Mini Apple Pielets

Last Saturday night was a night for the record books. I actually baked. And baked. And baked. These things took me forever to make (because I'm so incredibly slow), but they were fun and I really enjoyed my time in the kitchen.

Our church had a potluck lunch on Sunday and we were assigned to bring a dessert. We don't attend the potlucks regularly, so this was a big thing for me...to cook for an army of sorts. My definition of an army is more than 2. So...the big question was what to bake. I could have done cookies and brownies but that's my usual "baking from a box" and I didn't want to do that since I was actually preparing ahead of time.

That's when I went to Bakerella, my favorite baking site. She had done some mini pies on a stick back in August, and I was inspired by the mini pies, only I didn't want to include the sticks. I was also inspired by this gorgeous, chilly fall weather we're having and wanted to do something with apples, so there it was. The only thing I needed was a recipe. All of the apple pie recipes I found were for a full-sized pie and included large slices of the apple, but I knew my little pies couldn't handle that, so...here's what I did.

I started out with Braeburn apples. Here they are, lined up and ready to perform.

I cored, sliced, and peeled the apples.

Here they are naked, in all their glory. You can see that some are already starting to turn brown. This took me some time to do because as I said before, I'm extremely slow but detailed. Next time, I will keep the apple slices in a pot of water with some lemon juice to keep them fresher, but it really didn't matter since they were being covered and going directly to the oven.

Then, I used my chopper (my Pampered Chef one that I don't ever want to live without) to make quick work of them so they would fit into my tiny little pielets. I added butter, sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt to the apples and it was quite tasty! I could have feasted on this mixture alone. (In fact, I had so much left over that Mountain Man consumed some while I finished baking.)

I put the mixture aside and began preparing my pie-lets. I could have made my own dough, but I was lazy and went to Safeway. I found this darling little apple cookie-cutter at Ben Franklin and what could be better for mini apple pielets than a mini apple cookie-cutter?!

I rolled the store-bought generic brand dough out a little to make more pies and I got 48 pielets (that's tops & bottoms) out of 2 packages (of two 9-inch pie rounds each).

I added the apple mixture to the middle, topped it with another apple, pinched the sides together and forked the edges.

I then brushed the tops with egg white to give them that pretty, rustic "Martha Stewart" finish.

And now, without further adieu, I present the pielet masterpieces....

Well, okay...so they're not masterpieces yet, but they turned out pretty and rustic and intended. There's still some perfecting to do, as the ratio of dough to apple mixture ratio was still a little much for me. I'm going to try something else tomorrow. (Errr....now, officially "today.")

Off to bed. We have a long day of working around the house tomorrow.

Tata!

Weekend of Renewal

Asparagus mini quiches for breakfast – check. Sandwiches made – check. Food into cooler – check. Bedding and pillows packed – check. Bexar’s necessities boxed – check. Four hours later, Mountain Man, the Engineer and Mountain Dog are finally loaded up in the truck and off for the weekend to their great camping and hiking adventure. A weekend of renewal they say. I like that; I want that; I NEED that! The idea quickly dissipates, as I have a long list of stuff I want to do while they’re gone and not much time to check them off!

Shortly after they have hit the road, I’m up at the computer, facebooking, blog surfing, and e-mailing. It’s overcast and raining and I just want to relax. Production comes to a stand-still as I plop onto the sofa and fire up the X-Box. Uh-oh. This is trouble…hours of trouble! Sure enough, 5pm rolls around and I’m still slouched on the sofa, my sweatshirt littered with white-cheddar popcorn kernels and an empty bowl of what was Bryer’s chocolate ice cream leaning beside my leg. It’s a hard day’s work to eat junk food and slouch around on the couch all day! I finally get up, not because I know I should clean or prepare the walls to receive some much-needed paint, but because I’m hungry! The desire to eat is so strong that it replaces the desire to slouch, so I throw some clothes on and hop in the car. A couple of hours later, after a nice long chat with Tatas, some Ben Franklin browsing, and a run through the oh-so-healthy McFatty’s, I arrive home, satiated and ready for some more chillaxin’. I resume the slouched position on the sofa and the X-Box addiction continues until I realize that I’m really cold. A nice hot tubby should do the trick, with a fragrant candle and a good book! Ahh, yes. Amy Carmichael certainly has a way with words. This book, I Come Quietly to Meet You, sounds relaxing. An old bookmark catches my attention and I turn to it, resisting the temptation to flip to page 1 because it’s been so long since I’ve read it. After turning just two pages, I realize that this certainly was no accident that I picked this book up. Now, I’m the type of person to believe there are no accidents, so this was no surprise, but sometimes I’m shocked that God cares about me and loves me on a personal, individual level. I know I should be, but I am.

“Come Forth as Gold” was the title of that tiny three-page chapter. And you can probably guess what Amy was discussing – yep, purification! She asked the Eastern goldsmith of their village how he knows when the metal is purified and he replied, “When I can see my face in it.”

Job 23:10 “But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.”

I’m so thankful that God, my Refiner, is faithful to sit by my side and purify me until He sees His face in me. What a humbling thought! It seems that this shall also be my time of renewal. For these next few days, I will focus on repentance and purification, renewing my mind in Him and His Word. It doesn’t matter what the outside looks like if the inside is in disrepair. The house painting, hair coloring, and cooking and cleaning can wait. This, too, shall be my weekend of renewal.

RSCC #16

I finally made some time to stamp today and was inspired by Dawn's raspberry suite color challenge .

The frayed paper technique was inspired directly from my sweet mom, who used to make gorgeous coats called "fancy rags." She would cut fabric for hours, just like this and sew them onto a lined coat/jacket that she made. Then, after it was all sewn all, she'd throw it in the washer and out would come some beautiful rag jackets. I tried to replicate this technique with paper. I've actually made a couple of other cards using this technique, which I'll post soon.

Card deets:

Stamps: Flower from Inkadinkadoo's Garden Delight set, sentiment from CDstamps' Sept 2008 Stamp of the Month

Paper: Kraft, SU Chocolate Chip, SU orange/gold

Ink: Chocolate Chip

Accessories: cream twill, brown button, cream hemp thread, dimensionals

Happy stamping!

Ajijic, Jalisco Mexico

I just returned from a fantastic visit to Mom's & Eddie's in Ajijic, Jalisco Mexico, which is down near Guadalajara. I enjoyed visiting with Mom & Eddie and meeting the lovely people of Ajijic. They are all so generous and polite. I also learned quite a bit of Spanish while I was there...now I just need to remember it! The town of Ajijic is mostly Americanized because of the many American and Canadian retirees, so it's very easy to communicate with the locals, as most of

them know English. They all say their English is bad, but they definitely spoke more English than I did Spanish - and with better grammar, too!

The beautiful village of Ajijic, Jalisco Mexico from the mountains to the north.

Looking straight down Colon street (I think)

Sipping a delicious pina colada at the Chapala tienge

My sweet, beautiful mom

Mi Papa' Mexicana

Beautiful, sweet Marta

Hibiscus

Unopened hibiscus

Loved this combo meal from Viva Mexico in San Juan Cosala

I'll be back tomorrow with some more photos. Adios!

RAW shooting

Well, I finally began shooting in RAW format yesterday. I thought that I had been shooting in it for a long time, but discovered yesterday that this was not the case! LOL Obviously, I'm a noob photographer! I wondered why they were always uploading as jpgs from my camera...DOH!

I took these photos yesterday - my first ones in RAW (.cr2) format. I lost some crispness when I had to save it as a jpg for adding it to the web, but what a difference it makes! I LOVE it!

Our pond

White flower

Japanese Maple leaves

I have a ton of stuff to do today, so I had better get going! Tata!

Julie & Julia

While I loved the movie, I found a site - Christian Spotlight on Entertainment - with a review of "Julie & Julia." This is definitely worth a read before you go.

Everything they say is correct, but I think that when I watch movies and read books, I replace worldly things with Christian perspectives in my mind. For example, Julie says of Julia several times that she saved her, of which I thought, "That's sad." I immediately thought of Christ and all that He has saved me from. Through the rest of the movie, I was thinking of how I could be a better wife and what my gifts are that I can glorify Christ with. So when the movie was over, I was all ramped up and excited to be the best wife I can, to cook more meals at home and not waste time.

With that said, I loved it and went home completely inspired.

What did you think?

Edited: I found another review website, Plugged In. I like the formatting of their reviews better, so here's another reivew of "Julie & Julia" from them.

Japanese Gardens

Yesterday, I took the photog group (three fabulous teens) that I'm teaching to the Japanese Gardens to practice our skills. They took some fantastic shots and we all had so much fun!

From Japanese Gardens

From Japanese Gardens

From Japanese Gardens