Amanda, While you bask in the Hawaiian sun, it's gotten cool all of a sudden here. That fall brisk air has arrived and I'm embracing it. I know you hate the fall, but there is something so lovely and fresh about it for me.
I do think there is something about the fact that I'm a teacher so the fall means new beginnings and my birthday is on Saturday so i've always had a positive association with this time of year.
So this morning I opened the windows and the back door. I let the cool breeze in and turned on the oven. I made homemade cheese crackers and oatmeal raisin muffins and let the smell waft through the house. Love it!
The cheese cracker recipe is from a great website and cookbook that I recently discovered called 100 Days of Real Food. The website documents a family's 100 day pledge to live off preservative-free, whole food. The website has a recipe index that is fantastic for ideas and I bought the cookbook too since it's always great to read something on paper.
I know, they don't really look like crackers, but they taste good and the kids love them. Please note: I added a 1 1/2 tsp salt to the recipe.
The muffins I found after a quick google search but I modified them quite a bit - applesauce instead of oil (use a 1:1 ratio,) honey instead of sugar (I used no sugar at all and 3 tbsp honey instead). The recipe can be found here.
When they were fresh out of the oven I cut them in half and served them with a dollop of butter.
-Kate