Allison and Bailey

Here's a photo from Allison's playdate with Bailey and Aunt Stacey yesterday. Allison is so good about sharing with the dogs, other kids not so much!

Chuys

Kevin and I spent the day clearing our our rental property to get it ready for the next tenant. Hopefully the next one will work out better than this one did. While we were cleaning Allison spent the day with her aunt Stacey and Bailey dog.

Now we are at Chuys in College Station. You can see how excited Allison is. She's starting to color on the kids menus so that keeps her entertained.

Beer Bread

This one is dangerous.  My dad sent me the recipe after he saw it in the Houston Chronicle in November. Here is the link I found, but its an easy one to google: http://www.chron.com/life/food/article/Kitchen-to-kitchen-Beer-Bread-2307013.php

Start to finish in 1 hour.  This is a great way to make a
simple dinner feel special.

I used Miller Lite since it was in the fridge and I didn't want to touch any of Kevin's 'good' beers.  Only change I made versus the link was to add an extra tablespoon of sugar.  Even though I served the bread with beef stew I wanted it a little sweeter to turn leftovers into breakfast toast and it was great both ways.  I say this recipe is dangerous because it will be ready to go before your oven finishes preheating and its incredibly addictive.  I've already made 2 batches this week, and have it on my menu for next week to go with my mussels steamed in white wine to soak up all the delicious sauce.  Now that I've corrected the issue of my pantry not stocking self rising flour I'm only an hour away from fresh bread at any given time.  I probably need to take up several calorie burning hobbies to offset this.

Do not use a whisk as pictured - it took longer to get all the
batter out of the whisk than to mix the batter.  Just use a spoon.  Trust me!

Recipe:

BEER BREAD

3 cups self-rising flour

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

12 ounces beer

1/4 cup butter, melted

Batter took under 1 minute

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the flour, sugar and beer until blended.

Spoon into lightly greased 9-inch-by-5-inch loaf pan.

Bake for about 40 minutes. Pour melted butter over the top and bake 5-10 minutes longer or until done. (my oven needed the full 10 minutes)

Remove from pan after about 5-10 minutes.

Caramel Apple Cake

I love to cook and especially bake, but I tend to fall back on the same recipes that I know from memory or know will be winners with my family.  For 2012 I'm making a commitment (note how I avoid the word resolution) to try a new recipe every week and share the results here to help keep me motivated.

You can just see the pecans through the caramel glaze on top

My first new recipe was a Caramel Apple Cake recipe I adapted from a recipe I found on Pinterest.  Here is the link to the original: http://lickthebowlgood.blogspot.com/2010/09/caramelly-appley-delicious.html
I made two cakes last week, one for me and Kevin, and then one for a girls brunch, so got to play with the recipe a bit.  I increased the apple, chose to grate it (personal preference - I think it gives you more apple flavor per bite), and added raisins.  When I made it in the smaller dish it was too thick and got dried out as it baked.  It's pretty enough and moist enough you could skip the glaze, or dust it with powdered sugar in a time crunch or if you wanted something to freeze (also skip the powdered sugar if freezing).  We definitely enjoyed it and I hope you will too.

All my ingredients and equipment

Apple Cake:

• 1 & 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla 
• 5 apples, peeled and grated - any kind you have on hand, I used a mix
• 1 cup raisins (optional)
• 1 cup pecans chopped 

Brown Sugar Glaze:

• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 5 tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 5 tablespoons heavy (whipping) cream

  

Out of the oven - before glaze

 For the cake: Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an   9x13-inch pan and set aside.

 In a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt   and cinnamon.  

 In a large bowl, mix the eggs until light in color and foamy  (2- 3 minutes with an electric mixer). 

 Add the oil and vanilla and beat well.

 With a spoon stir in the apples, raisins, and flour mixture and  stir until just combined. 

 Pour batter into prepared pan, top with pecans and bake for  30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes  out clean.  By placing the pecans on top they toast while the  cake cooks saving the extra step of toasting the pecans and  then mixing them into the cake batter (plus they look pretty on  top).

 As soon as the cake comes out of the oven prepare the glaze.  

For the glaze: Combine all the ingredients into a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until the mixture comes to a gentle boil. Cook for 5 minutes.

Spoon the hot glaze over the still hot-from-the-oven cake. Let the glazed cake cool completely before serving.  

Variations:

• Depending on the flavor you want to bring out, you could try substituting maple extract for the vanilla
• Substitute pumpkin pie spice for cinnamon for a more complex spice flavor
• Kevin has suggested a cream cheese frosting as an alternate to the caramel

A new home for the SUV

My car has officially moved into the garage. Even if we had room for it Kevin's truck is too long to fit so it will remain in the driveway.
We had church this morning, pizza at Double Dave's, and a trip to Lowes to scope out materials for our next project - framing our bathroom mirror. After Allison's nap we took a family walk despite the overcast and windy afternoon.
Hope everyone had a great weekend and is ready for the next week.

I blame Kevin

He insisted on teaching her to stand and climb on things. She then fell off and cried. Briefly. She is now playing again happily. What scares me is that she only got this kitchen this morning and it only took a few hours for her to figure out climbing from her chair onto her kitchen counter.

A new home for the canoe

Kevin had the day off today and spent most of the morning in the garage. One of his Christmas presents was an elevated canoe storage system. It's really almost a present for me because this should finally get my car into the garage. The garage needs a few more hours work but I'm hoping my car can move in by the end of the weekend. This is a great start to our new year - we have a lot of DIY house projects on the list of things we want to do in 2012. More updates and pictures to come!