jim dandy to the rescue

My mother is sitting here, next to the window, working on her sewing and singing her heart out. We're listening to the '50s station on XM Radio. They're playing long lost hits like "Jim Dandy to the Rescue" and she's remembering them all.

She used to work at Life of Virginia, coding punchcards. Every week when she got her check, she'd stop on her way home to pick up a 45 of the latest dance hit. And now, not at all dusty from all these years of not playing them, she knows all the words and most of the singers' names.

Here's the recipe for the 1-2-3-4 cake. So named because of its sequential ingredients. My mother wanted to tell you that she adds about a cup and a half of chopped black walnuts to the batter to make it into the black walnut cake. She also wanted to alert you that it might be hard to find black walnuts this time of the year. Most stores only carry them seasonally for holiday recipes like fruitcakes. She buys them in December and freezes them. They don't have a long shelf-life which is probably why they are not stocked year 'round.

Whenever there is word that my mother is going to make this cake for a bake sale, people clammer to claim them. They call her and preorder so the cake never really makes it to the bake sale at all.