Rustic apple cake.

This cake is so easy and delicious.

Rustic Apple cake

4 apples

½ cup flour

1/3 cup sugar

1tbsp baking powder

½ tsp grated lemon zest

¼ tsp salt

1/3 cup milk

2 eegs

2 tbsp butter, melted and cooled

½ tsp vanilla

1tbsp icing sugar

Grease 9-inch springform pan, line bottom with parchment paper.

Peel, quarter and core apples, slice into 3mm thick slices. Set aside.

In a large bowl whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, lemon zest and salt.

Whisk together milk, eggs, butter and vanilla; pour over dry ingredients and stir gently to combine. Fold in apples. Pour into prepared pan.Bake in 425 F oven until top is puffed, golden and firm to touch, about 40 minutes. Run knife around edge of cake, let cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes.

Release side of pan from around cake, let cool completely. Dust with icing sugar.

Shopping.

Yesterday I went for my first zero waste shopping, I got just few things that we need it and spend very little money, I also had a coupon so that helped. Normally I would go to a grocery store and come back with bags of pasta and cans of beans and boxes of cereal and whatever else was on sale and then I would have piles of boxes of things and my cupboards would be filled with food but also with waste. I thing this zero waste will save us some money and cupboard space. I am very exited about this new challenge, so far so good.  Besides my bags I used few jars and I got some dry papaya, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, caraway seeds and chia seeds. In bags I got couscous, puffed quinoa cereal, bay leaves and raw sunflower seeds.

New challenge.

Last week I payed close attention to our shopping habits and  to how much garbage we produce and that made me decide to start a new challenge. I will go zero waste. It will be hard at times and definitely a slow process. For a family of four we make way too much garbage but that is mostly  because of the way we shop. When I go to a grocery store 90 % of what I buy is packaged and most of that packaging is not recyclable. I already use my own bags for fresh fruits and veggies but now I want to avoid any product that I get in packaging but can get in my local bulk store using my own bags. To get me started I got some fabric and made more bags and I also made a big shopping bag for my trips to the farmers market. For now my focus is on kitchen and then I will slowly go thru everything in my house, meanwhile I make notes when I see something that can be changed. This week I will go for my fist bulk shopping.

   

Baking.

This week I caught a baking bug, I spend so much time in the kitchen. I made scones - twice, apple cake ( I will post the recipe soon), turnovers also twice, first time with cherries and second time with blueberries. And yesterday I made mini pies with cherry and blueberry filling, I used muffin pan for it.

Weekend.

This weekend was the last sleeping in days, my kids go back to school today and with that comes early rising. I truly enjoyed sleeping until 9 am.
Yesterday I spend some time in the kitchen and made pancakes for breakfast, steak for dinner and waffles for dessert. 

Reading.

One of my plans for this year is to read more, I find very hard to make free time during the day to sit down with a book. Being busy with all the house work and kids and my sewing and I also cross stitch it leaves very little time, but I'm trying really hard to make reading time a routine this way after a while it becomes something that I do everyday just like cooking. For January I picked 3 books for myself and 3 books for my younger daughter to read together. She reads only graphic novels so I want to read with her chapter books. 

My books:
This one I already started, its a great read.

A Christmas gift, really looking forward to this book.

This one is in Polish, I am polish and like to read books in my language from time to time.

Ella's books: 
This one we started last year before Christmas but had to put it away because I was too busy.

This book we are reading now and we are almost half way thru it.

And this one will be fun to read.

New Year.

This year I have many plans for simpler living, more home  and hand made, crafting, blogging, reading and being happy. For now I'm starting with vanilla pudding with home made blueberry syrup.