Page 78 | A Small Snippet | A snapshot into the small snippets of life...to expose the Bigger Picture

Dec

02

The Crippled Lamb

guess what?? we woke up this morning to freeze warnings and temps of 25 degrees!! so i’m thinking that i can officially now start celebrating this winter holiday, since its kinda hard to get into the Christmas spirit when you’re picking out and decorating a christmas tree while wearing sundresses in 82 degree weather!

so in honor of the start of the Christmas/winter season here, i wanted to tell you about a special book that our family loves. this book was shared with our family last year by a dear friend (thanks cheryl!) and we loved the story and illustrations, so the bug and i went to the library the other day to get a copy so we can have it around again this year for the holidays!

The Crippled Lamb

here’s the basic gist of the story (its a tearjerker! and everytime i read it, i just wanna wrap up that little lamb and give him a big squeeze hug!)
its got beautiful illustrations:
and the story is so precious, i can hardly stand it:

if you can get your hands on a copy, you will not be disappointed. it might just become one of your family’s favorites too!!

here a few of the other titles we picked up too, in case you are interested!

okay…gotta go get ready for my date tonight. we have a “meeting” with Santa, so hoping to accomplish lots more Christmasy things today!!

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Dec

01

Spiced Apple Pie

i wasn’t feeling too well the few days leading up to Thanksgiving, so i didn’t get to attempt all the recipes i would’ve liked. however, i did make a pumpkin cream pie that was posted on the Pioneer Woman’s blog (thanks to my fellow Chi Omega sister Kelly for the suggestion!!) and it was excellent! it has a great, light, creamy pumpkin flavor, but without being too rich, which means you can have a really big piece without feeling sick!! (btw…i have plans to try some of the other pumpkin recipes you guys passed on to me too! i’ll keep you posted on those!)

i also made my favorite traditional apple pie. i found this recipe a few years back and have made it every year for Thanksgiving since. its none other than a Martha Stewart creation, and you can click here to see all the ins and outs. i won’t repost the actual recipe with all the tips, but i’ll show you some steps along the way.

i love this pie because it tastes AMAZING, fresh, sweet, and tangy all at the same time, and it looks really festive and unique.

i had every intention of making my own Pate Brisee, but my body just wasn’t gonna let me do that this year. and although i’m sure Martha would have a hissy if she knew i used store bought dough for her recipe, i think it turned out just fine. so i give you the freedom to not feel the pressure to make your own dough. (afterall…the store bought kind is already rolled out, so it makes it so super simple!! i’m thinking the Pillsbury Dough Boy and Martha Stewart should maybe become friends. i bet they could do some damage as a team!)

anyway…to begin:

unroll another pie crust (for this recipe, i used 3 pie crusts, so one and 1/2 boxes of refrigerated dough). to cut rounds, i used a scalloped edged biscuit cutter, which was about 1 3/4 inches in diameter. you can be creative here and use something that is similar in size.
i bought this brand new apple peeler at a garage sale. its maybe one of the best purchaes i’ve ever made! if you can find one for cheap, i suggest getting it. its amazing, and i’m thinking it could maybe work on potatoes too….i’ll have to try that out and let you know!
i peeled all these apples in less than 4 minutes. typically that would’ve taken me a LONG time!!

combine apples in a large bowl and add in other ingredients:

make an egg wash by slightly beating together one egg yolk and 1 tablespoon heavy cream.

after its chilled for 1 hour, bake pie at 400 degrees for 25 minutes, to brown the crust. then bake for another hour or so at 375 degrees, until bubbly. tent crust with foil if its getting too brown.

just to note…this is the first year that i’ve made this pie without setting off my smoke alarm. the juices in this pie WILL drip over and the sugar will burn in the bottom of your oven. so place a foil lined cookie sheet on the bottom rack, below the rack with your pie, to catch the dripping juices! it will save your oven and your house from lots of smoke!

i’m hoping to come back later with a quick little book review on a children’s Christmas book that i think every family should enjoy this holiday season!

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Nov

26

i {heart} butter

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

we had a great Thanksgiving day with family…and ate more than i care to reveal to you! (like…its quite possible that i ate my weight in butter alone!)

this year, our holiday has been particularly wonderful and relaxing:

cause its the very first year in our married lives (that’s 9 years, peeps) where the hubs and/or i did not have to work a Christmas Tree Lot beginning 6am the morning after Thanksgiving and ending 3 weeks later. we feel so FREE!!

(when we worked at the church, our main fundraiser of the year was a Tree Lot to raise money for our student ministry’s mission trips throughout the year. it really was a blast, but tons of work, and tons of time away from each other and our family. it’s absolutely GLORIOUS to not have that this year!)

however, we couldn’t stay away too long, and revisited our old stomping grounds to buy our tree today! (again, a first for us…getting our tree together as a family the day after Thanksgiving!)

the Bug was in awe of the sheer height of some of the trees:

the Boy was sure to inspect, poke, and prod the trees to make sure we got a good one:

the Hubs just had to jump in for old times sake and use the chainsaw (and i know those of you who have spent countless hours with us on that lot are smiling right now!):

the kiddos stood by and watched (with plugged ears), and then helped tie that bad boy up on the roof of the car:

they were all smiles when we also picked out a smaller tree, just for the crazies:

so we’ll get to work on decorating, and i’m sure at some point you’ll see the finished products!

this little one is dreaming of a White Christmas apparently, as i found her in her room, decking herself out:

but she’ll have to keep dreaming, cause its a whopping 82 degrees here in the sunshine state!

and, although this shouldn’t suprise you by now, i’m aware that i didn’t quite make it back with any recipes in time for the big feast. but…if you come back in the next day or two, i’ll tell you all about this apple pie: