French Apple Cake

Alright, its been too long since I've posted a recipe {considering I am always cooking!}.  

This is a great recipe and actually very easy to put together!  It keeps great in the fridge and is fantastic cold or warmed just a bit in the microwave.

I found this recipe from Food Wanderings in Asia.

Ingredients:

-3/4 cup plus 1 tbsp flour

-3/4 tsp baking powder

-1/8 tsp salt

-3 large apples {I used 5 average sized apples}, peeled, cored and chopped into 1 inch chunks

-2 eggs

-3/4 cup sugar

-2 tbsp rum {I used Captain Morgan's Special Reserve, you could also substitute water or apple juice}

-1 tsp vanilla extract

-8 tbsp {1 stick, 1/2 cup} butter, melted and cooled {You could probably substitute 1/2 cup apple sauce to make this more healthy!  I haven't tried it that way yet, but I think it would work out great!}

Process:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Lightly grease an 8 or 9 inch spring form pan.

3. Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, eggs, sugar, rum and vanilla.

4. Add apple chunks.

5. Add melted butter to apple mixture.

6. Stir well, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl.

7. Pour mixture into prepared pan, spread evenly.

8. Bake for about 60 minutes.

9. Cool on a wire rack for about 15 minutes before removing the sides of the pan.

10. Cool completely before removing from the bottom of the pan.

11. Cut into slices and enjoy!  You can dust each slice with powdered sugar just before serving, if desired.

Great Day!

Today is a great day here at theArtisticFarmer!  

I started the day with a treat of chopped fried eggs with a little seaweed for the chicks; they absolutely LOVED it!

Enjoy the video on my Facebook page.  Its pretty funny!

After I fed the chicks their treat, I went to check on our cats and Cheetah had her kittens this morning!  From what I can see there are 4 little ones!

Happy Earth Day! ... Water Preservation Cans

Happy Earth Day!  

Today I would like to ask:  

What do you do to help Mother Earth? 

These are some of the things we do at our home...

-dry clothes outside on the clothes line

-use cloth napkins {we've been using the same ones for about 6 years now; imagine the number or paper napkins we would have used in that amount of time!}

-plant our own garden, canning and using the vegetables for our family and animals

-raise our own chickens for eggs and as pets

-compost all fruit/vegetable scraps, paper, egg shells, etc. {also great for the garden!  Here's a way to make a compost bin.}

-only drive to town when necessary {I try to go to town once a month for groceries and other items we need for the home}

-find a new purpose for recyclable items {like paint cans for bird houses, oatmeal cans for hair accessories storage, jars for decor, plastic containers, etc.}

-re-purpose household items instead of buying new {like painting headboard, paint ceiling fans, make rainbow crayons with small crayon pieces}

-use natural or homemade cleaning products

-shut lights off during the day and when not in rooms
-use reusable water bottles
-buy local, support the people in the community!

We also:

-collect water and other liquids that could be beneficial for watering plants...

I started doing this about a year ago; I haven't had to run fresh water for watering my house plants or my fresh herbs under my grow-light in the basement all winter!

I used paint markers to "decorate" and label these diesel fuel cans as water cans.  

When I was happy with the design, I sprayed them with a clear paint for plastics.

Instead of dumping partially used water cups down the drain I dump them into these cans.

Other liquids you can use for watering: coffee, pasta or vegetable cooking water, water from canning, natural juices {without added sugar}, water used for cleaning fruit and vegetables.

New Babies!

As promised here are some pictures of the new babies!

 They are about two weeks old; I don't know what kind they are except they are supposed to be egg layers.  {If you know what they are please tell me!  :D}

 Enjoy, I know I am!

Happy News!

So, happy news!

Today and tomorrow we are going to be working on the coop and my husband thinks we can get it done! :D

AND... tomorrow we are getting 16 new chicks!  

Our nephew's class hatched some eggs and now they need a new, loving home!  Well we have a new coop being built and no birds to live in it yet!   

So... they're coming here!  We are excited and looking forward to having them!  

I'll post pictures when they get here!

A Weekend of Coop Building and Rain!

Luckily we had one fairly nice day on Saturday, it was colder than it looks but at least the sun came out a little!  So we were able to get some work done on building the new coop...

We got the trusses built in the morning, then we were lucky to have my brother-in-law come over to help, so the forms went up pretty quick.

The coop is on "skids" so we can move it in the yard if we need or want to.  I think being able to move the coop will be great since we have such strong winds here in Iowa, we can move the coop to change the air flow in and around it.  I would also like to put a step that runs the width of the coop on top of the skids, this will be outside the person door.

It will also be nice to move the coop closer in the winter months, so I don't have to trek through the tundra to feed and care for our birds.

Here's the hubby working hard on his plan!

Coming together!

Putting the roof on...

This is what I did for a while... sit, watch, read a book!

Roof on!

Like this barn's "bullnose" roof.

The front of the roof is going to be a "bullnose",  so I would like to hang a plant on a pulley over the person door.

This is where we are at; my husband is currently training some guys on third shift so we'll probably have to wait till next weekend to get more done.  

But we have all of the materials; the windows, hinges, screening, my husband is going to build the doors, we've painted all of the walls and trim work; so its just a matter of having time to get it finished!

I'm super excited and even more excited to get my birds!

I'll keep you updated!