Remembering my Granddaddy.....

Oh, so many knew him as Capt'n Joe a tall, big, stern looking, soft spoken, (when he spoke and that that wasn't often) and lover of flowers.  He was a warden for the Texas prison system for as long as I knew him.   He planted flowers behind "the Walls" and cleaned up the prison cemetery, with the help of a few inmates.  The prison system tried to retire him several times, but he'd tell them to prove how old he was and he would continue to work.  He died at work, he would have had it no other way.  He was the only prison employee who when he died, the inmates asked to have a memorial service for, inside the prison walls, and they asked the family to attend, which we did and the large church was packed to capacity.  I remember him with great fondness as I tormented my brothers by asking him for a dollar, he'd give me a five and say keep the change, then my brothers would ask, he'd give them a dime and tell them to save it.  He loved a Lemon Jello Cake, I made when I was first starting to cook, back in the early 60's.  I made it for him almost weekly and he almost always gave me 5 or 10 dollars for my trouble.  This is the recipe he liked, but he preferred it without the glaze.

Lemon Jello Cake

1 Yellow cake mix

1 pkg lemon Jello
3/4 C Oil
4 eggs

3/4 C water

Mix all ingredients together well, pour into a greased and floured tube pan. Bake at 300* for 1 hour.

Glaze:

1 small can frozen lemonade thawed

3/4  C Sugar

The is the recipe I just con-cocked because I did not have a cake mix: 

Lemon Jello Cake from Scratch

2 1/4 C Flour

1 1/2 C sugar

3 t baking powder

1/2 t salt

1 small pkg lemon jello

1/2 butter flavor Crisco

4 eggs

1 C milk

1 t vanilla

1/2 t lemon extract

1 t or T poppy seed optional

On low speed with your mixer mix the dry ingredients and the Crisco until the Crisco is in very small pieces. 

Add 1 egg at a time mixing well after each addition

Slowly add milk the flavorings

Pour into a greased and floured tube or Bundt pan bake at 300* for 1 hour

Notes:

You could use any flavor of jello

Fold in some fresh blueberries in the lemon