Thanksgiving Wreath

I know everyone is busy getting ready for the holidays, us too. I wanted to share an easy little craft for Thanksgiving, the Turkey Day Turkey Wreath.

It's really easy to make: Wreath form, colorful foam or felt, googley eyes, curling ribbon, hot glue ...

Whipped Apple Pie

Whipped Apple Pie

An easy, no bake pie solution. 

You need :
Deep pie pan
Food Processor
Electric Mixer
2-3 Lg. Apples (your choice, I used Stayman)
1 stick butter (softened)
1 pack graham crackers (or ginger snaps)
1 carton (16 oz) heavy whipping cream
Vanilla extract
Cinnamon Sugar

Caramel

Butterscotch Chips (optional)

There are several steps, which are going to seem like a lot, but, once you know what you're doing, you'll find you can do them all at once. 

First you're going to make the pie crust.
Crush the graham crackers or ginger snaps into small pieces using the food processor.
Combine in a bowl with butter, then put in pie pan and form crust. Place pan in the fridge.

Next you're going to prepare your apples. 

Wash, core, and peel if you'd like, then slice into small chunks.

Place chunks into a bowl, and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, butterscotch chips, caramel, and any other
"pie fillings" you'd like. Set aside.

Now you're going to make the whipped cream.
Pour your heavy whipping cream into the bowl of your mixer, add some vanilla (or, any other flavor you'd like) and whisk. If your mixer doesn't have a whisk attachment, use the beaters.
I start out blending on low, and work up to a medium speed. Only whip until it's thick, but light and fluffy. 

Now you're going to fold your apples into the whipped cream. Slowly! Break your apple mix into 3 or 4 parts when mixing it in. You want to mix in the apples and coat them with whipped cream, but not over beat the mixture and ruin the whipped cream (It's really not as hard as it sounds). Then place the whipped cream apple mixture in your pie crust, top with caramel and refrigerate until you're ready to serve. Yum!

I also like to make a variation of this using pudding mix near the holidays. You may want to watch for it around Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Apples apples everywhere.

We are up to our eyes in apples over here. That might be a slight (just tiny) exaggeration, but we have a ton of apples. And I need to do something with all these apples. I can only take so many apple slices with peanut butter.

Last week I bought 2 3lb bags of apples from the market, then Monday we ended up going to the orchard while hubs and dad-in-law were off work, so we got another 8lbs of apples. (We got the smallest bag of our group ... believe me) And the orchard was packed. I say packed because I'm used to small groups of kids, not crazy college students and Asian tourists and people with dogs.

 

 

I really wanted some Fuji apples. I'm not sure if you're supposed to do this though. But my husband loves me, and who's going to question a man in a tree with an obviously pregnant woman asking for FUJI apples. Besides, his dad was spotting him, sorta. 

They wanted Granny Smith and Stayman apples.
(I'll stick with my Fuji's and Gala's ... I like sweet apples)

But now I have a thousand pounds of apples on my counter to do something with. And yes, I know you're 'supposed' to keep apples in the fridge; there's not enough room in my fridge.

Oh Emu, why not make some apple sauce? I probably will, but I'm the only one who eats it, it reminds Jedi-John of baby food.
Well, why not make some apple pie? Yeah, I could. But, that would be silly, since we don't really like apple pie, and when I think of apple pie, I think of the traditional pie.
(Don't worry - I thought of a new way to make apple pie. I'll share it once I have the motivation to make it. )

So, I did a little looking around, and found a few ideas.  Interestingly 2 of the ideas are apple cider, and not apples. Go figure. 

Apple Cider Floats

Apple Cider Doughnuts

Caramel Apples

Then there was this guy. Two Ingredient Ice Cream. It can't get any easier, really. Make some apple ice cream. Maybe some caramel apple ice cream. Or apple pie ice cream. Or any other form of ice cream involving apples.

Does anyone have any other suggestions of things I could make? 

Baked apples, apple brown betty, ooohhh - apple latkes, apple smoothies anyone?

For more about Virginia's apples : Visit The Virginia Apple Growers Association.
We visited Carter Mountain Orchard, in Charlottesville.

Glittered Pumpkins

Being preggers kinda wipes you out sometimes. I have zero motivation to craft right now, even thought I really, really need to (I have a stack of material waiting to be made into blankets, and my sewing machine is sitting on the floor in my dining room). So I am keeping my decorating very simple. Also, we don't really celebrate Halloween, so that makes it even easier.

Last year I made these pumpkins & gourds to decorate with. They're really easy to do.
First - you need to visit LittlePinkMonster, and read her tutorial for the Glittered Eggs. It's pretty much what you'll be doing, but with mini-gourds instead. Or you could do larger gourds and pumpkins.

I found the pumpkins and gourds at the Dollar Store last year, so they may have them again this year, but I'm sure the craft stores have them as well (here are some similar pumpkins from Joanns) .
Pop a toothpick in the bottom of them, cover in mod-podge, then sprinkle with glitter and let dry.
I used white glitter, to give them a frosted look, but you can do pretty much any color you want. You could do Orange, or Black to make them more halloween-ish.

Place in a cute basket, or jar - and you've got a super simple, cute decoration.

Autumn is here

Autumn is here!! We have some changing leaves to prove it. We also have tons of rainy days and temperatures around 80. Not so autumn like.  I'm also trying to think up a fun fall project to work on (maybe, something not food related??)  But I just wanted to let everyone I'm not dead :)  Preparing for a baby just takes a lot out of ya.

Homemade Apple Sauce

I was hoping to hold out on an apple sauce post until further into fall, but, oh well.

It's cooled off here, soon the leaves will be changing, and I had some apples I needed to do something with,

so, we get apple sauce.

My apples came from the grocery, but hopefully later this fall I'll get to go up to the orchard and pick some apples. I loved going to the orchard with the class I used to work with, it was beautiful up there.

{If you live in Central VA - check them out: Carter Mountain Orchard }

Homemade apple sauce is pretty easy to make.

I make mine in the crock pot, but you can do it on the stove as well.
You'll need apples, cinnamon, sugar, nutmeg, water and lemon juice
(or you can use apple juice, or orange juice). 

Wash your apples, peel if you'd like, remove the seeds and cube them.
Then put your apple cubes into the crock pot to cook.
(Set the crock pot on high for faster cooking, or low for an all-day cook)

 I used 5 apples (2 granny smith, 3 fuji) and added 1/2 cup of orange juice.
I also added just a dash of cinnamon. I love the smell when it's cooking.

After sitting on high for 2 hours, you get this :
(or on Low, for about 4 hours)

mmmmmmm .....
Doesn't that look yummy?!? But it's not ready yet.

Turn it down to low and let cook another hour.
Now is the time to add your cinnamon, and sugar, nutmeg, and anything else you want.

After about an hour on low, your apples should be soft enough to puree or mash into apple sauce,
or you can eat it how it is - just let it cool a bit first. 

Also, the former educator coming out:

Look at that apple seed starting to sprout.
I save my seeds to plant, in the hopes of growing my own apple trees.

Now, enjoy your apples.

And some pictures from my past visits to the orchard.

Autumn Apples

When you think of Autumn, what comes to mind?

Apples, Pumpkins, Changing Leaves, Cool Weather, Halloween and Thanksgiving?

Let's stick with apples, and I'll be posting a recipe later.