Cat Day

We know that things have been particularly tough on the cats lately, so we spent a few hours one day spoiling them rotten. They got some tuna and the water from the can. They got snuggled and petted. They got to climb on a bunch of stuff that they thought was super cool. Then, they got to play for over an hour straight! Stick toys, kitty strings, stuffed mice, stuffed fish. You name it, they got it!

Suffice to say, not much cooking has been going on lately. Although, I did whip up a pizza rather quickly. Well, as quickly as homemade dough can be made, anyway. But by the shape of the pizza, I think you can guess how quickly it was done. I like to call this the amoeba pizza :)

Well, at least the cats enjoyed eating the few pieces of cheese they got as a treat!

Apple Cake

We had some apples that needed to be used up, plus we wanted to make the house smell really nice, so I decided to bake an apple cake.

INGREDIENTS

2/3 cup butter, softened

2/3 cup white sugar

2/3 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

4 cups apples, peeled, cored and diced (I used Granny Smith apples)

STEPS

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Grease and lightly flour a 9x13-inch cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper so that the cake comes out easily.
• Cream together butter and the white and brown sugars.
• Add the eggs and beat well. Then add the vanilla and mix to combine.
• In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves.
• Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture.
• Once the flour is fully mixed in, fold in the apples by hand. The batter will not fully cover all of the apple pieces.
• Pour the mixture into the prepared cake pan.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then remove the cake from the pan and allow to cool fully on a wire rack.