Apple Cake

I made the most delicious apple cake today and the kids were raving about it. I'm looking at ways to use stored food, and still feel like we are having some treats.
This cake called for white flour, but I used whole wheat flour. It called for 2 cups sugar, and I reduced it to 1 1/2, and I used cane sugar. It called for 1 1/2 cups of apples chopped, but I also added about 2 tbsp of apple sauce. I put pecans in instead of walnuts. The cake was perfect. We had some apples that were starting to lose their crisp and crunch, so I chopped those up for this.

Apple Cake

INGREDIENTS
3 1/2 cups apples - peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped
2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup water
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup margarine, melted
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup raisins
1 cup chopped walnuts

2 cups confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons hot water
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS
In a medium bowl, mix the apples and sugar. Let stand about 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two 10x15 inch baking pans. (I used a bunt pan)
Stir the water into the bowl with apples. Blend eggs and margarine in a small bowl, and mix with the apples. Mix in the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in the raisins and walnuts. Transfer to the prepared pans. Bake 1 hour in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool slightly before turning out of pans. In a medium bowl, blend confectioners' sugar, hot water, and vanilla extract. Drizzle over the cakes while still warm.

Yogurt Recipes

Above you see yogurt cheese. It's made by putting yogurt in a coffee filter (cheese cloth will do fine) and leaving to drip a few hours, till the liquid has escaped.
Once you have the yogurt cheese made, you can mix salt and herbs, or anything you feel like mixing, into the cheese. We had this plain today, just like creamed cheese. The kids loved it.

Why did I learn to make yogurt? You might ask! : ) During the food storage class I took, one of the things that was suggested was a way to store milk. Some people buy canned milk. There are many types, sweetened condensed milk, which is only good for making key lime pie, and a variety of other canned milks, for recipes, for having milk on the shelp which can stay longer than fresh cows milk. Dry milk is another option for storing milk. I store quite a bit of dry milk because my kids don't mind drinking it, particularly if it is used with something they love (think pudding or an Indian treat called payasam. We can make the same things with fresh fluid milk that we can make with reconstituted dry milk.

Yogurt is one of the things you can make from fresh fluid milk (which can store longer than fresh fluid milk). We can make yogurt from dry milk too. What can you make from yogurt?

Honey Mustard Yogurt Dressing

INGREDIENTS
1 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon celery seed

DIRECTIONS
Whisk together the yogurt, honey, mustard, and celery seed in a small bowl. Refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving.


Raita

INGREDIENTS
1 cup plain yogurt
1/2 chopped onion
1 medium tomato, chopped in small peices
1 meduim cucumber, skinned, chopped
handful of cilantro chopped well

Mix the ingredients above, and then sprinkle
on the yogurt:

pinch of red chili, pinch of ground cumin,
pinch of ground corriander.

Serve raita with rice, dal or anything that is spicy.
Yummy!

Jyotsna