Apple Pie!

Rick and I bought a "1/4 peck" of super crispy, slightly tart apples at the farmers market yesterday, on top of the tart little apples I already had in the fridge.

So I needed to make some apple-somethings.

Rick voted apple pie.

I'm not a big apple pie person, (I know- how "un-american") give me lemon meringue any day, so I have never, in fact, baked an apple pie before.

Janice sent me the recipe - it went as follows:

Apple Pie
Pastry for 2 crust pie

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
dash of salt
6 cups thinly sliced peeled apples (about 6 medium)
2 Tblsp. firm butter or margarine
2 tsp. water
1 Tblsp. sugar

She also sent me a recipe for crust - sadly unused.
I was lazy, this is Pillsbury, also, my beloved Kitchenaid takes up too much counter space that I don't have, so is currently in storage instead of in my apartment.
I'm too lazy to mix dough by hand, especially on a day where I had to work.

But here we have my first attempt at apple pie!

I think my little slits in the middle were too close together, so that part fell in a little, but I also carved in little leaves, and they came out surprisingly well. The edge got a little crispy despite my putting foil on it for most of it's baking time. And then there's that chunk that came off when I took off the foil... but overall, I think it looks pretty good.

Apple pie next to my favorite cooking implement - my programmable crock pot! I use that thing 2-3 times a week to make everything from spaghetti to roast beef. Also my chicken crocks - best souvenir ever. Rick bought them for me at a hilarious antique store/bar/ice cream parlor in Deadwood, South Dakota called "Deadwood Dick's"

And here is the Apple Pie all served up!

Apple Pie ala mode! 

That's hot, homemade spiced rum caramel drizzled all over it!

Rum Caramel Sauce
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla
3 Tbsp rum (I used Bacardi Oakheart)

You melt the sugar in a pan till it's all brown and liquid, then add the cream and stir while it bubbles and spits until the sugar re-melts and it comes to a boil. Then you dump it in a bowl and add the vanilla and let it cool for 10 minutes, then add the rum and serve! 


Rick was pretty excited.
Apple pie is one of his favorite desserts and I think he really enjoys it when I make him something with his mom's recipes.

But while I'm willing to make him apple pie, Janice is still, and will always be, the only woman willing to make him meatloaf.

Really Walmart?

I hate to use this blog as my personal ranting space, but some things need to be ranted about.

Like Walmart...

I hate Walmart.
I shop there, because it's within walking distance of my apartment.
But I loathe that store. It never fails to disappoint me.

For instance, I bought this hummingbird feeder there earlier this summer,

And the hummingbirds liked it (you can see the tip of the hummingbirds tail in the top left). Which was awesome, but Rick and I HATED it.

Why?
It leaked.
It leaked like crazy.
ALL OVER OUR PORCH.
All that weird gooey glowing stuff around the edges is my attempt to seal the leak with hot glue.

It didn't work.
With the hummingbirds gone for the season we have since thrown this in the garbage and are in the market for an entirely different design of feeder for next season.

But let us continue to example number 2 in the list of: Why I loathe Walmart

I came home after work Friday to find my favorite picture all broken.

 And this is why.

The frame is made of FOAM.

Really Walmart?

Not even particle board?

So now I'm super mad about the crappy frame that spontaneously self-destructed. 

But I LOVE this picture! It's so cute and it goes with my cow salt/pepper shakers and chicken crocks. So now I'm gonna have to hit up Goodwill for a new frame. 

But Walmart doesn't just disappoint me because it sells me cheap home decor, oh no. Of course not. 

Our friend Matt spent the night with us Friday, and Saturday morning I made coffee and then went to Walmart to get eggs (because they open early and like I mentioned before, are within walking distance of my apartment) and the boys wanted sausage-egg-bagels for breakfast.

How many cartons of eggs do you need to open before you find one without broken eggs?

Six.

Six cartons.

Really Walmart?

Are you playing Hockey with these cartons before you stock them? 

Did the delivery truck roll over in a ditch en-route to your store? 

Does your stock-person just really HATE poultry and all things associated with chickens?

WHY ARE ALL THE EGGS BROKEN?

I hate Walmart. 

Sunflower Suet Feeder!

With the hummingbird migration more or less south of Iowa and a pair of Downy's showing mild interest in our porch, Rick and I decided to put up a suet feeder!

We thought about getting a suet feeder that looked like this.

But then we went to Thiesen's and decided this was more fun:)

Our sunflower suet feeder!

Our sunflower suet next to the sunflower seed feeder and one of our windchimes

Chocolaterie Stam

So, I finally got around to taking my camera to work - although I did forget to take a picture of the shop front :( So I'll have to take in my camera again another time. But for now, I have pictures of the interior of Chocolaterie Stam!

View straight back from the front door

The "round table" just in front of the front door

The wine display, just to the left of the front door - Stam carries wine from 5 local vineyards

Seating and display just to the right of the front door 

The display just to the right of the front door

The Gelato! Gelato has less air whipped into it, so it's much denser than traditional ice cream, and it's made with milk instead of cream.

The chocolate counter

My co-worker (and one of Rick's study buddies - Bronson) at the cash register

Our syrup selection for the coffee bar!

The coffee menu

The back of the bonbon counter - so many delicious chocolates :)

Our baby grand, a few times a week people schedule times to come in and play for a couple hours. We also let random patrons sit and play on the fly

The view of the shop from the back

Our Cream bonbons. These guys aren't my favorite filling, but they Are my favorite mold. The white and milk chocolate ones are shaped like mice, the dark chocolate one is a hedgehog! SOO CUTE!!

My favorite seasonal chocolates! The one on the left is a white chocolate praline` owl (praline` means it's a hazelnut cream) and the one on the right is a dark chocolate praline` owl. 

Organizing drawers with cardboard!

Rick and I only have room for 1 dresser in our apartment, which means we share drawer space and for forever I have been waiting for these adjustable dresser drawer organizers to go down to like... 25 cents a piece.

Still waiting.

Tonight I got tired of waiting so I made some!
Nothing so fancy as a pretty spring loaded piece of wood veneer, but I'm poor.

These are made of cardboard and they work AWESOME!

I did the sock drawer and the underwear drawer, but somehow posting our unmentionables on the internet seems a bit risqué, so you'll just have to imagine how amazing it is.

But just look at those sorted socks!
Black socks, my socks, Rick's tall socks, Rick's short socks!
All in their own little compartments.

Yay cardboard!

Rick's Career Day!

Today was the Engineering Career Fair at ISU. So Rick and I spent Monday afternoon running around getting some really nice resumes printed and then he went to a Chemical Engineer's meeting while I re-learned how to tie a tie.

I practiced a few times and then drew Rick these awesome directions on our whiteboard.

Have you ever seen better tie tying directions?

 Despite the fact that I drew Rick these great directions, he decided he absolutely could not tie the tie well enough to wear to the career fair so I had to come home for lunch to help him get ready. Which was a good choice in the end. The man can whip through multi-variable calculus like it's nothing but his tie tying is terrible, and strangely lumpy?

Rick gets ready to go score some interviews. His Mom can sympathize with the fact that those are his SOCKS balled up in the middle of the living room floor.

Rick models his suit next to the amazing tie tying directions.

He's already got at least one interview! We're looking forward to hearing from more places about summer co-ops/internships!

Erin's Day Off!

Today was my last day off in at least the next two weeks as I have class M-F and work Friday, Saturday, Sunday for the next two weekends.

But today was a day well spent!

I went to the farmers market this morning and got some fresh cider (the boy helping at the stand informed me it was pressed last night) and some apples from a local orchard.

So when I got home I crock-potted some Hot Spiced Cider!

I used the recipe I found at simplebites.net, with a few of my own alterations (that I went ahead and compensated for in my list of ingredients).

Ingredients

• 12 cups fresh apple cider
• 1/2 cup raw cane sugar
• 3 cinnamon sticks
• spoonful of whole cloves
• spoonful of star anise
• 1 small chunk, about 2 teaspoons fresh ginger, peeled and sliced in to no more than 3 pieces.
• 1 sliced lemon
• 2l bay leaves
• spoonful of whole black peppercorns

I then ignored the rest of simplebites' directions and threw everything into a crockpot and set it on low. It's been happily making my apartment smell awesome all day!

To serve, I scooped the cider into a teapot Grandma Laura gave me (it's got an awesome strainer so no one drinks any cloves or peppercorns) and added a splash of spiced rum.

IT'S DELICIOUS

my crockpot cider

I also took some Jonathan apples and cubed them up and made "Apple Enchiladas", I found the idea on pinterest, but again, took the recipe into my own hands. Instead of cinnamon sugar and butter I made my caramel apple dumpling sauce.

I chopped up a red onion (also purchased at the farmers market) and a cucumber and made a super yummy cucumber salad and also this potato bake!

But instead of pancetta (not 100% sure what that is?) I used bacon. THIS bacon! This PERFECTLY COOKED BACON!
This is a big deal because I normally burn the bacon. Or at least part of it.

PERFECT BACON!!

I also, again pinterest, learned a way to make My Own photo canvases! I tested it out on a couple cheap canvases I got at walmart. I painted the edges black to match the vast majority of my framed pictures, then modge-podged my photo prints on, let that dry, trimmed the pictures up (the rectangular one is an 8x10 photo on an 8x10 canvas, yet there was still a little overhang. Clearly walmart is lying to me about one or the other.) Then I modge-podged over the top, let it dry, and touched up the sides in black again.  

I like how they came out.