Apple Spice Cake

This cake is SO good....

Come on guys, you've heard this type of joke...Now you're supposed to ask: "How good is it?"

This cake is SO good. Let's say you were on day two of a (so far very successful) seven day cleansing diet...

You'd break it for this cake.

I applaud you, Zach and Brenda. You made it further than I ever will.

Apple Spice Cake
adapted slightly from marthastewart.com

Cake
3 cups flour
1 T cinnamon
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
1 1/3 c vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
3-4 (I used four) Granny Smith apples, cored and cut into 1/2-inch pieces (I had about 3 1/2 cups)
1 cup chopped nuts, such as pecans or walnuts (OPTIONAL...and if you're like me, you'll just leave them out.)
1 t vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 12-cup Bundt pan with cooking spray. Flour the pan. (Or use the nonstick cooking spray with flour). In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, soda and salt. Set aside. In bowl of electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, combine oil, sugar and eggs. Mix on high speed until lemon yellow. Gradually add dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated. Add apples (and nuts, if you're into that) and mix to combine. Add vanilla. Mix until incorporated. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 60-90 minutes (mine took about an hour and ten minutes). Remove from oven and cool in the pan on a wire rack 10 minutes. Invert cake onto rack and let cool completely (actually, it might be good warm). Serve with caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream.

Caramel Sauce
this is the simplest caramel sauce I've ever made
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/4 cup evaporated milk
1 t vanilla
pinch of salt

Combine ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring, until thickened to desired consistency.

We made this Friday night for my Mother-in-Law's birthday. There was some leftover (I don't know how). We wrapped the cake up airtight and left it on the counter and put the rest of the caramel in the fridge. Let me tell you, it was still just as moist and tasty when we ate it for our Sunday snack two days later!

...man shall not live by bread alone...

...but if you had to live on bread/muffins alone, you could happily live on these.

Stuck on a deserted island? Take these muffins (and a raft).

If I weren't already HAPPILY married, I'd marry these muffins.

If these muffins were one of my kids, I could EASILY pick a favorite.

On death row and requesting your last meal? I hate to sound repetitive, but ask for THESE muffins.

If you haven't got the picture yet, these are quite possibly the best conference muffins I have ever made.

Mini Butter Puffs
loosely based on a recipe from Joy of Cooking
Makes 2 dozen standard size muffins, or 4-5 dozen mini muffins (I like the mini...you can eat them like popcorn.)

Muffins
4 cups flour
2 T baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
4 large eggs
2 cup sour cream
1 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) warm melted butter

Coating
1-2 sticks butter
1 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon


Muffins
Preheat oven to 375. Coat muffin cups with baking spray.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, sour cream, sugar and butter. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir just until the dry ingredients are moistened. Do not over-mix. The batter should not be smooth. Divide the batter among the muffin cups. Bake until a toothpick inserted into one or two muffins comes out clean (about 10 minutes for mini muffins, 12 minutes for standard size muffins.)

Coating
Melt butter in a small bowl. Combine sugar and cinnamon in shallow bowl. While muffins are still quite warm, remove from muffin pan. Dip the entire muffin (one at a time) in melted butter and roll in the cinnamon sugar. Set on a wire rack to cool.

Almond Cake

School is back in and we are almost back on a schedule.
There's a chill in the air, and I am excited to turn the oven on and start baking again.

Here is another delicious recipe from the cyclist's mother. She made this often while the cyclist was courting me. Ha, ha. That makes him sound so smooth.

I love to make it because it is a snap to whip up. I have all of the ingredients on hand. And--most importantly--it tastes great. It has a dense, moist crumb, and a rich almond flavor. You'd think it was made of marzipan.

Give this one a try. You'll be impressed.

Almond Cake

3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 tsp. almond extract
2 eggs
slivered almonds

Mix sugar, flour, butter, almond extract, and eggs on high for 3 minutes. Pour into greased pie pan. Sprinkle with slivered almonds. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

See. Isn't that simple!

Peanut Butter No Bake Cookies

This weekend, we made our annual trip to Jackson.

Can I just say I love this trip.

For me, it entails a nine to ten hour drive in an air conditioned Suburban with some great girl friends.

Sure there are some mad dashes to the feed zones, several frenzied hand-offs of musette bags, lots of yelling (and whistling) out the window at men in tight shorts...Who's complaining?! But the drive was also spent enjoying excellent company.

When we arrived in Jackson, we met up with our husbands, who treated us to a nice dinner and then took us to a fancy hotel (props to Jenn, the hotels are a lot nicer now that she is booking them).

The cyclist, however, has a different idea of fun when it comes to road trips. You see, he spent those same nine and a half hours ON A BIKE.

206 miles.

Over a lot of hills.

Just for fun.

On a bike. Did I say that already?

The kind you pedal.

handsome, huh?

Oh well, I guess it doesn't matter how he gets there. Just as long as he meets me at the finish line. Jackson's no fun without him.

This year, he found these tasty little cookies in his feed bags.

Peanut Butter No Bake Cookies

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup butter

pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup creamy peanut butter

3 cups quick one minute oats

Combine sugar, milk, butter and salt in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Let boil 1 minute. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla, peanut butter until peanut butter melts. Add oats. Stir until mixture begins to stiffen a little (a minute or two). Drop by rounded clusters onto foil or waxed paper. Let set.

Orange Sherbet with Sugar Cookie Spoons

You know that refreshing, tart-sweet flavor of store bought orange sherbet?

Mmmmm...sherbet.

Make it yourself and you get refreshing and tart-sweet times ten plus an incredibly fresh flavor.

I found the little cookie spoons in Martha Stewart Living. They are so cute. The kids will love them (as will the adults). Make a few per person. You will probably break one or two.

After all, you'll be eating this sherbet with gusto.

Sally's Orange Sherbet
6 cups FRESH SQUEEZED* orange juice, strained (I bought a box of oranges from Costco and used about 3/4 of the box...sorry, I should have counted the oranges)
1 1/2 cups FRESH SQUEEZED* lemon juice, strained
4 to 4 1/2 cups sugar (depending on the sweetness of your oranges)
3 cups whipping cream
6 cups whole milk

Mix all together and freeze in a six quart ice cream freezer. (I have a four quart maker, so I split it into two batches.)

*Some of you may be asking "Can I use store bought orange juice if it's 'not from concentrate'?"

Sorry. No.

All I have is a little hand held juicer, but I juiced and I juiced (and I juiced). It probably took me thirty minutes or so. But believe me, the sacrifice is well worth it.
Sugar Cookie Spoons
adapted from Martha Stewart Living
Makes about 30 cookies
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour, plus more for surface
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 T cream or milk (my addition...see below)

Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. In separate bowl, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Mix in egg and vanilla. Gradually add flour mixture, and mix until dough comes together. (I made two batches. The first batch I made as written and my dough was quite dry and crumbly and rather difficult to work with. The second batch, I added a tablespoon of cream and it made a world of difference. The dough was soft and rolled out beautifully. You can play it by ear. The taste and texture of both batches was the same.) Shape dough into 2 disks, wrap each in plastic, and refrigerate at least 1 hour (or up to 2 days).
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Roll out 1 disk of dough to just less than an inch thick on a lightly floured surface. Using a paring knife, cut out spoon shapes, each about 3 inches long. (I looked around for a spoon shaped cookie cutter, but couldn't find one. Go to your baking supply store and see what they have. A tennis racket would work perfectly. I found a guitar shaped cutter and manipulated it into a spoon shape.)
Transfer to baking sheets. Roll out scraps, and repeat once. (I took a cookie baking class from an expert cookie baker once and she gave the same advice. Roll your dough out more than twice and your cookies will be tough.)
Bake until cookies are golden around the edges, about 12 minutes. Transfer sheets to wire racks to cool. Repeat with remaining dough.

Zapple Crisp

Do you like apple-cinnamon desserts?

Do you have an abundance of zucchini?

Most importantly...do you like to be sneaky?

I saw this recipe demonstrated on a local television news show.

"Interesting," I thought.

Two days later, when Dr. Gardens-For-Fun * offered us some freshly picked zucchini, I knew it was fate stepping in, telling me to bake.

We served this to a sister-in-law who enjoys an apple dessert or two (ask her what she did when Costco stopped making the Caramel Apple Pie). I waited until she had tried it and liked it and then I dropped the bomb.

Try this with your family and friends. If you don't tell them it's zucchini, they'll never guess.

Mock Apple Crisp

6 cups chopped zucchini (*I got enough from one gigantic zucchini...I'm telling you, this guy has a green thumb. I want to live in his garden come late summer-early fall).
1 cup apple sauce
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 to 3/4 c sugar
3 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
1 1/2 T cornstarch
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 t. salt
2/4 cup cold butter

Filling:
Peel zucchini and scoop out seeds (scoop out all of the softer center--I used a soup spoon and scraped until I got to the firmer flesh). Cut into bite size pieces. Measure out six cups.
In a saucepan, combine zucchini, applesauce, and lemon juice. In a small bowl, combine 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and cornstarch. Add to zucchini. Heat over medium heat until thickened, stirring constantly.

Crust and topping:
Combine flour, 1 cup sugar and salt. Using a pastry cutter or two sharp knives, cut butter into flour until butter is about the size of peas. Press half of this mixture into a 9 by 13 inch pan. Don't worry that is VERY dry. It will come together as a nice crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.
Remove from oven and top with the hot filling. Sprinkle the remaining flour mixture over the zucchini mixture. Bake 30 to 35 minutes, or until golden brown.
Serve hot with vanilla ice cream.

Seriously.

Try it.

Sinless Pancakes

Contrary to popular belief, I do not sit at home, eating home-baked treats all day. Oh, how I wish I could.

Ninety percent of my meals are pretty strictly healthy, and, dare I say, maybe even  boring. Watching what I eat quite closely, coupled with the 25-30 miles I run, helps me justify eating one to two indulgent treats each week. Oh, how I wish it was eight or nine.

This recipe is one of my secret weapons. I eat it almost every morning for breakfast. It was given to me by my ultra-fit sister-in-law. It tastes decadently "carb-y", but actually provides an average woman with 63% of her daily protein (just over 50% for a man). I can eat this right after a run and feel satiated until lunch time rolls around.

Heather's Cottage Cheese Pancakes
1/2 cup low fat cottage cheese
1/2 cup oats (I use "Old Fashioned Quaker Oats")
3 egg whites
2 packets Splenda (If you're opposed to artificial sweetener, use sugar. It will alter the calorie count)
Splash of Vanilla Extract (I use about 1 teaspoon)
Sprinkling of Cinnamon (about 1/2 teaspoon)
pinch of salt (my addition...I find it boosts the flavor a bit)

Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Cook on a hot griddle, sprayed with non-stick spray.

I think these are sweet enough to eat plain, but you can serve them with any syrup (sugar-free if you're watching your waistline), jam, or fresh fruit. I love to add blueberries to the batter (1/4 cup will only add 15 calories...plus some extra fiber and antioxidants). I've also experimented with flavor a little bit. When I'm feeling spunky, I add a pinch each of nutmeg, ground ginger, allspice, and cloves and get gingerbread pancakes. 

This makes one serving. I usually get six average size pancakes out of one batch.

290 calories
4.5 g fat
0.5 g saturated fat
15 mg cholesterol
33 g carbs
4.7 g fiber
29 g protein

This is probably the only time I'll post nutritional info. With desserts, ignorance is bliss.