apple dumplins

hi all,
one of our planners thought you may like to try your hand at making her apple dumplings! here’s the recipe below…
dumpling pastry:
4 cups flour
2 cups shortening
1 cup ice cold water
1 teaspoon salt
4 large apples, peeled and cored
4 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon **NOTE: she indicates in her recipe that it says to spoon in 1 tbsp brown sugar and 1 tsp of cinnamon – yet the total cinnamon amount in the ingredients list is 2 tsp. so she only put in 1/2 tsp for each of the apples to equal 2 tsp…
preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
lightly grease a cake pan.
prepare dumpling pastry. roll the pastry into a rectangle, 10 by 8 inches. cut into 4 (4-inch squares) with pastry cutter or knife. place apple on each square. spoon 1 tablespoon brown sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon into the center of each apple. moisten corners, pinching edges of pastry to seal. brush with slightly beaten egg and sprinkle with additional sugar. bake 30 minutes or until crust is golden and apples are tender.

i missed out when she brought them into work, but the consensus is/was they were delicious!!!!!

sugar…oh, honey honey

from our marketing manager, kathryn… :)
my brother and his partner, who live one of my many dream lives, spend 3 months out of the year here in philadelphia with family and the rest of the year in their home in hawaii. they, among other things, are local beekeepers. before they left this year, they harvested the hives and left me with a jar of local, organic honey. you can see the difference between the smaller jar of honey that was harvested here, and the darker honey from hawaii. apparently, when done organically, the color depends on the flowers the bees choose to collect pollen. check out their website to learn more about organic, biodynamic honey. i’d like to learn how to keep bees eventually when I have some space, but for now i’ll enjoy these gifts from them. wanted to give them some love for the cool things they are doing. xo.

a few interesting notes about honey and beekeeping…
1. it is said that eating local honey can help prevent and tame outside allergies.
2. there are said to be 212,000 beekeepers in the US, and about 95% of them are hobbyists.
3. the white house vegetable garden is home to a hive.