Showing posts with label Featured. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Featured. Show all posts
Last year, one of the ladies in the neighborhood started a Witches Ride as a charity benefit. She invited women to get dressed up as witches, and literally ride the streets of our neighborhood, throwing out candy to the crowd (a reverse trick-or-treat!).
Happy Friday, y'all! Here's my Five...
What screams fall? Why the bushel of apples we have in our kitchen right now, courtesy of our local CSA. And what's more American than... apple pie? If you're looking to usher in autumn properly, whip one of these up and you won't be disappointed!
Apple Pie Recipe (adapted from Lauren Conrad)
Ingredients:
- 8 apples (I used golden from our CSA), peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
- 1 Tbsp cinnamon
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 3 Tbsp flour
- ¼ cup caramel sauce (recipe below)
- 1 recipe pie crust (I used store bought refrigerated)
- egg wash (1 egg mixed with 1 Tbsp water)
Caramel sauce
- ½ cup butter
- 3 Tbsp flour
- ¼ cup water
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar
Melt butter in a saucepan. Add flour to form a paste. Add water and sugar, and bring to a boil. Turn heat down and simmer for about 10 minutes. (You want the sugars to be melted in and not grainy anymore.) Note: you don’t want to turn this into a dark caramel sauce—just a good sugar/butter mixture that caramelizes once baked.
Instructions:
- Mix apples, sugars, flour, and cinnamon all together in a bowl.
- Roll out your pie dough circles and add one into a pie pan. Add the apple mixture into the pan and drizzle caramel sauce over apples. Cover with another crust and flute the edges. Cut vents in top, or use cut cookie cutters to cut out shapes in the tops of pies.
- Brush top of pie with egg wash. Bake pie in a 425-degree oven for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350, and bake for an additional 35 to 45 minutes, until top is golden and the juices are bubbling.
makes 1 pie
Happy Baking!
Oh, October! You've were quite the odd one! Your trees said fall but your temperatures said summer.
Also, you seriously went by in the blink of an eye.
We did get a few chilly days which prompted me to pack away all of Parker's shorts, only to unpack them a week later. At one point, the weather report actually said "You are going to need your entire wardrobe over the next few days!" as the highs were fluctuating by thirty degrees. Alabama weather, I still haven't figured you out.
What have I figured out? Toddler activities, of course! And Parker is hip to this concept as well. The newly released If You Give a Mouse a Brownie arrived via Amazon this month. I heart Amazon. We opened the package and shortly after I had to hightail it to my barre class. While I was gone, Parker informed Dada that he and Mama would be baking brownies just like the book when I returned. So I had to oblige.
We made the same brownies that Max made for me from scratch while we were dating. At that time, I had never made brownies from anything but a box. I was smitten. Has he made me brownies (or any other baked good) since then? Well, no. The wooing is over. But he did pass on his mom's recipe:
(from the Helen Corbitt cookbook)
Ingredients:
Ingredients:
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup melted butter
4 oz. bitter chocolate
1 1/2 cup sifted flour
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla
Directions:
With a spoon, slightly beat eggs; add sugar and stir. Add melted butter and chocolate. Mix flour & salt and add to butter mixture. Add vanilla and stir until blended. Pour into well buttered 9x13 pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 30-35 minutes.
Add a three-year-old and your kitchen will be covered in flour :) On a side note, P loved the book
. It also makes a great present since it's a new release and most likely not already in the recipient's home library!
. It also makes a great present since it's a new release and most likely not already in the recipient's home library!
We did the sweetest craft to accompany Five Little Pumpkins
, an old favorite from my days as a teacher. I just had Parker go to town stamping orange handprints, which he was all about. With a three year old, the messier the better. Then I used markers to make them into jack-o-lanterms. Voilà ! I heart October.
, an old favorite from my days as a teacher. I just had Parker go to town stamping orange handprints, which he was all about. With a three year old, the messier the better. Then I used markers to make them into jack-o-lanterms. Voilà ! I heart October.
There were festive outfits to be worn...
And more crafting to be done...
And what better time to get a teeth cleaning than right before Halloween??
We enjoyed the (very few) cool breezy days - Parker was obsessed with the falling leaves.
And I was obsessed with this library book
:)
:) 
Add in some Pure Barre and you have a perfect October day :)
Wishing you all the colors of the rainbow!
Last Saturday morning, we made the half-hour drive up to Tennessee to visit Lyon Family Farm, where we heard we could pick our own pumpkins. I had never seen an actual, cut-your-own patch before, so I was twelve kinds of excited.
The farm completely exceeded all our expectations. It was amazing, full of tons of activities for little ones, and if you're in the Tennessee Valley area, we highly recommend it. There's actually another pick-your-own farm that is closer to our home, but we had heard that Lyon Family Farm was geared more toward young children. Parker was actually still too young for many things (the zip line, the jump dome, the giant slides) but we were still able to stay three hours without even realizing it!
We started with sliding and tether ball...
Cute photo-opps abounded. I believe this is a Southern thing. Unfortunately, Parker wanted nothing to do with posing.
There were actual tears shed for our family photo, eek!
Thinking he was maybe just hangry, we decided to cheer him up with his first funnel cake.
Yes. Just, yes.
After our healthy morning snack (ha!) we headed over to the animals.
Parker loved pointing out the goats, sheep, pigs, horses, and cows, and making noises for each.
There was feed for purchase, but Parker was too timid to get close enough for that (as he says, "maybe next year").
We then hopped on the hay bale ride to head out to the actual pumpkin patch! At this point, it started to sprinkle. We had the weirdest weather that day - after super cold days of jackets and scarves, this day was relatively warm and muggy, with surprise rain! Luckily, it only sprinkled a tiny bit on us, and the rest came down on our way home.
Our ride out to the patch brought us by tons and tons of pumpkins - so much fun for me!
Parker chose this green guy (all pick-your-own pumpkins were $5 each).
Max brought a pocket knife that had a mini saw so he could cut the pumpkin from the vine.
A real pumpkin patch! My heart was so happy.
Party of three!
After we took the hay bale ride back to the center of the farm, Max and Parker went back to the animals and I perused the pumpkins and flowers for sale. Just like monograms, Mums seem to be a Southern staple in the fall. They are on pretty much every single front porch in our neighborhood; it's darling.
Also, I wanted all the pumpkins.
I refrained and this was my haul.
I caught back up with my boys and we headed back to the activity area.
Best daddy ever.
Also, this corn box was a hit.
Parker kept requesting to be buried.
Then there was this.
Yes, a pig race. (Technically they were piglets.)
Hands down this was Parker's favorite part of the entire morning. He talked about the pig race for days after.
Max snapped this photo of Sweet P and me on the way out. Melt. My. Heart.
Except that there is a bee on my shirt. A bee! I had no idea until we downloaded the photos. Apparently the bee didn't think we were sweet because he left us alone (thank goodness!).
Lyon Family Farm, we'll see you next year!
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