Cool Change

I think that fall arrived at about 11:43 a.m. yesterday. I was walking to my office when the direction of the wind changed abruptly and the temperature dropped significantly. So, in honor of fall, I decided to try a new recipe for apple bread that came in my new Penzey's catalog.

Here's the recipe, courtesy of Penzey's:

4 c. apples, peeled, cored, and chopped (I used Paula Reds)

4 large eggs, beaten

1 c. vegetable oil

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. cinnamon (I used Penzey's Vietnamese Cassia Cinnamon)

3 c. flour

2 c. sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease two standard loaf pans. Peel, core, and slice apples, cut into large chunks (about 1 inch in size)--I also squeezed lemon juice over the apples while I made the batter.

Beat the eggs until fluffy, add oil and vanilla extract and beat thoroughly. Then, add baking soda, salt, and cinnamon and beat until the mixture is smooth. Next, add the flour and sugar and beat thoroughly. The batter will be thick. Fold the apples in by hand so that they don't get broken up.

Divide the mixture between the two pans and prepare the topping.

Topping:

3/4 c. flour

1/4 c. sugar

2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 c. butter at room temperature

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix until moist and crumbly. Sprinkle equal amounts on each loaf.

Bake for about one hour or until it is firm in the middle. Remove from the oven and place on a cooling rack. Cool for five minutes before removing them from the pans.

Here I am peeling, coring, and slicing my apples with my special apparatus that Grambi gave me:

Chopped apples going into the batter:

Batter in the pans:

Topping on, ready for the oven:


While the bread baked, Kenna was outside doing some investigating. We believe that there is a killer in our neighborhood--more on that later.



Here she is sticking her head through the dog door to check on the progress of the bacon:



All done!



See all of the big pieces of apple?

The complete breakfast:

This was fantastic--I think the key is using large pieces of apple and putting some lemon on the apples. Love, love, love this bread.

Later in the day, I made roast beef and rolls:

Yummy dinner:

Kenna shows her appreciation for her portion of the feast:

Remember when I reorganized my baking cabinets this summer and I said I would do something with the top shelf? I finally got around to taking care of that shelf--isn't it pretty now?

So, back to the whole killer thing. Last night, Kenna and I were innocently sleeping when we were jolted awake by a horrible noise. Although we cannot be certain, we believe that a goose or some other kind of quacking waterfowl was attacked and possibly killed. We heard what can only be described as a horrible choking/quacking noise, loud rasping, and a lot of wing flapping and other sounds of struggle. After about five minutes of this, everything was silent.

If a member of the avian species was indeed killed, that would be the second one in two weeks and I swear that I personally had nothing to do with it. Perhaps there is a serial killer in our midst...who knows...

In any case, there are at least three geese still hanging out in our creek and to celebrate their vibrant lives, I give you this video:

Life In One Day

I've got some great stuff coming up for you gentle readers, but before I get out the scanner, I thought I'd share some photos of my time in Kansas and a few from my return to New York.

First, the dead frog in Mother and Father of Ken's pool:

I call this series "Hose Beast:"

Boomer really likes to drink water from the hose. McKenna always says that hose water is the best.

He also likes to plop his 70+ pound self in the middle of the kitchen floor:

Piper, smiling for the camera:

Boo, mad that she got some attention:

Because I did a lot of shopping and also have extremely generous relatives who give great birthday gifts, Mother of Ken had to mail four boxes of stuff to me. They arrived today:

My new apple peeler poked out of the box in transit. I hope that no one was harmed:

After spending most of the morning unpacking the boxes and putting everything away, I made a blueberry crisp from a recipe that I got at Penzey's in Kansas City. Penzey's is a dream come true for people who love food. I had never been to the store before, but I love their products. I bought some double strength vanilla and some Vietnamese Cassia cinnamon, which I used in this recipe.

I began by putting one cup of blueberries in a ramekin:

The ingredients for the topping are oats, flour, brown sugar, lemon juice, salt, cinnamon, and butter:

I mixed all of the topping ingredients together with a fork:

Then topped the blueberries with the mixture:

Here it is just out of the oven:

This was really good, but next time, I think I'll add some flour to the blueberries so that the filling isn't so soupy.

Here's the recipe, courtesy of Penzey's:

(Note: I added oats to mine and also only made a single serving--the whole recipe makes six servings.)

4 c. blueberries

2 Tbsp. lemon juice

1/2 c. flour

1/2 c. brown sugar, firmly packed

1/4 c. butter

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Rinse the blueberries and then place in a 9 inch square pan or six individual ramekins. In a roomy bowl, combine the lemon juice, flour, brown sugar, butter, salt, and cinnamon. Stir the ingredients together with a fork and sprinkle topping over the blueberries and bake for 25-30 minutes.