I’m on day two of a mini vacation I’m taking this week. I took two days off in advance of the long weekend, giving me a nice extra long weekend.
Yesterday, Mr. Patient and I went to even older historic towne up north of ye olde historic northeastern city. Hint: it being October, this was a very seasonal time to visit said historic towne. I packed a cooler with low fat lactaid milk, crackers, and low fat ground chicken chicken salad. I also found a shop that made amazing soy chai lattes. And some research ahead of time turned up a seafood place where I was able to at least eat some grilled tuna (minus the vegetables and the overdone roasted potatoes…Mr. Patient ate that). I had a bit of heartburn last night, but it wasn’t terrible. I think it was more chai induced than fish.
We planned a short trip, so there was no big disappointment when I didn’t last a whole day. We took the walking very slowly, just ambled around like the old couple I hope we get to turn into. Rested on benches a lot. Got my cards read, nothing remarkable although he did say “you’re having a hard time keeping weight on, aren’t you?” although my wardrobe probably gives that away. Bought some catnip that is apparently catcrack, according to my cat’s reaction to it. It’s going to have to be kept in a tightly closed drawer unless we want her to have herself a little kitty bacchanal right here on the living room carpet.
It was really nice to get out and about. I planned it carefully, including the timing. I knew I’d probably be a little sore and tired the day after, so we did it on day one to give me plenty of resting time after.
And today, I am. Tired. I think my Fall allergies are kicking up a bit because I’m feeling a bit dizzy, although who knows. Could be blood pressure or migraine too. So many reasons to be dizzy. And so I’m sticking close to home today. I decided to do a little baking. I had read some recipes for “two ingredient pumpkin cake” (e.g. this recipe, or this other recipe), and thought I’d give it a try, with angel food cake of course due to the low fat requirement of my stomach.
I Just did a set as cupcakes and boy are they good. I already ate one and they’ve only been out of the oven for 15 minutes. Here’s my version of the recipe.
Pumpkin Angel Food Cake with Apple “Compote”
Low fat!
Cake
1 box angel food cake mix
Pumpkin pie spice to taste:
1 & ½ teaspoons of ground cinnamon
¾ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
A dash ground clove (because I like clove…most pumpkin pie recipes do not include this in the spice set)
1 can of pureed pumpkin
Move oven rack to lowest position. Heat oven to 350°F. In extra-large glass or metal bowl, beat cake ingredients with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds. Beat on medium speed 1 minute. Spoon into ungreased cupcake tins, fill about ½ way. I used extra large cupcake tins and could’ve gotten 10 full sized cupcakes out of it if I hadn’t tried to fill an 11th cup (d’oh!).
Bake about 25 minutes or until crust is dark golden brown and cracks are dry. If you use cupcake liners, you can skip this next bit: Immediately turn pan upside down onto upside-down metal measuring cups in a large casserole pan. Let hang about 2 hours or until cake is completely cool. Loosen cake from side of cups with knife.
No Cook Apple Compote:
1 – 3 apples (I used 1 granny smith/green apple and two gala apples)
1 medium fresh lemon
¼ cup of brown sugar
Ground cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg to taste (least on the nutmeg)
Wash, peel, and core apples. Chop coarsely and place in a medium sized non-metal mixing bowl. Seed and juice lemon, add to apples tossing with a wooden or plastic spoon or spatula. Add spices and sugar, and coat apples by mixing gently with spoon or spatula. Refrigerate. Use quickly for drier compote, the longer the apples sit in the sugar/lemon juice mixture, the more liquid they will release. You can cook the mixture too if you want to break down the apples a little more but you’ll get something that is more syrupy and mushy.
Result? I realized after I made them and took pictures that the apple bits, if cut up carefully in advance, could be arranged to make jack o’lantern faces on top of the cupcakes. Ah, well, this is why Martha Stewart is Martha and I’m not. Next time. And there will be a next time.
I took a picture of the inside too, so you can see the crumb texture. I may try this again with a bit of flour added to see if it makes for a finer crumb. Even without that addition, it is quite good.