Recipe: Give the gift of Apple Crumble!

by Amanda I love this recipe, it's a great idea for a little giveaway for the holidays, relatively inexpensive and very easy to do on a Sunday afternoon.

Apple pie filling

2 1/4 cups granulated sugar 1/2 cup cornstarch 1 tsp ground cinnamon 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg 1/2 tsp salt 5 cups water 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice 1 lb granny smith apples, peeled, cored & sliced

Place a rack in the bottom of a large stock pot. Fill pot with hot water. Sterilize 5 x 1 pint canning mason jars, 5 lids and 5 rings by placing on rack, jars upright. Bring water to a boil.

Boil 10 minutes and remove with a holder and allow jars to air-dry.

Combine sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and water in a large saucepan. Place over high heat and cook until thick and bubbly, stirring frequently.

Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice.

Tightly pack apples into sterilized jars. Slowly pour syrup over apples, covering them completely. Gently tap jars on countertop to allow air bubbles to rise. Screw lids on jars.

Carefully lower jars into pot using a holder. Add more boiling water if necessary, until tops of jars are covered by 2 inches of water.

Bring water to a full boil, cover and let stand for 30 minutes.

Remove jars and place on cloth covered surface until cool.

Once cool, press top of each lid with finger, ensuring that seal is tight - lid doesn’t move up or down at all. Sealed jars can be stored for up to a year.

Crumble Topping

3 cups brown sugar 2 cups oatmeal 1 1/3 cups all purpose flour 4 tsp cinnamon 1 cup butter

Combine brown sugar, oatmeal, flour and cinnamon in a bowl. Cut in the butter until crumbly. Package in cellophane bags.

What's your favorite Christmas gift to make?

Amanda was born and raised in Ottawa where she continues to live with her husband and son “J”. Amanda is bilingual and interests include reading, blogging, socializing, and advocacy on children and teen issues.

Canadian Mint Family Pass Giveaway

Our second winner of a Family Pass to the Canadian Mint is Sherry!

Methodology: Tweets and comments are put in chronological order and a random number is generated by Random.org. The number today was 4.

HOW TO ENTER We are going to be giving out one pass a day for the next 10 days.  To enter leave a comment on the post from that day or tweet the following:

I’d love to win a family pass to the @canadianmint from #kidsinthecapital this holiday season!  http://www.kidsinthecapital.ca/?p=6700

You can enter every day, but you can only win once. One entry per day per family.

Winners will be picked each day from all comments and tweets received by 8:00pm of the same day. If you'd like to know more about this giveaway and the Canadian Mint, please read our introduction post.

Homemade Pizza

by Nicki Who doesn't love pizza? I know it is a favourite for all of us in this house.  So, last weekend, we decided to try making homemade pizza.  I have fond memories of making pizza at home when we were kids, so naturally, my first thought was how to get Liam involved in the process and make this a fun family dinner for start to finish!

Having just woken up from his nap, Liam was much more interested in his juice than in mixing and kneading pizza dough, however, watching yeast rise is really cool and a good science lesson for older kids.

Once the dough was mixed, kneaded and risen, Liam was ready to help.  He had a blast punching down the dough and was thrilled to get to use my marble rolling pin to roll out the dough.  It is one of those things on the counter that he always wants to play with!

Then, he used a spoon to "paint" the crust with pizza sauce.  He is very artistic!!

My favourite part, the toppings were added next.  We kept it pretty simple, lots of meat (pepperoni, salami and ham), tomatoes, mushrooms and cheese.

In order to make this a true family cooking experience, the pizza was then presented to Henry to be BBQed.

After about fifteen minutes on the BBQ, the pizza was cooked and ready to eat.  It was delicious and we all had fun making it.  Homemade pizza will become a frequent dinner menu item at our house from now on.

Pizza Crust Recipe

• 1 cup warm water
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp yeast

Dissolve sugar in water.  Sprinkle yeast on top. Let sit for 10 minutes.

• 4 tbsp oil
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 cups flour

Add yeast mixture to dry mixture and stir together.  Knead for 10 minutes.  Let rise until doubled, approximately 45 minutes.

Punch down, roll flat and press into pan.

Add your choice of sauce and toppings.

Bake or BBQ at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.

This recipe makes the perfect amount of dough for a large cookie sheet.

*****

Nicki is a working mom of one two-year-old boy, Liam. She is an Early Childhood Educator and in her spare time, volunteers for New Moon Rabbit Rescue and as a Brownie Leader with Girl Guides of Canada. She loves to garden, scrapbook and write! You can read more about Nicki on The Perils of a Working Mom.

A veggie bread they'll love

by Krista When I first saw this recipe posted on @refashionista's blog I knew I had to try it. It's a recipe for bread that makes use of your leftover veggies. It looked very simple, and her description really sold it. I knew that I would love it, but secretly hoped the lils would too, so that I could get a few more portions of vegetable into them.

I was so excited to try this recipe that I actually bought and cooked far too many beets for our family. Armed with the leftovers the next day, I asked the lils if they wanted to make beet bread. They jumped at the idea, and even started singing a song that sounds remarkably like the Batman tune... "na-na-na-na-na-na-na-naaaa beet bread!" They knew what was going into it, yet were still excited. It might be because I compared it favourably to banana bread, or it might have been that it look like this just prior to going in the oven:

They sampled within minutes of it coming out of the oven, and were instantly in love. I get asked at least weekly to make beet bread and willingly oblige, as I love it too. You can make the recipe with any leftover vegetables, but truth be told I've never tried!

@Refashionista's Beet Bread (slightly modified by me)

1 cup white flour 3/4 cup whole wheat flour 1 tsp baking soda 1/4 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp cinnamon 3/4 - 1 cup sugar 1/3 cup salted butter, softened 2 eggs 1 cup mashed/pureed cooked beet 1/3 cup milk

-preheat oven to 350

- stir together flours, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon. Set aside.

- beat together sugar, butter and eggs until light and fluffy.

- blend in beets.

- add dry ingredients and milk, alternating, in three additions. Be careful not to overbeat.

- pour into a greased and floured loaf pan and bake for 50-60 minutes (until a toothpick comes out dry when testing).

My lil helpers. Woo is singing the beet bread song!

Krista is married to Willy and mom to a 4 year old son, Woo, and 2.5 year old daughter, Goose. You can find her at Life in the Hutch or on Twitter @kgraydonald

Making blueberry muffins with kids

by Rebecca This is a perfect recipe to make with your little one. I got it from the Meals Matter Web site – they have lots of really great info about parenting and children from birth on, including many ‘to make’ together recipes.

These muffins end up being perfect in mini-muffin size for the Boy’s snack at preschool.

Have fun together – it’s okay if the flour spills (it will) or if they eat the blueberries and get it all over their hands (they will) – that’s part of the fun! The recipe can be found on the Meals Matter, but below are our pictures.

**NOTE: The recipe calls for buttermilk, but I rarely buy it. Instead, add 1 tbsp of vinegar and add regular milk until you reach a cup.

This recipe makes 24 mini-muffins and 6 large, or a dozen large yes, that is a baseball spatula. That’s the one he cooks with ;) Yum! Enjoy

Rebecca blogs about family and motherhood, is a self-professed foodie, and dabbles in online engagement and community giving.  She has a strange love for maple syrup that can possibly only be matched by her love for chocolate and coffee.