Parton Me, But Have You Seen Dolly?

Back in 2009, we took an epic road trip.

Starting here in Connecticut, we stopped in State College, PA, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey and then back home.

We saw everything from Penn State, to Churchill Downs, a ball game, a bat factory, Lincoln's birthplace, Graceland, the motel where MLK was assassinated, the Smoky Mountains, Dollywood, Luray Caverns, Mammoth Cave, and everything in between.

We ate at places we had seen on Man v. Food and Food Network, like Gus' Fried Chicken, Lynn's Paradise Cafe, and the Loveless Cafe. We sat in Elvis' booth at the Arcade and ate fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches. It was awesome.

Pigeon Forge, Tennessee was one of our many stops. I thought it looked like the Hillbilly Las Vegas. A strip of pancake houses, wax museums, go-karts, hotels, panning for gold and other oddities. It is also the home of Dollywood and Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede. Oh, and Dolly Parton herself.

We grabbed lunch at a place called the Applewood Farmhouse. It was down home cooking that featured things like apple fritters and apple juleps. For some reason I ended up buying their cookbook, because who doesn't like apples?

This ended up being another dust collector. I suppose its more of a souvenir than a practical cookbook at this point.

Guess I got all caught up in the apple-craziness that afternoon?

I chose to make Topsy-Turvy Apple Coffee Cake. Mostly because I had all of the ingredients already and because it looked fairly easy.

3/4 c butter or margarine, divided
1/3 c brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 c pecans, chopped
1 cups of sliced apples
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 350.

Melt 1/4 cup butter in 8-inch square baking dish; blend in brown sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle pecans over brown sugar, place apple slices in single layer over nuts. Stir baking soda into sour cream and allow to stand for 10 minutes. Cream remaining 1/2 cup butter; add eggs and beat thoroughly. Stir flour, sugar and baking powder together. Add dry ingredients and sour cream alternately to creamed mixture; starting and ending with dry ingredients. Pour over apples, bake for 45-50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in dish 10 minutes, invert onto serving dish.

Ok.

First of all, I had no idea what happens when you add baking soda to sour cream.

Science!

It glopped all over the place, and that was really annoying. This was not turning out to be as quick and easy as I thought...

The end result was just okay. The boys ate it and liked it, but I tasted it and would not make it again. There was nothing remarkable about it...and I have made so many other apple cakes that were much better than this one.

Still, I feel like I can't get rid of the cookbook. Mostly because it's just a fun souvenir from a great trip. I may drag it out one day and try something else. And then probably get rid of it!