Quick, Easy, DELICIOUS Apple Crumb Pie

Life is Good: Even the Crumbs!

I was just looking for my apple crumb pie recipe and realized that I had written this post, but never published it. My guess is that it had something to do with a pre-term newborn, nursing every two hours, pumping after each nursing, attempting to parent two other people, and oh, a whole host of other things going on at the time!
This is one of our family's favorite pies, especially Grant's. Try it! You will like it!
So...a year later, here is the post...

A friend of mine recently asked for favorite Thanksgiving foods on Facebook (thanks, Jen!). I have always loved my mom's sweet potato souffle and pecan pie, but sadly, they have been retired because our kids have egg allergies.

I have a new pie tradition, though. This has to be the simplest, yet most tasty dessert that just screams, "Autumn!" which is what the season should be if you don't live in Minnesota! Booooo for early snow!

Our big kid is having a Thanksgiving Friendship Feast tomorrow, so what am I doing tonight? (Tonight being my first night home with our newborn who arrived 26 days early.) I'm making an apple crumb pie for him to take to his class! Here's the recipe. It does not disappoint.

Susie's Apple Crumb Pie (Adapted from Martha Stewart) 
Pie filling

Approx. 2 ½ pounds assorted apples (I like a blend of Gala and Granny Smith for a sweet & sour pie), peeled, cored, and cut into 1/8 to 1/4 -inch-thick slices

Juice of 1/2 lemon (about 2 tablespoons)

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

⅓ cup sugar

¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

¼ teaspoon salt

Crumb Crust (Makes enough for one 9-inch pie)

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons oats (I used rolled oats)

½ cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

1 ½ sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into small pieces

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, sugar, and salt.
3. Using a pastry blender, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs with a few larger clumps remaining. Using your fingers, squeeze the mixture together to create pea-size to ¾-inch pieces. If not using right away, cover and chill until ready to proceed.
4. Evenly and firmly press a little more than half of the crumbs (about 2½ cups) into the bottom, up the sides, and onto the rim of a 9-inch glass pie plate. Press firmly into the edges.
5. Freeze pie shell until firm, about 15 minutes.

6. In a large bowl, toss together apples, lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.
7. Pour the mixture into the chilled pie shell, mounding apples slightly in the center.
8. Dot with butter.
9. Sprinkle the remaining crumbs in clumps over the apples to cover completely.

10. Bake, rotating halfway through, until the crust turns golden and the juices begin to bubble, about 1 hour. (Depends on the oven.)
11. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
12. The pie can be kept temperature, loosely covered, for up to 2 days. Or you can refrigerate it for longer.

YUMMMMMMMMMMMMM.
Seriously, if you are looking for a relatively easy pie to make that will wow your guests, this is THE PIE! Happy Thanksgiving!

The Best Eggless Egg-free Chocolate Chunk Zucchini Bread Ever

Life is good: thank goodness for chocolate! (STILL)

I just made this yummy bread in prep for our littlest's FIRST BIRTHDAY! (Whew! Twelves months flew faster than a jet plane!)
This time, I omitted the cocoa powder because I have to grind up chocolate chunks to make my own and just didn't feel like doing that one extra step (a lesson I've learned this past year...sometimes you need to omit a step or two!)
Every time I have mixed this up, I remember that I want to just put a dash of cinnamon in it the next time. And then, I forget. So hopefully, with the help of this post, I will remember next time.) I put the batter in two loaf pans and cooked for 60 minutes.

The original post is...
This past year, we were so fortunate to enroll our oldest child in a magnificent preschool. All of the staff were joyful, kind, nurturing, and encouraging. To top it off, the school had a carpool lane, which meant that teachers stood out in the rain and snow and everything in between so that parents didn't have to. I felt especially grateful that I didn't have to get our littlest in and out of the car to drop off the big kid during inclement weather. So the last week of school, I made some chocolate chocolate chunk zucchini bread for the teachers at his preschool as a way to say, "Thank you!!!" for weathering the carpool lane (pun intended!) as well as creating an atmosphere of safety and fun for our child.

Eggless Chocolate Chocolate Chunk Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:

2 C flour

2 C sugar

3/4 C cocoa powder

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

mixture of 3/4 applesauce and 1/2 T baking powder (mixed together in a separate bowl until foamy)

3/4 C canola

3/4 C buttermilk (I have often used milk and it has turned out well)

3 C grated zucchini

3/4 C chocolate chips or chunks (I got this recipe from my friend Merie. She used a 1/2 bag rather than measure them)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Grease and flour two loaf pans.

3. Mix applesauce and baking soda together in a small bowl and set aside.

4. Mix flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon together in a large bowl.

5. Add applesauce mixture plus oil and buttermilk into large bowl of dry ingredients and mix well.

6. Mix in zucchini and then chocolate chips.

7. Pour into pans (half of batter in each) and bake. In my oven, this recipe is done after about 45 minutes. However, all ovens are different, so I suggest that you start checking the middle of the loaf with a toothpick or cake tester after 38-40 minutes.

Notes:

I leave the cocoa powder out of the recipe when I make this bread for my kids since they are allergic to nuts. Most cocoa powders are processed in facilities where nuts are present. The absence of cocoa powder doesn't affect how delicious it is. However, the addition of cocoa powder kind of "takes the flavor over the edge", if you will, and makes the bread much, much more rich. Try it both ways and see what you think!

The original recipe calls for 1 tsp of cinnamon, but it makes for a very obvious cinnamon taste and I prefer it more subtle, especially when leaving out the cocoa powder.

This recipe was originally a cake made with eggs that my friend, Merie, who happens to be a marvelous and adventurous cook, posted on Facebook a few years ago. (Thank you, Merie!) I adapted it to be eggless and the result was more of a bread than a cake, so I bake it in loaf pans, but if you want to try it in a cake pan, go for it!

I made two different recipes--one with cocoa powder (for the teachers) and one without (for my kiddos). Here is a pic of both recipes in the dry ingredient stage.

In this pic, the batter is ready to be poured into the loaf pans.

Here is the Chocolate Chocolate Chunk Zucchini bread version...

And the Chocolate Chunk Zucchini bread version (I used Enjoy Life chocolate chunks.)

 

Finding Peace

Life is Good: and messy

Note: Well, hmmm! I wrote this a few weeks ago--okay, maybe more than a month ago?--but it appears that it must have been on one of those days that I was a little more sleep-deprived because instead of clicking "publish", I must have clicked "save" instead! Baby boy is really doing great at sleeping through the night most nights, so maybe it isn't fair to blame this one on him. But, I will! It's cumulative, right?!
; )

I have a basket of clean clothes waiting to be put away, sitting on the buffet in the dining room. And one upstairs in our bedroom, too.  There are dirty dishes from dinner in the sink. The dining room rug needs vacuumed. There are toys to be put away in two different rooms. If you know me a little bit, you know that this does not sound like me. This is not how I like to run this house. This is the stuff that makes me nutty.

It's taken me three days to mark one item off of my very long to-do list. I'm behind on doing our taxes. Okay, getting our stuff put together for our tax guy to do our taxes. I need to use a magic eraser on the wall going up the staircase. And I'm fat. I have baby weight to lose (ugh) and I've also been dealing with some extreme swelling. I mean, extreme. The kind of edema that hurts when you get down on the floor to play superheroes and hurts when you stand up to play Simon Says. The kind that make people's eyes bulge when they haven't seen you for a while. Nothing fits well and depending on the day and the degree of my swelling, some days, nothing fits at all. I've never been overweight and so this is a strange existence that I don't enjoy.

I have thank you notes to write and three Christmas gifts to mail. And a new baby gift. And a birthday gift. In fact, I still have about 20 Christmas cards to mail. Or maybe 40? Why is it so hard to pull out the hard drive, hook it up, and search for those addresses? I have friends' calls to return, photos to download, oh gee, the list goes on. This kind of disorganization plays havoc with my head. It's so unsettling. Now I have a headache.

And yet, I am happy. So happy. So absolutely, truly happy.  In fact, I am the happiest I have ever been in my life. Really.

And it's not because everything is perfect. But everything is just right. I have this overwhelming sense that everything is finally how it is supposed to be. And I have three little blue-eyed boys and their daddy to thank for it.

I've found this sense of peace like I have never known before. It was a gift from our littlest one. His arrival, albeit surprising, has given me a sort of rest assurance. It sounds absurd and it is hard to articulate. It's like I've been holding my breath and now, I can let loose and...breathe.

I used to look at pictures of my two, sweet big kids and no matter how cute or funny or silly the photo, it always seemed like something was missing. Not that I am not absolutely grateful for those two big kids. Not that I haven't been utterly enjoying every single morsel of a minute of a moment with them. But still, it was like things were just a little off.

And now, our family is complete. Within minutes of the baby's birth, Grant said it aloud and the funny thing is, I was thinking it at the exact same time.

So this love letter is for our youngest. Don't ever doubt how much you are loved. Or how much you were wanted. Or how precious you are to this family. Or how very incomplete we were without you. You and your brothers are our sunshine. Our cherry on top. So I'm going to take a deep breath and try to savor each and every sweet moment.

Brotherly Love

Life is Good: and precious

Our big kid has been home sick from school for three days. And he has been miserable. Not because he feels bad--he's had a fever that rises pretty high, then drops down a little, then rises again, but no real discomfort beyond feeling tired. The misery has come from not getting to go to school. Every day, he pleads to go and then complains that he "won't learn a single thing today!" Poor kid. He really loves school and we are so grateful for that.

There's someone else in this house that has been miserable the past couple of days, too. No, it isn't me. I've definitely been kept on my toes here and there, but it's been okay. The miserable one is our little kid. Each morning, the first thing he asks me is if his big brother is sick. When I tell him that he is, he frowns dramatically and tells me how very, very sad he is about this. It's been hard on everyone---I've tried to sequester all three kids in hopes that while the big kid is getting healthy again, the other two will remain that way. Being apart has made us all feel out of balance.

Today, in an act part defiance and 100% love, the little kid went and got a chair from his little table and chair set and carried it to the door of the big kid's bedroom. Then, he went and got some toys and sat on the chair. He asked his brother, "Do you want to play with me? I stay right here and you watch."

And so I just had to write this down. It was the sweetest moment. Totally ordinary, but nonetheless impactful to me. I need to remember this. This is one of those moments to treasure. This is who we are. Sure, we go places, we do things, we know people. We're lucky and fortunate and blessed in many ways. But when it comes down to it, it's moments like this one that define our family. There's nothing more rewarding to Grant or me than to see these sweet little, voluntary displays of love shared between our children. This, is love. This, is family.

Banned from Pinterest: Basketball Cupcakes (Kind of)

Life is Good: so let's have cake!

Well, the Little Kid's preschool teacher decided he should celebrate his "half birthday" with his class since he has a summer birthday.

So I asked him what kind of treat he would like to bring. He paused for a millisecond and then said, "Um, ketchup and mustard cookies!" Yes, that's right, folks. He lovvvvvvvvvvvvves ketchup and mustard and after a few questions, I surmised that he wanted ketchup and mustard bottle-shaped cookies decorated with red and yellow.

And, breathe...

So, of course, I was about to consult my best friend, Google, to find a bottle-shaped cookie cutter when I recalled that it was when the Big Kid was in this exact same preschool class that I thought I had been charged with the most difficult birthday treat request of all time. Cupcakes decorated to look like sheep. That's right. Sheep. We still don't know where he got this idea, but he did. And since I am my mother's daughter, I was bound and determined to make cupcakes that looked like sheep for that kid. I won't say that they were the most gorgeous creation ever, but they made the Big Kid happy.

So as I am starting to type, "goog-", I remind Grant of the sheep and then the Little Kid decides that he wants cupcakes, too. I was partially relieved and partly afraid to ask how he wanted them decorated. "Basketball cupcakes!" I breathed a half sigh of relief. Okay. I can do that. I guess...

He asked for pumpkin bread cupcakes. I think this is because my pumpkin bread is quite possibly the best pumpkin bread you will ever consume! Really! Go here for my recipe!

As with all of my recipes, this one is eggless because of my kiddos' allergies. It also happens to be vegan. The original recipe calls for eggs, but I have adjusted mine using applesauce and baking powder as the egg substitute.

The original recipe also suggests a much larger amount of cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg, which I have decided overpowers the flavor of the pumpkin, so I have adjusted that, too, in my own recipe. It need not be adjusted for cupcakes or muffins. Just change your baking vessel!

Well, all I can say is...at least they tasted good. And thank goodness my livelihood doesn't depend on cake decorating! Here is a pic for your daily dose of laughter:

Yep, that's one lumpy basketball. Good thing no one needed to dribble it! I think they looked better inside of the cake carrier!

No they don't! ; )

Oh, you will never have to worry about me taking myself too seriously. My cake decorating photos are proof of it!

So you won't find these on Pinterest. In fact, I'm pretty sure if you try to pin these, you'll receive an error message and possibly a flashing thought bubble with the word, "WARNING!" inside of it.

It's a good thing that three-year olds aren't too discerning about their cupcakes. They had orange frosting from forehead to chin. And that's all they cared about. The end.