Making Me Mommy: Piled High Apple Pie with Caramel

Wanted: Tips for Being The Best Stay At Home Mom I Can Be

Being a stay at home mom is the hardest job I have ever had - yet it's by far the best. I started staying home about eleven months ago, with my then eight month old daughter. I thought I was going to have oodles of free time as she napped and we would have tons of time to play together. Little did I know naps aren't a given no matter how much you work to have a stable schedule. However making breakfast, lunch, and dinner, as well as doing the laundry, keeping up with my housework and all the house hold errands are a given. Yup, staying home was a bigger job then I realized and wanting the best for my daughter meant I needed to brush up on my preschool lessons as well as my ability to make a variety of meals that could provide my family with healthy options. I started adjusting to the demands and doing what I felt was a good job and really got into a nice groove right about the time my second daughter came along. Things got busier and I have been feeling my way through life as a stay at home mom. We have a schedule that works for us - and now that I live this life, I wouldn't want it any other way for me and my family. As a previous career woman I have a huge respect for both at home moms and at work moms and my goal is to share some of the things that make my life as a mommy easier - from recipes to crafts I hope what we do in our home can make it to your home and you'll enjoy it!

My daily posts include fun activties I am doing in real time with my kiddos, dinners I am making for my family, snacks, and some fun things I discover along the way. I hope they are things other moms can use as tips rather than recreating the wheel. Let me know what you think and lets share some tips because nothing is better than bragging about what you and your little ones can do together!

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Piled High Apple Pie with Caramel

Piled High Apple Pie with Caramel Pieces

A Delightful Twist to Mom's Apple Pie

Fall is apple season, and I, like many of you, have wonderful childhood memories of apple picking and pie making with my mom and grandmother. Apple pie has always been a fall staple at our house, one of my dad's favorite desserts, and something my mom would make a few times through out the fall season. It always lands on our table for Thanksgiving dessert as well. We all love it, and its one of those things you don't need to fancy up for guests. This weekend was the first really cool weekend here in Nebraska so I decided to make an apple pie for my family to enjoy. Since I am trying to clean out my pantry before our move, I did add one thing to my typical recipe - Caramel Bits, they melted nicely in with the apples while cooking and gave just a hint of melted caramel every few bites. My family enjoyed this dessert and I think it will make it this way to our Thanksgiving with this new caramel addition.

Here's my apple pie recipe, it piles high in a 9 inch pie pan and looks fabulous on your table - it tastes even better. Hope you try it an enjoy every bite with your loved ones.

Ingredients:

5 Granny Smith Apples Peeled and Cubed into 1/2 inch squares

8 Red Apples - I used Jonah's this weekend and they were perfect, Macintosh are also very good. Also peel and cube these into 1/2 inch squares

1 cup White Sugar

1 T Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Nutmeg

1 T Lemon Juice

1 C Kraft Caramel Bits

2 Packages of Jiffy Pie Crust - follow directions for making (I always use two boxes although the single box says it makes 2 pie crusts I never get what I want out of just one and two gives me a nice thick crust)

1 egg

2 T cinnamon sugar

To start preheat your oven to 350. Then peel and dice your apples, add the lemon juice to your apples. Mix your sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a small dish then pour over your apples coating all apples. Toss in your caramel bits. Let this sit while you roll out your dough.

I use a 9 inch glass pie pan. I roll my bottom pie crust out and lay it in my dish, then I pour my apple mixture in and cover with my top crust. Using a fork I pierce the top for air holes. Then, I also use my fork to seal around the edges of the pie. Finally I scramble my egg and coat the top crust with the egg wash - this makes a golden shine on your pie. If you like take 2 T of cinnamon sugar and dust the top of your pie for a cinnamon sugar glow.

Bake in your oven on 350 for 45-53 minutes until golden brown. I let mine sit for about 30 minutes before I cut and serve.

Hope you enjoy this delicious apple pie.

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Making My Path, My Road to Becoming Mommy

I guess we are all works in progress, some of us start out on a path and follow it straight, while others take many twists and turns. My life seems to be one with a few twists and turns, so far all for the better, and all leading me to who I am today. I am Jennifer, mom of two girls ages 19 months and 4 months. I always knew I wanted to be a mom, but never seemed to meet the person I was supposed to be mom with, and wondered would it ever be? Then in 2009 I met an amazing man and right away I knew he was the person I would be with forever. There was a lot of reasons people would have thought I was crazy - like the fact that he lived in California and I lived in Massachusetts but from the first night we met there was that instant spark. After dating for a couple of months he moved to Rhode Island (he is in the military and was planning the move when we met), we were engaged five months after meeting - married ten months after meeting - and moved again, this time together, fifteen months after meeting. It was a world wind, and I still can't believe how quickly time has passed. Our biggest milestone was the birth of our first daughter. She arrived shortly after we settled in to our life in Nebraska. She has been amazing and every second with her has been wonderful. I attempted to return to work three months after she was born, but it was more difficult than I expected. I made it six months as a working mom, there are days I miss it but all in all I know I am where my heart is at this point in my life. My husband was promoted and we learned another move was in our sights so this made the decision to stay home a little easier for me. All this happened just about the time I also learned we were expecting baby number two! Pregnancy came and went - although with my second it felt like it stuck around a little longer than it did the first time. I guess when you have two so close together you feel like you have been pregnant for years, basically because you have been. Now I am a mom of two. I have my days where I feel like I have conquered the world and my days where I feel like the world has conquered me (for some reason that seems to happen on the days I attempt grocery shopping with both of them before nap time - you'd think I would learn this doesn't work) but I am a work in progress. I hope someday I will be a mom of three - believe it or not, but for now I am enjoying my two little ladies. I am setting up this blog because I wanted to have a place to share some of my ideas. Some may be good and you may be able to use them, some may be bad and you may be able to laugh at them. I love to cook for my family and enjoy working on preschool activties and DIY projects and crafts around the house. I am hoping to share some of what I do with others along the way. Getting all of these ideas down is going to take time, thats what will make me mommy - hence the name, but hopefully you'll check in along the way.