Caramel Apple Pie

Caramel and Apples are always a good combination.

This is by far the best apple pie recipe I have found. I got it off of AllRecipes.com. Here's the Link.

Start with you apples and caramel. I recommend using your favorite apples because I believe that if you like the taste of an apple by itself, you will like it in a pie.

Now this recipe makes a very sweet pie. Not only does it have a ton of sugar and the caramel pieces, it also has a toffee type mixture that consists of brown sugar, butter and flour.

Now I truly believe that a really good pie doesn't just have a really good filling but that it has an amazing crust. If your crust is too soggy then the texture of the pie isn't good or if the crust is too hard then it's hard to get it on your fork and it makes the pie seem really dry. I am a fan of homemade crusts but if you don't have time to make your own crust then I highly recommend using Cub Brand Ready Made Pie Crusts. (OR any SUPERVALU Private Brand Label) This crust has turned out perfect every time I've made it.

Put your pie together

Make sure you seal the edges of this pie really well because when the caramel and sugar liquefy and the edges are not sealed well then you will have a huge mess in your oven (So put a cookie sheet or something under it to catch drips)

Bake and serve warm with a big glass of milk

Basement - Part 1 Materials

Since we bought our house in May, Jon has been planning out how he would like to finish off our unfinished basement. This weekend we were able to start that project. Originally we planned to start working on the basement two weeks ago but due to some unfortunate circumstances (aka a dead truck) we were unable to start the project. Well on Saturday Jon was at Menards and he managed to get hooked up with a truck there. So we quickly got everything ready and gathered all the materials.

We managed to get everything in 2 trips… which was amazing because we bought a lot of stuff.

First load: 30 sheets of ½ in Sheet Rock and 60 2x4x8.  Jon unloaded pretty much all the sheet rock by himself while I unloaded the 2x4s. (seemed like a good deal to me)

Second Load: 25 sheets of 5/8s, 39 2x4x8, 2 2x4x10, 2 treated 2x4x10, 15 treated 2x4x8 and 25 sheets of insulation. Again Jon proved his superman strength on this load and unloaded all the basement board by himself (they were too heavy for me) while I unloaded some of everything else.

Since Saturday was a busy day for us and we had to hurry to get everything done so we could go hang out with some good friends of ours. We left the sheet rock on the main floor. So Sunday morning I spent my time organizing all the wood in the basement and making room for the sheet rock in the basement. Monday we moved the 5/8s to the basement and Wednesday we moved the 1/2 in board.

Here are some pictures of our stuff…

Game Day Snacks

I love it when Sundays come around and there is a game on, not because I like football (because I don't) but because there is usually a lot of people who get together and I can make snacks for them.

So for Super bowl Sunday I decided to take a little extra time and make some Jalapeno Poppers. These are not hard to make they just take time. But they only take about 20 min to cook once they are all together.

These are the ingredients you will need.

Cook the Sausage

Cut the Jalapeno Peppers in half and spoon out the seeds. One way to do this, without getting the jalapeno fumes in the air and making you cough, is to cut the peppers and remove the seeds underwater. You could fill up your sink or a bowl of water. The water stops the fumes from being so potent.

Once the sausage is done, drain and mix with cream cheese.

Fill each side of the pepper with the sausage mixture and wrap with half a piece of bacon and secure with tooth pick.

Bake for 20 min at 375 and enjoy!

A Donation

For those of you who have loved ones or know people who've had to go through extensive medical treatments which caused them to loose their hair you know how difficult it is for them. In a world where it is already extremely difficult to find yourself and fit in, when you don't have hair it makes it even harder. Hair is one of those natural things that people have and everyone expects you to have and when you don't have it most people think it's weird or view you in a different light.

When I was in high school my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer and I vividly remember when she started to loose her hair. We went wig shopping a few times and tried to find cute hats that would cover up her bald head. She was a little self conscious about it but once we got her a wig she felt better and liked the fact that she wasn't going to have to style her hair everyday. That's when I decided if I could donate my hair, have it made into a wig that will make someone who's already having a hard time feel better, that it is a good thing.

So today I donated my hair.

I got just over 12 inches cut off and I now have a awesome new hairstyle and my head feels so much lighter. My stylist said that I will be "able to jump higher and run faster" now that I have shorter hair.

I got my hair cut at Juut, which is my favorite salon. I love them because they usually do an awesome job and they use Aveda products and I love Aveda products. My stylist was Adam who is a New Stylist at Juut but did a fantastic job. Plus he's really nice so I recommend getting your hair cut by him if ever you go to Juut. Now any hair that is donated at Juut goes to Locks of Love and they send it for you. They also give you a complimentary hair cut because you are donating your hair. So it's a good deal, all you have to do is grow out your hair, make an appointment, get your hair cut at Juut and walk away with your beautiful new style.

Here are my before and after pictures.

Gone with the Wind

I just finished reading Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind. I started this book back in August and just finished it now… I am notorious for reading almost all of a book and then not finishing it. So it took me about 5 months to finish the last 50 pages.

I thought this was a really good book. The kind of book that you pick up and you don’t want to put down. The book that you think about when you’ll get to spend more time reading it because you want to know what happens next. Those are probably some of the reasons why it is considered a great American classic. Now I wont go into detail about what happens in the book or give more of my opinions because I will probably start rambling on. But I will gladly go into details if you ever want to discuss it with me in person.

Now if I read a book that has been made into a movie I usually like to watch the movie after I’ve read the book. As usual this book is way better than the movie but I thought the movie did a good job of portraying the important scenes of the book. The movie is old so the actors are actually good. They make the movie to be more of a play, with an intermission and everything! It is quite lengthy – about 4 hours long. So I recommend watching it when you don’t want to do anything else like during a snow storm or something.

Emma

I just finished listening to an audiobook of Emma by Jane Austen. I am not really a fan of Jane Austen’s novels but I have made it my goal to get through them all. Listening to them helps a ton because even though they are boring books, my drive to work is boring so putting two boring things together somehow cancels out their boringness.

Now boring may not be the right word to describe how I feel about these stories,  I don’t mean like text book boring or “I don’t understand what I’m reading but I’m just going to read it till the end of the page” boring. I just mean that they are not my kind of books. There is a lot of narrative and “he said, she said what” and who is in love with who etc. The kind of stuff I get bored with because I like my novels to have a bit more action.

Now I will have to say that over all Emma is very well written and a good story. I could sum the story up in a lot less words than Austen tells it in but I will not do that for you. Instead I will recommend watching a classic teen movie that came out in 1995. This movie is based on Emma and set in the 90’s. It is about a high school teenager named Cher who has the coolest closet ever and I've decided my husband is going to build me one just like it.

I made Jon watch this movie with me the other day because I hadn’t seen it in so long and I remembered liking it. And after the movie was over he said “I now understand high school a little bit better”.