Saturday, October 19, 2013

Taste of Fall

This week I made some good use from our little apple harvest last weekend (and I have more planned for Sunday too). Thanks to Pinterest, I found all of these recipes...AND I actually make recipes I pinned. I swear I have so many recipes and ideas pinned, with the intention of really trying them but just never get around to it. Am I the only one who feels like this?  Well I'm finally getting some completed!!! Yay me! 
 
First up, Apple Crisp for the freezer!!
I love me some warm apple crisp straight out of the oven so I knew I wanted to make a few small dishes of it for the freezer so we can have it whenever we want. This recipe was super easy. It actually calls for the juice and zest of both lemons and oranges but not having either fresh fruit in house, I only used lemon juice. 
 
Apple Crisp
Source: website

Ingredients:
  • 5 pounds apples, I used Red Delicious from our own trees
  • Grated zest of 1 lemon (optional)
  • 3 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ground nutmeg
For the topping:
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
  • 1/2 tsp kosher salt
  • 1 cup oatmeal
  • 1/2 pound cold unsalted butter, diced
Method:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spry a 9×13 baking dish or 2- 8×8 pans. Peel, core, and cut the apples into large wedges. Combine the apples with the zest, lemon juice, sugar, and spices. Pour into the dish.

For the topping combine the flour, sugars, salt, oatmeal, and cold butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until the mixture is crumbly and the butter is the size of peas. Scatter evenly over the apples.

At this point I covered both pans with lids, wrote directions on the top for future reference and placed them in the freezer.  When you bake the apple crisp you will want to place them on a cookie sheet for just over an hour until the topping it brown and the apples are bubbling.

***

Did you know it was National Boss's Day this past Wednesday? Husband failed at that one, he didn't even wish me a Happy Boss's Day ;)~ 
Although we did celebrate it at work with a potluck! I wanted to use some of those apples so I decided to try out this recipe for a Apple Snicker's Salad. Who doesn't love chocolate, caramel and apples together?!?! I mean, how can anyone go wrong with those 3 ingredients right there?


Snickers Caramel Apple Salad
From: Chef in Training

Ingredients
  • 6 regular sized Snickers bars
  • 4 medium apples
  • 1 (5.1oz) pkg vanilla pudding, dry do not prepare
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1 (16oz) tub Cool Whip, thawed to room temp
  • 1/2 cup caramel ice cream topping
Whisk together the vanilla pudding packet, milk and cool whip until well combined. Chop apples and snickers bars into bite sized pieces. Stir together chopped apples and snickers into the pudding mixture in a large bowl. Drizzle with caramel topping. Chill for at least 1 hour before serving.

***
 
Last up, pumpkin pancakes!!!
Okay so these don't have anything do to with apples but they are totally Fall! I've been wanting to make some health(ier) pancakes for the fam, especially since Dave loves breakfast for dinner so much but isn't so good at eating his fruits and veggies. I feel like I have to treat him like my toddler sometimes and "hid" them in things! LOL

Pumpkin Pancakes
  • 1 3/4 - 2 cups milk 
  • 1 cup pumpkin puree
  • 1 egg (or whites of two eggs)
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil 
  • 2 cups flour ( I used half all-purpose and half whole wheat flour)
  • 3 tbsp brown sugar
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp ground allspice
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp ground ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
1.Mix dry ingredients first, then add wet ingredients. Blend until smooth.

2.Heat skillet and grease with butter or fat free cooking spray. Leave on low heat.

3.Scoop batter onto skillet, wait until pancake starts to rise, about 2-3 minutes, then flip for another 1-2 minutes. Add a splash of milk if the batter gets too thick.

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