Neighbors Bearing Gifts

A couple days ago our neighbor down the road, Sally, reached a big bag of apples over our back fence. Sally and her husband Mike run a "you-pick" apple orchard and on the weekends folks drive out from town for their hnand-picked share of the country.

James is aways happy to have apples to eat out of hand (especially topped wth peanut butter and raisins) but since we had so many and since I am still getting on good terms with this oven, I decided to try a cake. I am still the same lazy cook I was in our last kitchen and with no mixer on the counter (we still have boxes to unpack) I wanted an easy mix (no butter to cream) cake and zeroed in on a recipe I found on Smitten Kitchen, a moist long cooking oil instead of butter (a Jewish-style apple cake) cake.

James loves the combination of slightly crispy sweet crust and the cinnamon flavored butter soft apples.

It's good to have neighbors . . . neighbors with fruit trees.