Apple Cake

This cake is a terrific way to use dehydrated apple rings.  All I had to do was remove the rings from the freezer and soak them for about an hour in water with a little lemon juice before preparing the recipe.  The resulting cake is not too sweet which makes it just right for breakfast, lunch, dinner or dessert!  My favorite recipe is the Fresh Apple Cake recipe found in the Very Virginia Cookbook, by The Junior League of Hampton Roads. 

I still have a few more packets of dehydrated apple rings in the freezer- any ideas for other good ways to use them?

Ahhhhh Spring!

Dd15 is on spring break, so dh and I decided to take a vacation week and enjoy our own backyard.  On Easter Sunday, we had a fabulous time visiting our friends, J and L and their 5 children.  We had an Easter egg hunt, ate good food, checked out their chickens, horses and dog, watched the sun set over the water and generally enjoyed a very memorable day.

Yesterday, Monday, the first official day of spring break, we had topsoil delivered and purchased supplies to install 6 more boxes in our raised bed garden.  This is our second year of gardening and we are hoping to build on last year's success.  After purchasing our supplies, I worked on a second recipe in the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day book.  A photo of the Soft American-Style White Bread that I made is above.  It was as delicious as it was beautiful!  I have found what I have been searching for to replace the regular sandwich bread that we buy from the store.  And it was truly very easy and fast.

On to today's agenda: building boxes, shoveling dirt and planting things.