Comfort In January

I'm wishing for the end of this less than perfect week.

January blues perhaps.

Trying to pull myself out of this muck.

I know everyone's tired of the snow but I'm not. This winter feels like a winter of my childhood...snow on the ground and flurries popping up often enough to make it seem fresh. I can't help it. I want more. Snow feels comforting and healing.

However, I guess if you can't have snow to heal you....you can at least have Ernie make you an apple cake!

Behold:

I got this apple cake recipe from my lovely friend Kathy Conner. I think she brought this when my sister Judi was dying....or it might have been after Ernie's surgery....hard to remember. I asked her for the recipe though and it has sat unused since then. Yesterday we sent dinner over to our friends Michael and Renee and I asked Ernie to make this to go along with it.

It was the perfect thing for a cold winter day. It's a recipe from Cooking Light but I unlightened it. Well, I used full fat cream cheese instead of non-fat....and I used butter instead of margerine. Oops....did you notice I said "I" did those things....well, I mean my other "I", Ernie.... Oh, and we used Granny Smith apples.

Cinnamon-Apple Cake
Cookinglight.com, originally from 1997

1 3/4 cups sugar, divided 
3/4 cup (6 ounces) block-style fat-free cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter or stick margarine, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs 
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 cups chopped peeled Rome apple (about 2 large) 
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350°.

Beat 1 1/2 cups sugar, cream cheese, butter, and vanilla at medium speed of a mixer until well-blended (about 4 minutes). Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition; set aside.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add flour mixture to creamed mixture, and beat at low speed until blended. Combine 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon. Combine 2 tablespoons of the cinnamon mixture and apple in a bowl; stir apple mixture into batter. Pour batter into an 8-inch springform pan coated with cooking spray, and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon mixture.

Bake at 350° for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until cake pulls away from the sides of pan. Cool cake completely on a wire rack, and cut using a serrated knife.

Note: You can also make this cake in a 9-inch square cake pan or a 9-inch springform pan; just reduce the baking time by 5 minutes.

And somehow this beautiful, beautiful song also feels perfect for today....RB Morris (don't forget to mark your calendar for February 1 at our house!)....I think it's going to be wonderful.

 And then when this song makes you feel better, go over and click here and listen to a snippet of Spy in my Brain. Good GOD I love that song....there's a nice short little bio of him as well.

Onward I guess...onward.