Today was a country cooking day!

One of the biggest things that I miss from living in England is the open air markets or farmers markets that they had on a almost daily basis. England was great at supporting the local farmers in that every good sized town had a market or farm stand or the lady with a table sitting outside her house with homemade preserves and a small basket when people put in the money for goods purchased. Yes they still relied on the honor system there. And from the looks of repeat farm stands people were honorable!


Today my friend Em asked me to go with her to the Abilene Farmers Market. OF COURSE! It was my first market in over 6 months. I was super excited. It was the size of a small town weekday market in England but OH THE FUN of being able to support local farmers and families. 


Later I will post what I made with my market finds, peaches is the only clue you get!

One of my favorite blogs is The Country Cook 
Today without thinking about it I was fiddling in the kitchen. First I made watermelon jelly, and if that sets the way it is supposed to I will post that up. After that was canned and cooling I thought 'well lets just keep this going.' So on to 7-UP cake. 

Now I LOVE 7-UP cake and have always gotten it from the Commissary or bakery, I have never tried to make it myself. BUT Brandie has ALWAYS given me such fabulous recipes that I just had to try hers.

It looks phenomenal doesnt it? Well since I can tell you it tastes BETTER than it looks! 

It is a super easy cake that you will be able to make over and over again. 

Ingredients:

1 box, Yellow cake mix

1 box, 3.4 oz instant lemon pudding

1 1/2 cups 7-up

4 eggs

3/4 cup Canola oil

Icing:

2 cups Confectioners sugar

 1 TBSP Lemon Juice (bottled works just as well as fresh)

1-2 TBSP Milk


Pre-heat oven to 325°F.
Spray a 10-inch bundt cake pan with baking spray. (The one with flour in it)
In a medium bowl combine all cake ingriedients and mix thoroughly.
Pour batter into prepared bundt pan.
Bake for 45-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Allow to cool completely in the pan. 
Remove onto serving dish.
PREPARE ICING:
In a small bowl combine the powdered sugar and lemon juice. Add milk slowly while mixing to desired consistency. 
Pour icing over cake and serve!

YUMMY!

And how was this a country cooking kind of day? Well I made Spasagna for dinner. I am telling you Ms. Brandie is AWESOME! 
 

OUTRAGEOUS Brownies

Its funny how at one point I was SO excited about starting this blog. But some where along the way I lost track of everything, became busy, got a job, yeah, yeah, yeah, excuses excuses. If I would take 15 minutes out of my day and STOP playing www.pogo.com and write out my newest recipe I would keep up just fine with it.
I won't PROMISE to keep up and do a better job because I may lag again. :)
For now, lets get to these brownies.

I really am not a fan of chocolate. I KNOW, I am an oddity. A woman who does not like chocolate, but its true. I did try these brownies when they came out of the oven and again after they were cooled and they were not bad. They are VERY chocolaty, very rich. So for the chocoholics out there these brownies ARE FOR YOU!

Unfortunately, I did not think to photograph these brownies before I cut them up and put them in containers. Just picture a LARGE sheet pan of brownies. You will get a lot of them.

1 pound unsalted butter
1 pound plus 12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate
6 extra large eggs
3 Tbsp instant coffee cranules
2 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
2 1/4  cups sugar
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour, devided
1 Tbsp baking powder
1tsp salt
3 cups chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Butter and flour a 12 x 18 x 1 inch baking sheet.
3. Melt together the butter, 1 pound of chocolate chips and the unsweetened chocolate in a medium bowl over simmering water. Allow to cool slightly.
4. In a large bowl, stir (do not beat) together the eggs, coffee granules, vanilla and sugar. Stir the warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and allow to cool to room temperature.
5. In a medium bowl, sift together 1 cup flour, the baking powder and salt. Add to the cooled chocolate mixture. 
6. Toss the walnuts and 12 ounces of chocolate chips in a medium bowl with 1/4 cup of flour, then add them to the chocolate batter. 
7. Pour into the prepared baking sheet.
8. Bake for 20 minutes, then rap the baking sheet against the oven shelf to force the air to escape from between the pan and the brownie dough. Bake for about 15 minutes more. Until a toothpick comes out clean. Do not over bake! Allow to cool thoroughly, refrigerate, and cut into squares.

Flouring the chips and walnuts keeps them from sinking to the bottom. Its very important to allow the batter to cool well before adding the chocolate chips, or the chips will melt and ruin the brownies. This recipe can be baked up to a week in advance. If you wrap the brownies in plastic and refrigerate they will keep.

FRESH Caramel Apple cake

About a month ago my friend S told me about apple picking in the Queen of England's winter home's orchards. Now I have lived in England for 6 years so far and this was the first time I had heard of this! I called my friend B and off we went with our familes to pick the Queens apples from the Queens orchards and enjoy some apple yummys. I am not lying to you when I say that I came home with about 10 - 12 kilos of apples. FABULOUS! But what the heck was I going to do with all that.
Well first I baked a pie. And then another and then another. I gave those away. :) I LOVE apple pie but a family can only go through so much of it.
Two french apple pies and a double crust pie. The only reason I made French apple pies was because I ran out of crust and had nothing for the top. I think fast on my baking feet sometimes. My crust is fabulously flaky and I use it for just about everything. I just cant get it to set up properly. Tastes great; looks terrible. Practice makes perfect I always say. Just keep making it and eventually it will come out the way I want it to.

This cake I made a couple of weeks ago. It was a hit! Everyone loved it and everyone wanted more. I have made this cake three times since then and am so thankful I had bunches of apples from the picking. Each cake takes 3 cups of apples. The batter was THICK and sticky and very tough to mix after all the flour went in. I thank my good sense for buying a heavy duty mixer 6 years ago. Without it I would be completely lost. In fact I have been toying with the idea of getting a second. But I was promptly talked out of that and convinced that the best thing would be to just get another bowl and flat mixer blade.
I should point out that this cake is dangerously good. I love the gooey mixed with the spice of the cake. If you have apples that you need to do something with and you and your family are all pied out, I recommend you try this cake.

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
• 3 cups chopped apples, such as Rome Beauty
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• Brown sugar topping, below

Preparation:

Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; set aside. Beat eggs; add sugar and oil and beat for 3 minutes. Gradually stir in sifted dry ingredients. Fold in apples and vanilla. Pour batter into a greased and floured 10-inch tube pan and bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a cake tester comes out clean. Invert on a plate or platter, pour topping over the cake as soon as it comes out of the oven. Let cool.  
Topping

• 1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

Combine topping ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a full boil and boil for 3 minutes. Pour over cake right out of the oven.