Making apple chips (oven method)

After last week's yummy sun-dried tomato experiment, I thought I'd give our oven another go and use it to make apple chips.  Baby Chuck and I went urban apple picking (erm... that's when we went to the grocery store and bought apples) and came back home with a bag full these lovelies.  Yum.

I peeked at several recipes online and then thought I'd try making my own apple chips.

Ingredients:
- Apples!
- optional:  sugar or cinnamon (I didn't use either, but some people sprinkle their apples before baking)

Materials:
- cutting board
- dull, round knife
- cutting board
- baking sheets
- parchment paper (which I learned the hard way is not the same as wax paper- eek smoke!)

Step 1:  Preheat oven to 275
Step 2:  Line baking sheets with parchment paper
Step 3:  Core apples (I used these awesome instructions)

Step 4:  Slice up your apples and place them on baking sheet
Note:  Try to slice equally thick circles, othewise your apples will cook at drastically different times (which I learned the hard way)

As you can see.... I kinda sucked at cutting slices.

Step 5:  Bake for 1 hour.  Then check on your slices and turn them over.  Keep an eye on them and check back every 15-20 minutes to make sure they don't burn.  Thin slices could be done as soon as 1 hour, and thicker slices may need up to 2 hours to dry.

Note:  If your chips turn dirt brown... they're overdone.  (Again, another lesson that I learned the hard way.)

The results of my oven's labor

They were slightly chewy and sweet.  I liked eating them and kept popping rings into my mouth.  Baby Chuck found them a bit too chewy and hubby (surprisingly) liked them too.

Let me know if you go urban apple picking and try making apple chips too!

Creating my own galaxy pt 2

So I couldn't wait any longer and just taped my bad boys up to the wall.  Inspired by  this D*S post, I hung them over our couch.  

Now we'll have our very own starry sky.

Creating my own galaxy

One of the things that I miss the most about living in Michigan is being able to see the stars at night.  Every night, our old dog Charlie and I would walk outside and admire God's twinkling lights.  They always reminded me of just how big the universe really is and that life is wonderful and mysterious.

Last night I got a bee in my bonnet and wanted to bring the stars to our new home.  So after Baby Chuck went to sleep I spent the night

cutting out stars from old cereal boxes

and painting them.

As you can probably guess, it took quite a bit of time.

Then I lay my new galaxy out to dry

Now where should I put  my new nighttime sky?