November 4, 2014

Pumpkin Apple Cake (or bread…your choice!)


I was pretty happy to have Scott come home this weekend. He finally arrived home late Saturday night after a month in Texas.  While it might seem like he was gone forever..it hasn't been forever but he was gone for 2 weeks, he was back for 8 days, and then it was 4 weeks.  So definitely not the definition of a long time.  But still.  Kinda seemed that way.  I maintain that long trips (2 months or more) are easier than counting by days or weeks.

This meant I got access to my old computer.  I was able to retrieve my Columbus vs. Pilgrims powerpoint, complete with real Mayflower-replica pictures.  So, of course, I spent a lot of time browsing through my old Toshiba.  It's actually really nice and then I remembered the reason for my upgrade to a MacBook:  the Toshiba won't hold a charge and won't work unless it's actually plugged in.

I did find some interesting documents, lesson plans, and pictures and it was nice to take a walk down memory lane.  This is a screen shot of some menu-planning I found from 2011.


I was an efficient little menu planner.  There were 3 months of menus that look like this.  The strikethrough clearly means "ACCOMPLISHED!"  I mean, I was baking sugar cookies that looked like states and continents.  I don't even know who I am anymore…

As you can see, I used to be quite organized.  I gave myself deadlines.  And I don't know what the asterisks mean.  Some sort of secret organizational code, perhaps? There's a lot more of them as you go through the document. "Re-blog" meant re-do for the blog because the first showcased terrible pictures.  When I showed this to Scott, he just laughed and then we said, "What HAPPENED?" at the same time.

I digress.

This is a recipe for a healthy-ish fall bread that can serve as breakfast, a snack, or dessert.  I actually left the recipe completely sugar-free and just put a homemade cream cheese icing on top, but you can make the call on that.  I'd say a half cup of brown sugar would work just fine in there.  Of course, I highly recommend frosting, or at least peanut butter or something, on the top.  I made it over the weekend as a way to use up some gala apples, canned pumpkin, and extra frosting I had leftover from cookies the week before.

I followed all the food-blogging steps:  created the recipe, constructed the recipe, photographed the recipe, blogged about the recipe.  I'm definitely trying to get back in the groove here.

Pumpkin Apple Cake
makes one 8x8 pan

1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup apple butter
1/4 cup canola oil
2 eggs
1 T. vanilla

Combine all the wet ingredients with a mixer.

Then, in a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients:

1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 T. pumpkin pie spice
1 1/2 cups flour

Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients into the mixing bowl.

Pour into a greased 8x8 pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.  I used a convection oven and it took longer than I thought it would.  However, that also could've been the 6,000 foot elevation here.  I recommend starting to check it around 25 minutes.  You could also use a loaf pan and baking time would increase to about 45 minutes.  Just check the middle with a butter knife or skewer before taking it out.  

3 comments:

  1. I look back to a couple years ago when I used to blog EFFORTLESSLY 5+ days a week, maintained a full time job AND kept my house in order and think WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED? Now that blogging IS my full time job (okay, that's a lie. Now that WRITING is my full time job) blogging just seems...out of control. I guess I had lots to talk about when I was actually getting out of the house daily. I'm giving it until the end of the year (or until we get J's car fixed, whichever comes first). I'm CONSIDERING picking up a side job at a drugstore. That would kill a lot of birds with one stone: 1) discounts. 2) get me out of the house/socializing and 3) a little cash. But then again...me in a drugstore is maybe a bad idea! haha

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  2. Pinning, this looks simple and delicious.

    Whenever I look at old notes, I'm like huh?

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  3. Oooh, I love this. And it's healthy. :) Pinned!

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