apple dumplings

Every year when Fall rolls around there is something in the air that just makes me want to bake!

Dave served his mission in Pennsylvania and has been telling me all about these apple dumplings that they have there in the fall.

An apple dumpling is a warm and flaky pastry dessert, like your own personal apple pie. The apple dumpling recipe actually originated with the Pennsylvania Amish and its popularity has spread throughout America.

So Monday night for our Family Home Evening activity we made our first batch of apple dumplings.

They are AMAZING!

These are how the dumplings look before they are baked.
These are the dumplings right out of the oven.

Pour the warm syrup over the warm dumpling just before serving.

Serve with a scoop of Vanilla Bean ice cream and drizzle with warm caramel sauce!

Apple Dumplings

Ingredients :
1 pastry for 2-crust pie
Syrup Ingredients:
1 cup granulated white sugar, 2 cups water, 3 Tablespoons butter (softened) 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg.
Filling Ingredients:
6 apples (peeled and cored), 1/2 cup granulated white sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon, 1 1/2 teaspoons nutmeg, 2 Tablespoons butter (softened).

Directions:
1. Roll pastry slightly less than 1/8" thick. Cut into 7" squares.
2. Bring syrup ingredients to boil. Boil 3 minutes.
3. Put apple on center of each pastry square. Fill with mixture of sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg. Dot each with teaspoon of butter.
4. Bring points of pastry up over apple and overlap.
5. Place a few inches apart in baking pan. Pour 1 cup hot syrup mixture around dumplings.
6. Bake at 425 degrees F for 45 minutes. Just before serving pour rest of warm syrup over dumplings and serve with vanilla bean cream.

sitting up

~Max is now sitting up all by himself~

One of Max's favorite activities is to go outside. He has loved being outside since he was just a few weeks old. There's just something about being outside that makes him happy. Here are a bunch of pictures I took of Max outside playing with (a.k.a. eating) the leaves....

In this picture he's upset becuase Mommy's not let him eat the leaves :(
He's been trying to sit up on his own for a few weeks now, but he's finally mastered it!

Well, sort of....

THE END

new toy!

We finally bought Max an "excersaucer".

He is in heaven and so are we!

It occupies him for hours!

He's such a cutie!

best buds!

Max loves playing with his toys...

...especially when Lilly plays with him!

They are best buds!

big boy

Max thinks he's such a big boy these days...

...look at him holding his own bottle :-)

sleepy boy

...doesn't look very comfortable!

stinky!

This is what Dave wears when it's his turn to change Max's stinky diapers: Hahahaha!!!!

girl's night p.j. party

Dave had to work late Saturday night so I thought it would be fun to have his cute little sisters (Kat, Jen & Andrea) over for a pajama party!

We ate pizza & breadsticks, did our nails, made a YUMMY fruit pizza and watched the classic girly movie...Twilight!

{Andrea & Kat cutting up fruit for the pizza}

{We had so much fun decorating our fruit pizza!}

{Voila!!!!}

{Pedicure time!}

{Our cute feet, lol!}

I'm so lucky to have such great

sister-in-laws!

Thanks girls for an awesome night!!!

FRUiT PiZZA RECiPE

2 (16-ounce) packages refrigerated cookie dough
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or other flavoring (almond, orange, or lemon)
Fresh strawberries, blueberries, kiwifruit, peaches, banana slices, mandarin oranges (or any other fruit of your choice)
1/2 cup orange, peach, or apricot preserves
1 Tablespoon water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line an ungreased 14-inch pizza pan with cookie dough cut in 1/8-inch slices, overlapping slightly. Bake 12 minutes or until light brown; remove from oven and cool on a wire rack. In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla extract or other flavoring; spread over cookie crust. Arrange fruit over cream cheese layer in any design you want (use your imagination). In a small saucepan over very low heat, make a glaze by heating preserves and water. Brush glaze over fruit, making sure to cover the fruit that will turn dark. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Note: This does not keep well, so plan on using it up. You may also use your own sugar cookie recipe in place of the refrigerated dough. Makes 8 to 10 servings

baseball game

Thursday night we went to an Ogden Raptors baseball game.

It was Max's 1st baseball game and he LOVED it!

He had wide eyes & was trying to take it all in.

He stood up on my lap and bounced up and down while I held his hands almost the entire game!

He especially liked it when they played music and when the crowd cheered :)

He was totally decked out in his cute baseball outfit.

The announcer of the game even talked about Max over the speakers!

He said "Awww, look at that cute baby in the baseball outfit behind home base!"

He did look awfully cute :)

Other than the drunk guy sitting behind us who spilled his beer all over me, it was a perfect night!

labor day

Today was such a beautiful Labor Day!

We had a blast spending the day with my family in Millcreek Canyon.

My mom is the best cook ever and made her famous AMAZING dutch oven chicken with potatoes, carrots & onions...so delicious!!

Dave & I were in charge of the cobbler. We made an apple-cherry cobbler that turned out really good.

The weather could not have been more perfect and we had so much fun being together as a family!

My Grandma McGarvey came along which was so nice. She is so funny and brought some jokes to share with us..we laughed so hard it hurt!

The only thing missing was Parker :-(

4 generations

RiCE CEREAL

Max is almost 5 months old now and so I've been thinking that it's about time I start introducing him to cereal at night time. Everybody keeps telling me that it will really help him sleep through the night (yay!). So about a week ago I decided that it was time! I went shopping and bought a high chair, 3 different kinds of cereal, bowls, spoons, bibs..the works! I was so excited and was looking forward to it all day. Finally it was time to feed Max! I strapped him in his chair, put on his bib and made him a delicious bowl of warm rice cereal....He HATED it!He cried & gagged...He kept his little lips shut so tight! What we managed to get in he spat right back out :-(He was not a happy camper!The good news: He liked the taste of his high chair :-/After many many airplanes & pleading we gave in...and we had a much happier boy...oh well, there's always tomorrow.