Home Ec

When I was in the 7th grade, I opted to take the full range of electives. This meant that in semester 1 I took sewing and cooking, then in semester 2 I took wood and metal shop. I didn't cut off any digits or limbs working the saw in wood shop, I can still solder a mean joint, I sew only when I have to and I love to cook.

We realized when I was visiting with my parents this week that some of our best and favorite recipes to this day came from the 8 weeks of cooking class that I had, and I made one of the recipes - Lemon Jell-O Cake - for a tasty trip down memory lane. My mom even has the original index card that I wrote the recipe on in my curly little junior-high writing. Here is the recipe (minus the curly writing) just in case you are now craving the cake yourself:

Lemon Jell-O Cake
Jell-O mixture:

1 6-oz pkg lemon Jell-O

1 cup boiling water
Cake:

1 box yellow cake mix

4 eggs (or eggbeaters)

1 T lemon juice

1/2 cup oil

Icing:

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

4 T lemon juice

2 T butter (melted)

Oven at 325. Mix Jell-O and boiling water; set aside. Mix together cake mix, oil, eggs and lemon juice. Add Jell-O/water and mix well. Pour into a greased 13x9 baking pan and bake for 35-45 minutes. Mix together icing ingredients until smooth. Puncture cake with toothpick holes; pour icing over cake while still warm.

I had it going on when in the 7th grade...the Pineapple Supreme cake was another favorite too. Add to that my soldering and metal engraving skills and you can now see why I am the well-rounded person that I am today!