Liam made us a special treat this evening — chocolate cake in the microwave — and it was scrumptious!
Here’s his recipe (he doubled it for the cake pictured above).
4 Tablespoons cake flour
4 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons cocoa
1 Egg
3 Tablespoons milk
3 Tablespoons oil
3 Drops of Vanilla
A small handful of chocolate chips (optional, but oh so yummy)
Combine the dry ingredients in a small Pyrex bowl with a fork (most people use a coffee mug, but Liam prefers how the cake turns out in a flatter pan).
Add the egg then mix. Add the milk and oil then mix.
Microwave for 3 minutes (5 minutes for a double batch). Watch as the cake starts rising out of the bowl. When it stops rising, it’s done.
Flip the cake onto a plate and serve.
Liam loves adding nuts to the batter. He also says he likes to dress it up with a dollop peanut butter, cream cheese or fruit to the center from time to time… I’m not sure where I was when he was perfecting this recipe.
Eating Well
Although the cake isn’t really diet food, we have improved our eating habits in the last few days, and we all feel better for it. Today, Pat made chicken and spaghetti sauce in the slow cooker with fresh basil. Then served it over whole wheat noodles with salad. Mmmmmm.
The view from my bedroom window in Palm Springs, CA.
After nearly a month on the road, we’ve settled into an RV park in Palm Springs. It feels good to stay put for a little while… and to have constant hook-up for electric, water and sewage.
We’re still getting ourselves situated, so our posts will short and sweet for the time being… plus we’ve got sunny skies and temperatures in the 70s to enjoy right now.
We bid farewell to our friends Jim and Betty Sanford in Phoenix before heading onwards to Palm Springs, CA.
Ginger, Tim and Jim offer a song... and Patsy loves every minute of it.
We can always count on Jim and Betty Sanford for wonderful hospitality. This visit was no different… lots of food, great company and plenty of music. Patsy experienced her first Irish hoolie, and I think she had a great time!
Click the photos for more pics from our visit to Phoenix.
Just a quick post today. We had a wonderful visit with our friend Bit in Tucson on Thursday evening. After some time catching up, she took us to Mi Nidito for a tasty meal. Sadly our extended stay in El Paso cut our visit with her short.
Friday morning we met Mary Ann, Charlie and Carmelita’s daughter. She and her husband Dick welcomed us into their home, and it was a joy to be sitting in Charlie and Carmelita’s old bedroom. Mary Ann shared photos of my father that my mom and I had never seen, and we were all able to share stories about these great men.
After our visit, we headed north to Phoenix to meet up with our friends Betty and Jim Sanford.
Maybe it’s the connection to my dad, but I find Ajo as one of those little communities with something very special about it.
This morning we stopped at the Catholic Church, walked around the gorgeous town plaza and stopped at the coffee shop. When we climbed back in the RV, Louie Walters from the museum appeared outside our window.
“I’ve got a rabbit for you,” he said holding up a small envelope. He had been looking for us, and by God’s grace, we parked right outside his house.
We invited him inside, and at that very moment, he did pull a rabbit out of his hat. Inside the envelope was a copy of an email from Mary Ann, Charlie and Carmelita’s daughter. Mary Ann was a classmate of Louie’s wife, and he emailed her last night to let her know we were looking for her parents.
Reading the letter made us realize Mary Ann was just as excited to talk to us as we were to talk to her. Part of her note read:
“My mother and father thought the world of these people. Eugene was my father’s best man when mom and dad got married in Abilene, Texas. I want very much to be able to talk to these people.”
As soon as we said our goodbyes to Louie, we were dialing Mary Ann. The moment I asked, “Is Mary Ann available?” she knew who I was. Although we had never met, it was clear she and I grew up with our fathers telling the exact same stories.
I was still sad I wouldn’t get the chance to see Carmelita again, but telling Mary Ann about the day I brought my father back to Ajo in the 1980s felt wonderful.
I remember the day clearly. We stopped at the pay phone in town and my dad dialed Charlie’s number.
Charlie first questions was, “Gene, where are you?”
“Charlie, I’m at the pay phone… in Ajo.”
A few minutes later we were parked outside Charlie and Carmelita’s house. Charlie met us in the yard, and these two grown men who hadn’t seen each other in 40 years hugged and began to cry. Enormous, honorable tears of joy.
Thanksgiving
Before we left town today, we stopped at the mine lookout to see the enormous hole my dad helped dig. The mine is abandoned now, but the terraced slopes to the bottom remain. And in the center of the pit sets a giant turquoise lake… a turquoise color I didn’t think existed in such quantity.
My mom and I stopped by the museum one more time, and then visited the cemetery to lay flowers on Charlie and Carmelita’s graves. We were grateful to relive a bit of dad’s past… and we celebrated with delicious tacos, apple pie and lemon pie at Marcella’s restaurant in town.
My dad lived in Ajo, AZ, in the 1930s and 40s, and I grew up with stories of the Christmas when he wore a wool suit to mass and nearly melted, of his best friend Charlie Corella, of the cross on the hill overlooking the mine…
He was in his late 20s, and it was a very special time in his life. He always had a story from Ajo to share. When I visited here last year, I found my dad’s name on their museum’s Wall of Honor for World War II veterans who left from Ajo.
Yesterday, we arrived at the museum after closing, but Louie Walters, the museum president, was just locking up and offered to let us in.
While I took my mom to the Wall of Honor, Louie pulled out a binder and started researching my dad’s name. A few flips of the binder pages and he found a reference to Eugene Joseph Hughes from the Ajo Copper News. It mentioned an Elks banquet in 1941 honoring dad for answering the call of duty.
It was a thrill to find another tidbit from my dad’s life. I miss him terribly, and it’s moments like this that bring back fresh memories of the most important man in my life.
After Dark
Between the extra time we spent exchanging stories with Louie about my dad’s life in Ajo and the time it took to eat our meal at the local “fancy” restaurant (burgers and tacos for us), it was after dark before we started figuring where we’d stay for the night. My mom was really hoping for a “real” shower. Unfortunately, the place in town with the best showers had no vacancy, as did the #2 place in town.
We opted to head to Why, where the campground is nice, but the showers aren’t quite as pretty.
January Showers
This morning, we had desert drizzle… it was raining, but we weren’t really getting wet. I walked my mom down to the showers. To address the mildew issue inside, she brought Lysol and disinfectant wipes. While she was busy washing up, I chatted with a guy who has been hopping around the country, but settled in Ajo.
After about thirty minutes, mom walked out of the bathroom with a disgusted look on her face. “I couldn’t get any hot water… And I wasn’t about to clean another shower to see if it had hot water.” All that work, and she didn’t get her shower.
Back to the RV, where I helped her take an RV shower. I won’t share the details, but let’s just say we had to laugh… otherwise, we’d both cry from embarrassment.
Looking Back
Here’s a little video we did about our visit last year… yesterday, we found out that Charlie’s wife Carmelita died last May. Rest in peace Carmelita and Charlie… and dad.
We asked the greeter at this Walmart about the "No Overnight Parking" sign, and he said, "Piss on it. Stay as long as you like." So we did.
After a week in and around El Paso trying to get the RV in perfect working order, we finally reached Arizona. We’re bummed we had to scrap many of our plans in Arizona, but we’re going on the assumption that “everything happens for a reason.”
Being “stuck” near Las Cruces and El Paso took a turn for the better yesterday.
Just over the mountain from Las Cruces, we followed the signs to the White Sands Missile Range Park, Museum and Gift Shop. Warning signs along the way, were enough to rattle us… no photos, no explosive materials, no alcohol, no stopping, stay on road at all times, vehicles subject to inspection, ground may be contaminated, check-in at gate!
In the end, the museum was closed for the weekend, and we were too gun shy to venture beyond the unmanned check-point. We caught a glimpse of the Missile Park in the distance. It looked like a compact garden with giant missiles sprouting from the desert floor.
White Sands National Monument
We headed northeast to White Sands National Monument, a rare desert of gypsum sand dunes. The pale dunes resemble snow drifts, and we had to remind ourselves that it was 50+ degrees outside as we watched [read more…]
New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces.
We’re still waiting on a part to arrive, but luckily we’ve been able to stay in the RV this weekend and were able to slip out of El Paso for a few days. Extremely high winds and rains have been lashing at us for the last few days, but all things considered, it’s been a decent week.
I grew up on a dairy farm in Michigan, so the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces had a natural appeal to me. However, Liam and his mom have always been “town folk,” so I was curious of their reaction.
Of most interest was discovering how the earliest agrarian settlers cultivated the land. New Mexico has its own set of challenges for farmers… as the 50mph wind gusts we had this weekend emphasized. Following a few centuries of farming in the state proved quite satisfying, with the displays on the late 1800s and early 1900s giving us a good “cowboy” fix. [read more…]
You're invited to tag along as we live, work and travel... all at the same time. You might call us digital nomads, location independent creative-types, vagabonds, gypsies... whatever you choose.
The truth is, we've adjusted our lives to make sure we're doing more of the things we love... traveling, roadtripping, RV-ing, writing, taking photos, blogging/vlogging, creating jewelry... and most importantly, meeting new people.
Being “stuck” near Las Cruces and El Paso took a turn for the better yesterday.
