APPLE PIE

Apple pie - the all-American dessert.  I happen to be blessed with a husband who has planted a beautiful orchard on our property.  For the past two years, our trees have yielded beautiful apples.  I was fortunate enough to come across a great recipe for canning the apple pie filling I make with these apples.  I can several jars and we are able to enjoy "fresh" apple pie throughout the year.  Now, I am in now way an expert canner and in fact, I rather despise doing it.  It makes such a mess in my kitchen!  However, I like to be able to run to the pantry any day of the year, throw a pie together quickly, and know that my hard work has paid off.   Love/hate relationship for sure!

I made this pie for my parents when they were visiting last week.  Here's the recipe I use for the filling:

First, peel and cut your apples and pack them tightly into clean canning jars.

Mix:
4 1/2 cups sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. salt
10 cups water 
1 cup corn starch
3 tsp. lemon juice

Cook until thick and bubbly.  Pour into the jars over the apples.  Pour slowly and you may have to use a spatula to move things around so it is all nicely filled.

Give them a hot water bath for 20 minutes to seal.

The pie crust recipe is from my good friend, Marie.  I always hated working with pie dough until I tried this recipe:

2 tsp. salt
1 cup Crisco
1/2 cup water
2 cups flour

Easy as apple pie!

A SPRING TRIFLE

I found this recipe at Recipezaar before Easter when I was searching for a dessert that used peanut butter cups.  Like always, I fiddled with the recipe to "lighten" it up so as not to feel quite so guilty for eating it.  Here is my version:

Mix 1 chocolate cake mix with
1 can diet Dr. Pepper and bake in a 9x13 pan for 20-25 minutes.  (Yes, that's it - no eggs, no water - just the pop and cake mix).

Mix 2 boxes of fat free, sugar free vanilla instant pudding
with 3 cups fat free milk until smooth.  Beat in 3/4 cup of peanut butter. Fold in 1 cup FF cool whip.

Crumble the chocolate cake on the bottom of a glass bowl or pan (I used a deep 9x13 pan).  Spread the pudding mixture on top.

Sprinkle 3/4 cup chocolate chips on top.

Spread a layer of FF cool whip on top of that. . . 

Then cut up Reese's P-nut butter cups and sprinkle on top of the cool whip mixture.

This can be made and refrigerated the day before.  

I was feeling so good about this dessert because I had a lot of compliments at potluck today.  Then I got home and my husband asked who "made that one dessert" in a tone that I knew was not complimentary.  When I told him I did, he made a face and said I did not have to make that anymore.  Honestly, this is a very good dessert for anyone who is not an Anderson by birth.  It's a good thing I love him.

WHAT'S YOUR POISON?

Weird title, I know.  I heard a bartender ask someone this on a movie once when I was a child and it struck me funny.  In fact it rings rather true when you learn about the effects of alcohol on your body, etc., and it is probably true in my case being that I drink diet pop.  It is bad for you, I know.  I try to limit myself to drinking it only on special occasions, or when we eat out.  However, lately, I find I want one at least once a day as a pick-me-up, a treat, or something sweet with no calories.  It is a struggle!

My good friend, Shari, who looks fantastic since she has met her goal and works out on a regular basis, gave me this "recipe".  Could not be easier!

Take one can of Diet Dr. Pepper (okay, this is Diet Dr. Thunder, but it works just as well), one box of devil's food cake mix and 2 egg whites.  That's it!  Nothing more!   Mix it up and make 24 cupcakes out of it.  Use a dollop of FF whip cream on top and you've got yourself a piece of chocolate heaven for only 1 point.   

I was using up my Christmas cupcake papers =)


How does it taste, you ask??  Well, let's just say that all the guys in my house liked it until I told them it was a WW recipe.  Dan won't touch them now and Ty has avoided them. Tanner, though eats 2-3 each night when he comes home from school.   True, I would rather have something gooey, chewy, fudgey and loaded with sweet buttercream icing, but that's the kind of thing that got me into this size of jeans I now wear, so let's just move on, shall we??


Shari also suggested using a diet strawberry/raspberry pop with a white cake mix - that sounds interesting too.


Thanks, Shari for your support and your great ideas.

WHAT'S INSIDE THE PAN???

I thought you'd never ask!  If you were amazed by the pan, and I'm sure you were :-) . . . . . this is going to make your mouth water and have your mind figuring just how many miles you have to run to justify eating this!  Trust me!   Cookie Dough Brownies (aka Two-Tone Fudge Brownies) from Taste of Home is one dessert that will have all the ladies (and some of the men) asking for the recipe!

Who doesn't love cookie dough?  Honestly, I know the whole raw egg thing is gross, but once it's mixed in, I forget it's in there!  I heard on the Rachael Ray show that the salmonella poisoning is because of the ecol i on the OUTSIDE of the shell and NOT on the inside, so if you soak your eggs in warm water with a cap full of bleach, it will kill the bacteria on the shell.  That being said, this version of cookie dough is totally safe as there are no raw eggs in it.  I sort of consider myself a cookie dough expert, and I have to say I cannot tell the difference.

Here is the recipe:
 
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips, melted and slightly cooled
cream together:
1/2 cup softened butter
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
Add the melted chocolate chips to this, then mix in:
1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 tsp. baking soda
3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Bake at 350 in a 9x13 pan for 16-22 minutes.  Cool.

COOKIE DOUGH LAYER:
Cream:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
add:
3 T. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup flour
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips.


Now, I ALWAYS double the cookie dough layer - seriously, it makes it so much easier to spread it on top of the brownie base and makes a nice thick layer of the "good" stuff.  Plus, if you feel the  need to eat some, there is still plenty left for your dessert - not that I've ever done that or anything.  Just a thought!

I would have shown how they look after they've been cut, but these were for our potluck. . . .  and now they're all gone!

APPLE PIE

For those of you who read Holly's blog you may have read the day she posted about the Sour Cream Apple Pie recipe she got from here.   I had 4 Granny Smith apples I needed to use up, so I decided to make it.  It got a 4 1/2 star rating from my family.  Dan was not really keen on it, as he likes traditional apple pie.  I loved it and so did Ty and Tanner.  Ty said it reminded him of cheesecake.  

If you like my pie pan, you can get one here.  It is handmade by one of my bff - Marie - at Pine Springs Pottery.


As many of you know, Dan has been growing an orchard for years now and the past couple of years, we've had a good picking!  A friend of ours gave us this recipe to can the apples.  It is really easy to do, and when I want a 'fresh' apple pie in the middle of winter, I just make a crust, open up one of my canned apple jars, dump it in, and voila- great pie!  Here is the recipe I use to can my apples if you are interested.


KEN'S APPLE PIE FILLING


Makes about 6 quarts


Cut/peel your apples and fill your clean canning jars about 1/2 way.  Then, add the filling (recipe below), and finish filling the jars with apples and then more sauce.


Mix:
4 1/2 cups sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. salt
10 cups water
1 cup corn starch
3 tsp. lemon juice
cook until thick and bubbly.


Place jars in a hot water bath for about 20 minutes.


Eat apple pie - it's an American tradition!

SNICKERS SALAD

Just had to share this mouthwatering salad with you!  Please note:  if you are trying to lose weight, do not make this!  I literally could eat this whole bowl myself.  If you do not care about weight gain, then double the recipe - you'll be glad you did! :-)

SNICKERS SALAD (Rhonda's way)
8 oz. pack cream cheese softened
1 cup powdered sugar
12 oz. cool whip

Beat cream cheese and sugar together, then fold in cool whip.

4-5 Granny Smith apples (or other tart apple)
2-3 packages of "fun size" snickers bars-that's about 12 bars

slice apples into small pieces, chunk up candy bars and mix into cream cheese mixture.

This cannot be made too far in advance - it will get watery.  I make up the cream cheese mixture and chill it, then cut the apples and snickers up about an hour before I serve it, then chill.

I HAD TO TRY THESE

I saw these "cake pops" on the Bakerella website.  This lady is awesome and talented.  I would never even think I could come close to copying her stuff, but I just had to try to make the most basic cake pop she had and see how they would turn out.

Basically, you make a 9x13 cake the way you normally would.  After it is cooled, she recommends you dump it into a bowl and mix a can of cream cheese icing into it using your hands.  She warns it will be messy.  Well, there is a part of me that really hates stuff on my hands - I don't mind bread dough so much, but ground beef or anything really sticky - like a cake mixed with icing - really kinda creeps me out.  So, I dumped mine into my mixing bowl and used the beater - it worked perfectly!  I did not have cream cheese icing, I had chocolate, so I used that.

Then, you form it into balls.  It was not as messy as I thought it would be- in fact, the dough did not stick to my hands at all.  Then you push lollipop sticks in and chill.

 

After they have set up, you melt your chocolate (I used both white and chocolate), and dip the lollipops into that.

 

 She recommends that you push the sticks into styrofoam so that you don't get the flat chocolate at the top, but I could not find any styrofoam, so I just put them into a dish with waxed paper.

How do they taste?  Well, they are incredibly moist and since I had a chocolate cake mix, chocolate icing and chocolate candy, they were very, well, chocolatey.  Too much chocolate?  Maybe for me. (I know - how is that possible?)   I did however, have rave reviews from the toddlers and the teens.  The adults ate pie.

IF I make these again, I will try different flavors - cream cheese icing with red velvet cake mix (as recommended).  Also, I would not bother to put them on sticks, except maybe a few for the little guys in my house.  The sticks are "loose" anyway, and since the chocolate outside is hard, they pick up very well - like a candy.  The little guys however, love anything on a stick, so if it makes them happy. . . .

Just a side note:  I have a Wilton Chocolate Melter and it is wonderful.  It costs about $20 at Walmart and although I use it really only a couple times a year, it is worth the price - plus, my in-laws bought it for me as a present, so it really is worth the price!  LOL

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

Be confident enough that you won't settle for a compromise just to get by.

SIMPLY ELEGANT

I like simple things.  Sometimes simple things are better than the big and fancy.   I also like cake - it happens to be one of my favorite desserts.  Not just any cake, but cake decorated with a sweet icing - wedding cake is my particular favorite - perhaps because it is a happy occasion and the icing is always so pure and white.  Perhaps it is because they cut such small pieces and leave me wanting

more. . . .

Anyway, I enjoy eating cake and I also enjoy decorating cakes.  It seems something I must have inherited from mom - she took a pretty intensive cake decorating course when I was young and I remember her bringing her "projects" home for us to enjoy.  The flowers and basket weave designs were so pretty!  So, I guess I enjoyed the memories so much, I took to decorating cakes myself.  I just took a simple class at Joann Fabric Store one summer.  It was just to learn how to do simple things for my boys' birthdays.  A nice decorated cake at that time was costing about $10-$15, I could do that much cheaper, plus it would add a personal, loving touch to their birthday. Somehow, though, I ended up baking and decorating cakes for a lot of people.  I had my own little business for a few years and enjoyed every minute of it - plus my house always smelled so good.   I did many designs - Tigger, Pooh, Mickey Mouse, Rugrats, Star Wars, dinosaurs, deer, and once I even made one with a Rottweiler copied from a photograph (sound familiar to anyone reading this, Holly?).  My favorite cakes were the flower designs - roses and drop flowers were my specialty.   There's just something about eating a huge gob of icing in the shape of a rose!  (Any wonder why I can't reach my ideal weight?).

I only make cakes now for my immediate family - I've gone into retirement early.  I usually end up doing baseball, football, hunting or golfing cakes.  All boys things.  That's okay - I would not trade my boys for anything!  But, sometimes I miss doing the flowers.  Well, now that Ty is dating, I have a girl I can decorate a cake for!  Emily's birthday was this past week - she is 19 now.  She is here in WI for the holiday and my son is walking on Cloud 9. 

  I made Sunday lunch for us all, and decided we would celebrate Emily's birthday too.   

I saw this idea in a Wilton book once and have been wanting to do this ever since.  It is so cute and simple, yet the effect is adorable!  I'm not great at making daisies out of icing - it is a lot of work and to be honest, I've not practiced enough for a good-looking daisy.  However, these daisies are just made out of mini marshmallows flattened with my thumb. 

I then took a pair of sharp kitchen scissors and made little slits all around to form the "petals".  Then I piped yellow icing in the middle to form the center.  They are so cute, I could eat them up - and actually, we did!

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:  99% of failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.

THE BEST COOKIES IN THE WORLD

I don't have a lot of things that I really say "these are the best", but I have to say (please don't think I'm bragging), these cookies are the best!   I did not think up the recipe, nor can I take credit for the technique, but I have copied all those and turned it into one dog-gone good cookie!  The recipe is just from the back of the Nestle Semi-Sweet chocolate chip bag - "original chocolate chip cookie".  

2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 large eggs
2 cups chocolate chips

However, I DO NOT use butter.  I use butter-flavored Crisco (Aldi's now has their version of it much cheaper!).  Plus, I always play around with the flour by possibly adding more -depending on how "sticky" the dough feels - if you can touch it and your finger comes away clean, it is ready!  If some dough sticks on it, add a bit more flour.  Plus, because I married a man who does not really like chocolate (don't judge him too harshly, he really is a great guy), I only add about 3/4 the called for amount of chocolate chips.
Now, the "best in the world" part:  use an ice cream scoop and make a big ball of dough - roll it around and put it on the baking sheet - you'll only get about 6 cookies per sheet.  I have to give credit for this idea to my BFF Shari, who is very gifted and talented in the domestic goddess field.  Bake them at 350 not 375, but before they're done, move them to the top rack for a couple of minutes.  These cookies are the best!  

At least that's what all my sons' friends told me back when they were in elementary school, and that's what my hub tells me.  For my self-esteem, I must believe it, so if you find out otherwise, please keep it to yourself!  :-)

Here are a few other tips I picked up from the Food Network or somewhere like that:
-put the dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or so before you bake them.
-do not over mix the dough once you've added the flour, or you'll see what "one tough cookie" is all about.

-take the cookies out about a minute before you they turn too brown-they continue to bake after they're out of the oven, especially if you use the baking stones.
-double the recipe - you'll be glad you did after everyone eats them up in the first 30 minutes.

-they always taste better the second day (this is my opinion).
(these are not that great of pictures, but you get the idea)


ENJOY!

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:  Doing things (like making cookies) for others can totally make YOUR day!

THE LETTER OF THE DAY

For all you Sesame Street fans, "The Letter of the Day" phrase should sound familiar.  Sometimes, just for kicks, I pick out a letter for Levi, and we run around the house and go through the cabinets trying to find that letter.  Then we practice writing it and sounding out words that begin with that letter.  Today's letter was P.


Well, today, we were reading a book that had a pumpkin in it.  He said he did not like pumpkin, so to show him that he has eaten pumpkin before and he does like it, we made some Weight Watchers pumpkin muffins.  

Don't let the Weight Watchers in the title fool you - they are really good.  Very moist, very chocolatey.  If you are counting points, I think they are only 2 pts. each (if you make 24 of them).  There are a couple of ways you can make these.  This is the way I made these today.
1 chocolate cake mix
1 small can pumpkin
1 can crushed pineapple
(P is for Pumpkin and Pineapple)
That's it!  You just mix it up, put it in your muffin tin and bake it for about 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees.  Keep checking them, but it is hard to tell when they are done because they are so moist and they stick to the toothpick (if you use the toothpick test for your cakes).

Sometimes, I just add a large can of pumpkin, or I use a spice cake mix.   Beware - these are so moist, they will grow mold within a few days, so if your family does not eat them all within a day, you can freeze them to eat later.   


THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: All our dreams can come true - if we have the courage to pursue them. (Walt Disney)