Hunny Honey #MusicMovesMe

Welcome to Monday!  It's time for #MusicMovesMe.

Who are the #MusicMovesMe bloggers? We are bloggers who blog about music each Monday and if you have music to share with us, you are most welcome to join! (Music Posts Only , please!)   First, there is XmasDolly,   Her co-cohostesses are: Stacy of Stacy Uncorked, Cathy from Curious as a Cathy, and me. As Xmas Dolly likes to say, "Applause!"

Each month we have a guest co-hostess who picks themes for the month, and this month it is Cathy at Curious as a Cathy. 

Cathy's theme for today has to do with today being Winnie the Pooh day.  Cathy provided a link explaining this celebration and asked that we use it to generate ideas for today's post.

I remember Winnie the Pooh, a character originally dating from 1926.  There was a time when my son was around five where he loved to watch Winnie the Pooh VHS tapes.  Before that, he would wear Winnie the Pooh pajamas.  Sweet memories, right?

Sweet = sugar.  Or, thinking of what Winnie the Poo loves, hunny.

Why not use a topic of honey today?  We need a lot more sweetness in our lives.

A Taste of Honey - Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.

From 1957, Jimmie F. Rodgers and Honeycomb - a nice song from my childhood.  I didn't realize until researching this post that the song was a cover.   Fun fact, the B side of this single was "Kisses Sweeter than Wine", which was also a hit.

Carl Perkins wrote a song called "Honey Don't", which originally was the B side of his "Blue Suede Shoes" (a big hit for Elvis Presley when he covered it).  Honey Don't has been covered by many artists.  Here is a cover by the Beatles, from 1964.  The Beatles were big Carl Perkins fans.

Speaking of the Beatles, here's another song mentioning honey in the title "Honey Pie", from the 1968 White Album.  I enjoy the early 20th century vibe of this song, complete with record crackles.

Honey, Bobby Goldsboro, from 1968.  The singer sings about his young deceased wife.  Some call this one of the worst songs ever.  Others can't listen without crying. But consider this:  this charted #1 on both the country and rock charts.  And also adult contemporary.  You can't beat that.

While researching this, I found that the original was recorded by a South African, Peter Lotis, first in 1962, and then released as a single, also in 1968.  So we can have an official "battle of the singers" here, if you wish.  Goldboro or Lotis?  I'm not even sure if I can call Bobby Goldsboro's version a cover as these both seemed to be released at about the same time.

For my next to last song, I will deviate a little from my honey theme.  Winnie the Pooh was a teddy bear owned by a little boy by the name of Christopher Robin.  The stories inspired a song by Kenny Loggins, first recorded by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in 1971.

And finally, one last video, if you'll permit me.  I wanted to give a shoutout to our national treasure Betty White, who turned 99 yesterday.  Yes, she's still working, as far as I know.  And, well, she's never been afraid to speak her mind - and what a mind it is.  This musical clip is from 1954.  Nevertheless (I'm In Love with You).  Betty, I'm in love with you!

That's a sweet wrap!

See you again next week, same time, same place.

Local Saturday - A Taste of Apple and Honey

It's time to bake my annual apple honey cake, courtesy of Tori Avey.

Tomorrow at sundown begin the Jewish New Year observances (further explained in Tori Avey's blog post I've linked to above, and here).  There are traditional foods we eat, include apples and honey.  The honey symbolizes the sweetness of the New Year.

The apple symbolizes the Garden of Eden and also our love for the Creator.

Today, I celebrate apples.  I'm fortunate enough to live in an apple growing area.

Until you taste apples side by side, you don't realize how they differ in texture, sweetness, mouthfeel, crispyness and more.  There are apples for eating, apples for cooking, and all purpose apples.  Some apples have great storage qualities.

For my apple cake, I selected Pippins and Zestar.   And then, fate intervened - someone, apparently, tried to hack into my email account, and I had to change my password on all my devices.  That, and other shopping I did today, also left me a bit behind on what I needed to do today.

For the honey, it will be local buckwheat honey from a couple of hours away.  It's a dark honey and full of flavor.

So instead of tonight, I'll be making it tomorrow (with some minor changes from Tori Avey's recipe, including not adding the glaze topping, as I don't like those kinds of toppings.)

And, as far as the self reflection required as part of this time of year, I will be joining in on the Ultimate Blog Challenge on Tuesday.  I have decisions about where my life will go in the coming year, and how I can best serve humanity and our planet Earth.

But first, some apple cake is in order.

Honey Apple Cake and Other Recipes

Now that many of us in the United States wish we never lay eyes on another piece of cooked turkey (I'm not one of them - I could eat turkey nearly every day), I've decided we need to do even more cooking.

Enjoy this short list of recipes published by various bloggers this week, followed by my version of an apple honey cake I made for Thanksgiving this year.

First up, Denise from My Life in Retirement provides the main course - a special roast turkey.

If you are a vegetarian, you can do some birding instead, as narrated by Alice's Grand Adventures (no recipes, just walking and viewing).

Next, Jo from Food, Life and a Scent of Chocolate contributes A beef recipe (if you don't like turkey)

And finally, Jo provides us with a German favorite buttery "bienenstich"- Bee Sting Cake.

Which leads me to my version of an amazing apple honey cake.  The original recipe can be found here, and I assure you you don't have to be Jewish to love this cake.  Or, to enjoy my version of it.

There are several reasons why I modified the cake the way I did.  First, believe it or not, I do not like confectioner's sugar/liquid type icing.  Even as a child, I would pass up cinnamon rolls and yeast cakes because I never liked the icing drizzled on them.  I can't explain why.  I still don't.  So my version does not have icing.  If you want icing, see the link above.

Second, I've started to use coconut oil more and more as a substitute for oil in my baking   I've never made this cake with anything but coconut oil, and I love it.

Third, instead of the original Granny Smith apples, I prefer tart, local apples.  I'm fortunate to live in New York apple country and there is an abundance of cooking apples grown here.  For Thanksgiving, I made this with  local Northern Spy apples.

Sorry, metric readers, you are on your own with this.

AM's Version of Tori Avey's Apple Honey Cake

3 large eggs (this past week, I was fortunate enough to use free range brown eggs from a local farm)
3/4 cup honey (local buckwheat honey, which is quite dark, and is a good fall honey)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 1/4 cup unrefined coconut oil melted gently in microwave (this is solid at room temperature)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3 cups King Arthur's White Whole Wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon, freshly ground
3/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
4 tart baking apples, peeled, cored and shredded (you will also want to use the resulting liquid)

You will bake this in a 9 inch Bundt cake pan.

Method

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

While oven heats, mix the wet ingredients:
In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs until frothy.
Whisk in honey, white and brown sugar, melted coconut oil, and vanilla

Then mix the dry ingredients:
In a smaller bowl, sift together flour, baking power, baking soda, spices.

Gradually add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, stir to blend.  You don't want any dry ingredients, but you also don't want to over beat.

Fold in your shredded apples and liquid from the apples.

Spray your bundt pan with cooking spray, coating the inside evenly.

Now, pour your batter into the pan.  You don't want to overfill (Tory warns you not to fill more than 3/4 full.)  Smooth the batter on the top so that it is flat and even.  You do not want any air pockets.  I press down on the filling gently with a spoonula.

Bake for approximately 75-90 minutes.  When the edges darken and pull fully away from the sides of the pan, and the cake is browned, test with a toothpick.  This is a moist cake, so you don't want to under cook.  But, you don't want to overcook it, either.

For me, this cake is a wonderful alternative to apple pie.  Do you have a favorite recipe to share?

Day 27 of NaBloPoMo.