(Not necessarily at the same time.)
Happy Wednesday ~ hope you’re having a wonderful one!
Apples with caramel and cinnamon. Sometimes it’s okay to have dessert for dinner, yes? If it’s yummy AND packed with nutrients, then of course.
I discovered the recipe for Easy Apple Pie Burritos on Angela’s amazing blog, "Oh She Glows". Thanks, Angela, for the inspiration!
I modified the recipe a teensy bit by adding one egg to the dough mixture. Other than that, followed it to a tee.
The sucanat (a new staple in my kitchen, hereto and forevermore) results in a rich, caramely glaze that oozed all over the pan. These bad boys were really, REALLY good. We seriously felt like we were eating apple pie for dinner. Not to worry, though….we also had a side of eggs with broccoli and tomatoes. What a fantastic dinner!
Mom came to hang out today! For those of you who don’t know, my parents live in Wheaton, which is about an hour north of me. We always enjoy our visits and try to make them happen once every one or two weeks.
So glad she came today because I wanted her to help me make the pickles! And help me she DID. It was a very enjoyable – and aesthetically pleasing – culinary experience. I have loved dill pickles ever since my Czechoslovakian next-door neighbor used to feed them to me while I sat in my high chair in his kitchen.
(The above picture was BEFORE we realized we had to boil the water/vinegar mixture prior to pouring it over the cucumbers. Yes, we poured all the liquid out of the jars and into a pot, boiled it, then poured it back into the jars. PHEW.)
We have eleven jars like this and I cannot wait to try them in a couple months!
I am happy to share this recipe with you and hope that if you make them, you’ll let me know. :-) One thing I can tell you right now is that the concoction of dill, garlic, onions and vinegar smelled sooooo good!
GARLIC DILL PICKLES
7 lbs medium-size pickling cucumbers
12 thick onion chucks or slices
8 tbsp dill seed
several springs of cut, fresh dill
24 cloves of garlic
1 quart vinegar
2 quarts water
1/2 c sea salt
Wash cukes and pack into hot, sterilized Ball jars. To each jar, add 1 onion chunk, 2 tsp dill seed, 2 fresh dill sprigs, 2 cloves of garlic. Combine remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Pour, boiling hot, over cukes, leaving 1/4 inch space at top. Seal at once.
All that pickling made us hungry we went out in search of a good place to get some grub. Ended up at Siri Thai.
Ordered some spring rolls with plum sauce and when they came, we saw that they had shrimp in them. I refrained. (Sorry ya’ll, I hate seafood of any kind.) They sure did look purty, though.
The soup was delish – a little spicy (but not so hot it left my tongue burning) and loaded with veggies. Gave my egg roll to Mom.
The main entrees were Fried Rice with Chicken and Cashew Chicken. DE-LICIOUS.
The Cashew Chicken had big chunks of tomatoes, green pepper and pineapple. Slurp.
Peek-a-boo!
Right next to the restaurant there was a health food store. Score!
Bought a loaf of gluten-free Uri Bread, some apple butter that looks divine, and the ever-popular-in-the-blogosphere Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Larabars….
….And this coolio ChicoBag that starts as a compact little keychain thing and *POOF* magically turns into a resuable bag that you can take to the grocery store or farmer’s market!
So many of you request more kitty pictures, so here you go. Happy now? Haha! Aren’t they beauty-ful?!
Would you believe my “Shred It with Weights” DVD has not arrived yet? I’m so sad. It was supposed to get here yesterday. Thankfully, I did a 3-mile kicking-and-punching walk yesterday afternoon and it totally rocked!
Tonight I’m going to Lissy’s preschool for a parents’ orientation meeting (which usually means eating cookies and filling out tons of forms). If the DVD has arrived by the time I get home, I will be giving it a whirl tonight!
I sense a giveaway coming soon. Wait for it. Wait for iiiiiit……..
Ta!
***** QUESTION FOR YOU: Have you ever done your own canning/jarring – pickles, peaches, berries…..? How did it turn out?
Love the picture of your two cats, cute picture of them together.
Question: Yes we have done canning. We did Kosher Dill Pickles and Dave does home made spaghetti sauce.
Spaghetti sauce – that’s a great idea!!
What a fun day we had. Love looking at your blog and reliving all the little details. I do think you should post the pic. of Kyler. His wiskers are amazing. It was fun watching you take pics. The camera never leaves you. lol. I’ve been telling dad all about our day. You could take a pic. of them eating. 🙂
Shoot, I forgot to post that Kyler one!
I totally want whatever you didn’t want for lunch – it looked awesome and I love shrimp (or shrimps as I’ve taken to calling them ever since I mocked a friend for it, now I just do it).
Lol! I can hardly even LOOK at “shrimps,” much less eat ’em!
Another anti-seafood person; here I thought I was the only one!
I would love to learn how to can foods, but haven’t had the chance to do so yet. I have made freezer jam and often freeze the excess veggies (esp. green beans) from my garden by blanching them, but that’s as far as I’ve gotten. Same thing with apples; I’ll make applesauce and freeze it, but never specifically canned it.
I could SO see you getting into canning and preserving! It’s cost effective too!
Now I wanna do peaches and spaghetti sauce. 🙂
Wendy your pics are wonderful and your apple burritos are adorable! Can I ask you why you added the egg? Did it prevent any crumbliness?
You are too funny with pouring the liquid out, boiling it and readding it. I would have done the same thing!
Yep, it helped a lot with holding the dough together. It was super easy to work with!
I love your high-quailty pics. Your cats are beautiful. I’m added your blog to my favorites.
Aw, thank you so much, Christine! How did you find me?
The comment section on Fitnessista:)
Oh yay! Thanks for visiting – come back often! 🙂
Do you have a pic of the Uri bread in the package? Not sure if I tried that one yet. Thanks!
I’ll take a pic for ya, Susan!
Never have tried it. Will have to soon!
Go for it, Sarah!
Goodness – how do you find the time to can. That is wonderful.
Oh, I love the kitty pics. I want a new one so bad. I can ‘t remember not having cats around practically my whole life, but after my mean ol’ Dave died last year, I can’t find a cat tough enough to take on the Husky. She loves her some cat 😦
Darn dog.
Ha! Sounds like it will be a pretty major challenge to find a kitty who can hold its own against Husky-derg! Your dog is so gorgeous!
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