life as i know it...

Christmas baking season is almost upon us, and it's time to stock the freezer again, both with sweets and with healthy meals that can be heated up quickly!

So far this week we've made marinara sauce and chicken chili (thanks Gillian!), and as soon as I get some more eggs I'll make cornbread muffins. Last week I made a very tasty (and easy) apple crisp. The cookies will come soon!!

I also stumbled across the Whole Foods recipe index, which has some really yummy looking recipes that I'd like to try.

For a not-too-sweet apple crisp, try the recipe below. It's a combination of recipes and comments from allrecipes.com, and it turned out really well, if I do say so myself!:


Apple Crisp

INGREDIENTS

Base
* 10 cups baking apples, peeled, cored and sliced
* 1/2 cup white sugar
* 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Topping
* 1 cup quick-cooking oats
* 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
* 1 cup packed brown sugar
* 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
* 1/2 cup butter, melted

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degree C).

2. Mix the white sugar, 1 tablespoon flour and ground cinnamon together. Stir into bowl of sliced apples. Place the apples in a 9x13 inch pan.

3. Combine the oats, flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and melted butter together. Crumble evenly over the apple mixture.

4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for about 45 minutes.

Posted in: recipes on November 09, 2008 0 comments    

We made up tins of Christmas baking for friends and family this year, which were very well received. They seemed to enjoy the treats, but my sugar cookies caused some raised eyebrows.

See, the thing is... I don't have any Christmas cookie cutters. I thought I did, but after I rolled out the dough, I realized - nope! So I made cookies in the shape of hands, feet, maple leaves and elephants. Hubby's cousin's son (follow that?) asked "Mommy, why do these cookie look like feet?"

So I imagine next year I'll get more Christmas cookie cutters than I know what to do with. I saw these cookie cutters at Weary Parent, and, in keeping with the 'unconventional cookie' theme, I'm tempted to buy them!

Might still raise a lot of questions from the kids though.

Posted in: holidays, recipes on December 17, 2006 1 comments    

I always make these muffins around this time of year. They're a nice Halloween/Thanksgiving treat (because of the pumpkin) and they're good for Christmas baking too. I usually bake some in a mini-muffin pan to make bite-sized muffins to give out in Christmas tins with cookies.

These freeze well. In fact, we often grab a couple from the freezer, and give 'em a zap in the microwave for a quick dessert!

Pumpkin Chip Muffins

4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 can (16oz) pumpkin (real pumpkin, not pumpkin pie filling)
1 ½ cups vegetable oil (you can substitute unsweetened apple sauce - I usually do 1 cup apple sauce, 1/2 cup canola oil)
3 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs, sugar, pumpkin, and oil until smooth.

Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt; add to pumpkin mixture and mix well. Fold in chocolate chips.

Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups ¾ full. Bake at 400 F for 16-20 minutes or until muffins test done.

Cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack.

Makes about 24 standard-size muffins.

Technorati tags: baking, muffins, recipe, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas

Posted in: holidays, household, recipes on November 01, 2006 1 comments    

While this will certainly be familiar to residents of England, the campaign is less well-known in the rest of the world.

Chef Jamie Oliver has created a campaign to improve the quality of food served in elementary and high schools. The Feed Me Better campaign promotes:

1. Fresh, nutrient-rich (but tasty) lunches
2. Banning schools from serving junk food
3. Giving 'lunch ladies' training on food preparation
4. Teaching kids about food in schools
5. More government funding to increase schools' budgets for ingredients, kitchen equipment, and kitchen staff salaries
   

The site has lots of information about how the campaign has made a difference, information on how to become involved or start a similar campaign in your country, and recipes.

Posted in: recipes on March 01, 2006 0 comments