Random Musings

I've been a slacking blogger (it's been a full 7 days since my last post!)

The weather on Saturday was overcast and "blah" so we didn't do much of anything. On Sunday, the weather was perfect so we headed to North Carolina to pick some apples!

And pick apples we did! A TON of apples. So I've been going all Betty Crocker in the kitchen the past few nights.

What I've made so far:
1. 4 apple pies (All Recipes has this with 5 stars and almost 2500 reviews. How can I go wrong?)
2. Apple-Blueberry crisps (in ramekins for the individual serving)
3. Applesauce (found on Heather's blog)
4. Apple Spice Bars (also from Heather)
5. Chocolate Chip Apple Oatmeal Cookies (from Good Things Catered)
6. Carrot Apple Raisin Walnut Bread (also from Good Things Catered)

Most of this has been put into the freezer and will be baked at some other time when we are scrambling for a yummy dessert. The only things that have been baked and eaten are the Apple Spice Bars (for The Mr's office and coworkers. Those guys are pretty cool.) and the Chocolate Chip Apple Oatmeal Cookies (for one of my coworkers big 4-0 birthday). Both of those recipes got RAVE reviews.

What's left to make? (Oh yeah, there is more!)
1. 2 Apple Crisps (again, All Recipes with 4.5 stars and 1700 reviews? No question)
2. Another batch of the Apple Spice Bars (these are for my freezer!!)
3. More applesauce (yum!)
4. Chicken & Apple Couscous (tonight for dinner!)

What are your favorite apple recipes?? I'd love to see them and maybe even try them out!

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Merry Christmas!

...sorry this is a bit delayed. It was a very busy weekend, but here I begin my updates.

That's our awesome Christmas tree. The Mr. and I found it at K-Mart - but the last one in the store happened to be in some woman's cart in the check out line. We were both sad. The Mr. was such an awesome husband and called what seemed like every K-Mart in the upstate (and even two in Charleston!) He drove to Easley to get it for us and then came home and put it up. It looks really good!

My parents and brother came to Greenville to spend Christmas with us. It was a lot of fun! The Mr. got a weather radio from my sister (my brother and dad got one also). It's a great gift...and even better because the night before The Mr. mentioned he needed to get one. She's so smart!


Mom got an iPod nano and Daniel is showing her how to use it and load music on it. I didn't even know how since we don't have iPod's either - so good thing he was here!


Dad got a new laptop so when he's on the road for work or when my parents travel they can be plugged in anywhere in the world! He's always our Santa Claus - which explains the hat. :)


After opening all the gifts and making our phone calls to the families to wish everyone a Merry Christmas - I started prepping for Christmas dinner by cooking up Dad's stuffing (which is amazing). My parents taught me how to stuff the bird and my mom helped me get together the rest of the fixings. The Mr. was so nice to take care of the cranberry sauce for us. Haha. One nice glob.


...If I were Sandra Lee, I'd say "Here's my beautiful table scape" Instead, I'll say "Here's the feast!!" in our barely used dining room.


After dinner The Mr. helped mom clean up the turkey by eating a few more pieces. Dan is in the background cleaning up all the dishes. I liked that treatment!


And last, but not least, The Mr. gave me an ice cream maker for Christmas that attached to my KitchenAid. We both love ice cream and I absolutely love homemade ice cream. Yum! So here he is watching the ice cream churn. :) We made french vanilla because we had apple pie for it to go with. But no worries - he also gave me two ice cream recipe books (one of them is Ben & Jerry's) so we'll be making up our own mixtures soon!

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Pear, Apple and Blueberry Crisp

Several weeks ago Dauge and I went apple picking at one of his co-workers house. We got SO many apples and pears too! I wasn't sure how we were even going to use all of them - we ended up giving them away to our neighbors and to some of my co-workers.

One of the recipes I made were these Pear, Apple and Blueberry Crisps. I wanted to make these so I could make individual sizes because Dauge and I can pull out one for each of us and cook that instead of having an entire pie we have to eat. It worked out well. Food Network (where the recipe came from) uses cranberries, but I used blueberries because we had fresh berries in the freezer and we like blueberries more than cranberries. You should try this recipe - it's going to be fantastic!

Pear, Apple and Cranberry Crisp
(Sub Blueberries for Cranberries in mine)
Source: Food Network

Ingredients

• 2 pounds ripe Bosc pears (4 pears)
• 2 pounds firm Macoun apples (6 apples)
• 3/4 cup dried cranberries
• 1 teaspoon grated orange zest
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

For the topping:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup old-fashioned oatmeal
• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, diced

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Peel and core the pears and apples and cut them into large chunks. Place the fruit in a large bowl and toss with the cranberries, zests, juices, granulated sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Pour into a 9 by 12 by 2-inch baking dish.

For the topping:

Combine the flour, sugars, salt, oatmeal, and cold butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on low speed for 1 to 2 minutes, or until the mixture is in large crumbles. Sprinkle evenly over the fruit, covering the fruit completely.

Place the baking dish on a parchment-lined sheet pan and bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, until the top is brown and the fruit is bubbly. Serve warm.

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