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http://www.allrecipes/I am making Vegetable Soup & homemade bread for supper tonight with Apple Dumplings for dessert!
Here is my favorite apple dumpling recipe from All Recipes


Old Fashioned Apple Dumplings By: MICKI WOOD

"These are the ones my grandmother used to make: warm, flaky, apple-y sweet and drizzled with a sauce that bakes right with them. These are not difficult to make, just a little time-consuming. Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream." 


Original Recipe Yield 6 servings

Ingredients

1 recipe pastry for double-crust pie

6 large Granny Smith apples, peeled and cored

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

3 cups water

2 cups white sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1.Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Butter a 9x13 inch pan.

2.On a lightly floured surface, roll pastry into a large rectangle, about 24 by 16 inches. Cut into 6 square pieces. Place an apple on each pastry square with the cored opening facing upward. Cut butter into 8 pieces. Place 1 piece of butter in the opening of each apple; reserve remaining butter for sauce. Divide brown sugar between apples, poking some inside each cored opening and the rest around the base of each apple. Sprinkle cinnamon and nutmeg over the apples.

3.With slightly wet fingertips, bring one corner of pastry square up to the top of the apple, then bring the opposite corner to the top and press together. Bring up the two remaining corners, and seal. Slightly pinch the dough at the sides to completely seal in the apple. Repeat with the remaining apples. Place in prepared baking dish.

4.In a saucepan, combine water, white sugar, vanilla extract and reserved butter. Place over medium heat, and bring to a boil in a large saucepan. Boil for 5 minutes, or until sugar is dissolved. Carefully pour over dumplings.

5.Bake in preheated oven for 50 to 60 minutes. Place each apple dumpling in a dessert bowl, and spoon some sauce over the top.

Here is the pie crust recipe I use:
Also from All Recipes


Grandma's Secret Pie Crust By: Felicia Bass


Original Recipe Yield 2 crusts

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups shortening

1 egg, beaten

1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar

4 tablespoons water

Directions

1.In large bowl mix flour and salt. Cut in shortening with two butter knifes.

2.In separate bowl, mix together egg, vinegar, and water. Drizzle wet mixture into dry mixture, cutting it in.

3.Roll out dough, and fit into two 9 inch pie pans.

4.Bake at 425 degrees F (220 degrees C) for 12 minutes.

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Past Halloweens

We have always loved halloween! We started going to the halloween campout at the local state park sometime in the 90's. The second year we went, we started building decorations. It started with the pillars, cemetery sign and "Barry" in his coffin. We either built from scratch or bought it and modified it to suit what we wanted. We won every catagory at least once in the 6 years we went, except "overall".






Second year at Halloween Campout

 


Added a flying ghost this year - on right side




the "come here" guy on pillar, spider in background. this was the last year we did the halloweeen campout - 04




Cemetery fence set up




Barry - one of the first decorations we built (1999)




"Sit-up guy" he was powered by air, he would sit up and talk when we hit the switch




The spider - his eyes lit up, he raised up and he spit!




Our witches, they stirred the pot and talked. Fog machine hooked up to the cauldron for fog

 We bought the masks & hats, but made everything else. Foam wig heads were the foundations for their heads. I will put up more pics as I find them.

Happy Halloween!

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World's Best

This is, in my humble opinion, The World's Best Lobster Bisque! From The Upper Deck on Put-in-Bay!

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growing out of a rock!

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Scenic Rock Ledge Inn & Cottages (Tuesday Tourist)

                                          Tuesday Tourist

We went to Lake Erie for a few days recently for a mini-vacation. We stayed at Scenic Rock Ledge Inn Cottages It is a great place to stay, we highly recommend it! They have 5 cottages to rent. The Inn is now a private residence. We have stayed in hotels in the area in the past and this was much better! There is a small kitchen with the necessities should you choose to cook - which we didn't ; )
Here are a few pictures taken during our stay:


View from deck




View from cottage porch




Sunset from porch







Rock Ledge Inn (now a private residence)




Cottage #5



Here are a few other places we visited:


The beach at Crane Creek State Park




This use to be the picnic area




Driftwood on the pet/wildlife beach




Looking the other direction on same beach




Marblehead Lighthouse



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