Spiced Plum Bread

I have moved on from apples to plums. So, after having a garbage bag full of plums, I needed something to do with them. So, Spiced Plum Bread was born...

Ingredients:
1 egg
1/2 cup raw honey
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 c all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 c chopped plums (I left the skins on, some people peel them)
1 c chopped walnuts (pecans are good too)
1/2 c applesauce
1/4 c milk

Ingredients — Crumb Topping:
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup butter, cubed [half a stick]

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan. Combine all ingredients and transfer batter to pan. Sprinkle with crumb topping. Bake for 50-60 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

****I quadrupled the recipe and make 4 loaves at once. I used a huge pot to mix all the ingredients. The only problem was that 2 of my loaves baked in 60 minutes, the other ones really needed almost 70 minutes.

Scout Jamboree

Alex and Brian spent the night in OshKosh camping at EAA for the 100 year centennial celebration of scouting - or Scout Jamboree. There was over 9,000 scouts at the event, so it was a pretty huge deal. Both of my scouts had a blast! :)

Homecoming 2009

It was Homecoming night here in Seymour...so everyone dressed festive for the occasion in their black and red thunder... :) And, we won the game against Luxemburg! Alex and Brian were at Scout Jamboree spending the night camping, so they weren't with us this time.

Eden's Bouquet Clothing Giveaway!

Of course, I have bragged about Jen at Eden's Bouquet numerous times...what an awesome opportunity to get some great clothes. Gotta enter this giveaway:
http://edensbouquet.com/blog/

Perspective

One day, the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the express purpose of showing him how poor people live. They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.

On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, "How was the trip?"

"It was great, Dad."

"Did you see how poor people live?" the father asked.

"Oh yeah, " said the son.

"So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?" asked the father.

The son answered: "I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night. Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon. We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight. We have servants who serve us, but they serve others. We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them.

The boy's father was speechless.

Then his son added, "Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are."

Isn't perspective a wonderful thing? Makes you wonder what would happen if we all gave thanks for everything we have, instead of worrying about what we don't have.

Appreciate every single thing you have, especially your friends!

Apples galore!

We have lots of apples. We have three apple trees and then a good friend of ours has a bunch as well. So we ended up with tons of apples. Enough that I gave Sara three full brown paper grocery bags of apples, because you can only make so much applesauce and apple pies! :) Brian even got into peeling the apples after I sliced my finger, which left me less than capable of continuing to peel... :)

Recipes to share...

Applesauce:

INGREDIENTS
20 medium sized apples - peeled, cored and chopped
3 cups water
1 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS
In a saucepan, combine apples, water, sugar, and cinnamon. Cover, and cook over medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes, or until apples are soft. Allow to cool, then mash with a fork or potato masher.

Apple Pie with French Crumb Topping:

About 8 sliced & peeled good cooking apples

1/2 c. packed light brown sugar

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

Dash of ground cloves

1 tbsp. lemon juice or 1 1/2 tsp. grated lemon rind

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tbsp. cornstarch or flour4 vanilla wafers, crushed, or 3 tbsp. finely ground nuts

1 (9 inch) unbaked pastry shell

FRENCH CRUMB TOPPING:
1/3 c. butter

1/3 c. brown sugar

3/4 c. flour

1/2 c. chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In large bowl, combine sugar and cornstarch (or flour). Mix together with apples, brown sugar, spices, and lemon juice. Sprinkle wafers or nuts on bottom of pie shell. (This keeps crust from becoming soggy.) Spoon apple mixture into pie shell.

Make French Crumb Topping by mixing 1/3 cup butter and 1/3 cup brown sugar together. Cut in 3/4 cup flour. Stir in nuts. Sprinkle topping over apples in pie plate. Bake for 50 minutes or until topping is golden and apples are tender.

NOTE: If you prefer to use conventional top crust, brush unbaked top crust with egg yolk and 1 tablespoon cream mixed together. Dust with sifted powdered sugar when pie comes out of oven. Or use the following topping on top of the crust before baking.
2 tbsp. flour

1/4 c. brown sugar

1/4 c. chopped nuts

3 tbsp. dark corn syrup

2 tbsp. butter, softened

Mix all ingredients together and spread over unbaked top crust. Bake for about 50 minutes.

TIP: For a lovely taste thrill, mix 3 or 4 teaspoons of cinnamon into 1 quart softened vanilla ice cream. Refreeze. Serve a scoop of the cinnamon ice cream on warm apple-pie slices.

Alex's Cross Country Meet

Alex is doing an unbelievable job this year in cross country. Today we had a meet in De Pere. He came in number 29 out of 260+ 7th and 8th graders. He is the fastest 7th grader in Seymour. We are so proud of him! :)

TJ is a big boy!

TJ insisted on eating cereal on his own, at the breakfast bar, with the girls. I thought it was so cute, and I can't believe how big he is getting each and every day. So, I grabbed the camera, snapped a few shots, and sat at the table and cried. I need counseling. Seriously. Does everyone go through this when their baby grows up?

Trampoline

On Monday, we surprised the kids with a trampoline. They have been asking us for a while, and we decided that now was a good time. We did research and got one of the safest ones, of course, with an enclosure. The kids are having a ball! Now, if I can just get Brian to jump with me...that would be fun for mommy! :)

Underwater camera from Florida trip

I know these are a little overdue...but, well, at least they got developed sometime. Thank goodness for digital! While we were at Discovery Cove in Florida, I bought the kids a little underwater camera. We finally got around to making a CD out of it. Yes, those are stingrays that Alex is diving down to touch. And that cute little snorkeled face is Natalie sideways! :)

Final Days of Summer...

Today was just a GORGEOUS day! More like a day in mid July than mid September. 80 degrees, no humidity...just beautiful! We spent the day outside playing in the water, splashing in puddles with the chickens and riding the horse. :)