Fog walk

The fog starting to lift on Lake Willastein

I have been trying to get this post written for over a month now, but between chasing Malcolm around, holiday preparations (Thanksgiving first and now Christmas) and blogger eating my pictures multiple times, I haven't had much luck. I don't really remember what I had to say, but figure that the pictures are still nice, and since I have been trying for so long, I might as well go ahead and put them up.

Leaves just starting to change. Now they are all bare or brown.

Way back on the first weekend of November, when the leaves were just changing and the ice storm hadn't turned everything still alive into black and brown blahness, we went for a morning walk at Lake Willastein, the city park in Maumelle. When we first arrived at the park, it was so foggy that you could barely see the other side of the lake. 

There  were some pretty neat spiderwebs covered in dew on a bridge along the path.

The sun came out and melted most of the fog, but the lake stayed mostly still, and there were some great reflections.

Great Blue Heron, fishing

It was a lovely morning, especially compared to our weather over the last week or so. It is nice to have something colorful to look back at, instead of the perpetual brown that has taken over for the time being.

Malcolm does the zoo

Looking for penguins

This past weekend Malcolm and I joined our friends Amber and Caroline for a trip to the Little Rock zoo. Benjamin and I took him back in June, but he wasn't as engaged with the world around him yet; this time, he was all eyes as he observed everything.

Granted, he was rather more interested in the ball in the tiger enclosure than the tiger itself, but he did see the big kitty.

According to the zoo's website, these two elephants are new arrivals - retired Ringling Brothers circus elephants and one is 38 and the other 44. Apparently, the Little Rock zoo has a good record of caring for geriatric elephants; the other elephant is 53.

Watching the elephants

Malcolm enjoyed walking around the zoo on his own. The nice thing about the zoo is that almost everyone else there had small children along too, so he and Caroline weren't the only free radicals running around.

It was a lovely day for the zoo - sunny but not too warm. Many of the animals were out enjoying the weather too.

The jaguars and cheetahs were certainly enjoying the sun. 

The playground was overrun with children, most much older than Malcolm and Caroline, but Malcolm did find this set of drums pretty fun.

It was only a couple of days after Halloween, and the zoo hadn't removed all the decorations from their Boo at the Zoo, so Malcolm spent a lot of time pointing out the pumpkins and other decorations.

We were able to spend about an hour and a half before the kids started getting tired and overwhelmed. That was enough to see most of the zoo, but not quite. We missed most of the monkeys and the petting zoo. Oh well, next trip.

More fall cooking, now with recipes

My last post prompted one of Benjamin's aunts to get in touch and send along a family recipe for apple pie. Since I still had 7 or 8 pounds of apples waiting to be eaten, and I've already made my standard apple crostata three times this fall and wanted a change, I gave it a try. It is sort of an apple crisp pie, i.e. there is no rolled crust, just a topping that you pat into place; that is a huge plus in my book, since I really hate making pie crusts. They are too finicky and easy to mess up; no matter how fool-proof the crust is supposed to be, I can manage to mess it up, or at least be incredibly dissatisfied with it. Anyway, the Rider family apple pie recipe is too good not to share, so here it is:

Rider Family Top Crust Apple Pie

Filling:
4-5 peeled & sliced apples
1/2 c sugar
2 T lemon juice
2 T orange juice

Topping:
1 c flour
1/2 c butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 c nuts, chopped (I used almonds, because that is what I had in the freezer)



Layer apples in a greased pie pan and sprinkle with sugar and juices. (You could probably mix them in a bowl first and then put them into the pie plate, but I didn't, and it worked just fine.)
Combine topping with a fork or pastry cutter (or in food processor) and pat on top of the apples. 

Bake at 400 for 30 minutes.  Great with vanilla ice cream on top!

Sorry, no picture. We ate it all before I thought about taking one. 

And I realize now that while I have mentioned crostatas on this blog a number of times, it doesn't look like I have ever put up a recipe or even a picture (although that doesn't seem possible). Rather than type it out, I am just going to include a link to it from Giada De Laurentiis and the Food Channel. As far as pie recipes go, it is pretty easy, but it does involve a crust of sorts, so it takes more time than the Rider family recipe.