Do This recipe is from my godmother, Betsy Meeuwsen.

 

1 2/4 c. all-purpose flour

3/4 c. sugar

1 T. baking powder

2/3 c. orange juice

1/3 c. unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 1/2 c. coarsely chopped apples

1/2 c. coarsely chopped pecans

 

Preheat oven to 350-degrees.  Grease a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan.  Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt, making a well in the center.  Set aside.  Mix together remaining ingredients except apples and pecans.  Pour into well in center of dry ingredients.  Stir until just combined, being careful not to over mix.  Gently stir in apples and pecans.  Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 50-60 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into center of loaf comes out smoothly with moist crumbs attached.  Do not over bake.

The Viking is highly aromatic, crisp, juicy and tart.  Outstanding flavor retention when cooked. Keeps about 1 month.  Developed by the PRI (Purdue, Rutgers, Illinois Co Op) program but introduced by Wisconsin in 1969.  This is also one of the first to ripen at our orchard…around August 8th…give or take a week.

When doing research on this apple I found a recipe using it on www.kitchencaravan.com .  Now, I haven’t tried it but it looks yummy!  If anyone makes it and tweeks anything about it please let me know and we’ll use it in our next cookbook!

Viking Apple Cake

This cake is pretty light. We use yogurt instead of butter, and give the cake body with lots of apples. The batter starts out looking like more apples than batter, but then as it bakes the apples shrink and the cake forms beautifully. This is a delicious pairing of apples, cardamom, and buckwheat. It is quick and easy to put together for dessert.

1 cup yogurt
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp orange blossom water
1 cup all purpose flour
½ cup buckwheat flour
1 tsp ground cardamom
pinch of cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
3 cups apples, peeled and diced
½ cups almonds, ground
Garnish: Crème Fraîche

Whisk together the yogurt and the sugar in a bowl. Add the eggs and orange blossom water and whisk.
Sift together the flours, cardamom, cinnamon, and baking powder in a separate bowl.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and stir.
Stir in the apples and ground almonds and pour into a 10” spring-form cake tin.
Bake at 350ºF for 45-50 minutes.

Garnish with a spoonful of fresh crème fraîche.

I just got back from visiting my quilts at the Sun Prairie Heritage Quilters Quilt Show! It was really fun to see my work hanging for everyone to admire (or not...). Here are some pictures from the show...

I had a request last week from someone on my Quiltsy Team (on etsy), QuiltingGranny, for an apple salad recipe. I'm going to give you TWO this week because they are both just so different.

Here's the recipe that can be found in Apple-tizing Recipe's but I'm 90% sure there will be more of these in the next cookbook edition.

CRANBERRY-APPLE SALAD
by Iva Donahoe

1pkg. lemon Jello
1 c. hot water
2 c. cranberries
3 apples (chopped or ground)
2 oranges
1 c. sugar

Mix Jello with hot water. Add rest of ingredients. Mold.
--------------------

And for the next recipe. I took this recipe from the Wisconsin Apple Grower's Association Cookbook. We will have a limited supply of these for sale in our apple store this fall. (This one has LOTS more recipe's for Apple Salad's!)

Egg-cellent Apple Salad
by Mary Jean Hlavac, McFarland, 2001 Finalist

3 small Wisconsin apples, chopped
6 hard-cooked eggs, chopped
1 - 8 oz. can pineapple tidbit, drained
3/4 c. chopped celery
1/2 c. cheddar cheese diced
1/3 cup pecan pieces
* lettuce leaves
*2 apples for slicing

DRESSING - In a small sauce pan stir together:
1 egg
3 T. lime juice
1 t. celery salt
1/4 t. paprika
3/4 c. yogurt

Blend over medium heat, stirring constantly, just until sauce begins to simmer. Remove from heat. Cool slightly. Blend in 3/4 cup yogurt. Cover and chill before tossing.
Yield: 6 servings
*Original Recipe*

Enjoy the recipes for this week!

The Duchess apple is one of the first varieties that ripens on our orchard.  We start picking these around August 8th…give or take a week.  The Duchess tree is very winter hardy and does well in our climate. This apple originated in Russia. Duchess is a medium fruit with smooth yellow skin overlaid with a red wash, will turn completely red when exposed to the sun. The flesh of Duchess is tender, crisp, and juicy with a tangy flavor.  As with most of the early apples, the Duchess has a short storage life, so if this is your favorite I would be one of the first one’s here.  Many have said this is wonderful for making pies!

On Saturday, March 7th, we decided to attend the Wollersheim Winery Open House. Frank and Diane had attended in 2008 and really enjoyed it and thought we might too. So we all loaded into Frank and Diane's new minivan (only one small mud puddle incident and a change of pants on the way into the van) and headed over to Prairie du Sac, WI.

Self-guided Winery Tours went on throughout the entire day along with other classes and talks: Grapevine Pruning Demo, Cooking with Wine Demo and Winemaker Phillippe's Talk. We timed our visit so we could do the self-guided tour first and then sit in on the Grapevine Pruning Demo.



Of course, my favorite part about the Self-guided wine tour was that we were able to have samples of wine all along the way. Our first sample was the Prairie Fume.


Of course, it couldn't have been a beautiful day for this...that would be too easy. It was dreary with a fairly steady sprinkling rain. We had to walk between buildings at times during the tour. Diane would race ahead of us since she had Capri in the umbrella stroller. Above is a picture of some of the grape vines!
Another taste test - yum! This time our sample was of the White Riesling. I would give you my opinions on the wine but I am by no means a connoisseur and I honestly don't remember which one was my favorite...I just know I was having free wine!

This recipe is super quick and easy and YUMMY!

Apple Cinnamon Rolls
by Kim Van Grunsven (Lapacek now)

1 pkg. Pillsbury Grand Cinnamon Rolls
3 apples, peeled and sliced
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 tsp. nutmeg

Put cinnamon rolls into greased round pan. Mix apples, sugar, and nutmeg. Pour mixture over rolls. Bake as directed on cinnamon roll package.

ENJOY!

To find more of these delicious recipes make sure to purchase your very own copy of Appletizing Recipes!

The blog "New to this Whole Mommy Thing" has graciously done a feature on my shop and is including a giveaway of one of my fabulous pairs of earrings! Make sure you check it out and enter to win a fabulous pair!

http://stepmomextraordinaire.blogspot.com/2009/03/kims-crafty-apple-giveaway.html

Creamy Apple Squares
-Karma Lapacek

1 pkg. yellow cake mix
1/2 c. soft butter
2 apples (thinly sliced)
1 c. sour cream
1 egg
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Combine cake mix and butter. Mix until crumbly. Reserve 2/3 cup for topping. Press remaining mixture onto bottom of ungreased 9x13-inch pan. Arrange apple slices over base. Blend sour cream and egg. Spread evenly over apples. Add brown sugar and cinnamon to reserved topping mix. Mix well. Sprinkle over apples. Bake at 350-degrees for 25-30 minutes or until topping is golden brown and bubbly.

I hope you enjoy today's recipe! You can purchase your very own copy of Apple-tizing Recipes from Lapacek's Orchard from my only etsy store, www.kimscraftyapple.etsy.com.

Yes, that's right everyone! Diane has our website set up to make registering for our 2009 Summer Dyeing Workshop even easier! All you have to do is go to the website: http://merr.com/users/lapacek/dyeing_day.htm and click on the Deposit link to pay your $25 deposit fee through paypal! Could it be any easier!?

On Monday, February 23rd, Diane and I decided to do some fabric dyeing. I have a custom order for seven different shirts/tanks/rompers for one family and I was going to fill that order. As I was going through our white clothing inventory I discovered that I was ONE large t-shirt short…so, it turned out into a ‘just for fun’ dyeing day.

I am trying to increase my fabric stash because I have all the ideas for art quilts in my mind and need to have a wide variety of colors for these projects. Since I own/operate an apple orchard my first art quilt is probably going to be some sort of orchard image which means I need lots of different browns, greens and reds. That was my plan along with a few bins of fun! I have included a picture of one of my fun pins here! Don’t worry I’ll make sure to take a few ‘after’ pictures of the fabric and post them later so you can see what that bin made!

Dyeing in the middle of winter is nowhere near the fun as dyeing in the summer. It’s also a lot more difficult to ‘see’ what you have done. But, it’s still fun and I really enjoy dyeing. My favorite part of it is that I go into it with an extremely laid back attitude. All the bottles of dyes just sit in front of me and I just mix a little of this and a little of that and go for it! I have a fairly decent knowledge of what colors I’m going to achieve by mixing certain things but I never know EXACTLY how it’s going to turn out or the pattern it’s going to make on the fabric.

Diane and I have gotten much more efficient in dyeing as well. We used to put each item in its own bucket or bin….we have learned that we can get a fairly decent variety by putting many fabrics in one bin. I think I had six bins that I dyed that day and still a few individual buckets. I was dyeing hats and I was being a bit picky that had a certain ‘look’ about them.

I was almost about to tell you our process of dyeing (what we do first, then next and to finish it up) but I realized that’s why you are going to sign up for our 2009 Summer Dyeing Workshop on June 20th! We will teach you the ‘formula’s’ for dyeing in the morning and then teach you the more creative side of dyeing.

One thing I will say is that HEAT is extremely important in our dyeing process…which can be hard to come by in a cold basement in February. My husband has built us special insulated box that hooks up to our outdoor woodstove. Pex tubing coils around on the inside of this box and super hot water flows through it to heat up our fabric. It fits LOTS and LOTS of bins and buckets! It is amazing!

Diane gave me a quick ‘sneak peek’ at our fabrics yesterday and I am so excited to start ironing! (Trust me…that is HUGE for me to say…I HATE to iron, but that’s how you can really see just how amazing your fabrics are). One washout is complete…lots more to go but hopefully I’ll be able to post some end result pictures next week!

STAY TUNED…

This recipe came from my god mother, Betsy Meeuwsen. She is and always been an amazing baker. If I remember correctly, this is one of her granddaughter's (Sarah) favorites!

Bavarian Apple Torte
by Betsy Meeuwsen

CRUST
1/2 c. butter
1/3 c. sugar
1/4 tsp. vanilla
1 c. flour

Cream butter and sugar. Blend in vanilla and flour. Spread on bottom and sides (up 1 1/2 inches) of a 9-inch spring form pan. Dip fingers in flour to spread.

FILLING
1 (8-oz.) pkg. cream cheese
1/4 c. sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla

Blend cream cheese and sugar. Add vanilla and egg. Pour into pan.

TOP LAYER
4 c. sliced apples
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/3 c. sugar
1/4 c. sliced almonds

Toss apples with cinnamon and sugar. Spread on top of cream cheese layer. Sprinkle with almons. Bake at 400-degrees for 25 minutes.

I hope you enjoy today's recipe! You can purchase your very own copy of Apple-tizing Recipes from Lapacek's Orchard from my only etsy store, www.kimscraftyapple.etsy.com.

When you attend our Holiday Craft Sale this coming November please note that many of the knit items were created by my Aunt. Not only is she talented in the kitchen but she is talented with her knitting needles as well!