Apple Favorites

My Great Aunt Helen is a famous cook, quite literally. She started the Norske Nook, has a few published cookbooks and has been on the Letterman show. For my wedding shower, she gave me a recipe for this delicious and easy Pecan Caramel Apple Pie.

Pecan Caramel Apple Pie

1/2 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup pecan halves

5 cups of apples

2 T flour

1 tsp cinnamon

2/3 cup sugar

Pie crust for double pie

Pat melted butter in bottom of pie tin. Sprinkle brown sugar over bottom and sides and then pecans. Roll pie crust and lay on top of this. Place apples, sugar, cinnamon and flour over apples. Place pie crust on top, flute edges and bake at 350 for 1 hour till done.

Remember to use a large pie tin and also put a baking sheet underneath the pie because it tends to bubble over.  When I serve the pie, I like to flip it over so the caramel goodness is on top.  Delicious!!!

Caramel Pecan Apple Pie

I finally mastered apple butter.  The first time I attempted to make it I totally failed because I added apple cider vinegar instead of apple cider - duh!  All that time and all those apples wasted.  Luckily, my friend Heather Harrington shared some apples from her orchard and I tried a different recipe then the original apple cider recipe.  Here's the one I used:

Peel and core 30 apples
1 - 2 cups of sugar (I used 1 cup sugar and 1 cup of honey)
1/2 cup apple cider
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt

Add apples to a crockpot.  Add sugar cinnamon and salt on top.  Cook on low in the crockpot for approximately 10 hours on low.  Continuously cook down until the apple mixture looks and tastes like apple butter.  Once it's done, either jar and add to your fridge or use the canning process (water bath canner - 10 minutes).

Apple Butter

Lucky me, I was able to spend some time at one of my favorite places on earth - the American Club.

 

 

American Club - the room

 

American Club

And I ate at my favorite Italian place EVER - Il Ritrovo's (if you visit Sheybogan it's a MUST).

Il Ritrovo's Pizza - to die for

I need to wrap this up because I'm on my way to a class reunion.

What's your favorite apple recipe? 

Thanks,

Kristin

American Club, Craisins and Aunt Paula's Famous Flapjacks!

Even though it's 7 hours away, the American Club is like a home away from home for me.  During this visit, I experienced periods of deep inner peace.  Granted, this was my first quiet period away from the kids since my trip to Utah last October (my trip to NYC this summer was awesome, but not exactly quiet), so that could explain the blissful feeling.  I've had a headache for about a month and when I was there I was "headache free."  Twelve hours of being home, and my headache is back, but it was nice to have a breather.

American Club, picture taken with my phone

And, I didn't leave the campus much, so instead enjoyed many of their different restaurants on site.  Here's just a little sample of the grounds (taken with my phone).  Keep in mind, we haven't had live plants or leaves on the trees since early September, so what a treat to see some live vegetation again.

American Club Grounds

 



My room-service meal was out of this world, but my outing to the Immigrant Room was by far the most amazing meal of the week (possibly best of my life).    Here's a sample of the what the table looked like:

First Round at the Immigrant Room

And, the food:

Course 2 - Sushi!

I could go on and on about this place.  If you know me, and see me, ask me for the details because I love to talk about this place.  The only other place that runs a close second (IMO), is Sundara in the Dells. 

But, onto my cooking in the moment!  When I got home Graham helped me make craisins with my remaining cranberries.

Craisin Making Graham

SUGAR-FREE CRAISINS

I boiled 2 cups of cranberries with 1 cup of sweetener (I used agave nectar, steevia and honey).  Barely cover the cranberries and sweetener with water and boil for about 7 minutes until the cranberries "pop".  You'll hear it / see it happen, it's kinda' cool.  After I popped them, I baked them for 8 hours on 170 degrees.  Yes that's right, 8 hours.  Easy - yes, takes a long time - yes, but we have wonderful CRAISINS.

With the craisins we made my Aunt Paula's famous pancakes and famous syrup.

Aunt Paula's Famous Cakes and Syrup

BUTTERMILK PANCAKES

2 Eggs

2 Cups Buttermilk

4 Tbsp Vegetable Oil

2 Cups Flour

2 Tbsp Sugar

2 Tsp Baking Powder

1 Tsp Soda

1 Tsp Salt

Mix all together. May need to add more buttermilk. Makes 8 large

pancakes. I add cranraisins or blueberries

And, here's the yummy syrup recipe:

SPECIAL SYRUP

1 Cup Butter

3 Cups Brown Sugar

1 Cup Maple Syrup

1 Cup Whipping Cream

Melt butter in saucepan over low heat, blend brown sugar until syrupy.

Simmer over low heat 5 minutes. Stir in maple syrup. Blend in whipping

cream until smooth. Best served warm.

 HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Eeek, this next picture even scares me - and it was taken of me at the American Club.  Spooky......

Happy Spooking,

Kristin