Any Corner of Heaven

My great-grandmother, who came to the U.S. from Germany in 1904, left behind two recipes for apple cakes that she used to make.  Here they are:

Apple Streusel Cake

Ingredients

2 cups flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

3 apples, peeled and sliced

Directions

1. Mix dry ingredients and butter

2. Beat eggs with milk and mix with dry ingredients

3. Pour into greased 9” X 9” pan and top with apples

4. Top with streusel ( 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1/4 tsp cloves, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 2 tbsp melted butter)

5. Bake at 350F for 40-45 minutes

Apple Cake

Ingredients

1 cup butter

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

3 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp vanilla

4 cups chopped apples

1 cup chopped nuts

Directions

1. Mix ingredients

2. Pour into 9” X 13” greased and floured pan

3. Bake at 350F for 1 hour

Just about every week, we have Waffle Sunday in our house.  I make up a big batch of gluten-free waffles plus other assorted goodies like home fries and scrambled eggs.  The waffle recipe I use is adapted from www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2009/02/sunday-brunch-the-greatest-waffle-recipe-ever.html.

1 3/4 cups rice flour (I sometimes use half rice flour and half oat flour) 1 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp salt 2 tsp guar gum Wet Ingredients
2 eggs 1 3/4 cups milk 1/2 cup oil (I usually use canola or sunflower) Directions
Preheat waffle iron Mix wet ingredients in large mixing bowl until well-blended Add dry ingredients and mix until relatively smooth, scraping bowl once with rubber spatula Scoop out 1/4 cup at a time and pour onto waffle iron Cook until desired brownness

As I mentioned in my previous post, my boyfriend is sensitive to gluten, and I am always experimenting with gluten-free baking.  One of my favorite things to make is a bundt cake.  Here is the basic, vanilla-flavored recipe.  I have used this basic recipe to make cinnamon walnut, lemon, and chocolate versions.  It’s easy to experiment!  The picture shown is the basic recipe with the addition of dark chocolate chunks.  Om nom nom.

Dry Ingredients 3 cups rice flour (brown or white) 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 2 tsp guar gum Wet Ingredients 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature 3 cups sugar 6 egg whites 3 whole eggs 1 cup plain yoghurt 1 tsp vanilla extract DirectionsPreheat oven to 325°F. Grease and flour your bundt cake pan. Mix dry ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add egg whites and eggs one at a time, beating after each until fully incorporated. With mixer on lowest speed, mix in dry ingredients until fully incorporated. With mixer on lowest speed, mix in yoghurt and vanilla extract until fully incorporated. Scrape into pan and bake until cake tester or knife inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean (about 90 minutes). Let cool in pan on wire rack for 15 minutes. Invert cake out of pan onto wire rack and let cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar or glaze with icing of your choice (or just leave plain!).

My boyfriend is allergic to gluten (he has a reaction like a hayfever allergy, not full-on celiac disease), and I’ve spent the last year or so experimenting with gluten-free baking.  After much searching and trial and error, here is the best recipe for plain, white, gluten-free yeast bread that I’ve come up with (inspired by this recipe: glutenfreevegan.wordpress.com/2007/05/29/yeast-bread-v10):

Dry Ingredients
1.5 cups potato starch
1 cup brown rice flour
1 cup oat flour
0.5 cup cornstarch
1 tbsp guar gum
1 tsp salt
1.5 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp (1 packet) dry yeast

Wet Ingredients
0.3 cup canola oil
2 cups hot water

Directions
1. Lightly oil a metal loaf pan.
2. Mix together all dry ingredients.
3. Add wet ingredients and mix.
4. Scrape into loaf pan and smooth top of dough.
5. Cover loosely with plastic wrap or aluminum foil and put in a warm place to rise for 40-60 minutes.
6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F).
7. Bake for about an hour or until loaf sounds hollow when tapped.
8. Remove from oven and let cool in pan for 10 minutes or so.
9. Tip out of pan and let sit and cool for about 5-10 minutes (this will make it easier to slice).
10. Enjoy!

Note: I know that some oat flours can contain some amount of gluten from cross-contamination, so this recipe would not necessarily be appropriate for someone with celiac disease.  It doesn’t seem to be enough gluten to set off my boyfriend’s sensitivity, which is why I use the oat flour.

Due to popular demand  :) , I have written up a pattern for the uterus-shaped cozy I crocheted for my Lady Cup.  This pattern will make a pouch that will fit all brands and sizes of cups, both with and without stems.

Here are some pictures of it completed (with large Lady Cup for comparison):

And here is the pattern:

Yarn: Sugar ‘n Cream cotton in Rose Pink
Hook: H

Uterus:

ch 2
Round 1: 6 sc in 2nd st from hook (6 sc)
Round 2: 2 sc in each st around (12 sc)
Round 3: *sc in first st, sc next 2 st together; repeat from * around (8 sc)
Round 4: sc in each st around (8 sc)
Round 5: sc in each st around (8 sc)
Round 6: *sc in first st, 2 sc in next st; repeat from * around (12 sc)
Round 7: sc in each st around (12 sc)
Round 8: sc in each st around (12 sc)
Round 9: *sc in first st, 2 sc in next st; repeat from * around (18 sc)
Round 10: sc in each st around (18 sc)
Round 11: sc in each st around (18 sc)
Round 12: *sc in first 2 st, 2 sc in next st; repeat from * around (24 sc)
Round 13: sc in each st around (24 sc)
Round 14: sc in each st around (24 sc)
Round 15: sc in each st around (24 sc)
Round 16: sc in each st around, sl st into next st (24 sc)
Round 17: ch 3 (counts as 1st dc), dc in next st & each st around (24 dc)
Round 18: sl st into top of ch 3, ch 1, sc in same st as sl st, & sc in each st around.  Sl st in 1st sc (24 sc).
Finish off & weave in ends

Fallopian tube (make 2):

ch 50
sl st in 2nd st from hook
sl st in next 2 st
ch 4
sl st in 2nd st from hook
sl st in next 2 st
sl st into base of 1st “frond”
ch 4
sl st in 2nd st from hook
sl st into next 2 st
sl st into any stitch at base of 1st 2 “fronds”
Repeat until you have as many fronds as you want.
Finish off, leaving a length of yarn about 1 ft long to sew onto other end of fallopian tube.
Weave fallopian tube through Round 17 (dc round)
After weaving, sew ends of tube together (end without “fronds” can be sewn on to resemble an additional “frond”). 

Make 2nd tube.

Weave tube through same stitches as first tube, making sure to start and end on opposite side of uterus as first tube.
Sew ends of 2nd tube together.
Weave in all yarn ends.

If anyone has any questions, let me know!

I made my first batch of natural, earth-friendly laundry detergent back in March, and it’s finally just run out. I used a recipe I found here:

Trampled by Geese: eco-friendly, homemade cleaners

I substituted washing soda for the baking soda, since I had some on hand. They didn’t have castile soap at the supermarket, and I wanted a vegetable-based, non-petroleum-derivative soap, so I couldn’t use Fels Naptha (which is a soap often specified in laundry detergent recipes). Luckily, they had bars of Minar Soap on the shelf, which fit all my criteria, and which turned out to be made by a Chicago-based company. Very cool. Grating the soap was the hardest part of making the mixture, and even that wasn’t that hard (just boring). I might try my salad shooter next time instead of doing it by hand. It cost me a total of $7.50 to make the detergent, and I’ve been able to do about 100 loads of laundry with it. That works out to 7.5¢ per load, which isn’t too shabby. I use about 3 tablespoons of the powder each time I need it.

I put a load of towels and pajamas in as soon as I finished making the detergent, and they came out great! When I pulled them out of the washing machine, they smelled like they had been hanging outside. I use half a cup of vinegar in a Downy ball as a fabric softener, so that should cut down on any potential soap film left in the machine (which has been a concern of other people who have made their own detergent).