Pop, Pop, Pop(Tart) Music!

I have changed my Internet Browser to Firefox and in a convoluted way downloaded the new Flash Player and I can see videos on people's blogs again!! Huzzah!! Except now I can't make all my clicky links green and bold. I can make some words for a recipe green though: very random. I will have to work on that. I have no idea how. It's one step forward and two steps back around here.

ETA: When I look at my blog in the real internet world, it has green clicky links etc. They look blue to me here in The Typepad!!!

I have been assiduously knitting The Pop Tartigan, I don't want to crash out of the TdF KAL. I had dithered over a pattern and finally I cast on what seems to be the correct number of stitches. Then I used my Handy Dandy Ann Budd Book of Jumper Patterns and picked out the size with corresponding numbers. I am, MrsDrWho, making you a longer cardi based on the Seamless Yoke Cardigan in the picture. Thus, I have knitted the back almost to the armholes, and now I am about one third the way up both sleeves (two at once). That just leaves the fronts and then I will be up to the yoke. There isn't enough of the Licorice so the yoke will be in plain fluffy black. Maybe there will be a few of the purl ridges in Licorice?? Not sure yet. I do feel I am on my way to Finish-dom though, that at last I am going to make some progress!!!

Yes, Virginia, all The Labradors can fit on the couch. It isn't comfortable, and it's not pretty, but they are determined to be there and to look as if they are enjoying themselves!!!

Harki loves walking in all the puddles and through the bush when it is raining. Her leg is getting much limpier and she had a little bit of a cry tonight. I gave her more drugs wrapped in butter. I think Dr Tim put the mockers on her when he said that she was going along so well!!! Monika has a new puppy at her house: very cute and he looks like a Happy handful too!!!

Peri looks forward to her walk as it is a time to step Away From The Puppy and just be with Harki. Gilly bites Peri all the time. Poor Peri. I love the way her eyes just look at me: they are full of love and the need for a treat!!!

Lorelai Gilmore loves me even more when she has been burying something in the garden. She was very good at The Vet. Dr Tim asked if she could 'drop' and roll over and I said she could because we had been learning at home. He said he knew that we would have been practicing. He knows us too well!!! She did drop and roll over and then it was like a mob of kangaroos, all upside down, had invaded the surgery!!!

Before I talked to my mum this week I messaged her to ask her to grab her Apple Cake recipe. Well it is the Family Recipe I suppose. It is not technically a cake, or a slice. It is apples, sandwiched between two layers of dough/pastry. We would eat it as a slice, or a cake dusted with icing sugar or a dessert with cream/ice cream/custard. I cooked up 8 medium Granny Smiths  but I think it calls for half as much again to make a thicker layer. (You could also use pie apple from a tin) We always had a rectangular slice tray size, but I used the first tin that came to hand.

Apple Cake

• 8-12 Granny Smith (cooking apples) peeled, cored and cut into 2cm chunks
• 60-90g butter
  
• 4-6 tbspn caster or brown sugar
• cinnamon, vanilla extract
  

• 2 cups of Self Raising flour
• 125g melted butter
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
  
• 2 tbspn water or as much as is needed
• a little extra melted butter and sugar

To prepare the apples, melt the butter and sugar gently in a wide based pan, then add the apples and spices to taste and cook with a lid on over a low heat till the apples are tender. This is about 10 minutes. Then take the lid off and turn up the temperature to Medium and cook till any liquid evaporates and some of the apples are mushy and some still hold their shape. Cool.

Making the dough is very simple: mix the flour and sugar in a bowl, make a well in the centre and pour in the butter, water and the egg. Mix, incorporating the flour and sugar from the edges until you make a dough. Knead for about 30 seconds or until it holds together and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Line you chosen tin and then brush with extra melted butter and then sprinkle the sugar till the base and sides are coated.

Divide the dough in half, and then roll out each piece between two pieces of baking paper to fit your tin. Use the best piece to cover the base, then spoon in the apple and finally place the second layer of dough on top. This can be patched and you can turn the cake upside down when it is cooked to show the lovely underside.

Bake at 180*C for between 30 and 40 minutes, depending on the size of the cake.

Cool in the tin. I didn't and mine cracked very easily because it was piping hot. It doesn't keep that long, it keeps best in the fridge in warm weather, but I like it best when the apple soaks through!!

Comments

[Monika]

Oh I remember that apple cake! It's called "Gedeckter Apfelkuchen" in my cookbook! I love this most of all apple cakes!
You girls look lovely. Gilly is that bad and bites poor Peri? Or is it just nips to get her attention? I had to laugh because of your comment on the couch/labs picture! I'm surprised that they all WANT to stay on the couch together! That's a cool trick, drop and roll over. I should teach that to Happy too, since at the Vets, it's always emparressing, they wont do that. So the Vet gets on his knees and it looks like an auto mechanic under a car.

[Taphophile]

Hey great progress on the cardi. You'll be finished in no time. The Westie family can all fit on the couch as well but that are smaller than the Lab family. They argue over who gets the special cushion, and Peggy has been known to sit on Rosie's head to get that little bit higher. The other game is to be first into my spot if I have to get up. Or if I haven't gotten up for a while, to squeeze in behind me and push me out that way. Cute or annoying depending on mood. Hugs to all and an extra one for Harki.

[Tinkingbell]

You are such a temptress!
MMMM applecake...

Aren't your girls beautiful - truly labradorables! and the cardi will be beautiful!

[Rose Red]

Oh I do love an apple dessert. They are the best!

Love the labs on the lounge, that is very funny.

I think you will definitely have the poptartigan finished by the end of the Tour. I think I'll get all the knitting done on mine, perhaps not the seaming - we'll see! I have finished the back and one sleeve, and have cast on for a front today. We can race each other to the finish!

[Jejune]

Oh yummy! Thank you for the recipe - I MUST make it!!

What's the collective noun for a bunch of happy Labradors, do you reckon?

[Lois]

Looks like Gilly is winning in the 'lets see who gets more room on the couch' stakes LOL She is a very clever girl to be dropping as well as sitting. I can only ever get Daisy to drop after she sits first & then lead her nose down into a drop....with a treat of course!! She just won't go straight to a drop :(
Yummmmm!! Apple pie my equal favourite with trifle.....only my MIL's trifle mind, hers is the best....as is her apple pie. I will have to give yours a try sometime :)

[AmyP]

Yummy apple cake! I'll have to remember that when our Autumn roles around. You are a good friend to MrsDrWho - I hope she knows that (I'm sure she does)!

[Ann]

Sounds like you are making great progress on the cardi. Can't wait to see it done. Your apple cake looks yummy & I will love to have a slice. I baked Apple Crumble a few nights ago & it was the perfect dessert for winter.

[shan]

I wish you were a neighbor...I'm in sorry need of doggy kisses ;-)

[cathy]

Gilly is looking so grown up. wooowh. Its so nice to see them all on the couch together, mine have no interest in sharing with each other. Maybe it is a girl thing, my old girl and my previous dog used to curl up in the same basket, even when it ment bottoms on faces, there really was not enough room for both of them. But they were best of mates.

[Linda]

what gorgeous photos of the girls! so cute and squishy on the couch. The Apple Cake sounds similar to one I used to make years ago, I'm going to give yours a burl, actually Mum is coming tomorrow night for corned beef and white sauce I might try to get the apples and make this for dessert yummo. I had trouble earlier tonight commenting - maybe Blogger and Typepad just don't get on sometimes? it's weird and frustrating