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I'm not quite sure why I felt like making applesauce today, maybe because I wasn't feeling productive and I thought this would be a quick and easy thing to make. I was right - it was! So if you have a couple of apples on hand, give this a shot. It is super simple and will make you wonder why people buy applesauce in the store.
1. I used 6 apples, two green and four red, nothing scientific about the combination. I washed and peeled them because my little babe doesn't eat the skins.
2. Slice them into 1" pieces and put into a medium sized sauce pan. Add just enough water to cover the apples.
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3. Add about 2 teaspoons of cinnamon and almost 1 teaspoon of ginger. If you don't like ginger, you can leave it out, but it adds a little warmth to the recipe.
4. Add 1 tablespoon of honey.
5. Cook on medium heat until the apples are soft. Remove from heat, cool slightly, then puree in a blender or food processor. Then definitely try some while it is still warm! I got about 3 cups from 6 apples.
I just discovered this great blog sharing/link-up called "We Like To Read" started by Tigerlilly Quinn. It is for bloggers to share what they are reading now with their little ones. A great way to get new ideas about books, even from different countries. My first post is about a book that is looking very raggedy and dog-eared in our house right now. I am a delinquent mother and let my just 14 month old drag it around the house because it makes her happy and she loves this book. I think part of it is because it is a large format book, so something different from the small board books (that are way more appropriate for her age). Thanks to my mother-in-law for buying this book for my daughter - I was unfamiliar with the story.
Inside Mouse, Outside Mouse by Lindsay Barrett George
It starts with two little mice, one inside the house and one outside the house.
The mice do the same activities through their different landscapes.
The pictures are more "grown-up" than in most children's books. Lots of details to look at!
Can you find the spider on each page? Yuck!
At the end of the story these mice meet each other. In our house they "squeak" hello to each other.
Friends of ours are having a holiday party tonight and requested that people bring a drink or dessert. My husband will be attending alone because the party starts at 7:30pm and that is the bewitching hour in our home, so I will be home with the little babe. However, I wanted to do my part to contribute, so I made cookies. I had just read this post from Warm Vanilla Sugar for Honey Chocolate Chunk Cookies and thought they sounded pretty good and quick, which is always a requirement for me. While I was waiting for the butter and eggs to warm up, I had some oranges sitting on the counter (for another project that you can check out here) and thought that adding some orange zest to the cookies would kick them up a notch. And after eating a couple spoonfuls of batter (to test it of course!) and then a cookie or two (had to share with the little babe), I can say that they are great cookies! It is cold here today, in the twenties, but the sun is shining, there is snow outside, and I was warm and toasty in my kitchen with my babe.
(See those orange zest pieces!)
So if you have an hour tonight, whip yourself up a batch of these Orange and Honey Chocolate Chip Cookies.
1. Cream 1 stick of butter with 1 cup of brown sugar.
2. Add 1 egg, 3 tablespoons of honey (preferably local), and 1 teaspoon of vanilla.
3. In another bowl mix 1 3/4 cup flour (I used whole wheat), 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
4. Add that to the butter mixture and mix until combined.
5. Then add 1 cup chocolate chips (mine are real semi-sweet chocolate, but in chip form) and the zest of one orange (preferably organic).
6. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes.
7. Bake at 350 until they just start to darken on the edges. I bake my cookies on parchment paper.
(They have a great texture - not cakey, not hard, but nice and chewy. I think that is from the honey.)
I have not bought wrapping paper for years. It is not that I am a total cheap skate, I am just a total tree hugger. I keep the bags and paper that we receive our gifts in and that has kept us well stocked. This year I was going to be crafty and make some gift bags out of felt, but then I thought of something even easier. I bought some Christmas fabric at the craft store last week and wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, but I loved the pattern. I brought it home, washed and ironed it, and then ta-da - the light bulb went on! I am going to use it to wrap my gifts. Then the people can just give it back to me and I'll have it to make some sort of project next year, or just wrap more gifts.
It wouldn't be the most economical if you had a lot of large presents to wrap, but for smaller items, this works great. To make it even more eco-friendly, I used kitchen twine to tie it and made tags out of brown grocery bags.
I found this link that has some other great eco-friendly gift wrapping ideas. I like the idea about holding a contest to see who can come up with the most creative eco-friendly wrapping job! So think outside the wrapping paper tube this Christmas and save a tree! (We'll skip the discussion about live trees versus fake, potted, etc.)
Joining in with livingwellspendingless.com for Thrifty Thursday.
Today I am featuring a give-a-way from The Vermont Branch Company, owned by Mike and Tonya Gunn. I am thankful to Mike and Tonya because I asked them VERY last minute if they would like to donate an item for the contest and they very generously sent me this adorable ornament, despite this being their busy season. So check it out, let's see today's give-a-way!
Mike and Tonya live with their family in northern Vermont. They chose to move there so that they could live a more simple and affordable life, making beautiful and natural products from materials on their own land. They now have a thriving business and they make a range of products including Waldorf inspired toys, rustic wedding decor, and Christmas decorations like the ornament above, all out of trees found on their property.
This ornament is made of birch and is approximately 2-2 1/2 in diameter. The snowman design is burned on by hand and the ornament is finished with a homemade beeswax finish. It is just so cute and merry! For a chance to win this ornament, please leave a comment below before 7am on Thursday, EST. Starting at the top of the comment list, I will assign a number to each one and then randomly draw a number out of a hat (or bowl, or mug, etc). I'll announce the winner before noon on Thursday.
If you do not win the contest and would like one of these ornaments (they would make a great hostess gift or natural gift tag decoration) please check out The Vermont Branch Company on Etsy. They also have other great gift ideas, so consider supporting this family that is trying to live a family centered life with a sustainable minded business - something we all can appreciate.
CONTEST CLOSED
Today I am thankful for....
-A healthy and strong body. My husband and I ran in the 30th annual Nittany Valley Half-Marathon on Sunday. It was a cold day, in the 20's, with a dusting of snow on the ground. I was in a really positive mental state for the run and enjoyed myself. I am not enjoying the aching in my quads right now, so we are having a recovery week. It was a good way to kick off the holiday season and now enter a more relaxed time. Since it is still dark at 7am here, it is tough to get up and on the road for a run at 6:30am.
-Family that is able to help us out. Strollers were not allowed in this race, so my daughter stayed with her grandparents. This was the longest stretch of time that she was going to be away from her mom, so I was worried. Luckily she slept through the entire race and didn't even know I was gone!
-A holiday season that is relaxing and low stress. In my past life I owned a pet sitting business and so the holidays were my busiest time of the year. I was on the road at 6am and out until 10pm at night, with lots of running in between. I really do not miss that and I totally appreciate the wonderful petsitter who cares for our pets when we travel.
-The woodstove that is keeping us warm and toasty. The cats are very thankful for it also! They sneak out when the dogs are sleeping and try to blend in with the furniture.
-Our proximity to the woods and the seasonal beauty in nature.
-Sometimes I am thankful for my husband's tendency to be a slight pack rat. He just cleaned out the basement and brought up the bottles that had been sitting down there for at least two years. They were sitting outside the garage and I thought they would look nice with some greenery in them.
-The memories that come with traveling and collecting. The cones are from our travels out West several years ago. The smallest cones are from Sequoia trees - amazing how something so big comes from something so little?
Have a merry week!
I haven't done much cooking for the past two weeks, with the holiday and then being sick. My husband picked up the slack, making a big batch of pumpkin soup with the remainder of the humongous pumpkin that we got from the CSA and all last week we were eating his brownies. They are really good and I did want to share the recipe, but it is out of a real cookbook, not on-line, and my husband follows recipes exactly, so I would have to copy it word for word. I am being lazy and just don't feel like doing it.
So you are going to get a recipe that I found on-line, still chocolate, and actually much healthier. I had a large bunch of beets from the CSA that I roasted in the oven until soft. I knew I wanted something chocolate, but didn't want to make a cake because then it would need icing and I don't want that many calories. We ran a 1/2 marathon on Sunday and are taking this week off to recover, so I want to try and eat relatively healthy. So I found this recipe for Double Chocolate Chunk Cookies on allrecipes.com and thought I could easily adapt it. It is really easy and quick to make after you roast the beets. Just want to warn you though that this might not be the best recipe to make with kids because between the chocolate and the beets, this is a stain nightmare!
1. To roast the beets, I scrub them, pierce them with a fork, put them in a glass pan with some olive oil on the bottom of it, cover with foil, and bake at 400 for about 30-45 minutes, until soft. When they are cool, I puree them with a little water in the Vitamix.
2. I made the following changes to the recipe:
-Instead of 2/3 cups white sugar, I used 1/3 cup plus half of a 1/3 cup.
-Instead of 2/3 cups brown sugar, I used 1/3 cup brown sugar and 1/3 cup maple syrup.
-Instead of the chocolate chips, I used about 3/4 cup of dark chocolate chips.
-For half of the batter, I added about 1/2 cup of chopped pecans.
3. After adding the dry to the wet ingredients and before adding the chocolate chips, I mixed in 1/2 cup of the beet puree. Don't over bake the cookies; take them out slightly soft and squishy. Mine got sort of cake like and soft. Pretty yummy with the chunks of chocolate and the nuts.
Share with your family and know they are getting their iron for the day. We vegetarians have to get it anyway we can, and I personally think this is way better than eating a hunk of meat. I was looking for an article on the benfits of beets and found this one. Has some interesting facts - made me laugh!
By the way, do you know how hard it is to get good pictures of almost black cookies?!
I always like when we wake up to a yard full of fresh snow - it makes the dogs go crazy outside! Wallace, our dog from Romania, loves to lay in the snow and eat it. Callie and Lola dig through the snow to find unmentionables to eat. Birkie wants to play with her toy, Chip wants to go inside because his feet are sensitive. And Ruby, well Ruby goes NUTS! Ruby tends to get the shaft when it comes to photos - she doesn't stand still very long, so it is hard to get a good one of her. So this is Ruby's time to shine!
Birkie gets a picture because she is so darn cute.
We're off to some local Christmas craft fairs this morning with some mugs of homemade hot chocolate in hand. With snow on the ground, what more could we want!