut out individual autumn-colored leaves (red, orange, yellow, brown) from more craft paper.

Whenever someone in the family thinks of something or someone that they’re thankful for, they write the item, event, or person’s name onto one of the leaves and then tape the leaf to the tree branches.

We try to put the Thanksgiving Tree in place by mid-November so our family has at least a full week to add more leaves to the tree.

By Thanksgiving Day, the tree is FULL with the names of people, events and things we’re thankful for. This is great fun for the kids and a meaningful addition to our family’s holiday traditions.

Another idea along these lines is to make a Thanksgiving Jar. Throughout the year as things came up that your family is thankful for (new baby, new job, answered prayers, etc.), write the event onto a piece of paper and slip it into a specially designated Thanksgiving container.

A family at our former church in Olympia empties their Thanksgiving Jar once a year and reads each slip of paper on Thanksgiving morning during their family breakfast.

Do you have any special activities or traditions your family shares on Thanksgiving or any other upcoming holiday?  I’d love to hear about them! 

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Twaddle-Free Children’s Literature and Living Books by Grade Level

(This reading list is simply my personal idea of twaddle-free reading — it isn’t the Twaddle-free Gospel.)

Living Books = books that are well-written and engaging–they absorb the reader–the narrative and characters “come alive”; living books are the opposite of cold, dry textbooks.

Twaddle = dumbed down literature; absence of meaning

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I’ve included direct links to the books on Amazon.com so you can browse the reviews of other readers to get a better idea of which books would be appropriate for your home and/or classroom. Just click on the book’s title for further information. Amazon.com also offers free shipping on orders above a particular amount (usually $25), so if you have several books you’d like to order, it can be just as inexpensive to buy from Amazon as to order through your local bookstore. Plus you get the fun of having books delivered to your door — that’s always big excitement at my house!

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IMPORTANT NOTE:
The age designations for this list are only approximate. A child’s listening level will often be several grades higher than their personal reading level–feel free to choose books from an older list if you’re planning on reading aloud to your children. My husband and I began reading aloud to our children from chapter books (such as Charlotte’s Web) before their third birthdays. Don’t under-estimate your child’s ability to comprehend or listen to fairly advanced material.

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Preschool

Aesop’s Fables, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney
The Complete Tales of Peter Rabbit, by Beatrix Potter
The Original Mother Goose, illustrated by Blanche Fisher Wright
Good Night Moon, by Margaret Wise Brown
The Runaway Bunny, by Margaret Wise Brown
The Story of Babar, the Little Elephant, by Jean de Brunhoff
The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle
Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak

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Kindergarten / Grade 1

Amelia Bedelia, by Peggy Parish
Blueberries for Sal, by Robert McCloskey
Bread and Jam for Frances, by Russell Hoban
Billy and Blaze, by C.W. Anderson
A Chair for My Mother, by Vera B. Williams
Corduroy, by Don Freeman
The Courage of Sarah Noble, by Alice Dalgliesh
Curious George, by H.A. Rey
Frog and Toad All Year, by Arnold Lobel
Frog and Toad are Friends, by Arnold Lobel
Harry the Dirty Dog, by Gene Zion
Little Bear, by Else Homelund Minarik
The Little Engine that Could, by Watty Piper
The Little House, by Virginia Lee Burton
Madeline, by Ludwig Bemelmans
Make Way for Ducklings, by Robert McCloskey
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, by Virginia Lee Burton
The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats
Stone Soup, by Marcia Brown
Story of Ferdinand, by Munro Leaf
Story About Ping, by Marjorie Flack

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Grade 2

The Boxcar Children, by Gertrude Chandler Warner
A Child’s Garden of Verses, by Robert Louis Stevenson
Little House on the Prairie series, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Railway Children, by E. Nesbit
The Random House Book of Fairy Tales, by Amy Ehrlich
Tikki Tikki Tembo, by Arlene Mosel
The Velveteen Rabbit, by Marjery Williams
Winnie-the-Pooh, by A.A. Milne

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Grade 3

Baby Island, by Carol Ryrie Brink
Caddie Woodlawn, by Carol Ryrie Brink
Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White
Misty of Chincoteague, by Marguerite Henry
Owls in the Family, by Farley Mowat
Paul Bunyan, by Steven Kellogg
Pollyanna, by Eleanor H. Porter
Sarah, Plain and Tall, by Patricia MacLachlan
Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims, by Clyde Robert Bulla
Story of Dr. Doolittle, by Hugh Lofting
Stuart Little, by E.B. White
Trumpet of the Swan, by E.B. White

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Grade 4

Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl
The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis
The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien
King Arthur, by Roger Lancelyn Green
A Little Princess, by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Little Lord Fauntleroy, by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster
Pinocchio, by Carlo Collodi
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, by Howard Pyle
The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Story of Rolf and the Viking Bow, by Allen French
The Sword in the Stone, by T.H. White
Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain
Twenty-One Balloons, by William Pene du Bois
Redwall, by Brian Jacques
The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame

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Grade 5

Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery
Black Beauty, by Anna Sewell
Cheaper by the Dozen, by Frank B. Gilbreth, Jr.
Gentle Ben, by Walt Morey
Heidi, by Johanna Spyri
Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O’Dell
Johnny Tremain, by Esther Forbes
Lad: A Dog, by Albert Payson Terhune
Old Yeller, by Fred Gipson
Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe
The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Swiss Family Robinson, by Johann Wyss
Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson
Where the Red Fern Grows, by Wilson Rawls
The Witch of Blackbird Pond, by Elizabeth George Speare

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Grade 6

Around the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Verne
The Call of the Wild, by Jack London
A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens
Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
The Jungle Book, by Rudyard Kipling
Just So Stories, by Rudyard Kipling
Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson
Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
The Lord of the Rings (Trilogy), by J.R.R. Tolkien
White Fang, by Jack London
The Yearling, by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

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Grade 7

Animal Farm, by George Orwell
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank
Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury
Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens
The Pilgrim’s Progress, by John Bunyan
The Prince and the Pauper, by Mark Twain
Sounder, by William H. Armstrong
Tanglewood Tales, by Nathaniel Hawthorne

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Grade 8

Christy, by Catherine Marshall
David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens
The Divine Comedy, by Dante
Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes
Emma, by Jane Austen
The Great Divorce, by C.S. Lewis
Paradise Lost, by John Milton
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, by J.R.R. Tolkien

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Grade 9

1984, by George Orwell
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
The Chosen, by Chaim Potok
Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte
Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo
Moby Dick, by Herman Melville
The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemmingway
The Pilgrim’s Regress, by C.S. Lewis
The Pit and the Pendulum, by Edgar Allen Poe
Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe

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Grade 10 – 12

The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer
The City of God, by Augustine
The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne
A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens
Ben Hur: A Tale of Christ, by Lew Wallace
The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas
Guilliver’s Travels, by Jonathan Swift
Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Hinds’ Feet on High Places, by Hannah Hurnard
The Last of the Mohicans, by James Fenimore Cooper
The Odyssey, by Homer
The Scarlet Pimpernel, by Baroness Emmuska Orczy
The Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis
Silas Marner, by George Eliot
The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis
The Three Musketeers, by Alexandre Dumas
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

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HOW TO ORDER BOOKS

Click on the book titles to order directly from Amazon.com–the world’s largest on-line bookstore. Many titles are offered at significantly reduced prices from the recommended list price (often at 10 – 30% off).

Many of the listed books also qualify for free shipping (providing that you meet minimum order requirements). With free shipping, the prices can be even less expensive than buying from a local bookstore … but you also have the added convenience of never even leaving the house! I personally get a thrill seeing the U.P.S driver walking up to my front door with a box full of brand new books.

Amazon.com also has a variety of payment options. You can even order using a personal check if you’re uncomfortable using credit cards or check cards online.

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