Drive-by

Hadn’t planned it, but am taking the week off. No problems, just have things that need doing which require chunks of time in which to do them.

I do plan to use vacation time for actual vacation at some point. Just not yet.

Spent the morning putting away Christmas. Hadn’t planned to take the tree down, but managed to get it out to the curb before the garbage guy came through. Wreaths are gone, too, even though I loves them and really wanted to leave them in place.

The good thing about the ground freezing is that the stakes one uses to hold the outdoor decorations in place do not budge.

The bad thing about the ground freezing is that the stakes one uses to hold the outdoor decorations in place do not budge.

Prying with a metal pole helped, but I wound up have to leave a few in the ground for later retrieval. Supposed to warm to the 40s later this week, with added rain! Muddy paws, YES!

Mirrored from Kristine Smith.

My tweets

• Sun, 14:43: Horrifying 12-day Cool Whip Experiment http://t.co/BpQniaPw via @sharethis
• Sun, 17:25: Happy New Year: Pick Up a New Skill http://t.co/2AqxvMNe via @NewYorker
• Sun, 19:02: RT @nadwcon: A fantastic blog on #Pratchett's women... http://t.co/o7cSV5i0
• Sun, 19:52: Zombie movie THE DEAD on Syfy tonite. Acc. to Comcast, tho, it's the movie of the same name dir by John Huston, based on JJoyce story
• Sun, 19:53: I didn't know James Joyce wrote zombies. However, I could see John Huston directing a zombie flick
• Sun, 21:57: A mini-vacuum cleaner for ears. #nowiveseeneverything
• Mon, 11:58: Drive-by… http://t.co/QYcHYSgc

Kris takes pictures of her food again

Okay. Apple Cake.

I made one for the first time around Thanksgiving. Liked it. Decided to make one today, but couldn’t find the recipe. Searched, found this one, and thought it looked good.

Adjustments. Decisions. I did have a springform pan, but it was a 9-inch. It was coated stainless, and the instructions recommended setting baking temps 25 degrees F lower than the temp in the recipe. It also had a different construction, that was supposed to be leakproof. However, the recipe recommended setting the filled pan atop a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet to catch leaks. I did that, even though I greased the pan with Pam instead of butter and didn’t really expect leaks.

Additions: I substituted 1/4 cup of the all-purpose flour with white whole-wheat. 1/4 tsp salt. The apples I had were a bit mealy and kinda flat, so I added a tablespoon of boiled cider to boost the apple taste. Couldn’t make something apple w/o spices, so. 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground cloves, a few scrapes of whole nutmeg, maybe 1/4 tsp. About 1/2 tsp grains of paradise. A 1/4 cup or so crystallized ginger chips.

The cake baked for about 1 hour 20 minutes. It did pull away from the pan, and the top and sides were dark brown. But the consistency is odd, dense but light, a little custardy. It’s good enough that I will make it again, though surprisingly mild-tasting given all the stuff I added. I will not set it on the cookie sheet again, as the springform pan did not leak a bit. I think the cake would have come out a little more baked if there hadn’t been that layer of insulation between the pan and the heat source.

Mirrored from Kristine Smith.