Apples!

Apples are one of my favorite fruits.  We took a field trip to a local orchard in early September to pick a few apples.  It ended up being around 100 degrees, one our hottest days of the summer, but it was worth it.

I love the little secluded orchard we visit.  The boys got to pick apples, eat apples and climb trees.   Plus they were free to run to their heart's content.

We made blueberry applesauce, apple butter, an apple cake, dehydrated apples and just sliced and ate some raw. All the recipes turned out super!

Here's a delicious apple cake that I discovered online.  It pleased both my family and company and is sweetened only with honey.  I cheated and served it with vanilla ice cream. You could substitute applesauce or another oil for the butter. Original recipe here.

Healthy Apple Cake

2 cups whole white wheat flour
4 medium apples, peeled and diced
1/2 c. butter
3/4 c. honey
2 eggs
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. sea salt

1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and grease a 9-inch round baking pan.  In a large bowl, mix together butter, honey and eggs. Beat well.  In a separate bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon and fold into large bowl.  Stir apples gently through batter and pour into prepared cake pan. Bake approximately 45 minutes or until a toothpick is pulled clean from center of cake.  Turn out onto wire rack and cool.

Enjoy!
~ Katrina

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Sun-Dried Tomatoes

I've got a lot of tomatoes on my hands.

Canning salsa sounded fun, so I impulsively purchased this inexpensive Ball home canning kit at Lowe's.  After reading tips at Tipnut.com and having never canned a thing, I opted not to risk botulism.

So I pulled out my dehydrator.  I've been dying to do that, anyway.

After scanning a few recipes, I chose this one from PickYourOwn.org. The easier, the quicker, the better.  They said water baths and scraping out seeds are optional.  If you don't have a dehydrator, this website gives you instructions for making sun-dried tomatoes in the oven or in your car (no kidding).

To be safe, I started with a small batch...

First, I sliced the tomatoes and sprinkled with sea salt and dried basil.

Then, I placed on trays in the dehydrator for 8-10 hours.  About half the tomatoes were done at 8 hours and the rest required closer to 10 hours.

After cooling, I sealed the dehydrated tomatoes in a freezer bag.

Easy!  And the finished product smelled heavenly.

The kids could definitely help with this one.  They happened to be at Grandma and Grandpa's this time, but next time they can slice tomatoes, sprinkle seasonings and arrange on trays.

If anyone uses their car to sun dry tomatoes, please let me know how they turn out!
~ Katrina

P.S.  Today we read The Littles Take a Trip by John Peterson.  It is a chapter book about a tiny family and their big adventures.  We read the whole book today after several shouts of "One more!"  Charming, entertaining, and fun.

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Homemade Crackers

I got a dehydrator for Christmas!  I am super stoked. You might think that's a goofy thing to get excited about. Welcome to my husband's world.

I'm really looking forward to dehydrating produce from my garden in the summer.  But, in the meantime, I just can't let this baby sit around doing nothing...

So I made my first batch of flax seed crackers.  The first batch came out a little more like fruit leather.  I turned up the dial for the second batch.  Not bad, but still less crunchy than I hoped.  This may take a couple of tries to perfect.

I combined 1 cup of milled flax seed to 2 cups of water and let it sit an hour or two.  Then I added some honey for sweetness.  Next time, I think I'll add some sunflower and sesame seeds.  I plan to use these for snacks, sandwiches, and chips.  This is an inexpensive gluten-free "cracker".

If you'd like to give this a try, I found my recipe here.  She's got me super interested in making kale chips.  But that's another post.

Go dehydrate something!
~ Katrina

P.S.  What are you reading?  The boys and I are reading Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo.  We read 7 chapters today.  They just kept begging for more.  I love when they do that.

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