Delicious apple cake

I recently saw this recipe on KimC's blog, Life in a Shoe. It sounded delicious, and also had few steps, making it perfect for a cooking project to do with a 2 year old.

I am pleased to report that the results were just as good as it sounded, and it was indeed a good kids project - plenty of measuring, tipping and stirring, and then just straight into the oven.

So the recipe is:

German apple cake

2 eggs

1 cup oil

2 cups sugar (I used brown sugar)

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

2 tsps cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

4 cups of peeled, sliced apples (I used 1 large can of pie apples instead)

Beat the eggs and oil together in a large bowl, until well mixed. Add all other dry ingredients, except the apples. Mix together well - the mixture will be very thick at this stage. Stir in the apples - mixture will soften up nicely now. Pour into a 9 x 13 cake pan, and bake for 45 - 50 mins at 170 deg C (350 Fahrenheit). This does make a large size cake - halve the ingredients for a regular round or square cake.

Serve warm with cream or icecream. Or cold, straight from the fridge (as I am eating it at this very moment!)

Easy kids artwork

I have thought for some time that Naomi's room is rather drab. I made new curtains for her, but the paintwork really needs refreshing and she had nothing else interesting to look at. As it is highly likely that we will be renting out this house and moving some time in the next few months, I didn't really feel like painting and decorating (and the fact that I have been threatened with dire consequences by Brad if I even think of climbing a ladder at 30 weeks pregnant!).

So instead, I came up with this easy and fun idea for some interactive artwork to brighten the walls. I bought some cheap art canvases at the crazy bargain shop, and 2 tubes of pretty contrasting paint. Brushes, a roller and other bits and pieces we already had in the craft stash.

Step 1 was to roll the background colour on each canvas. Using a slightly damp roller produced the soft wash cloudy effect. Naomi loved this part, and proceeded to roller paint every surface in sight... thankfully, after I had rinsed out the paint and it was just plain water!

Step 2, when the background paint is dry, is to let your child go crazy with brushes and the contrasting coloured paint. Naomi adores painting, so this bit was easy to get her interested in.

Step 3, after allowing the painted masterpieces to dry, is just to raid your buttons / ribbons / scrapbook supplies and stick things on to your heart's content! Naomi helped choose the ribbons and buttons that she liked, and picked the flower stickers. She also pointed out where she wanted each one. Warning - this step can be just a little frustrating for the adult ... "there... no, um, there. This one. Or maybe this one...."

Step 4, we added a little ribbon loop to hang the canvases from, and allowed the whole lot to dry.

We think they came up looking pretty darn good. And when Brad got home, he actually thought we had bought them in a spending spree! In fact, he has taken one to work to hang on his office wall ... so we need to make another one for Naomi's room!

A couple of hints --

Check your perfectionism in at the door, before beginning this project. I had a mental image of what I wanted, which at times didn't coincide with my darling toddler's spontaneous creativity.

All sorts of ideas for embellishment spring to mind - sparkle pens? glitter glue? ribbon bows?

Great sauce recipe

Last night I cooked pork chops, but was trying to think of a quick and easy way to jazz them up a bit. I threw the following ingredients into the frypan, after cooking the chops and draining off the grease (but be sure to leave the yummy browning stuff in the bottom):

A good dollop of cream
2 tsps crushed garlic
A shake of dried rosemary leaves
Fresh garlic chives, snipped up with scissors

Stir together and let it simmer on very low for a few minutes, soaking up the meaty bits in the bottom of the pan. This made enough for generous pour-over servings on 2 adult dinners.

I had intended to put some seeded mustard in as well, but didn't have any in the fridge. It was just as delicious without it. I think this would go well on any meat - steak, pork, chicken, even fish or prawns. And it was literally conceived and made in 5 minutes, from ingredients in the condiments shelf of my pantry and fridge.

Do you have a special sauce, or something quick that you use to jazz up otherwise plain meals? Please share it with me - leave a link to your site in the comments!