Blueberry Squares

Oh yeah. These are good. Not just good. Really good.

I saw these Saturday over at All That Splatters. They were Lori's contribution to the Saturday Blog Showcase. I knew I needed to make these and that I needed to make them right away!

So I did. :-)

Just in time for our friends Cathy and Dave to come by. They were still warm and sooo delicious. And more important, they were super easy to make. Even me who usually hates baking didn't mind making them and in fact, can't wait to make them again.

The only downside was that they didn't last nearly long enough.

Blueberry Squares (Fruit Squares)
Recipe from Fork-Knife-Spoon

1-1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon almond extract
1-1/2 cup flour
2 cup fresh blueberries or cranberries or other berries
1/2 cup chopped, toasted cashew nuts (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter the 9x13 pan you are using.

In a large bowl, beat the sugar and eggs until creamy and smooth. Whisk in the melted butter and almond extract. Add flour and fold until incorporated. Fold in blueberries and nuts (if using) carefully so as not to break the fruit and color the whole batter purple.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for about 40-50 minutes or until tester inserted into center comes out clean. Transfer to a rack to cool completely (takes about an hour really!). Cut squares and serve.

 

Head on over to Thibeault's Table to see what everyone else made this week!

Serendipity: Banana Bread Pudding

After being sick all week (and not visiting the grocery store), my family was invited to an impromptu birthday party for a friend. After a moment of panic, wondering what I could possibly make, I discover a brilliant recipe for Banana Bread Pudding over at Kitchen Scoop. Beverly Mills and Alicia Ross, authors of Desperation Dinners, are experts at creating easy-to-make recipes that taste amazing. And as luck would have it, I'd purchased some bananas and a bag of Hawaiian Sweet Bread before getting ill that for some reason had been overlooked by all the starving children while I was too sick to cook. The Banana Bread Pudding went together quickly. It tasted great too. I can only imagine how good it would have tasted with the caramel sauce. It'll have to wait until next time because I was in a hurry and walked out without the sauce. ::sigh:: In my haste I walked out without the camera too so I don't have a picture of the Banana Bread Pudding either. Here's a picture of Hank, the German Wire-Haired Pointer instead.

Banana Bread Pudding
Recipe courtesy of  Kitchen Scoop

6 cups soft bread cubes, from French bread or white sandwich bread, loosely packed
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter
2 cups heavy or whipping cream
1 cup milk*
5 egg yolks*
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups mashed ripe banana
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Rich Caramel Sauce, optional for serving*
Vanilla ice cream, optional for serving

Lightly grease a 13 X 9-inch glass baking dish with butter. Set aside.

Cut bread into bite-size cubes, (do not use the crust if it is tough), and place in prepared dish. Set aside.

Place butter in a microwave-safe measuring cup or bowl, and microwave, covered with a paper towel, on high, until melted, about 45 seconds. Drizzle butter over bread cubes, tossing cubes while drizzling butter. Stir and toss cubes to distribute butter as evenly as possible. Set aside.

Pour cream and milk into a small saucepan, and bring it just to a boil over medium heat. Meanwhile, place egg yolks in a small mixing bowl, and beat lightly with whisk. When cream mixture boils, remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Whisk in egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla. Whisk well. Pour mixture over bread cubes. Cover dish with foil, and refrigerate at least 1 hour (and up to 4 hours) so bread can begin to absorb milk mixture.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Remove bread pudding from the refrigerator, and uncover. Combine bananas and lemon juice in a small bowl. Stir banana mixture into bread pudding, and then smooth top with the back of a spoon. Re-cover dish and cut 6 small holes in foil so steam can escape. Bake, covered with foil, until set, about 50 minutes to 1 hour.

Remove bread pudding from oven and cool 15 to 20 minutes. Serve warm in dessert bowls, with sauce of choice and ice cream, if desired.

Sweet Potato Pie

I'd always heard of sweet potato pie but I'd never tried it before. Awhile back I signed up to host a Glory Foods "Release Your Inner Gloria" House Party. In return for hosting a party, Glory Foods sent me an assortment of their products to try out. Glory Foods specializes in Southern-style heat and serve foods. I received a variety of items like canned green beans and potatoes, black-eyed peas and seasoned cooking bases. I also received a can of Sweet Potato Casserole which came in handy for making this quick and easy Glory's Sweet Potato Pie. It probably took about 5 minutes to throw together. It came out looking beautiful and it tasted delicious. While I'm sure that a made-from-scratch Sweet Potato Pie would be even better, this one was quick and easy and tasted great, so Glory's Sweet Potato Pie is definitely a keeper around here!

Glory's Sweet Potato Pie 

Recipe courtesy of Glory Foods

1 15 oz. can Glory Foods® Sweet Potato Casserole
3 Tbsp. Butter, melted
2 ea. Eggs, large
1 cup Sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp. Vanilla extract
1 tsp. Cornstarch
1 ea. 9" Pie shell, uncooked and frozen

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Set rack to center of the oven and place a cookie sheet on center rack.

Combine all liquids in a large mixing bowl.

Blend in the cornstarch and mix.

Add Glory Foods® Sweet Potato Casserole and mix thoroughly until smooth.

Pour mixture into the prepared pie shell.

Place filled pie shell in oven on the cookie sheet.

Bake for 10 minutes.

Reduce heat in oven to 300 degrees and bake for approximately 40 minutes.

Test the filling. The filling is cooked when the tip of a knife inserted in the center is clean when removed.

Bake until filling is set.

Carefully remove the pie from the oven. Allow to cool.

February Dinner Party! Oooh la-la!

Our theme for this month's dinner party was French Food.

Not surprisingly, these Chocolate Dipped Oreos were a hit (even if they aren't really French! Oreos au Chocalat anyone?)

 

Always my favorite. Thank you Justin!

  

Justin's Coq au Vin. Delicious!

 

My favorite go-to dish:  Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onion Galette.

Cathy and Dave brought chocolate truffles for dessert.  (I didn't get a good picture so this is a picture from an earlier dinner party when she first made them!)

I didn't get a good picture of Dave's Beef Bourguignon either. And in our haste to devour Justin's chocolate dessert masterpiece, we forgot to take a picture. Hopefully he'll blog about it at his new blog Technically Gourmet. (While you're waiting for that recipe, check out his recipe for Chocolate Sabayon. Yum!) I also made an Apple and Hazelnut Clafoutis (which definitely paled in comparison to the other delicious, chocolate desserts) and which was definitely *not* photogenic. Unfortunately I didn't like as much as I liked this Blueberry-Pineapple Clafoutis that I'd blogged about earlier.

Next month's dinner party will be at our house and I'm responsible for coming up with the theme. During the past year we've done Mardis Gras, Camping Out, Tailgating, Italian, Mexican Fiesta!. I'd love to come up with a new, fun idea but I'm stuck! Any good suggestions for a March party which also lends itself to some good vegetarian options -- since it is my party after all! ;-)

Arroz con Pollo -- Blech! And the most delicious dessert ever!

What more can I say. Blech! This recipe for Arroz Con Pollo was awful. So awful that my nephew ended up having a bad dream about it where he was being forced to eat it for dinner again another night! And he's a college student with a cast iron stomach who is happy anytime he doesn't have to eat in the cafeteria!

This recipe was so bad I'm not even gonna tell you where I found it. Yuck!

Since that recipe was an epic fail, instead, I'll give you a recipe for the most delicious thing I've tried lately: Oreo Cookie Balls. My sister brought these to the dinner party last weekend and they were amazing (though not very good for the diet!)


Easy Oreo Truffles
Recipe from Kraft Foods

1 pkg. (1 lb. 2 oz.) OREO Cookies, finely crushed, divided

1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened

2 pkg. (8 squares each) Semi-Sweet Chocolate or white chocolate, melted

MIX 3 cups of the cookie crumbs and the cream cheese until well blended. Shape into 42 (1-inch) balls.

DIP balls in melted chocolate; place on waxed paper-covered baking sheet. (Any leftover melted chocolate can be stored in tightly covered container at room temperature and saved for another use.) Sprinkle with remaining cookie crumbs or drizzle with white chocolate.

REFRIGERATE 1 hour or until firm. Store any leftover truffles in tightly covered container in refrigerator.

Apple Pizza

The theme for our monthly dinner party was "Comfort Foods." There were plenty of comforting dishes: Chicken and Noodles, Shepard's Pie, Mac and Cheese. What else do you need? Why delicious deserts, of course! There were chocolate chip cookies and chocolate cakes. My contribution was an Apple Pizza. Sort of like an Apple Pie turned into a pizza. Sweet pizza/pastry crust and cream cheesy topping sprinkled with cinnamony caramelized apples and a streusel topping. Delicious!


Apple Pizza
Original recipe can be found here.

Apple topping:

2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Peel and slice the apples. Melt butter in a skillet, add apples, sugar, flour and cinnamon. Simmer 15 minutes, then cool.

Cheese topping:

4 ounces cream cheese
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Mix in a bowl and set aside.

Streusel Topping

1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup soft butter

Mix in a bowl and set aside.

Crust:

2 3/4 to 3 cups flour
1 package dry yeast
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup butter or margarine


Blend 1 1/2 cup flour, yeast, sugar, and salt in a large mixer bowl. Heat water, milk, and butter until very warm; add to flour mixture and beat three minutes. By hand, stir in enough flour to make a soft dough. Cover and let rise 15 minutes. Pat dough onto a large oiled pizza pan, forming a rim around the edge. Spread on cheese topping, then apple topping over cheese; sprinkle with streusel topping. Cover and let rise for 15 minutes. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes. Serve warm or cold. Serves 16.

Mardi Gras!

Luckily our turn to host the monthly dinner party fell on the weekend before Mardi Gras. Certainly made all the planning simple. Zydeco on the stereo. Cajun on the table. And plenty of beads and masks to go around.

I fixed my Sausage and Chicken Gumbo, more mild than I usually make it. We like things spicy, but I served it with plenty of hot sauce so everyone could jazz it up to their own tastes. Everyone brought a Cajun dish to share and good times were definitely had by all. :-)

C and D brought some beautiful steamed crawdads.


J made the most amazing Shrimp Creole. Perfectly spiced and wonderful for lunch the next day.


Best of all - J's Chocolate Torte with Peanut Butter Sauce. Yum!

Buckeye Bars

DS decided he wanted to contribute to our dinner party and what better way to contribute than by creating a luscious, rich dessert? He selected a recipe for Buckeye Bars, from the latest issue of Kraft Food & Family Magazine. The recipe was simple to put together and required no baking so it was a perfect kid-friendly recipe. Oh yeah. They tasted great too!





Buckeye Bars
Recipe from Kraft Food & Family Magazine

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

3/4 cup crunchy peanut butter

22 NILLA Wafers, crushed

2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 of 8-oz. tub COOL WHIP Whipped Topping (Do not thaw.)

3 squares BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate

Line 8-inch square pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides. Beat butter and peanut butter with mixer until blended. Mix in wafer crumbs. Gradually add sugar, mixing well after each addition. Press onto bottom of pan.

Microwave COOL WHIP and chocolate in microwaveable bowl on HIGH 1 min.; stir. Microwave 15 to 30 sec. or until chocolate is melted; stir until blended. Spread over peanut butter layer.

Refrigerate 2 hours. Use foil handles to lift dessert from pan before cutting to serve.

Simply Sensational Truffles

My good friend Cathy made these Simply Sensational Truffles for our dinner party last weekend. They were rich and delicious. They are simple to make and look fabulous. Perfect for all those holiday parties coming up!



Simply Sensational Truffles
Recipe from Kraft Food & Family Magazine

2-1/2 pkg. (20 squares) BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate, divided

1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened

decorations: chopped PLANTERS COCKTAIL Peanuts, multi-colored sprinkles

MELT 8 chocolate squares. Beat cream cheese with mixer until creamy. Blend in melted chocolate. Refrigerate until firm.

SHAPE into 36 balls. Place on waxed paper-covered baking sheet.

MELT remaining chocolate. Use fork to dip truffles; return to baking sheet. Decorate, then refrigerate 1 hour.

Barefoot Bloggers Bonus Recipe: Apple Turnovers

Otherwise known as BETTER LATE THAN NEVER!

Okay. So I'm late again. But this recipe is definitely worth the wait. Quick. Easy. And pretty tasty too. I think my orange must have been juicier than most as the juice ran all over the pan creating quite a sticky mess but all in all, the flavor was terrific. The orange flavor added an interesting note to the apple and cinnamon flavor. Using the puff pastry really made this dish go together quickly.

The only thing I would do differently is to fill the turnovers a bit more next time. I didn't use all the filling mixture. The turnovers seemed plump before baking but but flattened out a lot during the cooking process. Next time I'd probably slice the apples instead of dice them and really load the filling in there. I didn't this time because if I added more, my dough tore. Next time I will do a more vigilant job of keeping my dough chilled and see if that helps.

Thanks to Anne at Anne Strawberry for the great Barefoot Bloggers Bonus Recipe pick. Check out all the other Barefoot Blogger results here.

Apple Turnovers
Recipe courtesy of Ina Garten

1 teaspoon grated orange zest
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
1 1/4 pounds tart apples, such as Empire or Granny Smith (3 apples)
3 tablespoons dried cherries
3 tablespoons sugar, plus extra to sprinkle on top
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Pinch kosher salt
1 package (17.3 ounces, 2 sheets) frozen puff pastry, defrosted
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water, for egg wash

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Combine the orange zest and orange juice in a bowl. Peel, quarter, and core the apples and then cut them in 3/4-inch dice. Immediately toss the apples with the zest and juice to prevent them from turning brown. Add the cherries, sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.

Flour a board and lightly roll each sheet of puff pastry to a 12 by 12-inch square. Cut each sheet into 4 smaller squares and keep chilled until ready to use.

Brush the edges of each square with the egg wash and neatly place about 1/3 cup of the apple mixture on half of the square. Fold the pastry diagonally over the apple mixture and seal by pressing the edges with a fork. Transfer to a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Brush the top with egg wash, sprinkle with sugar, make 2 small slits, and bake for 20 minutes, until browned and puffed. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Apple Bundles from Dine and Dish

While I was checking out one of my favorite food blogs, I found a quick and easy finish for dh's birthday dinner: Apple Bundles. Dine and Dish featured this fall inspired recipe recently and I knew dh would enjoy it. This one is easy to make. You simply roll up apple slices in pre-made bread stick dough and top with cinnamon and sugar. Pop them in the oven and dessert is ready. Next time I think I'd toss the apple slices with the cinnamon-sugar mixture to add a little delicious gooey-ness that's missing here.

Apple Bundles
Recipe from Pampered Chef Delightful Desserts

2 lg apples
1 pkg refrigerated bread stick dough — 11 oz
1 med orange
2 tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375F. Peal, core, and slice apples. Cut slices in half. Unroll dough; separate into 8 breadsticks. Cut each in half crosswise to make 16 strips. Place 3-4 apple slices at the end of each piece of dough; roll up. Arrange bundles in greased 7×11″ pan. Zest 1 t. orange rind, set aside. Juice orange. Pour orange juice into bottom of pan (but not over bundles). Brush bundles with butter. Mix zest, sugar and cinnamon; spoon over bundles. Bake 25-30 min. or until golden brown.

Blueberry-Nectarine Galette

This is another one of those "D'oh!" moments.

I'd been seeing lots of recipes for Galettes making the blog rounds and while I was getting ready for ds's Off-to-College party I decided to throw one together. I had a bag full of nectarines and some fresh blueberries. I didn't really use a recipe, just sort of winged it. It was great! But ... (I'm sure you know what's coming ... ) I didn't write it down and now I really can't remember how I did it. I know there was sugar and cinnamon and maybe nutmeg. Drawing a blank here. How aggravating. It was delicious. Sweet yet a little tart, though my dough was a little too crumbley. (I was trying to do three things at once and get them all done before people showed up. I should know better!)

Anyway, since I spaced it on the recipe, I thought I'd include links to some of the great galette recipes I've seen online lately (and to some *much* better gallate photos!) Some are sweet. Some are savoury. Galattes are a really great way to make some humble ingredients into something special.

More Galettes:

Plum Galette from Simply Recipes

Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onion Galette from Smitten Kitchen

Apartment Therapy's Fig and Lavender Goat Cheese Galette

Galettes aux herbe et nid d'ouef (Baked Eggs in Herb Crepes) from La Tartine Gourmand

Tony Tahhan's Peach Galettes

Mushroom and Spinach Galette from Closet Cooking

My Kitchen My World: American

This week at Our Kitchen, Our World we're celebrating home, sweet home! Home for me is The United States. It sounded easy at first, but once I started thinking about it ... not so much! We've been doing a lot of grilling out so I figured, no problem. Until, at the end of the week, I realized that we'd grilled Greek, Mexican and Italian and not really anything that could be considered American. LOL! So to celebrate My Kitchen, My World Week Nine we're having a good old-fashioned cookout!

We'll start with a fresh green salad filled with lettuce and red onions from a near-by farm stand and topped with beautiful, American-grown cherry tomatoes from my garden.

What's more American than a burger and fries? This one is topped by a nice slice of locally, Amish-made pepperjack cheese, some portobellos and a slice of big red, juicy tomato.

In Indiana, sweet corn from your garden is a must at every meal!

We'll finish off with a deliciously easy No-Bake Cheesecake from Kevin over at Closet Cooking, topped with some locally grown blueberries. A perfect dessert for a hot Indiana night. (And a great snack for later while you're watching Michael Phelps bring home yet another gold medal!)

World Breastfeeding Week: Got Milk?

Linda from Make Life Sweeter! is hosting an awesome blogging event. Since the first week of August is World Breastfeeding Week, she is asking fellow bloggers to prepare and blog about a sweet recipe that includes milk as an ingredient. Breastfeeding my four children was an awesome experience for me. And I've met some really wonderful friends through my local La Leche League Chapter. Be sure to check out Linda's post outlining some of the benefits of breastfeeding over here.

Since I've spent more than 8 years breastfeeding out of the past 18, I was very excited to participate in this event.My submission for the first Got Milk? event is a Blueberry-Pineapple Clafoutis. Clafoutis is a dessert that originated in France. It is basically fruit (the riper the better!) baked in a pancake-like batter. I decided to try one to take to a party we recently attended. It was quick and easy to make. (A plus because I overslept!) It looked beautiful and tasted great. This clafoutis is definitely going to be my go-to dessert recipe from now on. I was originally inspired to try clafoutis after reading Tartelette's post about this dessert I'd never heard of. Her pictures are amazing and had me drooling just thinking about it! However, I ended up using a clafoutis recipe I found over at The Budding Cook instead. But since I couldn't stop thinking about Tartelette's recipe, I added some pineapple at the last minute. I pretty much stuck with The Budding Cook's recipe but instead of using an 8x8 baking dish, I used a casserole which made the clafoutis a bit thicker and a tad more custard-y. Delicious!


Blueberry-Pineapple Clafoutis
Recipe from The Budding Cook

2 cups fresh blueberries, rinsed and drained
1 can pineapple chunks, drained
3 eggs
1/2-3/4 cup sugar
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon zest
cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
Confectioners’ sugar for dusting
Butter for greasing the baking dish

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease baking dish.
Arrange the blueberries and pineapple in a single layer in prepared dish.

Place the eggs in a mixing bowl and whisk until they begin to turn light and fluffy, and foam. Stir in the sugar and continue whisking. Add the milk, vanilla extract, lemon zest, salt, and flour, one at a time, until the mixture is light and airy. Beat until well combined.

Pour the batter over the fruit to cover evenly.

Bake in the oven until the top is golden and set, and springs back when touched, approximately 45 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool slightly. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, cut into wedges and serve warm.

Earthquake!

Living in the midwest, you don't expect to be awakened from a deep sleep by an earthquake, of all things. But this morning at about 5:39 I woke up to the house shaking and the windows rattling, soon to be followed by two little people quickly jumping into my bed. Quite a surprise since the last earthquake I recall feeling happened more than 20 years ago. Quite an exciting start to the morning for the kids.

This evening will to be pretty exciting, too. It's DC (dear cousin) Reba's birthday and there will be cake and ice cream and all sorts of fun things happening. My contribution to the big shindig will be Warm Nutty Carmel Brownies, a recipe that I got from my sister-in-law Jenny. Jenny is a new Pampered Chef consultant and this is the recipe she made for her first Pampered Chef party last weekend.

This batch didn't turn out as well as Jenny's did. Hers was gorgeous. (See, you really do need to buy all that neat Pampered Chef stuff!) I'm sure it will taste great though. (How can it not? Chocolate, caramel, nuts? Gotta be yummy!) On this one, I used a different type of mix and a cheap zipper bag that fell apart when I tried to pipe on the melted chocolate. Oh well. Live and learn! LOL!

Happy Birthday Reba!

Warm Nutty Caramel Brownies

1  pkg (12 ounces)  semi-sweet chocolate morsels, divided
1  pkg (18-21 oz)  brownie mix (plus ingredients to make cake-like brownies)
3/4  cup packed brown sugar, divided
1  cup salted mixed nuts, divided
5  rolls (1.7 oz each) milk chocolate-covered chewy caramels, divided (40 pieces total)
Vanilla ice cream (optional)



Preheat oven to 375°F. Lightly brush bar pan with vegetable oil . Coarsely chop 1 1/2 cups of the chocolate morsels. In a large mixing bowl, combine brownie mix, water, oil, eggs and 1/4 cup of the brown sugar; mix well. Fold in chopped chocolate; pour batter into bar pan, spreading evenly.

Chop nuts using food chopper. Combine half of the nuts and remaining 1/2 cup brown sugar; sprinkle evenly over brownie batter. Bake 20-22 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

Meanwhile, using a utility knife, cut 16 caramels into quarters. Place remaining 1/2 cup chocolate morsels in a microwave safe bowl; microwave on HIGH 1 minute or until melted, stirring after each 20-second interval. Spoon melted chocolate into resealable plastic bag; set aside.

Remove bar pan from oven to cooling rack. Immediately press remaining 24 caramels evenly into brownie in four rows of six caramels each. Sprinkle quartered caramels and remaining nuts over brownies. Trim corner of chocolate-filled bag; drizzle chocolate evenly over brownies. Cut into squares; serve warm. Serve with ice cream, if desired.

Yield: 24 servings

Sometimes you've just gotta celebrate!

Ds raced in his first motocross race this weekend. The weather was bad. The track was a mud pit. And he thought he came in dead last. But he had a blast and since he'd worked so hard to get there, I decided to make a little something special to celebrate the occasion. Since I had several apples in the pantry that were starting to get a little old as well as a batch of strawberries I needed to use up, I decided that an Apple-Berry Crisp would be perfect. This recipe went together quickly and baked while I put the finishing touches on dinner, filling the kitchen with a great cinnamon-y aroma. A great way to get one of your daily servings of fruit. Mmmmm!

And as a bonus, when the race results were posted on the internet, ds didn't come in last. He was 6th out of 9. Something else to celebrate!


Apple-Berry Crisp

Ingredients for topping:
1 cup quick or old-fashioned oatmeal, uncooked
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup margarine or butter, melted
2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

Ingredients For Filling:
4 cups thinly sliced and peeled apples, about 4 medium
2 cups sliced strawberries
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine topping ingredients and set aside. Combine filling ingredients and stir until fruit is evenly coated. Spoon filling into an 8-inch square glass baking dish. Sprinkle topping evenly over fruit. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to- 35 minutes or until apples are tender. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream, if desired.

Thanksgiving

I ended up making Claire's Muffuletta Pinwheels from the Cooking is Medicine blog for our big family feast this Thanksgiving. They may not look that great but they tasted delicious. I think their odd appearance was my fault though. I was in a hurry and not really sure what I was doing. Next time I will make them a little thicker, use a different pan and roll them more tightly and they will be much prettier. The recipe sounded great as it was but I added some sliced salami in with the ham since I've always used salami in my muffaletta sandwiches. It added just the right amount of "zing". This is definitely a recipe we'll be making again!

Muffuletta Pinwheels

2 packs crescent rolls
1 bottle Spanish (green) olives -- (10 oz.)
1 bottle black olives -- (10 oz.)
5 garlic cloves -- minced
a dash garlic powder
1/4 cup olive oil
8 slices deli ham
4 slices provolone cheese
5-cheese Italian blend (optional)
8 slices hard salami (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Chop the all of the olives. Add garlic, garlic powder, and olive oil and mix. Open the crescent rolls and divide into four "rectangles. Press down each rectangle until slightly larger than it started. On one long side place the ham (torn in half). The ham should cover the long side. Take half a slice of cheese and place of the ham. Add salami if using. Spoon some olive salad over the ham and cheese. I didn't measure how much, but if there is too much you'll know; it won't roll! Sprinkle the extra cheese on this if using it. Roll from the stuffed side toward the other. Use a serrated knife to cut the pinwheels. Place in a greased round cake pan (as you would place cinnamon rolls) almost touching. Bake for around 11 minutes or until slightly browned. Remove and enjoy!


The Chocolate Truffle Pie from the Holiday 2007 issue of Kraft food & family Magazine turned out pretty well. It looked nice (and it would have looked a little better if I had thought to take a picture of it before we schlepped it halfway across the county to my aunt's house. Duh!)

I was a little disappointed in it and won't be making it again though. I thought it was too bitter. I'm not a big chocolate fan anyway and then it's gotta be sweet, milk chocolate so in order to eat it I had to have *lots* of whipped cream and even then I was only able to choke down half a piece. My husband didn't care for it either. But apparently it was pretty tasty if you like dark chocolate. My cousin and her daughter loved it and at the end of the day, the pie plate was empty and I didn't have any left to bring home so I really can't complain.

By far, the yummiest thing at Thanksgiving this year were the Banana Bars that my sister and her new husband (a fellow Food Network addict) brought. They were awesome and hopefully they will be sending me the recipe soon so I can blog about them! Hopefully I'll get it in time to try them before I start my New Year's diet! Hint, hint guys if you're out there. The clock's ticking! ;-)


Chocolate Truffle Pie

1-1/4 pkg. (10 squares) Baker's Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate

1/2 cup whipping cream

4 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup flour

1 cup thawed Cool Whip Whipped Topping

Preheat oven to 325°F. Place chocolate in large microwaveable bowl. Add whipping cream. Microwave on HIGH 2 min. or until chocolate is almost melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted and mixture is well blended; cool slightly.

Add eggs, sugar and flour; beat with wire whisk until well blended. Pour into lightly greased 9-inch pie plate.

Bake 35 min. or until outer half of pie is puffed and center is slightly soft; cool. Serve topped with the whipped topping.

Size-Wise:

A portion of this special-occasion dessert is all that is needed to provide big chocolate flavor.

Jazz It Up:

To add a decorative powdered sugar garnish, place stencil on top of cooled pie. Use wire mesh sifter to sprinkle powdered sugar evenly over stencil. Carefully remove stencil to reveal the show-stopping garnish on pie.

Make Ahead:

Prepare, bake and cool pie as directed. Cover and freeze up to 1 week. Thaw in refrigerator before serving.

Slacking off

I've been slacking off on the cooking thing this week. I did make some Philly Steak and Cheese sandwiches last night but nothing special. I've just been trying to figure out what to take for Thanksgiving. So far I'm leaning to Muffuletta Pinwheels , Chocolate Truffle Pie (my friend raved about this recipe at dinner the other night so I can't wait to make it) and Easy Jam-filled Cookies for my aunt's house and Jalapeno-Chicken Crescent Pinwheels and Dirty Shrimp for my sister-in-law's.

I have gotten in three miles so far this week. Wrestling has started up so while the children are at wrestling practice, I can run on the indoor track at the hight school. That should make it easy to get at least two runs in every week, especially now that the weather is starting to get nasty.