1 c. blanched, slivered almonds
1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. sugar
1 T. light corn syrup

Line bottom and sides of 8 or 9″ cake pan with aluminum foil. Butter foil heavily; set aside. Combine almonds, butter, sugar and corn syrup in 10″ skillet. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil, stirring constantly, until mixture turns a golden brown, about 5-6 minutes.

almond butter crunch

I’ve made many pumpkin breads in the past, but tried this particular recipe last week from allrecipes.com and it is by far the best I’ve ever made.  It’s fast, easy, fills your house with a wonderful aroma and make two loaves which I guarantee you, won’t last long.

3 cups sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs

2/3 cup water

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground allspice

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease two 9×5 inch loaf pans. In a large mixing, combine sugar, oil and eggs; beat until smooth. Add water and beat until well blended. Stir in pumpkin, ginger, allspice cinnamon, and clove. In medium bowl, combine flour, soda, salt, and baking powder. Add dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture and blend just until all ingredients are mixed. Divide batter between prepared pans. Bake in preheated oven until toothpick comes out clean, about 1 hour.

This is an awesomely delicious and easy recipe. Great for breakfast, after school snack, or dessert. A 13 x 9″ cake doesn’t even last 24 hours in our house. Yep, our kiddos can scarf this down in no time flat.

Ingredients
Filling:
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup chopped pecans
Glaze:
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon almond extract
Cake:
1 package yellow cake mix
4 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Directions
For streusel filling, combine all ingredients and set aside. Blend glaze ingredients and set aside.
For cake:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Combine cake mix, eggs, sour cream, oil, water, sugar and flour in a large mixer bowl. Beat at medium speed for 3 minutes with electric mixer. Pour 1/2 of batter into a greased 13 by 9-inch pan. Sprinkle streusel filling on top and swirl the filing. Spoon remaining batter evenly over filling. Bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan 25 minutes invert onto serving plate, cool completely.
For glaze:
Combine sugar, milk and almond extract in bowl. Whisk until smooth. Drizzle over cake after cool.

This past weekend our old grapevine kept us quite busy. We picked concord grapes all morning and then spent the afternoon canning 49 quarts of grape juice. We’ve found that is the quickest, easiest way to put them up for later use in making jelly. The recipe we use is so simple:

Sterilize your quart jars. Clean your grapes, leave skins on. Add 1 cup grapes and 1/2 cup sugar to each quart jar. Then fill with boiling water. Put lids on jars and swish around the sugar mixes into the water. Process in hot water bath for 10 minutes. Remove jars from water bath and cool. Store in cool place. Absolutely wonderful!

This coming weekend, we’ll be working on apples.

Grape harvest