Hey there! I am still here, slowly crawling out of the hole of sickness and exhaustion. Apologies in advance for a scatterbrained post. That cold that Baby F had ended up making its rounds and we all came down with it minus Little L. We even got poor Purple Grandma sick, who came all the way out here from PA. We did quite a bit of celebrating the whole week of K's twelfth birthday (TWELVE!! Let's take a moment to acknowledge how old my baby is. 😲 My how she has grown.), including meeting up with some dear friends at Flock and Fiber, but for now I thought I would share just a few photographs.
I am sad to say that all of our birthday supplies (including K's birthday crown, the birthday ring and our other traditions) are in storage as I never expected to be in this house for so long. Talk about total mama guilt. Thankfully K was understanding and I was able to pull off some of our other birthday traditions like her homemade apple doughnuts with hot apple cider for breakfast (recipe to follow). She requested zucchini lasagna for lunch, play time at the local park and her usual pumpkin soup for dinner. We had plans to go to the ocean, too, but it rained a lot that day (and would you believe all our rain gear is also in storage?!). However, we did make up for it later in the week, but more on those adventures later.
I have been asked by a few people on IG about our traditional homemade apple doughnuts so I thought I would share the recipe here. I found it online many, many years ago and unfortunately no longer have the source. If anyone happens to recognize it and knows where it is from please do let me know.
K's Birthday Apple Doughnuts
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups AP flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup brown sugar (we have substituted maple syrup for this in the past)
3 tablespoons coconut oil (or margarine)
1 egg equivalent (we use 1 tablespoon ground flax seed mixed in 2 tablespoons water)
1/4 cup apple cider
1/4 cup almond milk
1 grated apple (peeled first)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
oil for frying
Directions:
In a large bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon. In your mixer, cream together sugar and butter and then beat in the egg replacer. Add the apple cider, almond milk and vanilla to the creamed mixture and beat all together. Add the dry mixture into the creamed mixture and beat until smooth. Gently stir the apple into the batter.
Cover and chill the dough for one hour.
Place half the dough on a floured board and knead lightly. Roll out to about 1/2" thick. Cut with a doughnut cutter if you have one. We use the 3 - 4" canning jar lids to cut ours out and then just cut a hole in the middle with a knife. Heat the oil in a wok or skillet to about 375 degrees. Fry the dough for 1 - 2 minutes on each side, until golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Allow to cool and eat plain or dip them in confectioners sugar. Serve with hot apple cider with cinnamon sticks as straws. Enjoy!
p.s. -
I usually get quite a few questions about her gifts so I thought I would do a run down here of what she received from us and extended family members.You'll notice a theme of Narnia/C.S. Lewis and books.
- Courage Dear Heart shirt and jean skirt (I had to get the woman's size!)
- A Family Guide to Narnia: Biblical Truths in C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia
- Companion to Narnia
- Childhood Chronicles Before Narnia: Boxen (She loves writing stories so this seemed very appropriate)
- This lion pattern along with yarn and knitting needles
- St. Therese/Sts. Louis and Zelie Bracelet
- Father Brown Readers
- The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings set
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