#660 - Amish Apple Cake

My mom made Amish Apple Cake for us 2 times when she was here.  It's super easy and tastes amazing!

Amish Apple Cake
makes 9x13 pan, preheat oven to 350 degrees
1 cup pecans, chopped
5 cups cooking apples, chopped medium sized (I used 5 large Granny Smith apples)
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons grated nutmeg
2 cups flour (I used cake flour, but I think regular ap flour should work perfect too)

Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy.  Beat in eggs.  Mix in baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Add flour until blended.  Stir in apples and nuts. Pour in greased 9x13 pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 30-45 minutes until center top springs back when touched.

You can also make a caramel sauce to drizzle on top, but there is no need for this, it's amazing without it.

It gets better with age too.

#659 - Candy Cane Crisps

I got this recipe from my friend Marie.  It's a great recipe to use up all your old candy canes from Christmas. They could even be a good Valentine cookie if you like peppermint flavor.

candy cane crisps

1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 ¼ cups powdered sugar
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup rolled oats
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup coarsely crushed candy canes (I blended mine in a blender to get more of a powdery candy cane)

IN a large bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and 1 cup of the sugar until creamy; beat in vanilla. In another bowl, stir together flour, oats, and salt; gradually add to butter mixture, blending thoroughly. Add ¼ cup of the crushed candy canes and mix until well combined.

ROLL dough into ¾ inch balls, then roll in remaining powdered sugar to coat. Place balls about 2 inches apart on greased cookie sheets. Flatten cookies with a fork, making crisscross patterns with fork tines. Sprinkle each with about ½ teaspoon crushed candy canes.

BAKE in a 325 oven for 18 to 20 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Let cool on baking sheets for 2 to 3 minutes, then transfer to racks and let cool completely. Store airtight. Makes about 4 dozen.

#658 - Moby Wrap

Been busy over here.  Had another cute little baby boy at the very end of last year.  I can get enough snuggles with this cute little guy.  

And still loving my Moby Wrap (I've used it with all my babies!)

I'd rather be staring at this any day, than a baby bump!

Thanks Mom for the Moby wrap it has gotten more than it's money worth of use.

#657 - handprint calendar 2013

I've been wanting to do a handprint calendar with my boys for a while and I finally got up the courage/energy to do it!  I've been pinning ideas for a while and this past week, I spent a few days getting the boys hands and feet messy to make this happen.

We celebrated Christmas this past weekend with my parents, so my mom already got to open her hand print calendar, I think she loved it.

I let the boys choose (from a couple of ideas) the hand print or foot print they wanted to do, so it was fun for all.

We did (see pics above):

January - penguins.  You could also do snowflakes, fireworks, snowman or 3 kings for this month.
February - hearts.
March - four leaf clover and leprechaun.
April - Oster wanted to do a bird (the kingfisher) and then write his name.  You could also do an umbrella, rain drops, Easter eggs (although Easter is in March this coming year).
May - flowers.  You could do a flower pot, butterfly or caterpillar.
June - rainbow fish.  You could do any type of fish or some kind of beach thing.
July - crab and sunshine.  You could do fireworks or a flag.
August - bees and sunshine.  You could also do more beachy things or a back to school theme.
September - tree with leaves turning/falling and a birthday cake (since it is the month of my mom's birthday). You could also do a back to school theme.
October - candy corn and spider.  A pumpkin or bat would be cool too.
November - turkey and pumpkin pie.  Any Thanksgiving thing would work (corn, etc.)
December - Christmas tree with presents and Santa.  You could also do Christmas lights or a Baby Jesus.

I used this free calendar template (I had to squish it to make it work for an 8 1/2 by 11 format) for my months and has the calendar bound at Staples. (here's another 2013 free calendar download that looks hip/cute)

It's not a fast project, but the end result was way cool!  Here's another mom's thoughts on making these calendars.

#656 - muddy buddys, reindeer chow, puppy chow you know you love it whatever it's called

Muddy Buddies, Reindeer Chow, Puppy Chow,

1 12 oz box rice chex cereal 

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips 

1 cup peanut butter 

5 tbsp. butter 

1 tsp. vanilla

1 pkg. (16 oz. or 1 lb.) powdered sugar

1. Pour out cereal into large bowl and set aside.
2. In 1-qt. saucepan, heat chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter over low heat, stirring frequently until melted. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla. Pour mixture slowly over cereal while stirring with a spatula to evenly coat. Pour into a 2-gallon resealable plastic storage bag or grocery bag. Add powdered sugar slowly. Shake until well coated. Spread onto wax paper to cool. Store in airtight container in refrigerator. 

recipe via
picture mine

#655 - 5 year journal

 I found this five year journal at the thrift store (unused, although a used journal would be really fascinating)  and bought it for a $1.  It's the perfect journal for me because I can write a few lines and be done.  Can't wait to look back on this every year.

Here's to hoping I'll keep it up.  If you can notice, the only downside is this is from the 70's, so I have to cross out the "19" and put in "20".

#654 - gifts from Oster

 I'm not the best at getting my Oster to bed early, so he'll stay up late with me working on stuff.  In the picture above he decided that he wanted to send his cousin some stuff, so he packed up a shoe box with anything he could find that would fit.  He said, "the more I give away, the more Santa will bring me."  He's slowly starting to get it.

Then tonight he wanted to do a craft for "his cousin".  He kept asking me to tear off tape for him.  And I was starting to get a little annoyed by how many pieces he wanted.  Then he said that he actually made this bracelet / necklace for me.  He was so proud (and so was I.)  It reminded me of this talk below from the LDS Christmas Devotional.

#653 - The Great Pumpkin or Friendly Neighborhood Witch

Have you heard about the Great Pumpkin?  I know it's long past Halloween, but just wanted to share this great idea I got from Natalie Norton's blog.

I told the boys after they did their trick or treating, they could pick out 5 candies to eat and then if they wanted, they could leave their candy on the doorstep for the Great Pumpkin who would leave them a present.

Oster was very skeptical, but he did it.  Since the Great Pumpkin didn't plan ahead, he left them money instead with a note.  And ironically enough, our neighborhood real estate agent also left a note with a cute little scarecrow on our front door, so when Oster found the letter from the Great Pumpkin, he also discovered this gift from our neighbor.

He said, "Mom, the great pumpkin didn't come, it was a witch".

Then later on in the day, we got another knock at the door, Oster ran to check it and said, "Mom, the Great Pumpkin came again".  This time it was for me :)  Thanks Mom!

#652 - 20 questions for your kids during bedtime & our christmas tree

I saw this list of questions below on pinterest and decided to ask Oster them before bed tonight...I highly recommend it.  He's only 4, so I modified the questions a little for him.  Also, we decorated our tree today while Oster wore his Spiderman costume, so you'll see how that influenced his answers.

1. What do you like to dream about? - Spiderman/Star Wars
2. What is your best memory this school year? - playing with cousins
3. Who is your hero? Why? - Spiderman
4. How would you describe your family? - they help me (Dad - found/made the thing I put my tools on, Parker - shares with me, helps me, Mom- no answer)
5. If you could change anything about yourself, what would it be? - nothing, maybe I could be Spiderman
6. What are you most proud of yourself for? - decorating the Christmas tree
7. Who is the kindest person you know? Why? - Parker (his brother)
8. What do you like most about your best friend? - he shares and plays with me (pretty sure his brother is his best friend)
9. What is one thing you would like to learn to do well? - read (made me proud to hear this)
10. If you were an animal what one would you be and why? - myself, even more than Spiderman
11. When is the last time someome hurt your feelings? How did you react? - no one has
12. Do you know someone who is going though a hard time?- Parker, he didn't want to go to sleep tonight How can you help them? - clean our room
13. What is the scariest thing that happened this year? when you turned off the lights and shut the door 
14. If you could keep only one thing, out of everything you have, what would it be?- Spiderman costume
15. Who do you think is really important? successful? Why?  - me
16. What’s the best thing about your teacher this year? - playing games
17. When do you feel misunderstood by grown-ups? - when I'm mad
18. What three words best describe you? - I like last Christmas when I dressed up as an elf and Parker was Santa.  I like myself.  I like Spiderman.  I like decorating Christmas trees.
19. What’s something that makes you angry? - when I get in trouble
20. What’s the best compliment you ever received?  - not sure

#651 - Diddy Riese - best ice cream sandwiches ever! in LA

 I've only been here twice (my sister introduced me to it), but Diddy Riese is such a fun place to visit for the best ice cream sandwiches ever.

 You get to pick two cookies (I like the oatmeal raisin walnut and white chocolate macadamia nut) and then choose your ice cream flavor.  Oster and his cousin are here looking at all the cookies.

 Oster got 2 M&M cookies with strawberry ice cream and Parker got 2 chocolate chocolate chip cookies with vanilla ice cream.

I got my two favorite cookies with mint chocolate chip.  All for $1.75.  Yum!

Plus, they sell a dozen day old cookies for only $2.  I wish I had bought more cookies to bring home as souvenirs for family (but maybe I would have eaten them first, so maybe it's a good thing I didn't!)

It's in LA next to UCLA.  And if you want to park for free, just park in the Target parking lot about 2-3 blocks away and buy something there, they validate for 2 hours.