redacted recipes

The Omnivore's Delight

Ann and I are shameless omnivores. There are very few things we won't try. Ann draws the line at black pudding and haggis; I still suffer from occasional aesthetic panic about shellfish. This happens less frequently the older I get, but when it does the gastronomical renaissance man in me regresses to become the squeamish, sensitive child who gazed in horror at the humble mussel and saw something that looked like the diseased expectoration of a consumptive squid.

But one thing neither of us has any qualms about is a solid chunk of red-blooded, four-legged animal flesh. We have every respect for vegetarianism but sometimes we just want to get some juice-oozing meat between our teeth.

Last night I dropped in at the Grand Central Market and picked up a pair of thick New York Strip steaks. While I was there some plump little mushrooms called to me and that was that; I had dinner sorted. Steak in creamy mushroom sauce with baked spuds and salad. Simple yet effective, like the first Ramones album or a young Mike Tyson. Here's what I did for the two of us.

Steak with Mushroom Sauce
serves 2

2 good, thick steaks (New York strip, sirloin, anything nicely marbled and about an inch and a half thick)
Olive oil
Coarse salt
Ground black pepper

Sauce

8oz mixed wild mushrooms, sliced (crimini, shitake, portobello... whatever you fancy)
2 tbsp flour
2 tbsp heavy cream
1/4 cup red wine
1/2 cup of reduced beef stock
1 tbsp finely chopped shallots
1 oz butter
1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to about 400. Use a griddle pan to cook the steaks if you have one, otherwise a regular skillet will do. Put it on full heat and leave it until it is terrifyingly hot. You want that pan hot enough to set off your smoke alarm, intimidate your neighbours and bring back terrible memories of Chernobyl. While it's reaching meltdown, generously sprinkle your steaks with coarse salt and ground pepper, press that in a bit and then lightly rub them with just a little olive oil. Slap 'em into the pan, then open the doors and windows and don breathing apparatus as your kitchen fills with smoke. Don't worry, you're not going to be searing flesh for long. Two minutes a side and that's it. Don't pierce the steaks while this is going on, and use tongs or a spatula to turn them. Don't move them around except to flip them that one time or to swivel them through 90 degrees if you're using a griddle and you want the pleasing traditional cross-hatched pattern.

Transfer the steaks to a roasting grill over a baking tray and put them on the middle shelf of the oven. You'll want to leave them there for about ten minutes if you like it rare, maybe 15 for medium-rare, 20 for medium. You'll need to know your own oven for this. While they're finishing, make the sauce as follows.

Melt the butter in a saucepan and fry the shallots and mushrooms until just tender, about 2-3 minutes. Sprinkle flour into the pan and quickly stir it in. Add the wine and the cream and blend. Reduce for about two minutes. Add the stock and the Worcestershire sauce and blend. Add salt and pepper to taste then keep on a low simmer while the steak finishes and the sauce thickens. Shouldn't take more than ten minutes at the very outside.

Pour a little of the sauce over each steak and serve it with whatever takes your fancy. As I mentioned, I went for baked potatoes with sour cream and a simple green salad with thinly-sliced red onion and mustard dressing.  Obviously a full-bodied red was involved as well. When it comes to steak, some traditions should not be messed with.

Greenmarket Pleasures

Spring seems to have finally arrived and the Greenmarket gets more interesting every Saturday. We were delighted to find kale and collard tops on offer from Garden of Eve (suppliers to the CSA we've joined). They look pretty in a vase, don't they?

They're also delicious to eat. Slightly bitter, they taste like a cross between broccoli and escarole. Discard the thicker woody stems and saute them quickly in olive oil for a fabulous side dish.

Garden of Eve also had eggs on offer, which were just too beautiful not to photograph.

So Retro

Sometimes you just have to have an old favorite and that's how I was feeling this weekend when I turned to Jack and said, "I need pineapple rings and maraschino cherries right away." (Before I forget, I just want to say that Jack is fabulous about last minute runs to the store and this is no small thing, as we live on the sixth floor of a walk-up apartment building. Aren't I lucky?)

For some reason I woke up on Sunday thinking about a particular recipe for Pineapple Upside Down Cake. It's one a friend once made for me and which I really think is the tastiest ever. The secret is melting butter with butterscotch chips instead of the usual brown sugar, which creates an amazingly gooey topping with little bits of crunchy butterscotch all around the pineapple.

As you can see, we were unable to get a photo that doesn't look as if it was featured in a Nixon-era cookbook. We tried, believe me, and I'm convinced something funny was going on. At any rate, we ended up with a retro cake and a retro-looking photo no matter how many frames we took (with two different cameras!).

This cake is well-suited for a cast-iron skillet.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

1/2 package of butterscotch chips
1/3 stick butter
1 can pineapple rings in juice
maraschino cherries (as many as pineapple slices used)
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
2 whole eggs
1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup pineapple juice (add milk as needed to make 3/4 cup total liquid)

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Drain the can of pineapple rings, saving the juice.

Place the butter and butterscotch chips in a cast iron skillet and melt. Arrange whole pineapple rings and cherries (with cherries in centers of the rings) over the butterscotch in pan. If you have left-over pineapple rings cut them in half and then line the sides of the pan with them (standing up).

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Continue creaming with a mixer, adding eggs, one at a time, and stirring until mixture is lemon colored. Add the vanilla and mix well. With the mixer running, alternately add the flour mixture and the milk-liquid mixture. Beat on medium speed for three minutes. Pour batter into the pan being careful not to disturb the pineapples and cherries.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes until a clean toothpick or butter knife inserted in middle of cake comes out clean.

Remove from oven and allow to stand for a few minutes to set and then turn it upside down onto a serving dish. Serve while still warm, although it's fine at any temperature--and really, really nice for breakfast, to my shame!

Gotta Try That! Green Beans and Beets with Lemon Mustard Vinaigrette

Last week I had a bag of green beans in my vegetable crisper and no thoughts about what to do with them, Naturally I started wandering around in food blog land and found this lovely recipe for green beans with a lemon mustard dressing over at From the kitchen of a captious vegetarian. As I also had a couple of beets rolling around in the crisper (left over from my experiments with Beet Risotto) I was very pleased to see that the captious vegetarian sometimes substitutes beets for green beans in this recipe. A green bean and beet salad was obviously meant to be.

Interestingly, the captious vegetarian notes that, while she loves the dish, she's gotten so-so reviews on it. I honestly don't see why-- the dressing perfectly compliments both the green beans and the beets, and the way the thin slices of onion are prepped makes them almost taste pickled. It's perfect in my book. Thanks to the captious vegetarian for the inspiration and recipe!

Green Beans and Beets with Lemon Mustard Vinaigrette
serves 4 as a starter

1 small red onion, cut in half and thinly sliced
1/4 tsp salt (too much?)
pinch freshly milled black pepper
1 Tbs apple cider vinegar
1 pound of green beans, trimmed
1 medium-sized beet

Scrub the beet, cut it into quarters, and wrap it loosely in foil. Roast in the oven at 450F for about 30  minutes, or until it is tender.

Place the thinly sliced onion in a bowl and cover the slices with boiling water. Let sit about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, blanch the green beans in boiling water (about 4 minutes) and then plunge them into cold water.

Drain the onions and toss them with the salt, pepper and vinegar.

When the beet quarters are cool enough to handle, remove the skin and cut each quarter into thin slices.

Make the vinaigrette, whisking all of the ingredients together:

1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
1 small garlic clove, crushed
1 tablespoon Dijon-style mustard
1 teaspoon honey
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Drain the onions once again, squeezing them dry. Toss half of the onions with the green beans and half of them with the beet slices. Assemble the salad by placing the green beans and sliced beets on a platter.  Pour the dressing over the top and let it sit for about 15 minutes before serving.

Heart of the Matter: Healthy Brunch

Mushrooms contain so much flavor it's easy to forget that they're good for you. In fact, I never think of them as healthy because I associate them with rich complicated dishes, like Turkey Tetrazzini or Coquilles Saint Jacques, where their strong distinctive flavor enhances the other ingredients. Mushrooms don't have to be relegated to supporting roles, though, as they are delicious on their own.

It turns out that mushrooms are, in fact, damned good for you. They're an excellent source of phosphorus, magnesium, potassium and selenium (often lacking in highly processed food).  Mushrooms are also particularly rich source of riboflavin: one portobello mushroom supplies nearly one-third of the daily recommended value, while a serving of white or crimini mushrooms supply about one-quarter of what we need daily. Mushrooms are high in fiber, contain virtually no fat or cholesterol, and are one of the best plant-based sources of niacin.

So forget about burying mushrooms in cream, butter and pasta and let them play a starring role. They'll reward you with great flavor and with the satisfaction of knowing you've done your body some good.

Roasted Mushroom Breakfast Bruschetta
serves  4

2 large portobello mushrooms, cut in half and sliced
2 cups sliced crimini mushrooms
1 tablespoon fresh oregano, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste
4 slices of sourdough bread
1 garlic clove, cut in half
4 eggs

Preheat the oven to 450F.

Lightly oil a large baking sheet. Toss the sliced mushrooms with the olive oil and oregano and arrange in a single layer on the baking sheet. Roast for about 20 minutes until the mushrooms are tender. Check on them frequently, shaking the pan to make sure they roast evenly. Remove from the oven and set aside, covering with foil to keep them warm.

Bring about 3 inches of water to a high simmer in a large skillet.

Meanwhile, lightly toast the slices of bread and then rub one side of each slice with the garlic halves. Place each slice of bread on a plate.

When the water is simmering nicely, break the eggs one at a time into a ramekin or coffee cup and then slide the egg gently into the simmering water. Let them *poach about 2 minutes for runny yolks-- longer if you are so inclined. Remove the eggs with a slotted spoon and let the water run off before gently transferring them to the top of the mushroom bruschetta.

This recipe goes out to Joanna, of Joanna's Food, who is hosting this month's Heart of the Matter and needs ideas for healthy weekend brunches to feed herself and her family.

*If you have a fear of poaching eggs, this link may help!

Studiofeast II: Underground, Overground

After the great time we had at last month's Studiofeast with Ilan Hall, we were very keen to repeat the experience. This time, however, we invited a couple of guests: Mike, a work colleague of mine who is another fan of interesting eat-out experiences, and Zenchef, known to many of you from his warm, witty and wonderful blog, "Chefs Gone Wild".

We met in one of our favourite Williamsburg bars, the Brooklyn Ale House. We love this place because in the ten or eleven years we've been going there pretty much the only thing that's changed is the dodgy artwork on the walls. There are always several regulars at the bar, there's a reasonable selection of beers on tap as well as specials in the cask, the jukebox is good and at weekends the bagels are free. Dogs often roam the peanut-shell-strewn floor looking for attention and, it has to be noted, a carelessly low-hung coat to cock a leg against. Only the unwary put their coats over the back of the bar chairs here.

Once again we turned up at the secret location promptly at 8:00 having stopped en route to buy a selection of wines from The Bottle Shoppe on Bedford Avenue. Co-organiser Mike Lee remembered us from last time, which was nice, and after a brief chat with him we settled ourselves at the end of a table. As the place slowly filled up we sampled the first of our wines: a light and silky-smooth Momokawa Ruby sake selected by Mike, who is something of a Japanese cuisine afficionado. There were quite a number of people we recognised from the last event, which made this pre-prandial part of the evening even more fun than last time. The atmosphere at Studiofeast really is very warm and sociable. Everyone just seems so pleased to be part of it and eager to talk and share with friends and strangers alike. You can get a sense of the event (and what the chefs were up to) here.

At around 8:45 the hors d'ouevres appeared. We were treated to three different varieties which we accompanied with a pleasantly crisp, fruity 2006 Botalcura El Delirio Chardonnay Viognier. The Isleford Crab Rolls turned out not to be rolls at all - we suspect a last-minute supply issue here - but consisted of salty, citrusy crabmeat over thickly-sliced bread triangles. Next came dill-dressed gravlax over thin rectangles of rye bread. Very simple, but tasty. The last of the trio was everyone's favourite: Devils Eggs. These were not the spicy little things we were expecting (as in Deviled Eggs) but simple halves of boiled egg with light touches of garlic, salt and cheese. The yolks were just cooked, avoiding the dryness of the typical hard boiled egg. I would love to show you some pictures of these creations (and the subsequent courses) but for some mysterious reason my already shaky abilities with the camera completely deserted me this time. Apologies for that; you'll just have to take my word for the fact that it looked good as well as tasting good!

Next came the first course: a salad comprising asparagus, morels, leafy greens and candied pork with a sauce Gribiche dressing. We paired this with a 2006 Wyatt Pinot Noir which was a fairly classic medium-bodied example of the breed with a lovely, characteristic brick red tone. The salad featured watercress which had not had the large stalks trimmed away; an unusual idea that we had some doubts about but which, surprisingly, worked very well. The slight bitterness of the stalks made a good contrast with the highlight of the dish: the candied pork. These meaty little nuggets were bursting with sweetness yet not so much that the flavour of the meat was lost. The combination of the leaves and stalks, the woodsy earthiness of the morels and the mild tang of the dressing made a whole that was definitely more than the sum of its parts.

I think it was early during the serving of the salad course that we happened to notice a vital stage in the preparation of the entree. Even in a crowded room it's hard to miss a whole roasted goat on a spit being carried through to the kitchen. Yes, those crazy Studiofeasters had really taken underground dining to the edge this time -  the edge of the roof, to be precise. Underground dining with overground cooking - they'd roasted the beast right out there in full view of neighbouring buildings, passing subway trains and, no doubt, flocks of worried pigeons. Later in the evening Mike took us up to the roof to show us the huge grill, and told us how they'd spent a few anxious hours hoping the local Fire Department didn't think there was anything unusual about a thick plume of smoke rising into the air above the building. Well, the FDNY either didn't notice or didn't care, and as a result we all got to enjoy succulent slices of the roof-roast, accompanied by the most deliciously salty pebble-sized potatoes, Vidalia onions and hunks of curry corn bread topped with a savoury, garlicky butter.

We paired this with a wine provided by the Zenman - a Mocali Brunello di Montalcino Riserva 2001 - which was just perfect for the dish. A big-bodied, dirty-minded number, this had a deep black fruitiness laced with just a hint of pine forest floor. Just what you need for roast meat and potatoes!

It would have been a mistake for this meal to end with a heavy-hitter of a dessert and it didn't: Monica Glass had created a simple layered carrot cake with chocolate, hazelnuts and cream cheese mousse. We paired this (and the petits fours which followed) with an Otima Port. This is not a heavy, rich port so it worked well with the relatively light dessert.

Our second Studiofeast experience was every bit as enjoyable as the first and it was great to meet Zenchef. Do check out his report of the occasion, which features the only two remotely useable photos we took. Zenchef doesn't look that blurred in real life, even after half a dozen glasses of wine!

When Bananas Go Bad

I know, I know, yesterday I announced I can't fasten my jeans and today it's baby banana cakes. What can I say? The bananas were originally bought to eat with low fat Greek yogurt (which is pretty damned good stuff, I might add), but then I sort of ignored them and now they are exacting revenge: "oh, so you think you can buy us and then abandon us? Well, think again! We're going to call in the fruit flies if you don't do something NOW!"

What else could I do? Okay, sure, I didn't have to make cake. I could have made a nice healthy whole wheat banana bread. But where, I ask you, is the fun in that?

The basic recipe is below, but I made some changes: first, the recipe calls for 8-inch cake pans and I only have 9-inch, which meant I was going to have a short-looking layer cake. I hate short layer cakes. To me a layer cake should be tall and proud. So I used my nine inch pans, but then cut three 4-inch circles out of each layer to make three baby layer cakes. Then I split each little layer to make tall and majestic 4-layer baby cakes.

You might be wondering what I intend to do with the cake scraps. Well, naturally I had to sample the cake and make sure it was good (it was). The rest of the scraps have gone into the freezer, as I have an idea for really decadent little banana bread puddings.

Banana Cake with Caramel Frosting

1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup mashed ripe banana (about 2 small to medium bananas)
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts or pecans
2 cups sifted cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup soured milk or buttermilk

In a large mixing bowl cream the butter and sugar. Add the mashed bananas and beat well. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla and lemon extracts and the chopped nuts.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, soda and salt and add it to the creamed mixture alternately with the  buttermilk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.Beat for 2 minutes on medium speed.Pour the batter into 2 buttered and floured (or butter and line bottom with waxed paper) 8-inch cake pans.

Bake at 350F for 25 to 30 minutes or until cake tests done. Cool on wire racks for 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool thoroughly on racks.

Caramel Frosting

This stuff is (as Jack observed) "mad sweet," and a little goes a very long way, particularly on a small cake where so much surface area can be covered. This is why the sides of my little babies remain bare. Also, if you let the hot caramel cool longer you won't need to add nearly as much powdered sugar.

2 cups dark brown sugar, firmly packed
6 tablespoons butter
dash salt
1/2 cup milk
2 cups sifted powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Walnuts or pecans for garnishing

In a saucepan, combine the brown sugar, butter, salt, and milk, bringing it to a boil over medium heat. Boil 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove the pot from the heat and let stand 8 to 10 minutes. Gradually beat in the powdered sugar with an electric mixer. Continue beating until you have a good spreading consistency and then add vanilla,  blending well. Frost the cake and decorate with the walnuts or pecans. You can also drizzle with chocolate, if you want to make sure your favorite jeans never fit again.

Mediterranean Vegetable-Cheese Pie

We've been over-indulging lately and I can't fasten my favorite jeans. It's the food blogger's dilemma, isn't it? Daring Bakers, Sugar High Friday, The Mini Pie Revolution and meals out... well, let's just say there's a price for all this cooking and eating.

This is a recipe from Self magazine which I have adapted to suit my own tastes. It's very pretty and it's ridiculously low in fat and calories-- you can eat half the pie and stay under 400 calories. Best of all, it tastes good. Sometimes I double the amount of spinach-- sometimes I substitute escarole for spinach and add a little lemon juice to the cheese mixture. It all works.

Be sure to season the potato crust liberally with salt and pepper before you pre-bake it-- and a light coating of the olive oil cooking spray will help them crisp up nicely...

Mediterranean Vegetable-Cheese Pie
serves 4 (but the two of us often eat the whole thing)

Olive-oil cooking spray
2 medium potatoes, sliced in 1/8-inch rounds
1/2 cup diced onion
8 oz (about 8 cups) baby spinach
3 garlic cloves, chopped
2 whole eggs
3 egg whites
1 cup nonfat ricotta
1 tbsp feta, crumbled
3 tbsp finely chopped oregano
3 plum tomatoes, sliced into 1/4-inch rounds
1 1/2 tbsp grated Asiago or Parmesan
1 1/2 tbsp grated lowfat mozzarella
salt and pepper

Heat oven to 350°. Coat a 9" pie plate with cooking spray. Line bottom of plate with potato slices. Cut remaining slices in half and arrange around side of plate. Season with salt and pepper. Lightly spray them again. Bake 12 to 15 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside.

Coat a sauté pan with cooking spray and sauté onion over low heat until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and saute about 1 minute. Add the spinach and let wilt, about 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat. Drain excess fluid from onion and spinach mixture.

In a bowl, beat eggs and egg whites. Stir in ricotta and feta. Add half the oregano and set aside.

Spoon onion and spinach mixture into pie plate over potatoes. Layer on egg mixture, then slices of tomato.

Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until egg is set and a knife inserted into pie comes out clean. Sprinkle grated cheeses evenly over top of pie and top with remaining oregano. Return to oven for 5 minutes or until cheese melts. Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes. Cut pie into 4 wedges. Serve immediately.

192 calories per serving: 4.8 g fat, 20.5 g carbohydrates, 17.5 g protein, 7.8 g fiber

The Epic Roadtrip: Advice Wanted!

Jack and I are driving across the US in May and we want advice from US food bloggers (or anyone who has made a similar drive across the US) about places we shouldn't miss along our route. This all started when my Mom, who lives in Arizona, recently decided to let go of some precious pieces of furniture handed down to her by my grandmother. When we looked into what it would cost to have it trucked out to east coast we were astounded, so it all went into storage until we could figure out what to do with it. This isn't the sort of stuff you give away if there's any choice in the matter.

I wrote a little about my grandparents for the first Apples & Thyme event, describing their lives as cattle ranchers. Integral to raising beef cattle was a massive old Boos butcher block (the work surface is about three feet thick) that always stood in their kitchen. There is a little oak secretary, an old chair with a needlepoint seat cover made by my grandmother, and a game table with matching chairs she always played bridge on. There are a few other pieces, as well as some boxed kitchen items. Not surprising that my sister and I want to make sure these things stay in the family.

I've always wanted to find the time to drive across the country with Jack. During his time here in the US he's seen a fair amount of the east and west coasts, but very little else. So the Epic Road Trip came into being.

We plan to fly into San Francisco and rent a car with a brief run up to Sonoma to pick up some cases of wine from two or three of our favorite wineries, and then to drive across Nevada via The Loneliest Road, dropping down to The Grand Canyon and then to Tucson, where we'll swap the car for a small truck, visiting my parents for a few days and loading in the furniture. We've got this piece pretty well planned.

From Arizona we have no real itinerary and we want advice! If you know the area along any of the following legs of our journey, we'd love to hear about it. great roadside diners, things to see and do, the must-not-miss oddities... please tell us! We're avoiding large cities, as we'll have the hassle of needing to park a truck, so we don't need advice on what to see in Saint Louis or Chicago, please.

Here is the tentative plan, organized by major routes, stops to sleep not included:

Route 10 from Tucson to Las Cruces, New Mexico

Route 25 to Albuquerque (with a side trip to Santa Fe)

Route 40 through Amarillo, Texas to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Route 44 through Tulsa and into Missouri, all the way up to Stanton

Route 70 to Joliet, Illinois (we plan to skip Chicago)

I 80 to Sandusky, Ohio at the bottom of Lake Erie

Then we'll hug the Lake Erie shore through Ohio and Pennsylvania, before heading east to the Finger Lakes area of New York

From there we'll abandon the major highways in favor of small roads into Vermont (and a stop in Bennington to see my daughter)

Finally, we wind our way across Vermont to New Hampshire, stopping in Nashua to deliver my sister's share of the furniture

So what do you know? What's your advice? Where is that fabulous little cafe? How about goat farms producing cheese? We want to know about all of it!

Tried, Tested and True

Our adopted blog, Equal Opportunity Kitchen is hosting their first event! They want to know what your Tried, Tested and True recipes are-- you know, the ones you pull out when you don't have time to mess around and you want to be sure everyone will love it. Or maybe it's a recipe your Mom always made. You know you've got a couple in your back pocket!

When I was a kid one of my mother's go-to recipes was Lazy Daisy Oatmeal Cake. Everyone loved it.  Published in the '50s by Mary Aldon, Quaker's answer to Betty Crocker, it's a moist spice cake made with cinnamon, nutmeg, and oatmeal in the batter, and topped with a broiled coconut and walnut frosting.

Jack, who really isn't so into sweets, calls it "Crack Cake," feedback I was delighted to receive (not that we, um, you know, actually have any way of knowing if it's that addictive). Truly, you can't go wrong with this cake. Trust me. Oh, and I don't know why it's called lazy, as it's a scratch cake (though it is easy and pretty much foolproof).

Lazy Daisy Oatmeal Cake
The original recipe called for Crisco (and there are a lot of recipes out there substiuting margarine), but I used butter.

1 1/4 cups boiling water
1 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup butter, softened to room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Pour boiling water over oatmeal. Let stand 20 minutes. Beat margarine until creamy. Gradually add sugar and brown sugar. Beat until fluffy. Blend in vanilla and eggs. Add oatmeal and mix well. Sift flour, soda, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg together. Add to oatmeal mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes in a 9" pan.

Frosting:
1/4 cup margarine
1/2 cup light brown sugar -- packed
3 tablespoons evaporated milk (or plain milk or cream)
1/3 cup nuts -- chopped
3/4 cup coconut flakes

In a small pot melt the butter and brown sugar. Add the milk and then stir in the nuts and coconut. Spread over cake and broil until bubbly.