Sunday, January 29, 2012

My Favorite Apple Cake

Back in November we found a great sale on Gala apples. 10 cents a pound. Can you believe it?
We bought lots and lots of apples. But not as many as I would have liked. We don't have much storage room. I was also afraid they would go bad before I was able to use them all. The apples tasted delicious.

We had apple strudel for Thanksgiving. Other times we had apple pancakes. And I found a recipe for french apple cake online. It has rum in it. Very good cake. But today I want to share my favorite apple cake recipe.


Ingredients: 2 eggs
                    1 cup vegetable oil
                    2 cups sugar
                    2 tsp vanilla extract
                    2 cups flour
                    1 tsp baking soda
                    2 tsp cinnamon
                    1 tsp salt
                    4 cups apples, peeled, diced
                    powdered sugar for dusting

Cream eggs, oil and sugar  until thick and foamy. This will take several minutes.
Add vanilla. Combine dry ingredients and stir into egg mixture. Stir apples into dough.
The dough will be fairly thick.
Spread dough into prepared pan and bake at 350° F for about 45 minutes. Cake will be done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
After the cake has cooled, dust with powdered sugar.


                                                                      Yummy.

We only have four apples left now. Just enough for one more cake.







Tuesday, January 24, 2012

My scarf

I finished my scarf a while ago. It's made from baby soft pink yarn.


It was very easy and quick to make. Only double crochets. Three hearts on each side. I kept it solid in the back of the neck. I figured that would keep me a little warmer. And you can make this part as long as you want, depending on how long you want your scarf to be. I really like how the hearts came out.


Now that both scarves are done I feel a little empty handed. I think I need to start another project to keep my hands busy.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Another chair at the kitchen table

A new grandchild.


At 8:56 am on Thursday,19,2012 Kristin arrived in this world. On her due date. That doesn't happen very often. Mama and baby and Daddy are doing wonderful. Kristin is beautiful. But so are all our grandchildren.

 All girls. All four of them. Imagine our family get together. Giggling, screaming, screeching. Never quiet. Spilled drinks, food on the floor. Lots of noise. Fighting. Permanent marker on my kitchen table.And lots  and lots of love.
So lets get another chair and squeeze it in. Because I can't wait until everybody is here again.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Vanilla Cupcakes

A little over a week ago we had a baby shower for my oldest daughter. It's her first one and she is expecting a little girl. The baby is due on the 19th, my youngest daughters birthday. So we are all excitingly awaiting the happy event.
For the baby shower I made some cupcakes, that I thought came out pretty well. I looked at several different recipes and made two different ones. Then I decided on a recipe from Martha Steward's website. The recipe is right here: billys vanilla cupcakes
I also used the vanilla butter cream frosting from that page. I sprinkled them with sugar crystals and decorated with little baby decorations.




These cupcakes smell like sugar cookies and they are very tasty. I will use this recipe again.
Well it was a nice baby shower and the baby can come any time now.




Saturday, January 14, 2012

Just a Gigolo

Phil had an appointment at the VA Hospital on Friday. It snowed the day before and it was blowing snow all night. The Hospital is 1 1/2 hour drive away. So we left early, because we didn't know how the roads would be. It turned out the roads were not too bad, so we got there kinda early. Phil checked in and they called him in early. Half way into his appointment the fire alarm went off. I didn't even recognise it as a fire alarm at first. It wasn't a steady sound like it usually is. It was just intermittent beeps. People started coming out of their offices. Nobody was sure if it was a drill or if it was a real alarm. So after a few minutes of confusion it was determent that this was a real alarm and we were to leave the building. I am unable to walk very far, so for getting around in the hospital Phil pushed me around in a wheelchair.
We were on the third floor and of course you can't use the elevator during a fire. Hospital staff was helping everybody get out. I was also being helped, by a very nice man, to walk down the 3 flights of stairs. Once outside he helped me walk to the car, which wasn't very far away. By now I was hurting pretty bad. So I was glad to be able to sit in the car. I felt sorry for all the people that had to stand outside in the cold.
But after only about five minutes the man came back and said it was all cleared to go back inside. There was a small electrical fire on the first floor and it was taken care of. He told us to wait, while he went to get me a wheelchair. We waited about 10 minutes when he came back, all out of breath. I felt sorry for him, but  appreciated it very much. He said it took him a while to find a wheelchair. They were all being used to help patients back into the building.
Phil could have pushed me back from here on, but the man insisted to take me back to where we were coming from. At least we were able to use the elevator now. On the way up to the 3rd floor my helper said he would have to tell his wife that he was picking up chicks today and even getting paid for it.
He had turned into a gigolo. He really enjoyed that. He picked up a young lady.(Ha ha, me.) took her out (of the building) and even got paid for it. He told this story to several people we passed on our way back up. He jokingly said this was one of those things he wanted to do just once in his life. I was so glad I was able to fulfill his dream.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

I need a scarf

Last Christmas i knitted scarves for all the kids and grand kids.This Christmas I crocheted one for my mother in law. So I thought now it's my turn for a new scarf.
A couple days ago Phil and I had gone to the store for some stuff and i went and looked at the yarn to see what I might like. And wouldn't you know, Phil decided he needed a scarf also. He found himself a blue ball of yarn, I picked a pink for myself. So I decided to make Phil's first. It's just a simple knit and purl pattern. I'm not a fast knitter and because of Arthritis I can't work for a long time. But it's coming all together.


As for my scarf, I guess I have to wait.

Monday, January 9, 2012

Christmas is over

There is so much excitement before Christmas. Stores put out their christmas things in October, sometimes in September. Come November, all you hear is Christmas music on the radio. I don't mind. It gets me in the mood. By December I'm mostly done christmas shopping. Throughout the year I look for bargains, and if I like something I'll pick it up. And then when a birthday or holiday comes around, I'll already have something for a present.
I usually decorate for Christmas shortly after Thanksgiving. Then comes the cookie baking, present wrapping and last minute shopping. Everybody is so busy around this time.  Everybody is preparing for this one day. The magical day. If you have children at home, you'll get up early to open presents. Or in our case, the grown children and their families come for christmas dinner. And afterwards we open presents. All the hussle and buzzle leads up to this one day. And then it is over.
Everybody goes home, back to work, back to ordinary. We light up the christmas tree a couple more times and then it just sits there. Dark. No more lights. It just feels like something is missing. The excitement is over. Time to put the decorations away.
I usually do that the first week of January. But I've been a little busy this past week, so I'll probably do it tomorrow.

Everything gets put away until next Christmas. And the excitement starts all over again.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Growing up

I was born and raised in Germany.I am the fourth of five children. We had your typical German "eckbank". I do not have a picture of ours, but this is what these look like.


Us kids would sit on the bench in the back and our parents on the chairs. This was always the busiest place in the house. All our meals were eaten here. There was no eating in front of the TV. The length of the table could be extended, so when we had guests, there was plenty of room.
My Mom would iron cloth on this table. She'd cover it with this heavy wool blanket and then a sheet. The blanket almost covered the floor. And we played underneath the table. It was the perfect place for my older sister and I to play house. We had lots of fun.
We also had to do our homework at the kitchen table.None of us had our own desk.
One of my fondest memories is baking cookies with my Mom. Obviously we didn't bake at the table, but we kneaded and rolled and cut cookies on the kitchen table. I'll be glad to share some of our recipes, but that has to wait a little bit.