Remember this?
Last year we took Hannah to this festival, and she slept the entire time.
This year’s festival was the last weekend in April, and she was pretty different.
And she stayed awake the whole time!
She still wasn’t very interested in the sheep, though. Or the giant pig. One of these years.
The Reeve clan headed up to my mom’s neck of the woods a few weeks ago to take in the annual Cherry Blossom Festival in Newark’s Branch Brook Park. This is down the road from where I grew up, and I hadn’t been since I was a kid. We were there on April 13th, and it was still pretty chilly. Most of the blossoms were still closed since it hadn’t really warmed up for the season yet. But it is a lovely walk. Now that I see all the blossoms in our neighborhood finally opening I want to go back and take more pictures.
Oh, man. I’ve been on a Cook’s Country bender lately, making delicious recipe after delicious recipe. That includes this take on an old-school throwback that Adam had as a kid all the time and which I’d never heard of. His mom made whole baked apples stuffed with dates (and no pastry), and this recipe mentions a sort of 1950s dessert that every good housewife could make–again, with whole apples. These dumplings were amazing, but I made far too many of them. The original recipe makes 8 half-apple dumplings, and I halved it for dessert one night (the other half of the dough is in the freezer for another time). But I guess I didn’t really understand how HUGE each of these dumplings were, even with half an apple, so 2 each was just out of hand. They were so delicious that we kept trying to make a dent in our 2nd helping, but it was no use. We were defeated by their amazingness. Next time I will just make 2…or invite more people over.
The original recipe below uses raisins in the filling, but I’m not such a fan. I just diced up another quarter apple and replaced the raisins with that. Why not?
Baked Apple Dumplings with Cider Sauce
Serves 8 (I halved everything but the dough and made 4–the remaining dough I put in the freezer)
Dough
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces and chilled
5 tablespoons vegetable shortening, cut into 1/2-inch pieces and chilled
3/4 cups cold buttermilk
Apple Dumplings
6 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
3 tablespoons golden raisins, chopped
4 Golden Delicious apples (I actually used Granny Smiths, and the recipe also suggests Braeburns or Galas)
2 egg whites, lightly beaten
Cider Sauce
1 cup apple cider
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Other posts on this project: Dr. Seuss Quilt Pt. 1, Dr. Seuss Quilt Pt. 2, Dr. Seuss Quilt Pt. 3.
I finally finished this quilt! It’s a horribly belated first birthday present, but I love this quilt to pieces. I hope Hannah loves it, too.
I am so in love with this. I bought this from Life Geekery a while back, and I’ve had it for about a month now. They’re made to order, so you do have to be patient for a few weeks until it ships. But they have some other amazing character interpretations (Dr. Who, Star Wars), not just Harry Potter. And you can order for a Kindle, iPad, Mini, etc. You do have to get used to carrying Harry upside down, the opening is at the bottom. Small price to pay for greatness.
This is probably my favorite purchase for myself so far this year.
