Apple Crisp

What is a girl to do with all these apples? Remember the $500 of apples we bought at the orchard. Well not $500 but it felt like that with all the apples coming out of my kitchen!
I made the best apple Crisp ever. I will share the recipe below.
I also made a very tasty Apple Bread. I did not take a picture of the bread - oops! I adapted that recipe from Two Peas and Pod if you are curious.
I also made Apple Donut Muffins. I decided to be healthy and modify a few things. Not a good idea! They were gross! Anything that has "donut" in it let's just say should not be modified. I found that recipe at Barbara Bakes. Please do not make any changes! Keep the recipe as is!

The apple crisp recipe is the BEST I have ever made. I think i may have mentioned that earlier. This recipe is from Joy The Baker. The combination of spices was perfect. It has a nice amount of apples that you use on the bottom and the crisp was just DELISH!
Serve it with some vanilla frozen yogurt and you will have a happy mouth!


Bake in an 8×8 baking dish or double the recipe and bake in a 9×13 dish

Filling:
5 to 6 medium-size apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1/4-inch slices. (About 7.5 cups)
3 tbsp granulated sugar
1.5 tsp cinnamon

Topping:
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cups lightly packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 stick unsalted butter, well-softened
2/3 cup finely chopped pecans (optional)
1/3 cup quick oats

Preheat the oven to 350. Generously grease an 8×8 baking pan with butter.

Place a layer of apple slices in the bottom of the pan and dust with sugar/cinnamon mixture. Continue layering apples and dusting with cinnamon/sugar until done. Toss the apple mixture until evenly coated in cinnamon sugar. The apples should be just about to the top of the pan (they will cook down).

For the topping, place the flour, brown sugar, nuts, cinnamon and oats in a large bowl and stir well with a wooden spoon. Work the butter into the mixture with your fingertips until evenly distributed. Take one full handful of the topping and toss it into the sugared apple mixture. Spread the rest of the topping evenly over the apples. (I usually end up with a dough-like topping that I just lay on top of the apples).

Bake the crisp in the dish on a baking sheet on the center oven rack until the topping is crunchy and the apples are bubbling, 55-60 minutes.

Serve hot; it’s excellent with vanilla ice cream.

Source: Joy The Baker

Corn and Black Bean Quinoa

It has been awhile since I posted a recipe! I have so many to share with you that are just fantastic!
I made this sometime in August. This is how far behind I am with sharing recipes! This side dish was DELISH!

This one is adapted from The Closet Cooking:
Here is his recipe:

Ingredients:
1 cup red quinoa ( I used regular quinoa)
2 cups water
1 cup black beans
1 ear corn (grilled and kernels cut from cob) ( I used Trader Joe's Roasted Corn)
1/2 red pepper (sliced)
1 jalapeno pepper (sliced)
1 green onion (sliced)
1/4 cup cilantro (chopped)
1 tablespoon oil
1 lime (juice)
1 chipotle in adobo sauce (chopped)
1 teaspoon cumin
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Simmer the quinoa in the water until the water is absorbed, about 20 minutes.
2. Mix the quinoa, black beans, corn, red pepper, jalapeno, green onion, and cilantro in a large bowl.
3. Mix the oil, lime juice, chipotle in adobo sauce, cumin, salt and pepper in a small bowl.
4. Toss the salad in the dressing.

This salad was so tasty and full of flavor. You can eat it as a meal or use it as a side dish with a variety of foods! it was even better the next day. I'm thinking that I will need to add this to this week's menu!

Happy Eating!

Woke up to this email..

I woke up to this email today. A great way to end my week! And yes, i did have a little tear stream down my face.

Hi Susie and Ron,

Liz and I just wanted to you know how much we are enjoying having Mira in our class this year. She is so hard-working. Last week Friday the students did their math MAP test on the computer. After an hour, a couple students still hadn't finished because they were taking their time and working very carefully. Mira was one of those students. She finished the test yesterday afternoon and scored 185. On-level for this time of year is 179, so taking her time really paid off!

Mira is a great role model to her classmates because of her ability to focus and pay attention. Thank you for sharing her with us this year!

Jethra

Apple Orchard

A few weeks ago we went to the apple orchard with my older sister and her family. This is an annual visit for the Buckman/Young clan. In the years past we head over to Stillwater. This year we decided to go south and found an orchard in Lakeville.
It was a quaint orchard with activities for the kids and we were able to pick our own apples. That's what going to the orchard is all about right!
Needless to say after an hour of picking we head back to pay. Ummmmmmmm. Wasn't planning on spending $50 on apples! Well we did have about twenty pounds. That is a lot of apple pies that I have to make!











Happy Fall!

Happy Birthday to my little lady! It was actually last Thursday! I'm a terrible mother for not posting on her exact day! Last week was crazy trying to finish the "face lift" on our kitchen. I'll tell you more about that in another post.
We did celebrate by going out to dinner as a family and she is having a little party with just a few friends this weekend.

Mira is 8! Where did 8 years go?
Here are 8 things about my little lady of course there is more but I'm going with a theme here ok)

1) She is free spirited
2) Loves to be silly
3) Loves to draw and color
4) Loves fat fluffy things to squeeze
5) Loves to eat sweets (she would eat them all day if she could)
6) Loves to snuggle and get massages
7) Loves to dance
8) Love to be with her family and friends

Happy Birthday to my special little lady - you have brought such joy and love to our family! We love you!

Mira's To do List

I have been laughing so hard while I post this that I'm crying now. Mira started a "to do list" earlier this summer. I came across it this as I was cleaning.
She is still learning to spell so let me break this down for you:

Wake Up
Lay Down
Eat breakfast
Watch tv
Get dressed
Make fun of Tyler ( oh really?!!!)
Wait for ?
Take a nap
Fun

At the very bottom it says slap Tyler's big butt!

I have to crack up at the make fun of Tyler and slap his butt. It all makes sense now why I was loosing my mind this summer with all the fighting. Apparently mom did not know it what on the to do list.
Just so you know about 75% of this to do list was not my to do list for little miss thang!

First Day of School

What? How did Sept 6, 2011 creep up on us so fast?! I'm not liking this. Thankfully they are more prepared than I am.
I was not sure what to anticipate this morning both of them having to get up so early. I know there were mornings this summer that no one was up before 9:30 am!
My alarm went off at 6:05am - what are you doing to me? Where is the coffee?
What a breeze for both of them this morning both fell right into their school routine with ease and no whining! We will see how long that lasts! I admit it was harder on me then them!

Tyler - 8th Grade


Mira - 2nd Grade