Grandma's Apple Cake.

This weekend i borrowed my Grandmother's recipe book. For some reason i'd been craving an apple cake she used to make all the time when i was little. After a trip to the orchard to pick up a bushel of apples to make apple butter, i thought i'd use some leftovers to make this cake. It was also a great excuse to write down the recipes of hers i love the most.

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Grandma's Apple Cake

3 c flour

¼ c orange juice

1 T baking powder

2 c sugar

4 eggs

2 ½ t vanilla

1 t salt

4 apples peeled and sliced

¾ c sugar mixed with 1 t cinnamon

Place all ingredients in large bowl except apples and cinnamon sugar. Mix until just combined. Pour half of the batter into greased tube or bundt pan, add ½ the apples and cinnamon sugar, repeat. Bake at 350 for 1 hour or until tester comes out clean. 

This Morning.

This morning i woke up at 7 so that i could knead some dough in time to go back to bed then bake it for breakfast. It was so worth it. Fresh apple butter made the night before paired with fresh bread. Yes.

A First For Everything.

Today i made my first ever soufflé. I'm kind of surprised that i haven't made one yet seeing as i spend absurd amounts of time in my kitchen when i'm home. But, today was the day, and a soufflé is now sitting happily on the kitchen island, and it tastes delicious, and it looks pretty, and i am proud that i didn't fail at this on my first go. I have my friends at Canal House Cooking to thank for the recipe!

Home Is Where You Hang Your Hat.

Two weekends in a row i've left the city, and only until you live in new york will you realize how necessary it is to clear your head. Coming home to leave work, and subways, and cabs, and $8 cocktails, and meager dinners, and being in a hurry to get everywhere even if you don't have any reason to be there at a certain time, and more caffeine than is healthy, and judging and getting judged, and reminders that you're one little being amongst so many, and being more tired than you knew was humanly possible. It will be nice when coming home doesn't mean that i'm here to get my mouth pried open for dentists and periodontists and endodontists, with metal tools clanking against teeth you can't feel anymore because the roots aren't there, and novocaine needles housed in their menacing silver casing, and plastic that pulls apart your cheeks so that you can have an alien like probes shoot x-rays of your bones. Either way there will never be a time when home doesn't mean baking, endless amounts of being in the kitchen, standing mixing brownies, and cookies, and pasta, and sauce, and vegetables, looking at all different kinds of cookbooks, printed recipes and handwritten ones splayed out on the concrete counters side by side, some with flour all over them lovingly and some brand new and some crisply printed, never tried. I love home and waking up only hearing birds and nothing else, seeing trees outside my window. Family is good, and home is good, and it makes me feel relaxed just stepping foot inside the doorframe on the back porch, Lily running to greet me. I cannot wait for a home of my own, a place to be proud of, animals that meet me when i'm home from work, a place to make me feel at ease.

Happy Cupcakes.

Today I woke up and was just in one of those moods. The good kind of mood, one where you're happy that there's a nice springtime rain pattering on the windows, and the birds are all making it known that they are alive. That kind of mood led to copious amounts of baking, and the happiest of all was making bright pink cupcakes with pale yellow icing. Adding pureed strawberries to my old standby yellow cake recipe made the cupcakes a little more exciting. They are the perfect cupcakes to give my friend Ashley for her birthday, the color combination is the same as the cake we made for her 16th birthday, now she's 21. Happy Birthday Ash! Happy spring everyone else!

Muffins & Springtime.

Sometimes i get caught up in the world of blogs in the sense that i read tons of other peoples' and forget to post in my own. I'm not exactly sure where the first half of the semester has gone (actually, that's not completely true, most of it has been spent on trains, and in cars, and in dentist's offices), but now i'm ready for spring. Right now maxine and i are patiently waiting for the streusel topped apple coffee cake muffins that we made, modified from this recipe. I think this spring will be a good one. It has to be, because it will be our last one at this school. My goal for the spring time is to appreciate all the little things about this school that i will never be able to take advantage of after this year: sitting in the sunshine on the teahaus wall, spending days watching passersby from the picnic bench in front of DL, picnics with gin and tonics on the lawn, roving parties with the party box. I cannot wait. When will you be here spring? I don't want any more of these rainy 40 degree days.

Such Is Life.

If someone would have told me all of the things that were going to happen to me in the past two weeks I probably would have looked them dead in the eyes and laughed. From falling flat on my face unexpectedly and knocking my teeth out, to all the dental surgery that's ensued, to being on trains for seven hours to get to an interview with the director of the Courtauld in DC, to getting into said masters program in London, it's been a lot. A New York, Pennsylvania and DC whirlwind. But, even with all of that, tomorrow is still Valentines Day-- that cheesy holiday that you either love to love or love to hate. I take the first path, enjoying all the sentimentality and splashes of the color pink and the sweets. The sweets! As if i needed any kind of excuse to make cupcakes, this holiday is my favorite for baking. So, with all that said... here's what i've come up with this year. Happy Valentines Day everyone!

17 Hours Until Game Time

The day before Thanksgiving at my house meant baking more than i had in the past few days. Two pumpkin pies, a pumpkin pie cheesecake with gingersnap crust, an apple galette, a pear almond tart, cranberry lemon crumpets and apple cinnamon syrup later... my day is over.

It Won't End For Days

Today i made cranberry sauce from scratch. It's probably easier than you think. Last thanksgiving certain members of my family complained about the 'fancy' cranberry sauce i made, which had whole cranberries in it, and bits of orange peel, so this year i strained it all in the attempt to trick them into thinking it's the kind you buy that comes in a can. I guess the shape will give me away once it's out of the mold. I also made gingersnaps and mini pecan pies, because really, do you want a whole slice of super rich and caramely pecan pie? Perhaps, but this way you'll feel better about yourself. 

More Chocolate Than A Human Needs

The first cookie baking happened today. These are ridiculously decadent chocolate cookies, adapted slightly from this recipe. Surprisingly fast to make even though there are a few steps involved. Highly recommended for those who love chocolate.