Apples! Cinnamon Apple Cookies!

Well, we finally did it!  We went apple picking for the first time!  I've wanted to take the kids to do this for a few years, and we even drove a few years ago to where I thought we could pick apples, but couldn't find the orchard.  Funny thing is we drove by this orchard too on that drive a few years ago,  but I didn't stop because I wasn't sure about it at the time.  It turns out to be the best little place to pick apples.  Less than 10 miles from us!  The apples were easy for all the kids to reach.  We will definitely be going back sometime.  I found their blog searching for apples to pick in Oregon, and they keep up to date on the different apple varieties and when they are ready.

We are just starting to get some rain and cooler weather so we went this morning when it stopped raining for a bit.  I wanted to get there and pick before it started again.

So, after our morning stuff we headed out when there was a break in the rain.  We picked about 40lbs of Gala apples.  They are delicious!

Gettin' ready to pick!

Found a nice one!  These trees had a lot of apples!

This little guy sat and watched happily.

Some apple picking action

Aric was so funny, everytime he would get one he would say "I got one!"  He was so amazed with himself.

Each of our buckets was like carrying Alex, he weighs about the same as one buckets worth.  I ended up carrying one on each side so we didn't dump the buckets.

Such beautiful fruit!  It really went pretty fast.  We were there less than an hour.  Now, what to do with all these apples?  Well, there's caramel apples, apple pie, applesauce (which my kids don't like), apple stamping, apple butter...

...even cookies!  Here is one of my favorite cookie recipes.  It uses fresh chopped apple and tastes heavenly.  I got it at a recipe exchange from church so I don't know where it originally came from.  Also, the cinnamon chips that it calls for are pretty hard to find.  I found them at WinCo a few years ago during the holiday's, and maybe you'll be lucky to find them at your local grocer now with Holiday's coming.  If not, I know you can order them online somewhere.  Here it is:

Apple Cinnamon-Chip cookies

3/4 cup butter

1 cup light brown sugar

1 egg

1tbsp. apple juice

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cup flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 1/2 cup quick oats

1 10oz. pkg. cinnamon chips

1 cup peeled & chopped apples

1/2 cup raisins (good with out raisins too!  I usually omit this)

Cream butter, sugar, apple juice, egg, vanilla.  Mix dry ingredients in separate bowl and then cream all ingredients together.  Stir in by hand: oats, apples, cinnamon chips, and raisins.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

We made these today and April said they smell just like Christmas!  She got a little excited after that.