Pumpkin Bread

27 Sep

 

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

 

ingredients:

 

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 cups granulated sugar
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin
1 cup canola oil
2/3 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 large eggs
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

 

directions:

 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray three 9×5 inch loaf pans with cooking spray and set aside.

2. In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl, combine sugar, pumpkin, canola oil, water, vanilla, and eggs. Mix until smooth.

4. Slowly blend in flour mixture. Fold in chocolate chips. Evenly divide batter between the three loaf pans.

5. Bake for 60 minutes, or until browned and a toothpick comes out clean. Remove loaves from oven and cool in pans on a wire rack for 15 minutes. With a knife, go around the bread and loosen the loaves. Remove from pan and cool completely before slicing.

 

 

 

 

Fall Tree Project

20 Sep

 

I’ve been so busy organizing all sorts of stuff around our house the past few weeks.  I’ve been taking down art work and storing it away in my handy art tub…  These fun trees have been hanging in our entry way for a long time now and taking them down made me a little bummed. This is a project we did when they were a bit younger and really can be adapted for any age.  I really think they are adorable!  Super easy too… I used those “dot paints” you can purchase at Michaels and let the boys go crazy making leaves…  I drew the trunks and branches for them, but they did the rest.  Older children can draw their own trunks and branches (mine could even probably do that now at 4 & 5).  I love how there are some leaves on the ground!  FRAMERS, for sure!

White Chicken Chili

18 Sep

It’s a raining… It’s cold…  It’s Sunday…  It’s football day… It’s a great day for chili!

4 boneless chicken breasts, cooked (I either bake or saute them in garlic, you can also just boil them)

6 cloves of garlic

1 medium onion

2 fresh jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped

3 cans Great Northern Beans

2 T olive oil

3 cans (14.5 ounces each) chicken broth

1.5 t ground cumin OR half a package of fajita seasoning

1/2 cup lime juice

2 T cornstarch

2 T cold water

1.  Chop onion, garlic and jalapeno peppers, saute in Olive Oil

2.  Drain 1 can of beans and rinse well.  Using the bottom of a drinking glass, mash the beans and set aside

3.  Drain the remaining 2 cans of beans and rinse well, DO NOT MASH… set aside

4.  Combine the pepper/onion/garlic mixture with the chicken, mashed beans, whole beans, chicken broth, seasoning, and lime juice.  Bring this to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 25 minutes.

5.  Combine cornstarch and water, stirring until smooth.  Add cornstarch mixture to chili and continue to cook until thickens, stirring constantly.

6.  Serve warm with cut up avocado, snipped cilantro, shredded cheese, green onions, bread, crackers, etc..

7.  YUMMY

Refrigerator Pickles…

15 Sep

My Dad is known all around town as “The Pickle Man”…  He makes a variety of pickles… Some sour, some sweet, some spicy.  Dill pickles, Open Jar Mustard Pickles, Refrigerator pickles…  It is not abnormal to find a little wandering child in my Dad’s garage searching for pickles.  Last weekend the little grand kids from next door were “missing” only to be found double fisting it with pickles… They are 20 months and 3 years old, it was a riot.  I wish I had snapped a photo… The three year old had her pickle for what seemed like hours, she was even swimming with it, so funny!

This week the boys and I went down for an afternoon and Sutton asked to make pickles… We thought it might be fun if they could be part of the entire process so we had them pick the cucumbers, dig up the  onions and carefully select the peppers (G and the boys selected yellow).

After all the picking and digging was done,  I cut up all three veggies…  I’ve had these pickles with the skin on and with the skin off, it really just depends on how much time and effort you want to put into them…  The peppers and onions taste great too, so we leave them a little bigger incase anyone wants a taste!

Then we layer the cucumbers, onions and peppers in a jar and repeat until the jar is full.  It’s pickle lasagna!  Once everything was layered in the jar we mixed up the liquid and spices.  We poured it over the top and popped it in the fridge for 14 days (boys are counting down).  These pickles do not have to be canned or anything… Just refrigerated!  They are yummy!

I really think that life is like a jar of pickles…. Sometimes it’s sweet, sometimes it’s sour and sometimes it’s a little bit SPICY…

LARRY’s Refrigerator Pickle Brine

4 cups sugar

1/4 cup salt

1 1/3 tsp. mustard seed

4 cups white vinegar

1 1/2 tsp celery seed

Cook until dissolved…  Pour over the top of your pickle lasagna……

P.S.  We used about 5 medium cucumbers and a one gallon jar.  If you do not have a gallon jug then just layer the pickles in a tupperware or even a couple tupperware dishes and pour enough brine over to cover the layers.   The brine was the perfect amount, you want it to cover all of your veggies!  

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Apple Season

11 Sep

This weekend we enjoyed some amazing summer temps.  The boys were swimming in the lake most of the day Saturday and Today, it was great!  I have a feeling it might have been one of our last swims of the season!  We also noticed that the apples are just about ripe on the tree, which reminded me that apple season is upon us!  YEAH!  I love apple season.  I love apple cider, apple pie, apple sauce, carmel apples, mmmmm…   We made an adorable apple craft, as well.  This one was pretty quick and easy!  I saw an image online of a button watermelon and I figured you could do the same thing with an apple.  I would really like to do the watermelon, as well, so we might do that once we pick the melon’s we planted in the garden… OOO and a button pumpkin might be cute too…  Any ways, Here’s the scoop…

You’ll Need:

Red construction paper

White/cream construction paper

Red  & Green buttons

Scissors

Glue (elmer’s)

Directions:

I cut out an apple shape for the boys (older kids can cut their own apple, little kids could too actually and it might be pretty cute).  They glued buttons all over it…  Then we drew the stem with glue and also glued buttons for that… See, SO SO SO easy!  LOVE THAT!

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S’mores Smorgasbord

6 Sep

This weekend we had the entire “Ryder” side of the family in for a little reunion.  Everyone was at the lake enjoying all sorts of Minnesota activities… Fishing, swimming, tubing, boating, eucher (crazy card game), lots of food, lots of laughter and lots of S’MORES…  Of course when my family comes into town we inevitably have yucky weather and this weekend was no different.  It was if FALL came with no warning and kicked summer out of here very quickly.  Fortunately summer snuck back in yesterday so we were blessed with some sunshine while they were here.  The chillier temps called for many a bon fire.  It also meant we got to try out some different S’MORE recipes…  Have you tried switching it up at all?  You definitely need to try Reese Peanut Butter Cups in place of the chocolate, it’s AMAZING…  What about Almond Joy?  Milky Way?  Snickers? Chocolate/Carmel Squares?  Butterfingers?  Heath?    I just think giving lots of options is a good thing…  With fall upon us I think we will have many opportunities to have S’mores… Maybe make yours a S’mores Smorgasbord or a S’mores bar where everyone can choose what they want????  Bakerella has a recipe for homemade Graham Crackers that would be fun to make with it!  YUMMY

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Apple Lolli’s

3 Sep

For those of you who don’t know, last month I was a guest blogger on a site called “Oopsey Daisy”.   This is the craft that I submitted for her site.  If you live in a state (like Minnesota) that doesn’t start school until after Labor Day, then this is a great thing for you to do this weekend…  If you live in a state that has started school, why not surprise your teacher with a “just because” gift…  If you don’t go to school, why not make these cute apples as a culmination to learning all about apples…  What ever you choose, they are easy and very cute.  I think you could make other fruit the same way if you use your imagination!

These SUCKERS would be a great way for you to “suck up” to your teacher….  HEE HEE…

Apple Lolli’s

What You’ll Need:

Red and Green Jolly Ranchers (I used 4 reds and 1 green for ONE sucker)

Craft Stick/Popsicle Stick/Lollipop Stick

Tin Foil

Gallon Size Bag

Cookie Sheet

Oven 🙂

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat your oven to 250F and sort through all those colorful Jolly Ranchers!

2. Put your red jolly ranchers in a plastic baggie and crush them with a hammer to form smaller pieces (don’t crush too much because you don’t want super small pieces). Repeat this process with your green jolly ranchers.  I’ll be honest, I had my kids do this and they LOVED it….  I thought maybe we should do it outside, but after experimenting myself I found it doesn’t take much to smoosh the jolly’s so we did it inside!

3. Place a lollipop stick on your baking sheet lined with tinfoil.

4. Arrange all your broken red pieces in a circle at the top of your lollipop stick making an apple shape. Make sure all pieces are touching so it melts properly. I sprinkled any “dust” my kids made over the entire apple shape just to make sure it would all stick.  Add the green pieces to the top of the red to form a “stem”…

5. Slide your cookie sheet  in the oven and cook for 10-12 minutes, or until completely melted…  At the end it melts quickly so it’s fun to watch!

6. Remove your  apple from the oven and allow it to cool before peeling it off the foil.  One thing to note is that these are “free formed” lollipops.  If you prefer your lollipops to be perfect you could use an apple shaped metal cookie cutter to help you out (this suggestion made by my very professional pastry chef of a sister in law) and I think it’s a fantastic idea!

7.  Wrap it up for your favorite teacher OR eat it yourself!  YUM…

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Cupcake Toppers, the easy way!

2 Sep

 

Today was my husband’s birthday…  I really think celebrating his birthday is far more fun than celebrating my own.  I just love how excited my kids get to do fun things for Daddy…  Today was pretty laid back… While Ben was working the boys and I made some of his favorite cupcakes; chocolate with homemade buttercream………..  We also decided to make some fun toppers.  Here’s the thing.  I wish I had one of those fancy cutty-outy machines, but I don’t.  I had to do this the old fashioned way… That is why this is easy!

1.  Trace something circular onto some white paper…  I used a ribbon spool (not sure if that is what it’s called, but sounds right)…  I traced enough circles to fill up the entire sheet of paper.

2.  Cut out the circles… I cut 2 papers at once…

3.  Have your children decorate the circles in any way they would like!  I encouraged mine to think of things that Daddy likes (baseball, soccer, the lake, etc..)

4.  Glue the circles onto colored card stock and cut out…

5.  Tape a craft stick or sucker stick to the back and stick it in a cupcake.  If you don’t want the stick to show on the back of the card just cut another piece of card stock and glue it on sort of sandwiching the stick…

6.   AHHHH… cute cupcake toppers!

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Sidewalk Birthday Card

23 Aug

 

Simple, Sweet, Sneaky, Silly and Spontaneous!  Today it was our neighbor birthday…    We spontaneously decided to make him a birthday card….  SO we tiptoed over to his house and quickly drew him one on his sidewalk!  The boys loved the tip-toe part!  When we were done we pushed his doorbell about a million (or maybe 4) times and ran as fast as we could… We stood around the corner and watched as Mr. Peter and his little girls came to the door!  They had very big SMILES on their faces and my boys were giggling up a storm.  Of course we had to reveal ourselves, which was like a mini surprise party with a loud HAPPY BIRTHDAY attached to it!  If you are ever in a bind for a quick birthday card, try sidewalk chalk!

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Penguins at the ZOO!

22 Aug

I’m not sure about you, but my boys L-O-V-E the Zoo… We are actually members of the zoo because it basically pays for itself in two visits.  They love the zoo!  I love watching them learn about new eating habits, ask questions, and laugh at funny animal bums.

At our zoo we have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the penguin exhibit.  We would come in the winter and see the construction signs with the cute little snowy creatures featured all over them.  The exhibit finally opened this summer and with all of our traveling we just now got there!

My boys were beyond excited… Asking things like “do we need to wear or winter coats, did they fly on a cold airplane, will they be sliding on their bellies?”  They went as far as to learn some facts about penguins and share them with everyone they know…  So we finally made it to the zoo, twice in the past week, in fact!  AND we saw the penguins…  A couple of surprises.  #1, the exhibit is about an eighth of the size that I assumed it would be with all that construction.  #2, it’s tiny in there, #3 and the best of all…  THEY ARE AFRICAN PENGUINS, SO THERE IS NO SNOW… HAHAHAHAHAHAAHA  They are in the sand and water… swimming and playing and looking all cute, but there is no snow.  There is no need for our winter clothes.  They probably came over on a heated jet. They do not slide on their bellies.  They do not  throw snowballs…. BUT, My boys loved them!  They don’t care that there is no snow, they don’t care that the exhibit is small.  They Loved them… They loved that they could climb on rocks to see them, they loved that they swim up and down, they loved that the penguins followed their feet as they kicked them up and down…  Moral of the story…  Sometimes our expectations let us down as adults, but as kids, they just learn to see the good in everything.  A good lesson to learn….  so go out and see the penguins!  

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