Apple Crumb Pie

I was headed to a mother’s day bbq with Gary’s family, and I wanted to make a dessert. The unanimous vote was for apple pie. I found this recipe on allrecipes.com and tried. The first ever apple pie I made was also from all recipes (I have not made it since I’ve started blogging yet).

This was a great alternative to the lattice top pie I’ve made before. The taste was pretty good, but the crumb got a little soggy, and it was slightly liquidy when I sliced into it. I baked it the night before to be eaten on Sunday. I think it was because I was heading out the door after I baked it, and covered it partially when I left the house. Otherwise, it was a great pie…nice and tart and sweet.

Apple Crumb Pie:
Source: All Recipes

Ingredients:
1 (9 inch) pie shell (I used homemade recipe here, but used margarine instead of butter)
6 cups thinly sliced apples (I used 6 granny smith apples)
1 tablespoon lemon juice (optional)
3/4 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup raisins (optional) (I did not use)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional) (I did not use)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 tablespoons butter (I used margarine)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

Place sliced apples in a large bowl. Sprinkle with lemon juice if desired. In a small bowl, mix together white sugar, 2 tablespoons flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Sprinkle mixture over apples. Toss until apples are evenly coated. Stir in raisins and walnuts if desired. Spoon mixture into pastry shell.

In a small bowl mix together 1/2 cup flour and brown sugar. Cut in butter or margarine until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle mixture over apple filling. I folded over the excess pie crust over the apples (This is optional. You can also trim it off). Cover top loosely with aluminum foil.

Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 25 to 30 minutes, until top is golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.

White Chocolate Orange Cranberry Cookies

Here’s another batch of cookies I made for my mom and aunts. I also brought a few over for Gary’s family when we went over for a mother’s day bbq.

These cookies are so good! I’m glad I gave them away, otherwise I would have sat there and ate the whole batch in one sitting. These are refreshing with the hint of orange flavor. I love the orange and chocolate combo.

The only change I made was reducing the amount of nuts to 1/2 cup and adding a cup of dried cranberries to the batter.

White Chocolate Orange Cranberry Cookies
Adapted from: All Recipes

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon orange zest
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups white chocolate chips
1 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and orange zest. Stir the flour, baking soda, and salt together; mix into the creamed mixture. Stir in the white chocolate chips, chopped walnuts, and cranberries. Drop tablespoonfuls of dough onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow to cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Mini White Chocolate Cranberry Oat Fudge Cups

I first saw this recipe when I searched for white chocolate recipes a few months back. I have just gotten the chance to use up some of my white chocolate chips that I bought in bulk. This looked like a great combo for a cookie. I was baking for Mother’s Day, and this was one of the cookies I made for my mom and my aunts.

I made the recipe as written, however as I reread the ingredients while starting this post, I realized I omitted the vanilla in the fudge center. When I was making this, I was getting aggravated at pouring the fudge in the cups because it didn’t pour in so smoothly. Although this was  fun recipe to try, it’s a bit tedious for me. I made a huge mess trying to get the fudge into the oat cups. These were very cute indeed. The cups had a saltier taste to it than I expected. It was a nice combo of salty and sweet.

Mini White Chocolate Cranberry Oat Fudge Cups
Source: Baking Blonde

Oat cups:
1 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup brown sugar
3 cups oatmeal
1 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup dried cranberries, chopped fine
1/3 cup walnuts, chopped fine

Filling:
2 cups chopped white chocolate
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°.
Spray a mini muffin tin with PAM cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, beat together the butter and brown sugar until creamy. Add the oatmeal, flour, salt, and cinnamon. Mix until combined. Add chopped cranberries and walnuts and mix until incorporated.

Drop dough by tablespoon into the prepared wells of a mini muffin tin. Using a tart press or the back of a teaspoons press down on the crust mixture until the crust is formed into a small well. (I used my fingers)
Bake for 5-6 minutes.

While crusts are baking make the White Chocolate Fudge Filling:
In a small sauce pan over low heat, heat milk and chips until melted and smooth. Remove from heat and add vanilla extract.

Remove the partially baked crusts from oven (should not be brown). If needed, gently use the tart press or the back of a teaspoon to press the crust down to form a well (crust may puff a bit while baking making it difficult to fill the wells unless you press the crust down a bit).

Fill each mini crust with a teaspoon of White Chocolate Fudge being careful not to get any on the mini muffin tin or it will burn.

Return to oven and bake for another 3-4 minutes.

Remove from oven and allow to cool at room temperature.

Chill for 20 minutes or until firm.

Using a sharp knife, gently pry the Fudge Cups out of the tin. They should pop out if you greased it properly and the cups are firm.

Chicken Sausage Stew

I saw some chicken sausages on sale at the supermarket, and I bought 2 flavors to try out. I got the sweet Italian and the sweet apple. They’re fully cooked, so all I had to do was heat them up in the pan.

Since I don’t eat pork sausages, I found this to be a good alternative. I liked it because it felt lighter and than even turkey sausages. Gary didn’t like it as much as I did. He thought it tasted odd. He’s fine with turkey sausages, but I guess chicken is going a little bit to far… I still have to try the sweet apple flavor. Hopefully he finds that better tasting than the sweet Italian flavor.

Chicken Sausage Stew

Ingredients:
olive oil
1 onion, halved and sliced
1 package of Italian Style chicken sausages, casings removed
1 carrot, grated
1 tomato, diced
1/2 cup dry white wine
salt and pepper to taste
pinch paprika
1/2 cup frozen sweet peas

Directions:
Add enough olive oil to coat the bottom of a pan. Add onions and cook for a few minutes. Break chicken sausages into chunks and add into the pan.

Add in diced tomato and carrot. Cook for 5-10 minutes or until sausages are heated through.

Add in wine, seasonings and peas. Cover and cook for 5 minutes.

Remove from heat, serve over rice.

Potato Zucchini Carrot Pancakes

When I saw this recipe pop up in my reader, I new I had to try it. We’re both suckers for great potato recipes, and this was indeed a great recipe.

The original post mentioned she omitted the carrots, but I replaced one of the zucchini with carrots and it was great. This is great as a side or as a replacement for potato only hash browns.

I wasn’t able to squeeze this as dry as I would like, but if you want to keep it crispy, I do recommend getting as much of the liquid out as possible. I think I’m going to have to invest in some cheesecloth or something sooner or later.

Potato-Zucchini Pancakes
Adapted from: Culinary Infatuation

Ingredients:
3 medium red potatoes shredded and squeezed dry 
1 medium zucchini shredded and squeezed dry
1 carrot shredded and squeezed dry
2 eggs beaten 
3 Tbsp AP flour
1/2 and onion finely chopped or (1/2 a cup)
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste
Canola oil

Directions:
Put shredded potato, zucchini and carrot in a medium sized bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix thoroughly.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add the canola oil (enough to cover the bottom of the skillet).

Scoop out about 1/3 cup (or more if you want them larger) and put in pan. Flatten with a spatula and let cook until crispy on that side (about 4 minutes).