Candied Apple Pork Chops

These little babies were YUMMMY! I was looking for a new spin on pork chops and i had two apples laying around so i thought i would put them to good use! These were a really tasty dinner that didn't take any time to prepare but seem almost gourmet!

I baked the pork chops with just a little salt and pepper seasonings. While those were cooking i sliced my apples into thin strips and then placed them in a pot on the stove where i had already melted 2 tbsp of butter. I added about 1/4 c of brown sugar and maybe a tsp or two of cinnamon (sorry i'm not an exact cook) and cooked them on a low medium heat until they were soft. Once my pork chops were done i poured the apples over top and served! YUMMM!

This is SURE to be a kid pleaser!

Apple Bread

Thanks to Katie I had something that I could make ahead and bring to my parents house for Thanksgiving! This was such a tasty treat! As you can see by the picture below it was very much enjoyed! We arrived on Wednesday night around midnight or so and this is what was left by 8am the next morning!

Here's what you need to do:
Ingredients:
1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 smidgen fresh ground nutmeg
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. oil
1 egg, plus 1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 c. apples (about 2 medium), diced
1/2 c. pecans, coarsely chopped

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 325 degrees and prepare a loaf pan (or 4 mini loaf pans).
-In medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg and whisk to combine thoroughly, set aside.
-In bowl of stand mixer, combine oil and sugar and beat to combine thoroughly.
-Add egg and yolk and beat to combine thoroughly.
-Beat in vanilla.
-Turn mixer to low and add flour mixture, a little at a time, beating until just combined.
-Stir in apples and pecans.
-Scrape batter into prepared loaf pan (batter will be quite thick) and spread evenly.
-Place loaf pan into oven and bake until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 80-90 minutes (45 minutes for mini loaves).
-Let cool before serving.

Apple Cranberry Cobbler

So it was a typical Sunday at home, went to church, now spending a lazy day on the couch with football... when I was thinking "Wow I've got all these wonderful ingredients around the house, what should i make???", and I came up with Apple Cranberry Cobbler! I adapted this recipe from the Rhubarb-Strawberry Cobbler recipe in my Good Housekeeping cook book.

First take about 4 Golden Delicious Apples and peal and core them.
Put them in a medium pot with about Half a bag of Cranberries (washed) and Half a cup of sugar.
Heat until tender and place in a medium/small casserole pan so it covers the bottom like so...

For the Dough:
Combine Half a cup of flour, 1/4 cup of sugar, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/8 tsp nutmeg with a wisk.
Then cut in 4 tbsp of margarine or butter until mixture is crumbly. Stir in 2/3ish cup of milk until it forms a dough (give or take the amount of milk... I used too much so i had to add in more of the flour mixture, etc until it was correct)
Knead this and then roll out until about 1/2 inch thick.
I used a small flower shaped cookie cutter to make the shapes.
Lay them on top of the apple mixture...

I then took the time to make this EXTRA healthy and drizzle caramel and white chocolate on top! Bake for around 20mins (mine took slightly less time) and enjoy!

Be careful though... mine didn't last past the day I made it... for some reason mold started forming on it the next day (even though i sealed it and refrigerated it)... so enjoy it same day!

Apple Pie!

I have been dying to blog this, my mom's apple pie! Now mine doesn't look terribly beautiful but it's sooo yummy!
Ingredients
Filling
8 c thinly sliced golden delicious apples
1 c sugar
1/3 c flour
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
dash of salt
mix all together

fill in a pie shell

Topping
1 c flour
1/2 c butter
3/4 c brown sugar
mix together to make a crumble topping and sprinkle over filling

Heat oven to 425
Wrap an aluminium foil tent over the pie and bake for around 40mins
Take off tent and cook for an additional 10-15 minutes, until the top is golden brown!
Enjoy!

Return of the Apple bars!

I was just going to replace the old picture from my previous post about these (since that pic was a little blurry, but I thought these deserved another post since they were sooo amazing. I made them because Chris's good friend from college was coming into town and I wanted him to have plenty to eat, but man he and Chris ate about half of them, LAST NIGHT! For Reals! So Here's to the Apple Bars! YEA!
This is Our friend Rowdy enjoying a beer after driving four and a half hours about to see us!

Wilton Course 1, class 2

So this week we practiced our star tip! The book wanted us to do rainbows or something equally stupid, so since I enjoy being different I decided what a GREAT time of year to do a Fall Cake (I know I know ingenious)!

I started with a gluten free pumpkin spice cake recipe from Karina's Kitchen. It was amazing! Even Chris LOVED it!

Recipe follows:
3 extra large organic free-range eggs
2 cups organic light brown sugar
2/3 cup light olive oil
1 15-oz can cooked pumpkin (or two cups of fresh cooked pumpkin)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups gluten-free flour mix* see notes
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 10 x 13" baking pan with greased foil or parchment.

Beat the eggs in a large mixing bowl till light and frothy; add the brown sugar, beat till smooth; add the oil, pumpkin, and vanilla; beat to combine.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (the GF flour mix through sea salt). Add the dry ingredients into the wet mixture a little at a time and beat to combine- for two minutes.

Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan. Bake in a pre-heated oven for 30 minutes, or until the cake is firm and a wooden pick inserted into the center emerges clean.

It is a thick batter so make sure when you put it in a pans you shake it to get it to level out.

Then for the Filling!!! I did an APPLE PIE filling! OH YEA!
Basically I just used my pampered chef chopper to get 3 granny smith apples (skinned and cored) into TINY little bitty pieces. Then I put them in a pot with around 1/2c sugar, 2 or so tbsp of gluten free flour, a tbsp or so of cinnamon, some nutmeg, and a bit of butter and I cooked until softish (can't you tell it was an exact science~).
I then lined my bottom layer with butter cream icing and filled it in and topped it off with the other layer.

My icing is just regular Wilton butter cream with almond flavoring. I would have preferred to use cream cheese frosting but the point of this cake was for my decorating class, not for personal enjoyment. HAHAH!

And that's all... enjoy the pics while I enjoy eating it!



Awww I'm so cute putting my wedding date on it!


Yea as soon as I got home Chris was like "WOW looks great woman! Cane we eat it now?" So we did!
Just LOOK at that yummy filling!

Apple Bars Yumm!

Well we can all thank Katie for this wonderful yumminess! I saw these on her blog and KNEW I needed to make them! They combine my favorite desert items, apples and SUGAR! Plus Chris will be back in town today and I knew he would love them so I quickly (seriously it was quick!) threw them together last night!

Ingredients:

2 c. 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 (I must admit I thought this was a typo and didn't use this much but it still turned out great but could have been better I'm sure!)
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 (I may have taken this work TOO literally! lol) 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)