HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

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Adorable VW pin cushion from Whimsical Wool. 

I use Pinterest a lot... I find it really useful to organize ideas for upcoming parties and holidays. And just finding things that I'm interested in and make me smile. You can find me on Pinterest by clicking here.

xo Lizzie

Sunday Baking: Caramel Apple Bars

We still have apples left from our apple picking adventure 2 weeks ago. I decided to do some Sunday afternoon baking and use them up. I made Betty Crocker's Caramel Apple Bars. They are wonderful and made our whole house smell amazing !

 Layer 1: Crumb crust

Layer 2: Apples

Layer 3: Caramel

 Layer 4: Crumb topping

And bake until golden brown and your house smells awesome!

Hope you had a great weekend!

xo Lizzie

Puppy Pumpkins

I found these free pumpkin carving templates on Better Homes And Gardens and decided I would give them a try. They worked well! 

If you have visited my blog before then I am sure you know my Siberian Husky, Samardzija Puppy. You might not know Levi though. He's my Mama's adorable boxer. He's Canadian-American, loves chasing balls and was very disappointed that the pumpkin was not a ball... because it looked like a ball to him. Sorry buddy!

Levi (my brother!)

Samardzija Puppy, my Siberian princess.

Love these pups!

xo Lizzie

A Cinderella Birthday Hat For Princess Natalee

Birthday girl Natalee, is having a Cinderella themed 3rd birthday party this weekend!I made this sparkly party hat for her :) Can't wait to party with the princess!

xo Lizzie

Pie Pie Me Oh My Martini

An apple pie martini :)

I was working my night away making apple pies with all of the apples we picked last weekend and I got thirsty and thought to myself "I wish I could drink pie!". We had cider in the fridge and extra pie dough to use up... soooo... this happened....

The lattice top turned out like a flaky buttery cookie because I brushed it with milk and then sprinkled it very heavily with cinnamon and sugar before baking it. It was nice to take bites of the pie crust cookie between sips.

I simmered the apple cider (about 4 cups) on a very low heat with a dash of nutmeg and 1 stick of cinnamon for 10 minutes. I let it cool completely before using the spiced cider to make my cocktail. I poured about 10 ounces of the spiced cider into a shaker filled with ice and added 2 shots of vanilla vodka. Shook and then poured though a strainer into my glass. Topped it with my pie crust cookie :)

If you didn't want to take the extra time to spice your cider and wait for it to cool, you could omit that and omit 1 shot of vodka and add a shot of Goldschläger Cinnamon Schnapps to spice it up instead.

Cheers!

Lizzie

Pie Crust Perfection

I finally did it... I mastered the pie crust. I made apple pies this weekend with buttery flaky flavorful crusts. I was so pleased with myself that I really wanted to call Gordon Ramsay and be like, "you really need to get over here and check this out!" :)

I took one pie crust recipe that I had pretty good faith in and then made changes by using some tips in Alton Brown's Good Eats cookbook and a tip from Martha Stewart. Those tips... apple cider instead of water, I used half butter (for flavor) and half shortening (for flakey-ness) and I didn't overwork the dough. I never really understood what "overworking the dough" meant before until I saw Martha bake a pie on TV. She held a pie plate up to camera to show how you could see color variances where there was more butter  in some places after her dough was rolled out. She said those little unincorporated bits of butter were what would make the crust tender and flaky.

Because I didn't want to overwork the dough, I didn't trust myself to use a food processor, and I don't have a pastry blender, so I used two knives and just crossed them over and over.

Lattice before baking.

 For the 2nd pie I cut out leaves for the top.

Yum!

We still have so many more apples in the house... going to have to find more apple recipes to try!

xo Lizzie

Day Tripping: A Fall Outing at Warwick Valley Winery

JT and I took a drive out to Warwick Valley Winery in Warwick, NY to take in some Fall foliage, pick apples, and sip some cider.

Warwick is a great town to visit during the Fall. The hills are a mix of fall colors, the roads are dotted with roadside stands selling produce, pumpkin patches and wineries. A visit to Warwick will check off all of your must do Fall activities!

We took home a huge bag of apples that we picked. I look forward to apple baking bliss all next week!

xo Lizzie