Orange you glad I made cupcakes?

The recipe called for a bundt pan. I hate those pans so poured the batter into lined cupcake pans.

I put the extras in the freezer but they had to come out yesterday to make room for the beerocks I made.

A fresh batch of orange buttercream frosting makes the cupcakes just as good as the day I baked them.

Carrying coal to Newcastle

All those peaches in my csa box. Then at lunch today, my friend comes bearing fresh peaches and a bag of frozen peaches.

What to do with so many peaches? Make a cobbler.

Making brownies

Leeya came to stay with us last week. Although we didn’t go anywhere, we had lots of fun.

It was very hot so we played in the sprinklers. The next day we made brownies in the morning and made mud pies in the afternoon, again playing in the water.

Later that day Leeya’s other grandma and aunt came to visit. She showed them all the things she had been doing while staying at our house.

We had painted her toenails and fingernails. Using snack materials and toy plates, Leeya was able to use division and sorting skills. After demonstrating, we ate the munchies. Then it was time for Nana and Aunt Sara to leave.

The next day we take Leeya home but we don’t leave. We stay the next two days taking care of Leeya and her baby brother.

Flour + mess = biscuits

Be assured, if there is flour in the recipe, I will make a mess. But I also make really good biscuits.

The apple cake recipe

This is my version of the apple cake recipe from last week’s post. I must add a disclaimer: I have changed the original recipe to suit my needs.

Grease a 9×9 cake pan. (The original called for a a 9×13.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a mixer bowl (I use my food processor) cream together:

1/2 c butter, 1 c sugar

Add one egg and 1 small container of applesauce (about 1/2 c), mixing well (a few more pulses if you use a food processor)

In another bowl, mix together 1 1/2 c flour, 1 tsp baking soda,1/4 tsp salt, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/8 tsp nutmeg, 1/8 tsp ground cloves

Add the dry mixture to the butter/sugar/eggs/applesauce mixture, pulsing until mixed. Stir in 2 chopped apples, 1 c chopped walnuts,  and 1/2 tsp vanilla. Mix well. Spread the very thick batter into the prepared pan and bake about 45 minutes. Keep an eye on it, depends on how hot your oven runs. Remember my very hot oven in the tiny apartment? It would probably bake at 325 in that oven.

I don’t frost this cake, but you could make a powdered sugar glaze for it like the original recipe called for. I also don’t let it cool much before I cut it. I like warm cake.

Browned butter sweet potato pie

It is a running joke with all my friends and family that every recipe I have starts with a cube of butter. Well, it’s not really a joke but pretty much the truth. When I saw one of my favorite pie places in San Francisco had a browned butter sweet potato pie on its menu, I had to find out to make my own, and so googled the recipe.  I changed things around a little and made this version:

It was really good, but a whole pie is a bit much for Terry and me to consume on our own. My wonderful mail carrier delivered a box to my door on Saturday, and as a reward, I cut a slice for her and tucked it into a wax paper bag. Bless her heart, she left this note for me yesterday:

Since we have finished off the pie, I decided to make another banana pudding.

I made it with cream and a little bit of butter, not a whole cube. See? I can make something without starting with a cube of butter!

Still summer time here in California

Although it is officially autumn, our weather has felt more summer-like the past two days. Today it is 81 degrees at 1 p.m. We might hit 90 by 5. I turned on all the house fans today as I have been baking and will continue later this afternoon.

This morning I made a piecrust of ginger snaps, pecans, and oats. It baked for about 10 minutes. Then I poured in a mixture of browned butter, sweet potato, sugar, cream, eggs, and spices to make the most delicious pie. That had to bake for 20 minutes. A rib roast will be the last thing from my oven for dinner this evening. Another 100 minutes of heat coming from the oven and filling my kitchen air.

Due to the warm weather, I decided to clean the patio again, maybe for the last time this year. Of course, it could still be warm at Thanksgiving at the rate we are going with our seasons. We got our flu shots today, so we are ready when the cold weather does come.

This time it’s bread

Today was another day of baking.

Using a roll of frozen bread dough, I made cinnamon rolls. Although I planned to have them for Easter breakfast, I can’t resist hot, fresh rolls and so ate a couple right after they came out of the oven. But I did manage to get a photo.

Hot, fresh cinnamon rolls

To go along with the bean soup I made earlier in the day, I baked a pan of cornbread. Again, I like this when it’s fresh out of the oven, with a pat of butter.

Happy Easter. Hope you have lots of good things to eat.

A week(ness) for pies

This has been the week to bake pies. Yesterday I got up very early to bake a lemon meringue pie to take to our church secretary. She had mentioned, at a dinner on Sunday evening, that she loved all things lemon. Since I don’t do too much with lemons besides lemonade and pie, I figured a pie would be in order for her. I knew she would share it with the rest of the office. She even tried to get me to take a couple of slices back home.

Lemon meringue pie

Today, after Terry left to do video editing, I decided a pie was in order for us, too. We both love this old-fashioned raisin pie recipe that I have so I made one of those.

A slice of raisin pie

It has been a joy baking pies again. I know there are people who have baked a pie a week and blogged about it, but I’m not that dedicated. However, I might start making a pie to take to the church office. There are always lots of people going through the office on any given day, so I know it would get eaten. We shall see how long this ambitious feeling stays around.

Christmas Eve project

After these cool, I package them in individual bags for the freezer. They make a great lunch.

This year, on Christmas Eve, I spent a few hours making berrocks. Thought you all might like to see the process.

The filling is a mixture of onions, cabbage, shredded beef, with lots of salt and pepper

My mother always made her own dough for these meat pies, but I use frozen bread dough. Each roll of dough yields eight berrocks.

Bridgeford Bread Dough makes this project much easier

I roll out each piece of dough, add filling

Fold dough around the filling, making an envelope

It takes a few pans to do this as the packets must now rise

 

After rising to about twice the size, bake for 18 minutes in a 350 preheated oven