Embracing my innner German *updated*

I am utterly exhausted, partly due to staying up until sometime after midnight last night (more about why at another time), then getting up at five. Today has been a mass of disorganization and lousy time management, but I think I'm just about ready for the breakfast I'm hosting early tomorrow.

Like most girls, I learned to cook by watching my mom. Since her side of the family is Sicilian, a good portion of our meals were pasta and the like, with an occasional meal of rouladen to appease my German-heritaged father (though rouladen is pretty much Italian braccioli, except not cooked in sauce).

So for tomorrow's breakfast, I baked a Bavarian Apple Torte.

Bavarian Apple Torte

1/2 cup butter -- softened
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup flour
8 ounces cream cheese -- softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 - 6 apple -- peeled and sliced
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup sliced almonds

Cream together butter and 1/3 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Blend in 1/4 tsp vanilla, add flour and mix well. Spread dough into a 9" square pan.

Combine cream cheese and 1/4 cup sugar; mix well. Blend in egg and 1/2 tsp vanilla. Pour on top of dough.

Toss apples with remaining 1/3 cup sugar and cinnamon. Spoon over cream cheese layer. Sprinkle with almonds.

Bake at 450 for 10 minutes; reduce temp to 400 and bake 25 minuted longer. Allow to cool completely and cut into squares.

I highly recommend throwing it in the refrigerator for an hour or so before you cut it. And yes, there really are three separate additions of sugar in this recipe. All told, however, it is less than a full cup. While I've cut and put pieces out on a platter (stored in the frig), I haven't yet tasted it. The smell, however, is heavenly.

The time delay bake function is set, and I'm off to bed.

The breakfast was lots of fun - the timers on the oven and the coffee pot worked perfectly, and everything got out in time. No one got lost coming here either. The torte is pretty good, but a little sweet for my taste.

I must be coming down with something - after everyone left Idid some cleaning up, then couldn't take it anymore and needed to take a nap (at 9:15 a.m.!). I took the contacts out and laid down on the bed...five minutes later, the landlords had the radio on so loudly I could actually hear every single word the announcers said clearly. I still drifted in and out of sleep, but finally gave up around eleven...spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon dozing in a chair, with the tv turned up loud enough to drown out the radio. This day isn't working out the way I'd planned.