Exploring Locally: Apple Orchards

One of my favorite fall activities has always involved eating.  My parents' house out in the country had some crab apple trees and that was one thing that I enjoyed.  I ate a few of them off the tree each year even when it was awfully tart.  My grandparents have multiple apple trees in their backyard also and they pick apples every year and freeze, bake, and can them (ready made pie filling!!).  Last year we found out that there is a local apple orchard not too far out of the suburbs around here.  Alyssa was 2 1/2 and we had a lot of fun picking apples, seeing the farm animals, and checking out the area in general.  Of course that meant that we HAD to go back this year!

We got to the orchard and unlike last year, we were there without any crowds.  Yay for weekdays!  It was seriously windy but it was a perfect temperature out to be hiking through an orchard.  My sister came for a visit so we got to drag her along as a kid helper too.  Alyssa loves tagging along with Auntie no matter where we are.  Even with the massive aphid problems this year, we were able to fill our bag to the brim in a relatively quick amount of time.  We missed out on the animals this year because we didn't see where they had moved to in the remodel until we were leaving.  As it was nearly past supper time already, it wasn't such a huge loss.

I'm looking forward to trying my hand at baking some yummy fall treats and possibly weaseling that canned pie filling recipe out of my grandmother for an ice cream topping!

Alyssa and Momma at the Orchard--Sept 2013

**No location, business, or individual has asked me to write these Exploring Locally posts.  I've taken all trips upon myself and at my own discretion.  I am merely sharing with you some fun ways that we pass our time and tour our own local area!**

Recipe: Sweet and Sour Chicken

I thought I had this recipe posted previously...and if I do, well, I forgot to label it under recipes so....here we go!  This is seriously good stuff people!  Of course it isn't the true Asian dish that we love, but here is the easy Americanized version we eat far too often:

Sweet and Sour Chicken:
1 bag boneless/skinless Chicken Breast

Sauce:
1C. Ketchup
1/2C. White Vinegar
2tsp. Worchestershire
1C. Sugar
1/2tsp. Garlic Powder
1/4C. Water

• Cube/dice chicken (whatever size you really want but we do bitesize or a little larger)
• optional: coat in fry'n magic and fry for crispier chicken
• Brown chicken
• Mix sauce ingredients together
• Pour over chicken in 9x13 pan
• Bake @ 350-375F for 30 minutes
• Optional: serve over rice

We have grilled up extra chicken and used that later in the week to make this.  We have done 8x8 pans using fewer chicken breasts (but did the same amount of sauce and poured that over the rice).  Play with it to suit your family.  It is sweeter than sour but delicious!  I use Ready Rice from Uncle Ben just to make it one less thing to juggle at supper time with the kids.

My husband, the man who likes only things with a crunch to them, even likes this one.  Our daughter used to think it was 'ketchup chicken' and will clear a plate of it in minutes usually.  As for myself, it is a personal favorite!  Chris froze the leftovers (we made a second pan to test this) one time and it worked SO WELL!  Took the vacuum sealed pouch out of the freezer, thawed/heated in the microwave and had a GREAT lunch a few weeks later.  Speaking of....I think I'll go dig through the freezer and see if I have any more lunch pouches left in there!

Candy Crafting

We had a 30th Surprise party for a very good friend of ours towards the end of February.  We wanted to get her something special but as her passion is for her horses and we know nothing about them, I went the more crafty route and decided to satisfy her sweet tooth instead.  Get yourself some cake pop sticks or sucker sticks from your local craft or party store, hot glue the favored Fun Size chocolates onto the ends and start filling up whatever vase you love.  Accessorize in any fashion!  I used some glittery spiral sticks, spiral holographic confetti, and holographic tissue paper plus some curling ribbon as a topper.  It was a big hit as I kept overhearing people talk about it in such a positive light.  Talk about an ego boost that night!  So I present to you, my first ever, Candy Bouquet!

30 Days of Thankfulness: Day Twenty

Monday night my hubby made up 5lbs of BBQ's.  (mmmmm.....)

They do a monthly celebration of birthdays at the office and this month he brought in my family's recipe of that delicious messy meat.  The making of said BBQ's reminded me of something that I frequently am grateful to have: the Crockpot!  Yes, I am thankful for my Crockpot.

C'mon...so many amazing foods can come out of this baby and if you recall my Pinterest thankfulness post, well, you would be thankful for anything that does ALL the work but the cutting and serving too.  I have a few recipes that are Crockpot faves and they can be found in my dedicated Pinterest Crockpot folder.  The one that can't be found there though is the BBQ recipe.  In case you need a delicious and still simple option for semi-sweet BBQ's, here ya go:

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BBQ's

1 lbs lean hamburger

1 C Ketchup  (we use Heinz)

2 TBSP Mustard

2 TBSP Worchestershire Sauce

2 TBSP Brown Sugar

Brown and drain hamburger
Mix all sauce ingredients (everything but the hamburger).
Mix and simmer (or crockpot) sauce and meat til heated through or as long as you want the flavors to marinate for.

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Our Crockpot only holds 5lbs at a time so we take this recipe and multiply it (shockingly by 5).  We then vacuum seal about 1-1 1/2lb portions to freeze.  It makes a great last minute meal during the week considering we can pull the bag out of the freezer, defrost in the microwave and then heat in the microwave and serve!  Play with the amounts for the sauce to get your taste preferences.  My family hates exact measurements (and they wonder why I can't cook....) so this is my mother's "all approximates" recipe that we actually like as-is.