Apples Go Crunchy

Yes, another apple post. I promise though, this will be the last one (at least for a while). This is another recipe from Good Things Catered and another really quick, easy, and tasty item. When I made the apple cobbler Doug and I had a discussion on the difference between crumbles, cobblers, and crisps which lead to Doug requesting something crisp like. So at once I set upon the oh so arduous task of digging through all of the awesome blogs I read (you know how much I hate this task) until I found something that looked good. And let me tell you, this recipe looked good. It also looked quick and easy, two things I love to hear on a work night (I always still want to call them school nights, lol).

So I set about the kitchen whipping this up. I love that this recipe doesn't call for any random ingredients, it merely uses the basics that I always keep in the house. I also love it because it uses oats and I love pretty much anything with oats. I definitely recommend this treat for any night when your sweet tooth is hollering for something starring apple, you won't be disappointed.

Apple Crunch

From: Good Things Catered

Ingredients:

4 large apples

1/2 c. oats

1/2 c. packed brown sugar

1/4 c. whole wheat flour

4 Tbsp butter, cold

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp vanilla

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and spray an 8x8 baking dish with baking spray

Peel, core, and dice apples into 1/2-inch pieces-Spread apples evenly in baking dish.

In medium bowl, combine oats, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg

Cut butter into small pieces and add to dry ingredients along with the vanilla.

With pastry blender, cut butter into dry ingredients until all butter is about the size of a small pea.

Sprinkle this mixture evenly over apples.

Place baking dish in oven and bake for 55-60 minutes or until apples have cooked down and begun to caramelize.

Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before serving.

The Next Spice Girl: Apple Spice

Continuing in this string of apple recipes (I told you we had a lot of apples, today I present apple spice cookie bars. These are incredibly good. As in, I could eat way too many of these at a time good. I found the recipe on Katie's Good Things Catered blog, which is where I've found a lot of the recipes currently living in my to-make pile. I've actually made these twice now and we've loved them both times. The fact that I've made them more than once should mean that I should have a better picture than this one, but I never have the mind to take a great picture when they are first done but I'm usually too busy thinking "smells good, looks good, want to eat." I hope to make them again so maybe the third time is a charm for picture taking.

These are incredible good and really simple to make. I've whipped them up in the evening after I've gotten home from work both times. They are also a great way to make your house smell good. Who needs candles when you can make apple spice cookie bars?

Apple Spice Cookie Bars

From: Good Things Catered

Ingredients:

2 c. plus 2 Tbsp all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1/8 tsp allspice

small pinch ground cloves

1/2 c. butter, melted

1 c. packed brown sugar

1 c. white sugar

2 eggs

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

2 apples, cored and diced (a little less than 2 c.)

cinnamon sugar for sprinkling

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 9x13 pan with foil and baking spray.

In medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves. Whisk to combine well and set aside.-In bowl of stand mixer, combine sugars and butter and beat on medium high until light and fluffy, about 1 minute.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating well to combine.

Add vanilla extract and beat to combine.

Turn mixer on slow and fold in flour mixture a little at a time until just combined.

Fold in apples.-Spread mixture evenly into prepared pan and sprinkle top generously with cinnamon sugar.

Place in oven and bake until cooked through, when top slightly bounces back to the touch, about 30 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool completely before removing from pan, cutting and serving. (bars will be very soft)

Apple Pie Goes Mini

So in the quest to finish off all of the million and one apples that have taken up residence in our kitchen, I have decided to spread my wings and test my boundaries. Thus, when Annie and Chelley posted recipes in their blogs for mini hand pies I was intrigued, especially by Chelley's apple pies. I was also slightly frightened, as I have never made a pie dough in my life. I'm not sure why that is, but I've never had the desire to try to best Pillsbury. But I recently decided to try to test myself in the kitchen and this seemed like a great way to do it. So last night while Doug was at work I set about the task of preparing the dough (with Chelley having told me it would be ok over night). I was actually really surprised at how easy this was. It takes a while, but most of that is just chill time for the dough and I never once felt frazzled. I was so excited when it was all ready and it "looked like a dough!" as I told anyone who would listen.

Today I attempted rolling out the dough, which is something I do not have a lot of experience with. And let me tell you, I definitely need some practice! I had a heck of a time rolling my dough out to the same thickness each time, but I finally got it to work. I broke open my 101 cookie cutter box for the first time to use the circular cutter to make the pies, which worked perfectly. I actually had fun filling these with the apple sugar mixture and sealing them up. I felt like Alton Brown making the decorative edges, using the egg wash and adding sanding sugar to the top.

These are absolutely awesome and I totally recommend making these. They take a while but they are totally worth it.

Chelley did a great job of describing the process of making these, so check out her blog.

Apple Hand Pies

I got it from Brown Eyed Baker

She adapted from Smitten Kitchen

For the pastry:

2½ cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon salt

16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into pieces

½ cup sour cream4 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

½ cup ice water
For the Filling:

2 apples, peeled, cored and diced small

1/3 cup sugar
One egg yolk beaten with 2 tablespoons water (for egg wash)

Coarse sanding sugar, for decoration

1. To make the pastry, in a bowl, combine the flour and salt. Place the butter in another bowl. Place both bowls in the freezer for 1 hour. Remove the bowls from the freezer and make a well in the center of the flour. Add the butter to the well and, using a pastry blender, cut it in until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Make another well in the center. In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream, lemon juice and water and add half of this mixture to the well. With your fingertips, mix in the liquid until large lumps form. Remove the large lumps and repeat with the remaining liquid and flour-butter mixture. Pat the lumps into a ball; do not overwork the dough. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. If preparing ahead of time, the dough can be stored at this point for up to one month in the freezer.
2. Divide the refrigerated dough in half. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out one half of the dough to 1/8-inch thickness. Using a 4 1/2-inch-round biscuit cutter, cut seven circles out of the rolled dough. Transfer the circles to a parchment-lined baking sheet, and place in the refrigerator to chill for about 30 minutes. Repeat the rolling, cutting, and chilling process with the remaining half of dough. (I used a 4-inch cutter-if you can call a “cutter” the tin edge of the container that holds my smaller round cutters-and managed to get 12 from each dough half, after rerolling the scraps.)
3. Mix the diced apple with the sugar, and cook over low heat for 8-10 minutes, until the apples are tender. Set aside. Prior to preparing the pies, drain any accumulated liquid from the apples.
4. Remove the chilled dough from the refrigerator, and let stand at room temperature until just pliable, 2 to 3 minutes. Spoon about 1 to 2 tablespoons filling (use the smaller amount for a 4-inch circle) onto one half of each circle of dough. Quickly brush a little cold water around the circumference of the dough, and fold it in half so the other side comes down over the filling, creating a semicircle. Seal the hand pie, and make a decorative edge by pressing the edges of the dough together with the back of a fork. Repeat process with remaining dough. Place the hand pies back on the parchment-lined baking sheet, and return to the refrigerator to chill for another 30 minutes.
5. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Remove the chilled hand pies from the refrigerator, cut a small slit in each and lightly brush with the egg yolk wash. Sprinkle sanding sugar generously over the pies, and place pies in the oven to bake. Bake until the hand pies are golden brown and just slightly cracked, anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes, depending on how thick you rolled the dough. Remove the pies from the oven, and let stand to cool slightly before serving.

My Very First From Scratch Apple Cobbler

That lovely creation up there is my very first from scratch apple cobbler. Now, I have made a few cobbler before that were very good, but they were all with the help of a mix. We live near an Amish community and have vacationed near some, so my mom and I have found many great Amish cobbler mixes over the years. However, I have been on a mission to make as many things from scratch as I can, I figure if I have the ability then why not? (Plus it has been a while since I've made it to an of the Amish stores.) So today I went hunting for a great looking apple cobbler recipe to use up some of the great apples my parents brought us from the local orchard. I also had a jar of this incredible apple cinnamon spread from a local baker that I wanted to use, and at my last job a girl who is related to the local baker brought in a cobbler made with this spread, so I knew I wanted to try that.

I looked at all the usual sites to try to find a recipe, but nothing jumped out at me. Then I remembered that back when we were in the middle of the peach frenzy I had printed out a peach cobbler recipe. So I found that recipe and started to tweak it to satisfy my apple needs. I've never really messed with a baking recipe before. No matter how often I play around in the kitchen while cooking I've always been afraid to do so while baking. In my mind there is just too big of a chance of me messing everything up, and that would make me very sad. But today I decided to be brave and make an attempt. I basically took the peach cobbler recipe and took all of the seasonings out of the recipe and replaced them with the apple cinnamon spread. Then I added some cinnamon to the topping batter before I put it on the apples. I also left off the cinnamon sugar topping that the original recipe called for. I thought it might be a bit too much, and I was going for a strong cinnamon flavor so I just added it to the topping. I was really nervous to try this but it came out great! The apples have a great cinnamon taste, not too sweet with a nice spice to them. I think I will make more of the topping next time, it did not completely cover the entire apple mixture, so I have a few gaps. But despite that fact I'm really please with my first attempt at making changes to a recipe, and I don't think I will be as worried next time.

I'm entering this into Joelen's Cobblers & Such blog event over at Joelen's Culinary Adventures. This will actually be my second time doing one of her events. Check out her blog to see all the great events she does.

Apple Cinnamon Cobbler Adapted from Kelly Cooks and Other Amazing Feats

6-8 medium sized apples of your choice - peeled, cored and sliced into thin wedges

1/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons cornstarch

3 tablespoons apple cinnamon spread

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tsp cinnamon

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces

1/4 cup boiling water

Directions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.- In a large bowl, combine apples, cup white sugar, cup brown sugar, spread, and cornstarch.
- Toss to coat evenly, and pour into a 9 x 13 pan
- Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes.- Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine flour, 1/4 cup white sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.
- Blend in butter with your fingertips, or a pastry blender, until mixture resembles coarse meal. - Stir in water until just combined.- Remove apples from oven, and drop spoonfuls of topping over them.
- Bake until topping is golden, about 30 minutes. (Mine was only about 20 minutes)

Rated E for Excellent: aka: Someone actually reads this!

I was really excited and surprised to get a comment from my fellow Illini fan Erin over at Milk & Honey telling me that she had nominated my blog for the E for Excellent Award! This is my first blog award and I am totally excited. Sometimes I start to wonder if anyone actually reads this blog (with the exception of those who I force at steak knife point... don't worry, I'm kidding). So now on to some of my favorite blogs:

First is Elly at Elly Says Opa! Elly's blog always makes me really, really hungry.

Next is Amber at Amber's Delectable Delights. This is another one that I know will always make me hungry.

Then there is Julie's blog Jewels in the Kitchen. I love, love this blog and Julie, she is one of the sweetest girls over on the cooking board I visit.

Then there is Annie at Annie's Eats. Annie's blog is where I turn when I need something to wow someone.

Next is Maci over at My Yummy Goodness. Maci is a Southern sweetheart and a fellow DMB fan, so you've gotta love her :)

Finally, I will give you Katie at Good Things Catered. This blog is responsible for my to-be-made pile doubling within the last couple of weeks, everything she makes just looks so good!

Now it is your turn:
Please find at least 10 more blogs, of any kind that you love to read. Write a post about the blogs you picked, linking back to me and to them. Once you’ve posted, return here to let me know your post done and be sure to let them know too!!! (If you don’t come up with 10, that’s fine too!)

Cornbread Heaven in Salad Form: An Eat to the Beat Entry

Doug and I both share a love music, we actually met in band in high school (yeah that's right, we were band geeks). Over the years we've both played a number of different instruments (some well and some not so well; he always better than I). We love to share new songs that we've heard with each other, he loves to expose me to great old bands he enjoys, and I occasionally will force some so-so pop artist upon him. But there is one band that has a very special place in both of our minds: The Dave Matthews Band. The first time I ever rode in a car with Doug he had DMB playing and the song Crash Into Me came on. I had always loved that song and the music video (way back in the day when MTV still played videos) and we started talking about the band (he knew way more about them than I did) and how awesome they were (and shortly after the song ended we shared our first kiss). Needless to say, that became our song. The next year we went and saw DMB perform, our first concert as a couple and had a total blast. Last year when we got married we hunted for the longest time for the perfect song (our reception was at our church, so Crash Into Me was not appropriate: that whole "lift up your skirt and show your world to me" part kind of nixed it); going through lists online and through every cd we both owned before we finally went "hey what about" and then proclaimed Steady as We Go to be the winner. This past summer we went to another DMB concert (our first as a married couple) and had an incredible time. DMB concerts are a blast: they last for a very long time but you never notice it because you are having so much fun.

After the concert I went into a major DMB phase, listening to every one of their cds we owned. During this I realized that one song that I really liked wasn't played at our concert (but I later found out it was played at the first night's show). That song? Cornbread. I won't totally go into details about what this song is about (this is a family blog after all) but let's just say the Dave isn't inviting you over for a nice Sunday lunch featuring fresh baked cornbread! You can check out the lyrics here, if you want to form your own opinion on what the song is about. But it is an incredibly fun song that gets stuck in your head for days and I love it.

Now, I told you all that to lead up to this dish. Last summer Doug's cousin got married in Mobile, Alabama. It was a great wedding with an awesome reception that featured a bunch of tasty salads (among other things). And one of those salads was a Cornbread Salad that we all loved. Doug's aunt thought this was extremely funny because she said every Northerner loves that salad. Then she promptly stated that the caterer refused to give out the recipe. No problem. A few months later I received a cute community cookbook from Doug's grandmother as a gift at my bridal shower and what recipe was in the salad section? That's right, Cornbread Salad. And what's the main ingredient in Cornbread Salad? Cornbread, of course!

So, using DMB's Cornbread as my inspiration and backing track, I offer up this tasty side dish. It is relatively easy to make and very tasty to eat. And I declare it "A little bit of heaven, and a little bit of aw yeah." Try it out yourself, and check out DMB performing the song here.

I'm entering this into Eat To The Beat over at Elly Says Opa. This is a blog event that Elly created where you enter a food item that is in some way connected to a song or band, whether it is named after them or just somehow inspired. So go check out Elly's blog (and prepare to be hungry!)

Cornbread Salad

By Teresa Stanley

From Treasured Recipes By the Monticello United Methodist Church

1 (8.5 oz) package cornbread mix You could make from scratch if you wanted

1 Envelope ranch-style dressing mix I used Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix

1 Cup sour cream

1 Cup mayonnaise (or Miracle Whip)

1/2 Cup green pepper, chopped

1/2 Cup sweet red pepper, chopped I didn't add this item this time

1/2 Cup onion, chopped

1 (16 oz) Can pinto beans, drained

2 Cups fresh or frozen corn

2 Cups cheddar cheese, shredded I left this out

10 Slices cooked bacon, crumbled (optional) I added this

Bake cornbread mix according to package directions and crumble. Combine ranch-style dressing mix, sour cream and mayonnaise in a small bowl. In another bowl, mix together peppers, onions, tomatoes, pinto beans, and corn. In a 3-quart salad bowl, layer half of the cornbread, half of the vegetables, half of the cheese, half of the bacon, and half of the dressing. Repeat layers with remaining ingredients. Cover and store in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Note: Use low or no-fat sour cream and mayonnaise to reduce the calories in this dish. The longer this dish sits, the better it tastes.

I just mixed all the ingredients together (cornbread, vegetables, and bacon) and then mixed the dressing into it, that is how we had it before. I made this the day before we ate it and it was really good.

A Quick, Budget Friendly Meal

So it has been a while since I last posted. I've been fighting off a cold which has made cooking and being on the computer seem unappealing. But I am finally feeling better and am now pretty backed up on blog updates. So keep an eye out for some tasty items coming up, including my entry to Eat to the Beat and another birthday cake.

But first here is this tasty treat that Doug and I had for dinner not too long ago: nachos! I love nachos but had never made them at home before. They are so great: really easy, affordable, and you can add whatever you want to them. We kept these pretty simple but next time I may get more to put on them. One great thing about these is a last minute move by Doug. When it came time to add the water and taco seasoning to the ground beef (yes we use taco seasoning, we have a big container of it actually) instead of adding water he added beer! At first I was a little skeptical, but it added this awesome depth of flavor to the meat. It was just Budweiser that he added, though I think any beer would work as long as it wasn't one of the ones that has a different flavor to it (I'm pretty Blue Moon wouldn't work, it would taste weird). I'm not really a beer fan even, but I thought it was a great flavor.

This entry also sees the addition of a new tag for this blog. With money being so tight for many people there have been a lot of posts over on WC for budget friendly meals. So with that in mind I am creating a Budget Friendly tag, and I plan to go back eventually and add it to past items. That way I can easily point out these recipes to friends and they will be easy to find on here.

There isn't really a recipe for these nachos, just add whatever you would like to a pile of chips and you are good. You could do chicken or refried beans instead of the beef and your choice of vegetables, cheese, and toppings to make these truly yours.

What we used:

Nacho chips

Mexican Shredded Cheese

Ground beef seasoned with taco seasoning and beer

Salsa

Sour Cream

I realize that isn't the best picture, but nachos are hard to make look good for the camera :)