Fall days and an apple cake (with recipe)

I wrote this Warm Apple Cake post for Russian Artists' blog and got in the mood for it myself :). So I baked the cake and we all enjoyed it. It finally feels like Fall here in the Valley!

The recipe is very easy and it will take about an hour to cook. My mother used to make it  for a last minute treat or unexpected company so this recipe is pretty old.

 

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
4 large apples, peeled and chopped (about 4 cups)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 table spoon lemon juice
5 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 cup sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
1 table spoon baking powder
Baking spray, rectangular baking dish (approx. 9 1/2" by 13 12/" and 2" deep)

Preheat oven to 385"F. Prepare the baking dish by spraying it with a non-stick baking spray. Peel and chop apples, sprinkle them with the lemon juice and cinnamon, set aside.

In a large bowl, beat together eggs, vanilla and sugar. Add flour and baking powder, beat together until smooth. Mix with apples and pour into baking dish. Bake for about 35 to 40 minutes.

 

Enjoy your Fall and apple cake!

Inspired by harvest

This Fall we are just in love with color. It is colder here this year and the yellow leaves are already falling. We already harvested our herbs, watermelons, lemon Meyers, sweet Hawaiian peppers and Indian eggplant. They are so colorful (and delicious!).

 

That's when we decided to pull some bright yarns out of our stash and knit some new gloves!

I don't have more of these yarns so some of them are impossible to repeat. The colors are so rich and pretty that sometimes I don't even know how to explain the shades in words!  

So please visit our socksandmittens shop to see the selection. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is here and it is time to gather around the table with the family.

 Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, everyone!

In a mood for rustic

You can tell, I am in a mood for rustic this year.I am picking natural colors for our knit items, decorating our house with vintage clay pottery and browsing through hundreds of rustic style pictures on Pinterest for inspiration.

I am in a mood for simple but sophisticated in it's simplicity.

So  we made several items this Fall which were inspired by the yarn itself. 

 We knit some socks, some gloves and mittens and I am still trying to make some Christmas stockings but it seems that there is not enough time. We are already working on some custom orders.

Fall is the most enjoyable time of year for me. Our garden is coming back to life after the hot summer and we are harvesting a generous amount of Armenian cucumbers. 

 We planted them in curiosity last spring and we are really enjoining this great produce. I am trying to can them but it seems that they are producing faster then we can pickle them :)

Some new birds appeared in our garden. They are blue and gray and seems to be interested in the sweet water from our hummingbird feeder. Another day they went through my dried fruits and collection of natural things we have picked up, and left them in a mess all over the patio. It's pretty interesting to see how wildlife is getting comfortable around people. 

 The only thing we are missing here right now is some colorful leaves. A day long trip up north might be a great idea to contribute to the Autumn mood.

But for now I am just making some yellow & brown leaves from paper to add some autumn charm to our Fall decor.

New at SocksAndMittens - Halloween gloves and scarflettes

It is just September but I am very excited about Halloween. We are hoping to get up north this year and have wonderful outdoor party so I might not need any special Halloween costumes to wear. I still would like to wear something special so I thought of something easy to go with a simple black dress.

In my very special cozy knitted world it's gloves and scarves, of course. They will transform your look in minutes!

We made a couple of extra pairs for our SocksAndMittens shop on Etsy - please stop by if you have the time! Black with mustard stripes or black with purple - you decide which one you like the best!

After all, each witch must have a pair like these, you know :) 

Ode to a pumpkin

What would you do with your pumpkin?

 You can put it on your porch and celebrate a Fall with it's bright color.

 You can cook it and enjoy the sweet flavor.

You can carve it and put a candle in it to scare the evil spirits on Halloween night.

 You can draw a picture of it and maybe, make a greeting card.

 You can make a colorful pumpkin-like beads and put it on a chain to make a necklace or a pair of earrings.

 Or simply knit with the pretty pumpkin colored yarn and enjoy the warmth of your hand knit creation!

Comfort time, comfort food

As the temperature goes down so is my desire to have a healthy salad. I am trying hard but my body is asking for soups, potatoes, meat and bread. This is all about the change of season!

I'd really like to share with you an easy recipe today. You can make it in no time, just like I made it last night. It's called corn goulash.

You will need:
ground beef, about 1 lbs
1-2 spoons of light olive oil
1 middle size onion, chopped
some mashed potatoes
1 can of cream style corn
some shredded cheese, I used mix of Cheddar and Monterrey Jack
salt and pepper to taste
rectangular baking dish

How to:
Brown beef, add chopped onion and cook about 10 minutes. Add salt & pepper to taste. Drain the grease if any. Spray the sides and bottom of the baking dish with a cooking spray and transfer meat & onion into the pan.

While the beef is cooking cook and mash the potatoes. Add some milk, butter and seasonings to taste. Spoon it evenly on top of meat & onion mixture.

Evenly spread the cream style corn on top of mashed potatoes and add some shredded cheese on top.

Preheat the oven and bake at 400'F for about 20 minutes until the cheese is melted  on top.

You are done, enjoy!

That's witchful thinking

Halloween is getting closer and I am already getting excited, the party spirit, you know.

I was thinking of costumes and decorations for this year and realized I can not come up with many new ideas so I contacted a couple of my friends for some new inspiration. I asked these three friends just three questions about Halloween.

Maybe some of these ideas will help you for your party. Please see my blog for the questions and responses.

Owls are back

Fall is almost here and this is owl time again.

Since we have already collected some really nice pieces this summer we decided to list some in our shop, too. We debited over listing this one as it is one of our favorites as it is our only jade one and very hard to find in this quality of vintage jade.

Please take a look at this cute owl mother and chick carved in jade which is said to bring positive energy to the home.

Jade is a sacred stone in China and promotes longevity and prosperity. Jade is considered very valuable and auspicious. Owls are an ancient symbol of wisdom and in Feng Shui, Owl figures are said to increase the Yang, positive, masculine and bright Chi energies.

This piece is absolutely beautiful and will make a great gift or an addition to your owl collection. It is available to purchase at our AGardenCottage shop on Etsy.

Felted acorns

When we opened our shop on Etsy in the summer of 2009 I came across a lot of wonderful people, got many creative ideas and learned about new techniques. I loved many of them but one of craft areas attracted my attention most was felting.

I don't have any plans to make this my full time hobby but I'd like to make something small for myself from time to time.

So of course I have been looking at easy-to-follow tutorials since this is a new craft for me. I was thinking of cute felted acorns I saw on Etsy and I was hoping to make something like this. I searched some blogs and found this great tutorial from Tonya.

I immediately purchased some roving wool and made some of these yellow mustard colored acorns.

Aren't they cute?

The process of making beads is not very simple. The beads don't want to be perfectly shaped and some of them still have a little crack in the middle. But it was my first attempt so hopefully it will become better with practice. With the additional I am going to make I may have enough to decorate our Thanksgiving table next fall.

Thank you, Tonya, for the great tutorial, I really enjoyed making these!

Happy Thanksgiving!

As we pause on Thanksgiving Day, we reflect on the rich blessings we have in the relationships with our family, friends and business associates.

May all of you enjoy your Thanksgiving with friends, family and those who are important to you for this holiday and a Holiday season. Keep in your hearts the soldiers and those who can not be with their families this Holiday season.

Thank you for being a part of our lives.

Fall for owl

Isn't it nice to see the owls this fall?

No, I did not mean I see them flying around. I mean, I see them in stores, magazines and of course, on Etsy!
But as I have seen them at the estate sales I am visiting they were popular for many many years. Over the years they were made in so many different materials. Recently I found some exquisite ones made of glass and brass. I found some other very nice large wax ones but unfortunately they were damaged. You have to be at the estate sale early in order to buy them because everybody wants them.Some of the owls are listed in my AGardenCottage store and some I am still planning to list. Many of them are one of a kind and unfortunately you might not see them again.It is hard to let them go... I think I am getting attached :)

Delicious roasted squash

Yesterday my husband made delicious roasted squash. I did not know it can be THAT delicious!

I'd like to share a recipe and a photo of the freshly cooked squash served on a nice plate.
Unfortunately everyone was waiting for it to finish cooking and before I got a chance to get a picture of the cooked squash somebody have got into both the candied side and the buttered side.

But trust me, it is very good!

To make this you'll need a middle sized turban (kabocha) squash, butter or margarine (I like to use I Can't believe it's not butter!), brown sugar and Lawry's Seasoning Salt if you like.Wash squash, wipe it and cut horizontally in 2 halves. Scrape out the seeds.Add about 3 table spoons of butter or margarine to each half. We added 1/2 cup of brown sugar to one half because we did not want both side sweetened, kabocha squash is sweet by itself.
Sprinkle each half with Lawry salt to your taste.Place squash on a baking sheet lined with a foil and bake at 375"F for about 50 to 60 minutes, until butter is boiling.

Take it out of oven, let it cool and enjoy!

Preparation for Halloween

While we are actively preparing for the Halloween party we are trying many ideas we have not used before at any of our other parties.

The program is half ready but we still need a little more work on it. The decorations are almost done, it just needs some final touches. Food is the easiest part since we are planning a Halloween pot luck of course.

We thought of what to serve as Halloween shots. Oh, they are going to be nice, fun and colorful!

So we got together for a lunch last weekend just to see how it may turn out.

Here it is:

Looks kind of creepy, isn’t it?

If you'd like to make one like these, just stick the maraschino cherry into a Lychee fruit and put it into favorite drink.

Have fun!