I forgot I had a blog...

Gee, it has been 2 weeks, and I think I forgot I had a blog......... here I am in OHIO for Thanksgiving, loving every minute of being 'home'. Tonight I am especially grateful for the full fridge (we have completely emptied ours at home in anticipation of a week away), time to chat with my 'mommy', and seeing my kids perfectly content to be at Nena's house... finally. Will post pix of our Thanksgiving feast and the multitudes of children here...... Have a wonderful, family-filled weekend...

At LAST!!

My Apple Bread recipe!! Sorry for the very long delay... Now that you have eaten all of your apples from apple picking season, I will finally share..

BREAD
2 med Granny Smith apples
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 Tbsp lemon juice
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

STREUSEL
4 Tbsp flour
4 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp butter, melted
2 tsp sugar
Preheat oven to 350. Spray loaf pan. Cream butter and sugar. Stir in eggs, lemon juice and vanilla. Combine flour, baking soda and salt; add to butter mixture, mixing just until dry ingredients are moistened.. do not overmix. Peel, core and chop apples. Add to mixture. For streusel, combine ingredients in bowl. Spoon half of batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle with half of the streusel mixture. Spread with remaining batter. Top with remaining streusel mixture; gently press into batter. Bake 55-60 minutes (always takes a bit longer with my baking stone. Just keep inserting the cake tester to check it..) or until cake tester comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan, then remove to cooling rack. ENJOY! MMMMMMMMm good! (PS.. this recipe is from Pampered Chef, and the original had the streusel recipe cut in half.. or should I say that I doubled their streusel recipe. After all, can you really ever have too much streusel???)
Wish I had a nice, yummy picture to share, but I didn't own my camera the last time I made this... which was only a month ago for the Festival of Leaves..... I did mini loaves, and my kids downed a loaf straight out of the oven. We all love it.

Occupying Chelsea........

Trying to get some cooking done for the week/weekend, I decided to stick Chels in the sink to keep her happy for awhile. She's been a bit cranky (to say the least), due to a cold and this seemed to keep her mind off of that.... It worked a lot better before when she couldn't climb, but she did have fun for a little while anyway.. and isn't she just adorable..?

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh my!!

Here Dan and I are off and running for the first time at NIGHT!! (hence the goofy lights strapped to our heads...) We did a 6.5 mile loop from our house to Shawl Gap, up the mountain and back down, and then back to our house. It was a little tough to see with the fog and, of course, the darkness.... but we made it without being eaten by bears, wolves and mountain lions (my fear), no injuries to the head after slipping on wet, slimy rocks covered with leaves, no broken bones and no twisted ankles, and no gunshot wounds from area hunters. I would say it was an overall success!

The Pesta Election

We had our own voting session yesterday afternoon here at the Pestadome. We decided to make some from-scratch cookies, and picked 3 different recipes from which to choose. The signs were posted on the mantle, and the whole family was brought in to vote. Our choices:
1) Tender, buttery chocolate chunk cookies
2) Deluxe, sticky, ooey-gooey peanut butter cookies
3) Brittany Butter cookies

Mary was initiating the vote and Chelsea slept, so we only had seven voters. We ended up with 6 voting for number 1, and 1 voting for number 3.......... I will have to say that our election results (Tender, buttery chocolate chunk cookies) were a big hit!!

VOTE!!

It is officially election day.......... here we are faced with a decision that will greatly impact our country. Please get out there and vote today! It is amazing to me that so many Americans deny their right to vote. LOVE our country and our people!! especially our babies!! May God bless America now at this critical time.