Quotable Owen

Owen is one cute and funny kid. He never fails to amuse me with his facial expressions, silly dances, and hilarious conversations.

One of his favorite playtime activities is dressing-up. Usually considered a "girly" thing, Owen does it, but in all boy fashion. His ability to create costumes out of found objects around the house is really amazing. For a 3-year old, he is remarkably creative. Some of the costumes he's made: Puss in Boots, Peter Pan, Captian Hook/Pirate, Cowboy, Football Guy, Yoda... list list goes on. He's a new character every week!

Kids say the darndest things? Owen does!

Recently he was asked, "Are you scared of the dark?"

"No", Owen replied, "not when the lights are on."

On a particularly demanding afternoon, I complained to Owen that he was making me sad because he was being mean to me. He had to explain it to me. In a rather condescending tone he said, "Mom, I am not being mean. I just want you to get me the things that I want when I want them." Oh, silly Mom...

He is so much fun! Every day is full of cute, sweet, silly, tender, crazy moments. Sometimes he wears me out with his constant "I'm hungries" and "Can I have my Star Wars toys?" then "Can I have my cars box?" (the one toy at a time rule combined with his short attention span keeps me hopping). But his unique personality that brings so much joy to our lives makes it all worth it.

Toothless Wonder

Emeline has lost her first top front tooth! It's been slightly loose for a long, long time - since she was three...

...that was when she, while monkeying around, bumped her mouth on the edge of the kitchen table and cracked her tooth pretty hard. She bruised her tooth and it has been a little wiggly since that day, but otherwise healthy.

Fast forward to December 2009: Emeline's upper six-year molars come in. Since she was already clued into the process from her previous lost teeth, she knew that she was due for a loose tooth on the top. Immediately, the search for the best candidate began.

I don't know if it was destined to be that damaged tooth or if it's because it was already a bit loose, but that's the tooth that Emeline focused her attention on. Pushing and pulling on it with her tongue and finger until the point of madness. Finally, she decided it had to come out.

Problem. It was so not ready to come out. That didn't matter to her. She enlisted Daddy in her attempts to loosen and pull that tiny little pearl out. I'll spare you the gory details.

As you can tell from the photo, she was no worse for wear and she was really pleased with the results.

The BEST Apple Crisp

OK so this is a little late...

We made our annual trip to Huber Farm back in October during the kids' fall break. It was a little colder than we would have liked, but we were determined to get our yearly haul of apples, pumpkins, and wine! So we bundled up and braved the wind, rain, and outright cold.

We picked Winesap, Golden Delicious, and Fuji apples. The Fuji were perfect eatin' apples... sweet and tart, crisp and juicy. The Golden Delicious were like a dessert. If Jolly Ranger could mimic that flavor... now that would be a good apple candy. And finally, Winesap... we'd picked them before and while their tart flavor lends them to baking they aren't very juicy and make rather dry pies, crisp, etc. But we had to have some cooking apples because that's the sweetest part of fall... the bevy of baking.

I've never met a baked apple concoction that I didn't like. Mom's apple pie... delicious! Baked apples on pancakes... a delight! Apple cake... apple cookies... apple sauce.... apple butter... it's all food for my soul. Mom made apple dumplins this year for the first time and I was in heaven! How could I have gone 33 years and not had apple dumplins? (Mom and I had a talk about that!)

But there's one apple dessert that I felt could be improved upon. Apple crisp. It never made me swoon the way other apple treats had. Don't get me wrong... I would never turn down apple crisp... come to think of it, no one in their right mind should ever turn down ANY dessert, but it lacked a little something. With a basketful of apples, a serious craving for something sweet, and a weenie roast to attend... it was the perfect time to find just the right recipe.

And that I did! Here it is:

12 cups of peeled, cored, sliced apples (tart cooking apples taste best)
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup water (depending on type of apples you use - a dry apple will need the full amount, a juicy apple will need less)

Place the apples in a deep 9x13 baking dish. Combine the sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Sprinkle evenly over the apples. Pour the water evenly over the apples. Set aside while you prepare the topping.

2 cups of regular oats
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup butter (yes, two sticks!)

Combine the oats, flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and soda. Cut in the butter until the mixture is crumby. If desired, you can add 1-1/2 cups of chopped pecans to the topping. Crumble over the apples.

Bake at 350 about 45 minutes, until the topping is browned and crispy.

The topping is truly crisp; almost hard. But that was part of the problem with other apple crisps... the topping just faded away and had lousy texture. The apples are sweet, but not too sweet and there's good balance. I eat it without ice cream, but some wouldn't have it any other way. Fresh whipped cream would be good too.

Here's some more pictures of the fun we had, in spite of the cold...