Fleeting Autumn Beauty

According to the calendar, we are almost halfway through Autumn but you'd never know it by looking at the trees around here!

Mother Nature rarely cuts us Canadian prairie folk a break when it comes to the fall beauty! I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but it always seems that those in Eastern Canada and the North-Eastern United States get a longer more spectacular show of Autumn foliage  I've made no secret that Autumn is my favourite season but the picturesque beauty of it is far too short! Here on the Canadian prairies, we are lucky if the leaves stay on the trees more than a couple weeks after they start turning!

It just doesn't seem fair - especially when you consider how long and harsh our winters can be. There really should be a law that Mother Nature is not allowed to throw heavy rains or strong winds while the leaves are in full on fall glory!

Oh well, I guess that is supposed to make us more grateful for the fleeting beauty of the season - and for me it does! When the leaves are at their most colourful, I set aside almost anything else that needs doing to go out and enjoy as much of it as I can! Even when I am home, I find myself looking out the window just to admire the colourful treetops of my neighbourhood!

I took several walks this Autumn as well as enjoying my apartment view! I'd like to share some of these views with you today.

This year, the leaves were just starting to turn in mid September, but there was a bit more colour by the end of the month. On September 25, I took a walk in Assiniboine Park.

Over the next week or so there were a few nights with a bit of frost and the leaves were in full out beauty by early October! Alas, they were also starting to fall!

I took a walk out Wellington Crescent to Munson Park on October 2.

Sunrises, are always a bit out of view from my apartment, but there are mornings that the reflective light is just too lovely not to take some pictures! This seems to be especially true in Autumn!

On October 9, one of my gal pals and I took a walk through Assiniboine Forrest. Despite living in Winnipeg for many years, neither of us had ever been there before! It was a cool, partly cloudy morning but we thoroughly enjoyed the crisp air and the spectacular beauty of the urban forest!  There are numerous trails through the forest, with a few markers along the various paths. Intersecting paths are marked with maps, but there are also a few small painted markers on tree branches to tell you which path you are on. Our walk was mostly on the pink and green trails, though the light blue and yellow do align with them in places. 

 

Then came a major rainy, windy Thanksgiving Monday (October 12) and it was all but over for the majority of the colourful leaves. Soggy leaves covered the ground and nearly naked trees were everywhere!

Such is the nature of the changing seasons here on the prairies! So, I enjoy the beauty while it is here. When the outside weather isn't cooperating or the beauty is past, I focus on preparing for the coming months. Thanks to above normal temps, I managed to hold off on many of those fall chores till after Thanksgiving. Since then, I've switched out the down blanket for the down duvet on my bed. The summer clothes have been moved to the back of the closet. Summer jackets have been packed away and the heavier ones now hang by the front door. Gloves, scarves and even the boots are at the ready, but hopefully won't be needed for a while yet. The freezer has been defrosted and an inventory taken of it and the pantry. There have been numerous errands and shopping trips to restock the pantry and freezer for the winter months. I've also been gathering my supplies for holiday baking which will be started in the next few days.

Time moves all too fast come September. One day the leaves are green and we are still in summer clothes. In what seems like a heartbeat the leaves have turned and are falling to the ground. The weather gets nippier, the days get shorter and we pull out the heavier clothing and turn on the heat. We pull out our cookbooks and turn on our stoves to fill our homes with the scents of the bountiful harvest.

It is now the beginning of November. The clocks have been set back an hour and we have entered that sometimes bleak inbetween season. For some, there is the anticipation of outdoor winter activities, but for many of us there is the sense of impending partial hibernation and indoor activities.

To each their own.

For me, I will treasure the beauty that was - no matter how short. I will enjoy the pictures and the memories of times shared. In the coming weeks there will be plenty of holiday baking to keep me busy. There will always be recipes to play with. There are books to be read. Movies and videos to be watched. Writing to be done. Winter's naps to be savoured.

Thank you Mother Nature for the fleeting beauty that is our prairie autumn.

dn

PB Apple Spice Cake

Apples are in great supply come autumn. I'll gladly eat apples any time of the year, but I also love finding and creating recipes with apples!

Today, I thought I'd share a cake recipe that is perfect for fall or any time you want a delicious treat!

A month or so ago, I had some apples that needed to be used up, so I went looking for an apple cake recipe. Of course, a Google search showed that there are an endless number of variations to choose from! I read through at least 30 recipes before narrowing it down to an apple spice cake.

I found a recipe on All Recipes for an Apple Spice Cake that intrigued me. The directions indicated that you were to combine the baking soda with warm water and add to liquid ingredients rather than the traditional method of adding the baking soda to the dry ingredients. I read through many of the comments and also did some research into the reasoning for this, but was unable to determine a definitive answer. None of my baker friends had ever heard of this method either.

Well, the first time I made the cake, I followed that step - as well as making some other ingredient changes and the cake was DELISH! However, I also wanted to see if it really mattered that you add the baking soda with the water to the liquids. The second time I made the cake, I added the baking soda in the traditional way and found no difference in the end result. Therefore, I have eliminated the extra step for this recipe.

So, what else did I do differently?

- Rather than using all white flour, I did a 50/50 mix of all purpose and whole wheat flour.

- A bit of nutmeg was added to the spice combination.

- The all white sugar was replaced by a 50/50 mix of white and golden (light brown) sugars

- I switched out most of the margarine in favour of a combination of peanut butter and a just bit of margarine.

- Instead of the water that went with the baking soda in the original recipe, I chose to add some milk - and upped the quantity a bit to make the batter a bit less stiff and more moist in the finished cake.

- Raisins were omitted and roasted peanuts were added.

- Naturally, I added chocolate chips!

- I also chose to omit sprinkling icing sugar on the finished cake. The cake is sweet enough without any type of garnish or frosting.

In the end, I turned a basic Apple Spice Cake into a Peanut Butter, Apple Spice Cake WITH Chocolate Chips! After all, apples, peanut butter and chocolate make an amazing taste combination that is REALLY hard to resist!!

My taste testers loved this and said I could make this for them ANYTIME!!

PB Apple Spice Cake

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon      

1 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg      

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon salt    

3 medium or 2 large apples - peeled, cored and chopped (about 2 - 2 1/4 cups)    

1/2 cup chopped, roasted peanuts

2 cups dark chocolate chips

1/4 cup block margarine, softened to room temp

3/4 cup crunchy peanut butter     

1 cup light brown sugar

1 cup white sugar   

4 large eggs, at room temp         

1/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a Bundt pan with a non stick spray such as Pam. Set aside..

Whisk together flour, baking soda, spices, and salt. Set aside.

Peel, core and chop the apples. You should have between 2 and 2 1/4 cups when finished.

Combine the peanuts, chocolate chips and chopped apple. Set aside.

Cream together margarine, peanut butter and sugars. Mix in eggs, milk and vanilla.

Stir in all but about 2 Tablespoons of the flour mixture into the margarine/sugars/eggs mixture, mixing to combine thoroughly. Batter will be quite thick.

Add the remaining 2 Tablespoons flour mixture to the apples/peanuts/chips mixture and stir just to coat. (This will help prevent clumping of these ingredients.) Add the mixture to the batter and stir until well blended. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake for 1 hour, or until a toothpick test comes out clean (With my oven it took about 65 minutes). Cool in the pan on a wire rack for about 20 minutes then carefully turn the cake onto plate. Continue to cool the cake (on the plate) on a wire rack till cooled.

Dust with confectioners' sugar if desired but it really isn't needed.

Enjoy!

dn

More Summer Views

September has arrived and summer is quickly drawing to a close. We've had some insanely hot and humid days (and nights!)here in Winnipeg. We've had some torrential like rainfalls. We've had hazy skies. We've had days that were cooler than normal and days that were right on seasonal norms. In other words, this summer had a bit of almost everything!

As someone who doesn't like the heat, I'm happy to see the hot and humid days leave but with the end of summer weather, it also means that my direct window views of the sunsets are quickly drawing to a close for another year.

On July 19, I shared a number of collages of the beautiful sky views that I see from my window. Today, I've decided to share even more of my gorgeous summer view!

There has been ominous looking skies, stormy weather, a bit of lightening, haze, more spectacular sunsets and I even managed to catch a colourful sunrise,

Here then, is a collection of photos from the last 7 weeks!

I didn't do the greatest job of stitching these two pics together but the clouds were very dark. Thankfully, this didn't turn out to be as bad as it looked: 

We did get some stormy weather including heavy rains

Lightening is NOT easy to capture in a single pic, but I did manage to do it a couple of times!

There has been more haze from forest fires to the north and the west

One morning, I was actually awake early enough and coherent enough to even grab the camera for a couple pics of the sunrise!

But, as always, my favourites are the spectacular sunsets! 

This was an evening that I just had to do two versions of. One from a distance and one with zoom.

This is another one that I did two versions of. One from a distance and one with zoom.

One more that I just had to do two versions of. One from a distance and one with zoom

As you can no doubt tell, I LOVE my summer views! I hope your summer views have also been spectacular!

dn