Apple Cake

Not much new this past week. The boys are improving in their ice skating. They are on their feet more than not, and shuffling along slowly. Still no snow here yet, but that's okay with me because I know when it gets here, it will be around for a long, long time.

Sam and I made an apple cake a couple weeks ago, so since I haven't taken many pictures this week, here are a few from that activity. We also made some zucchini brownies last week - not such a big hit with the kids, but Otto and I thought they were good.


The cake was from a recipe found on the SmittenKitchen blog in case anyone wants to make their own. It was very tasty, even substituting half of the white flour for wheat. But mine didn't look the same because it appears she has a tube pan with spring release sides (like a cheesecake pan) and mine is just a plain tube pan. So I layered mine differently, hoping that when I flipped it over it would look like hers with the pretty apples on top. It didn't. My apples were on top, but only because I scraped them out of the bottom of the pan and plopped them up there, because when the rest of the cake came out, they did not. Next time I'll either have to just leave it in the pan, or flip it and have a cake layer on top, not the pretty apples.


Oh, here is one picture I took this week. These are my legs (lest you think they belonged to someone else). There are only two areas in our house that get direct sunlight. The office, and this stairway. Sometimes when I'm heading down to the kitchen/living area, which is the chillier side of the house, I stop and sit in the sun here on the stairs for a few minutes to preheat myself. Or, if I'm heading up after being downstairs, I thaw out.


The temperature difference between the office (which this stairway splits and leads to on one side) and the rest of the house is probably ten degrees on a sunny day. So I need to put a sweater on just moving from one area of the house to another. And the basement, naturally, is even chillier. I don't go down there much, which is a pity because that's where my piano is. And that's where the guest room is, but we'll put a portable heater down there if you come to visit! :o)