An Abundance of Apples = Apple Cake!

 

We're still working our way through those 30 pounds of free apples, so I thought I would use up a couple of them by  making some apple cake for our little Superbowl party today.  Trust me...this cake is so yummy and moist that it won't last until the halftime show. And it's a great way to use up some apples that are past their peak of freshness.

Apple Cake (A La Cranky Puppy)

Ingredients:

Cake
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs, beaten
1 cup oil (substitute of 1/2 applesauce to make this healthier)
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups finely chopped apples (about 4 medium-sized apples)
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup milk (or apple or orange juice)
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Glaze topping
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup whipping cream

Directions:

Cake

1. In a large bowl: combine the flour, sugar, soda, and salt.
2. In a medium bowl: combine eggs, oil, applesauce, milk, vanilla, nutmeg and cinnamon.
3. Chop the apples and nuts. I like to rough chop the apples and then pulse them in the food processor to make this step easier.  Stir them into the egg mixture.
4. Add the egg mixture to dry ingredients, just until moistened. 
5. Spread the batter in a greased and floured 9 x 13-inch pan. Bake at 350°F for 45-50 minutes.

Glaze topping

1. In a small saucepan, combine the brown sugar, butter and cream.
2. Cook and stir till bubbly and all of the sugar is dissolved. Cool slightly. Drizzle warm sauce over cake, when it has cooled for 5 minutes, so it can seep into the cake, keeping it moist.

This cake is so moist that it doesn't really need the glaze topping.  You can bake this as cupcakes or in two 9" round pans as well and it's equally as good.  I didn't have any whipping cream this time, so I substituted what I did have (Reddi-Whip) and it came out perfectly.

So next time you've got some apples that are a little past their prime, don't throw them out.  I hope you'll try this recipe.  Enjoy!

I'm sharing this recipe with this week's Homestead Barn Hop, Down Home Blog Hop and Clever Chicks Barn Hop.  Go check them out!

When Life Gives You Apples..

J. and I just hit paydirt. Nope, not the lottery kind (although, wouldn't that be nice?) While picking up some groceries at the local Hyvee, I found some seriously awesome coupons for $2.00 off any apple purchase and $2.00 off any meat purchase. Not only were we able to pick up 10 pounds of ground beef for just $49 cents per pound, but we also came home with box full of 30 pounds of apples FOR FREE. Awesome!

So now what to do with them?   I can't decide either, so how about we start with baked apples and apple chips?

 

Baked Apples

 

These are so yummy and easy to make and, boy, do they make your house smell great while they're baking.  All you need is a baking dish, some apples and some butter, brown sugar and cinnamon.  You can even get creative and top them with some raisins or pecans also. 

 

Ingredients:

 

4 large good baking apples, such as Rome Beauty, Golden Delicious, or Jonagold

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 Tbsp butter

3/4 cup boiling water

Directions:

 

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Wash the apples and remove their cores, leaving about 1/2 inch of the bottom of the apples. It helps if you have an apple corer, but if not, you can use a paring knife to cut out first the stem area, and then the core. Use a spoon to dig out the seeds. Make the holes about 3/4-inch to an inch wide.
3. Place the apples in a baking dish.
4. Melt the butter in a pan (or in the microwave).  I like to do this in a microwavable measuring cup because it's easier to pour the mixture into the apples.
5. Add the brown sugar and cinnamon and stir until mixed.  Pour the  mixture into the apples until they are just about to brim over.
6. Add boiling water to the baking pan.
7. Bake 30-40 minutes, until tender, but not mushy. Remove from the oven and baste the apples several times with the pan juices.
8. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream on the side.

 

Trust me, these are yummy!   But we've still got 29 pounds of apples left and I want to make another favorite snack:  apple chips. 

 

 

 

Apple Chips

 

J. and I fell in love with apple chips after trying a bag of them at the local theater.  I rushed home after the movie to find out how to make this healthier alternative to potato chips and was pleasantly surprised to find that it's pretty darn easy.  That is, if you have the right tool:  a mandolin slicer.

 

Ingredients:

 

2 medium sized apples

1/8 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp sugar

 

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 225°F.
2. Stir together the cinnamon and sugar to combine. Or just use pre-mixed cinnamon-sugar.
3. Decide whether or not to core your apples.  Just in case you don't know:  apple seeds are poisonous, but you'd have to eat a ton of them before they ever effected you.  Not coring them will give you a star shape in the middle of your chips, so they'll be prettier than if you core them.  J. doesn't like the core, so we cored all of ours.
4. Slice the apples thinly with a mandolin slicer or a  very sharp knife.  Trust me, you want to use a mandolin slicer because it only takes about 20 seconds to slice the whole apple with one.  You'll be there are all day if you try to use a knife.  I know...I tried it and then ran out to get a mandolin.





5. Line two sheet pans with parchment paper, and place the apple slices side by side on the parchment, in a single layer. Make sure not to overlap the apple slices or place them on top of each other, otherwise they won't crisp up.


6. Sprinkle the apple slices with the cinnamon sugar. 
7. Bake the apple slices for 1 hour, then remove them from the oven and flip them over. The apples will be floppy, but they will crisp up later.



Return the apple slices to the oven for another hour
Turn the oven off, letting the apple chips cool completely in the oven. This is when they will crisp up. Store in an airtight container.

 

Did I mention that these are fat free? And, if you don't want all that sugar, opt for a sweeter apple like HoneyCrisp or Gala and just dust with a little cinnamon.  I suspect you're going to end up addicted like we are, because these are just plain yummy.  And, again, baking apples or apple chips will make your house smell delish.

 

By the way, these are great to make when you're done baking something else and the oven is already heated up.  Just turn the heat down to 225, slice some apples up and go!

 

If you try either of these, let me know how they turn out.  We have Jonagolds, which are a combination between a Jonathan and Golden Delicious.  They're sweet, but not as sweet as Honeycrisps are but they held up well to the baking.  If you use other varieties, I'd love to hear how they turn out if you don't mind leaving a comment.

 

Hope you enjoy these two recipes!

 

 

Saturday Stills

Hi, I'm back! 
After a week of hiding because of the blistering heat, I've found that I'm still alive and desperately needing to put a post on here. 

It's very rare that you don't end up cooking in your own juices within 5 minutes of setting foot outside here at the end of the July.  But we are being blessed this weekend with 79 degree weather and a beautiful sunny day.  We spent a fun time this evening talking with the neighbors and I ventured out to pull some weeds and check on the garden. 

I guess the world does go on without my constant attention, because here's what I found:

This just in!  Chickens still like the bug buffet in our yard....

Looking good, ladies.  Looking good!

The Roma tomato plants have definitely been busy.  I see some sauce making in our future!

And here's one of the peppers to go with it.  

Please ignore the weeds - they were exiled soon after I took these pics.

The much-awaited Honeycrisp apple trees are literally bending under the weight of the apples now.  J. and I may have to rig up something to help them bear the weight.  I can't wait to sink my teeth into one of these!

And the blackberries are starting to ripen...

We've been getting one or two here and there, but not enough for a big bowl of ice cream or pie.  They're coming though! That is,  if we can keep the birds out of them.  I've been convinced that the darn neighborhood birds have been eating them before we can pick the ripe ones and I now have proof.  While were sitting on the patio with the neighbors, we heard an uproar from the blackberry bush where a blackbird was trying to make off with one of our berries.  It may be air rifle time.  :-)

Finally, I discovered that we're not the only ones engaged in some renovation activity. It looks like a spider has been busy building a funnel trap underneath one of my Roma tomato plants.

 
I waited to see if the creepy little homeowner would show his face, but to no avail.  He must be shy.  Or maybe he's out at Home Depot getting some more building supplies.  Seems like it always takes us about 184 trips to that place for whatever project we're working on.

Hope everyone is doing well!  I'm off to make the bloggie rounds now to see what you guys are up to.

Ants Are Farmers Too?

Carpenter ants can be really destructive in your home or the wood pile but they don't really destroy trees unless they are already dead or dying.  But, when I spotted a conga line of ants going up one of our containerized apple trees, I decided to take a closer look to see what they were up to.

This little guy decided to wave hello.

Or maybe he's giving me the finger because shortly after I took that picture, they converged on me and attacked my fingers.  Turns out I was disturbing their tending to their livestock.

Ants watching over their aphid herd like cowboys watching their cattle.

Apparently I wasn't the only one entranced by these industrious little insects as, with a little research, I found that the ants actually use chemicals in their feet to tranquilize and subdue aphids, which are in the same category as cicadas and grasshoppers.  They're also called "plant lice".  Ewwwww!

 

You can see the fat little green aphids on the underside of the leaf in that last picture.  Believe it or not, the ants actually herd these aphids like we do cattle.  They bite their wings off so they can't fly away, they move the aphids up to the choicest part of the tree, pick them up and groom them, and move them to the juiciest part of the leaves.  Then the ants "milk" the aphids by stroking their abdomens with their antennae.  And then they suck their butts.  

You read that right...they suck their butts.  So much for the family rating on this blog.

From what I've read, the aphids suck the nutrients out of the leaves and then poop out a sugary honeydew, which the ants eat and carry back to their colony.  It's a dedicated food source for the ants.  In exchange, the aphids get protection from their natural predators like lacewings and this little lady that was spotted not far away.

Needless to say, the ants and their little aphid farm can't stay where it is and they really aren't welcome in the garden AT ALL.  The aphids are easily sprayed off the leaves with a hose, which disrupts the ants activity.  We sprayed them off last night and will keep an eye on the situation because aphids can and will chomp on other types of plants, including just about anything in the garden.  

If drowning them doesn't work, we may have to look at some other options.  You can pop them between your fingers, or use organic spray like Neem Oil or insecticidal soap or (what I think we will do) dust the tree with Diatomaceous Earth.  I've also read that planting sweet alyssum in conjunction with garlic may repel the ants and attract the insects that normally prey on the aphids.  Anybody have any experience with that?

Yeehaw!  Get along little aphids...   

Anywhere but on my apple trees!

I'm sharing this with this week's HomeAcre Hop, Green Living Thursday and From the Farm hops.  Go check them out!

Fruits of Our Labor

One of my fondest childhood memories is of my grandfather and I driving the dusty country roads together.  It was just restlessness - I think, like me, he didn't want to live in the city and was happiest when we were out driving.  Sometimes it was just for the heck of it, but we often went out morel hunting in the early Spring.  And he knew all the "secret" places where the wild blackberries and raspberries grew on the fence lines off these quiet roads.  We'd go home loaded with berries, chiggers and ticks, but neither of us cared. 

Those wild berries can be hard to spot and their flowers are teeny.  But look at the flowers on my Triple Crown blackberries.  They must be a good 2 inches across.

Who knew that blackberry flowers could be so beautiful? 

That's one of the new plants that I just added a couple of weeks ago.  The existing blackberry plants are growing like crazy and covered in berries.  We'll be rolling in the blackberries this year, I think. 

It's going to be a good year for strawberries also.  Here's one of the little plants blooming it's little heart out back in late April.

The whole bed is now bursting with strawberry plants and runner.  Oh, and berries.  Mmmmmm!

We harvested a pound and a half last night alone, and J. cut them up and enjoyed them with some milk and sugar.  These are Ozark Beauty berries, but he's taken to calling them "Ozark Tasties".  I think he might be on to something.

In other fruit news, one of the silly Honeycrisp apple trees that we dug up and put in a container now has our first little apples on it!  I think there are about 6, so we're not going to have a bumper crop but we definitely welcome our first apples here at Cranky Puppy Farm.  I can't wait....

It was while I was looking at the tree that I noticed that another farmer has taken up residence on the farm and is herding his livestock on my land without my permission.  Stay tuned, because I'll have pics and more on that for you tomorrow.

Shared with: Homestead Barn Hop and Tuesday Garden Party

Nature's Surprise

I've got some more pictures to share with you from our working weekend and start of the week.  The weather has been gorgeous (if not hot at 84 degrees yesterday) so we've been out in the yard most of the time.   The roofing crew has been here replacing all of the trim on the dormers with Azek ahead of the new roof.  Unfortunately, that has to be reschedule for next week because we've got rain coming.

 

On Sunday, Domino was sniffing like crazy in some grass by one of the basement windows and we discovered this little soul:

Meet Daisy-Bill the baby dove.  When I asked our adorable 6-year-old neighbor, Emily, what we should call "him", she said "Well, Daisy if it's a girl or Bill if it's a boy".  And then we decided that, since we can't tell which, we'd split the difference and give it both names.  Ah, to be a 6-year-old again.

 

This little chicklet appears to have either been thrown out, jumped out or fallen out of it's nest in the crook of our gutter. Mama dove took over an abandoned robin's nest and made it her own after we neglected to get it down last year.  Note to self:  remove nest this year!

 

I think this little baby is about 10 or 11 days old according to some quick Googling.  His pin feathers were just drying out and he appears to be losing his baby feathers.  The weather is warm and everything I've read is that the mama will find the baby and continue to feed it, so we are opting to let nature take it's course.  Of course, I'm agonizing over that.  The good news is that the baby is sheltered in our yard from dogs, cats, etc. as the yard is mostly fenced in. 

The Honeycrisp apple tree we planted last year is blooming!

One of the tasks we had this week was dig up the apple trees that we got from Home Depot.  Our new trees arrived from One Green World so we needed to get them in the ground as soon as possible.  As you can see in the pic above, the silly Honeycrisp that we planted last year is blooming.  I think you're suppose to pinch those blooms off the first year, right?

 

It was actually easier than I thought it would be to dig up the Stayman's Winesap and Honeycrisp trees and we put them into some huge 20" containers that I picked up at Home Depot.  These will be their permanent homes, as dwarf trees do fine in containers.  But we may take them up and plant them permanently on the farm also.

The unused potato bins provide a place with ready made stakes for the container trees.

Then we started digging.  And digging.  And digging.  And it was hotter than Hades.  The two new apple trees (a Braeburn and a Honeycrisp, both grafted on M-7 stock) went back in the holes that the others came out of.  By the way, you can read about different rootstocks here.


Little Braeburn apple tree all happy, happy in it's new home.

Then we had to dig two new holes for some NorthStar cherry trees.  These are dwarf trees on Colt stock and should provide some nice pie cherries in a couple of years.

Next up was getting the tomato and peppers in the newly-topped-off raised beds.  So far, we have 2 Early Girl hybrids, 2 Cherokee Purples, 4 Romas and 3 red peppers.  I need to go pick up some more Romas, as that's not nearly enough plants to make a good amount of sauce.  And we still have the other bed to plant our squash, green beans, watermelon, etc.



And, finally, we turned our attention to the strawberry bed where I was surprised to find them blooming since it's been colder than normal.  I spent the rest of the day pulling Bermuda grass out of the bed until my fingers hurt.  Have I mentioned that I HATE Bermuda grass?

One more surprise and it's not a good one.  Mr. Weatherman is predicting we're going to get a cold snap starting tonight and the next 3 days will be highs in the 40's with a dip tomorrow night near 36.  Gak!  Not what I wanted to hear now that we have tomatoes and peppers in the ground! We'll be covering everything tonight with tarps.

 

Is Spring EVER going to be here to stay?

I've shared thist post with this week's Down Home blog hop and Home Acre hop. Go check 'em out!

Rethinking the Orchard

It just doesn't seem right to rip out what I thought were perfectly good apple trees.  If you've been following Cranky Puppy for awhile, you know that we have 3 dwarf apple trees that were planted in 2011 and 2012.  Little did we know at the time that Home Depot is NOT the place to buy trees.

J. attended an 8-hour in-depth orchard class a couple of weekends ago and it covered everything you could possibly want to know about growing fruit trees including...you guessed it....never buy your trees from a box store.

Why?  It's all about the rootstock.  See, most fruit trees are grafted and the rootstock that's used can determine the tree's hardiness, how much fruit you get, how big the tree gets, etc.  For apple trees, the instructor recommends trees that are grafted onto a rootstock called B.9 (or Bud-9).  It's a dwarf rootstock that allows the tree to grow somewhere between 6 and 10 feet in height.

I can't tell you how disappointed I was when J. came home and told me that we really ought to replace our trees.  Rather than let them die, we're going to dig them up, transplant them on the 40 acres, and let them do their thing.  If they live and bear fruit, it's a bonus.  If they die, then c'est la via.

Now back to this rootstock thing.  If you ask someone at Home Depot what rootstock their trees have, they'll look at you like you've got a third eye.  Same thing with some of the online nurseries like Stark Bros.  But....if you look really hard, you can find good companies that happily list what rootstocks they use.  The bad news, however, is that all the varieties on B.9 are sold out by now.  After 2 days of looking locally and online, I finally found some in stock at One Green World and placed an order for 1 Braeburn and 1 Honeycrisp - both are semi-dwarf trees on M-7 rootstock.  They will be a little larger than the dwarf trees we're replacing at a mature height of 12 to 15 feet, which is why I only purchased 2.  They're also pollinators for each other which is obviously very important!

While I was at it, I also ordered some Northstar pie cherry trees to put outside the fence. (J. is salivating right now thinking about some homemade cherry pie.) 

We're getting intermitten 60 and 70 degree days now and this weekend should be in that same temp range.  On tap is a trip to the dump, cleaning the chicken coop and cleaning up the garden to get ready for planting.  What are you up to this weekend?

 

I've shared this post as part of this week's Homestead Barn Hop.  Lots of interestin' stuff happening over there...go check it out!