Apple Pie Bread

My mother can bake pies like no other person I know. She doesn't do it nearly so often anymore, mostly just for holidays, but the fact still stands. Not only does she make the pie crust from scratch (which perpetually amazes me), but her pies seem to have a depth of flavor to them that I've just never been able to find anywhere else. Pecan Fudge Pie, Pumpkin Pie, Apple Pie, you name it. Maybe it's just because they're my Mamas but yeah, I'm partial to them.

My (by far) favorite of her pies is her Apple Pie. She makes a Amish-style apple pie, which if you don't know basically means you add a sort of crumble to the top instead of regular pie crust. Until I was about 10 I didn't know most families made pie with a crust on top. I still see crust on an apple pie as a sort of abomination, it just doesn't seem right.

Saturday at the Market I picked up some beautiful Jazz Apples mostly just for the boy to munch on. But turns out he's not a fan, so they've basically been sitting on my counter taking up space. Last night I had the baking bug (and I needed bread so, yeah) but none of the recipes I've had floating around in my head sounded good. I was really craving something savory sweet, but not super rich.

I ended up kicking around the thought of Apple Pie Bread (after all, I had apples) and went for it. I diced the apples, gave them a hot cider bath for a bit so they didn't toughen up in the oven and prepped my Wifey bread. After the first rise, I folded in the apples by doing my fold and flatten method. Next time I think I'm going to also add a sprinkle of cinnamon to each fold. I like swirls, but this recipe is pretty 'rough' and a swirl seemed so... uniform.

After the second rise, I added a chilled crumble mixture (sugar, butter, flour and cinnamon) and tossed them in the oven for the regular 30 mins. The finished result smelled exactly like Apple Pie, the steam wafting off of them was heavenly. This morning, I cut pieces for the Boy and I for breakfast and it was just amazing. Light and moist, with wonderful little pockets of apple happiness. This recipe is sticking around for sure.

Do they really think this will stop prostitution?

Craigslist has got to be beyond dense. They are changing their "erotic" section to an "adult" section. I get the thought. After the whole assault and murder thing was linked to them they are soooo out to cover their butts. Do they not think people will still lie about ages or intentions. This is going to do nothing but make this a craftier trade. Sure "legal adult service providers" will use the new and improved service but the illegal will find a way around and monitoring. Just like a gun ban only hurts legal gun owners all this does is provide a hiccup for the men and women trolling for a quick buck for that drug fix who really care less about rules and regulations. Prostitution is going to happen. Sex is a commodity in pretty much every society and little bumps in that road will not deter those desperate enough to sell themselves illegally. There needs to be legislation in place that really addresses this issue not lawmakers expecting companies to police it for them.

Margarita Scones

One of the recipes I'd been bouncing to Lila and Gracie the last few days were scones that we're quickly dubbed "margarita scones". I'm very picky about what I eat for breakfast. I want a full breakfast (bacon, biscuits, gravy, eggs, bacon, pancakes and bacon), or I want something super light like yogurt. If I eat one of those over-sized muffins or something, I feel like I have a brick in my stomach until after lunchtime.

I really love the combo of salt, sweet and citrus that comes from a lime margarita. It just tastes so clean and refreshing. So I decided to duplicate the taste in baked goods form. I made my basic sweet scone recipe, and added finely grated lime zest to the dry mixture. I cut them into biscuit sized rounds instead of wedges, and baked them just like normal. I let them cool completly, then dipped in a lime royal icing and topped with rough sugar to duplicate the margarita texture.


I'm very pleased with how they came out, and they've given me a ton more ideas for scones! I love scones because they are so easy (a little labor intensive compared to say, cereal) and worth every single bite!

(no Tequila was intentionally harmed in the scone making process)

Tax deductions

We bought a book called a deduct it book that lets you track your tax deductions for the year. It is really cool but I had no idea what you need for documentation. It recommends that you write down the value and number of each item you are donating, (there is a place in the book for that) take pictures of all of the items, bag them, take another picture, deliver them to the thrift store, (or wherever), take another picture of the goods being accepted, and get a receipt. Oh, and you will need initials of the person recieving the goods in the book. CRAZY! I also got a really nifty brochure size sheet that helps me track my milage to and from scouts and all of the running around I do for the rescue. We got SCREWED on our taxes this year and it was our fault for not keeping track of deductions. This year will be different.

Prepping the Preps: Part 2

I finally finished up with organizing my cabinets, and separating Shelf Stuff vs Preps. I am honestly amazed at just how much canned food I have, and more then that how much canned food I have that I know I've had since early in my marriage, so almost 6 years. Anything I could identify as over 2 years old I herded together and took into my local food bank. Frankly, the fact that I haven't eaten it in the last 5 years tells me chances are I'm not eating it in the next 5.

I'm not a super picky eater, but well... okay, I'm a picky eater. There I said it. So, it's silly for me to have things in my pantry that I KNOW I wouldn't even feed to the dog. I don't eat sauerkraut. I don't like sauerkraut. I don't need a gallon mason jar of it.

One thing I did do in the cleaning crusade was to make a list of every thing that went into my preps storage. I'm going to edit the list a bit (so it doesn't read Crm chkn Sp lrg) and place one copy on the inside of my cupboard door, and probably another in the storage itself. That way instead of buying more (insert canned veggie here) I can snag some out of the food storage, mark the list, and replenish that every other week. Using what I have stored, and saving myself some in the process as I can stock up a bit more on things I need should they be on sale.

Quote of the Day

“If you want government food, go to the supermarket and buy government food. But for those who want to have a relationship with their food, and the accountability that inherently comes with voluntarily and informatively opting out of the supermarket to go ask around, smell around, sniff around, look around and opt out of the government food system, they ought to have that right.”

-Joel Salatin, owner and operator of PolyFace Farms

Cooking with food storage

So at our "Survivor" night at church, we learned that you can substitute beans for oil in any baking recipe. You use black beans in chocolate recipes, pinto beans in chocolate chip cookies, white beans for white or yellow cake mixes. Just match the color of the beans to the color of the baked goods you are making. If the SHTF, cooking oil is going to be scarce as it doesn't store well. I bought a case of canned butter that has a 15 yr shelf life, but it is kind of expensive to use in baking. We will save that for special occasions where butter will make the difference in a dish. Beans are a staple in any food storage so they would be plentiful. Who says you can't eat yummy things with food storage? You cannot taste the difference in the cakes or cookies AT ALL. These cookies turned out "cake like" ie: puffy. If you like your cookies more like, well, cookies; use half beans and half oil. Same goes for brownies. Experiment and have fun.

3 Generation Households.

So TOR at our brother blog wrote a great blog on this subject. We are a 3gen household. My MIL has fibromyalgia and has had a rough time working. When her room mates moved away and her job was due to end we invited her to live with us. We do have many of the benefits TOR mentioned like another adult to help around the house, someone to enrich our lives and the girls lives with her experiences and knowledge. Both our girls adore my MIL and she and I get along very well. We have some bumps sometimes because my MIL is a very emotional woman (recently diagnosed PTSD after a very bad marriage and even worse divorce) and so am I (bi-polar, lol) so we can have our moods clash.

One thing that I recommend is that the boundaries as to reprimanding the kids be set right away. Hubs and I are very hands on parents and we have a hard time with others doing our job and we had to make that very clear. Also we had to enter this expecting to be the caretaker to someone else. If you start this journey relying on the elder generation to perform certain taskes it can often cause tention if those tasks aren't done. We knew going in that Mom was very limited in what she could physically do and emotionally handle so it made the transition easier because we did not have unrealistic ideas of how she would contribute to the house. It has been a wonderful blessing to have someone to safely leave the baby with so I can take a bath or go pick up Bug from school. I also know that if I am ill she will help with cooking.

We also have my BIL, nephew, and my brother living in the same complex and I regularly cook to feed everyone. It saves them money and time and ensures they are eating real meals which makes Hubs and I feel better. This move will actually be seperating us from all of them and in some ways I am excited for the return of privacy in others I am heart broken. I have become used to this whole big family thing. Mom follows us down in a little while and a huge part of why we bought the house we did is that it will be a very good living arraingment for us as a 3gen house. We also hope to have my BIL and nephew with us as soon as they are able.

I recommend this to anyone with the patience for it. My girls have so many added blessing as they are surrounded by so many who love them. Plus if SHTF we have the capabilities to take care of our safety with so many adults and that is a huge comfort.

And I thought American men had sex on the brain.

I found this story rather interesting. If a 7 day lack of relations hurt his marriage I can only imagine how the 6 weeks following a baby would affect him. I am a firm believer in granting my guy whatever 'relief' he needs. He works hard and deserves some release and hey I get happy time too but if there is something going on that requires a bit of space between togetherness then we will survive. Our house is usually full of people. People who require attention and have a hard time respecting a locked door. We are lucky to find time once a week at the moment. Suing over a 7 day dry spell just strikes me as ridiculous and so completely disrespectful to his wife. I mean seriously how tortured to wait 7 days and over a cause his wife obviously believes in. If the Hubs sued over something like this the week wait would be extended for the foreseeable future.

RIP Poachy - A Chicken Update

Firstly, I'd like to say Poachy was a good little chicken. Fairly quiet, minded her own business and wasn't one of my master's of escape (which kept her on my good side). Sadly, Poachy passed away from unknown causes (although I expect a scuffle with Yoko was to blame) early on Mother's Day morning. I was a little upset in the morning, but I know she's in happier hen coops somewhere in the great farm in the sky.

The chicks are getting huge. They are going through an amazing amount of feed and water (well, compared to two weeks ago anyway) and I'm cleaning out their pool every other day as their pooping habits are equal to their eating habits. I did have some issues with chicken ninjas (or at least that's what I'd call them) who habitually hopped out of the pool and ran around my garage. I was not a fan of chicken ninja'ing, so I snagged a roll of chicken wire and wrapped the pool. They still managed to fall out as they kept trying to roost on the edge of the pool in the one damn exposed corner, which of course was next to impossible to reach once they fell in. I dropped a water filled old milk carton into the corner and wa-la, problem solved. They fight over who stand on the top of the bottle and I'm not fishing them out nearly so often.

I did however learn this morning though that chickens under duress can squeeze themselves into a rolled-up bale of chicken wire, which they then can't get out of. That was an interesting experience, that's for sure.

Now that they are getting a bit bigger and losing their feathers it's become a bit of a game to guess what breeds they are (I never did ask the people at the feed store, I keep forgetting). Gracie thinks that Chicken is a Barred Rock, and after seeing some pictures I think I agree.

Noodle, Poopbutt, LouAnne, Turtle, Drumstick, Yoko, Benedict and Scramble are the larger white chicks. Gracie thinks they might be Araucana's, but after looking around at pictures I'm thinking they are probably Leghorns. And just a note, I don't care how good tempered people say chickens can be. All the above named chickens are assholes. Yoko is the leader, and if she keeps up this attitude, she'll be the first to go to the happy hunting grounds.


McNugget, Huevo, Shelly, Omelet, and Dark Meat we think are Rhode Island Reds. I wish the pictures I took of them could really do them justice. They are turning a beautiful reddish-rust tone now from the creamy yellow they were when I picked them out. They are super sweet, a little skittish but not one of these 5 (and formerly Poachy as well) has EVER pecked me. The asshole chickens take care of that part.


All and all, my little suburban chicken thing seems to be going well. Probably this weekend the chicks will be moving out to the Logger's ranch to their newly-refurbished chicken coop, and I'm going to hose the hell out of my garage.