Shine's Thyme

Daily ramblings of a ridiculously happy housewife and mother. Come in and see how sweet life can be!

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

More yumminess

I told you last week how I LOVE apple pie and autumn...and anything that has to do with this awesome season and it's sights, smells and sounds. Mmmmmm. Anything apple is good isn't it?





 These little apple pies are so easy and delicious. Anna and I love making them and the boys LOVE eating    them!!
                 Aren't they pretty? Baked........ so you don't feel QUITE as guilty as the fried version:)
 Light and crispy......the crust has powedered sugar and butter so you can imagine it's delicious richness.
 They look beautiful set out...that is if you can keep the male species away from them long enough to plate them!




Here's the quick and easy recipe. Enjoy!! And have a beautiful autumn day in the Lord!
With much love,
Shine


Baked Apple Pies

For shell
2 & 2/3 cups ap flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup butter
4 to 6 Tblsp cold water

Mix dry. ingredients well. Cut in butter then add cold water to make dough.

Apple Filling
About 4 cups apples
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. butter.
Cook all together till apples are soft. Cool before making pies.

Icing:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 to 2 Tblsp. milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Mix and drizzle over pies when cool

To make the pies:
Roll dough on floured surface.
Use a saucer to cut small rounds, then spoon cooled pie filling(about 2 Tblsp) .
Fold over and crimp edges.
Bake pies at 375 about 20 minutes. 
Makes about 12 pies.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Bloggy Award!!

Friday, September 24, 2010. Blog Award
I'm happy to show off the blog award   The Charm of Home gave me!

                                               


These awards are a great way to show others that you are interested in what they have to contribute to the blogosphere, and showcase some of the people you follow.

The rules for winning this award are as follows:

* Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award.

* Share 7 things about yourself.

* Pass the award along to 15 other bloggers who you recently discovered and think are fabulous.

* Contact the bloggers you chose and let them know about the award.


Special thanks to The Charm of Home for this award. Please check out her site.



7 things about me:

1. I have lived in TN for 22 of my 28 married years. Born in TN, lived in several other souther states.

2. One of my favorite movies is "Pride and Prejudice."

3. I am listening to The Erik Baker Band--on my Bose today.

4. Last night I was listening to Tchaikovsky in conert at The Tennessee Theatre.

5. I have four very musically talented children.

6. When it comes to the written word I have a lot of favorites: The Bible, Gabaldon, Gene Stratton Porter, Edith Holden, Beth Moore, Francine Rivers, CS Lewis,  just to name a few.


7.One of my favorite movies this past year was "Robin Hood."


 I'll pick a few blogs I read, although I have MANY, just can't list them all. I find new and amazing bloggers everyday and I am very blown away by all of the talent I keep finding in so many of you. It was really hard to just pick 15. I wanted to show case several new ones too. Inspiration abounds! Please forgive me if you don't participate in these things.

Peaches and Posh
Homebody Holly
Domestically Speaking
Moonshine Love
Flower Patch Farm Girl
The Style Sisters
My Home Sanctuary
Daisy Cottage
DebBieDoos
LeChateau des fleurs
With All My Heart...Deborah
It's Just Dottie
Counting Your Blessings
Vintage Linen Treasures
Gypsy (On my Mind)
My Gramma's Soul


Edited to add: If you want to pass along the award, it is okay to copy this post. Just use Ctrl C and Ctrl V to copy and paste the post and insert it into a new post on your blog and edit it as you need to.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Mmmm Mmmm Good!

I truly love Autumn. It is one of my most favorite seasons....for so many reasons. One reason of course, the cooler temperatures. I am NOT a hot weather girl. In fact, I could probably live in Alaska, but here in Tennessee, well, we have really nice weather. Summers aren't too bad and neither are the winters. USUALLY. Sometimes we have extremes with both. I generally don't like temps any higher than the low 80's, but this has been our hottest summer on record with more days in the 90's than ever...including today!!!. So the cooler temperatures that come with the autominal equinox make me swoon. One of my favorite fall pastimes is making apple pie in a jar with my sweet daughter. Love the smells....and just seeing all those beautiful jars in the cupboard brings joy.

                                       
              Aren't they pretty? Feels good too, knowing we'll be having warm, delicious pie all winter.



                                                          Apple Pie in a Jar

4&1/2 cups sugar                        Warm jars in oven. Peel, slice and soak apples in lemon water or
1 cup cornstartch                         fruit fresh. Stir 1st. five ingred. together in a large pot. Add water
3-4 tsps. cinnamon                       Cook over med. heat till thick and bubbly. Remove from heat.
1/2 tsp nutmeg                             Add lemon juice and set aside. Pack apples in hot jars leaving
1 tsp salt                                      one in. headspace. Pour hot syrup over apples leaving 1/2 in. Put  
10 cups water                              on lids . Place in hot water bath for 20 minutes.
3 Tblsp. lemon juice
5-6 lbs. apples

                                                                 FOR PIE
Prepare crust. Fill with apple pie in a jar. Top with: 1/2 cup oatmeal~1 cup flour~1/2 cup brown sugar~1tsp cin. ~1 stick of butter. Mix all together and crumble over top of apple pie mixture.
Bake @ 375 for 40 minutes.
Oh my goodness good!
                                                  
                                       Can't you just smell this yumminess???? It was good girls!!
Also made tons of yummy apple butter. YUMMO!! Think we'll have some of that for breakfast.....Ben may have pie:) But apples aren't the only thing I love about Autumn....Love ALL the smells and the cool crisp air~~~this week-end they say we may have a day with a high of only 79!! Yippee!! I'm am seriously excited!! Hopefully I can post about my many favorites I treasure this season. Have a blessed day girls!! And                                                   Happy Autumn!!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Yippee for me!!

We have been in our city home for almost 5 full years now. Doesn't really seem possible,  but it is definitely so. And since we first moved into this home, I have wanted one thing without change.
 I have a huge double window in my dining room and it was just BEGGING for this item. A church pew.
With a church pew, I could do so many things. Decorate it...for sure and make it look super cute, but also, it would be such a functional piece. When we have a large dinner here, and I do that quite often, I could use it for extra seating. The kids love to sit and eat somewhere besides the table.


So I never gave up on this church pew desire I had. Seems I could never find just the right one, or if I did, I couldn't afford it.

Then one day, I just happened to be talking to my son and my future daughter in law....mentioning my long, long dream of the perfect bench...when....low and behold, my sweet daughter in law said "My pawpaw has some church pews...he'll probably give you one". Well, initally, I thought she was joking...then I started getting excited!  Really????? Could it be true????

Well......turns out it was true!! I still can't believe there are such nice people in the world. In a time when the world is rampant with mean and ugly characters around every corner, there truly are good and decent people still out there. I didn't even know what the bench was going to look like, but, it was better than I expected.
Turns out this bench just needed a little tlc. It's not a fancy one from a big fancy church, but rather a very simple one from an old country church. I absolutely love it. I even love the red seat...it works perfectly with my stuff. I still can't believe how blessed I am. Just when I figured I may never get this bench, here is the perfect one, given to me freely and with love. Thanks so much Amanda. You are such a treasure....in so many ways.