Talking and apples

Maya is trying to communicate more and more, sometimes with very frustrating results.  She is signing things that I don't understand, and does a lot of pointing (which I also sometimes don't understand).  She's developing a habit of grabbing my face and squeezing it (ouch) when she wants to tell me something.   I'm going to work today and tomorrow at trying to get picture magnets printed so that we can try using a picture system (when I printed them and laminated them, she just wanted to play with the little cards---hopefully magnets will work better.  Who knows.)

Anyway, yesterday I was feeding her a cereal bar and vacuuming.  She was on the floor, and I would give her a piece, vacuum for a minute, stop the vacuum, ask her if she wanted more, she would say "Mo, mo" and I would give her another piece.  I guess at one point I vacuumed for too long (and obviously I can't hear her little voice over the vacuum) because suddenly I felt something on my leg and when I looked down she was there.  She was holding her hands up to me and rapidly signing "More! More! More!"  She certainly knows what she wants :)  In she could talk I think she would have been saying "Hey!  Come on!  I'm starving here!"

Speaking of food, our apples are almost gone!  Most went to applesauce, a few went to apple bread. 

Here are the recipes (both of which were really easy):

Chunky Cinnamon Applesauce

Ingredients: Apples, cinnamon

Directions: Peel, core & roughly chop apples.  Put them in a crockpot with cinnamon.  Cook them until they're done enough for you.  (Low overnight or for most of a day, probably . . . high for 3-5 hours I think).  Ta-da!

Freezing: Since we all like the applesauce, I didn't freeze it in cubes (my usual MO for sauces/soups/liquidy things).  I just cooled it in the fridge, put it in a ziploc quart size freezer bag, and froze flat.


Apple Bread--makes 2 loaves!!!! (courtesy of my sister, with a little tweaking from me)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups diced apples (2-4 apples, depending on size)
3 cups flour (I used bread flour, it was the only thing I had on hand, and it worked fine)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt

Directions: In one bowl, combine the first 6 ingredients (up to and including the apples).  In a second bowl, combine the last 4 ingredients.  Next, combine the two bowls together.  Grease two loaf pans well and bake a 300 for 90 mins. (Warning: The pans will only be half full or so when you fill them--don't worry, it will puff up)

This recipe is good, but it you want to make it fantastic, add a crumbly top (kind of like a coffee cake top):
Combine 1/4 cup brown sugar with 3 tbl flour, then use your fingers to mash in 2 tbl of butter until it forms coarse crumbs.  Sprinkle across the top of the loaf before baking----yum!!!  (I did this for each loaf and it was really good.) (Thanks, HCM, for the crumbly top help!)

Freezing: We ate one loaf and froze the other.  Cut it into slices, freeze flat, then put the slices in a gallon size ziploc freezer bag.