The Photographer's Wife Parenting, Disney, Travel, Reviews & Other Randomness

Hi friends! I hope you had a fun Cinco de Mayo. Brett had a 3 month old photo session and then we headed over to a relative’s house where we each enjoyed a margarita, chips/dip and enchiladas. Later that night, Brett made fried cinnamon apple chimichangas to enjoy while we watched the Amazing Race. They were dee-lish.

We used this recipe.

Ingredients:

Filling

1 1/2 to 2 cups water
1/4 cup cornstarch
3/4 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon lemon juice
4 apples, cored and chopped bite-sized (we used Granny Smith)

Chimichanga

8-12 flour tortillas (We used 10 medium MexAmerica tortillas)
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
Oil for frying

Cut up the apples into small bite-sized pieces.

In a large skillet or saucepan, mix all the filling ingredients except the apples and bring to a boil.

Cook for about 3 to 5 minutes until the mixture becomes really thick.

Add the chopped apples, cover, and reduce to a simmer, stirring occasionally until the apples are tender. This took about 30 minutes.

Once the apples are tender, set the mixture aside until cool. We put it in the fridge to speed up the cooling.

Mix together the remaining cinnamon and sugar in a bowl.

Scoop the apple filling into the flour tortillas. We used about 1/3 cup for each chimichanga.

Roll over the one side of the tortilla.

Fold in both sides, then roll up the rest of the tortilla.

Once all the chimichangas are rolled up and ready, add about a quarter inch of oil for frying in a large heavy bottomed or deep cast iron skillet. Heat it until medium-hot. Using tongs, lower the Chimichangas into the hot oil one at a time. Let them fry for maybe 30 seconds per side, then move them off to drain on a paper towel once golden brown. We had to fry them in several batches, 2-3 at a time.

Roll each one around in the cinnmamon sugar mix while still moist, then put on another plate while you fry and coat the rest.

Let cool a little, but I suggest enjoying them while warm…and with a scoop (or two) of ice cream of course!

Just as a side note, we had a few leftover that we ate tonight. They weren’t as crispy or good the second night, but were really good the first night. So eat as many as you can the first night…tough job, right?

Also, I recommend a splatter-screen when frying the chimichangas. We don’t have one and it made a M-E-S-S everywhere! Brett made sure to tell me several times that we will be buying a splatter screen the next time we see one.

Thank you to MexAmerica for sending me the delicious tortillas to make this tasty recipe! I received the following 3 varieties:

100% Whole Wheat Tortillas with Honey (mmm…these would make a tasty snack with peanut butter and banana!)

Flour Tortillas

Corn Tortillas (Gluten-free!)

Learn more about MexAmerica:

Subscribe by email | Like us on Facebook | Follow us on Pinterest | Subscribe on YouTube

From recipe found here.

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease 24 mini-muffin cups.

Mix 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 cup margarine, and nutmeg in a large bowl.

Stir in the milk, then mix in the baking powder and flour until just combined.

Fill the prepared mini muffin cups about half full.

Bake in the preheated oven until the tops are lightly golden, 15 to 20 minutes.

While muffins are baking, place 1/4 cup of melted margarine in a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together 1/2 cup of sugar with the cinnamon.

Remove muffins from their cups, dip each muffin in the melted margarine, and roll in the sugar-cinnamon mixture.

Let cool and serve. (Although I found it best to eat them when they were warm!)

If you enjoyed this post, please leave a comment below, share it or…

Subscribe by email | Like us on Facebook | Follow us on Pinterest | Subscribe on YouTube

You guys ready for some mathematical fun about Pi Day on 3/14?! No? Well, here it goes anyway…

Pi Day is an annual celebration commemorating the mathematical constant π (pi), which is approximately 3.14159, the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Pi Day is observed on March 14 because of the date’s representation as 3/14 in month/day date format. This representation adheres to the commonly used approximation of 3.14 for π.

Pi has been calculated to over one trillion digits beyond its decimal point. As an irrational and transcendental number, it will continue infinitely without repetition or pattern. While only a handful of digits are needed for typical calculations, Pi’s infinite nature makes it a fun challenge to memorize, and to computationally calculate more and more digits.

In 2009, the United States House of Representatives supported the designation of Pi Day. The earliest known official or large-scale celebration of Pi Day was organized by Larry Shaw in 1988 at the San Francisco Exploratorium where Shaw worked as a physicist, with staff and public marching around one of its circular spaces, then consuming fruit pies. 

Sources: http://www.piday.org/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi_Day

Your reward for reading all that nerdy stuff is…you guessed it, PIE! After all, 3.14 backwards spells PIE

Source

As stated above, a common way to celebrate Pi Day is not to do math problems all day, but to eat pie! (feel free to do math problems if you’d like, or draw circles, or memorize as many digits of pi as possible, but my way sounds more fun, don’t ya think?) Sounds like my kind of holiday.

We enjoyed our pie a little early when I picked up a Marie Callender’s Cherry Crunch pie yesterday. There were several options, like Key Lime, Chocolate Mouse and the ever-popular Apple, but I just couldn’t resist trying out this cherry goodness. I was also tempted by the single serving mini pies available, but after a glance over at the ice cream section, I decided a nice cherry pie and vanilla ice cream combination was the way to go.

These pies are found in the freezer section. This particular one came with a separate bag of crunchy brown sugar streusel.

After it cooked and cooled while we ate dinner, we enjoyed it as our dessert.

The combination of the warm cherries and streusel with the cold, creamy vanilla ice cream hit the spot. Luckily, there is plenty leftover to celebrate tomorrow and the next day too!

You can find more Marie Callender’s goodness here:

• Rate and review any Marie Callender’s products: http://clvr.li/YbnAp3
• Check out Marie Callender’s blog for party ideas, how-to’s and more: http://clvr.li/Ye3AlJ

Our grocery store was offering a coupon at the time of my purchase, which made this pie even sweeter. You can snag a $1.50 off through March 31, 2013 coupon by going here: http://clvr.li/WisbJs (link expires March 21, 2013, coupon expires March 31st).

If you enjoyed this post, please leave a comment below, share it or…

Subscribe by email | Like us on Facebook | Follow us on Pinterest | Subscribe on YouTube

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective, and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Trent’s new favorite addition to the menu? Blueberries!

This baby food recipe is a little different because it makes more of a sauce, as opposed to a puree. We’ve been mixing it into other foods, like pears, applesauce, and even sweet potatoes, to create different flavors.

We tried it with oatmeal, but he hasn’t been too fond of oatmeal. I guess we’ll have to keep working on it.

Source

Here’s how to make easy blueberry sauce for baby food.

Ingredients:

Blueberries, fresh or thawed frozen (A large plastic container made the amount you see above)

Rinse the blueberries

Puree the blueberries in a food processor until smooth.

There will be small pieces of peel in the puree. To remove them, put puree in a fine-mesh sieve over a small bowl and push puree through sieve. We used a spoon to push it through.

Heat puree in a small saucepan over medium-low heat until hot, 3-5 minutes.

Note: Heating this sauce after straining breaks down fibers and aids in digestion. Once your baby has tried blueberries, you may eliminate the step of heating the sauce – just blend and store.

Let cool and then pour into Fresh Baby Freezer Trays and put them in the freezer.

Once completely frozen, we removed the cubes so we could re-use the trays and to put them in a labeled zip lock bag.

Before each serving, we pull out a cube and let it thaw a bit. After the food is thawed, you can either 1) remove the container from the fridge and let it sit out for 30 minutes prior to meal time to reach room temperature or 2) warm it up using a small saucepan. Trent likes warm baby food, so we actually use our Nuby bottle warmer to warm his food up. It is not recommended to use a microwave since it can cause hot spots that will burn baby’s mouth and can cause loss of nutrients.

Warning – Baby may need a bib for these!

Cooking for Baby

If you enjoyed this post, please leave a comment below, share it or…

Subscribe by email | Like us on Facebook | Follow us on Pinterest | Subscribe on YouTube

Psst! Check out our awesome KidzCanDesign pendant giveaway still going on!

Brett’s Aunt has been making pumpkin cream cheese rolls for much longer than I can remember, so when Brett got his KitchenAid mixer for Christmas, he decided to give this Pumpkin Cream Cheese Roll recipe a try. It was tasty and definitely a good choice for when you want a nice pumpkiny treat.

Ingredients:

3 eggs
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 cup flour

Filling

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
4 tablespoons butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

In a mixer or large bowl, beat eggs and sugar.

Beat in remaining cake ingredients.

Grease a 10″x15″ jelly roll pan. Line pan with waxed paper, then grease and lightly flour the waxed paper.

Pour batter into the pan and spread evenly. Bake at 350F for 15 minutes. *Cake cooks fast so watch carefully to avoid burning the edges.

While cake is baking, sprinkle powdered sugar heavily over the kitchen towel, using a sieve or sifter.

Turn hot cake onto the towel.

Remove waxed paper. Trim off burnt or crusty edges.

Sprinkle more powdered sugar over the hot cake and quickly roll up with towel inside. Let cake cool completely, about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare filling by beating together all ingredients until smooth and creamy.

Unroll cooled cake and spread with the filling mixture. Roll up cake with filling on the inside. Wrap in waxed paper and then foil.

Refrigerate or freeze. To serve, slice cake about 1/3 inch thick and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Enjoy!

The Photographer’s Wife fans, be sure to:

Subscribe by email | Like us on Facebook | Follow us on Pinterest | Follow us on Twitter