3 Ideas for Apple-Inspired Wall Decals
Sep.19
WallCandy Arts loves apple season. Our kids are crazy about apple slices, apple cider, apple-based desserts, and afternoon trips to the orchard (here in New York, you can’t throw an apple between Buffalo and Staten Island without hitting an orchard). We’re happy with the apple love around our houses because, no matter which variety we choose, apples are a golden snack – they’re sweet, fiber-filled, and typically under 70 calories.
Once Labor Day weekend has passed and the grocery store’s produce aisle becomes a regular apple variety extravaganza, our nostalgia for autumn is at its peak ripeness. We’re even inspired by the apple’s abundant shape, which is one of the many reasons we created our removable, reusable Big Apple chalkboard wall decal. It’s resilient, it’s classic, and it can help you run a flourishing household. There are many ways to use a peel and stick chalkboard, but we’ve narrowed it down to our favorite three in celebration of apple season:
1. Write down a recipe. First, whip up some homemade applesauce to save for garnishing pork chops and making fudgy (and slightly healthier) brownies. Freeze the leftovers for later. Next, make something delectable to reward your staple stockpiling. We suggest this easy apple crisp recipe from Betty Crocker’s online cookbook:
Ingredients
4 medium tart cooking apples, sliced (4 cups)
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup quick-cooking or old-fashioned oats
1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Directions
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease bottom and sides of 8-inch square pan with shortening. Spread apples in pan. In medium bowl, stir remaining ingredients until well-mixed, then sprinkle over apples. Bake about 30 minutes or until topping is golden brown and apples are tender when pierced with a fork. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.
(We added oven-toasted pecan pieces to ours for extra crunch and antioxidants.)
2. Plan an apple-picking trip. There are at least nine states that can boast a substantial apple crop every fall. If you live anywhere near Washington, New York, Michigan, California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Connecticut, or Massachusetts, you’re a simple brainstorm away from enjoying an apple-picking experience. Choose a nearby orchard, block off an afternoon, and gather the kids. In the days leading up to your family’s apple adventure, jot down the details in chalk to keep track of the plan.
3. Encourage better eating habits. According to the Center for Disease Control’s website on the power of eating a variety of fruits and vegetables, a 6-year-old girl who exercises between 30 to 60 minutes per day should eat a cup and a half of veggies and a cup and half of fruits daily. Use the website’s handy calculator to find out what each member of your family needs and keep track of individual day-to-day fruit and veggie intakes on a chart you’ve doodled on the chalkboard wall decal. Now’s your chance to practice sketching a few adorable asparaguses. (P.S. One small apple counts as a full cup of fruit!)
Where’s your favorite apple-picking spot? What’s your favorite apple-packed dessert recipe? Leave us a comment and share your apple appreciation.
What’s More American than the Fourth of July? Why, Apple Pie!
Jul.4
If you’re like me and grew up in a state where fireworks were once not only legal, but distributed freely by the local Chamber of Commerce, you’ve probably got a few unique Independence Day memories to call your own. The props in my own favorite Fourth of July anecdote include a large trampoline, truckloads of sparklers and punks (both the functional fire-bearing kind and the neighborhood kind), and a set of blissfully unaware parents – in other words, the stuff scary public service announcements warn against. I’m sure you have similar tales, but perhaps it’s best if we all store those particular stories far away from the impressionable young minds we hope to keep safe.
Still, Independence Day is such a fancy-free holiday – it’s warm out, most folks are free from work, and the expectation to eat, drink, be merry, and enjoy some cool pyrotechnics is an easy one to meet. Even if you prefer to spend your Fourth of July watching cable movie marathons and catching the ice cream truck as it drives by your house, that’s a perfectly wonderful way to celebrate living in a free country.
Now that I’m older, slightly wiser, and satisfied by the beauty of one or two sparklers enjoyed safely on the front porch near a bucket of water, Independence Day has become my favorite opportunity to bake sweet things and eat them freely, without any guilt or longstanding monarchy to stifle my dessert experience. In honor of my lovely new kitchen chalkboard and all things ultra-American, I’ve decided to bake an apple pie from scratch this year.
I began with a quick search for the highest rated apple pie recipe on the Internet. Once Google did what it does best, I scribbled down the ingredients and baking steps for easy viewing while I work (I don’t know about you, but following a recipe I’ve written down at eye level on the wall is much easier than navigating a cookbook’s small font or trying to avoid smearing the computer keys with butter). Yesterday, I took a trip to a nearby apple orchard – here in New York, apple-picking is practically a summer sport – and now I’m all set to spend some time baking for today’s festivities.
If you’re lucky enough to know a few mini-chefs who’d love to help with preparation and will likely have no problem spending any boring baking time on the swingset outside, you could easily make this basic-but-modifiable, all-American treat part of your Fourth of July celebration:
Grandma Ople’s Apple Pie (from allrecipes.com)
Ingredients
1 recipe pastry for a 9-inch double crust pie
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
8 Granny Smith apples – peeled, cored, and sliced
Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, white sugar and brown sugar, and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.
Place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Cover with a latticework crust. Gently pour the sugar and butter liquid over the crust. Pour slowly so that it does not run off.
Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes, until apples are soft.
While your Independence Day dessert is baking, leave a comment and let me know what you did to make this summer staple – and your Fourth of July – your own special creation.
Homemade Ice Cream Recipes for Planning Summer Dessert Socials
May.11
When I was a kid just old enough to navigate the dry goods in our pantry, my favorite game to play was Pretend Restaurant. My patrons (sisters) ordered spaghetti and steak, so I served them cereal and marshmallows. My middle sister, who is now a chef, liked to feign outrage, become unruly, and refuse to leave without taking an irritating nap on top of my place settings. Pretend Restaurant became much more fun during the summers, when it often became Pretend Ice Cream Parlor instead. I’d spend scorching afternoons watching my grandmother’s electric ice cream maker spin inside its little wooden bucket, ready to serve whatever manner of frozen chunky peach or mint chocolate chip ice cream would appear inside that thick metal container after hours of torturous waiting. My patrons were better behaved during the dessert course, but a surplus of sugar usually led to monkey antics at the ends of their bowls.
Wherever that little ice cream maker is, I bet it still works like new. Since one of my summer aspirations is to host a Saturday afternoon sundae bar soiree with a few pals (and maybe a sister or two, if they can control the urge to digress), I’ll need to browse a few used electronics sections to find one so comparably sturdy and loud. Decorating the adult version of Pretend Ice Cream Parlor should be easy, since I’ve long envisioned shades of chocolate browns glazed and spackled with oversized sprinkles.
One of the latest designs from WallCandy® Arts happens to be an extremely spacious ice cream cone chalk board wall decal. I got a chance to play with it during the ENK Children’s Show in March and immediately bought one the moment it appeared on the website. It doesn’t take much to get me thinking about ice cream, but an adorable person-sized space to play with sundae bar ideas is the stuff dreams are made of. Once my very real ice cream menu has been somewhat finalized and the soiree draws near, I’ll erase my blueprints and use it to display descriptions of my creative toppings for any visual learners I might invite. Or, if I’m feeling like a sharer, I could write my recipe in the sherbetest of invented fonts.
Even if summers are already pretty magical in your house, simply adding homemade ice cream to your summer to-make list will send a psychic shiver of glee down the spines of any child within a 2-mile radius. When it’s your turn to host a play date, suggest the kids decorate their imaginary ice cream shack and while you taste your way through the various stages of sorbet-making and topping chopping.
If you don’t have an ice cream maker, start with this basic single-serving homemade ice cream recipe from curvygirlguide.com to satisfy summer cravings without making a dessert run:
Ingredients
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup milk or half & half
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
6 tablespoons rock salt
1 pint-size sealable plastic bag
1 gallon-size sealable plastic bag
ice cubes
Directions
Fill the large bag half full of ice and add the rock salt. Seal the bag. Put milk, vanilla, and sugar into the small bag and seal it. Place the sealed small bag inside the large one and seal the large bag carefully. Shake until mixture is ice cream, which takes about 5 minutes. Open each sealed bag carefully and enjoy!
For a more grown-up ice cream party, try this homemade raspberry buttermilk sherbet recipe from foodnetwork.com:
Ingredients
6 cups raspberries (5 or 6 pints)
1/4 cup 100% grape or apple juice
1 cup superfine sugar
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup heavy cream
salt and freshly cracked pepper
Directions
Puree the raspberries, juice, and sugar in a food processor until smooth. Pour through a mesh strainer into a bowl and discard the raspberry seeds. Stir in the buttermilk, cream, and a pinch of salt, then cover and refrigerate until cold, about 1 hour. Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Transfer to an airtight container and freeze until firm, at least 2 hours. Serve sprinkled with pepper.
I’m personally going to try my hand at a sherbet punch ice cream. I haven’t found a solid recipe yet – at least not one that includes any warnings about turning the punch into a solid ice cream – but experimenting with dessert sounds about as risky and intimidating as laying on a beach in Bermuda. I’m sure it’ll be fine, as long as no one demands a sample before my concoction’s official Pretend Parlor debut.
