Has anyone else’s March (and now April!) been more busy than normal?!  Ours has been (at least I feel like it has…), and getting dinner on the table has been a bit of a struggle lately.  When that’s the case I rely on my crockpot or freezer meals to help me out.  This was a new crockpot recipe that I really enjoyed and ate as leftovers for lunch for several days afterward.  The Picky Apple thought it was okay, but didn’t like the thickness of the sauce (I totally overcooked the pork, so the thick sauce was my fault, not the recipe’s!).  I served the pork with jasmine rice and broccoli, peppers and carrots sauteed with garlic and ginger.

Crockpot Asian Peanut Butter Pork

from A Year of Slow Cooking

Ingredients:

• 1.5-2lbs pork tenderloin
• 1 onion, sliced in rings
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 3 tablespoons water
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1/2 cup creamy natural peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons chopped peanuts (garnish; optional)
• 1 lime, cut in wedges (garnish; optional)

Use a 4-6 quart crockpot. Put onion slices into the bottom of your crockpot. Put the pork on top. Add brown sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, water, garlic, and peanut butter. No need to stir–the peanut butter needs to melt before you can do so. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or on high for 4-6. The pork will be more tender the longer you cook it. 1 hour before serving, flip the meat over in the crockpot to allow the other side to soak up the peanutbuttery goodness. Garnish with chopped peanuts, and serve with lime wedges.

I’ve been reading some amazing books lately, but today I wanted to share one of The Littlest Apple’s favorite books: Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm, by Alice and Martin Provensen.

We’ve had this book for about a year now, but in the last month or so, it’s become a daily read.  I love it, The Littlest Apple loves it, and I love that he loves a book that’s not about construction, Buzz Lightyear, and superheros.  This book is a wholesome, clever, somewhat old-fashioned (in a good way!) and heartwarming story about all of the animals that live at Maple Hill Farm.  The illustrations are wonderful and you really get to know the personality of each different animal on the farm.

The book begins with the following intro….

Who lives at Maple Hill Farm?  People live here.  Two dogs and five horses live here.  A pig lives here.  Then there are- some geese, lots of chickens, a few cows, a few goats, several sheep and four special cats.

Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm then details all of the animals, showing what kinds of things they typically do throughout the day and how they interact with each other.  The Littlest Apple loves to read about the cats, particularly Max who can be found hissing at Gooseberry, watching birds, teasing the chipmunks, hiding in the garden, and playing with a ball of yarn.  We also like to read about the dogs Muffin and Dinah, who play in very different ways.

The horses are another favorite (especially the part when they roll in the mud after getting combed and when they get scared by a little piece of paper blowing in the wind).  We also find the sheep amusing, especially a ewe named Whiney who always eats poison weeds and gets sick, gets lost easily and faints from fright when she’s getting sheared.  The hens and roosters (especially that bully, Big Shot) are entertaining too!

Last but not least, there are a few pages at the end about some of the neighbors on Maple Hill Farm, including snakes, chipmunks, squirrels, birds, foxes, wasps, crickets, mice, and a family of skunks (best not to notice them!!).

So really, we love ALL of the animals!  At 64 pages, we usually split this book in half to read over two sittings, but there are also plenty of illustrations for The Littlest Apple to look at during quiet time on his own.

There is something just so soothing about this wholesome book, and I can’t say enough good things about it!  I’m looking forward to reading the companion book, The Year at Maple Hill Farm, which details the farm throughout the different seasons.

How do I find neat books like this to read?  Even though I don’t homeschool, I DO love to check out reading lists from various homeschool curriculum.  This book is on several lists, including Sonlight’s P3/4 Curriculum.

What books have you and your kids been reading lately?

Disclosure: I have not been asked to review this book.  It’s just a great book that I wanted to share with you.  The links in the post are Amazon Affiliate links.

I haven’t posted about our 2nd Annual Minute to Win It Party yet because I decided it would probably be a good idea to get permission for posting photos of my friends doing silly games.  My post about last year’s party has been really popular in the search engines (totally wasn’t expecting that!) and one of the most read posts on my blog, so I wanted to make sure my friends were cool with me using photos of them holding noodles in their mouth, tennis racquets between their knees, and wearing silly hats!  I hope to have a post on that sometime soon.

In the meantime, here’s a recipe for the brownies I made for the party.  I’ve been flipping past this recipe for over a year every time I looked in my recipe binder for a dessert.  Not sure why.  I LOVED these brownies!!  Similar to kitchen sink cookies, these brownies are chock full of all kinds of good stuff like cinnamon, chocolate chips, pecans, toffee bits, and coconut.  They freeze well too!  I know this photo isn’t the greatest….I snapped these as an afterthought when the party was well underway!  

Kitchen Sink Crunchers

from Family Circle, September 2009

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 1 cup packed dark-brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup toffee pieces (such as Heath Bits o’ Brickle)
• 3/4 cup sweetened flake coconut
• 3/4 cup chopped pecans
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line 13x9x2 inch baking pan with nonstick foil.  Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt and cinnamon; set aside.

Melt butter and sugar in a saucepan.  Cool slightly.  Whisk in egg and vanilla extract, then whisk in flour mixture.  Stir in toffee bits, 1/2 cup EACH flake coconut and pecans and all of the chocolate chips.  Spread into prepared pan.

Press remaining coconut and nuts into batter.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until set in center.  Let cool in pan on wire rack for 15 minutes.  Grab foil and lift bar from pan to rack; let cool completely.  Cut into 24 bars.

I totally copied the title of this blog post from This Adventure because it made me smile (and inspired this whole post)….

One of the problems with blogs is that they often give the appearance that you live a perfect life.  Sometimes blogs are deceptive in that it can appear that you are some kind of Super Mom with a spotless, beautifully decorated house, perfectly behaved genius children, a wonderfully romantic marriage, gourmet breakfast, lunch, and dinner on the table.  You may appear to be put together at all times and still have time to craft and volunteer.  I try to keep things REAL around here, sharing some of our struggles right along with some of the projects I’m proud of.  I hope that I’ve done a decent job with that.  But I still get asked frequently how I “do it all.”  The answer?  I DON’T!  Not even close.  I also hear lots comments like “where do you find the time to do that?” or “I WISH I had time to do that!”  So I started thinking about the things I DO make time for, and the things that I don’t spend much time on (some of these need more attention-like date nights with my husband, others I’m perfectly happy keeping on the backburner-like scrapbooking).

What I DON’T Do:

1. Get 8 hours of sleep a night-I always try to get to bed early, since The Littlest Apple is an early riser and I started getting up even earlier (see below), but it never quite happens.  The Littlest Apple goes to bed around 8:30, I relax for a bit, take a bath, and next thing i know, it’s 11pm!

2.  Homeschool-The Littlest Apple goes to preschool 2 1/2 days a week.  I love to do some learning activities at home with The Littlest Apple, but I really admire all of you moms who do this all day every day!!

3.  Scrapbook–I’ve bought supplies before, but never quite got started

4.  Sew or knit–Okay, I’ve hand-sewn a few quilts and I sewed the curtains for the Dress Up Storage Bin and Puppet Theater, but this isn’t something I spend much (any) time on.

5.  Crank out weekly DIY projects–my cute wreaths and other crafts are few and far between, and any big project (painting, a room makeover, building a bed) takes MONTHS to finish.

6.  Watch TV during the day-I relish the quiet when The Littlest Apple is at school, but really, books and the interwebs can be just as much of a time sucker.

7.  Work out at the gym every day-We got a membership to the YMCA recently, but I’m still a little intimidated by the gym workout.  Also, I have to drive all the way over there!  I would like to go more though.

8.  Have regular girls night outs-I honestly can’t remember the last time we did this.  Local ladies: we need to get together!!

9.  Have regular date nights with my husband-definitely need to work on this!!

10.  Have regular playdates-With The Littlest Apple in school 2 1/2 days a week, at the  grandparents one day, and visiting the other grandparents another day after school, we’ve really only got ONE free day.  And lately we’ve just enjoyed relaxing at home.  BUT I miss seeing our friends more regularly!!

11.  Spend hours every day cleaning my house–CLEAN in 2011 is about manageable cleaning for people like me who hate to clean.  You’ve seen my oven, right?

12.  Talk on the phone– I HATE talking on the phone.  If you are a friend of mine IRL, you know this about me.

13.  Wash, dry and style my hair every day-My hair is frequently in a pony tail, but I usually try to look relatively put together otherwise.  Those cute and colorful necklaces and/or big dangly earrings I’ve got on are supposed to be distracting you from my greasy hair.  Is it working?

What I DO Do:

1.  Get up at 5:30 so I can squeeze in devotion time before my early bird gets up-read my bible (following the one year plan), S.O.A.P. Journal, prayers

2.  Cook dinner 5 nights a week

3.  Read lots of books

4.  Volunteer as Room Mom for my son’s preschool class (and Auction Basket Coordinator)

5.  Workout at home 3-4 days a week (in a good week)- need to increase this or join my husband at the gym on the other days

6.  Spend time reading and commenting on blogs–one of the best ways to build a blog following (and also a BIG time sucker if you don’t limit yourself!)

7.  Work on The Picky Apple (the blog, not the husband)–at least an hour a day, even on non-posting days

8.  Participate in church related activities several days a week.  Right now, I’m in a wonderful moms group, finishing up the Alpha Course, and getting ready to start leading a small group with a friend.  (I NEVER would have imagined doing ANY of this a year ago!)

9.  Take naps occasionally when The Littlest Apple takes his–I’ve always loved naps, but afternoons (12-2) are HARD for me now that I’m getting up earlier.

10.  Take a bubble bath most nights–usually with a good book.  A great way to relax at the end of the day!

We all have the same amount of time each day.  How you spend it is up to you!!

Here’s another fun hands-on activity to keep curious hands occupied and learning at the same time!  I read about this dissolving activity at Totally Tots, and we did this one morning during Spring Break.

Does It Dissolve?

First, I explained the definition of “dissolve”-when something breaks into pieces so small that you can no longer see it.

Then I presented eight different substances for The Littlest Apple to experiment with (7 are pictured below, the 8th was instant tea).  Each substance was labeled with a post it note (I’m starting to work with him on sounding out words and word recognition).

The Littlest Apple had to predict whether each substance would dissolve or not.  Then he dumped it in to a pitcher of water and stirrred, stirred, stirred.  Dumping and stirring–right up The Littlest Apple’s alley!

Then we evaluated whether his prediction was right, and he moved the post it note label to another area of the counter with 2 post its labeled “dissolve” and “no”.

The Littlest Apple had such a great time with this, and I was surprised at how well he followed along with the steps for the process (hypothesis, experiment, result).

The only thing I might change next time is to have a separate bowl/cup/container of water for each substance.  Once we put some of the things that didn’t dissolve into the water, it made it harder to discern which things were dissolving.

I’m hoping to share more “science” activities like this in the future!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!  We spent the day at Brazos Bend State Park yesterday with family, and today we’re just taking it easy and recovering from a bit too much sun (and not enough sunscreen).  Here are some links that caught my eye recently….

Tall Paintings @ Teacher Tom

Homemade Onion Soup Mix (with no MSG) @ Heavenly Homemakers

10 Unique Gardening Ideas for Kids @ Code Name: Mama

Dining Room Turned Craft Room @ Tatertots and Jello  (what I’d love to do with our dining room that never gets used!)

5 Minute Chunky Monkey Ice Cream @ Kitchen Simplicity  (one of my favorite flavors!)

74 Things You Can Do To Brighten Your Spouse’s Day @ Engaged Marriage

If you have a blog, I’d love for you to leave a comment with a link to your best blog post from this week. I’ve cut back my blog reading some, but I’d still love to see what you’ve been up to this week!  This isn’t an “official” linky party, but I’d love to stop by and comment!

I’m on a waffle making kick!  Now that I’ve actually started using my waffle maker, I’ve really enjoyed experimenting with different flavors of waffles.  I’m still trying to find a go-to “plain” waffle recipe, but the flavored waffles are so much fun!  These lemon poppyseed waffles were delicious, especially topped with blueberries.  For this recipe, I like to use frozen blueberries because when you warm them up, they create lots of juice that is just perfect for drizzling over your waffles instead of (or in addition to) syrup.  Make a big batch and freeze the extras!

Lemon Poppyseed Waffles with Blueberries

adapted from Epicurious

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons poppy seeds
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 1 1/2 tablespoon grated lemon peel
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 cups blueberries (The Picky Apple Note: frozen blueberries work best here)

Thanks so much to everyone who entered the Stella and Dot bracelet giveaway!  This post received the most comments I’ve ever received, and even though the comments were giveaway entries, that was still a neat feeling!  Thanks again to Stella and Dot stylist (and The Picky Apple sponsor) Jen Cavorsi for the giveaway!

The winner of the Coral Soiree Pave Bracelet is…..Cathey!

Congrats, Cathey!!  Please email me your mailing address so we can get your new bracelet to you!

Things have been quiet around here because I’ve been busy working on a project for my son’s school.  If you “Like” The Picky Apple on Facebook, then you got to see a little sneak peek of this yesterday.  As the Auction Coordinator for my son’s class (totally got suckered into that!!), we put together this Dress Up Storage Bin to be auctioned off as a fundraiser for the school.

My husband built the Dress Up Storage Bin (inspired by Ana White, but customized for our needs).  After building a bed, this was a fairly simple project for him, but it still took about 10 hours of his time.  I am SO PROUD of him and THANKFUL for his willingness to help out!  I did the painting–all 4 coats (gotta love white paint)!  The costumes (or funds to purchase costumes) were generously donated by the AMAZING group of parents from our class.  At one point before Spring Break, I was a little nervous about how this was all going to come together, but in the end we had a Class Auction Basket valued at OVER $800!!  (This is our first year at this preschool, but apparently the auction is a Big Deal).

The storage bin contains FIFTEEN costumes: knight, construction worker, pirate, veterinarian, chef, firefighter, Batman, Superman, Robin, Fancy Nancy, ladybug, cowgirl, ballerina, princess, fairy.

There are some accessories hidden in the storage underneath the costume.  This space will be just perfect for shoes and other big accessories like shields, swords, etc.

The baskets up top are milkcrates from Target.  One of the crates contains more costume accessories (shoes, jewelry, wands, crowns).  Another crate contains TEN books that coordinate with TEN of the costumes.

The last crate contains THREE puppets (pig, cat, and crocodile-though I honestly thought the crocodile was a dragon when I bought it!).  If you turn the Bin around, it doubles as a Puppet Theater.  I hand-sewed the curtains myself with fabric from Hobby Lobby after my attempt at no-sew curtains flopped.  It was my first time sewing curtains, and they aren’t perfect, but I’d say they look pretty cute!

I am ECSTATIC about how this project turned out and glad to have it over with (it’s been a major source of stress since January).  I can’t wait to see how much money is raised on Auction Night.  If you’re local and interested, let me know in the comments and I’ll email you with details about the auction.

Now back to the house painting and Easter crafts!!

I’m sharing this post with….

My friend “RossBoss” and I made this recipe together for our husbands last year after a day spent crafting a Happy Birthday Banner (the ladies) and building The Littlest Apple’s bed (the men).  After dinner and margaritas, we  played board games and just enjoyed each other’s company.  What a great day that was!  I need to make an effort to do stuff like this with my friends more often.  (We just hosted our Second Annual Minute To Win It Party over the weekend, so I guess that’s a start!)

In addition to the great company that day, I LOVED this meal.  And I just the got recipe from my friend and made it again tonight, so I thought I’d share.  One skillet meals like this are so easy!  The crisp cornbread topping goes wonderfully with the bean, meat and chipotle filling.  When we first made this recipe, we dumped the whole can of chipotles in.  It was SPICY!  This time I toned it back and you know, followed the instructions, using 4 teaspoons of chipotle for a milder flavor.  If you like it hot, you can always add more!

Skillet Tamale Pie

from America’s Test Kitchen: 30 Minute Suppers, October 2010

Ingredients:

• 1 cup frozen corn, thawed (or one can of fresh corn)
• 4 teaspoons mined chipotle chiles in adobe sauce
• salt and pepper
• 10 ounces store bought cornbread, crumbled (about 2 1/2 cups) (Made my own)
• 3 cups shredded Mexican cheese blend
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 onion, chopped fine
• 1 1/2 pounds 85% lean ground beef
• 2 (15-ounce) cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees. Pulse corn, 1 teaspoon chipotle, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in food processor until well combined, about 6 pulses. Transfer to bowl. Stir in cornbread and 1 1/2 cups cheese and mix until thoroughly combined.

Heat oil in large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Cook onion and remaining chipotle until softened, about 4 min. Add beef and cook until no longer pink, 3-5 minutes. Stir in beans and tomatoes and cook until thickened, about 5 minutes. Off the heat, stir in remaining cheese and cilantro and season with salt and pepper.

Sprinkle cornbread mixture evenly over filling. Transfer to the oven and bake until topping is golden brown and filling is bubbling, 10-15 minutes. Serve.