Fitting for a Tuesday

Tuesday

By:  David Wiesner

I have always loved this book.  Now if you don't know this book, there are practically no words.  Fantastic for an imagination boost!   If your child is old enough, make up your own words, or just sit and look and the awesome illustrations and let your mind go!  I think this book should be found in every home.  It is different and fun.  Check it out for yourself.  One of the best ways to get kids excited for reading is to be excited yourself!!!

Baked Carmel Popcorn for a rainy day

So it was when I was sitting on the couch trying to ignore the little voice in my head telling me that I want something sweet that I realized I had all the ingredients to make this yummy fall treat!  (FYI, unless you have a lot of people eating this...like 10 :)  I would cut the recipe in half-I always do)

Baked Caramel Corn

6-8 qts. Popped popcorn (2 batches) 

Bring to a boil (don't be impatient like me a put the heat on high.  Keep it at medium and play the patience game!!!):

      1 cup of butter/margarine   pinch of salt

      2 cups brown sugar, packed   ½ tsp. Cream of tartar

      ½ tsp. baking soda

Coat popcorn and bake on cookie sheet at 250 for 15 minutes.  Store in covered container.   

An easy way to coat the popcorn is to put the popcorn and coating in a brown paper grocery bag and shake-that's what we did when I was a kid.

Early Reading

How sweet is that?  Bryn now gets a story read by her daddy every night.  She loves to just sit and listen.  What a perfect picture.  Even if she doesn't know what is being said, she is still learning how to listen!

Apple PIe/Crisp

Boy was this a yummy yummy dessert tonight.  I don't have a baked picture because I didn't get a chance before it was eaten, but it sure was a lot of flavorful goodness!  Here is the recipe, and I have also added the pie crust recipe my family always uses:

Apple Pie/Crisp

1 pie crust

5-6 apples peeled and sliced

1 T lemon juice

¾ cup sugar

2 T flour

1tsp cinnamon

½ tsp ginger

½ tsp nutmeg

 

Preheat oven to 375

Sprinkle apples with lemon juice and stir together with above mixture

Gently toss until coated

Pour mixture into crust

Cover with crumb topping (see below)

Bake for 1 hour

 

Crumb Topping

½ cup flour

½ cup packed brown sugar

½ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp nutmeg

Stir together then cut in 3 T cold butter and mix until mixture becomes crumbly...I did 1 1/2 this part of the recipe as was suggested by Jodi, which worked really well!  

Pie Crust

3 cups flour     

¼ cup margarine or butter  

1 cup shortening    1 tsp. salt

Cut shortening and margarine/butter into flour and slat mixture until it resembles course corn meal.

Add:  1 egg beaten     5 TBLS. water

      1 TBLS. vinegar or lemon juice

Mix the above into the flour mixture.  Mix together quickly.  Divide into three pieces.  Roll out between 2 sheets lightly floured waxed paper.  Makes 3 single pies or 1 double and 1 single. 

And what do you do with the leftover pie crust?  Make PIE CRUST COOKIES!  These are some of my very most favorite things.  I look forward to them and often hide them when I have made a pie or something and someone comes over (selfish, I know).  Good thing Troy doesn't have the same enjoyment for them as me!-he isn't a huge cinnamon fan.

Just roll out the leftover pie crust, sprinkle Cinnamon and sugar, then cut the uncooked dough into squares (I just run a knife along the flattened dough like a big tic-tac-toe board), then cook at 350 till done (usually about 12-15 min).  Enjoy!  It was a LOVELY fall day today, perfect for an apple treat!)

Starting something new

Well I figured I would combine some of my favorite things and blog about them, food and Children's Books. Strange combination, I know. I am sure there are people blogging about even weirder things. I know there is at least one person out there who will keep up with this blog, so Jen, I'm doing this for you! Now I can keep up on these things and share them! So here we go!!!! Mt very first entry. I promise to keep up on this blog as opposed to my old food blog that I have now neglected. But what can you do. Sometimes you have a baby and forget about what you used to enjoy, well not anymore!. I'm feeling a little festive today, so I will give you all a little review of this holiday book (and you'll get a food post this weekend, and more next week since next Saturday is a big day for all of you who enjoy each and every holiday!

The House that Drac Built

By: Judy Sierra

Illustrated by: Will Hillenbrand

This is a fun book that builds, like "There was an Old Woman who Swallowed a Frog".  This is a repetitive book since it always comes back to the first and most memorable phrase, perfect for preschoolers and young elementary students!  It starts with "This is the House that Jack built", and moves on to Zombies, Werewolves, Mummies, and so on.  I think this is a fun book, the illustrations are pretty intense, but I am a sucker for Holiday books, especially Christmas, but Halloween is great as well, and I always love picking up a festive book to read because it always takes you back to some place or time.  This book's illustrations reminds me of Halloweens when I was little and was afraid of the "Scary stories to tell in the Dark" books (but the illustrations aren't as creepy).  But one thing I really liked about this book, especially for children is that the children (trick-or-treaters) enter the book towards the end and help to make well of the situation.  See, during the build of the story, a few characters reek havoc on some of the more innocent characters in the book(if a Mummy and Werewolf can actually be considered innocent :) ), and the Children come to save the day and sort of comfort the disheveled cat, bat, and so on.  

So would I recommend this book (Not that I'm any expert or anything, I just have an affinity for children's books)?  I think so.  Some of the character's illustrations may be a little scary, but hey, it's Halloween!  This is a book I have in my collection, and don't worry, my 3 month old isn't scared :)

Check out your local library for a copy if you don't want to purchase!

(I promise that next time I wont write so much stuff and spoil the ending!)