From My Kitchen: Baked Apple Doughnuts

I had a fridge full of apples from Saturday and a craving for doughnuts. When I found this recipe (which I modified a little bit from the original), I knew I had to make it because it seemed yummy, but was SO easy and did not require frying.

Here it is -
1 c milk
3 TB Canola oil
1 large egg
3 TB brown sugar
2 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
3 3/4 c flour
1 TB fast rising yeast
2 medium apples, chopped finely
melted butter
cinnamon sugar, for dipping

Combine all ingredients except apples, cinnamon sugar, and melted butter in bread machine. Run dough cycle. Add chopped apples at the beep. When cycle is finished, punch down dough. On floured surface, roll out 1/2 inch thick and cut into 16-20 doughnuts. Place on baking sheets and let rise for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 15-20 minutes until browned and done. Remove from oven and immediately brush doughnuts with butter and dip in cinnamon sugar. Enjoy!

September 2010 Books Read

Here's what I read this month -

60) Magnolia Wednesdays by Wendy Wax
61) The Bay at Midnight by Diane Chamberlain - still working on reading through all her books
62) Her Mother’s Shadow by Diane Chamberlain
63) You’ve Decided to Homeschool, Now What? by Marsha Hubler - quick read, but not particularly helpful
64) The Faraday Girls: A Novel by Monica McInerney
65) A Soft Place to Land by Susan Rebecca White - both this book and the one above are about sister relationships, and I don't even have a sister
66) Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe - for school, I enjoyed this one
67) The Escape Artist by Diane Chamberlain

For Your Viewing Pleasure

Princess Alexa
Jordanna wearing a hand-me-down outfit both Caleb and Alexa wore

It's important to wear helmets when climbing trees, right? Not really, they were riding their bikes and then decided to climb a tree.
Jordanna wanted to climb the tree, too.

Menu Plan Monday (A Day Late)(Now 2 Days Late)

Well, my menu plan is late again. Monday was crazy with getting back from the cabin. I worked on Tuesday. So here it finally is (not like anyone was waiting with bated breath).

Monday - Pizza

Tuesday - Garlic chicken pasta, focaccia bread, cinnamon apples

Wednesday - Potato soup in sourdough bread bowls, salad

Thursday - Marinated steak tips, rice, asparagus

Friday - Spicy chicken drumsticks, cooked carrots, apple muffins

Saturday - Hotdogs, oven fries, apple slices

Sunday - Dinner @ church, bringing taco soup and Snickers pie

More Cabin Pictures

Fall Break in the Mountains

For my brother - Jordanna sleeping in the (very spacious, air conditioned) master closet

Hiking



Campfire


Apple Orchard

Teaching Time September 20th - 24th

We had a short school week for two reasons.

1) Alexa was sick on Saturday and Sunday. She really wanted to do school on Monday, so I gave her something to work on at the dining room table. She proceeded to throw up on 2 dining room chairs and the floor. While I was trying to clean her up, Caleb decided to do his work by himself. He managed to get it done, but I'm not sure he really learned much.

2) Dave had yesterday and today off of school for Fall break, so we took those days off as well. We are currently in the mountains enjoying the break; more on that later.

Anyway, here's some of what we did in school this week.

Ready to read. We read three more Beatrix Potter books this week along with more Mo Willems and Amelia Bedelia books. We also enjoyed Do Unto Otters and The Seven Silly Eaters. Our character trait this week was hospitality. We memorized I Peter 4:9, "Show hospitality to one another without grumbling," and the first verse of "Happy the Home Where God Is There."
Hairy Larry. We actually planted these last week in science, and they finally sprouted. The kids drew faces and taped ears on the cups, and the grass is supposed to be the hair.
Writing on the white board. Caleb is doing really well at spelling three letter words and loves to practice writing them on the white board. We are almost finished reviewing the consonant sounds and will begin reading some phonics readers soon. In math he worked on learning which number add together to make 10, and he also reviewed skip counting by 2.
Working on handwriting. I mostly bought Alexa a handwriting book because I knew she would want to do everything that Caleb does. She takes it very seriously, though. She does one page a day and then moves the Post It note to the next page. Caleb worked on the Frog Jump Capitals this week, which are capitals that start with a big line down and the jump back to top to finish forming the letter, such as F, E, D, B, R, K, P, M, and N.
Making nature collages. On Friday, we made these collages from things found in our yard. I was going to do the human body next in science, but I remember that we are going to the aquarium again in 2 weeks. So, I think we will do one more week of plants next week and then do a short unit on fish.

My Helper With a Hairbow

Here's my Jordanna cuteness along for the ride while I vacuumed upstairs this week. Isn't her hairbow so cute?

My Favorite Alexa

My Smart Boy

I promise a my favorite Alexa post is coming, but she been throwing up for the last few days, so you probably don't want to see any pictures of her right now.

Anyway, while I was making lunch yesterday, I asked Caleb to keep an eye on Jordanna and let me know if she tried to climb the stairs (her new favorite activity). Here was his solution - barricading the stairs. Notice Jordanna trying to climb over or around the pillows he piled up to block her. She is definitely a little stinker!

Teaching Time September 13th - 17th

I'm going to try to go back to updating what we've been doing in school each week, but don't hold your breath that I will update every week. Anwyay, here's what we've been up to this week.

Both -

Bible - Our character trait this week was wisdom. We read the story of Solomon and the 2 women who claimed the same baby as well as several devotionals on the topic of wisdom. Their memory work was Proverbs 9:10a, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," and the first verse of the hymn "Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise. They are also still working on memorizing The Apostles' Creed.

Science - Our topic right now is plants, which we will probably finish up in 2 weeks or so and move onto the human body. We did some planting this week, which I'll show you if it actually grows. We read several library books on seeds. Today we made nature bracelets.





Literature - We began the works of Beatrix Potter this week. So far, we have read The Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Tale of Benjamin Bunny, The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies, and The Tale of Jemima Puddleduck. We also read lots of library books each week. Some of the kids' favorites right now are the Amelia Bedelia books and books by Mo Willems and Jan Thomas.

Caleb-

Handwriting - He worked on P and N this week and reviewed all his numbers.

Phonics - He worked on the sounds of G, L, N, and W this week. He is doing much better at blending sounds and is beginning to sound out three letter words. He can read the 1st 4 BOB books.

Math - He finished up lesson 23 on tally marks and began lesson 24 on adding to make 10.

Alexa - She did activities related to the letter F and worked on the numbers 15-17.

Here, Fishy, Fishy

I took the kids to the aquarium today with some friends from our home school group. We had a great time!