I've Gone Country A blog about a city girl learning a whole new world

It is beginning to feel like fall around here.  The mornings have been cool this week.  It is bittersweet for me.  I must admit, I have enjoyed the brisk air… in the mornings…and a little while in the evenings….but I am not a cold weather person.  Once the cool air starts creeping in, I kinda get an …..awwwww man attitude.  I know that the warm days are about to disappear for months.  Which means layering clothes……wearing sweatshirts and jackets.  UGH.

Some of the good parts of fall are the apples, pumpkins, sweet potatoes and all the upcoming holidays.

I had a few apples around and we had eaten all the raw ones we really wanted lately.   Sooooo I remembered a recipe that my Mom had passed down to me.  It came from a lady that was in the home town she grew up in.  This morning I quickly retrieved it from my recipe file box and hurried to make it before work.

I peeled a couple of apples…I have discovered in the last year or two…perhaps you figured this out longggggggg ago…that a vegetable peeler works great for peeling apples.  I have always used them for carrots, potatoes and cucumbers.  Maybe I am just slow…in life.  But this way is much faster and it cuts so close to the skin that it keeps you from wasting the inside of the apple.  I couldn’t remember how many apples I would need, but I ended up only using about three.  It depends of course on how big your apples are.  But you don’t need to buy a bag by any means to try this.  Chop your apples in somewhat small pieces.  Try to keep them all about the same size too.  They will cook uniformly that way.

I say all that as if you don’t know.   But sometimes I look at a recipe and …”I don’t know”…and wish they would be more specific.  So now you know, and you won’t have to wonder.  (Also when Billy and I first married I wanted to make him an apple pie.  I was so proud of myself.  It smelled wonderful in the oven…he was sooooo excited.  I cut it and served it with some vanilla ice cream…we dug in.  It was then that I realized that I never peeled the apples.  WELL….the recipe didn’t tell me too.  I was so busy making sure I did everything perfectly that it just slipped my mind.  I wove the pie crust on the top and punched the edges together and all that.  It was beautiful….but……it wasn’t very good.  It was hard to get past the peelings…other than that it had good flavor.  It is one of those things that you laugh now…but it wasn’t real funny then).

Anyway…

I found this little chopper at a yard sale this summer.  My Mom had one when we were growing up.  It seems they kinda disappeared as people began using food processors and all those BIG gadgets.  I usually cut the pecans by hand…but today…I chopped them in my new/used handy dandy chopper!  Waa Laa they were chopped in seconds…literally.

I have some little loaf pans that I like to use for banana bread and recipes like this.  I actually have never made it in any other pan.  These work great for us, it allows me to be able to wrap them up and give them away easily.  Beside,we don’t need to eat that much by ourselves!

Sometimes…like today…after I sprayed my pans, (or wipe them lightly with oil) I sprinkled a little mixture of cinnamon and sugar in the pans.  Just enough to lightly dust the bottom.  This just gives it a little more ummph.  But you do not have to do this.  The recipe doesn’t say to do it…it is just something I do sometimes.

The mixture will be thick.  When I add everything together, before I put in the pecans…I give it just a swirl or two with the mixer to make sure it is mixed real good. Another thing the recipe doesn’t specify to do.

I ended up with 7 miniature loaf pans.

DONE…..Oh my word….it smells sooooo good!

I popped one out and cut it when it was fresh out of the oven.

You know…I just had to make sure it turned out alright….

The picture doesn’t do it justice.  The slice already has butter….melted all into it.  Billy and I love to eat these loaves like this.  No matter if it is banana bread or whatever it is….when it comes out HOT….we put butter on it and inhale it.

Here is the recipe:

Apple Cake

3 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups oil

3 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

Mix that together real good in a large mixing bowl

3 Cups plain flour

1 teaspoon soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Mix in above mixture

then add:

3 cups apples

1 cup pecans

Bake in a 325 degree oven ( Moms recipe called for 1 and 1/2 hours…so this is for a regular cake…maybe like a bundt pan or something)

I cooked my little loaves for about an hour.

HOPE YOU TRY IT THE NEXT TIME YOU HAVE  A COUPLE OF APPLES AROUND….It’s Yummy!

ENJOY