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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"Goodie" Day

Today was "goodie" day at work. Whew. It was a heck of a day! Our large conference table was overtaken by sweet treats. I'd say we had twice as many sweets as we did salty. And I think only a couple of drinks. Overall, I did well. I didn't gorge myself AND I skipped lunch (since I had snacked all morning) and Dauge and I had cereal for dinner tonight. I don't think that today will set me too far back on my goals.

I made Cupcake Bites, which I heard about from Heather. She directed her reader's to Bakerella's blog. I highley recommend checking out both blogs. I enjoy reading about Heather's day to day things: recipes, creative projects, etc. Bakerella shows you all her yummy, yummy treats! She has a moist yellow cake recipe on her website that I may try one day. Her blog just makes me hungry! :)

The Cupcake Bites were easier than I expected them to be. Slightly time consuming, but overall they were easy. I was quite peeved when my brand new, straight out of the package squeeze bottom broke within my first 20 minutes of using it. How annoying. I know it was only $2 - but still. I expect a little more. I'm going to believe it was a fluke and get another one to try again. We'll see next time...

Now, the taste? I thought they were really, really sweet. I think next time I won't add the cream cheese to the cake before rolling it. My cake was really moist already so I think I could have done without it.

I didn't get any pictures (sorry!). But Bakerella and Heather's cupcake bites turned out better than mine! Mine were slightly sloppy which was mainly due to the time constraint of making them after working all day and going to the gym. Perhaps next time when they look cuter.

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