Sunset

Thatcher and I spent the day in Coeur d' Alene yesterday. Mostly visiting with grandma and grandpa Lee. We love it over there. Thatcher especially loves to watch the leaves blowing in the trees and there happens to be 6 or more huge maples surrounding the house, perfect for his such attraction. They are truly great old trees. The reason you throw a blanket down on those warm summer days and enjoy the sun shimmering through when the sweet wind allows. Ahhh! We have been enjoying such days as described this week in a Delicious form of an Indian Summer-love it!



We ended the day down by the lake and I got these great shots of Thatcher in the sunset. He's still funny about the grass and the way it feels next to his skin...I imagine it tickles.


He has also started waving and clapping and I think I catch the words "bye bye" at least the attempt. Smile.

German Apple Cake

OK, this one is so good and even works if your apples are getting a little soft. It has the wonderful flavors of fall sweet Cinnamon and sugar. I know it's cake but I somehow feel healthier about eating it because of all the apples. Totally a false sense of reality but it works for me.

The Cake

2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups white sugar
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
5-6 cups apples - peeled, cored and diced


DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour(I dusted with Cinnamon and sugar) one 9x13 inch cake pan.
In a mixing bowl; beat oil and eggs with an electric mixer until creamy(over do it). Add the sugar and vanilla and whip well(really really well at least 3 min).
Combine the flour salt, baking soda, and ground cinnamon together in a bowl. Slowly add this mixture to the egg mixture and mix until combined. The batter will be very thick. Fold in the apples by hand using a wooden spoon. Spread batter into the prepared pan.
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 45 minutes or until cake tests done. Let cake cool on a wire rack. Once cake is cool serve with a dusting of confectioners' sugar or with a Cream Cheese Frosting.

I did neither. It was almost all eaten before I got the chance but I was going to try a caramel glaze.

Glaze:
1/2 C Butter
1/2 C Brown Sugar
1/4 C Cream

Bring to a boil and boil 3 minutes. Remove from heat and add 1/2 t Vanilla - let cool slightly before pouring over warm cake. To make perfect serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Grandpa

This one is of my grandpa as a child.
Leo James Lee


I'm at my grandpa's in Idaho and I decided to raid his pictures and I found this great one of himself having a bath in a lard bucket.

Added Links

I added Links to some of my favorites. The Photographers are two of my friends and you can find pictures of Thatcher and I on both, so check them out. You all know how much I love recipes and the site allrecipes.com is pretty great. Ck it out and add to it if you would like. I also just started the Twilight Saga...Love It! I like to read the books before the movies come out and the Midnight Sun link is in essence Edwards point of view of twilight. But she is not going to finish it so it's about 250 pages, still worth the read to get into Edwards head. I'll be adding more later so watch for more great links.

Zucchini Chocolate Cake

I got this recipe from my sister Kristen. It is Great! You can make it into muffins or bread. I like it with raisins too. I thought I would add shredded carrots as well. Anyway it's harvest time I love this part of the year. Time to make and have those warm bowls of soup as well. Yumm.

2 1/2 C. All-purpose flour plus additional for dusting
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 C.) unsalted butter. or just omit the salt and use regular butter, softened
1 C. packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 large eggs at room temp.
2 C. coarsely grated zucchini (8 oz.) I use probably a 1/2 cup more
1 C. semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 C. walnuts, toasted and chopped

3-quart bundt or fleur-de-lis pan

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter bundt pan well and dust with some flour, kocking out excess.
-Sift together 2 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. Beat together butter and brown sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes, then beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to medium and add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down side of bowl occasionally, then beat until very smooth and fluffy, about 2 more minutes.
-Reduce speed to low and add all but 1/2 cup flour mixture, mixing until just combined.
-Toss zucchini, chocolate chips, and walnuts with remaining 1/2 cup flour mixture and add to batter, then mix batter with a rubber spatula (batter will be thick).
-Spoon batter into bundt pan, smoothing top. Bake in middle of oven, rotating pan halfway through baking, until side begins to pull away from pan and a tester comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes total.
-Cool cake in pan on a rack 30 minutes, then run a thin knife around outer and inner edges. Invert rack over pan, then invert cake onto rack. Cool completely.

*Keeps 3 days in an airtight container at room temp.

The Men in my Life

Landon got Thatcher dressed today. What a proud Daddy, he wanted them to Match. The other was from last Sunday and I just Love it! These great men in my life mean the world to me. They both make me laugh and have more than enough smiles to share. I feel like I must feed them all the time. They play hard and long. The young one needs to learn to sleep more than he does, like his dad:) My men, I wouldn't have a life without them. Love you guys. MaMa

Redneck What?

Landon thought it would be funny to shave a long mustache. All at work got a big kick out of it. It's hard to see but if you look close enough you will see my sexy country hubby. mm mm

Visiting Friends

Thatcher got to ride on a plane again. What a spoiled kid. Not that he will remember any of it but still. We first flew to Portland with Yvonne to meet up with Jenny & Sophia then after a day of eating and exploring a little part of the city we all headed to Seattle to visit Katie and her new baby Audrey. It was a wonderful weekend of visiting, reminiscing, sleepless nights, walks and of course food. I love you guys! We will have to make it a yearly activity.

Big Foot Power!

Thatcher loves his Big truck. He will push it around until he hits something and then wait for us to turn him around and then go back the other way. He is all boy!

Ah Give me A Kiss

Thatcher is so close to standing on his own. He is just over 8 months and loves to be on the move. I discover more and more each day that we will have to put up. He love plugs and if anything is plugged in to an out let he has to remove it. We recently had to get rid of the glade plug-ins. He got a hold of a Cinnamon flavored one and chewed on it. Needless to say his mouth was burning and he was drooling like crazy! He is not easily distracted or detoured. When he is on a mission to get at something he has a one track mind. It's quite cute to watch. He is also really working hard at finger foods. One cheerio at a time just is to frustrating so he grabs a fist full and hopes a few make it in his mouth. Most end up sticking to his hands or down the front of his dipper. Here are a few pic's of him getting around. He loves the mirror and climbing and standing up.

Six months

Yes I realize these are a few months late but I thought I would still share a few of Thatchers Six month old pictures. At his six month check up he was in the 90% for his hight but only the 28th% for his weight.

My poor boy!

It rained the first 2 days of the fair so there weren't as many people out as usual. We all still were there though and it is always a treat to hang out with family for a week in a concentrated space and piece on elephant ears and chocolate milk. I did run into a new predicament this year in that I have a child now. Poor little Thatcher slept out in the rain because that is where Arizona left him, she is very good at getting him to sleep and then on the 50 pound bags of flour. I wonder how the health department feels about that? Thatcher was saved by Nana and Grandpa Lybbert on Saturday and spent a lot of the day with them at the fair. Yeah! All in all a great week. I love my family!

Huckleberry Picking

We went out a few times just north of Hayden, what beautiful country we live in. Grandpa had to stick to the road and has really enjoyed his berry picker, we didn't really end up with a whole lot but then Landon went out to Ione and picked blueberry size Huckleberries-delicious! I didn't even have to purchase Huckleberry ice cream at the fair this year because we had already been making it and ours was so much better. Just yesterday I also made pumpkin ice cream...oh my yumm-o!

RECIPE:
4 eggs
2 1/4C Sugar
4 C Heavy Cream
1 C Milk
1/2 t Salt
2-4 t Vanilla
2-4 C berry some blended some whole or just mashed

or whatever, we have also used raspberry, mint Oreo cookies and pumpkin, it's versatile, have fun with it.
Whip the eggs together a bit then add the sugar and whip until it thickens. Add it and the rest of your ingredients to your ice cream maker bucket. Mix until frozen and place in freezer. Over night is best.

Lemons!

We've all been there at some point.

What Happened to August?

August was very busy! I don't even know what to write about. So I will post pictures and add comments as we go through it. It was really full of family and friends visiting meeting our new nephews Hayden & Everett and of course the Idaho fair. He was a trooper at the elephant ear booth and fell asleep in the stroller in the rain, amongst the flour and products and in my arms while I was passing dough around. My poor boy. We found time to go Huckleberry picking and have made Delicious ice cream. I also just returned from Labor day weekend visiting friends. Now I hope for September to be a little bit quieter other than the many sounds of Thatcher. He is saying "mumu" & "dada" now crawling and standing up on everything. He makes a sour face when eating fruit and of course lemons, we've had to lower his pack 'n' play so that he wont tumble out of it. He has already fallen off the couches and our bed I know all the bangs and scratches have just begone, I better invest in some band aids but mostly he just needs love. He still loves paper, ropes and cords. Why even bother with purchasing toys. He is already in 12 month clothes and will be 8 months on the 8th of September. How quickly he is learning and growing. Oh and he already gives you five when you ask him to. What a smarty.