Sunday has been a rather good day all in all. Granted the weather has not been the greatest but man have I been productive! We ran out in the morning to H&W where there was a weekend sale on strawberries… as well as potatoes and carrots being a terrific price. I froze the ripest of the berries for later use and am planning on that veggie soup for tomorrow.
My afternoon was spent baking – I found 3 new recipes – two of which use applesauce and the third raspberries. The first was oatmeal applesauce cookies. Ken said they were not “cookie enough” but the boys thought they were terrific. A nice and simple recipe:
1 tsp. ground allspice
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. sugar
2 egg whites
2 c. rolled oats (quick cooking)
2 c. all purpose flour
1 c. unsweetened applesauce
1/2 c. raisins, chopped
Bake 11 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool on rack. Makes 5 dozen. ( I ended up with one cookie short of 5 dozen)
Oatmeal Applesauce Cookies
After the cookies I moved onto Apple Loaf. Another relatively simple one:
1 cup sugar
1 cup applesauce
1/3 cup oil
2 eggs
3 tablespoons milk
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon each salt and nutmeg
Preheat oven to 350ºF.
Mix the first 5 ingredients together. Mix the next 5 ingredients together separately. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix well. Lightly grease a loaf pan. Place mixture in pan and bake for 1 hour.
Topping (if desired):
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Mix together and sprinkle on top of the loaf before baking. I found that it took more like 90 min to cook through and that the topping browned quicker than it was done cooking.
Apple Loaf (so yummy!)
The last baking project was Raspberry Muffins:
- 2 cups flour
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- Dash of salt
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 3 tablespoons melted butter
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.Mix the dry ingredients together. Mix the egg, butter and milk together and fold into the dry ingredients. Gently fold the raspberries into the other ingredients.
Grease the muffin tins and fill three-quarters full with the batter. Bake for 30 minutes or until done. I used cupcake papers since we are out of Pam and ended up with a dozen and a half.
Raspberry Muffins (next time NO papers - bad idea)
Tomorrow I am planning on a couple more trays of apple leather and then some sugar cookies with sprinkles. Not enough icing sugar in the house for icing but I am rather sure the kids (and Ken) won’t complain. There has also been a request for pretzels, so I may have to give those a go.
Everyone except Zander had a nap this afternoon so he and Ken spent some time downstairs building houses out of Lego. We are looking into a special Lego event through a homeschooling egroup in October. Not sure on the date on that one yet but am keeping an eye open.
Proud Builders (Zander)
I got my hands on a wonderful picture of Ken’s cousin on her wedding day this month. They got married in the states and I REALLY wanted to go but with our budget it just wasn’t possible. I cannot wait until we can plan out a trip down there to finally meet Ken’s aunt, uncle and their kids (and kid’s kid). I have really enjoyed getting to know Ken’s cousins Ann and Nicole over the internet, but meeting in person would be TERRIFIC! Congrats Nicole and Dean!
Cousin Nicole - Beautiful Bride!
D&D again tonight so of course we had to test out the new baking… great reviews… well except for Ken (not a huge surprise). Tomorrow will be busy – school work for the boys, work for Ken and of course government calls (wish us luck) as well as other minor errands. I am hoping tomorrow is the start of something MUCH MUCH better in the saga that is our life.
Our Little Sunshine