Caramel Apple Cake

Ok, please forgive me, my bundt cake stuck to the top of the pan. But you will not believe how wonderful this cake taste. This is one you will have to try because if you like apples and caramel you will love this. It will become one of your favorite bundt cakes. I promise! I take a friend to the doctor occasionally and when I do I always thumb through the magazines for new recipes. This is one of those recipes and the bad thing about this recipe, I didn't get all of the caramel sauce copied down so I guessed at the last part and it actually turned out great. This would be a great cake for a brunch and this cake just seems like fall to me. Believe me, it's good now but with the cinnamon and nutmeg I just felt fallish when I was eating it. It's the flavors of fall! It's very rich and decadent. 1/2 cup chopped pecans, I like lots of pecans so I used 1 cup. 2 large eggs 1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar, firmly packed 1 cup canola or vegetable oil 2 Granny Smith apples, peeled and diced 2 cups unbleached all- purpose flour 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom 3/4 teaspoon baking soda Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 6-cup Bundt pan. Place pecans in a single layer in a samll baking pan. Bake 5 to 7 minutes or until lightly toasted, stirring occasionally. Whisk together eggs, brown sugar and oil in a large bowl; stir in pecans and apples. Sift flour and next four ingredients over egg mixture; stir until blended and spoon into prepared pan. Bake 70 minutes (mine was ready in 55) so be sure and watch it. When toothpick comes out clean remove from oven. Cool on wire rack for 20 minutes, then remove from pan. Pierce cake multiple times on top and sides with a long wooden skewer. Pour Caramel Sauce evenly over cake. Cool completely before slicing. Caramel Sauce 2 1/2 cups heavy cream 1 cinnamon stick 1 cup sugar 1/4 cup water 1/2 teaspoon vanilla Cook cream and cinnamon stick in saucepan over medium heat until boiling; set aside. Cook sugar and water in a heavy saucepan over medium heat until boiling, stirring to melt sugar. Increase heat to medium-high;boil without stirring 8 to 10 minutes or until syrup begins to color (light amber) swirling pan to incorporate mixture. Remove from heat when mixture is amber. Whisk one-quarter of warm cream mixture into caramel mixture. Mixture will boil up when you add cream, stir until boiling stops and add second quarter stir until mixed well and then add remainder mix well under medium heat and removed when it starts to boil. Cool for about 5 minutes and then drizzle over cake.

Gardening Update

I have spent the last two day weeding and hoeing the veggie garden and flower beds. The blueberries are looking good, I have one plant that is looking a little sickly but I don't have a clue why. All the other plants look healthy. I fertilized the blueberries and tomatoes with fish emulsion. As I was pruning my tomato plants, I was surprised to find that they already needed to be stacked. In case you don't know about pruning your tomato plants. You remove the leaves close to the ground as the plant grows so the plant will get good air circulation. I have fertilized all my flowering shrubs also. Hopefully, if we get rain over the weekend all the plants should be in pretty good shape.

The spinach and different lettuces are coming up in my guttering. I took a close up of the guttering so you could see that we attached the guttering to a 1x3 and then my husband put little supports (like little "L" brackets) about every 2 feet to give the guttering support. I also drilled a hole in the guttering for drainage about every foot.

Everything is so green and beautiful. My peach trees are loaded with little peaches. I have the undesirable task of pulling some of them off because there are so many. If I don't do that, they will not develop into large peaches. They would all end up being about the size of a walnut. I don't really like to do that but I do it.

This time of the year there is so much to do and I just can't seem to get it all done.

Garden in a Gutter

I had high hopes of being able to show you pictures of lush spinach and lettuce hanging over my guttering. I am sad to say it is pretty much been devoured. I have some iron rich insects somewhere. :) It started out great. Then I noticed the spinach was not coming along like it usually does. After closer examination, I saw that something was eating it up. I used my hot pepper spray but it was to far gone. I also think that maybe I didn't water the lettuce enough. The guttering is so shallow it drys out faster and I forgot to take that into consideration. I will try again and keep a closer watch. The tomatoes and other veggies are doing great. This weather if perfectly wonderful for working outside! Have a wonderful day!

Changes....why can't they leave things alone!!!!!

The blogger site has changed their format. My last post was divided into paragraphes when posted it came out to be one big paragraph. Oh my! why can't they leave things alone. I will have to learn new set up! :(

Unconditional Love

It seems that this subject keeps coming up. I write about what is going on in my life and God continues to show me how important this is. Yesterday, in my devotion it was talking about silence. Not responding in anger, not even responding period just learning to be quiet. Boy, that's a hard one for me anyway. My precious friend, who died last year, told me what God had shared with her about her life. She was like so many of us thinking we always have the best answer or know just what to say......you know, getting your two cents in. :) He told her,"don't speak unless you are spoken too and don't answer questions you haven't been asked." Pretty good, Huh! Back to the devotion be quiet, the last verse said, "Ye are my witnesses, witness in love, not a word.!" The following story was a major teaching moment when God was teaching me about unconditional love. I was at a function and a woman, to my face, insulted me terribly. We had know each other for some time, there was no love lost between us but there had never been any direct confrontation. I didn't respond but was furious. As I drove home that day, I was reliving the situation again in my mind and I said, "Lord you can not possibly expect me to love her." Before I could get those words out He said I loved Judas and knew who he was all along. It stopped me in my tracks. It's like the Bible says, it's easy to love those who love you and are nice to you. What good is that, the test comes when you love those who hate you, who have slandered you and accused you unfairly. If we choose to walk there, God will give us the love to love the unlovable. That truly is a witness to the world. Every day God is constantly showing me where I'm not walking in unconditional love. It's not an easy thing because our (flesh or ego) wants to be treated fairly and you do suffer when you love unconditionally. I will say that it is the path of peace. May God's strength be with us all as we learn to love as He loves!

Being a Mother

I love what this picture says. The important things to me in being a good mother are loving your children unconditionally and listening to them when they talk to you.

Resentment

Heard this quote by Nelson Mandela on Resentment.....pretty good! Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.