Classic Apple Pie

I am trying to use up ingredients I have around the house before I leave for Cambodia next week so last night I looked at my pre-made pie crusts, and the 3 apples I had laying around and decided to just go for a simple apple pie.  I had never made an apple pie with a top crust before.  After searching around I found this recipe on allrecipes.com.  The original recipe was for apple pie filling you could freeze and use as needed, thus it is for 5 pies.  I scaled it down and adjusted a bit and this is what I came up with...

3 large apples, sliced thinly (peel as desired, I didn't)
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
3/4 cup white sugar
3 Tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 cups water

Thinly slice the apples and mix with lemon juice in a bowl.  In a pot mix together dry ingredients and add water.  Whisk until boiling and boil for 2 minutes.  Stir in apples and bring to boil again.  Turn down heat, and simmer 6 minutes until thickened and apples are soft.  Cool for 20-30 minutes.

Make (or in my case roll out) pie crust into pie dish.  Pour in filling (it's okay if it is still warm) and cover with top crust, cutting slits.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees and bake for 25-35 minutes until crust is browned on top and golden on bottom (if you have a glass pie dish and can see it of course).

For extra flavor and presentation I whisked one egg with 1 Tbsp cinnamon-sugar mix and brushed the top of the pie with mixture before baking.

Butterfly Decoration

I had so much fun with the USA felt pillow, I decided to once again follow up on a project I liked online.  I had recieved the beautiful Madeline Collection by Prima in my Coordinates Collection kit and had been wondering what to do with the pretty little butterflies, when I saw this on Write Click Scrapbook...

Cheryl Overton and put the collection together and I loved it.  So here is my version (which just so happens to match my wood butterflies I picked up last year!)...

The quote is one by the Persian poet Hafiz, "Ever since happiness heard your name, it has been running through the streets trying to find you."

Yay for Spring!

New 52: New wizarding recipes

For my New activity of the week Kellie joined me to make up some recipes from "The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook" by Dinah Bucholz.

There is some seriously strange stuff in there, and some stuff we can't legally make in America (Blood pudding anyone?!) but we found 3 recipes to try and share...

1.  Meat and Potatoes Pies
(I altered this recipe so it was faster...the original took a total of 3 hours not including the 2 hours for the pie dough to chill)...

6 oz chuck steak, diced into small pieces (I used stew meat and cut each piece with scissors into 3 or 4 smaller pieces).
1 small onion, finely diced
Tbsp minced garlic (this is something I added)
1 red potato, peeled and diced
1 carrot, peeled and diced
1/2 tsp sage
1 1/2 cup chicken broth
2 Tbsp veg. oil
2 Tbsp flour

pie crust (The book has a nice recipe for pie crust in it, but needing to be quick I buy premade crusts
1 egg

Heat oil in a skillet and brown meat chunks.  I browned on both sides until meat was nearly cooked through for about 10 minutes.  Remove meat into a bowl to rest and add onions and garlic to skillet to sautee until brown.  Re-add meat and sprinkle with flour.  Pour over chicken broth and mix together.  Bring to a simmer and cover, stirring occasionally for about 15 minutes.  Add carrots and potatoes, and sage and mix together.  Continue to simmer for about 15-25 minutes or until potatoes and carrots become softer and mixture is thickened.  Stir every couple of minutes so gravy doesn't burn to bottom.

While simmering cut pie dough into nine 6 inch circles.  Grease a muffin tin and fill each cup with round of dough.  Fill generously with meat and potato filling when done.  Cut nine 4 inch circles with slits in top to create top crust.  Brush top crust with a mixture of 1 egg beaten with 1 Tbsp water.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

2.  Glazed Carrots

This recipe was not my favorite, I think it needed brown sugar or something added, but then again, I was never much a fan of cooked carrots.

3.  Canary Custard Cremes

Cookie: 
2 1/4 cup flour
1 small package cook and serve vanilla pudding
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick butter at room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Sift together flour, pudding mix, baking powder, and salt.  In a seperate bowl mix together butter and powdered sugar until fluffy.  This takes about 5 minutes and frequent scraping of the bowl.  Add egg and vanilla to butter mixture and beat until combined.  Add the flour mixture and mix until crumbly.  Add milk and form into a dough.  Roll dough into one inch balls and space about 1 1/2 inches apart.  Press flat and sprinkle with sugar.  Bake for 8 minutes on bottom rack and then 8 minutes on middle rack in oven.  Cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes and then remove to cooling rack.

There is a filling recipe in the book for a basic vanilla frosting.  I had a canned buttermilk frosting on hand and used those instead as the filling between two sandwiched cookies.

Easter Peep crafts...

We already know how much I love Peeps...  I've seen a lot of ideas and when I saw these plastic eggs at Joann's that perfectly matched the rainbow of peeps, I decided to try making a garland.  The cheap plastic eggs have holes in the top and bottom so threading them together is super easy. The peeps are a lot easier to thread if they are stale.

Some other fun Peep ideas I have seen online...

Happy Easter Peeps gift packaging at joy ever after.

Homie Peeps sign from Flamingo Toes

Treat toppers along with LOTS of decorating ideas at Shindig Parties

Scrapbook Crop

For my New:52 moment of the week I decided to host an all day scrapbook crop at my house.  I set up 4 table stations and had a good turn out (I was so busy scrapping I didn't take pictures of those of us there!!) and we ate lots of good food.  I had it start around 10 am with some giant Costco muffins, juice and the first session of LDS General Conference on TV.  We took a lunch break at noon for some chicken salad croissant sandwiches, grapes, fresh pineapple, and skinny cow icecream sandwiches.  We then watched the 2nd session of conference.  My sister and I decided to keep going and scrapped our way through the 2 final four NCAA tourney games and some pizza.  Overall it was a productive day of eating and watching TV (if you can call that productive?!) and of course getting a lot of scrapbooking done.  Here are the layouts I completed... (sorry for the poor pictures, I was in a hurry to take them all before my camera battery died).  It was a fun day and I hope to host a crop again soon, it is always more fun to scrap with other people.

NEW 52...a recipe and a confession

I had a lofty goal of eating vegetarian for a week for my New experience. Laughing out loud right about now.  That was an epic fail.  I have no self control apparently.  Plus I'm blaming "Fat Tuesday" in the mix, because I can.

Something I did make and liked was a bean salsa-salad.  Sorry there are no exact measurements, it really is to taste...

Bean Salsa-Salad

Yellow or White corn (1 cup)
Garbonza Beans/Chickpeas (1 cup, 1 can was too much)
Black beans (1 cup of rinsed canned beans)
2-3 Avacados, chopped to small chunks
Tomatoes (I only had 1 Roma, but would use 2 in the future), chopped into small pieces
1/2 onion (I used sweet Walla Walla, because they are good, I would also recommend a purple one), finely diced
chopped cilantro
lime juice (I think I ended up using 1/4 cup mixed with 1-2 Tbsp sugar)

Tossed all in a bowl and served with chips, pretty good stuff.

So my confession...I ate 1 vegetarian meal a day, but couldn't do it for every meal, all week, like I had planned.  Once I decided to do it all I wanted was a hamburger and I caved.  oh well, I would never be a good vegetarian.  BUT I was more concious of what I was eating and tried to be as fresh and healthy as possible.

About This Project: New52 is a project started by Peppermint and Christine and it ..."invites participants to live outside the box a little bit more and try things outside their comfort zone. Sometimes the “new” will present itself to you unwittingly, other times you’ll be seeking it out. My hope is that we can all become inspired by one another’s adventures – perhaps gain the courage to try someone else’s new thing ourselves. Don’t worry if you’re getting a late start or if you miss a week here and there. New52 isn’t about making a life-altering change every week, it’s about keeping an open mind and embracing little changes in your life." (Copied from Peppermint's blog)

To see more of my New 52 experiences check it out on my other blog here.  For more recipes I have discovered during New 52 click the New:52 label and explore away, thanks for playing!  What new thing have you tried this week?!?

New 52 recipe: Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad

I made this salad for Rachel's bachelorette party yesterday, and since I had never made it before it is my new 52 for the week...

This was actually a lot easier than I imagined and quite good. 

Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad

1 package (10-12 oz) uncooked pasta (butterfly, rotini, or macaroni)

3 oz or 2/3 cup real bacon bits (10 slices of bacon cooked and crumbled)

1 cup mayonnaise

1 package (3 Tbsp) dry ranch dressing mix

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp garlic salt

1 large tomato, finely diced

1 can sliced olives

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (I prefer medium or sharp for the flavor to reach over the seasoning)

Boil pasta 10-12 minutes until al dente.  Drain and set aside to cool.  Mix together mayo, ranch mix, garlic powder and salt in a small bowl.  Dice tomato.  Add to pasta the tomato, olives, bacon, and cheese, tossing together.  Pour over and stir in mayo dressing mix.  Refrigerate for 1 hour to overnight.  Has approx. 12  servings, 1 cup each.