Come In, We're Open!

Good morning, all!   I hope you all have had a good week despite the horrific news from Paris!  Continual prayers for all involved.  I hope you’ll forgive my inactivity on here lately, but I have been working to get my Etsy shop updated.  I hope you will get a chance to check it out here!  Right now I am focusing on hand painted ornaments in anticipation of Christmas.  Each one takes several hours to complete, in my case spread out over several days.  When little ones are awake, focused painting sessions are few!

I sold many of these the year before Fynn was born and ended up creating about a half dozen or so custom orders.  These were so much fun and I just admired the creative ideas each individual had, often customizing with name, event, and year.

 

  Anyway, all that to say if you or any one you know is interested in a special ornament this year, please let me know!  Here’s a sampling of some of my custom and past orders:

Enjoy this season of anticipation and celebration!

Mountain Apple Dumpling Recipe

 

 

Do you still have any apples left?  As promised, I’d like to share with you our Mountain Apple Dumplings.  Now, I’d like to tell you some wonderful, woodland tale about backpacking deep into the Cascades and stumbling across a story book cottage of a sweet, elderly, mountain lady who kindly shared with us her treasured family recipe.  That’s the fable that plays in my head when I hear the name but, no, not quite so romantic.  The name comes from the secret ingredient: Mountain Dew.

Is this healthy?  Eh, “healthy” is a continuum, right?  It’s better than some, has real fruit in it and is amazingly delicious!  This recipe is quick and easy and always ends up being a hit at get-togethers.  I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve been asked for this recipe!  And the funny thing is that, though I got this recipe from my Mom ages ago, she and I have both evolved it to our own tastes, and now we would write it out completely differently.  So take this recipe as a general guide and have fun with it!  I’ll include some comments about different ways you could tweak it. 

 

Mountain Apple Dumplings

Ingredients:

2-4 apples

2 refrigerated crescent dough (or pie dough)

1 c. butter (she uses 1/2 cup)

½ c. sugar (or 1 cup for tart apples)

1 can Mountain Dew (I don't usually have soda in the house and have used orange juice in a pinch.  I works, but changes the flavor)

1-2 TBSP Cinnamon (I like to add nutmeg, cloves or allspice, too!)

See!?  Every ingredient is adjustable!  Preheat oven to 350 F.  Core and slice apples into 16 pieces.  You may peal them if you desire, but I usually leave the skins on. 

 

Wrap each slice in a triangle of dough (it’s okay if it’s not completely covered) and place in greased 9x13” pan. 

 

They will probably all be touching.  Pour sugar evenly over dumplings, then spices over the sugar. 

 

 Gently (so as not to wash all the sugar off dumplings) pour butter, then Mountain Dew evenly over dumplings. 

 

Cook for one hour, then enjoy!  These taste amazing warm with a little ice cream!

 

Can I just share the story of this plate while I have it in a photo.  I know it’s not much, but I think it’s beautiful: emerald on the top and cobalt underside.  My kinda colors!  So, we were on our daily walk down our dirt/ice road last breakup (spring) in Fairbanks.  As the snow had just begun to melt it revealed this beautiful plate, surprisingly unbroken, on the side of the road.  Though I immediately wanted to take it home (is that gross?  I sanitize!) I figured it belonged to someone farther down, so I set it upright in a snowbank so any one passing would be sure to see it.  I let a week pass and it remained, so I brought it home and thought of it as my lovely scavenger’s treasure.  Not long after before we were having a meal on our porch because it was finally ABOVE FREEZING!!! And the baby pushed the plate off the table and it shattered into a million pieces.  Aw man, sad!  Oh well.  I threw it away.



Does he remind anyone else of a tiny Kristoff?

My walking buddies

 

 

The next day on our walk, I found the exact same plate in the exact same spot!!!!  What?  Wow, thanks, God!  Hee hee!  Now my little miracle plate makes me happy every time I see it.  And who said God doesn’t care about the little things! =)

Beyond the Books: October

Another month in the books of our first year homeschooling preschool!  Again I wanted to share the ways we took learning past the books.  When I say books, really all we're doing is a couple of workbooks I found at the book store for writing and math.  Partially because he doesn't get this as much day-to-day and also just because he wants to learn!  I love that mindset in him!  He finished his first two books this month and was so proud of himself (as we were!)

 



AND he learned to ride his bike with no training wheels!  No book can teach that =)

New structures: as much as we could we talked about how each of these were made and why.

Harbor Docks

Covered Bridges



Lava rock observatory

Giant Compass!

Light house visit

New landscapes


Waterfalls



Coastal rocks



Tide rising



Ancient Lava Flows

New animals:

So much learning at the Whale Museum

New plants and how they work:

Kelp at the ocean: grows under water with air pockets

How logs can hollow out at the center



How pumpkins grow on vines in the field (and what the insides look like!)



How apples grow from trees (and how to pick them)



Carnivorous lilies in a bog 

On a stay-at-home morning (hence the jammies =) ) he changed the plates on our vehicles almost all by himself with his own tools!

 Our friends' little preschooler has been super interested in volcanos, so we decided to make our own.  I'd done the baking soda and vinegar before, but this time we added food coloring and dish soap and it really made it dramatic and longer lasting.  We also made our own volcanos out of a cup set on a plate, then covered in tin foil.  I attempted to make it look like a snow-covered peak by spraying it with hairspray and dusting with flour.  Such fun!

 

Then we got the guys in the kitchen helping us cook to make carameled apples.  I had help throughout the month cooking.  Such a great way for them to reap the benefits of their hard work and be careful with the measuring and stirring.

 

 

Cultural Experience: Highland Games!  Such joy watching the events and pipes, then they danced the night away with the Highland Country Dancers (P.E.?)!

 

 

There was so much more, but I'll leave it at that for now! If you'd like any more information about any of these things, please wade back through the posts of the last month or feel free to shoot me a comment or message!  Happy learning!