A Trip to the Orchard

This is a little late, but at the beginning of October, we were able to go to the cities to celebrate my nephew's 16th birthday.  He is the sweetest guy in the world and chose to go to an apple orchard for his birthday.  I wonder if that had anything to do with the fact that his three little cousins would LOVE the orchard.  That would be just like him.

It started with the haystacks...

Thanks Jonathan, Rachel, and Susan for hopping on board so the girls could go.  I don't think I could have fit...

 They have this BIG AWESOME slide that the girls went down over and over and over.  I love the expressions on their faces!

Taryn LOVES Nathan!

There was a band playing and Taryn jumped up on the table with these kids and started showing her moves.  She has no fear and loves to dance!

 Not exactly sure what Avery is doing right here, besides enjoying a delicious Honeycrisp apple

 Running thru the trees

Anyway, we had a GREAT day!  It was so fun!

Oh And...

We still haven't gotten any snow.  We've had gorgeous weather, trick-or-treated without coats, and went for a walk around the lake tonight.  I love it!  And I check the weather every few days to see the status of the snow forecast, which keeps changing.  A couple days ago, we were predicting snow on the 6th and 8th.  Tonight, it shows no snow in the next 10 days, but instead 40s and 50s during the days and 20s and 30s at night.  At least we're getting a longer fall to make up for our long winter last year!  It has now been over 6 months since we last saw snow.  I'll take it!

AMAZING Recipes

There is so much to blog about, but today, I have to post about some amazing recipes. Thanksgiving was great and I didn't gorge and I actually lost a pound. Then, yesterday, I made these incredible pumpkin chocolate chip cookies with my leftover pumpkin and I think I'm going to gain 5 pounds because I can't stop eating them!

I love pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and they are also one of Braden's favorites. But he likes the store bought ones because they are so soft. I've used about 4 different recipes, trying to mimic the store bought brand to no avail. The last ones I made were too cakey, though I still liked them. So I dug around all my recipes and found the first recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies that I was ever given. No need to search any further. These were amazing, even with dairy free smart balance butter. Perfect soft, melt in your mouth goodness.

PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

1 cup butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp nutmeg
Dash ground cloves
2 cups flour
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350*F. Cream butter and sugars together. Add vanilla, eggs, and pumpkin. Beat well. Add dry ingredients and chocolate chips. Drop by tablespoonfuls on greased cookie sheet. Bake 15 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

The second recipe is for Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal. I love oatmeal in the winter (yes it is actually 40 degrees right now in AZ) and it's a great way to warm the body in the morning. My girls LOVE it too and generally request it over any other breakfast. I actually love oatmeal all year round, but need certain things to put in it. No matter what, it needs brown sugar. But there are some extra jewels I love in it too. In the spring, I LOVE strawberries cut up in it. In the summer, I love fresh peaches. In the fall, I love raspberries, though even store bought frozen raspberries are great in it, so I can enjoy that year round. But the cheapest and most convenient is Braden's Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal.

APPLE CINNAMON OATMEAL

1/2 cup quick oats
Approx. 1 cup water
1/4 applesauce
1-2 Tbs brown sugar, not packed
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Scoop oats into bowl with high sides. Add enough water to completely cover oats by 1/4 inch. Microwave for 2 minutes, watching so it does not boil over. Microwave an additional 15-30 seconds until the center of the oatmeal bubbles up and over itself, but not over the sides of the bowl. Remove from microwave and add remaining ingredients. Stir well.

We love to buy the huge cans of applesauce from Costco/Sams because it is dirt cheap, but we can't eat that much applesauce before it goes bad. So Braden discovered that you can separate it into individual containers (like sour cream or cottage cheese cartons) and freeze it! Then, just take it out, microwave on low power to defrost or put in a water bath or leave in your fridge to defrost it. It works great!

The third recipe is for Thanksgiving Bread Stuffing. I combined my mother in law's recipe and other recipes I found and I loved the end result. I used 2 loaves of store bought 100% whole wheat bread and 1 loaf of crusty french bread that was harder than a rock. I even cooked it in my CrockPot to free up oven space. It worked GREAT! It was done well before dinner was ready, but I just turned it off, left the lid on, and it was still perfect by dinner time.

THANKSGIVING BREAD STUFFING

2-3 loaves bread, cubed and dried (about 12 cups)
1 medium onion, diced (roughly 2 cups)
2 cups celery, diced
1/4 cup butter
1 1/2 Tbs parsley flakes
1 1/2 tsp sage
1 tsp thyme (or 1/2 tsp ground thyme)
1/2 tsp marjoram
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
4-6 cups chicken broth

Saute onion and celery in melted butter until tender. Add seasonings. Mix with bread cubes in large bowl. Spray CrockPot with cooking spray. Pour into CrockPot. Pour chicken broth over top just until moist and stir well. Bake on low 6-8 hours. Add more broth as necessary during cooking. Or, if you want to do it in a conventional oven: Pour bread cubes and onion/celery/seasoning mix into greased casserole dishes and pour chicken broth over top just until moist. Stir well. Bake at 375*F for 20-25 minutes.

I hope you can enjoy these recipes!