Lunberjack Cake

Here is a good, 'ole fashioned cake, that'll stick to your ribs. Good with a cup of coffee. I know...I tried it.
Preheat oven to350. Grease 9" spring form pan.
Get out a small pot and bring 1 CUP of WATER with your dates to a boil. Once that happens, remove from the heat and stir in 1 TSP of BAKING SODA. Leave to cool.
In the mean time in a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
In a large bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, egg and vanilla. Slowly beat in the date mixture. Incorporate the flour mixture. Then fold in the apple and coconut.
Spread the batter in the pan, evenly.
Bake 45-50 min. The cake may dip, don't worry though. It will be moist and dense.

Snappy-Apple-Sauce

 Quite a few of my apples were not lookin too hot.

 
Look at this one...and he was one of many sad lookin apples.

 So I decided it was time to make applesauce. I have heard of making applesauce without peeling the apples and so I thought I'd give it a shot.
 Just had to wash up the apples good and cut out the bad spots.

 
Then I just used my handy apple slicing tool, to cut them up and get rid of the core. This was so quick compared to the usual process of peeling and cutting.

I added the juice of a lemon for flavour and to keep the sauce a bit lighter in colour.

 After I put my big batch of apples, lemon juice, and a half cup of water in a large pot, I put the lid on and let it cook over medium heat until the apples were all soft.
 I guess some would use a food mill to make it into the sauce, but I just poured the soft apples into my colander and used a wooden spoon to squish through to separate the peels. Very easy and it took much less time then if I had peeled all them apples.
 I do declare, I like the unpeeled applesauce version. Easy, Healthy, and Thrifty. I like this combination!

Buried Treasure

 This is what I read on my perpetual flip calendar at the end of my long day in the kitchen...
 The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer. In the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees. We should establish ourselves in a sense of God's presence by continually conversing with him. -Brother Lawrence
 I was able to make some buried treasure (frozen veggies), with getting a really good deal on large 10kg. bags of carrots and onions. I par-boiled the carrots to freeze well.
 Method: Peel and slice the carrots of course. Have a large pot 1/2 full of water set to boil as you are preparing the carrots. Once the water is boiling, dump the carrots in and bring to a boil and then let them boil for 2 or 3 min. Have a bowl of cold water set near by to ladle the cooked carrots out with a slotted spoon and into the cold water. This stopps the carrots from cooking any longer. Then dump into a collandar.

Once dripp dried, I bagged them in clean milk bags (which make great cost efficient freezer bags and is a great way to make use of somthing regularly discarded right away) and closed them off with a milk bag closure.

 

Apple Loaf

I reciently bought a bushel of apples so I'm gunna be baking a lot of appley things. I made two of these with the following recipe and brought one to bible study. Itwas liked so much, that the recipe was requested.

 

2 cups peeled chopped apples (about 3 med. apples)
2 cups sugar, mixed with the apples
3 cups of flour
3 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup of butter, melted
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
-- > Heat oven to 325. Grease two loaf pans. In a large bowl mix all the dry ingredients. Stir in the apple-sugar mixture. Mix in the remaining 3 (wet) ingredients. Divide into the 2 pans. Bake for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours.

 

After all the chopping it was refreshing to get out for a walk and enjoy all the browns and yellows left on the trees. This oak behind the kids was so beautiful. The diversity and mixture of colours of and on each leaf  was gorgeous!

 

"Come on guys, smile nice!"

 

 

"OK..."

 

/ / Pause Button / /

It is possible for us to live in the very sense of the Lord's presence, under even the most difficult circumstances. If you and I are going to enjoy the peace of paradise during this life, we must become accustomed to a familiar, humble, and very affectionate conversation with the Lord Jesus.

-Brother Lawrence

Fall is . . .

 Colourful canopies of leaves




Wearing cosy sweaters outside

Re-exploring what feels like new surroundings

Stacking wood to keep cosy

Playing in the cool crisp air

With smells of earth and leaves

and Enjoying what the harvest has turned out

and turning it into creations such as

Tomato Salsa
This is the recipe I use every time I have a big batch of tomatoes.

8 cups peeled chopped tomatoes
4 cups chopped peppers
4 cups chopped onions
2 cups vinegar
1 or 2 finely chopped jalapeno peppers
8 cloves garlic, minced
5.5 oz. tin tomato paste
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 TB. salt
2 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. oregano

Put it all in the pot and bring to a boil over med.-high heat. Lower heat and simmer for at least an hour. Although I did for about half the day because I like a thicker salsa.
For storing, I like keeping it simple, so I just freeze batches in plastic containers.

Falling in love with Fall

 

I do love fall. But it makes me sad that summer is over and gives me a little anxiety that winter is just around the corner. But I do Enjoy Autumn!

 

 

Monkey see ...

 

monkey do!



 

Tree babies, three in a row.

 

 

So many reasons to head outside and walk, hike and play this time of year. My two favourites: The colours - which I didn't get much of in these pics. :(  and the temperature is so comfortable.

Pumpin out some Pumpkin Recipes!

I don't know why I haven't grown pumpkins other years! I love pumpkin and its so awfully expensive in those cans in the grocery store. So here is a little of what I have been doing with my pumpkiny goodness...

 

I was gunna post a close up of the pie for the recipe,

 

oh well... here is the recipe for this Pumpkin Pie:
Mix all these ingredients and dump it into an unbaked pie crust,
2 cups pumpkin puree
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tsp pumpkin spice (or 1/2tsp cinnamon, 1/8 tsp each: nutmeg, allspice, ginger, cloves)
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 cup evaporated milk
Bake at 375 degrees for an hour or until knife inserted near the centre comes out clean.

Just in case you are wondering about how to get that pumpkin puree out of your cute little pumpkin. Here is the easiest way I have found. Cut it in half, scoop out the seeds and stringy stuff. Save the seeds (more on that later), place cut side down in a baking dish with an inch of water. Put in the oven at 425 degrees for 30-45 min depending on the size of your pumpkin. To check for doneness, just stick it with a fork. If it pierces easily, its done! If not....cook it longer :)

Seeds can be washed off of all the stringy slime, let air dry on a cookie sheet. Then mix in a bowl with a little oil (1 tbs.), spread on the cookie sheet, and sprinkle on a seasoning like salt mmmm. Bake at 300 degrees for 30-45 min.

And now you can turn the heat off because the oven has been on for so long that its nice and toasty warm from all the baking being done.

Next up in my Pumpkiny future is: Pumpkin soup, and Pumpkin Buns!