“Mecki’s Courgette Cake”

Book club for March was at my place.

We are a group of five women who meet once a month and talk about books….
Well sometimes we talk about books the rest of the time we catch up on the things that have happened in our lives, the goss of what shops/cafes are opening/closing in Tirau and whether the price of cheese will affect whether we make our own or not – well for Sheryn it is.

So to go with all this we eat and drink good food and wine or something else to our liking. Each month we go to a different members home and the host produces the food and so I decided to make a pizza for after the nibbles and finish up with a nice cake for dessert.

Late summer means there is often a plentiful supply of zucchinis and one can get desperate as to what to do with them. If you haven’t been successful in growing your own you can be rest assured some close friend or neighbour is happily handing you a supply whether you want them or not. Well as you will have seen from an earlier post, my garden had not been successful - but I had obtained zucchinis and for me that meant I could try out some of my recipes I have collected over the years.
(See my other blog "My Julie/Julia Attempt")

So I found a nice recipe for zucchini cake called “Mecki’s Courgette Cake”. Now courgettes and zucchinis are the same thing it just depends on what part of the world you live in. This recipe was from The Waikato Times way back in 2001. I read the interesting article written by Annette Taylor and the recipe checking I had all the ingredients. On the afternoon of book club I made the cake. 

Following the directions I proceeded to step three.
   “In another bowl sift the flour and other ingredients except the almonds….”

The flour - how much flour?
Nope it’s not listed.
Read the directions again; no amount given.
Read the article again.
Annette does say
   “Mecki says this recipe makes great muffins as well and instead of almonds, raisins or other nuts can be used. They can be also be made with wholemeal flour. Having tried the cake, I believe almonds and white flour are the way to go…” 
but no amount.

Oh well ‘google’ will solve the problem. Well that was a task. No actual link to “Mecki’s Courgette Cake”, “Takes the Cake”, “Veging Out,” or any other keywords to do with this recipe and article. So checking out other recipes for zucchini cake I guessed about 2 cups of flour, besides the ingredients were all sitting there waiting to be baked!
I made the cake and, apart from being slightly undercooked in the very middle, it was rather delicious and yes I would definitely stick with the white flour and almonds.

I decided I am definitely going to try and get to the bottom of the correct amount

The following day I sent off an email to the Waikato times….

Hi Jonathan, 

 Back in 2001 (27th February precisely) you (or the person before you) printed in the Waikato times a recipe called “Mecki’s Courgette Cake” in an article titled “Takes the Cake” 
 It was in the section titled FOOD and contributed by Annette Taylor under the heading of Veging Out. I have saved this section of the paper and attempted to make the cake with the abundance of zucchinis I had acquired. 
 Unfortunately in the printing or the submitting by Annette, of this recipe, the ingredient “flour” was missed out. It is not in the list of ingredients but is mentioned in the instructions … “In another bowl sift in the flour…” 
 Now I am supposing that a correction was published at a later date but I failed to see/collect this information. 
 I have searched the web for a similar recipe and even to find the article I have mentioned but to no avail. I am wondering if you (or someone who could be allocated the job) can locate the recipe/article from archives and let me know the quantity of flour. 

 Please. 

 Yours Sincerely 
 Fiona Van Lent

The next day I received a reply…

Fiona: 
Annette Taylor is no longer working for the Waikato Times. However, she remains a practising freelance journalist and I'm guessing she can help you with the missing flour measurement. This is her website: 
http://www.number8network.co.nz 
And her contact details: 
Phone us on 07 8XX XXXX (but not during Dr Who please!) 
You can also call or text 022 XXX XXX 
Or write a letter and send it to this address: …. 

Good luck with the cake. 

Deborah Sloan 
Features editor 

OK I checked out the number8Network link (I had been there before) and there was still no cake.
Right time for action… I emailed Annette from a link on No 8

Hi Annette, 
As per the email below (I sent the email I had originally sent to Jonathan - above) I am looking for the amount of flour in your recipe “Mecki’s Courgette Cake”. 
Deborah Sloan (Features editor) replied with your contact details but no details as to the missing amount of flour! 
I’ve checked out your website but still can't find it. Could you please let me know how much flour this wonderful cake needs!!!!!!! 
Thanking you. 

Annette replied within the day

Hello Fiona - no flour? Eeeeeeek! It was either submitted that way or subbed out - hard to be certain all these years later. However - you are in luck. I am in close contact with the maker of the cake, my friend Mecki who lives in Germany. 

I shall email her straight away and will get back to you immediately. Well done for your determination - it is a lovely cake! (I will also feature the revised recipe on my community website Number 8 Network, with the flour added in this time!) 

Thanks for getting in touch. 

Regards 
Annette 

So I waited, the feeling of being able to post a correct recipe was warming inside me, someone who likes to be correct with the details…Finally nearly a fortnight later Annette replied with a copy of the email from her friend Mecki…

Dear Annette, 

How nice that somebody remembers our zucchini cake...we remembered right away that the amount of flour wasn´t printed in the newspaper...I think it was 250 g.....But I cannot find the newspaper, I know, it´s somewhere, but we found our diary and there I noted: 

3 eggs + 2 cups sugar+ 1 cup oil + 3 tsp vanilla mix and set away. 

1 tsp soda + 3 cups flour + 2 tsp cinnamon + 1 tsp salt (sounds too much to me...) + 1/4 tsp baking powder + 1/2 cup nuts + 2 Cups grated zucchini. 

Add Zucchini and flour mix slowly to egg mix and bake for 45 min. 

I hope that´s right, haven´t baked it for some years.... 

OK you say there it is

Um NO!

That is not the same recipe!

The basic ingredients are about the same but the amounts differ and even the flour is still a little suspect as to whether it would be the right amount for the recipe printed!

Annette has said she will try it out and post it to her website in due course.

In the mean time I too will have to experiment…
But it will have to wait until next year as there seem to be no more zucchinis around….

And I hear the Feijoas dropping…….

Prayer of Jabez for Women

I read my first book on the Prayer of Jabez by Bruce Wilkinson a few years ago and found it extremely encouraging and can count many blessings because of specifically praying the prayer almost daily. 

My daughter Jennifer gave me a copy of the Prayer of Jabez for Women written by Bruce's wife Darlene Wilkinson and read it earlier this year.

I was reminded of the truth behind the obscure little piece of scripture hidden away in 

1 Chronicles 4:9-10
9 Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez,[a] saying, “I gave birth to him in pain.” 10 Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request. 
Footnotes:,[a] 1 Chronicles 4:9 Jabez sounds like the Hebrew for pain.
New International Version (NIV)

The prayer is based on verse 10 and divided into four parts:

1. Bless me
2. Enlarge my territory
3. God's hand be on me
4. Keeping me safe

When you study this prayer and pray it on a daily plan you will begin to see God working amazing things in your life. Darlene addresses this prayer on a woman's plane and how it can be used in her role as mother as well as in ministry, thus seeing God work miraculously in many situations.

A write up that accompanies the books write up reads.

• The phenomenal impact of The Prayer of Jabez is shown by reports of changed lives, expanded ministries, and spiritual breakthroughs among believers everywhere. Now women have their own unique version, written by Bruce Wilkinson's lifetime partner in marriage, that is full of significance for women's roles and ministry opportunities in God's kingdom. A must-read for every woman, whether she has read The Prayer of Jabez or not, this book addresses important questions such as, How can a busy mom expand her territory without neglecting the most important territory she already has, her family? Darlene Marie Wilkinson's warm, personable approach reaches out to her reader, encouraging her to become like Jabez and experience the extraordinary life.

And the Garden Now...

From the post below this one you will know that I am keen to get our vegetable garden sorted and ready for winter plantings. I had thought I would have to do it on my own but hubby has been working with me now.

Much to his embarrassment I am now going to post a series of before's and after's to not only show you how bad it was but to show you how much we have done and how you will see that it could only have been done as a joint effort by both of us.

Early summer had vegetables growing well with new plants being added in the plot I had started. I thought I had it all in hand but the rest of the vast garden protected from roaming hens was starting to become quite overgrown with unkempt weeds that in fact a good mow would have kept in tack. But I don't know how to use a lawn mower.

 




The one bit of advice I have kept to from my mother before I married was, "if you mow the lawns once you will always have to to them" - so I never have.

As the summer months grew hotter and drier and being busy gallivanting around the countryside with Thelma and family - the garden got neglected and had to fend for itself.





So like 'when the cats away the mice will play' the weeds took over; the self seeded parsnips, self seeded again and the convolvulus had come to join the party in stampedes.

Even the grapevine from over the neighbours fence thought it had been invited and wound its way over the fence and into the game.







The convolvulus was not content with just arriving uninvited - it proceeded to carpet everything in its' track with no stopping, including the chooks run.

But like all things one has to find the blessing in it!! and yes it provided shade from the hot late afternoon sun for the hens!

We discovered quite early on, it is one weed they don't touch.

But Hubby got onboard and started pulling out the parsnips and then the other long weeds. We removed the invasive convolvulus from the fences and freed them up so once the netting could be rolled up and set aside we could start repositioning everything for the new layout.

We were pleasantly surprised when it came to shifting the chook run.



This is a dog run Harry had adapted two years ago to keep the chooks within their own run so we didn't have to clip their wings. He had also mounted the frame on wooden planks so we had thought it was going to be quite heavy and would need the able bodies of our son and a couple of his mates. But we were in luck. Using a plank in the middle of each end we were able to pivot it along the whole width of the garden alternating each end with us both lifting it and repositioned it in its new spot.

We then carefully rolled the hen house along and positioned it in its place. The rolling enabled all the old chooky poos and straw to be tumbled out and once in place, I refilled the nesting box with fresh straw. We found the second plastic egg we use to encourage the laying of eggs, under where the nesting box was in the old run, so that was a bonus. Being light the hens can sometimes scratch the plastic eggs over the edge but it can also be gathered by the excited grandchildren and maybe discarded on the way back to the kitchen.

Then all that was left to be done was to re-fence the area for the next seasons gardens so we can start on them and keep the hens out. We took a huge trailer of green waste to the dump and with other places around the yard still to be cleared there will be another to go later.

In the photo below you can see the chook run then a strip with an openable gate at each end that will be left grassed for walking on.
I have already started to dig over the next part for winter vegetables then there will be another strip for walking on and reaching across the new plot.
Next to this is where the summer garden was with the remaining vegetables that survived on their own in the foreground.
The large gate right at the base of the photo is where the hen house and chook run was and will be used for composting grass clippings and other fine vegetation. Harry plans to fence this part off separately so the hens can be allowed in at times to scratch it over without getting into the main garden but not able to destroy the general shape of the plot.
Next spring Harry will then double dig it over to plant our potato crop.

And through it all there are still some vegetables left for us - a cabbage (that the chooks had a bit of a field day with, when left unattended, when the fence was down!) some broccoli, silverbeet and some beetroot.

We've already eaten the main broccoli heads but they are a sprouting breed so will still supply us with new shoots over the next few months.


So now keeping up with a little work in the garden each weekend, as I have been doing with the other gardens around the section. I will be able to keep everything in check and productive.

What a joy.

Count Your Many Blessings

You know you can be happily going along and just getting on with life then something comes along and bowls you over?

It could be in a good way or a bad way...
It could be something huge or just the last straw that breaks the camels back..

Some of you will know if you have been reading my blog over the years that Hubby has a Mental Illness of Chronic Depression. It is in control with medication and we both watch out for signs for when all is not going too well.

I have been working outside the last month each Saturday morning tidying what I can around the place as it as getting quite overgrown and messy and generally in need of care-taking. I've weeded and pruned our driveway garden; trimmed back and weeded the small native garden; pruned some of the fruit trees and now just finished the flower garden outside our dining room window. It involved pruning some rose bushes and digging out a huge clump of bulbs that should have been thinned a few years ago.

I now want to reclaim the vegetable garden and get some winter crops in before it gets cold but it looks like a wilderness of weeds and parsnips gone to seed. They self seeded from last years neglect but it's really only me who likes them so I never got to eat them all.
Harry has been helping a little pulling out the parsnips. I have found in the past that I get a blister type rash if I get any sap from the sprouted parsnip on my skin and it leaves a scar so I am reluctant to attack them myself.

Before I start the new plot in our vegetable patch rotation we really need to reposition the huge chook run on a new part so they hens can work on a new patch of ground and I can start a garden next to them. This will allow Hubby to start planting potatoes in the bit the hens are currently in early next spring.

All sounds easy enough... but unfortunately things are not quite happening and Hubby is spending a lot of time just sleeping. He says he is tired.... but I am watching... the job of a caregiver.

But this Saturday that "something" hit me and I felt really sorry for myself. There is a list of things to be done and I can't do them all on my own. I know widows and others living on their own have to do it themselves or find help some other way and all that, but the 'woe is me' kicked in.

I have learnt when this happens to let all the 'stuff' go and find something to minister and care for me. I have learnt to find the blessings, for there are many and so I wondered around the gardens that I have tidied up and admired the work I have done. It is early Autumn and the warmer days are fading - the flowers not quite so prolific, so I gathered myself a bunch. They may be a mixture of weeds and end of the season blooms but gathered up they made a bright arrangement on our table.

As I pass them now I am reminded that it is just one of the simple ways to boost how I feel and hum the little song we used to sing in church...

I am grateful for so much and know that in time everything will get done that needs to be done. It may end up not happening the way I think or would like but in the meantime I can be grateful for some much; good health, a great spouse, an awesome church family, a good paying job, a roof over my head, food on the table, great family, and an awesome God who always reminds me that He loves me!! And I don't have to be perfect or do things better to get His love!!

Women and Stress: Practical Ways to Manage Tension

Women and Stress: Practical Ways to Manage Tension is written by Jean Lush, with Pam Vredevelt updating it a bit so it is now repackaged to reach a new generation of stressed-out readers. Women and Stress continues its important role in stress management in our high-stress times.

Jean Lush (1914-1996) was also coauthor of Mothers and Sons and the bestselling Emotional Phases of a Women's Life. Jean was well-known for her radio and television outreach.

Pam Vredevelt

Pam Vredevelt is a bestselling author, popular conference speaker, and licensed professional counselor at NW Counseling Services in Gresham, Oregon. She is coauthor of Mothers and Sons and Surviving the Secret.

Women and Stress is a classic, time-tested handbook for any woman dealing with stress.

Everyone must manage tension and stress; from balancing work and family to cultivating relationships and dealing with personal issues. But how we do it can determine the quality of our lives.

In this book, Jean and Pam point out causes of tension and stress and how we typically respond to these. They then conclude by showing you how to deal with stress that is unique to women in healthy, productive ways. They examine troublesome emotions and show how to manage tension with practical, tried-and-true methods gained from research, personal experience, and enlightening case studies.

This helpful book offers you reassuring advice for handling common sources of stress and their manifestations, such as
• fear
• mood swings
• jealousy and anger
• perfectionism
• unmet needs
• and more

It's no secret that we live in high-stress times. Women and Stress is a proven resource to help you not only cope but rise above the chaos to a peaceful, balanced life.

I found this book a reminder to me on keeping time for me and guarding this time, so no-one or anything can steal it away. It also reminded me to fit in the things I love to do and not think of them as luxuries or guilty escapes but as 'tools' to help me relax and have a stress-free life.

The Courage to be Rich

The Courage to be Rich: Creating a Life of Material and Spiritual Abundance

In the bible there is a verse:

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. 1 Timothy 6:10 New International Version 

This book made me look at the verse in a different way.

Suze Orman is an American personal financial adviser and a two-time Emmy Award-winning television host, New York Times mega bestselling author, magazine and online columnist, writer/producer, and one of the top motivational speakers in the world today. She has won numerous awards and yet started out growing up on the South Side of Chicago earning a bachelor’s degree in social work at the University of Illinois and at the age of 30 was still a waitress making $400 a month.
Her life story was that of an ordinary child but she made choices to change it.

In her book "The Courage to be Rich: Creating a Life of Material and Spiritual Abundance" Suze took me on a journey that showed me that it is not to have a love of money in the sense that it becomes your idol but to love it with the respect it deserves. You either have a love for money or a love for possessions - and the later will never leave you with any money. Giving money the respect it deserves enables it to stay with you and build up to become a tool you can use for the good in your life.

This book is a handbook based on the American financial system so a lot of it was not relevant in New Zealand but her explanations, examples of 'peoples' stories and a guide as to what to expect, what to do and what not to do, can be adapted for anyone anywhere in the world. She addresses the rites of passage we all might and/or must face - marriage, divorce, death, spending (and overspending), the financial situations we may well find ourselves in at theses times and taking control of our financial tomorrow's today.
At first she makes you take an honest look at where you are today in relation to your finances and invites you to participate in some activities to truly make you stop and take control where ever you are.

The book is more than a book about money. It's a book about emotions and feelings and living a life of abundance. It's a book that encourages you to face the feelings and emotions you have about money and to learn.

Throughout the book she posts little rules to live by when it comes to money.

I've included some of them here.

She ends it by encouraging you to give, not out of your poverty as that will never help you get ahead, but out of your abundance and how the act will release you to the rewards of being able to 'love' money for its worth and what it can do not just for you but for others in the world.


We may not all become millionaires or huge investors on the stock exchange but with educated decisions we can become rich - enough to share - and so to have enjoyment and peace.

We have the courage to be rich, to be in control and so not have money control us.

Going back to the verse I first mentioned -

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Yes the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil when it is a selfish desire to have it for your own means. But God wants to bless us and in that we will have an abundance.

You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours. Psalm 128:2 New International Version

You may well say - well that's not for all people and what about those who are starving and struggling with afflictions that we may never have to experience. When we are rich then out of that abundance we can give to others. Having a love of money to be able to be in the position to give is something we should all desire. The act of giving is not evil and to give in a financial way means to have a loving respect of money to be able to work for God and you.

2 Corinthians 9:6-11 (NIV) 
Generosity Encouraged 
6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9 As it is written: 

“They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor; their righteousness endures forever.”  

10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

All scripture is taken from New International Version

Lemon Cordial

We used to have a huge lemon tree. At anytime of the year you could go out and find at least one or two lemons suitable to be used. Unfortunately that tree just sort of died over two years and so now we are desperately trying to coax a new one to grow. In the mean time I have to ask other friends and neighbours for the odd lemon or two. As a result of the lovely supply of lemons and living on a budget, I found this recipe and have used it to make a refreshing drink.
The cordial is high in sugar but it is watered down to drink and will actually go a long way.

3 cup sugar

4 cups boiling water

½ cup lemon juice

1 ½ Tbsp grated lemon rind

1 ½ Tbsp tartaric acid

Bring the water to the boil and stir in the sugar.

Turn off the heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved.

Add the lemon juice, rind and tartaric acid and mix well.

Once cooled strain and pour into a screw top bottle.

Keep in the fridge.

This will keep in the fridge for a few months.

Dilute to taste.

I use about 1/6 of juice to the volume of container you are using to make up the cordial. It’s a matter of taste really. Serve with ice and maybe sprigs of mint.