Get Your Orange on!

Last weekend my boys went deer hunting for the first time! They didn't see hide nor hair of any deer, but they had a good time anyway. They were amazed by how noisy the woods are when you sit there a while. Mice make an surprising amount of ruckus in the leaf litter and birds have an active and LOUD social life. I love that they can appreciate that and aren't so focused on venison that they can see the big picture. Paul is a good teacher and very safety conscious, so I wasn't too worried about accidents. I can see by the above photo, however, that we are going to have to have another talk about how milk is perishable and needs refrigeration.
If they wanted to see deer, they should have stayed home. This is Peter the pumpkin-eater (he also eats my green beans) who regularly raids my garden. He is very fond of the apple tree.

While the guys were up north I was toiling in the vineyards of the Lord. Ok, I was selling baked goods at the church bazaar. Friday we packaged, Saturday and Sunday we sold.

The Lord owes me a weekend.
This is what I made for the bake sale. It didn't sell on Saturday (the other 3 I made did sell) so I bought it back on Sunday so I could see if it tasted as good as it looked. It's apple oatmeal bread, with apple slices stuck in the top. This is a very hearty bread, good with cheddar cheese or cream cheese (everything's good with cream cheese, though). Keep it in the frig, those baked apples get nasty quick. This photo is only half the loaf, you put the apples down the loaf the long way. Gotta go, "Glee" is on and I LOVE that show! (Probably because I'm a former choir geek).

Apple Breakfast Bread

2 cups flour
1/2 cup quick rolled oats
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 large egg whites (or 3 whole eggs)
3/4 cup (packed) brown sugar
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 Rome Beauty or other red baking apple

Grease a loaf pan. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl, heat oven to 325 degrees. Beat eggs in a mixer with brown sugar for 2 minutes, add applesauce. Mix vanilla with buttermilk, add to egg mixture alternately with dry ingredients, mixing just until combined. Put into greased pan. Quarter and core apple (do not peel, the peel is the pretty part) cut each quarter into 5 slices. Arrange slices, 1/8 inch apart, in a row on top (sticking down into) batter, peel side up. Bake 55-65 minutes until cake tester comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes then cool on rack. Sift powdered sugar over the top to serve.