Autumn Cinnamon Apple French Toast

This might be the wrong thing to say to everybody.  But, I'm just not all that into "pumpkin".  It's everywhere you turn right now.  You just can't escape it!  If you're a pumpkin fanatic like (everyone) else, this is the best time of year!  But, I have a secret to share with you.  Pumpkin isn't the only fall flavor out there!  Say what?!  Yup... it's true.  Turns out, apple & cinnamon seems to be widely overlooked in the last couple of years (largely due to this pumpkin craze, I'd imagine).

Crock Pot Cooking on Vacation

When we're on vacation, one of the biggest aspects for us is finding great local places to eat.  However, when you add two kids to the mix, sometimes a simple dinner out can be exhausting.  Getting everyone back to the hotel room at a reasonable time, showered, dressed, then just sitting through the average wait time to get into a restaurant as well as just waiting to get food to get to the table.

Our solution isn't the most popular with many families that are on vacation (because, hello!?  Don't I cook enough at home?)

Well, when we were packing for our vacation, we tossed our trusty crock pot in the car.  Back when we were just a family of three, we spent nearly 6 months together in a hotel room in Oklahoma (Air Force training) so we got pretty creative with a crock pot!

Our favorite crock pot meal that is super easy for a hotel is our "Chipotle Chicken Meal":

Another family favorite that we ate on another night of our vacation is our Easiest Ever Beef Sandwiches.  We ate this all too easy meal after dragging ourselves back to the hotel after 8 hours in the great outdoors visiting Cumberland Island.  It was so nice to come "home" to a hot and ready meal instead of having to drag everyone back out to look for food.

Amelia & Cumberland Island Vacation

I mentioned last week how we had just gotten home from a family vacation .  Well, let me explain how we ended up on Amelia Island, first...

We had been planning a vacation with our very good friends for a while.  Since he is also in the Air Force, it was kind of a long shot to get all of our schedules to line up.  Well, it looked like everything was a go! So we were going to all meet in Charleston at his parent's home.  Shortly before the trip, they found out they would be going to England (thanks, Air Force!) So, Bryan and I scrambled to come up with an alternate vacation plan for just the four of us.  In order to save money, I was looking at any military base on the East coast that we could stay.  I found one called King's Bay which is a Naval Submarine Base.  I knew nothing of the area or what was around it but I knew a beach was close and that was really all we needed.  Then, I found a Hampton Inn for $5 more a night which would provide a free hot breakfast.  To us, the logical choice was to "jump ship" with the Naval Base and go to a Hampton.

The day after I booked our hotel room, I decided to see if there was any good food or things to do near the hotel besides the beach (our biggest selling point)!  That's when I realized we were going to an Island!  hah, really?!  And it's called Amelia Island?  Well, that's a cute name!  AND Southern Living Magazine rated it as The Best Small-Town Getaway!?!

Well, after visiting, we can truly agree that it was a perfect place to vacation.

It is very rich in history... It is claimed that 8 flags have flown over Amelia Island: French, Spanish, British, Patriot, Green Cross, Mexican, Confederate, and United States.  A must-see park is Fort Clinch State Park.  No battles were ever fought here, but it was occupied by soldiers during the Spanish-American War as well as the Civil War.  It was a very entertaining piece of history to visit.  The architecture and masonry alone was well worth the visit!

Fort Clinch

Summertime Homemade Popsicles

Over this past weekend, we all went blackberry picking at this great local places that offers them as high as you can mound them in your quart container as well as all you can eat.  We certainly walked away with our money's worth!

Since we have blackberries galore, now, I needed to come up with a way to use a few immediately. I decided to make popsicles.  This is not much of a recipe.  More like, mash some blackberries... Add a couple table spoons of sugar... Freeze.  That's my kind of cooking!!

I filled up a 1 quart pot with blackberries and heated them on low-med while I mashed them up.  Then I added just enough sugar to make them nice and sweet.  I poured the content into a measuring cup with a spout to make pouring it into the tiny popsicle mold less messy.  (The liquid amount of berries turned out to be just around 2 cups).  

Freeze, and you get a delicious, quick, and healthy treat.

Do you have anywhere near you where you like to pick fresh fruit?  What are your favorite things to do with blackberries?  We have all of ours frozen on trays until further notice!

Janice

Personal Sized Tart Cherry Crisps

I went cherry picking with my little ones over the weekend (it was a very fun filled fruity weekend).  We came home with 14 pounds of Tart Cherries.  We only kept 8 pounds (thank goodness) because pitting that many cherries is very time consuming! Three pounds went to my neighbor and three pounds went to my mom.

My mom showed me her very clever way of pitting cherries.  You need a very cheap fork that will be easy to bend.  Fold back the two outer tines at the base with a set of needle nose pliers.  Then, with the two inner tines, fold just the very tips together and forward to create a little hook.

[MORE] Homemade Baby Food

My baby boy loves to eat.  Whoa, does he love to eat!  Luckily, he's not even picky!  In fact, I'm not sure if there has ever been anything he has turned down. (Lucky Momma!)  That really does make my job so much easier!

Jarred baby food is great.  GREAT, people. Not only is it healthy and nutritious but it's just so darn convenient!  Unfortunately, my little man would end up eating me out of house and home if I tried to feed him only jarred food.  That stuff adds up!  So, whenever I can, I like to make big batches of baby food to be able to freeze.  My guy is almost one... so I'm thinking this should be my last batch I'll have to make!

This time around, I made some interesting combinations just to keep things interesting for both him, and I!  Here is the list of what I came up with this time around:

Finding Fantastic Food in Florida

Well, we recently got home from a trip to Pompano, Florida for my husband's grandmother's 95th birthday celebration.  She and her husband spend the long winter months down south and are lucky enough to have a beach right across the street from them.  We were lucky enough to visit her & the beach, too!

Our youngest had his first trip on a plane and his first visit to the beach. He enjoyed the plane a lot more than the beach.  We have a theory that babies don't like beach since their skin is just too sensitive still.  Or, maybe our babies just don't like the beach until they're about.... almost 3?  Our oldest was in heaven.  She couldn't get enough of it.

So, instead of going on and on about about the beach, I'd like to share three of our favorite places we visited for grub.  If you find yourself near Pompano and Fort Lauderdale, I'd highly suggest going to these restaurants.

Homemade Baby Food

We had wild caught sockeye salmon, sugar snap peas, & sweet potatoes for dinner.  It's one of our favorite meals and our little girl loves all of it.  I've never seen a toddler eat like she does.  Our baby boy was running low on his frozen baby food I made a few weeks ago so I was sure to make a little extra of everything to make him a small batch of food, too.  It's super simple to do.  I have a Cuisinart Mini Food Processor that I use all the time.  It's especially good for baby food.

Dinner's Ready: Big Don Pizza

Just popping in today to tell you about what we made for dinner.