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Aye yi yi!!! Where have I been? It’s complicated, but the simple answer is that life has gotten in the way of blogging. First, I was struck down by a sinus infection that was hard to shake. Couple that with work, volunteering at the kids’ school, the Jewish high holidays, well…you get the picture. I owe my poor neglected blog (and my readers!) an apology. Let me make it up to you with a delicious new recipe!

My son loves apple pie…or more specifically my apple pie (courtesy of Paula Deen!). Apple pie is not something I’m going to make every day, but I got to thinking about how great it would be to have all the flavors of apple pie in a muffin. That would be awesome! Surely, I’m not the only person who thinks this way. As it turns out, apple pie muffins are not an original thought at all. A little online search and voila, I had a recipe in hand to try.

You see I’m always looking for ways to pump some calories into that boy. He’s been improving a little lately on his picky eating (which I’m afraid to even mention for fear I will jinx that progress). He’s always been a carbs guy so muffins are really a no-brainer. I made this recipe several weeks back, and my son has been taking these apple pie muffins to school on a regular basis as a snack. I just made a batch and froze them all. Every morning before school, I pop an apple pie muffin into his snack bag, and it’s defrosted by snack time. So easy!

If the pickiest eater in the world love these apple pie muffins, so will you!

Best Ever Apple Pie Muffins

Print recipe

Serves	18
Prep time	20 minutes
Cook time	25 minutes
Total time	45 minutes
Allergy	Egg, Milk, Wheat
Meal type	Breakfast
Misc	Child Friendly, Freezable, Serve Cold, Serve Hot
Website	Adapted from Food.com

Ingredients

Topping

1/2 cup brown sugar (firmly packed)
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Muffins

1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup applesauce (I used cinnamon applesauce to amp up the spice!)
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
1 cup buttermilk
2 cups Honeycrisp apples (finely chopped)

Directions

Topping
Step 1
In a small bowl, toss together sugar, flour, butter and cinnamon until crumbly; set aside
Muffins
Step 2
In large bowl, whisk together brown sugar, oil, applesauce, egg and vanilla until smooth. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and allspice.
Step 3
Stir oil/applesauce mixture into flour mixture alternately with buttermilk.
Step 4
Fold in apples, mixing just until combined. Spoon in greased muffin cups filling 3/4 full.
Step 5
Sprinkle topping over muffins evenly. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and tops spring back.

After we bought our current house, we took it to the studs. Practically everything indoors was updated or replaced. The one thing we didn’t touch was the swimming pool. It was built in the 90s and in recent years had really begun to show its age. The swimming pool’s plaster had become rough and irritating to the kids’ feet, and the Spanish-style tile at the water line had seen better days. And, apparently my husband harbored a deep-seated disdain for the pavers that surrounded the pool. Who knew?!! He was tired of the look of the pool and also tired of the kids’ complaining. That meant it was time for a complete backyard swimming pool overhaul, just in time for summer y’all!

One of the most difficult parts of the whole project was figuring out the finishes for the swimming pool and surrounding pool deck area. There are so many choices, and it was really hard to visualize what the finished product would look like in our backyard. To replace the plaster in our swimming pool, we settled on Hydrazzo because, per our builder, it had the smoothest application. My children’s tootsies are important after all, and we wanted them to have full enjoyment of the swimming pool this summer. I hit the web HARD looking for some swimming pool images using our chosen Hydrazzo color of Oceana Laguna. Let me save you several days of intense searching by letting you know that there is one, maybe two pictures out there as a reference point. Thus, I’m posting several pictures, in case like me, you are desperate for images of Hydrazzo Oceana Laguna. I hope you get a better sense of what it looks like in action than I did pre-project. It’s definitely a steely blue color that is a lot different from our previous pool color. More sophisticated if that’s possible. I would call it a medium blue. I like it a lot.

Here’s a closeup photo where you can really see the flecks of the different quartz crystals and whatever else they throw in there.

The ugly pavers my husband hated were replaced with silver travertine. The same stone was used for the pool coping and stacked stone on the wall at the far end of our swimming pool. We really like how it turned out. In case you are wondering, we don’t find the travertine to be at all slippery.

And finally, the lovely Spanish tile in our swimming pool was replaced with 1″ Sparkle Glass in Sparkle Black from Noble Tile Supply. For the record, I don’t see any black in it at all, but hey, it sure is shimmery. They don’t call it Sparkle Glass for nothing. It’s my favorite part of the whole redo!

Pool Project Redo | Festively Made
The verdict from our kids…the Hydrazzo is awesome and gentle on their feet, and they are already enjoying their time in the new pool.

Best Ever Apple Pie Muffins Make Great School Snacks

Best Ever Apple Pie Muffins

Ingredients

Topping

Muffins

Directions

Welcome to our Backyard Swimming Pool Overhaul!