Apple Crisp

Whenever I think of apple crisp I think of school lunches. By the time I was in high school I refused to buy lunch at school mostly because the food was normally pretty awful. I would either take my lunch or, usually, not eat lunch at all and save the weekly $3.00 - $4.00 to buy gas for the car. Yes, back in the old days $3.00 would buy a lot of gas….I think gas was around seventy cents a gallon, maybe less. I would save my lunch money, combine that with babysitting money and/or allowance (babysitters made about $1.00 an hour) and I could fill up the car for around $10.00 and still have plenty left for a movie or going out to eat…maybe even buy a record or two, especially If they were 45’s.  Those were the days! Anyway, back to my story. One of the few times that I would buy the school lunch was on the day they served chili. The chili was actually quite good and along with chili I would get a peanut butter and honey sandwich and, one of my favorite desserts, apple crisp. The only time I ever got apple crisp was at school, Mom never made it and back then, I had no interest in cooking but I loved that stuff.

Many years later, I was in my 20’s and living on my own, I had some apples that I had been enjoying but wanted to do something with them other than just eat them raw, so I decided to try to bake something. I was new to cooking and baking at the time so wanted to make something simple. I pulled out my Betty Crocker cookbook and found a recipe for apple crisp…it looked like it would be similar to the apple crisp I had at school.  I peeled and sliced the apples, made the topping and put it in the oven. The aroma was heavenly, I love to smell apples, cinnamon and sugar baking, reminds me of home when my mom would bake apple pies. After it had baked and cooled a bit, I tasted it and was very pleased…it tasted just as I remembered, maybe even a little better than the apple crisp I enjoyed at school.
 
Apple Crisp
Print Recipe

4 cups sliced, peeled tart apples (about 4 medium)
2/3 - 3/4 cups brown sugar - (packed)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/3 cup butter

1. Heat oven to 375 F.
2. Grease a square 8x8x2 inch pan.
3. Place apple slices in pan.
4. Mix remaining ingredients thoroughly.
5. Sprinkle over apples.
6. Bake 30 minutes or until apples are tender and topping is golden brown.
7. Serve warm and, if desired, with light cream or ice cream.

Servings: 6

Source: Betty Crocker's Cookbook
Copyright: 1969 Twenty-first Printing 1974

Place 4 cups of peeled and sliced apples in an 8x8 inch pan. I don’t know what apples I used, I had some Jonathan and Cortland that I just mixed together.

 Mix together brown sugar (I used 2/3 cup), flour, oats, cinnamon, nutmeg and softened butter.

You can either use a fork, pastry blender or, as I usually do, your hands to mix the topping.

Spread topping over apples and bake.

I baked mine just a little over 30 minutes, until the apples were tender.

Serve warm and, if desired, with light cream or ice cream

Once again, someone decided to dig in as soon as I turned my back. About half of the Apple Crisp was gone before I had a chance to eat any. It was definitely Michael approved!

Pumpkin Chip Muffins

This time of year I’m all about all things pumpkin…I love pumpkin and have many recipes that include pumpkin in the ingredients. This happens to be one of my favorite recipes because #1 it contains pumpkin, lots of cinnamon and it’s a muffin recipe. Muffins are easy to make and are great for breakfast, brunch, coffee or tea breaks or simply a snack. I discovered this recipe several years ago while searching for recipes on the King Arthur Flour site and if you like to bake as much as I do, you really should take a look at this site. Not only do they have a lot of recipes, there is also a store where you can purchase ingredients, bake ware, etc.….there is also a friendly online community where you can share recipes, discuss baking and get loads of help if you need it.

So, let’s move on to the recipe……..

Pumpkin Chip Muffins
Print Recipe

Muffins
1 2/3 cups flour
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup chocolate chips or cinnamon chips
1/4 cup toffee flavored chips (optional)
1/2 cup diced walnuts or pecans - I sometimes omit the nuts.
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup melted butter, melted vegetable shortening or 1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 cup solid-pack pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling) (half of a 15-ounce can)
1/3 cup water

Glaze*
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 tablespoon milk
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon (1/8 to 1/4)

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg. Stir in the chips of your choice. In a separate bowl, whisk together the vanilla, melted fat, eggs, pumpkin and water. Make a well in the dry ingredients, fill it with the liquid ingredients, and mix vigorously until everything is well blended, scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl as you go.

Spoon the batter into the lightly greased or paper-lined cups of a 12-cup muffin pan. The muffin cups should be filled quite full, using a generously rounded 1/4-cup of batter for each muffin. Bake the muffins in a preheated 350°F oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove the muffins from the oven; let them cool for 5 minutes, then transfer them from the pan to a rack to cool completely. Just before serving, stir together the glaze ingredients, and drizzle over the muffins.

Yield: 12 muffins.

*Although these muffins are wonderful with the glaze, I've made them without and they are still delicious.

I usually use just the cinnamon chips, toffee chips and omit the nuts.
I use 1/4 tsp. cinnamon in the glaze.
If the glaze is too stiff, add more milk. If it's too runny add a little more confectioners' sugar.

I like to buy the whole nutmeg and grate it myself....the whole nutmeg has a longer shelf life than the grated.

Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg.

Cinnamon chips.....these may be a little difficult to find. Hershey's makes cinnamon chips and they can be found in some supermarkets but I prefer to either buy mine at the local bulk food store or online at King Arthur Flour....the chips from these two places are mini and seem to melt into the batter a little better than the regular sized chips. Another online source for cinnamon chips is The Prepared Pantry, although I've never ordered from there yet.

There are two different types of toffee chips, You can either get the plain toffee chips, I can't remember who makes them, or the Heath Bar Toffee Bits. I think I like the Heath Bar Bits best because they are covered in milk chocolate.....you get two different flavors in this one.

Add chips to the dry ingredients.

Stir to combine.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the vanilla, melted fat, eggs, pumpkin and water. If you are wondering why my pumpkin is such a light color, it's because I used fresh pumpkin puree instead of canned.

Make a well in the dry ingredients, fill it with the liquid ingredients, and mix vigorously until everything is well blended.

Since I'm making these for Thanksgiving, I wanted to use some fall themed cupcake liners. Aren't they cute?

Spoon the batter into the lightly greased or paper-lined cups of a 12-cup muffin pan. The muffin cups should be filled quite full, using a generously rounded 1/4-cup of batter for each muffin.

Bake for 25-30 minutes. Now you can stop here and these muffins will be delicious but to take them over the top, make the glaze.

I had these on the cooling rack and caught Michael trying to sneek one....I told him he couldn't have one yet because they needed to cool, have glaze put on them and I needed to take photos of the finished product.

Mix together; butter, confectioners sugar, milk and cinnamon.

And here is the finished product. These are moist and light textured and full of flavor and they go great with a glass of cold milk....ask Michael, he knows, he's had three already.

Orange Cream Cake

Several years ago, as I was getting ready for work, I was watching the local morning news when a Mr. Food segment came on. I always looked forward to watching Mr. Food and seeing what recipes he would come up with. On this particular day I saw him prepare an Orange Cream Cake and while making it, he said that it tasted a little like a creamsicle. Now I’m not a big fan of artificial orange flavor but, as a child loved creamsicles and thought that this recipe sounded interesting, so I made a point of going to the computer and copying this recipe to try out at some later date. A few weeks later I decided to make this cake and take it into work where it was a hit.

I was trying to decide on a dessert to prepare for the Fourth of July and really didn’t feel like chocolate or anything too heavy or sweet. I started looking through my recipes and came upon this one, which I hadn’t made in a year or two and had actually forgotten about, so decided that it was time for it to make a comeback. I made it and served it after a meal of brats, potato salad, deviled eggs and other summertime picnic fare. The cake was light and cool and was the perfect dessert to serve after all of that food on a hot and humid summer day.

Orange Cream Cake
Print Recipe

1 package orange cake mix (18.25 ounces) - Duncan Hines is the only orange mix I can find
1 package orange-flavored gelatin (4-serving size)
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups water
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup orange juice
1 package instant vanilla pudding mix (4-serving size)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 can crushed pineapple (8 ounces) drained
1 container frozen whipped topping (8 ounces) thawed

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 9"x13" baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. In a large bowl, beat together the cake mix, gelatin mix, eggs, oil and water until well blended. Pour into the baking dish.

Bake for about 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, make frosting by beating the cream cheese and orange juice. Add the pudding mix and sugar; beat well. Stir in the pineapple until well combined, then beat in the whipped topping. Frost the cooled cake, cover loosley and chill for at least one hour before serving. Store leftovers in the refrigerator.

Makes 12 to 15 servings

**Recipe courtesy of Mr. Food

Orange cake mix

Add orange gelatin

Eggs

Then oil and water

Mix together

Pour batter into prepared 9x13 inch baking dish

Bake and cool completely

Mix together cream cheese and orange juice

Add instant vanilla pudding and sugar

Mix in drained pineapple

Mix in whipped topping 

Chill at least an hour before serving. Yikes...such a dark picture; I was losing my natural light.

Look at all of that artificial orange loveliness..... 

As Mr. Food would say, "Ooooooooo it's so good!"

Fruit Dip

I wasn’t sure whether I was going to post this recipe or not....it's such a simple little recipe that I wondered if it was even worth it. I figured that a lot of people may already know about it....I think Marzetti's even makes this and it, or something similar, can be found on many fruit trays that can be purchased from Kroger, Giant Eagle, etc. But then I decided to go ahead and post it….if even one person reads this and thinks that they would like to make this fruit dip, it would be worth it.

You’ll need:

1- 7 oz. jar marshmallow creme (I prefer Marshmallow Fluff but that isn't always easy to find....Kraft is.)
8 oz. cream cheese, softened.

Mix the two ingredients together and serve with fruit.
Print Recipe

Using an electric mixer, mix cream cheese with marshmallow creme.

I like to take a spatula and mix it a little more.....just want to make sure it's mixed completely. Then I put it in the fridge to chill a little before serving.

See…..I told you it was simple. The most difficult part is keeping away from it.....once you start eating, you may not be able to stop.