First off, if you are into crazyquilting, embroidery or embellishments, I'm having a drawing on Getting To Crazy,my other blog, the link to which you will find over in the side bar.
Now back to the business at hand:
With the first hours of Autumn/Fall upon us today, I thought it would be fitting to post this recipe for Cheddar Apple Bread. I've noticed all the varieties of apples arriving in our markets in the past week or so and this looks like a great way of getting one of our fruit servings today. The picture was stuck into Mum's recipe book with her recipe, so I think this came from a magazine sometime in her 70+ years of cooking. I don't think she would have saved it if it wasn't good. If I have enough cheddar in the house, I will be making this today. Fire up the oven!
CHEDDAR APPLE BREAD
Sift those drys! Then in your bowl, combine well:
Put those reserved drys into your egg mixture, combine and then add in:
Stir well and then spoon into a well-greased and floured 9" x 5" loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 65 to 70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let stand on rack for 5 min. and then remove from pan.
NOTES:
Yummmmm! Typing all that made me hungry!
Pour into pans. I have made 4 mini-loaves from this recipe or 1 large loaf and 1 mini-loaf. As I recall I have also made this in a 9" x 13" cake pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 min. to 1 hour depending on your pan size. The mini-loaves will take less time. When out of the oven I let the pans sit 10 min before I tried to turn out the bread. Perhaps 15 min. would be better. OR....you could line the bottom of your pans with parchment paper. There would be no worry if you choose to bake this in a 9"x13" pan! I may do that next time.
Notes:
Nummmmmmmmmmm!
NOTE: If you are not overly fond of beets, you can use a smaller can. They add nice color to the salad, but if you don't drain and rinse them well, they will turn the entire salad red!
- Peel and cut rind into 1" cubes until you have 10 C. of cubes.
- Soak the cubes overnight in 2 quarts of water into which you have dissolved 6 T. of salt
- In the morning, drain the rind cubes well.
- Add fresh water to the pot and cook cubes until tender.
- In another pot, heat to boiling:
4 C. Sugar
2 C. White Vinegar
- In a piece of cheesecloth or a cheesecloth bag put:
6 sticks cinnamon
2 T. Whole Allspice
2 T. Whole Cloves
- Put cooked rind cubes and spice packet into the syrup.
- Simmer 45 minutes until rind is transparent.
- Pack into hot jars and cover with syrup up to 1/8" of the top. Wipe any syrup from the edge of the jars. Seal at once.
Makes 3 quarts or 6-1/2 pints of pickles.
This cake is another way to downsize your zucchini blessings from your summer garden. I used to have another recipe for a chocolate zucchini cake, but I found this recipe in the St. Louis, Missouri newspaper a few years back when I was visiting my daughter. I tried it next time we had an abundance of zucchini and felt like throwing my old recipe out the window. I didn't do that because it had come from a friend and, in fact, I will add it at the end of this post so you can try it as well.
If you scroll down to my previous post, you will see some round zucchini in the picture of the abundance of zucchini blessings from G's garden. Here finally are the directions and a "sort-of" recipe for preparing these great zucchini. If you don't grow them yourself, we have found that they are available at the local farmer's market events.
First you need to make a stuffing for them. I make this with whatever I have on hand. It never turns out the same twice! Basically this is what you need and what you do:
When you've halved them you will see the seeds and where you should cut around the center with a small paring knife at an angle to hollow the center out. I usually cut around at an angle with the paring knife and then across the circle several times. Then I switch to digging the seeds out with the large end of a melon baller.
Here's what your halves should look like.
Now use a 1/2 cup measuring cup and fill the halves with your stuffing, pressing it firmly down and mounding it a little. Place the filled 8 balls in a deep casserole with a lid. Here's what today's looked like after stuffing. G let these 8 balls get larger than a softball so I had to squeeze their sides to make them fit in this casserole.
Cover and place in your microwave. Cook on high for 10 min. If you don't have a lid for your deep casserole or dish, you could use saran wrap, but I wouldn't recommend letting it touch your food. Important: If you don't cover these during cooking, they will cook unevenly. If your microwave doesn't have a turntable, turn your casserole after 5 minutes.
Here you see what the stuffed 8 balls look like after they come out of the microwave. Placing a half slice of cheese on top when they are hot is optional but delicious! You are only limited in the number you can make by the size of your pan and the volume of the stuffing you make!
After Note: G didn't like this version as well as others I've made. He finally admitted he prefers me to use the stuffing cubes instead of the rice. He said there was too much rice, but I don't think he would have noticed that as much if the seasonings had been better. Sometimes you win; sometimes you don't!
Nummmmmmmm!
Ingredients:
3 medium sized green zucchini, diced
3 medium sized yellow zucchini, diced
One 8 oz. ball fresh mozzarella cheese, cubed
1 basket or little net bag of small cherry tomatoes, halved
3 slices of a large red onion, diced
1 can medium or large sized pitted black olives, halved lengthwise
small amount of chopped basil (1T.)or 1 cube frozen chopped basil from Trader Joe's
Approximately 1/2 bottle of Safeway's O Brand Tuscan Italian salad dressing (or your own Italian dressing)
1) Begin by dicing the zucchini and when you have enough to cover the bottom of the bowl, drizzle a little of the salad dressing over and toss to marinate.
2) Keep dicing zucchini and add the rest of the ingredients, tossing and adding more dressing as you go.
3) Once you have everything all tossed together, make sure you have enough dressing included to coat all the ingredients but not too sloppy. I always refrigerate for an hour at least to let the flavours blend.
Notes:
Num Num!
Just what would YOU do when your kitchen counter looks like this? We have become the proverbial neighborhood zucchini pushers. You know the joke about not leaving any of your car windows open while at church because you'll come out to find a seat-load of zucchini? Or did you hear the one about the neighbors who no longer answer their doorbells? Don't they know that we'll just leave the zucchini on their doorstep? The other day G tried to give a bag to his buddy who was picking him up to go to the flea market. Evidently his buddy has been harrassing HIS neighbors as well because of his garden blessings.
So, the first recipe I will post will be one of my own and in a small way how we are dealing with our zucchini blessings.
As far as this blog's design, I'm still hoping my brother can help me with some pictures, but at last report he tried to send them to me, but it didn't work and they were lost on his computer somewhere. Since he's quite far away from me and I can't really help him, I may have to go out to our storage unit and unearth my family archives box! Not looking forward to that one bit!
Num Num!
