Katie's Corner

A Modern-Day Nativity

Normally I don’t pay too much attention to nativity scenes. Growing up a good Catholic, I was surrounded by these classic, made in China figurines and have grown a bit desensitized to the meaning behind them.

Yet, this year the scene has caught my attention more than once and caused me to stop what I’m doing just to look.

I couldn’t figure out why I continue to be captivated by this scene, and the reason finally hit me.

I know we’re all busy, but working full-time with a 10-month-old home with me full-time has taken busy to the next level. My typical day looks like waking up early, diaper change, feed baby, play with baby, log into work, respond to emails, put baby down for a nap, crank out work. Respond to text messages, check emails, think about dinner, meal plans for the work week, meals for baby, refocus on work. Baby is up. Change baby and feed baby. Play with baby and try not to be distracted with text, calls, and emails from work or personal life. Clean this. Move that. Add this to the grocery list. Forgot this. Add it to the to-do list. Refocus. Play with baby. Feed baby. Put baby down for a second nap. Crank out work. Baby is up. Feed, play, work, clean, play, feed. Bedtime. More work. To do’s. Catch up. Cook, clean, try to fall asleep. Rinse and repeat.

In my days filled with chaos, and in a world filled with social media and advertising that knows exactly how to get your attention, what keeps catching my eye about the nativity scene is this: focus.

Mary, Joseph, the Magi, shepherds, angels, and the animals are all focused on one thing. The scene is quiet. The scene is peaceful. They just have one thing to look at. One thing grabbing their attention.

I feel like if this were a modern day nativity scene, Mary would be trying to look pretty without actually trying to look pretty because #nofilter as Joseph would be getting selfies with Jesus and Mary #firstkid #itsaboy The Magi would be on the US Stock Market app buying up frankincense, gold, and myrrh, and the shepherds would be clocking in some OT #holidaypay.

Aside from the animals and the angels, I’m not sure anyone would remain to be still or focused on the child.

Wishing you and yours a season full of focus, a season devoted and dedicated to THE Child.

To Do Lists

One of the best things I’ve ever heard is: you’re going to die and leave items unfinished on your to-do list, and you know what, you will be dead, they won’t be done, and it won’t matter. Life will still go on. So that annoying to do list that is ever growing and never shrinking, that list that has so much power over my life, really can be ripped up, thrown in the garbage, and forgotten about and life will still go on. My life and the life of everyone else.

Luscious Meat+Veggie Lasagna

So I have been in hot pursuit of a tasty lasagna recipe that is more than meat, noodles, and tomato sauce. I think I’ve found it!

Ingredients:

16 ounces hot ground sausage
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 large carrots, chopped (about 1 cup)
1 red or green bell pepper, chopped
1 medium zucchini, chopped or 1 Cup butternut squash, cubed and cooked
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
¼ teaspoon salt
2 cloves garlic
5 to 6 ounces baby spinach

Tomato sauce (You can substitute 2 Cups of a garlic and mushroom spaghetti sauce if you don’t have time.) Otherwise it’s really simple to make spaghetti sauce. Just simmer the diced tomatoes and spices and anything else you’d like to add to your sauce. I usually add a bunch of fresh garlic, fresh basil if I have it, a little bit of sugar to tone down the acidity from the tomatoes, and any other spices that it’s needing to give it a good taste like oregano, salt, pepper. I just cook it all together and put it in the blender until it’s smooth and tastes yummy.

1 large can (28 ounces) diced tomatoes
¼ cup roughly chopped fresh basil + additional for garnish
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes

Remaining ingredients

2 cups (16 ounces) low-fat cottage cheese, divided
¼ teaspoon salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
9-13 no bake lasagna noodles*
8 ounces (2 cups) freshly grated low-moisture, part-skim mozzarella cheese

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
Cook sausage in large skillet over low heat until cooked. Once cooked. Remove sausage and set aside.
In that same skillet, warm the olive oil over medium heat. Once shimmering, add the carrots, bell pepper, zucchini, yellow onion, and salt. Cook, stirring every couple of minutes, until the veggies are golden on the edges, about 8 to 12 minutes.
Add a few large handfuls of spinach. Cook, stirring frequently, until the spinach has wilted. Repeat with remaining spinach and cook until all of the spinach has wilted, about 3 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat and set aside.
Meanwhile, to prepare the tomato sauce: Pour the tomatoes into a mesh sieve or fine colander and drain off the excess juice for a minute. Then, transfer the drained tomatoes to the bowl of a food processor. Add the basil, olive oil, garlic, salt, and red pepper flakes.
Pulse the mixture about 10 times, until the tomatoes have broken down to an easily spreadable consistency. Pour the mixture into a bowl for later (you should have a little over 2 cups sauce). Rinse out the food processor and return it to the machine.
Pour half of the cottage cheese (1 cup) into the processor and blend it until smooth, about 1 minute. Transfer the mixture to large mixing bowl. No need to rinse out the bowl of the food processor this time; just put it back onto the machine because you’ll need it later.
Transfer the cooked veggies and spinach mixture to the bowl of the food processor. Pulse until they are more finely chopped (but not puréed!), about 5 to 7 times, stopping to scrape down the sides as necessary. Transfer the mixture to the bowl of whipped cottage cheese. Top with the remaining cottage cheese, then add ¼ to ½ teaspoon salt (to taste) and lots of freshly ground black pepper. Stir to combine.
Lasagna assembly time!
Spread ½ cup tomato sauce evenly over the bottom of a 9” by 9” baking dish. Layer 3 lasagna noodles on top (snap off their ends to fit, and/or overlap their edges as necessary). Spread half of the cottage cheese mixture evenly over the noodles. Top with ¾ cup tomato sauce, then sprinkle ½ cup shredded cheese on top.
Top with 3 more noodles, followed by the remaining cottage cheese mixture (we’re skipping the tomato sauce in this layer.) Sprinkle ½ cup shredded cheese on top.
Top with 3 more noodles, then spread ¾ cup tomato sauce over the top (you may have a little sauce leftover) to evenly cover the noodles. Sprinkle evenly with 1 cup shredded cheese.
Wrap a sheet of parchment paper or foil around the top of the lasagna (don’t let it come into contact with the cheese). Bake, covered, for 18 minutes, then remove the cover, rotate the pan by 180° and continue cooking for about 10 to 12 more minutes, until the top is turning spotty brown.
Remove from oven and let the lasagna cool for 15 to 20 minutes, so it has time to set and cool down to a reasonable temperature. Sprinkle additional basil over the top, then slice and serve.

Feel free to play around with the recipe. Add mushrooms. Increase salt and pepper. Grate fresh Parmesan over the top. Add bacon instead of sausage. You could also use GF noodles and sub out the dairy to make a dairy and gluten free option.

Faith/Passion Based on Authority

The other day my husband and I were having a conversation. We just had our first baby. He’s 3 months old, and we were acknowledging the fact that there’s been more tension in our marriage in the last 3 months than there has been in the last 5 years. Why is this?

I mean we wouldn’t be wrong in saying it’s because last year we bought a house, got pregnant, and suffered through a global pandemic that kept two extroverted individuals trapped at home with one another. We love each other, but we love hanging out with our friends. So last year alone entailed enough tension-producing events, but now with the baby, intimacy, communication, free time, sleep, and even a healthy diet are all taking a hit. So a little more tension seems expected, okay, and normal.

We wondered if ‘it is what it is!?’ Should we resign ourselves to this tense fate….We will reconvene maritally in a few years? Lol.

My husband asked a good question: How are we going to maintain passion in our marriage when we’re not able to do the things we love doing during this time? What he meant was, we love skiing, camping, hiking, traveling, exploring, and going out. These activities bring us together. You can do all of that with the kiddo, and we have, but it’s just different.

I thought about his question for a while, as it reminded me of a question I recently asked myself about my faith: If someone asked me why I believed in God, what would I say?

I would have said I believe in God because he changed my life. I believe in God because I’ve seen him perform miracles. However, while both of those statements are true, they are not irrefutable or indisputable. Someone who doesn’t believe in God could have their life changed for the better. You see it all the time with alcoholics or addicts. And miraculous events I saw could have been miracles, or they could have been really crazy-lucky occurrences/coincidences. After realizing this, I became an atheist for a week. I’m not joking. I had no answer for why I believed in God. It seemed my faith in him was based on creations but not the creator. I was miserable for a week and considered that we might actually all be like rats in some horrible lab experiment to see what people would believe in if we all think we have to believe in a greater power. I didn’t even know who to pray to anymore. It seems like some of my prayers get answered, or is it coincidence, and some don’t get answered. Or do they get answered just not in my timing or in the way I imagine? Truth be told, religion, Christianity, is in itself, pretty confusing.

I started reading Mere Christianity as I had done previously when I was an atheist to try to figure out if I wanted to believe in this God thing. I remember CS Lewis stating atheism is too simple of a belief. He goes on to state why, but I will not try to summarize his words. He does it much better than I ever could. There’s a chapter in the beginning of Mere Christianity that caught my attention. Lewis says that we can believe on authority. Meaning, not that we have seen something for ourselves, but we believe it because we believe whoever said it is true to be right. His example was he’s never been to New York or seen it, but he believes it to be a place based on authority.

That got me thinking. Could I believe in God based on authority? Could I believe in God because the Bible says He is real? Could I believe in God because Jesus, a man recognized by the secular world as much as the Christian world, said God is real?

After much deliberation and research into the man of Jesus Christ and the validity of New testament, I decided to believe again. I decided to believe that Jesus is who he said he is based on authority.

So coming full circle, I’m back to my husband’s question: how do we remain passionate in our marriage when passion seems to evade us?

The only answer I could give him was we remain passionate because we remain passionate. It’s a choice we make to remain passionate when we’re not skiing or camping or traveling or having time to communicate or make love or eat nice meals or get dressed up and go out. We choose to remain passionate or else we become maritally dry, like 50% of divorced couples who claim: “I just don’t love him anymore” or “I fell out of love with her.” As if love were a hole or trap you could fall into. I did not fall in love with my husband. I chose to love him. I choose to love him. I choose to remain passionate about him and our marriage, recalling the good times and his greatest qualities. Love is a choice. Passion is a choice. Faith is a choice not based on circumstance or feeling. It has got to be more than that or it will fail each time. The strongest bond we can create is the one we choose to.

Mommying @ 7 Weeks

So, I’m pretty sure this kid is going to turn me into an alcoholic. (Certainly said jokingly, but for any parents who are call what it’s like to be in the trenches with a 7-week-old baby who won’t sleep, you get the comical sentiment.)

Someone gave me a onesie that says Mommy’s little alarm clock. It might be true if the baby ever let me sleep, but he’s in a bad habit of waking up every hour on the hour. Everyone told us to wake him up after 2 hours during the day so he’d sleep 3 hours at night. Sounds like great advice. My only question is how do I get him to sleep 2 hours?! HA

Because we do foster care, I definitely thought having a child in the house full time wouldn’t be that much different. Man, I have never been so wrong in my entire life. Sleep deprivation is a band form of torture. I now understand why. It makes people absolutely f****** crazy!

Yet, there’s no greater joy than spending each moment with this little bundle of joy. Breastfeeding takes as many hours as a part-time job. Sleep deprivation will make you do and say the craziest things. Intimacy really has to be a priority in marriage if you still want to be getting some, and weight loss hasn’t been a problem because there’s really no time to meal plan, buy groceries, make food, and eat. I’m surprised more personal trainers don’t recommend a popcorn and trail mix diet for weight loss. It is super effective!

I’ve talked to so many friends and strangers, and joked about the frustrations of parenting a newborn. It’s more or less cathartic to speak about how difficult it is; however, I wouldn’t change a thing. I mean I’d love to sleep and eat and date my husband and have time for sexy romantic dinners and back massages that lead to sex, but if it means not having this little puddins, I don’t want it. This is only a season of life, and I only get it for so long. I am going to enjoy the crap out of every single sleepless and sexless moment. I hope other parents might find some encouragement in these words. Pinterest parenting is not a thing, and there’s really no routine with a newborn. You just have to do what works for you and the baby to make it through these precious moments. Keep it up Mom and Dad. If you are loving that baby and providing for him or her, then You’re doing a fantastic job!

12 week update
Wow, I don’t even remember the newborn phase. I am so glad I wrote this season of life down because it all seems like a vague memory. Our life was so difficult around week 6. Now at week 12, I can say our son has been sleeping through the night. (For babies at this age, that means 5+ hours at a time.) He wakes up at 3am and 6am and this feels manageable. Reading the 7-week post is so funny. I now recall how Rowan used to wake up every hour and how incredibly exhausting it was, but I don’t remember it. (Perhaps the body’s way of forgetting a ‘trauma’ in order to repopulate the earth…. Or one hypothesis I’ve heard.)

If you’re at 12 weeks and baby is still not sleeping and you still have no time to eat, remember, this too shall pass. One day at a time. The other night my husband prayed:

“God, give us faith to trust you, perseverance to enjoy the present moment, and courage to hope for the future.”

Amen!

The Pregnancy Journey 2020-2021

A person hears a lot of information regarding pregnancy, but nothing you hear really prepares you for the 40-week journey that is pregnancy. I wanted to jot down some lessons I learned, some myths that were debunked, and some experiences I had during pregnancy.

First Trimester

Morning Sickness: Is not limited to the morning. From week 6 to week 13, I was nauseous all day everyday. I hear there is a nausea medication you can take, but I hate mediation, so I lived on salty Pop Chips and Ginger Ale Zevia.
Pregnancy Test: It’s really hard to believe the results of one test, so make sure to buy at least three tests.
Food Aversions: All food. All food tasted awful and was awful, so it’s hard to gain weight.
Excitement/Fear: Getting pregnant your first time is SO exciting. Out of all three trimesters, this trimester was the SWEETEST for my husband and I being excited. We laughed and cried and rejoiced and dreamed about the future and holding our precious baby. This was also the ‘scary’ trimester when it felt like we were ‘holding our breath’ until we got to 13 weeks.
Baby Announcement: We kept the announcement simple, meaning no professional photo shoots or staged anything, and that was our choice. Do what you want to do, announcement or no announcement. Don’t feel pressured to do anything else because your friends or Pinterest are!
Genetic Testing: We did not do genetic testing. Some of our friends did and others didn’t. It’s good to know which tests are optional and which tests are not. The entire process can be a very ‘invasive’ experience, so it’s nice to have a choice in what tests you want done.

Second Trimester

Nesting: Why had I NEVER heard this term before? It’s awful and SO real. My husband and I fought, more than once, because I wanted to clean EVERY crack and corner of the house (to prepare ‘the nest’ for baby), and he had NO CLUE why cleaning the trim would ‘prepare’ the nest for baby. HAHA. Looking back now, I just have to laugh at the fights we had. At the time and in the moment, I knew I was right in ‘preparing the home,’ whatever that looked like, but now I agree with him that the trim likely didn’t need to get cleaned, but the house looks GREAT! 😉 We both grew immensely during this time. Lessons learned: 1. I learned to communicate when I was starting to feel a ‘wave’ of hormones coming on if/when the house was getting too dirty. So instead of getting upset or crazy cleaning and expecting him to help, I would say, “Hey, I’m starting to get ‘nesting brain.’ Do you think we could take Saturday and get some things done?” 2. He learned to communicate if he was truly okay with this or not. 3. He also learned to be a little more proactive in helping pickup around the house so dirt and dishes didn’t pile up and stress me out. 4. We both learned to meet each other in the middle. I was on one extreme and he was on the other, and we amicably came together to maintain peace and harmony in our marriage, because at the end of the day, the nest is only as ‘put together’ as we are.
Choosing a Name: I definitely used to judge the people who said, “We’re waiting until the baby’s born to share the name.” I don’t remember the reasons why I judged those people, but I understand why some want to wait. Some of the reasons: 1. People WILL tell you their thoughts. I told my family the top 5 names we liked, and they didn’t like any of the names. So if you really like a name and are set on it, either don’t tell others OR be ready to tell family/friends to ‘piss off’ if they don’t like it! 2. Dibs. There was a name I liked, but my husband’s co-worker, who was also pregnant, called ‘dibs’ on that name. So that one was out. (I mean there are always going to be people who ‘double down’ on a name. You cannot avoid it, but it did seem a little odd to name our baby the same as theirs given the situation.) So we are due in a week, and I’m not telling anyone the name until the baby is born, because people will tell you BEFORE the baby is born that they don’t like the name, but once you’ve already named your baby, they’ll just say it behind your back! 😉
Gender Reveal: Do something! My husband didn’t want to do ‘cutesy’ announcement or bump photos, like arms wrapped around me or hand on the bump, and I was okay with that. After all, I have never been at someone’s house and seen ‘bump photos’ displayed. Usually the photos that make the cut are family and baby photos. So whatever, but I drew the line at not doing something fun for the gender reveal. Posted below is our gender reveal, and he said 1. He was glad we did something; 2. He was glad we both had a ‘bag’ to open.

Baby Gender Reveal:
Nuts or No Nuts?
Touchdowns or Tutus?

Hormones: My hormones were raging in the second trimester. We had the most fights AND the most sex. At a certain point, we were getting in a fight every two weeks; it was like clockwork. It was miserable, until we sat down one day and just said, “This isn’t us. We aren’t that couple who quarrels like this.” We then spent some time discussing what was going on. I mean, we are a two days drive from family, living in a COVID pandemic, not able to go to church, go to restaurants, or partake in most of our hobbies. We started to identify that being pregnant was new and stressful enough, then add a pandemic, protests, riots, an election, a million fires in the west, and we realized we were doing a DAMN GOOD JOB getting along! Needless to say, after that talk, our bi-weekly quarrels ceased.
Baby Registry: Talk to seasoned moms about which items were a must, which were nice to have, and which ones may be nice but really are not necessary. It will save a lot of research time!
Postpartum Products: STOCK UP! I spent so much time thinking about the baby, the house, the registry, the everything and anything else that I almost forgot about what I will need the first couple weeks after delivery. I ended up getting a breast pump and parts (via insurance), nipple cream, diapers, all different sized pads, lotion, Frida peri bottle, bath salts, perennial spray, witch hazel pads, postpartum sweatpants, postpartum underwear, nursing gown and shirts, fuzzy socks (because why not), and I made sure I have some sweet treats in the freezer for a job well done!

Third Trimester

Nausea: I had heard of morning sickness, which is really ‘all day’ sickness, but I did not know that nausea could happen in the third trimester. That sucks! Back to Ginger Ale Zevias for me!
Weekly Gynie: I will say, at 30-something weeks, you have to go for prenatal appointments bi-weekly, and then weekly for the last month. It’s a lot. Choose a hospital close to where you live!
Enjoy! The clean house, the cute nursery, the martial state of bliss, and just get ready to welcome in a sweet, precious baby anytime!

Creamy Tortellini Soup and Sausage

So I made this meal on a whim. I had some of the ingredients for a Creamy Tortellini Soup with Sausage and improvised on the rest. I thought it was okay, but my husband said the soup made the list of his top 5 soups. Apparently (for him) thicker, creamier, meatier is the way to go for soups. I personally like healthier, broth-based soups, but also like to keep my man satisfied 😉 Details on the soup below. Thanks for reading.

Ingredients

1/2 to 1 lb. Italian sausage
1/2 to 1 cup onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
To taste salt
To taste ground black pepper
1 tablespoon all purpose or coconut/almond flour
3 cups (24 oz.) tomato sauce
1 green pepper diced
1 package (9 oz.) gluten free or regular cheese tortellini
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup baby spinach
a pinch of brown sugar (to cut the acidity of the tomatoes)
To taste: oregano, basil, crushed red pepper flakes, cilantro

Instructions

Heat oil in a Dutch oven or large pot for 2 minutes over medium high heat until the oil sizzles. Add sausage and stir to cook for 5-7 minutes until browned. Break the sausages into small pieces using a spatula.
Add onions and garlic and sauté until tender. Stir well to combine and season with salt and pepper.
Stir in flour until well combined, about 1 minute. Then, pour in tomato sauce and add the diced green pepper. Turn the heat down to medium and stir well to combine. Bring the sauce to a simmer. Turn to low heat and let it simmer for 5 minutes.
Add tortellini and cook until tender, about 8-10 mins according to package directions. Stir occasionally to cook evenly.
Add heavy cream and stir well to mix. Make sure the heat is on low and stir well to achieve a smooth creamy consistency. You should notice the soup turn into a creamy orange color after adding heavy cream. Add in spinach. Cook for 1 minute until soft.
Garnish with a fresh parsley or if you’re like my husband, you can garnish with more cheese!

Hope you enjoy this as much as my husband did!

Lobster Bisque

I do not really enjoy seafood soups, but my husband does, so I read half a dozen different recipes (with reviews) and combined the best of all the recipes. The soup turned out great, and I would make it again. Update: I did make this soup again for my mother-in-law and husband. The second time around was much better, so I added the updates in bold. They both agreed that this soup is not a Lobster Bisque, but it is very good.

Ingredients

4 tbsp butter or ‘other’ fat
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2-3 carrots, peeled and chopped
2-3 stalks celery, finely chopped
1/4-1/2 c. mushrooms
salt and pepper to aste
*Paprika, crushed red pepper flakes, and/or cayenne to taste
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp. tomato paste
4 c. Chicken broth, seafood or fish stock
1 1/4 c. dry white wine and/or Sherry * 3/4 C. dry white wine and 3/4 C. Sherry
1 bay leaf
3 sprigs fresh thyme *or Rosemary
1/2 c. heavy cream
1 lb. cooked lobster meat, chopped *Leave bigger chunks of meat
Chopped chives, for garnish
*Chopped bacon bits, for garnish

DIRECTIONS

In a large, heavy pot over medium heat, heat butter or other fat. (I fried 4-5 pieces of bacon to use as a topping with the chives, so I cooked my vegetables in the bacon grease.) Add onion, carrots, celery, and mushrooms and cook until soft, about 7 minutes. Season with salt, pepper, paprika, crushed red pepper, and/or Cayenne.
Stir in garlic and tomato paste. Cook until garlic is fragrant and tomato paste coats vegetables, about 2 minutes.
Pour in your preferred ‘base.’ (Given I do not like seafood soups, I used 4 cups of chicken broth. My husband definitely would have like a more ‘fishy’ flavor, so in his case, a seafood stock would be better.) Pour in your stock and wine, then stir in bay leaf and thyme. Reduce heat and let simmer until liquid is reduced and flavors meld, stirring occasionally, 30 minutes. (To note: I read many different reviews that said you can omit the alcohol or use a dry white wine (Pino Grigio) and sherry. I heard sherry was a good call. I read different reviews about seasonings, but I say make it to taste. I added fresh rosemary and basil and used a lot of paprika because I like heat!)
Remove bay leaf and thyme or rosemary sprigs and purée until very smooth. Return to medium-low heat and stir in heavy cream and lobster meat, cooking just until warm, about 5 minutes.
Garnish with chives and bacon before serving. A garnish with chives and bacon crumbles was delicious! We also made some french bread to dip into the soup. It was SO tasty, a nice fall dish!

Important note: I did not have an issue with the soup being runny. Mine was actually very thick so I added more heavy cream into it. However, if your soup (for some reason) is runny, you can add corn starch, flour, or more tomato paste to thicken.

Crisp Peach Cobbler

This fall in Nevada has been awesome for fresh, organic fruit. My friend gave me a ton of apples. After making a bunch of crisps, I tried a sauce and butter. They were both fantastic. Then I was offered a bunch of super ripe peaches. I thought about doing a salsa for fish tacos, but opted for a Crisp Peach Cobbler (that was to die for)! I followed aspects of this video, but I changed it up a bit.

Ingredients

1 Lemon
1 Stick of Butter
1 1/4 Cup Sugar (Reserve 1/4 for later)
1 Cup Flour + 2 tsp baking powder
1/2 Tsp Salt
1/2 Cup Oats
2/3 Cup Milk
12 fresh peaches

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Cut the peaches into 1/8 or 1/4 slices. I’m sure you can use canned peaches and it would be fine. I did not peel the peaches because I’m lazy and it didn’t seem to affect the taste or texture. Add the sliced peaches to a baking dish; use a size that fits the amount of peaches you have.
Zest one lemon over the peaches; then juice the lemon and pour over the peaches and stir them about. I was nervous about adding a full lemon, but it seemed fine.
In a large bowl make a sugar and butter ‘paste.’ At this point you may want to check out the link to the video above. He does a great job demonstrating what the next steps look like. He uses more sugar, but I though the peaches would be sweet enough and more is used for the topping.
Add the flour, baking powder, salt, oats, and milk to the paste and stir.
- To note: I used regular flour. I prefer to use coconut or almond flour, but I had recently made fish tacos and tried to make a beer batter with coconut flour and the texture did not come out right, so I really wanted the taste and texture to be perfect for Game Day! I also used Gluten Free Rolled oats and Coconut Milk in a can because I needed to use it up. Also, you can always make more topping if it doesn’t cover all of the peaches. I always double the topping recipe for apple crisp because that’s the best part!
After the topping is mixed, spread it over the peaches.
Add 1/4 of sugar over the top of the spread and spray with cold water
- This last step is kind of weird. Again, I would recommend watching the video because it’s atypical, but it’s really what makes the crust crisp.
Bake for 45 minutes and enjoy!

I think this recipe could also benefit from a few spices. Not many, but next time I would try adding allspice, cinnamon, cloves, vanilla, nutmeg, mint, basil, or even ginger.

My husband enjoyed this with Vanilla Bean ice cream. I used a plain Coconut Milk yogurt and really enjoyed.

Apple Butter

My friend gave me a TON of apples. I made a HUGE batch of apple crisp that was quickly devoured, and I still had over a dozen apples left. I considered apple pie, applesauce, some type of cobbler, but settled on apple butter. I used to love apple butter as a child. Every fall it seemed to resurface – a seasonal treat! I’d not made it before so I looked up a lot of recipes – all pretty much the same – but here’s what I did and here is what I would do different.

Peel and slice 12 apples
Place in a crockpot
Add: 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar, cinnamon, ground cloves, all spice, and a dash of nutmeg and stir all the apples/spices together
Cook on low for 8 hours, stirring every couple hours
When it cools, add vanilla extract and stir about
(optional) Puree apples to get a smooth consistency
Add any additional seasonings that may be needed to appease your taste buds

So that is what I did, but here is what I wish I had done:

Added more seasonings on the front end.

I did not want the apple butter to be over-seasoned. Too much spice creates a ‘gluey’ feeling in your mouth, but I don’t think that was as much a concern as I thought it was going to be.

Not pureed

My favorite texture is crunchy. So having an entirely smooth apple butter was nice, but I would not have minded a couple (small) apple chunks here and there.

Added a bit of applesauce or apple juice as necessary

I was intending to cook the apples for 10 hours on low, but I could tell the moisture was getting zapped from the apples, so I only did 8 hours. I thought about adding water, but decided not to. I think adding apple juice as necessary would have given it a good flavor.

Played around with different flavors

Most recipes used more sugar than what I added, but I am not a huge sweets fan, so I did more spices. I don’t think the vanilla added anything. Probably could have excluded that, and I wondered if adding a little bit of apple cider vinegar would’ve given the flavor a little something extra? Not sure, but will try it next time!

I used 12 tart apples, but I think it would have been better to use a variety of different apples, tart and sweet. Tart is what I had in abundance to use up, so I did.

With 12 apples, I made two 8 or 12 oz glass jars. I froze one. I hear you can freeze up to 6 months, and we are making our way through the other jar. Regardless of amendments for the next round, the apple butter was still delicious and a great seasonal treat!