12. Apple Pie in the Apple

So, yesterday was my weekly preschool and I was still doing apples. I saw this and HAD to try it. And it WORKED! I was actually surprised. It wasn't that hard to scoop out the insides with a melon baller, either.

But in Reality:

Would I do this again with small children?
Yes! if you make the filling, make the pie crust and scoop out the apples ahead of time (which I did), they get to scoop in the filling and can cut and put on pie crust (did it look like that adorable lattice in the picture? Absolutely not - but PROCESS NOT PRODUCT and she had so much fun doing it).
Definitely more fun for them to make than eat, but still awesome.

Would I do it with a large group of children?
No ----- it took about 3-5 minutes to scoop out each apple. So scooping out much more than the 4 that I did could get very old very quickly.

Was it worth it?
YES! Just to see the look on her face while she cut the pie crust was more than enough to justify doing it again (and seeing if I can incorporate using a pizza cutter into every activity)

11. Perfect Pie Crust

Today, I needed a pie crust (and you will see exactly why in tomorrow's post).

I don't even know why I pinned this (pinned 19 weeks ago, by the way), because I typically don't have a problem making pie crust. And the directions for this crust are just about how I normally do it. Today's only variation was that I just used butter (and halved the recipe)
Yes, I do typically mash the dough with my hands until I reach a pebble like consistency. At that point, I switch to a fork when incorporating the water. And so did this recipe.

Here is the recipe. The blog post has excellent photo-illustrated directions

Perfect Pie Crust

Yield: 2 9\\\" pie crusts

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 C flour
• 1/2 C butter
• 1/2 C shortening
• pinch of salt
• ice cold water, add teaspoon by teaspoon until right consistency has formed

Instructions

• Place flour, salt, butter and shortening in bowl.
• Use your hands to combine ingredients until small pebbles form
• Add cold water a teaspoon at a time until the dough begins to hold together and form a ball.
• Do not over handle the dough. Dough should be soft, moist but not wet.
• Divide dough in half.
• Place ball of dough onto wax paper and flatten. Place another piece of wax paper over the top and roll out the pastry into a circle. If your pie pan is 9 inch make sure your circle is bigger than 9 inches so you have enough for the edging..
• Remove the top layer of wax paper and place pastry into pie tin. Remove other piece of wax paper and press pastry into pan. Use your fingers to crimp the edge of the crust.
• Freeze for 30 minutes to firm up the pastry. This helps prevent pastry from shrinking during baking.
• Prick the bottom of crust to prevent bubbling during baking.
• If pie calls for a baked crust bake at 400 degrees. For the first 10-12 minutes keep the edges of pie covered with foil and then remove for the last 15 minutes. Bake until golden brown.

Hopefully I will get my phone back from Magnificent Blessing from Heaven #4 and will be able to post a pic

10. Broccoli and bacon salad

I loved this salad! It was fabulous. However, slightly more tangy than I expected.

9. Meatloaf (with crackers)

So, last time I made meatloaf, I could barely choke it down. It was made tolerable with copious amounts of ketchup (Magnificent Blessing from Heaven #4's favorite part and why he calls it "ketchup meat" - whatever works to make them eat). So this time I thought I might actually follow a recipe - again, if you recall I'm a "shake it 'til it feels right and don't bother measuring" kind of cook. I never follow a recipe for meatloaf.

So, what better place to go to than pinterest to find meatloaf recipes. I pinned 4 recipes and will try the others soon and compare. This time the recipe called for crackers. And this also called for copious amounts of ketchup. 8 ounces per batch, in fact. (Pinned 16 hours ago)

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1-8 ounce can tomato sauce or ketchup
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 to 3/4 sleeve of saltines
• 1/4 cup of diced onions
• 1/4 cup of diced green pepper
• 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tsp. Seasoning salt
• 1 tsp. pepper

Instructions

1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Mix thoroughly. Make sure to crush saltines in small pieces. Place mixture in small loaf pan or shape into a loaf form and put into a baking dish. If you put in a baking dish, place a small amount of water to keep from sticking. If you use a loaf pan, spray with non stick cooking spray before putting meatloaf into pan.
2. Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven covered for approx. 45 minutes. Remove from oven and add a small amount of tomato sauce or ketchup to top of meatloaf. Return to the oven uncovered for an additional 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let set a few minutes before serving. (if you cut and serve it to soon, it will break apart). Enjoy!
   

So the consensus from the fam: It is too mushy. Well, I figured, with that much ketchup.

 Major Changes: I did double the recipe. I just didn't have two cups of ketchup. I did discover while making this that I have no ketchup in my pantry. I coupon and ketchup happens to be one of those items that I often have loads of because deals and coupons abound for ketchup. However, not recently apparently and I had to improvise. So I used one cup of ketchup, 1/2 cup of barbeque sauce and (don't you dare tell my family) a 4 ounce (1/2 cup) jar of sweet potato baby food. Magnificent Blessing from Heaven #5 is TWO and I STILL have a few jars of baby food floating around. I try to sneak them into recipes whenever I remember.
The recipe was a bit vague on how many crackers to add. I did use an entire sleeve. But then found it was too mushy to even put in the pan. So I added (again mum's the word!) 1/4 cup of baby rice cereal (I use this often to replace bread crumbs).

My husband asked what was in it - because of the mushiness and I went over exactly (with measurements) what I added. But I intentionally made no mention of sweet potatoes or rice cereal (with Captain Picard booming in my head "A lie of omission is still a lie" ---- but I don't care - I am NOT TELLING!)

Despite being mushy, I adored it and thought it tasted wonderful. Magnificent Blessing from Heaven #4 did not like it as well as he normally does. I am convinced it was the added onions and peppers I typically don't add. I am also convinced that is what made it so delicious for me.

Next time (and I do believe there will be a next time) I will reduce (maybe even halve) the ketchup (or whatever it may be that I add - shhhhhhh)

8. Environmental Print pictures for every letter of the alphabet

So VERY early this morning I was looking for today's pin to unpin.

Over the weekend, Magnificent Blessing from Heaven #4 came home and in his weekly folder, the teacher talked about environmental print and learning to "read"(yes, they put it in quotation marks - I however am of the opinion that even reading print that you see every day {as in coke - some people may say a child can read it because of the wave/symbol, but as a very wise woman pointed out to me - what do you think reading is? [SYMBOLS!!!]} so they would just be reading to me).

So over the past view days, I have packed empty bottles and boxes to facilitate this environmental print reading process.

This morning I found THIS pin and I was SOOOOO EXCITED!(Pinned 49 weeks ago)

However, it was quite apparent that the author is from Northwest Arkansas. So for the R page (this week's letter) I revised her page slightly.

Above is hers and mine


And below is the finished product

7. Slow Cooker Cream Cheese Chicken Chili

{source} 

1 can black beans
1 can corn, undrained
1 can Rotel, undrained
1 package ranch dressing mix
1 tsp cumin
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 8 oz package light cream cheese
2 chicken breasts

Drain and rinse black beans. Place chicken at bottom of pot, then pour out whole can of corn (undrained), rotel, and black beans. Top with seasonings and ranch mix. Stir together. Place cream cheese on top. Cover with lid and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Stir cream cheese into chili. Use 2 forks to shred chicken. Stir together and serve. (Pinned 6 days ago)

Magnificent Blessing from Heaven #1 doubted and when she put one spoon in her mouth she said "I'm sorry I doubted"

Major changes: Regular can of tomatoes rather than rotel and I didn't have a can of corn, so I shaved 4 ears of frozen corn and added about 3/4 cup water. I was doubting the addition of water until I shredded up the chicken. It was so soft I used a wooden spoon to do so.

  

6. Weather Calendar

For the weekly preschool, I found this SUPER CUTE weather chart on pinterest. Apparently, on the original pin, the link was broken and this wonderful genius woman took it upon herself to make her own (so that I and the many pinners after her don't have to!!!!!!)

{source}

I noticed in the comments that one pinner questioned: what would I glue it all to? Well, seeing as how canning season is wrapping up for me:   This.........

Plus this.........

 

Equals this!: 

I did cover the edges of the backer board (the bottom of my quart sized jar box bottom) with scrapbook paper (but just the edges: there is no need to use all that paper just to be covered) and then I covered the entire thing in contact paper. but I just used one sheet of contact paper slightly bigger than the weather chart itself and just folded the edges over (kind of like a book cover). I contact papered the arrows then glued them to clothes pins (clothes pins: the ultimate for fine motor control!!! you can almost see the synapses forming when they look at that clothes pin and try to figure out how to make it work) (pinned 7 days ago)

Even Magnificent Blessing from Heaven #4 thinks it is cool. He wanted to know why there wasn't a foggy picture though.

Motherhood is so worth it.