100 Days of Pinterest, Bloglovin, and Birthdays - Crockpot Apple Butter

Since the flood last week we've been busy cleaning and moving on with our daily life. Friday was the boy's last day of school and Saturday was my oldest son's 12th birthday. It was a busy couple of days to say the least.

My son is a huge Minecraft fan. So much so, he has his own server and YouTube channel (Click here to visit his YouTube channel) . If your son or daughter is a Minecrafter, send them over to his server or YouTube channel. It's kid friendly ;)  As for his birthday, he wanted a Minecraft cake and I knew I wouldn't be able to decorate anything remotely close to what he wanted. So, I stopped by Lily Jades Mommy's Cake Toppers over on Ebay. She makes these edible cake topper images and they are fabulous. Not only are they easy to apply, they come personalized! My son loved his and I will definitely be visiting her Ebay store again for my youngest son's birthday in June.

For my Pinterest challenge I tried all sorts of desserts this week. I don't know about you, but after a while I get tired of doing the same old thing. This Pin challenge has really helped me to change everything up a bit. This week I made some Mexican Chocolate Cupcakes and I also made the white buttercream icing for my son's birthday cake (I dyed it green for Minecraft sake). In addition to that I made some homemade Peanut Butter Granola Bars and some absolutely delicious Honey Dinner Rolls.

My favorite Pins from these was probably the Honey Dinner Rolls. They were really good and were great paired with some homemade beef and noodles.These were not small dinner rolls either. With the Pinned recipe, you could easily divide the dough into smaller portions to make even more rolls if you wanted to. I combined some honey, cinnamon, and butter to brush onto the rolls before I cooked them and for spreading on them when they were finished. It was really good!

If my sons were going to pick their favorite this week, it would have to be the Mexican Chocolate Cake. It was basically a chocolate cake with some cinnamon, vinegar, and cayenne pepper added to the batter. It had a nice spiced flavor and did not last long in my house. I made a few small bundt cakes and I used the rest of the batter to make some cupcakes.Then I drizzled a little chocolate on top to finish them off. Yum!

The Crock Pot Apple Butter I made this past weekend turned out really good. I baked a few loaves of bread to go along with the apple butter and for sandwiches. At one point, I caught my younger son eating the apple butter by the spoonful. That's when you know it's good!

I had never made apple butter before, but I will make it again in the future. This crock pot recipe was super simple and it tasted great. Do you have any other recipes for apple butter? If so, share them with me and I'll give them a try.


Follow my blog with Bloglovin
As a blogger, it's important to network with other bloggers. It's a lot of work at times. However, it's a great way to meet like-minded people and share ideas. I recently joined Bloglovin. If you're not familiar with Bloglovin, it's a great place to read lots of different blogs about all sorts of topics. You don't have to be a blogger to join. You just join and search for topics that interest you. Easy.

It's been a long weekend. So, I'm going to cut this short. I hope you all have a great Memorial Day weekend and I want to thank all of the troops...past, present, and future who put their lives at risk to keep us safe. Thank you.

As always, you can find me on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Link up and say hello.

Take care,
NB

100 Days of Pinterest: Day 21 - Baked Apple Chips

I've had a few people ask why I've taken on the 100 Days of Pinterest challenge. Simply put, I was tired of focusing my life on my Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Since being diagnosed, I have invested way too much energy into thinking about and researching MS. So, I created this 100 Days of Pinterest challenge to refocus myself. So far, it seems to be working.

Another reason I started this challenge is because I'm changing my life. I've quit smoking (again), I have eliminated harsh chemicals in my home, and now I'm learning to make better food for my family. I recently quit my job with a local newspaper (another big life change). I was working way too many hours and days each week, and ignoring my health. Instead of cooking for my family, I would frequent local fast food spots for mealtime. It's obviously not a healthy lifestyle. I turned to Pinterest to find meals that weren't the same old humdrum thing that I would whip up in a pinch. I started thinking about when I'd find time for all of the Pins I had found and then it hit me. Why not take on a challenge to help me take my mind off of my MS and in turn make a healthier impact in my home? Pinterest was just the spot to look for my challenge. In a nutshell, that is why I took this challenge on.

Okay, for my Day 21 challenge I decided to make some Baked Apple Chips. Now, the Pin I had did not have a recipe with it. I had to figure this one out (I could have Googled it, but that's no fun). My first batch, I sliced thin, dipped in the cinnamon/sugar mix, then placed on a parchment lined baking sheet. I stuck them in the oven for fifteen minutes at 425 degrees. Let's just say my smoke detector went off before my timer did. The sugar had dissolved and started burning onto my cookie sheet. Fail! I tried it again, only this time I put them in for twelve minutes at 325 degrees. This worked much better.
It took a lot longer than the twelve minutes, but I kept my eye on them. I would add five minutes at  a time. I think it's safe to say these could be made at 350 degrees for about twenty minutes or so. You just have to watch them. You want them to turn somewhat brown, because once you take them out and they cool, they become crisp. Oh, and don't sugar both sides. That's just too much. I dipped one side in the sugar mix and then placed them on the parchment lined cookie sheet. Easy!

If you know of a quicker way or have the correct temp and time, feel free to leave it in the comments below. I'd like to make these again, but not have to worry about experimenting. They were pretty good though. I used Fuji apples and they turned out just fine. I'm sure you could use just about any apple you have available.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's challenge. I am making Detergent Bombs and I'm trying a different homemade laundry soap recipe. Should be interesting. Don't forget the giveaway for Woolzies Dryer Balls going on until May 10, 2014 at 11:59 p.m. EST. You can find the giveaway tab at the top. You can also find my Pinterest link up top too. Come follow along and share your pins.

Thanks for reading.

Take care.
NB