bake a cake a week - January 10: Apple crisp

Definitely not a cake this week, but no matter. It is winter time and often the apples that I buy from the market aren't really that crisp. So rather than let them sit in the bottom of the crisper until we finally toss them onto the compost, I decided to make a dessert out of them. Fruit crisp recipes are always a good idea, probably because of my inability to make a really good pie crust. Besides Apple Crisp is a legitimate breakfast item, you have fruit with brown sugar and oatmeal - all good!

My best recipes are all from Fannie Farmer cookbook edited by Marion Cunningham. Of course over the years I have changed it, added and taken away ingredients. This is my edition of the Fannie Farmer favourite.

APPLE CRISP

• 5 cups peeled, cored, sliced apples


• 1/4 cup water (if necessary - see instructions)


• 1 T lemon juice


• 3/4 cup flour


• 1 cup sugar (white or brown, or a combination thereof; I like light brown)


• 1 teaspoon cinnamon; I prefer Apple Pie Spice by Victiorian Epicure


• 1/4 teaspoon salt


• 1/2 cup (1 stick) COLD butter, cut in small pieces.

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Butter a 1 1/2 quart baking dish, and spread the prepared apples in it. Sprinkle with water. (If apples are extremely juicy, omit water.) Be sure to be generous with the apple pie spice or cinnamon. Add a few pats of butter to this apple mixture. Yum!

Combine the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Add butter. With a pastry blender or your fingers, rub butter into other ingredients until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.Spread mixture evenly over apples.

Bake 30 minutes or until the crust is browned and the fruit filling is bubbling a bit. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, or in a bowl with plain or vanilla low fat yogurt. This is delicious!

bake a cake a week - January 4: Banana cake with marscapone frosting

This isn't actually a resolution, but more of an intention to bake more often. Home baking seems to be something from our past when we were a young family. Fresh baked muffins or chocolate chip cookies were common fare in our household and I don't really know why we all drifted away from these traditions. Perhaps we all got older, more concerned about weight gain or nutrition. My kids became teenagers and preferred other foods besides homemade, my hubby actually complained about the amount of 'carbs' in our diet (!) Maybe I began to work more, went back to school, whatever the reasons that thwarted the 'baking habit' in our household, years later I miss having the baked goods on the kitchen counter.
So this year I have resolved to 'bake a cake' a week. It might not always be a cake, one week it might be muffins , cookies the next. There are some habits that I miss and homebaking is one. It isn't hard to begin again.
This week's offering is Banana Nut cake with Marscapone frosting. The house smelled wonderful and this cake didn't last more than two days. Always a good sign.
The secret to the success of this recipe is that it contains buttermilk, truly an under-rated baking ingredient. It makes everything taste better, from hot whipped mashed potatoes, pancakes and of course many 'coffee cake' recipes.

Nanny's Banana Bread

Preheat oven to 350.

• 1 3/4 cup white flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2-3 ripe (really ripe!) bananas
• 1 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 T lemon juice
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup oil (safflower or whatever you like - maybe not olive oil though)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (although I have made this recipe many times without nuts - still very good)

Grease an 8"x 8" baking pan. Mash bananas on a dinner plate until good and mushy, add lemon juice and mix well together. In large measuring cup add together buttermilk, banana mixture, eggs, oil, & vanilla extract. Basically all of the 'wet' ingredients and blend together very well.

In mixing bowl add flour, sugar, salt, soda and chopped nuts. Basically all of the dry ingredients - mix well again. Now you will pour the wet ingredients into these dry. This is like a muffin batter, you needn't mix it too well, just enough to moisten everything. Pour into prepared baking pan and bake for approx 45 minutes.

I baked my cake this week in a torte pan, which created a little 'well' for my frosting which I filled with a Martha Stewart recipe - Mascarpone frosting. I could write the frosting recipe out but better yet! -check out the cute blog "52 Cupcakes" - a really happy site already written up! (Note: I used Mascarpone from Costco)

Resolutions are really about intentions...

My resolutions are really about intentions, aren't they all? Whatever I hope for in the New Year, I acknowledge that in my life I already have all that I need. It is important to know that. When we wish for more of one thing it makes room for less of something else. So it should follow if we should wish for more good things there should be less room for bad, unhealthy things in our life.
Alright here they are as simply put as I can muster and in no particular order.

1. Exercise more. Simple I know, but there are many ways to achieve this. Pilates class twice a week and hit the gym at least once each week. I actually like Pilates, so more Pilates might mean pushing myself harder or holding the positions longer. Just keep going in the right direction.
2. Sleep more. OK this is an ongoing issue this past year, some describe it as peri-menopause. I just call waking up at 4 am a big pain in the butt! So my quest to sleep more will require a bit of research, more warm milk and earlier bedtimes. I will figure it out as the year goes by.
3. Eat more vegetables and tofu. I believe more healthy food equals less carbs and junk food. Simple formula but it seems to work.
4. More craft. Whether it be knitting this winter or finding the right Amy Butler fabric to sew the perfect apron, or get re-acquainted with my serger. Yarn and fabric make my life happier. I also have at least a couple of quilting projects that would be satisfying to finish.
5. Finish projects. OK don't we all have this intention each new year? Even if I don't finish everything, if I complete at least one quilt or knitting project I will feel successful.
6. More friendship. As a middle aged woman with grown children I am entering a time of life when I have more time to spend with friends and perhaps renewing friendships that have lapsed.
7. Learn more about computers. I have a BA and a M.Ed, but my next educational goal is to learn more about computers. I intend to complete a CIS certificate. This will be an ongoing resolution during my fifties.

If I could reduce all of these resolutions down to a single phrase, I think this year that phrase would be 'more good'.

The twilight week, the time between the old year and the new...

......the week following Christmas day is a very satisfying one. This is what I would consider a magical stretch of time (perhaps for some it is an entire week or only a couple of days) following the turkey feasts, the trips to Grandmother's house, the gift openings and church services. When the leftovers have been carefully arranged in the fridge, the recycling has hit the curb and there aren't any pressing social engagements to attend. But before the new semester begins or we are back-to-work at full speed, before all the leftovers have been eaten or tossed into the garbage.

I don't think about this week of leisure earlier in month when Christmas preparations are gearing up and the excitement builds. No, during the early December days, all events and actions are about Christmas day of course!! We are canning cranberry chutney, wrapping presents, lighting advent candles, stringing lights and setting up our dining room table as a shrine to old Saint Nick!!

But there is something very satisfying about this lovely twilight time when I have time to look at my new calendars, start reading my new books, smell my perfume and try to figure out my new camera. This is contentment.

Hubby & I have gone to the movies (several times this week!), rented videos and decided to leave the tree up for just one more day. We enjoy wine, sometimes watch the Channel One fireplace log and pretend this week will never end. This is truly well earned rest and a 'forgotten'gift now opened and savoured.

Onya: Weigh - Reuseable bags

Here it is, New Year's Eve. hubby and I are taking a break from eating our Chinese food feast, there is a Three Stooges marathon playing and I am thinking about brewing some tea. Ah, middle age, how sweet it is.

I just wanted to make a note of a really great gift I received from my son and girlfriend this Christmas. A cute little pouch which clips onto the inside of your purse or key-ring and is filled with net bags. These white mesh bags are sturdy, washable and of course, reuseable!! Perfect for that bag of oranges you hand pick at the supermarket, for the miscellaneous cold products and vitamins you need at the drugstore or skeins of wool from your favourite yarn shop.

This makes a great gift and new year resolution all in one. The website I have included is for Onya UK, but as we live in Canada, obviously they are available here too.

http://www.onyabags.co.uk/

New Year's coming....

I think this image might be next year's Christmas card.

But as I write this snowy image is quickly being washed away by rain, rain, rain.

The New Year is quickly approaching and it is impossible to not think about what I would like this year to bring or where I would like to go ( yes that could mean destinations, but my resolutions are more about directions I want my life to take). A direction is kind of like a path to the changes I want to make, some big but most of them small.

Making changes begins with thinking about them. Is it a project, goal or asset? A new garden and retaining wall; installing a closet organizer; building a special savings account for a great holiday for example.

Have you thought about your New Year resolutions? What are your intentions for 2009?

The snow casts such a lovely light.