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: