Easy Apple Fritters

I have been making these Apple Fritters for years. They are a Christmas morning tradition and an occasional Saturday morning treat. Make them this weekend…you will thank me.

I've experimented and tried to clean up the ingredients a bit and they turned out great! Then on Thanksgiving a few days ago, I made them with GF flour, Xylitol and also substituted the canola oil for coconut oil - I think I messed with them too much. The consistency wasn't quite the same, but they were still very good. So use substitutions as you see fit for your family's dietary needs. The skeleton of this recipe is hard to mess up!!!

Fritter:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour (GF all-purpose flour works, too)
• 1/4 cup sugar (or baking Xylitol)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/3 cup milk (coconut milk or almond milk works too)
• 1 egg
• 1 cup chopped apple (with or without the skin)
• canola oil (for frying)

Glaze:

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons milk

Directions:

1. Pour oil into saucepan so that it is approximately 1 1/2 inches deep.  Heat oil on medium-high while making the dough.  Oil is ready when dough sizzles in the pan and floats to top.  
2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, cinnamon.  
3. Stir in milk and egg until just combined.  Fold in chopped apple.  
4. Carefully add dough to oil in heaping teaspoons.  Don't crowd the saucepan too much - the dough will expand a bit. (I cook 4-5 at a time in a 2 quart saucepan)
5. Cook until brown, about 2 minutes, then flip with a fork or slotted spoon.  Cook another 1-2 minutes, until both sides are browned.  
6. Transfer briefly to paper towels to absorb excess oil, then transfer to cooling rack.  
7. Make glaze by stirring milk and powdered sugar together in a small bowl.  Drizzle over apple fritters.  Best served warm.

I always double this recipe for my hungry family and serve next to eggs. I figure the protein will somehow balance the sugar overload to avoid late-morning meltdowns.

This is how they usually look - puffy and round. The first batches all disappeared quickly and by the time I took pictures, they all flattened out (as in the pictures on top)

Neat Freak Rule #124: Containerize

I will never forget the first time I saw baskets in someone's kitchen pantry. The snack items were in one basket, nuts and baking items in another, lunchbox items in another. It looked like something out of a magazine! My image of an organized pantry would never be the same again.

I was instantly a fan of containerizing. Anything that's small or piece-y looks and feels more tidy if it's contained. In our playroom, there are plenty of open bins for the kids to toss their toys to keep the floor clean. I labeled our colorful dress up bins for easy access, but sometimes it's a mad dash to pick up and things are thrown wherever, which is fine with me...as long as I can see the carpet. 

You will find containers all over my house. On tables, in closets, in drawers and cabinets. I'm obviously a big fan. I'm always on the lookout for clearance items that I can use to containerize different items. 

They keep like things together and help me find what I'm looking for quickly and easily. It's also faster to put things away when I know where they go. Remember: A place for everything and everything in its place!

And don't get me started on labeling. Not everything in our house is labeled, but when I get an itch to be fancy, I'll pull out my label maker and go to town. Labels eliminate the guesswork. OH - have you seen the new chalkboard labels? Love. Get yourself a liquid chalk marker and you'll be a happy camper.

Sometimes I put containers inside of containers. The white bin (in my baking box below) already had candle wax all in it (ruined, in my mind) but the pink one did not, so I put the open candles in one and the boxes in another. Excessive? Probably. But I'm aware of my obsessiveness, so there's no need to point and laugh. 

Seriously though - things look so great when you take them out of their manufactured packaging and put them in a container. Aren't my muffin wrappers adorable, all stacked like that? I found a bunch on clearance for $.50 and stocked up. Polka dots, strips, birthday and Halloween…I won't have to spray a muffin tin for years!

Gluten Free Chocolate Walnut Torte

Whether or not you follow a gluten-free diet, this little treasure of a dessert is delicious. It's not expensive (as most GF desserts can be) and is full of protein (lots of eggs). It utilizes way too many bowls to prepare, but other than the heavy dishes you'll be washing afterward, the recipe is fairly straight-forward. I found the original here. 

Chocolate Walnut Torte
5 eggs, separated
1/2 cup Xylitol, agave nectar, honey, or plain old sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chocolate chips
2 cups walnuts

1. In a food processor, pulse the chocolate until the pieces resemble the consistency of gravel.

2. Add the walnuts and pulse again for just a few seconds, until they are coarsely chopped - just bigger than the chocolate chunks.

3. In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks until they're pale in color, then gradually beat in your sweetener of choice (Xylitol, agave, honey or sugar). Fold in the chocolate-walnut mixture.

4. In a separate large bowl (preferably a KitchenAide mixer with the whisk attachment) beat the egg whites to stiff peaks, then beat in the salt.

5. Fold the chocolate-walnut mixture into the egg yolk mixture.

6. Pour into a well-greased 9-inch springform pan.

7. Bake at 350* for 20 minutes, then turn the oven off and leave in for 10 minutes longer, until firm to the touch and golden brown around the edges.

8. Cool slightly in pan, then serve. (I prefer to serve it warm so the chocolate is still melty)

Neat Freak Rule #1: A Place for Everything (come on...finish it with me…!)

There are lots of tips and tricks for having a neat and tidy home, but by far, the best organizational tip I've ever heard is: 

A place for everything, and everything in it's place.

This is the single most important rule of keeping things organized in your home, office, anywhere. If your stuff doesn't have a home, it piles up and grows (sometimes it feels like it breeds) and quickly becomes clutter. 

Think about that for a minute…how many times have you shoved something in a drawer or closet because you didn't know where to put it? Or dumped mail on a junk counter to get it off the island while you try to make your family dinner?

But having "a place for everything" is only the first half of the mantra. If everything has a home, is it realistic to expect that everything will end up there? Maybe not all of the time, unless you live alone and have no one else contributing to the mess in your home. 

For me, my husband and kids are not the only culprits in my battle for a perfectly neat and tidy house. Even though I have a home for {almost} everything, it doesn't always make it there. The act of putting things where they belong is deliberate and intentional.

You can see my attempt at a system here: The top paper tray was for incoming mail and coupons, the kids each had a tray below that and the bottom one was for and magazines. The little white bin was supposed to be a catch-all for small items like hair ties and paper clips, but became a catch-all for absolutely everything!

My new goal is to not put something down unless I'm putting it away. I have a horrible habit of carrying an arm-ful of items upstairs and dumping them on my desk. Or cleaning off my bed to go to sleep and relocating folded laundry onto the top of my dresser. Or bringing in trash from the van and unloading everything on the counter. How much longer would it take to walk the items over to the trash can right then and there? Or to put my purse directly on the shelf? Or to take my shoes off by the hall closet and put them away immediately? 

What is displaced in your home right now? Incoming mail? School papers from the kids' backpacks? To-be wrapped Christmas gifts? Mass quantities of Costco toilet paper? Items to donate?

Make a plan and stick with it. I have baskets and cubbies and places for most everything in my house. (Except binoculars…I cannot figure out where to put our rarely used, yet needed when they're needed, binoculars! But I digress…)

Incoming mail can be corralled in a shallow basket on a table near the garage/front door. I'm a firm believer in going through the mail immediately, with the recycle bin close by. It's rare that I don't have 5 minutes to sift through the mail, but if I'm in a rush, I simply don't bring it in the house! I'll leave it in the mailbox until I have time to go through it the next day.

School papers from the kids can be put in a reference binder or another spot where you collect items for each child. Just be sure to go through these periodically so they don't pile up…because they will.

To-be wrapped Christmas gifts can be stowed away under your bed or on the top shelf of your hall closet. For me, as soon as the gifts are wrapped, they go under the tree. And after they're UNwrapped on Christmas morning, they go back under the tree until I find a long-term home for them. It gives me several days to put away new toys, puzzles, games and electronics in a home where everything already feels at-capacity.

Bulk purchases: If you don't have room for 60 rolls of toilet paper, maybe you shouldn't buy it in bulk. I recently decided to stop purchasing paper napkins from Costco…I simply don't want to store 4 packages of 260 napkins each. Granted, I only need to buy napkins a few times a year, but it's not worth it to find a place for them.

Donations: Keep a garbage bag in the corner of your closet to toss items to donate so you'll always have something to put on the porch when the Big Brothers/Big Sisters notifications come in the mail.

Is it time to go through your house and gather items to donate? You might need to get rid of some items before you attempt to find a home for what you are willing to keep. I'm a firm believer in having only what will fit in your home…comfortably. By that, I mean if you have a smaller space, you need to figure out how to live with less stuff. How often do you use those giant trays for entertaining? Is it time to pass along some books that you know you'll never read again? Do you really wear all 20 pair of black shoes? We tend to keep more when we have space for more, so even those with excessive amounts of storage need to purge {perhaps even more often} to keep from accidentally becoming a hoarder.

After you go through your stuff, keep like things together to avoid accidentally storing doubles. Once everything is together, you might realize that you can easily get rid of some of the items.

So...which items need to find a home in your house?

Neat Freak Rule #61: Go to Bed With a Clean Kitchen

I'm mentioned this several times before, but I'm happier when my kitchen is clean. Maybe it's because it's the center of our home. Maybe it's because I'm in there making meals and snacks 5-6 times each day. Maybe it's because I hate trying to cook with cluttered counters. Maybe it's because I'm neurotic and I need to seek professional help. 

Who knows the real reason! But one thing is for sure: if I wake up to a sink full of dishes or leftover rice all over the floor, it starts my morning on the wrong foot. In a bad way.

So it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out a key ingredient to a pleasant morning. If I spend a few extra minutes cleaning up the kitchen before heading upstairs for bed at night, I'm setting myself up for success in the morning. 

The beautiful thing is that everyone generally helps put the kitchen back together after dinner: the kids clear and wipe off the table, Mike and Ryan load the dishwasher, I pack away leftovers, Jason vacuums under the table, Kaylin puts away stray toys and shoes. Does it happen 100% of the time? Absolutely not. But the evenings when the kitchen is neat and tidy make for much happier mornings. 

And then it is destroyed again at the next meal.

Neat Freak Rule #143: Never Leave a Room Empty Handed

Have you ever wondered how organized people keep clutter at bay? There are lots of tips and tricks, but one of the secrets (there are not 143…I made that up) is to never leave a room without taking something with you. Obviously, you'll want to be intentional about bringing something that doesn't belong in the kitchen upstairs to the office when you head up to change your clothes. Or bring the laundry basket down to the laundry room on your way downstairs to start making dinner. Get the idea?

For me, this is a never-ending cycle because my sweet "I'm four now and I'm not three anymore because I've had lots of birthdays…four of them…" Jason lives by a similar philosophy. The problem is that instead of bringing things back into the room where they belong, he chooses to take things from their rightful homes and drop them off in a totally random part of the house. 

I find stuffed animals in my closet. Clean, neglected wardrobe changes on my bathroom floor. Schoolbooks in the hallway. Dirty socks on my bed. Books in the pantry. Hot Wheels by the front door. The iPad cover in the play room. Darts and dart guns every.where. I'm not making up a single one of these examples…these are just a few things I've found this week. He remains, and may always be, Destructo-boy: Destroyer of All Things Tidy.

So if you feel like your house looks like a tornado went through it, give this task a try. And don't just dump something on a table when you drop it in the right room - take a quick second and put it back in the drawer where it belongs, put dishes in the dishwasher, hang up the shirt, throw the trash way…you get the idea. You will save yourself the extra work later!