Carrot Cake-Gelbrübentorte

The other day I mad a carrot cake. This is different than than most carrot cakes. It has less sugar than most cakes, very little flour and only a dusting of powered sugar instead of heavy frosting.
This recipe actually comes from a German cookbook that was given to me about 30 years ago. I have used this cookbook quit a bit.

  

But over the last few years it has been neglected, because when ever I want to cook or bake and need a recipe, I'll look on line. It's just so much faster to find something specific. You just search for "carrot cake" and get thousands of recipes in a couple seconds. An old fashioned cookbook just can't compete with that. But sometimes you just want an old tried and true recipe that you have made many times. And you know what to expect. So here is a recipe for a German carrot cake.

6 eggs, separated

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 cups grated carrots

grated rind of half a lemon

1 Tsp cinnamon

1 Tbsp Kirschwasser

3 cups ground almonds

1/3 cup flour

Beat egg yolks and sugar until thick and foamy. Add the carrots and continue beating for 20 minutes. Add lemon rind, cinnamon and Kirschwasser. Add almonds and continue stirring a few more minutes.

Beat egg whites until stiff. Carefully stir in flour and fold in egg whites. Pour into prepared 9" spring form pan. Bake at 350 °F for 45 minutes to an hour.

Let cool and dust with powdered sugar.

If you want a really sweet cake then this isn't for you. But I like it for just that reason.
The last time I made this cake I didn't have any almonds. But I had a bag of hazelnuts and part of a bag of walnuts. I just mixed them together and used that. I'm not afraid to substitute.
You'll want to make this cake the day before, it'll be moister.

Assault with a deadly weapon

This is a story from my local newspaper. I couldn't make this up.

DECATUR - A patrol officer who responded to a report of a domestic incident was battered by a 35-year-old woman's backside, according to a sworn statement by the officer.
The woman was arrested on preliminary charges of aggravated battery of a peace officer and resisting/obstructing an officer.
About 4:30 a.m. Saturday, Decatur police officer Scott Gilman was sent to a house in the 600 block of West Macon Street to investigate a domestic incident, which involved the 35-year-old woman and a 29-year-old man.
Gillman was speaking with the woman on the porch when he tried to walk past her to head down the stairs.
"She looked directly at me, then turned away from me and moved her body in my way to block my path," Gillman wrote. "I then moved to the other side of the stairs in an attempt to go around her, upon which she stuck both of her arms out behind her to block my path and violently shoved her backside towards me, making contact hard enough to cause me to have to take a step back to keep from losing my balance."
When the woman arrived at the Macon County Jail, she "refused to obey commands to exit my police vehicle and stated she would not get out and was resisting."
The woman was successfully booked into the jail and later released on bond.


Read more: Woman arrested after hitting police officer with her backside http://www.herald-review.com/news/local/woman-arrested-after-hitting-police-officer-with-her-backside/article_b399ecc0-53b0-11e1-b9be-001871e3ce6c.html#ixzz1m109EF3P
From the Herald & Review

A sock for my swiffer

I found the handiest thing on the internet a while ago. A swiffer sock. I guess it has been around for several years, but I had never seen it before. The disposable clothes are so expensive.And I've tried using a regular rag, but they just don't stay on right. So when I found these I just had to try and make one. There were different versions, but I liked the reversible swiffer sock from this page. I had quite a bit of left over yarn from previous projects. So this was perfect.

It was pretty easy to make and didn't take very long. I do have to admit my sock came out a little tight. But that is easily fixed by using a larger crochet hook. I plan on making another one anyhow so I'll have one when the first one is in the wash.

When I had the sock finished, I couldn't wait to try it out. Right away I dry mopped my kitchen to see how it would work. I actually had fun cleaning my kitchen floor. That has never happened before.



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.

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.

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.

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.