For Me? Thank You, How Thoughtful!

The urge to cook turnip-and-bacon soup overwhelmed me so I sought some smaller-sized turnips rather than the usual planet-sized turnips that despite dicing and slow-cooking persist in the soup or the mash like chunks of cork, and found some (like parsnips, they're a rarity or a mere molecule in the produce aisle) and was pleased to notice that the bag said the turnips had been grown just for me.

That warmed my heart. For me? How did they know these were exactly what I wanted and needed at this exact moment? It's a miracle! I liked this so much I looked up the For You brand and found out the For You brand began with a Dutch immigrant who grew outstanding radishes, still the brand's signature vegetable. The company has farms in Michigan and Arizona growing all sorts of produce. And on their website (www.miedemaproduce.com) I found their recipe for Chunky Turnip Soup with Bacon and Parmesan. How did they know that was exactly what I wanted -- for me?

A Piece of Cake

The 3-2-1 Cake recipe makes one serving of cake in one minute. Mom sent me this modern folk recipe and I tried it and sent it on to my friend Marsha. She expressed disbelief, so I made and served her a 3-2-1 cake. That convinced her!

1. Take a box of angel food cake mix and a box of any other cake mix of your choice, pour both into a ziploc bag and shake well. One of the two mixes absolutely must be angel food, because of the egg whites.

(Here's the 3-2-1 part:)

2. Put 3 Tablespoons of this dry mixture in a ramekin or flat-bottomed custard dish.

3. Add 2 Tablespoons of water and mix until smooth.

4. Microwave for 1 minute. Now it's ready to eat! No pans to wash either!

Put the ziploc bag away until the next time you want cake. My  3-2-1 cake (pictured) is a lemon cake mix, mixed with the angelfood. You can see the fluffy texture. I chose lemon because it's versatile. Sliced fresh peaches topped this one because that is just who I am, but one could eat it plain or put ice cream, berries, sauce or whatever. Sometimes I stir lemon zest into it; I bet I could put some poppy seeds in it. Try it and then experiment and fine-tune for your microwave. I found that my 3-2-1 cake is really best nuked for 50 seconds rather than 60.