Apple Banana Cake

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Sometimes, the bananas all seem to ripen (or over-ripen) at once. When a couple of spots develop on those apples in the crisper drawer at the same time, it might just be time for a dessert that uses up both these kinds of fruit.

This cake is super moist and is the kind that really doesn't need any kind of frosting--though ice cream lovers no doubt can be coerced into adding a scoop of vanilla bean on the top, especially if the cake is still warm from the oven.

This goes together quite quickly, except for chopping or grating the apples. As I noted with the Apple Gingerbread I just posted, this is the time to use a small food processor or chopper like the one that came with my immersion blender. But if you don't have any electric appliance like that, it still doesn't take too much time to grate or finely chop the apples, and the results are well worth it.

Apple Banana Cake

Ingredients

1 1/2 c sugar (may use part brown sugar if desired)
1 c mashed banana--about 2 to 3 medium bananas
1/2 t vanilla
¹⁄₂ c canola oil
2 eggs
2 c flour
2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
2 t cinnamon
4 c cored and chopped apples (press into cup lightly)

¹⁄₂ cup of chopped walnuts (optional)


1.  Combine sugar, banana, oil, eggs, and vanilla in mixing bowl and beat together until thoroughly mixed and light in color.
2.  Sift the flour, soda, salt, and cinnamon together (or still together well in a separate bowl from the egg mixture).
3.  Add the flour mixture to the liquid ingredients and stir just until completely mixed. Fold in the apples and nuts and continue until stirring until the apples are evenly distributed throughout the batter.
4.  Pour the batter into a 9 X 13 pan that has not been oiled. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 45 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

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Apple Gingerbread

Novembrrrrr.

This has been a pretty chilly fall here in the upper Midwest, and a winter storm advisory has just been posted for tonight, with perhaps 3 to 5 inches of snow in the forecast....And I still haven't finished clearing the last (I hope) layer of leaves off of my deck.

What better time to fill the house with the warm fragrances of fall. Apples. Cinnamon. And ginger, All it took was the featured price of molasses at Aldi--about half the cost from the other stores in town--for me to begin thinking of homemade gingerbread.

Now my mother's old, old recipe for gingerbread is reliable and great, but I wanted to see if I could add in some of the many apples I have right now. Off to the internet, where I found that most of the recipes for "apple gingerbread" were for upside-down cakes, with a layer of caramelized apples put in the pan, with the gingerbread batter poured over. Not a bad idea, but it wasn't what I had in mind.

I finally found something similar to what I was looking for, so I started experimenting and came up with this version. So far, all those who have tasted it have given it rave reviews, so I hope you will find it equally delicious.

One note:  Probably the longest part of the preparation here is chopping or grating the apples. If you have a small food processor, or a chopping attachment like this one for my immersion blender, use it! This is a time when those little extra kitchen appliances can really be worth having.

Apple Gingerbread

Ingredients

• 1 egg
• 1/2 c packed  brown sugar
• 1/2 c canola oil
• 2 T frozen apple juice concentrate (see NOTE)
• 1/2 c molasses
• 1/3 c water
• 2 c flour
• 2 t baking powder
• 1 t soda
• 1 T cinnamon
• 1 T ground ginger
• 1/2 t salt
• 2 c coarsely chopped or grated apples--about 1 pound or so; press the apples a little into the cup

Directions

1.  Combine the egg, brown sugar, and oil and beat together until well mixed. Stir in the molasses, apple juice concentrate, and water until fully incorporated. 

2.  Sift or whisk together the dry ingredients and gradually add to the liquid mixture. Stir until completely blended. Fold in the apples.

3.  Pour the batter into a 10 inch round pan or a 7 X 11 pan that has been well oiled or sprayed with cooking spray. 

4.  Bake in a 350 degree pre-heated oven for about 38 to 45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

5.  Allow to cool about 5 to 10 minutes before turning out of the pan.  Notice the cracks in gingerbread top below; there is nothing to worry about when this happens--really!  

This may be served warm or cold--but the very best way is when it is still warm, with a good dollop of whipped cream on the top!

NOTE:  If you don't have apple juice concentrate, substitute 1/2 cup apple juice or cider for the juice concentrate and water.

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Grandma's California Vegetable Casserole

(The following post is from 2017 but still captures a bit of the story of a very traditional part of our year end holiday meals--all of them!)

This year, work conflicts meant that all of our immediate family couldn't gather on Thanksgiving day for the usual feast, so we would need to celebrate the holiday on two different days. As we began planning for this change, someone suggested that we might split the menu between the two dinners as well as the "guest list."

Thanksgiving dinner in the US is one of the most tradition-bound of all meals, and we all have favorite sides that we expect to include in this November feast. When more than a few people contribute all these "must-have" dishes, the result is far more food than any of us really need at one time. Cutting the number of choices at each of our two dinners was a wonderfully workable way to enjoy our favorites without the usual over-stuffed feeling at the end of the meal.

We have a significant number of vegetarians in our crew, so it was an easy decision to make a vegetarian "turkey" the centerpiece of the first dinner. Then there were unadorned roasted sweet potatoes, Grandma's California Vegetable Hot Dish, fresh cranberry sauce, cranberry apple bread, tossed salad, and, of course, two choices of pie.

For the Thanksgiving Day meal, we had roasted turkey, vegan stuffing, a different cranberry relish, mashed potatoes and gravy (turkey and vegetarian), sweetened sweet potatoes, that traditional green bean casserole topped with fried onion crisps, rolls, and, again, two choices of pie.

Actually, looking at these menus and remembering the meals, these were still very, very full menus, and we were right to make this the only real meal of the entire day each time we celebrated. For us, having the feast in early afternoon means that the pies are held for a few hours and become like a second meal, later in the evening.

All of this description is a lead up to today's recipe, one that works well for all those year-end holiday potlucks, or even as a side if your family has a large Christmas dinner planned. My children's Grandma Laack always included her California Vegetable Hot Dish when we were able to come home for Thanksgiving or Christmas, and it quickly became a traditional side dish for any of our winter holiday meals. When asked the source, she once told me she had just gotten it off the side of some package--probably the Velveeta. Oh, but then she started to think; no, maybe I heard it on WHBL, a local radio station that had a long-running call-in program that featured a lot of recipes over the holidays. Or maybe, she thought, in the Plymouth Review, the local paper with a weekly recipe column, stacks of clipped-out recipes that were in some boxes of Grandma's other "clippings."

The source that I used came directly from a handwritten copy that Grandma had given my daughter-in-law many years ago.

Grandma's California Vegetable Hot Dish

16-20 oz pkg California style vegetables (broccoli/cauliflower/carrots)

1 can cream of mushroom soup diluted with ½ can of milk

8 oz velveeta- cut up

seasoned salad croutons

½ c melted butter [that note just above the ½ c that looks like “2T”—could it be a change Nadia made, or Grandma?]

Mix all ingredients and top with browned croutons. (Can microwave vegetables first). Then bake at 350 degrees until browned.