Quick and easy apple dumplings

Anouk is finally getting to the age where cooking is as much fun for her as eating, and so I'm on the lookout lately for kid-friendly recipes that are as easy as they are delicious. I found this one, for crescent-roll apple dumplings, at the Better Cookies blog, and with a few tweaks, it fit the bill entirely. Try it -- I promise you'll like it, too, even if you are not fond of baking. (Honestly, it's so easy it hardly even counts.)

Apple Dumplings

1 pack of crescent rolls
1 apple (we used Honeycrisp. YUM!)
Butter
Brown sugar
Cinnamon

Unroll the crescent rolls on an ungreased baking sheet. Brush the rolls with melted butter, and then sprinkle thickly with brown sugar and cinnamon. Slice the apple and place the slices at the wide end of the triangle and roll. Pinch the ends closed so the filling stays in, sprinkle outside of the dumpling with more cinnamon and sugar, and bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

Enjoy! (We sure did).

Weekend links:

• how autism makes some workers better at some jobs
• an open call for cell phone self portraits
• notable books of 2012 (for adults)
• notable books of 2012 (for kids)

Mount Trashmore

I have to admit right off the bat that Mount Trashmore is not one of J.'s favorite places. He comes from DC, a place where they ship their garbage off to West Virginia when they're done with it. They definitely don't heap it up in the middle of town and cover it with grass to make a nice little park out of it, no siree. He can't quite get over it, a hill made of garbage creeps him out a little.

But I do like Mount Trashmore -- I think I like it because it is a glorified landfill. Mostly because I have this Anne of Green Gableish streak in me that likes the idea of making something ugly into something pretty, something that can be enjoyed by everyone.  I have fond memories, too, of flying kites at the top with my dad, or rolling down the sides with friends. And it's refreshing to stand at the top of a nice windy hill. I forgot that, since becoming a flatlander again.

In any event, in an effort to combat the November blues, I've been trying to spend a fair amount of time outside this month, and Mt. Trashmore is a favorite destination. The park is a good one, with lots of climbables and swingables; there are always geese by the lake to wave at (scream at, in A.'s case); when the trees still had leaves, and after they had turned, the view from above was so pretty, and it's really only of the interstate, so that's saying something.  The stairs up to the top are a very effective workout (judging by the miserable cross-fitters we passed on our way up and down), and the loop around the hill and park is the perfect little after-dinner walk.

This was Baby A.'s inaugural Trashmore visit, and her thoughts on the place consisted of "Wow," "Cool," "Yay," and "Doggy!" Which sums it up, doesn't it?

Garden of Lights at the Norfolk Botanical Garden

I had the Wednesday before Thanksgiving marked on my calendar since September and not just because I was excited for the holiday, but because it was the day my family and friends planned to walk through the Botanical Garden's Garden of Lights as part of the Million Bulb Walk. From Thanksgiving to New Year's Eve, the Garden of Lights is open to vehicle traffic, but for a few days before (and after) the holiday, the Garden allows you to walk through the winding paths and admire the lights at your leisure.

It suits me much better than the traditional way, because invariably, every year, our group is too big to fit in one car, and I always get carsick from going so slowly and stopping and starting. So this was perfect, and I was so excited I put up a public invitation on Facebook for everybody I know to meet up with me, J., and Baby A. at the gate.

There turned out to be 16(!) of us in all in our group, and we had what was probably the best Garden of Lights experience in the history of the Garden of Lights, complete with steaming mugs of hot chocolate, out-of-tune Christmas carols, and little kids running around making dinosaur sounds. How could it get any better than that?


The Garden of Lights is set up to loosely mirror the four seasons, and each of us had a favorite installation (mine is the "falling rain" effect in Spring; Anouk and her friend Z. liked the holiday light train so much that they choo-choo'ed all the way through Winter). Each one of us, I think, was a little enthralled with the snowflakes that danced in time with the Charlie Brown Christmas theme.

There were a few moments of crankiness, as to be expected that close to bedtime, and by the time we reached the end of the walk, we were all glad for the tram to take us back to the parking lot. But all in all, I'd say the Million Bulb Walk was everything I expected and more. It was so much easier to appreciate everything on foot: the lights are really a 3D experience, above and all around, and a lot of it is lost when you're inside a car. Not to mention the added bonus of allowing the kids to run around and tire themselves out before bedtime (ours was asleep before we even left the parking lot).

It was the perfect start to the holiday season, and a tradition we'll be sure to revisit in years to come. With every single one of the 16 friends that were there that night, I hope, and more.

Wednesday was the last night of the pre-Thanksgiving Bulb Walk, but if you missed it, you can try again the first week in January. (More details here).

Doumar's Cones and Barbecue

I have to tell you, I was shocked (SHOCKED!) when I found out that our friends, Miss Molly, Z. and A., had been living in Norfolk for almost half a year and had not yet been to Doumar's, that old Norfolk institution, where the ice cream cone was invented, and where you can still pull up under the awning in your car and get curbside service. I felt like we needed to rectify this dismal situation right away, and so  last week, we met our friends for lunch down at 20th and Monticello. 

And oh, what a lunch it was. I think between all of us we sampled everything that makes Doumar's great: the burgers, hot dogs, housemade limeade and rootbeer, and those famous cones. Anouk fed a couple spoonfuls of ketchup to her baby doll, and seemed pretty intent on getting some of her French fries into little Ada's mouth (and all of Ada's hamburger bun into hers), but let me tell you, not a one of the kids seemed very concerned with the idea of sharing their ice cream. You'd have to pry it out of their little frostbitten hands, I think. 

After our table was cleared, there was a pretty intense booth jumping contest (to help settle all that food?). Luckily, our fellow patrons were forgiving. 

"Big Al" Doumar was at the restaurant the day we went, and we posed for pictures with him to commemorate the occasion of our friends' first visit. We also plopped the kids on stools and snapped a photo of them sitting on the counter. A million different Doumar's memories swamped over me -- waiting for curbside service with my Mammaw, skipping class with friends in favor of a hot fudge sundae, late night limeades after prom. It struck me that before too long, our kids will be grown up and doing these things. And I know Doumar's will still be there, when they are. 

Not the best photo, but they're all looking in the same direction, so I'm declaring this battle won.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! This year, I am grateful for new friends, old friends, a husband with the scratchiest beard known to man and a little girl who can't stop saying "Thank you" all day long. And you -- if you are reading this, I am grateful for you, too.

Here's to a wonderful holiday. Meet you back here next week!

Pumpkin Pie Playdough

We have a few pre-Thanksgiving playdates scheduled for this week, and so this weekend, Anne and I set to work making a little treat to take along to give to our friends when we see them. Pumpkin pie playdough! It made our house smell super-amazing.

I've been thinking of scented play dough for a while. I like the idea of making playdough into a full sensory experience (which is why in our house, you'll find jars of crazy-colored dough studded with all sorts of things: marbles, pine needles, pennies) Pumpkin pie-spiced playdough worked in another of those senses and seemed appropriately festive for the season.

There are several good pumpkin pie playdough recipes out there, but none of them seemed quite scented enough for our liking, so we made up our own, adapted from the basic playdough recipe at How Does She? (our favorite).

Pumpkin Pie Playdough (makes enough for two)

-2 cups flour
-2 cups water
-1/2 cup salt

-2 tablespoons olive oil (any oil can be used)
-4 teaspoons cream of tartar
-food coloring (any color you desire; we were going for verisimilitude, so we used red and yellow to make a doughy brown color)

The spice mix:

-2-3 tablespoons cinnamon
-1 tablespoon allspice
-2 teaspoons nutmeg
-1/2 teaspoon ginger

Or you can just go to town with a jar of pre-mixed pumpkin pie spice.

Mix all of the ingredients in a saucepan. Place over medium heat and stir until the dough forms into one big clump. Turn out onto lightly floured surface and knead until the dough is cool and stretchy. You can adjust the scent or color at this point by adding more spice or food coloring (just make sure you knead it some more to get everything incorporated).

I think my favorite thing about this recipe is breaking out the cookie cutters and having the cookie-making experience...without the extra calories (because you definitely don't want to eat this stuff, blecch). Frees up more space for all that (real, hopefully edible) pumpkin pie.



Do you have a favorite playdough recipe? Please share! We can't get enough of the stuff.

Norfolk International Airport Overlook

This past Sunday, we took advantage of the amazing weather and met up with some friends at one of my favorite spots in all of the Norfolk Botanical Garden: the Airport Overlook. Though I don't like flying on planes, I do like sitting at the top of the overlook hill and peering down into Norfolk International Airport and watching the planes come in and take off.

Anouk and Baby J. loved it, too. Baby J. sat himself right down and waved at every plane as though it was his job. Anouk was busy running up and down the hill (tiring herself out before bedtime, yay!) but she did pause every time a plane taxied down the runway, long enough to wave her arm over her head and yell, "Bye!" before going up/down the hill again. Not to mention that it was also a very dad-friendly activity: James and our friend M. took off for the hill ASAP (which left E. and I free for a little gift shop browsing).

The airport overlook is one of those places I remember so well from my childhood -- I grew up across the street from the Gardens, and remember the days when the hill was just a hill leading down to a fence. Now it's beautifully landscaped, with a convenient stone pavilion (and a wheelchair/stroller ramp leading up to it, hooray!). The best new feature, in my estimation: speakers that let you hear the air traffic controllers talking to each other and the pilots. Too cool!

I'm glad we got the chance to revisit this old haunt, and to spend a nice day there before the weather gets too cold. It's destined to be a new addition to the picnic spot roster come spring.

On an entirely unrelated note, in case you don't already follow Where the Watermelons Grow on Facebook or Twitter, please check out my Hampton Roads Holiday Events list, posted at the top of this page under the header image. I'm kind of a winter holiday freak, and all throughout the summer and fall I've been compiling this huge list of stuff to do this season, and people kept asking me to share it, so there it is. It's definitely not comprehensive; if you know of an event that I've missed that should be there, please let me know and I'll add it.

Happy weekend! What are your plans?

Bennett's Creek Farm Market

I love food, and as such, I am always on the lookout for new and interesting places to eat, which is why, sometimes, in the middle of a conversation, someone will mention something about a sandwich they got at a roadside stand on the way to a wedding out of state and I will holler out, "WAIT. Go back to this sandwich."

This is exactly what happened with Bennett's Creek Farm Market and Deli. Aunt C. called to tell me about her doctor's appointment out in Suffolk, and oh yeah, on the way home she'd stopped and gotten she-crab soup at a little hole-in-the-wall deli. "WAIT," I hollered before she could move on to something else. "I need to know more about this soup."

She made it sound so good that I immediately made plans to find this place, with J. and A. And the minute we set food inside Bennett's Creek, I knew it wouldn't disappoint, just based on how amazing everything smelled. The food there is the kind of flavorful, down-home, retro-style basics: pimento cheese dip, macaroni salad, ham salad, collard greens. You get the idea stepping in the store that very little has changed in the 30 years since the market opened off of Route 17 in Suffolk. The front of the store is features homemade candy (pumpkin fudge!) and ice cream, and fresh veggies grown right outside the door (I mean that literally, they come from a field just outside the shop). 

We got sandwiches (pork bbq and reubens) and sides (ham salad and potato salad). The only drawback to Bennett's is that there's no seating area to eat inside, so we ended up having an impromptu car picnic. (But that was fun, too, even if I ended up having to scrub mashed up pickle off the backseat. Thanks, A.!) It ended up being a fun Saturday afternoon mini-road trip, and I picked up a few good recipes, too You know a place is good when they don't mind sharing their secrets on their website. 

We also got a pint of the famous she-crab soup, btw. It was just as good as everybody said it would be. I wish we'd gotten two. Next time!

November, so far

Oh, November! You are really flying by this year. Or maybe it's just that the general sluggishness that hits me when Daylight Savings ends has hit me extra hard this year that makes it seem like it's all flying by. Plus the election -- and the houseguests who so kindly visited us -- and Nanowrimo, which I have decided to (try to) participate in -- it all adds up to one very tired mama. None of the Halloween decorations have been packed away yet; no Christmas presents have been planned or bought. I'm just trying to keep my head above water.

Anne's new thing lately is toddling around and saying "Thank you thank you" for everything, a dozen times a day -- and every time she says it, I'm trying to bust away a little more of the November blues and remember to be thankful for the things I am lucky enough to be enjoying now. And so, in no particular order, I give you some of my favorite things about this November, thus far: homemade candles in little walnut shells to shine out through some of this darkness; happy little mums, holding in there later into the season; chevre from Shady Goat Farm in Virginia Beach (a new favorite -- don't even get me started on their goat cheese truffles); A. learning her letters from the Obama sign in the yard (she can pick out A and B); the brilliant sugar maple right outside my window that makes me happy every time I see it.

What are your favorite things about November so far?


November links: 

• Darcy (one of my all-time favorite bloggers) posted this thought-provoking article about what it's like to raise a prodigy. 
• Local photographer Jessica Riehl took some great portraits of the Salvation Army bell ringers: "As I passed by the last in an unkept list of bell ringers, I started to think about who these people are, standing there in the frigid cold weather...This Wednesday as I went about my holiday task list, I photographed a few on my 'joy committee.'" 
• If you missed out on the fall foliage this year because of Sandy...why not take a virtual trip to the best leaf-peeping destinations in the world?
• Just for kicks, I've been following along to the Smithsonian Institute's "This Day in the Maya Calendar" feature (mostly because I want to see what they write when it runs out later this year!) 

New Earth Farm

One of the reasons I'm glad we joined the CSA at New Earth Farm this fall is that we now have an excuse to visit the farm every weekend, come rain or shine. Over the past few months, it has become one of my favorite places. Not only is it the place where we get most of our food, not only is it all delicious (and 100% organic), but every person we've met there is warm and welcoming (almost suspiciously so) and the farm itself is beautiful. I especially love the old tumbledown house that greets us when we arrive.

The past few weeks we've gotten a ton of eggplant in our New Earth CSA boxes, so I thought I would share one of my favorite eggplant recipes, modeled off of a Middle Eastern dish my grandmother used to make, called Batinjan. It's heavenly on chilly nights.

Beef and eggplant stew

2-3 cloves garlic
1 small onion

2 tablespoons cumin

2 lbs ground beef

4 small eggplants (I used the skinny purple and green ones)
3 cups tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes

2 large potatoes

Brown the onion and garlic in olive oil in a saucepan, add the meat, sprinkle cumin on top. Cook meat until almost done, and add the chopped eggplant and saute a bit longer. When eggplant has just started to brown and meat is cooked, add the can of tomato sauce. Add enough water to just cover all the meat and veggies in the pot. Bring to a boil, and then turn down heat and simmer for about 40 minutes.

Microwave the potatoes for five minutes and let cool. About halfway through the stew cooking time, cut the potatoes into chunks and add to the stew. Season with salt and pepper according to taste. Serve over rice or in a bowl with flatbread.

Happy Monday! What did you get in your CSA box this week?