Road Trip to Iowa!

Here are some pics from our now annual road trip to Iowa in the motor home! It was nice to see Matt, Becky and the girls again (we haven't seen them since July) and we're looking forward to seeing them over Thanksgiving again too!

Another dog joined Polly-Lola! And they also added chickens.

Bella in their stick fort.

Trip to the pumpkin patch! Lots of green pkns this year....

Santa-I want her for Christmas!!!

B loved hauling the wagons around!

On Saturday we took a little trip over to Sioux Falls, South Dakota since it's so close (and it was David and Blaise's first time in SD!)

We took a trolly tour of the down town area.

Manda Panda;)

The girls LOVE horses!

A beautiful autumn walk around Sioux Center

Mimi and her girls

B loved the motor home and did great on the long drive!

We got to stop briefly in Kansas City on our way home to meet the newest addition to the Acorn clan-baby Oliver Truman! He had just come home from the hospital the day before! So sweet!

Trick-or-Treat!

Grandmommy, here are the halloween pics for you!! (Finally! And thanks for getting B's shoe back to us too! :)

I wanted Blaise to be a puppy this year since he LOVES dogs. Well, I waited until the last minute to borrow a costume from a friend, and it wasn't the puppy costume that I had envisioned. So, the day before Halloween I was on a search for an outfit! As you can imagine, cute ones were hard to come by!! After calling all the Babies and Toys R Us's in the area, I was a bit discouraged. Finally, Once Upon a Child came through with this monkey outfit. (It's not nearly as cute as the Curious George one that I saw online but hey, that's what I get waiting till the day before! :) The monkey worked well for B, and he even says "EEEEEEE!"

He loved his long tail, though it did get stepped on a few times!

I did not anticipate how much Blaise would love trick-or-treating! He loved climbing up porch stairs, picking the candy out of the bowl, ooing at the jack-o-lanterns, and then running to the next house to do it all over again! At houses with dogs, he would carefully choose a candy out of the bowl and try to feed it to them. Too funny! (He also tried to run inside the house too.) Such fun! He had so much energy and could have gone on for hours I think!

Next year, I'm tracking down a costume earlier! I'm also afraid he might know what candy is by then too... ;)

He stayed in the wagon with Ellie long enough for a pic!

Whoopie Pies

Christina shared this delicious pumpkin recipe with me...a new fall favorite for sure! The maple cinnamon icing is what makes these cookies oh so heavenly! :) (It's a Martha Stewart Recipe that she got from a blog but I noticed it was in the STL Post Dispatch a couple weeks ago too!)

Pumpkin Cream Pies

FOR THE PUMPKIN WHOOPIE COOKIES:

3 cups all-purpose flour (I did one w/ white/wheat flour)

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1 tablespoon ground cloves

2 cups firmly packed dark-brown sugar

1 cup oil

3 cups pumpkin puree, chilled

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup chocolate chips (I added this part;) you could add nuts too!

FOR THE CREAM-CHEESE FILLING:

3 cups confectioners' sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3 tablespoons pure maple syrup

Directions:

1. Make the cookies: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat; set aside.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves; set aside. In another large bowl, whisk together brown sugar and oil until well combined. Add pumpkin puree and whisk until combined. Add eggs and vanilla and whisk until well combined. (Add chocolate chips.)Sprinkle flour mixture over pumpkin mixture and whisk until fully incorporated.

3. Using a small ice cream scoop with a release mechanism, drop heaping tablespoons of dough onto prepared baking sheets, about 1 inch apart. Transfer to oven and bake until cookies are just starting to crack on top and a toothpick inserted into the center of each cookie comes out clean, about 15 minutes. Let cool completely on pan.

4. Make the filling: Sift confectioner' sugar into a medium bowl; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter until smooth. Add cream cheese and beat until well combined. Add confectioners' sugar and vanilla, beat just until smooth. (Filling can be made up to a day in advance. Cover and refrigerate; let stand at room temperature to soften before using.)

5. Assemble the whoopie pies: Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. Transfer filling to a disposable pastry bag and snip the end. When cookies have cooled completely, pipe a large dollop of filling on the flat side of half of the cookies. Sandwich with remaining cookies, pressing down slightly so that the filling spreads to the edge of the cookies. (I just used a cookie dough scoop for the icing.) Transfer to prepared baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate cookies at least 30 minutes before serving and up to 3 days.

From The Martha Stewart Show, October 2008

Where's Blaise?

There he is!

Award Winning Crunchy Carmel-Apple Pie

My friend, Alisa, made this amazing apple pie for our church picnic and it's easy to understand why it won first place! The oatmeal, sugar, pecan, and carmel crumb topping is absolutely divine. I know apple season is pretty much over, but I thought it was better late than never to share this killer recipe! Not that you or I have several hours to spend on a pie, but hey, if you're up for it, it's soo worth it! (My mom actually made it over here for me several Wednesday's ago-I had all intentions to help but I ended up cleaning and cooking other food! :) I wish I had a picture to show you how incredible it looks. Mmmm! I think I might make it again in the form of a crisp-with just the topping , filling and apples (it's that good!) The recipe is from Better Homes and Gardens.

Crunchy Carmel Apple Pie

Ingredients:

Pie:

1/2 cup granulated sugar

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon salt

6 cups thinly sliced, peeled cooking apples

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/4 cup caramel ice cream topping (not melted caramel!)

Crumb Topping:

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup quick-cooking rolled oats

1/2 cup butter

Pastry for a Single Pie Crust:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

salt

1/3 cup shortening

5 tablespoons cold water

Directions:

1. Prepare Pastry for Single-Crust Pie (see below). On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to a 12-inch circle. Transfer pastry to a 9-inch pie plate. Ease pastry into pie plate, being careful not to stretch pastry. Trim; crimp edge as desired.

2. For Crumb Topping, stir together brown sugar, 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, and the oats. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter or margarine until the topping mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside.

3. In a large mixing bowl stir together the granulated sugar, 3 tablespoons flour, the cinnamon, and salt. Add apple slices and gently toss until coated. Transfer apple mixture to the pastry-lined pie plate. Sprinkle Crumb Topping over apple mixture.

4. To prevent over browning, cover edge of pie with foil. (My mom used this fancy pie crust shield guard thing;) Bake in a 375 degree F oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes more or until top is golden. Remove from oven; sprinkle pie with pecans (or add pecans ~5-10 min before pie is done) then drizzle with caramel topping. Cool on a wire rack.

5. Pastry for Single-Crust Pie: In a bowl stir together 1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Using a pastry blender, cut in 1/3 cup shortening until pieces are pea-size. Using 4 to 5 tablespoons cold water total, sprinkle 1 tablespoon of water at a time over the flour mixture, tossing with a fork until all of the dough is moistened. Form dough into a ball.