Apple Dumplings

The arrival of autumn signals the baking of apple dumplings.  I only make them in the fall and I usually make them only once or twice.  It seems that the minute we get the first cool wind of autumn, my husband is already hounding me about "when are you making the apple dumplings?"  Saturday I gave him a vague "one of these days," so yesterday he came home with a bag of apples and all the fixings.  Did someone say "crap?"  Oh, that must have been me.   It's not that I don't want to actually make them, it's just that once they're out of the oven, I want to eat them.  And they are not diet friendly.  But they are SO good!

This recipe is to make 6 dumplings.  I start with 2 boxes of Betty Crocker double pie crust mix.

Dump both boxes into a bowl and follow the directions on the back of the box for adding water.  Knead it together and then roll out into 6 squares or circles.  Mine are far from perfectly shaped.  Set aside for now.

Boil for 3 minutes in a pot on the stove.  This will make your sauce -
2 cups sugar
4 cups water
6 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Set aside.

Peel, core and slice 6 apples of your choice.  You can use whatever apple type you wish.  Now the recipe calls for one apple per dumpling, but truth be told, we are not all about the apple.  We kind of like a little apple with a lot of dumpling, so I usually use 4 large apples to make 6 dumplings.

In a separate bowl mix your filling - melt 2 tablespoons of butter or margarine and add 1 cup of sugar and 3 teaspoons of cinnamon.  Now lay out your pastry squares, pile some apple on top of each, and sprinkle some of your filling on top...

Then mold your pastry up around the apple and place them in a 13 x 9 pan...

Pour all the sauce over the dumplings in the pan....

Bake at 425 degrees for about 45 minutes.  You want them to get nice and brown and crispy on top...

Let them cool and serve with ice cream or whipped cream on top...

Ok, I know that last photo is kind of blurry, but I was drooling and in a hurry to eat it.  Enjoy!  If you have any left over, just refrigerate.  Then just heat them up in a bowl for about a minute. Don't blame me if you moan a little while you eat them.  They are that good!

Why I Like to Be In the Woods

I like to be out in the woods.  And not in a creepy way.  Ha ha!!  There's just something very peaceful about being there.

We usually head out early in the morning, before the crack of dawn.  We walk about 3/4 of a mile down a trail.  Usually there's just enough moonlight for us to see the path.  If not, we use our small flashlights.  This is what it looks like when we enter the woods.

Once we get to our deer stand, we climb up and settle in.  There's a farm nearby and we can clearly hear the cows and their constant mooing.  I imagine that's what it used to sound like on a trail drive.  They never stop mooing.  First loud, then soft, then loud again.  The sound is relaxing and could easily put me to sleep.

Next we start to hear birds chirping and we can make out the faint outline of the trees around us....

It rained the night before and we can hear the soft, steady drops of rain as they slide off the branches and hit the carpet of leaves on the ground.

Slowly the trees emerge from the darkness....

Off in the distance a rooster crows and chicken start to cackle.  2 squirrels play tag up and down a nearby tree.  One of them discovers us and its high pitched chirp sends out a warning that we are there.

Bushes and shrubs slowly start to stand out......

As the sky begins to lighten up, we tilt back our heads and look up at the tree tops.  The brilliant yellows and oranges of the leaves appear to be on fire.

The sun finally breaks over the treeline and light streams through the forest....

When the wind blows, the tree tops gently sway and the dried leaves rustle in the breeze.  The forest bursts with the harmonies of birds singing, turkeys gobbling, and squirrels whistling.

The final colors of autumn are still beautiful....

Walking out later in the day is nice too.

It's a good view, coming or going!  I never get tired of seeing the colors of autumn from inside the forest.

Caching with Mom & Dad

Last Saturday was going to be a beautiful weather day, and that made it a good day for geocaching.  Some friends of mine were hosting a geocaching lunch, so I called my parents and asked them if they'd like to go grab a couple of caches in the morning beforehand and then go to the lunch.

My parents are usually up for anything!

The first cache we hit was placed somewhere on this huge jungle gym.  Dad and I got lucky and found it in almost the first spot we looked.   I took the slide back down tho!

This park had a cute little rock area for the kids to climb on, so this big kid climbed up for a phooning photo op!

Mom & Dad chose to stay on the lower level...

We found some interesting containers ....

We also found a cache by a model airplane airfield....

If you look closely you can see the planes in the air....

This nice guy stopped and talked to us as he was leaving and let us check out his plane.  It's extremely light weight.  It was fun to sit and watch the planes do stunts and fly straight up in the air and then dive bomb back down.

We also visited some pretty locations today.  One cache was hidden by a sledding hill.  I never knew this hill was here but we'll be checking it out this winter.  I love to go sledding!

Look at the color of this tree....

I love these shots of the berries on this yew bush.  They kind of put me in the mood for Christmas!

My mom and dad have been together for about 60 years.

I think it's so cute that they still hold hands....

Come back tomorrow and I'll tell you about the geocaching lunch!    Also - don't forget that this is Fright Week with the CacheCrazy crew. Starting today there will be a week of Halloween fun, so stop by over there to see what's going on.  I'll have a special scary post of my own on Wednesday!

Autumn Hiking

Autumn is my favorite time of year to be hiking out in the woods.  The trees are gorgeous......

 The air is crisp and I like the sound of the leaves as they crunch beneath our feet.....

  Sometimes we'll get a whiff of smoke, or see geese flying over head, or deer foraging for acorns....

We often hike with family.....

 Or hike while we geocache.....

And sometimes we just hike alone....

Now doesn't that just make you want to throw on your hiking boots and go for a walk in the woods??

The week long celebration over at The Outdoor Blogger Network is almost over.  I can't wait to see what they do for their 2nd year!