Little Ava

Take a look at this cutie of a doll, little Ava. I've got a few threaded basil dolls and I love them all. Rosemary likes to kiss them before she goes to bed. I probably like little Ava especially because I know a red-headed little Ava. Perfect.

I'm just not sure there are words.

I love it so much, it's actually making my head spin.

Happy Halloween!

Moving and making

We are very busy moving to our new home and making a Halloween costume. We are also sadly lacking a computer and/or Internet service. Posting will be light while we get everything in order.

xoxo

Halloween

My creative little Rosemary was looking at picture of Halloween costumes on the internet with me and decided that she wanted to be a grocery bag. I am sure if I had given her the option of being a princess, she would have held on to that and not turned back. However, she is a princess almost every waking moment of every single day, so I was wanting to encourage her in a different direction. I thought maybe she could be a cupcake, but the kid WANTS TO BE A GROCERY BAG.

I'm actually quite proud of her.

So, I've been winging it on a grocery bag. I made one out of felt and I'll post pictures soon. I've also been making a bunch of felt vegetables to fill the grocery bag. I tried to find free patterns on the internet, and I did find some good ones. However, I did have to buy some patterns from Umecrafts on Etsy.

So far I have made a tomato, a squash, and a bunch of strawberries. I'll post more details soon.

Pannekoeken! (With Apples, of Course.)

Years and years and years ago, my older brother brought a Pannekoeken recipe home from his 8th grade home economics class. Ever since, this recipe has been a staple in our home. I actually prefer the recipe plain, without any fruit. But every once in awhile ... when I'm feeling really adventurous, I'll add diced apples to the mix.

Over the years, Joel has tried to improve the recipe by adding sugars or different fruit varieties, or what-have-you. In my humble opinion, he has never actually improved it.

Here's the recipe:

Pannekoeken!

3 eggs
3/4 c. flour
3/4 c. milk
3 T butter

Preheat the oven at 450 degrees.

Mix the eggs, flour, and milk. This is also where you would add apples, or what-have-you.

Melt the butter and pour into glass pie dish (or whatever works for you), making sure the butter coats the dish. Then pour the pannekoeken mix over the butter.

Cook for 15-20 minutes. Pannekoeken should be golden brown on top.

Enjoy with syrup, jam, powdered sugar, etc.

Coming Up Apples ...

Apples, apples, apples. Boy, do we have apples. Frozen apples, whole apples, sliced apples, apples still on the tree. Apples.

The lovely Sarah gave me a recipe for apple scones and I gave it a try. I was a bit nervous because I had never made scones and I know scones are either one of two things: good or not good.

These were good. I would venture to say they were perfect. Here is the recipe:

Apple Cream Scones*

2 c. flour
1 T baking powder
1 T sugar
1/2 t. salt
3/4 c. butter, chilled and cut into 1" pieces
1/4 c. milk (I used skim)
1/4 c. sour cream (I used non-fat)
1 t. vanilla
2 eggs

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

If you have a food processor, pulse flour, powder, sugar, and salt in it. I do not have a food processor, and I just mixed it in a standing mixer. Add butter and pulse (or mix) until pea-sized.

In a separate bowl, whisk together milk, sour cream, eggs, and vanilla. Pour over flour mixture until just combined.

Turn mixture out onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, form into an 8-inch circle that is 1-inch thick. Cut circle into 8 even pieces. Brush the tops with milk and sprinkle with 1-2 T cinnamon/sugar mixture (if you are just doing cream scones, sprinkle with plain sugar).

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until bottom of scones are golden brown.

*Feel free to remove the apples and just have cream scones, or replace the apples with another fruit. I've eaten them before with peaches.

I should also mention that this was a surprisingly easy recipe to make. So easy, in fact, that I made 3 batches and put 2 in the freezer. I hope they taste as good after they've been frozen!


p.s. More apple recipes to come ...