let the creative juices flow

Or in my case, the creative sugary royal icing and cookie cutters!

First let me just say that I am actually getting this posted ON THE RIGHT DAY!!! Usually I run a day or two behind with these things. I try, I really do, but somehow the day always seems to get away from me. So I'm pretty excited. Okay, onto the challenge. The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of “What the Fruitcake?!” Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking.

I have to admit, when I first saw the challenge, I wasn't quite sure if I was ready to do sugar cookies again. As you may recall, last May I was hired to cater these cookies for my son's preschool graduation.
350+ cookies to be exact, and while I truly enjoyed the opportunity...I also steered clear of sugar cookies for awhile! But I quickly got excited about the challenge. We were supposed to decorate the cookies in a way to tell about what September means to you. This was hard, because for us, September has lots going on. My hubby and I both have birthdays, the boys are both in school (one kindergarten and one at preschool for the first time), and its also the beginning of all those fun fall outdoor activities. We have been doing a lot of outdoor stuff this month - hiking, apple picking, going to cider mills, etc. so this is the theme I went with.

The recipe we used was okay, and the cookies tasted good, but I am still a fan of my "go to" recipe that I used for both the baby shower and the butterflies. It's my all time favorite and I don't know that I'll ever find one that I like better. I found this recipe to be a little dry and hard to roll out - but that could have been an error on my part.

To decorate I whipped up some royal icing. I like this method of decorating sugar cookies because it gets nice and hard so you can store them easily and they look great all packaged up.

After the icing was (mostly) dry, the boys enjoyed their cookies for dessert.

The husband and I enjoyed one as well. Sorry for the lighting...it was dark out and my kitchen doesn't have the best light. If you want the recipe that we used, you can check it out HERE.

Falling for apples

Well the 14th came and went, which means I didn't get to post my Daring Cooks challenge...but have no fear, I'm posting today. Yesterday was just one of those days, when everytime I wanted to sit down and do my post, something else came up - like my dog getting sprayed by a skunk...seriously - I'm not kidding and it was TERRIBLE!!! It took me all day today to "de-skunk" my house!

Okay, well onto the challenge. The September 2010 Daring Cooks’ challenge was hosted by John of Eat4Fun. John chose to challenge The Daring Cooks to learn about food preservation, mainly in the form of canning and freezing. He challenged everyone to make a recipe and preserve it. John’s source for food preservation information was from The National Center for Home Food Preservation. If you're interested in the recipe used for the challenge you can check it out HERE.

I chose to go with the freezing method, mainly because it saved me from going out and looking for the items needed for the canning method. Although, now that things are finally starting to settle down from the move, I think I am going to try some canning in the near future.

The first step was obtaining the apples. For this job I employed two wonderful little workers to help me out! They did a fabulous job, and I not only had enough for a full batch of apple butter, but I still have enough left for at LEAST one apple pie! YUM.

The whole process (minus the picking time) took less than two hours. To get the right consistency I did it in two parts. After the apples were cooked down and in a "mushy" state, I buzzed them in the food processor, returned them to the pot, and let them cook on low for awhile to thicken them up. It was at this point (the applesauce stage) I removed some of the mixture and put it aside for my boys to eat this week. With the rest I took out small batches and buzzed it in my blender to get it nice and smooth. Once all was buzzed, I cooked another 20 min or so just to get as much liquid as I could out and called it good.

I have to say it turned out really nice. I've been enjoying it on toast for snacks and such, and think I will use one of my freezer packets for a pork tenderloin later this week.

So there you have it, my DC challenge for September. I'm glad I was able to get this one done. With the move I had to miss out on all the fun, but now I'm back...well until we move again that is :P.

Hope all of you wonderful people are having a great week so far!

and we're done...

Unpacking that is!

It took me MUCH longer to get unpacked this time around then in the past, but there was just a lot going on right when we got here, and packing sort of took a back burner. But we are done now (thank goodness!!!) and it looks more like "home" than just a house. The only thing we have left to do is hang our pictures, and put up some curtains. Oh - and make one last run to the Goodwill because in the unpacking we unearthed some other "treasures" that we no longer need to haul around.

We really enjoyed our Labor Day weekend. Saturday we went to a beach for a bit to hunt for shells, then to this great little farmers market where I had the best breakfast sandwich EVER. We're going back this weekend just so I can have another. I'll even take a picture to show you all...you'll be drooling.

Sunday we went hiking. It was the longest one we've done so far, and I am very proud of the boys. We did a loop out to a lookout point and back, and total it was about 3 miles, which is pretty good for a 3 and 5 year old.

They had a blast and really enjoyed it - as you can see they were some happy hikers -


...so we are going to hit up another area this weekend. One of the coolest parts was at the end we stopped by a waterfall. It was incredible.


This week is going by fast. I can't believe it's already the middle of the week. I guess that's due to the longer weekend. Next week is the hub's b-day and I am at a loss of things to get him. Any ideas out there?? Well, my attention is being requested by my little munchkin, so I am out until next time. Enjoy the rest of the week folks!