mommyapolis

Materials:

Apple

Red Tempera Paint

Green Tempera Paint

Paper Towel

Paper Plate or paint brush

Directions:

Cut the apple in half vertically.  Dry the apple with a paper towel.  Dip the apple that still has the stem on it in the paint (that is on a paper plate) OR you can lightly paint the apple with the green or red paint.  Press it on the paper and you will have the cutest little apple.  You can draw a tree trunk first and then have your child paint apples all over it.  Another thing you can do is cut a second apple in half horizontally and it will make a star on the inside of the apple (there is a cute story about the house with no windows, no doors and a star inside you can google)…  Use the horizontally cut apple in the green paint and that can be your “leaves”.  Do the vertically cut apple in the red paint for the apples… This would make a very cute picture!

Today I made apple crisp for my book club…  I usually make it the traditional way, but today I made it in a more snazzy way… Both recipes are below…  I will post a picture of ours once we dig into it!

Traditional Apple Crisp:  Courtesy of Martha Stewart

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
• 1/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold, cut into small cubes
• 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats (not quick-cooking)
• 3 pounds apples, such as Empire, Gala, or Braeburn, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/2-inch chunks
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, mix together flour, brown sugar, salt, and 2 tablespoons granulated sugar. Cut butter into flour, using a pastry blender or two knives, until mixture is the texture of coarse meal. Add oats, and use your hands to toss and squeeze mixture until large, moist clumps form. Transfer to freezer to chill while you prepare apples.
2. In another large bowl, toss apples with lemon juice, cinnamon, and remaining 1/2 cup granulated sugar. Transfer to a shallow 2-quart baking dish, and sprinkle with topping mixture. Place baking dish on a rimmed baking sheet, and bake until golden and bubbling, 55 to 65 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes before serving.

SNAZZY APPLE CRISP

1-2 lemons (the zest and the juice)

1.5 cups of sugar

1.5 cups flour

1/2 t salt

1/2 t cinnamon

1/2 t nutmeg

1 stick of butter (cold)

2 pounds of apples, peeled, sliced and cored

FOR TOPPING:

Zest one to two of the lemons (one large or two small).  Put the zest of the lemon and the sugar in a food processor or blender.  Grind until very fine.  Add the flour and all of the spices to this mixture.  Add the cold butter and combine in the mixer.  Set Aside

For Base:

Slice all of the apples and place them in a casserole dish or baking pan.  Squeeze the juice from the above lemon(s) all over the apples.  Pour the crumb mixture from above (the topping) over the apples and pat it down.  Bake this at 375 degrees for 50 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

This week I am going to try to post different apple recipes that we love… Please add your recipes to the comment section and I will copy them to our recipe page!   It is a family tradition for us to go to the apple orchard in early October…   Make a trip to your local orchard, farmer’s market, or grocery store and enjoy apples a couple different ways!  It’s that time of year!  MMMM..

Homemade applesauce:

INGREDIENTS

• 3 to 4 lbs of peeled, cored, and quartered apples.
• Juice of one lemon, about 3-4 Tbsp
• 1 cinnamon stick (if desired) or 2 T cinnamon (we leave it out at our house)
• 1/4 cup of brown sugar
• up to 1/4 cup of white sugar
• 1 cup of apple juice or water

1 Put all ingredients into a large pot. Cover. Bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes.

2 Remove from heat. Remove cinnamon stick.   Mash with potato masher.

Ready to serve, either hot or refrigerated.  Freezes easily..

The sugar amounts are just guidelines, depending your taste, and on the sweetness of your apples, use less or more. If you use less sugar, you’ll likely want to use less lemon juice. The lemon juice brightens the flavor of the apples and balances the sweetness.

One of our favorite meals, my kids call it “butterfly pasta” because of the shape of the noodles… It’s great because you can use any fresh vegetables you have in your refrigerator and it’s pretty quick to make!  You can also use chicken, shrimp, or NO MEAT at all…

Ingredients I often use include:

Butterfly Pasta (AKA. Farfalle/bowties) but you can use any noodle you like

Cooked Shrimp OR Cooked Chicken

Red Peppers

Mushrooms

Zucchini

Yellow Squash

Green Onion

Peas (frozen)-add last

1/2 -1 cup Heavy whipping Cream

Butter and/or Olive Oil

Garlic

2 cups Parmesan Cheese

Salt and Pepper

Directions:  I LOVE garlic so I often use 4-5 cloves of fresh, chopped or pressed garlic, but you can do this to your taste..

**  Boil water and cook pasta ( I use about 1/2 box-1 box for my family of 4 and one box gives us leftovers).

**  Saute the shrimp or chicken in butter or olive oil and garlic, add salt and pepper to taste.  When finished, put it in a separate bowl.  Saute Veggies in butter or olive oil and garlic , add salt and pepper to taste.  Add this to the meat bowl from above.  Take about 3 T of butter (or more depending on your liking) and MORE garlic and saute that until lightly brown.  Add 1/2 cup-1 cup of heavy cream.  Simmer until it begins to thicken.  Add fresh parmesan until it melts.  Add the veggies and shrimp or chicken, I also add the frozen peas at this time…  Add the cooked pasta and toss together… Serve warm and enjoy!

I happen to live in a state where baseball is still going strong!  Here is a QUICK craft for those of you who are not afraid of glitter and want to decorate for the home team!

Materials:

*  White paper or card stock

*  White Glue

*  Red Glitter

**  Cut a circle out of white paper or card stock.  Draw the seams of the baseball with white glue… Sprinkle this with red glitter, let dry and you’ve got yourself a home run ball!

*** Other ideas with for baseball season:

1.  Cut a circle out of white paper.  Where the seams would go punch little holes about an inch apart.  Using red yarn have your children “thread” the ball…

2.  Have your child make a pennant for the home team… Use construction paper, felt, etc..

When I was in college sponge painting was “in”…  My girlfriends and I actually even sponge painted our lofts, my how times have changed, There is no sponge painting on any walls or beds in my house…  Except maybe for these cute apples the boys and I made!

Materials:  small or large paper plates, construction paper, red paint, old sponges…

I used the smallest paper plates I could find and the oldest sponge I had… I cut the sponges up into small squares and let the boys dip the red paint into the squares and paint their plate to look like an apple.  I tried to get one of them to make a green apple, but no luck!  Either way, I think the texture of the sponge makes the apple look good enough to eat!  HA HA

OK, so one of my very favorite places to visit is http://www.bakerella.com  Have you been there?  If not, you just MUST…  ENJOY!  

It has been raining a lot here lately and it’s hard to find new and exciting things to do indoors…  We love to “paint the floor” at our house… We just take some big roll paper, cover the floor and paint away.  Sometimes we use brushes, sometimes fingers, sometimes even toes…  

Savage Farmer's Market

The Farmer’s Market is one of my favorite places to take the boys.  I love to teach them about the different vegetables and even learn a bit about a few myself.  We have frequented the Minneapolis Farmers Market, but have found a few closer to home, as well.  The Prior Lake Farmer’s Market is one of our favorite Saturday morning stops. It is open on Saturday’s from 8-12.   They don’t have a ton of stands, but they have lots of “eat me now” items that we just just love.  We always make sure to stop by Edelweiss Bakery for a little something sweet…. We don’t leave the PLFM hungry, that is for sure.  Today we ventured to the Savage Farmer’s Market and it was a mini version of your big city Farmer’s Market, which is just what I was looking for.  The vegetables and flowers were spectacular and the prices were right!  If you live South or just want a smaller version of a great thing, make sure to stop by the Savage Farmer’s Market, a branch of the St. Paul Farmer’s Market!  It is located at 123rd Street and Hwy 13, right near The Depot Coffee Shop, it is open on Sunday’s from 8-1, although today they stayed open a little later!

Savage Farmer's Market