Tonight was night two of THIS dinner, and because we have been eating this old standby for so many years, I never really look forward to anything about night two except the fact that I don’t have to cook dinner.
Tomorrow is grocery day so we are low on fruit, but I did have two Honeycrisp apples left from my last trip to the farmer’s market.
I also had the ingredients for this caramel sauce on hand:1 stick unsalted butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
Melt together in a saucepan over mediumish heat, bring to a boil, then remove from heat and whisk in
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup evaporated milk (don’t forget to shake the can before you add it, I always forget and have to shake it over the sink already halfway opened)
Wait a second, who snuck this dark photo of a runny nosed, dirty onesie wearing baby in here?
Okay, so obviously it was me. I thought you might be missing Beatrix. 
This is the cake I made with those apples, to go with that caramel sauce.
Here is the recipe (from Cooking from Quilt Country)
1/2 cup shelled pecans (optional)
2 large cooking apples
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 cup flour
Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9″ round cake pan. Peel, core and chop apples to equal 2 1/2 cups. I chopped these by hand (my pieces are too big really), but a food processor would be better. The pieces should be about the size of your thumb nail.
Cream butter, add sugar and beat until fluffy. Add egg and beat until blended, then mix in baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add flour and stir until just blended. Stir in the apples and optional pecans (I have never included the pecans). Pour into pan and bake for 30 minutes or until the top springs back when you touch it. (For me this always takes longer than 30 minutes but I think that this has something to do with the way I chop my apples way too big??)
Serve warm in a lovely little pool of caramel sauce. This more than makes up for having to eat the same old beans and rice again.
Seth did not appreciate my attempt to photograph him eating his cake.
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Mean Mommy:()
Kelly, I am so glad it turned out good! I have been making this cake for years and we really love it! And I didn't know there were four books…
Ginny, I made this cake for my family, it sounded so good! They LOVED it and said it was the best dessert ever. I hardly ever make desserts so this was quite a treat for us all. We even added whipped cream. It was so good. I will make it again soon! Thanks for making me popular w/ my kids and hubby too.
Those are two priceless photos of your children. That ought to be the cover of a cookbook. Too funny.
Diane, for this I just used unbleached white flour, but I bet it would be good with freshly ground soft white wheat as well. Marj, I did not expect you to order anything! Really I was hoping some family members might and this was the easiest way to communicate with them. However, so far no one has ordered a thing 🙂 I will have to find another way to get a frying pan. Really I am sure I can find a nice big one that is cheaper somewhere else, but I just don't ever go shopping so I don't know!
Sorry, Ginny, I couldn't find any thing to buy. The things I really wanted were way beyond my meager income. There were a couple things that I would have considered if we weren't facing all M's medical and hospital bills. I'm afraid I'm just going to have to wait on them. I do hope you get the skillet you need. (Notice I didn't say "want." You don't want one; you need one. Good luck.
That looks amazing. Do you use your wheat/fake white flour for baking (especially cakes and desserts, etc)?