Apple Crisp

Well it's been an awful long time since I have contributed to this blog!  Time to get on it!  I made this apple crisp last night for a potluck and it went so fast I barely got a piece!!  Unfortunately I didn't get time for a picture of it all nicely done but here is a picture of what was leftover lol!!



I found the recipe on allrecipes.ca

Apple Crisp:

10 cups of all purpose apples (I used macintosh), peeled, cored and sliced
1 cup of white sugar
1 TBSP flour
1 TSP ground cinnamon
1/2 cup water


Crumble:

1 cup quick cooking oats
1 cup of flour
1 cup brown sugar, packed
 1/4 TSP baking powder
1/4 TSP baking soda
1/2 cup butter, melted

Instruction:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Place all apples in a 9x13 pan, mix white sugar, 1 tbsp flour, 1 tsp ground cinnamon and sprinkle over apples.  Pour water evenly over all.

Combine oats, flour, brown sugar, BP, BS, and melted butter.  Crumble evenly over apple mixture.

Bake for 45 mins.

Excuse this picture as well it tastes WAY better than it looks:

Peanut Butter Chocolate Banana Cream Pie....oh yes, you read that correctly.

ACK!!! Be careful when you make this dessert, people may attack in order to get it away from you. Dangerous stuff!!  Also DO NOT, under any circumstances, make this while you are alone!!!  You WILL attempt to eat it all!!  I made this for a potluck dinner and just like the apple crisp it went FAST.... so AGAIN, this bad picture taker only got a pic of what was leftover.  SIGH!!! and I did such a good job on decorating it!! Oh well, it really only matters how it tasted and that was OMG.... yup, OMG, not sure what else to say....OMG  did I say that yet?

Found this recipe on the good old Kraftrecipes.com site.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Banana Cream Pie

Ingredients:

35 vanilla wafers, finely crushed (about 1 cup)  (I used Nilla cookies)

1/4 cup butter melted

2 oz bakers semi sweet chocolate, divided (I used a handful of chocolate chips)

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter, (I used natural peanut butter just to take down the sugar content a bit)

2 bananas cut in half length-wise (I used 4 to make sure it covered the crust)

2 pkg (102g) vanilla instant pudding

2 cups cold milk

2 cups Cool Whip, thawed, divided

2 Tbsp salted peanuts coarsely chopped

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees F

Mix wafer crumbs (I crushed them in a ziplock bag by rolling over them with a rolling pin) and butter until blended and press into a 9 inch pie pan, bake 5-8 min, or until golden brown. Cool completely.  Meanwhile, make chocolate curls from 1/2 oz chocolate.

Microwave remaining 1 1/2oz chocolate and PB 30 seconds, stir if not smooth repeat for another 30 seconds until mixture is smooth.  Place bananas in crust; drizzle with melted chocolate.

Beat pudding mixes and milk in a large bowl with whisk for 2 mins.  Stir in 1 cup Cool Whip.  Spread over bananas; top with remaining cool whip.

Refrigerate (IF you can fight off the masses that long) 3 hours.  Top with chocolate curls and chopped peanuts just before serving.

I highly suggest wearing riot gear while serving, it can get violent!!

Excuse the pic it WAS pretty, but this was all that was left!! lol!

Banana Choc Chip Cookies

When Tamara post THIS recipe, I knew that I had to try it.  I'm a sucker for a good cookie and her declaration that they were delicious was too tempting not to bake this.

I even packaged some up and fed them to the work vultures.  The kids both really liked these.  Husband of Cheerios liked them too but we both felt that they were less like a cookie and more like a loaf in cookie form.  :)  

While I would not say that they are the best cookies in the world (choc chip) or even the second best cookies in the world (oatmeal raisin)...they were pretty tasty.  A great way to use up bananas turning brown on your counter top!

Delicious Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies!!

Ok so as I sit here licking my lips waiting for my cookies to bake I realized it's been a while since I posted here so I'll let you in on a most delicious recipe.

2/3 cup butter (152 g)
1 cup sugar (201 g)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cup flour (288 g)
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup mashed bananas
1/2 pkg chocolate chips

Directions

cream butter until it's nice and smooth, add sugar, eggs and vanilla and mix well.  In a small bowl mix dry ingredients, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt then add to wet ingredients and mix well.  Then add mashed bananas and chocolate chips.  Drop by spoonful onto baking sheet, I covered my baking sheets in parchment paper but that's not usually a necessity but it sure helps with the dishes!

Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes (my oven was 12 minutes exactly) or until golden brown. Makes about 3 dozen or so.

Last time I made these, they never even made it off the cooling racks before they were gone, definitely a hit!!

Oh yeah I know you wanna get in there and eat that cookie dough, come on you KNOW you want to...but I would never do that...no no, someone told me that was bad for me so I never did it again...nope nope never again....ya ok so I lied, cookie dough is one of the best parts of life!!  I've eaten cookie dough since I was a kid and never once did I get sick except of course when I ate too much!! heehee!!

BEEP!! There goes the oven timer, just in time... cookies are DONE YAY!!!!  Who wants one???

Summer Borcht and buns!

OK so this is a soup that you have to keep an open mind about, it s a recipe passed down many generations from large Mennonite families. This particular version comes from my grandmother who is greatly missed, she had 18 children, so you see the recipe is large! I still make it in this quantity because we put it in several containers in the fridge and eat it for a week! My family goes CRAZY for it, even my 8 year old loves it. I'd have to say it's an acquired taste. I'm posting it for the brave few who might try it, once you get a taste for it, you will make it in the quantities that I make lol!! It's always so sad when it's done. It is called summer borscht because it is FILLED with summer greens as you will see in the recipe, we used to call it marijuana soup when we were young and thought we were funny.

Now there is one ingredient that is tough to find, either you grow it and freeze it like I do, or sometimes you can find it in those nice little plastic containers of fresh herbs in the grocery store, but as of late, I cannot find it anymore. Luckily this can be substituted quite well with...another odd ingredient... BEET LEAVES lol!! Shame on me, I have been known to sneak a few leaves off the beets in the grocery store cause well...other people just throw them in the garbage lol!! TERRIBLE!! I had another option once, my neighbor brought me to his backyard to show me his gardens and he happened to grow a lot of beets. He also mentioned once that urine was really good for growing plants and vegetables....also he is such an awesome environmentalist that he doesn't waste any of his bathwater by simply draining it, he uses it to water his plants, what an awesome guy!! Anyway, short story long, I now shoplift the beet leaves from the grocery store....

This is best served up with FRESH buns, recipe to follow. I would give you a much better recipe but heck I am not my mother and cannot make a freezer full of buns at one time, so I sufficed with this recipe I found online. If you are interested in the BIG recipe of mouth watering buns/bread I can certainly pass it on and I will take a picture of how much it makes next time my mom makes her recipe lol!!  P.S.  My soup is boiling in the picture hence the bubbles on top!

Summer Borscht
(feel free to half, or even quarter this recipe, I suggest quarter when you first try it, remembering to keep an open mind and have no expectations for what it will taste like, it is like no other potato soup you will have tried)

10 cups soup stock made by boiling a smoked ham and 2 onions chopped for 1 hour.

Add 2 cups of a mixture of chopped greens including:
Sorrel
beet leaves
green onions (about 3 bunches)
FRESH dill (around 3 tbsp)

and around 6 cups cubed potatoes
salt to taste

Cook until potatoes are done.

take off the heat and let cool for a while, then add 1 litre of buttermilk and bring to a boil again.

then WA LA, you are done! Here is what it looks like... generally, this soup had probably more greens but hey, whatever floats your boat.

ok on to the buns!

Sweet Dinner Rolls

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 1/2 cup warm milk
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup butter, softened

Directions

1. Place water, milk, egg, 1/3 cup butter, sugar, salt, flour and yeast in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select Dough/Knead and First Rise Cycle; press Start.
2. When cycle finishes, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide dough in half. Roll each half into a 12 inch circle, spread 1/4 cup softened butter over entire round. Cut each circle into 8 wedges. Roll wedges starting at wide end; roll gently but tightly. Place point side down on ungreased cookie sheet. Cover with clean kitchen towel and put in a warm place, let rise 1 hour. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
3. Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes, until golden.

Hard boiled and Deviled eggs

First I started with boiled eggs, now for the event I went to I made a total of 72 deviled eggs...yikes!! So I wanted a fool proof way to peel all those crazy eggs so I found a recipe for fool proof boiled eggs YAY! Here it is:

Hard Boiled Eggs

1. Fill a pot with water and add a handful of salt (optional, for hard boiled eggs) and set the temp to high. I’ve yet to try the salt, but many readers have recommended this tip for even better peeling results. According to ehow, salt should be omitted when soft boiled eggs are desired. Add your eggs making sure the water covers the entire egg. Bring it to ROLLING BOIL, but don’t continue to boil. Once it begins, remove it from the heat and put a lid on it. Set your timer for 15 minutes.

2. Ding! Pour the hot water off and immediately fill your pot with cold water. Add as much ice as you can to this water. When it melts in a few minutes, add more. The water should be icy cold when you put your hand in it. If not, continue adding ice.

3. After about 10-15 minutes, pour NEARLY all of the water off reserving about an inch.

4. Put the lid on and now it’s time to play bumper cars. You heard me, shake those babies bumping them together back and forth gently (edited via reader’s suggestions). You’ll look ridiculous, but I promise it’s worth the goofy look so you’re not peeling each one under cold running water. Just continue to shake, shake, shake for about a minute and voila! When you remove the lid nearly all of your shell has fallen off the egg and they EASILY peel off without peeling the egg. Use running cool water if necessary.

Now for the deviled eggs that I tried and tested and they all tasted great! I'll put them in order of popularity.

Bacon Cheddar Deviled Eggs

12 eggs

1/2 cup mayonnaise

4 slices of bacon

2 tbsp finely shredded cheddar cheese

1 tbsp mustard ( i used dijon)

BLT Deviled Eggs

6 large eggs

1/4 cup mayonnaise

3 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled plus more for garnish if desired

2 cherry tomatoes, seeded and finely chopped

1 tbsp dried parsley flakes ( I used fresh)

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Fresh Herb Deviled Eggs

6 large eggs

3 tbsp mayonnaise

1/4 cup chopped fresh flat leaf parsley

1/8 cup chopped fresh chives plus more for garnish

1/4 tsp fresh chopped dill

1/4 tsp chopped fresh thyme

1/8 tsp chopped fresh sage

1/8 tsp chopped fresh basil

Lemon-Pepper Deviled Eggs

6 large eggs

2 1/2 tbsp mayonnaise

juice of half a lemon

1/8 tsp lemon zest minced

1/2 tsp lemon pepper

lemon zest curls and lemon pepper for garnish

For all the recipes you hard boil the eggs and cut them in half lengthwise scoop out the yolk and I put mine in the mixer and added the ingredients and whipped them up, sometimes you have to play with the amount of mayo to get a good consistency. After whipping I put the mixture in a piping bag and piped them into the eggs whites and garnished according to the recipe. These were all a big hit, the lemon ones were really good but definitely a different taste than most people are used to. Every single one of my 72 eggs were eaten and people started asking me if I did this as a business and asked for my card LOL!!!

Guacamole!!!!

I tried this recipe out tonight....success!! This was yummy!

Guacamole

3 avocados peeled pitted and mashed
1 lime, juiced
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup diced onion
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
2 roma tomatoes, diced
1 tsp minced garlic
1 pinch ground cayenne pepper (optional)....I didn't add the pepper cause I was trying to get kids to eat it lol!

mash together avocados, lime juice and salt. Mix in onion, cilantro, tomatoes and garlic. Stir in cayenne pepper. Refridgerate 1 hour for best flavor or serve immediately.


turned out to be the best guacamole I've ever had.