Holiday Baking and Chullo Hats

After some small holiday shopping with my sister this morning, I had it in mind to make some cookies for TJ's holiday thing at school Wednesday. Well of course at the mention of home made cookies, I couldn't just make 1 dozen, I ended up making 9 dozen. And no sooner the phase "I'm making cookies" escapes my lips, I hear a certain someone pipe up from the living room, "I wanna help!" The next thing I know, I have a 4 year old dancing around the kitchen as if he's trying to conjour rain!! And because I had gotten a new digital camera, I was a bit camera happy taking pictures of everything! (I'll add the cookie recipe as soon as I get it typed up.)

First he had to help stir...

and stir...

Then it was some decorations on the cookies, twice as much into his mouth.

There they are! Boy were they yummy too!

What baking excursion would be complete with out the themed cookie? Well, maybe not themed, but at least it has a tree, candy canes and snowflakes lol.

After the baking, cleaning up and getting dinner made. It was time for crafting. I have finished the winter hats I was making for myself, hubby and TJ. They are a bit lumpy, but hey! I still like them! The pattern I used was by Green Pepper and I bought it at Joann's for $7.00 along with some fleece remanents to make the hats from. It was a pattern for a Chullo hat.

This pattern was so easy! I don't like technical sewing directions, but these directions were so easy to follow and the picture diagrams were easy to interpret as well. After sewing one hat, I was able to sew the other two hats without really consulting the directions, they were that easy to construct. I am definately going to be making more of these hats in the future.

Here is a group shot of all three hats. From left to right, mine is the floral, hubby's is the grey blue colored one, and TJ's is the darker blue. I give you my lovely assistant, Bob (and yes she is a bodyless styrofoam head, but shh she doesn't know!)

Bob showing off TJ's chullo.

Bob modeling hubby's chullo.

And last but not least, Bob showing off my chullo. Didn't she do a lovely job modelling all three hats? Nice job Bob!

Well, it's time to say good night. Tomorrow I finish my last gift that requires sewing and put a coat of sealer on a few ornaments.

Happy Crafting!
~K. Michele

Apples..yummy!

What a crazy week it has been. And to top it all off, the house faeries have decided to play with the cord to my camera which makes uploading photos near to impossible. Good news though, Hubby purchased an external card reader so pictures are finally uploaded, YAY! Let's recap the last few weeks that have been absolutely busy.

Two weekends ago, the rainy weather broke to a warm, sun shiny Autumn day. It was the first weekend we didn't have any renovations or any other household projects planned. On a whim, I wanted to pick apples. It had been a while since I've been apple picking and up until that day Hubby had never been and it was going to be TJ's first time picking apples, so off we went.

It was a beautiful drive out to the apple orchard. We drove out to Lafayette, NY to Beak n Skiff. I had never been there, but if the sheriff directing traffic in and out of the parking lot was any indication, it was a very popular place. They had a lot of things for the kids to do from a pony ride, to face painting and sand art.

TJ loved the fact that we rode a tractor out into the orchard. He loved every bit of it. TJ picked the apples along the bottom of the tree, while daddy picked the apples off the top of the tree. What did I do? I made sure the apples went into the bags lol.

Is this not a gorgeous Mac? I love MacIntosh apples and was really excited when they were available to pick.

TJ had a ball. If it was left up to him, we would have come home with more than a bushel of apples.
He couldn't wait until we got home to dive right in and eat an apple right off the tree. He wasn't the only one, I enjoyed one myself :)

We came home with a bushel of MacIntosh apples and some fresh apple cider, yum! After getting home, I started in on my apple baking spree. I don't bake much, but it was fun! Goodies out of the oven included:

Apple Pie

Apple Crisp (of course that is what was left when I took the picture)

Apple Dumplings

My favorite thing that I made was chunky apple sauce! It was delish and totally my recipe! All that I did after I sliced and peeled the apples, threw them in a large pot on medium heat. Added about a quarter cup of water, sprinkled a light coating of cinnamon on top of the apples and about half as much nutmeg sprinkled. I stirred it all up, let it start to cook down and tasted it occasionally to see if it needed more cinnamon, nutmeg, or sugar. Since my family likes a bit of a tart sauce (which is great since I was using MacIntosh apples), I didn't add much as far as sugar. I just cooked it down until I got the consistency I was looking for (if you want a smoother applesauce, just cook it down longer). The family loves chunky applesauce =) Once you get the consistency and flavor you want, remove it from the stove, let it cool (or serve a few servings when it's warm, YUM) and store it in an airtight container in the fridge. I'm not sure how long it will stay good in the fridge, the sauce didn't last longer than a few days and I had made a lot of it lol.

Next year, I will have to try my hand at canning and can some of that apple sauce. It didn't last very long, that's for sure.

I am hoping in the next few days the weather will break a bit. There are herbs to harvest and leaves to rake. TJ has been itching to jump on the leaves. And to tell you the truth, I have to :)