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As part of The Mommies Network, HighCountryMommies.com is a free community for moms in Ashe, Avery, and Watauga Counties, North Carolina. We realize that all moms need local support -- and who can't use another friend? HighCountryMommies.com offers a simple way to connect with local moms for friendship, support and fun. Members meet on our private discussion forums to share information on everything from where to get the best haircut to tips on transitioning to a "big kid" bed. Each month, we also offer many face-to-face events for our members, their children and their families.
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On Monday, September 6, 2010, the mother of a three month old arrived at a Greensboro coffee shop for a TriadMommies.com event, only to be told by one of the owners that if she chose to breastfeed, she needed to be covered with a towel. The mother, who was not nursing at the time, discussed the situation with the owner, then left the shop voluntarily. This controversial conversation was reported locally by WGHP, and the story ran on national media outlets, including cnn.com, latimes.com and orlandosentinal.com. The owners of the coffee shop have since apologized for the incident.
The Mommies Network (TMN) fully supports a mother?s right to choose the best method for feeding her child, whether the mother chooses open or covered breastfeeding, bottle-feeding or a combination of methods. We are pleased to see that the coffee shop has implemented changes as a result of this situation to make their establishment a friendly place for breastfeeding mothers.
TMN is a 501c(3) non-profit organization founded in April 2005, and we have over 100 communities in 32 states and over 25,000 active members. Part of TMN?s mission is to help all moms find support and friendship in their local community. We welcome all mothers, regardless of their background, station in life, viewpoints or status. All mothers need local support, and TMN provides a way for mothers to connect for friendship, support and fun.
Blueberry Apple Pie Recipe In honor of the Fall season now being upon us, I'd like to share a delicious pie I made last night. My three year-old took my father blueberry picking at Lee's Blueberry Farm about three weeks ago and picked the last of Farmer Lee's wonderful blueberries.
I promptly froze the blueberries, knowing we would want them at a later date and last night ended up being that date.
Our apples up here in the High Country are finally ready to eat! So, my husband took our children out to one of the trees last night and picked a basket-full of ripe juicy apples.
Here's the recipe for our blueberry apple pie - made from scratch and our own apples, plus local blueberries. It doesn't get better than this! Oh wait, it did get better - my husband made vanilla ice cream to go with it. Yum!!
Butter Crust (the only kind I make anymore - it's absolutely delicious!)
Makes only one crust, so you need two recipes for this pie.
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 T sugar
1/2 t salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold, unsalted butter (cut into small pieces)
1 large egg yolk
Cold water
Mix the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Cut in the butter until it is in pea-sized pieces. Put the egg yolk in a measuring cup and add enough water to equal 1/4 cup liquid and beat together. Pour half the liquid over the flour mixture and blend with a fork. Pour the remaining liquid a little at a time until the dough sticks together and has a smooth consistency. You may need to add more water.
Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour.
Blueberry Apple Pie
7 cups peeled, cored and sliced apples
1 pint fresh blueberries
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/2 T all-purpose flour
1/2 t ground cinnamon
2 T lemon juice
Roll out the pastry in order to fit your pie pan. Trim as needed. I lightly flour the top of mine and fold it in quarters in order to move it safely to the pie pan after rolling it out.
Prepare the filling by combing the apples, half the blueberries, sugar, flour, cinnamon, and lemon juice in a large mixing bowl; toss well. Set aside. Preheat oven to 400F.
Turn the filling into the refrigerated pie shell, moistening the rim of the shell slightly. Pour the rest of the blueberries over the top.
Roll out the other pastry to cover the pie and seal it together at the edges. This particular butter crust is delicious thick, so I fold some of the extra pastry under the edges of my bottom pastry. You can also do a lattice work with this particular pie for a more beautiful effect.
Place the pie on the center oven rack and bake for 25 minutes.
After the baking time is up, remove the pie from the oven and place in the center of the rack on a large dark baking sheet covered with aluminum foil. Lower oven to 375F and return pie to oven to bake for another 40 to 45 minutes.
Place pie on a cooling rack and cool for one hour, as if you can resist!
Enjoy!!
Teesa is an active member of highcountrymommies.com. She is the mother of two, and expecting one more in early November
High Country Trike A Thon We are pleased to announce that HighCountryMommies.com will be hosting the 1st Annual High Country Trike-A-Thon to benefit St. Jude Children's Hospital and HighCountryMommies.com!
This amazing event will be on Saturday, August 28th at the National Guard Armory in Boone, NC. Registration starts at 9:30am and the event will kick off at 10:00am.
The High Country Trike-A-Thon will include two sessions: one for tricycles or bicycle riders using training wheels, and a second session for children on 2-wheel bicycles. All community children under the age of 12 are invited to participate. Just a minimum donation of $5 is required.
You can register online at our High Country Trike A Thon website. Just click the register tab and go from there. Forms to register and record donations are also available at the Children?s Playhouse and Earthfare in Boone, as well as Mountain Girl Gallery in Banner Elk. For more information on participating, contact Emma Yarborough by email at emma@highcountrymommies.com. Participants will also be invited to join in the day?s activities, including a bounce-house, face painting, live children?s music, and door prizes.
The money raised at the High Country Trike-A-Thon will help St. Jude Children's Research Hospital help kids from all over the world who have cancer, AIDS, sickle cell and other catastrophic diseases. At St. Jude, no family ever pays for treatments not covered by insurance, and families without insurance are never asked to pay. Thanks to millions of kids and parents like you, we are also able to pay for transportation for our patients and their families and give them a place to live while they are at St Jude. Since opening in 1962, St. Jude has treated patients from all 50 states and more than 70 foreign countries. Your support makes you a part of our mission to find cures and save children.
Homemade Graham Crackers If you're anything like me, you want to avoid baking at all costs over the summer months. We don't have air conditioning and just turning on the oven to preheat increases the temperature of the house by 10 degrees.
But, sometimes I just can't resist. Especially when my kids have a hankering for something and I can't see anything on the store-bought brand ingredients that even remotely resembles something edible.
Here's one of my kids' favorites. We make them with all different shaped cookie cutters too, but the squares are the easiest.
4 T (1/2 stick) butter, softened
1 egg 6 T sugar 2 T honey 2 T molasses
1/2 t baking soda 2 t water 3/4 t salt 1 1/2 C graham flour (I used whole wheat) 3/4 C all-purpose flour
Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Combine the butter, egg and sugar in a bowl and beat until smooth and creamy. Stir in the honey and molasses and blend. Dissolve the baking soda in the water and add to the butter mixture. Add the salt, graham flour, and all-purpose flour to the mixture and blend thoroughly. The dough should hold together and be manageable. If it is too "tacky" add a little more graham flour.
Liberally dust two cookie sheets with flour.
Split the dough in half or do 1/3 and 2/3 and roll out on each cookie sheet - I used my fingers to press it down. It should be about 1/8 inch thick - remember, the soda will make it rise a little.
If you want them to be as thick as I have in my picture, don't split the dough at all, but you will have a more chewy cracker.j
Score the dough with a pizza cutter or knife, but not all the way through, into squares. Depending on the size you make you could have 20-40 per cookie sheet.
Prick each square a few times with the tines of a fork. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven. Gently lift out with a spatula and slide onto cooling racks. Once they are cooled, they'll be ready to eat - but Sam and I like ours warm.
Teesa is an active member of highcountrymommies.com. She is the mother of two, and expecting one more in early November.
Who doesn't love homemade bread? With all the lovely vegetables coming out of our gardens this summer, one of our highcountrymommies shares her favorite zucchini bread recipe...
Heavenly Healthier Zucchini Bread
I?ve always had a weakness for zucchini bread, but most recipes have so much sugar, oil, and use white flour. So I have been tinkering with a favorite recipe while making good use of the bounty of zucchini from our garden this summer, and I?ve come up with a super tasty recipe with less sugar, whole wheat flour, and plenty of flavor. Enjoy!
Preheat oven to 375° F. Lightly grease 2 loaf pans or 18-24 muffin tins.
2 cups grated peeled fresh zucchini (usually one medium zucchini, do not drain)
3 large eggs (or equivalent of EnerG Egg Replacer & warm water)
½ c granulated sugar
½ c packed brown sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2/3 c canola or vegetable oil
1 c unbleached all purpose flour
2 c whole wheat bread flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinammon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ c chocolate chips (optional)
½ chopped walnuts (optional)
Beat eggs. Add sugars, vanilla and oil. Mix well. Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl then add to wet mixture. Will be a very thick batter.Fold in grated zucchini, chocolate chips and nuts.
Pour into 2 bread pan. Bake loaves 50 minutes. Cool in pans on a rack for 20 minutes, then turn loaves onto rack to cool completely. Freezes well.Yummm!!!!
-- Jennifer G. is the promotions manager and an active member of highcountrymommies.com.
