Three Simple Apple Recipes

Lucky for us, the apples have been mighty abundant this year!

First up, I made Julie Knights delicious apple bar recipe.

Julie Knight's Apple Bars

Julie Knight's Apple Bars

2 1\2 c flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 c shortening
1 egg yolk(save white for later)
2/3 cup Milk

FILLING:
6-7 lg apples,peeled an sliced
1 1\2 C white sugar
2 tbsp flour
1 tsp cinnamon

GLAZE:
1 C powdered sugar
3 tsp HOT h2o
1\2 tsp almond extract

Mix flour,salt,sugar;add shortening an mix. Beat egg yolk in a measuring cup and add milk. Add liquid to flour mixture. Take 1\2 of dough an roll out to fit a jelly roll pan.
Spread apples over crust. Sprinkle with flour,cinn and sugar. Roll out second half of dough an place over top of apples. Beat egg white until frothy an brush over top crust.
Bake @ 375 for 40 min or until brown.

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

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 tine.  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.

 

Last but not least I made this delicious, moist apple bread sent to me by my sister-in-law Tracy.

Apple Bread - Greta in her Halloween Costume

Moist Apple Bread
3 cups flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3 large eggs
1 cup canola oil
2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups diced apples
1 cup walnuts (optional)
Preheat oven to 325. Grease two 9x5x3" loaf pans, set aside. In medium bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda & salt, set aside. In mixing bowl beat the eggs, oil, sugar & vanilla together, mixing well. stir in flour mixture until just mixed. Fold in apples and walnuts and spoon into prepared loaf pans.
Sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top of mixture (or make a crumb mixture to sprinkle on top).
Bake for 1 hr 15 min or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted into middle of bread.

I spent the past day and half canning tomatoes and sauce with my friends Sooz and Kristi...details to come soon!

Thanks for reading my blog and I appreciate all your feedback, ideas, and inspiration.

Thanks,

Kristin 

The Prize Recipe

After numerous requests for the prize-winning Zucchini Chocolate Chip cookie recipe, I felt compelled to share it again!  So, here it is:

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies

ZUCCHINI CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

1 egg
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup honey or agave nector
1 T vanilla
COMBINE
1 cup white flour
1 cup whole wheat four
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 T flax seed
COMBINE

MIX BOTH TOGETHER ALONG WITH:
12 ounces of chocolate chips
1 cup finely grated zucchini

Bake at 350 for 12 minutes!  Yum!!

The basic recipe came from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - the book that literally changed my life. 

Thanks for reading,

Kristin :)   

Red Cabbage and Jalapeno Peppers

What a LUCKY weekend I've had!!  I'd fill you in on my winnings over the last 3 days, but I don't want to jinx myself.
Here's some of my loot (note, I just finished a hilly 1/2 marathon so I look rough):

Feeling LUCKY (and looking rough)

I planted many red cabbages in my garden this year, and I found some ways to cook them up.  The first recipe, Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage, is out-of-this-world-good.  Lick the bowl good.  Oooooooh, how I love this recipe.

Sweet and Sour Cabbage

Here's the recipe:  Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage

And, then I made Rachel Ray's Sauteed Red Cabbage, which was not as good.  Not even close.

Cabbage

Red Cabbage

I had LOTS of fun playing with the rest of our jalapeno peppers.  First I sliced up a bunch of peppers and baked them at 300 for one hour along with garlic and olive oil.  My plan is to freeze them yet today and then pull them out to add to chili and soups, as needed.

Baked Jalapeno

Then I made some vegetarian chili with jalapenos for lunch.    I love having the peppers separate so I can add them to my own chili (the kids aren't fans yet).

VEGETARIAN CHILI

Saute in olive oil:  1 carrot, 1 onion, and 1 celery stalk
ADD:
1/3 cup ketchup
1 cup salsa
4 cups veggie broth
4 cans mixed beans (I like black and chili beans)
3 cans tomatoes
1 package chili seasoning
1 TBSP worchestire
1 TBSP chili powder
1 TBSP cumin
1/2 TBSP paprika
2 cups of corn

Bring to a boil and then simmer for 30 minutes.

I love this chili, and I make a side of ground beef and add it for those that want it.

Next I made jalapeno hummus.  Hummus is a staple in our house, and it's so easy to make!

Jalapeno Hummus

Yes, it was pretty spicy, but it was also fantastic.   Here's the recipe:  Jalapeno Hummus

Last but not least, I made Jalapeno Jelly.  And how crazy is this, I made my own pectin.  But, first - the jelly.  Yum, yum.

Jalapeno Jelly

Here's the recipe:  Jalapeno Jelly


And yes, I made my own liquid pectin because I received some more apples and we did not have any Sure-Jel in the house and I was not planning a trip to the store.

Apple Pectin

To make pectin, you add 12 chopped apples into a pot (core and all), add water just barely covering the apples and boil until the apples turn to liquid.  Strain the mixture and the leftover liquid is pectin.  Easy, right? 

Finally, we picked our first jack-o-latern this morning.

Gus with our first pumpkin

I'm feeling so blessed today for a million different reasons, LIFE IS GOOD:)  Thanks for taking the time to read my blog.

Kristin

Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner

Thanks to a little inspiration, I decided to put myself out on a limb and enter a bake-off today and I won with this zucchini chocolate chip cookie recipe!   Thanks to my cousin Erinn for reminding me of this fabulous recipe from the book that literally changed my life, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. 

Zucchini Cookies

Awesome Zucchini Cookies!!


I LOVE pumpkin bread, and I always use the pulp from pie pumpkins.  More on that in a later blog, but today I made a great, moist, pumpkin bread. 

Pumpkin Bread

Pumpkin Bread

Last but not least, I learned that I am NO cake decorator.  Graham had to bring a 3D plant cell diagram so I thought it would be great to make a "plant cell cake."  Or not.

He did get an A minus, and Graham said his friends LOVED it, so I guess that's what counts!

Here's a look at the competition at the Fall Bake-Off.  No one was looking so I HAD to take some pics.

The competition

Wowser!  I wish I could claim that as my own!

Up next, CABBAGE!  I just had a great sweet and sour cabbage dish that I can't wait to share.

Red Cabbage

Here's a picture of a red cabbage right out of my garden today!!!  I have 3 more cabbages still in my garden, so I welcome any ideas.

Tomorrow I'm running my first trail 1/2 marathon.  Eeeek, I'm nervous!!  

Happy Cooking,

Kristin

Zucchini Recipes - The Best Yet!!

We had a hard freeze in the Northwoods this week, so I went to my garden to start prepping it for winter and I found a few zucchini's that had been hiding beneath their massive leaves, so I got busy with some more zucchini recipes.  Three of these recipes are the best to date, and I had one epic failure (happens, right?).

This morning I went on a great rainy 6 or 7 mile run with my friend Patrice and Carolyn.  Afterwards we saunaed (heaven) and then she shared 2 quarts of goats milk from her goat Myrtle.   Since it was cold, and I had zucchini, carrots and potatoes to use up, I decided to make Zucchini, Potato, Corn Chowder.  Even my kids LOVED it!

Myrtle's Zucchini, Potato Corn Chowder

Zucchini, Corn, Potato Chowder

2 tbsp. butter
1 cup of zucchini
3 potatoes cubed
1 onion
1 cup of carrots
2 cups of corn
4 cups of vegetable broth
1 cup of whole milk (I used Myrtles goat milk)
Salt, pepper and parsley

Saute zucchini, onion,  and carrots for 5 minutes.  Add broth and potatoes.  Bring to a boil and then simmer for 25 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.  Add corn and milk - done when the corn is warm.  Delish!!

The kids and I went to barn dance and party at the McKinney's in Cable last night.  The kids enjoyed the zip line, gunny sack races, and dancing in the barn.   I have some great video of Gus and Greta shaking their booty without a care in the world and here's a video of Greta on the zip line.

For the barn potluck I made Pumpkin Zucchini Bread and Zucchini Brownies.  The brownies were gone almost instantly from the potluck, and they were the moistest, most delicious brownies on the planet.  I can't wait to make them again.  In fact, I might enter them into the Cable Fall Fest Bake-Off.

Here's both recipes: 

Pumpkin Zucchini Bread and Zucchini Brownies

I used up some pumpkin from last year (more on pie pumpkins in a later blog) and for the brownies I used my Grandma Lundberg's brownie frosting recipe.  I do not like brownies unless they have good frosting, so I had to use my Grandma's recipe.   

Pumpkin Zucchini Bread and Yummy Zucchini Brownies Photgraphed in my Grandma's Dishes

Well, I had three great recipes and one failure.  I found a crock pot recipe for vegetable strata calling for all of the veggies I needed to use up.  Too bad it made the vegetables mushy and grey...yuck.   I like my vegetables with a little crunch and color.  At least the tomato slice and bread were good!

Grey Mush

 

Gus insists that I include a video of him walking into a hay trap.  He's such a good actor....lol.

Thanks to the McKinney's for making our weekend grand.  When I tucked Gus in last night he said, "this was the best night of my life....well, next to the Packer game."

Happy Cooking,

Kristin