Mini Pies!

Thanksgiving has come again and that means it's time for PIE!! I saw these mini pies on Pinterest and couldn't resist the opportunity to try them myself. My husband talked me into making a full 2 dozen each of apple and pumpkin. The pies were a big hit with the family, and making so many meant that we were able to eat a few beforehand without causing a noticeable dent in the pie supplies.

Mini Pumpkin Pies
Ingredients:
Filling for two 9" pies
2 boxes refrigerated pie crusts (4 crusts)
Directions:
1. Cut 24 circles from the pie crusts using a 4" round biscuit cutter or small bowl.
2. Place dough circles into muffin pans.
3. Pour filling into cups to the top.
4. Bake at 425* F for 15 minutes, tuen turn heat down to 350*F and bake 25-30 minutes.
5. Let cool on wire rack 1-2 hours until set.

I decided to make pumpkin pies first because they're easier and I could work on preparing the apples for the apple pies while the pumpkin pies were baking. 

I am a big fan of Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts. I bake pies with them all the time and get compliments on my crusts--I confess that I don't tell people I didn't make them from scratch. ;) Hey, if they can't tell the difference, I'm not going to tell! 

 My setup--muffin tins, 4" biscuit cutter, pie roller, waxed paper to roll it out on.

 Cut out 5 circles from the dough--they fit without overlapping.

 See? 5 circles. Then roll your remaining dough into a ball and roll it out again to cut out a 6th circle. I put the remainders into a Ziploc baggie to use for the lattice tops on the mini apple pies.

 Start putting your dough circles into the muffin tins. They weren't fitting too well to begin with.

 See how they're kind of all wrinkly on the edges? Not so pretty.

 Then I had the idea to cut out a little wedge, Pacman-style, to make the circles fit better.

 Much better! I just overlapped the cut edges and pressed them together.

 You can see the difference between the Pacman dough and the full circles.

 The difference is even more obvious when you look at it from above. So, cut out the wedges for better fitting dough!

 Now for the filling. I again took the easy way out and got the pre-made canned pie filling. It already has the spices mixed in, so you just add a 5 oz. can of evaporated milk and 2 eggs to each can of pie filling.

  I used my largest Pampered Chef scoop to fill the pies. I probably could have added a little more filling, but I didn't want to risk them bubbling over and getting stuck in the muffin tins. I think it's a matter of trial-and-error--next time I'll probably get it just right!

 Getting filled...

 And just out of the oven.  I may have left them in just a couple of minutes too long--the crusts were a little darker than I like, but not at all burnt. Still tasty, though!

 You can see on the edge of this one where the filling bubbled over a little and made the crust stick.

 Use a really sharp, thin knife (I used one of my PC paring knives) to loosen the edges where the pies are sticking. You don't want to bust up the crust, so a thin blade is best.

Use a spoon to help you lift the pies out of the muffin tins and place on the cooling racks. Look at those yummy pies! 

Mini Apple Pies
Ingredients:
8 cups apples, diced into 1/2 inch cubes
12 Tbsp flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 heaping tsp cinnamon
1/4-1/2 tsp nutmeg
4 Tbsp butter, cut into 24 equal portions
2 boxes refrigerated pie crust (4 crusts)
Directions:
1. Mix together flour, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Toss over diced apples and mix to coat evenly.
2. Cut out 24 circles of dough and line your muffin cups, saving all scraps.
3. Fill each muffin cup with apple mixture and place one piece of butter on top of apples.
4. Roll out remaining pie crust scraps and cut 1/2 inch wide strips to form lattice tops. 3 strips in each direction should cover it. Tuck in the ends so they don't overhang.
5. Bake pies at 400*F for 18-22 minutes.

 I mixed up all my dry ingredients as soon as the pumpkin pies went into the oven.

 I used an apple slicer on all my apples first. I used 3 Granny Smith apples and 3 Honeycrisp apples.

 My sweet husband helped me to peel the apples with a paring knife, then we chopped them into tiny pieces.

 All chopped up! There's some variety in the size of pieces, but I think that works well to fill the pies.

 Add in the dry ingredients and mix it up well. I dug in with my hands to make sure there were no dry bits hiding at the bottom.

 Getting started on the lattice tops--you can see the butter pieces, too. I forgot these the first time I made the pies and I do think it helps to keep the insides nice and juicy. We used a decorative cutter to slice our lattice pieces.

 So pretty!

 My sweet husband helped with the lattices.

 Look at him go!

 One whole pan covered in the lattices.

 We ran out of dough and the last two got skimped on... those were our samples after the pies came out of the oven!

 Look at them all golden brown and delicious!

 A few of them were a little TOO juicy and bubbled over a bit, oops! Just use the paring knife again to loosen the pies where they got stuck.

 And here they are cooling down. Notice there are a couple missing? They sure were tasty! 

And there you have it! 2 different kinds of miniature pies for your eating pleasure. :)

Third Time's the Charm

I've been trying to find a good meatloaf recipe for a while now. My husband likes it, although I've never been a big fan, and I try to make things he'll enjoy. I've tried twice before and each time the meatloaf turned out way too moist and soggy.

Someone I know finally mentioned that they also prefer a more dry meatloaf and that they use the recipe on the back of the Lipton Onion Soup Mix package. So I decided to give it a try, with a couple of alterations.

The recipe called for 2 eggs, which I reduced to one. I used Panko bread crumbs instead of standard bread crumbs, and threw in a couple of handfuls of oatmeal for good measure. The recipe instructions on the soup mix say to form it into a loaf but to put it in a 9 x 13" pan, not a loaf pan. This allowed the grease to cook out of the meat and didn't leave the loaf boiling in its own juices. I took the meatloaf out of the oven when it was about halfway done and poured off the grease. When it was done cooking I poured off the juices again before letting it rest for a few moments. Next time I might try getting ground beef with a lower fat content. We've been buying the big 5 lb rolls of ground beef lately because it's cheapest, but it can be fatty.

My husband declared it a success and ate three pieces, and I even ate a piece and a half myself (in my previous attempts I didn't even manage to finish one.) So it looks like the third time was the charm when it comes to meatloaf!

Meatloaf with Onion Soup Mix
Ingredients:
2 lbs ground beef
1 envelope Lipton Onion Soup mix (there are 2 in a box)
3/4 cup Panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup oats 
3/4 cup water
1/3 cup ketchup
1 egg

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 
2. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients.
3. Shape into a loaf and place in the middle of a 9 x 13 glass baking dish. 
4. Bake 1 hour. Remove from oven after 30 minutes and drain off liquid. When done, drain liquid again and let rest 10 minutes before serving.  

New Name

I always hate the point in a registration process where you are asking to come up with a screen name/ user name/ blog name. Talk about pressure! Finding something clever but not too cutesy, accurate but not boring, all at the drop of a hat? Yikes! It's probably a good thing that babies come with such a long incubation period--plenty of time to work out the name thing (whenever we get to that point, which will probably be a few years down the road.)

Anyway, I chose the name of this blog-- "Shh, Quiet Times"-- in one of those pressure-filled moments but haven't really loved it. This blog isn't really about quiet times, although I am a fairly quiet person. SHH comes from my married initials, so I was trying to play on that, but not too successfully in my opinion. So, I did some brainstorming in the shower this morning and decided on something a little different---Sarah Hope at Home. It still has the SHH, but it's a little more accurate in terms of embodying what this blog is about--the things I do at home, like cooking, etc.

Fortunately I'm not far enough into this blogging journey to really have to worry about having a huge following, so for the few people who click on my Facebook links when I make new posts, I hope this isn't too confusing for you.

**************

In other news--it's Veterans Day. I've been seeing lots of posts on Facebook, plus I get the day off. Both of my grandfathers were in the military--on my dad's side, my grandfather was a marine, and on my mom's side, my grandfather was in the Air Force. They are both gone now, but I do honor their memory and the sacrifices they and all the other members of the armed forces have made and are making for us each and every day.

I'm trying to decide what to do with my day off--it's always so tricky because you want it to be something awesome and meaningful because how often to you get a day to do whatever you want during the week? But in reality I am thinking of running boring errands like going to the grocery store and getting gas. Not exactly the big plans people usually make for 3 day weekends, but since my husband does have to work today, and is working at his part time job this evening and all day tomorrow, that kind of puts a crimp in my style.

Although it might be kind of sacrilegious--after all, Thanksgiving is still two weeks away--I might just go Christmas shopping. We need a new tree topper and some stockings and I know from experience that if I wait too long the options will be severely limited! I promise not to decorate before Thanksgiving, though. Hopefully that will keep me from being in too much trouble with whoever monitors these things.

Burn, baby, burn

Over the weekend we had some friends over to celebrate a birthday. My husband requested that I make his family's lasagna, which I have done before and it is quite tasty. I decided to get creative, though, and make a recipe I've seen floating around on Pinterest for "Olive Garden Breadsticks".

Just look at that picture! How could I NOT attempt to make them?

..."attempt" being the operative word. They burned. Blacker than hockey pucks on the bottom. I THINK the problem was partly because (silly me) I followed the instructions and sprayed the baking sheets--if I try these again I think I will try cooking them on parchment paper instead. Also, one of my baking sheets was too long to share a rack with the other sheet, so I had to put one on the bottom oven rack--that's the one that burned worst. They were smoking before the oven even got up to the 400 degrees you're supposed to cook the breadsticks at for 12 minutes, so something seriously went awry.

Fortunately, my husband apparently has no faith in my bread making skills suggested that we get a "backup" loaf of garlic bread from the grocery store, "just in case." So--lasagna with garlic bread!

The lasagna was a big hit--the 5 of us ate an entire 9x13" pan (approx. 3 pieces each.)

No photos, but here's the recipe.

Steven's Family Lasagna
Ingredients:
1 lb hamburger
2 cans (6 oz.) tomato paste
4 cans (6 oz.) water
1 package spaghetti sauce mix (the recipe says American Beauty brand, but our store doesn't have that brand--I get the "thick and zesty" sauce mix instead of the "italian style" mix which looks too runny.)
Lasagna noodles (1 box, plus a few extra noodles to be safe)
24 oz. container small curd cottage cheese
1 lb grated mozzarella cheese
1 egg
1 Tbsp chopped parsley (I never remember to add this)
and we always need:
1 jar spaghetti sauce (Prego prego prego prego prego is the best!)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Brown hamburger meat in a large skillet; drain. Return to pan and mix in tomato paste, water, and sauce mix. Cover and simmer on med-low heat for 15 minutes.
2. Boil lasagna noodles 12-15 minutes. (If you add a little vegetable oil to the water it's supposed to help the noodles not stick together as bad.)
3. Drain cottage cheese (if there's liquid TO drain--mine never seems to need it). Mix in mozzarella cheese, egg, and parsley. 
5. Lightly grease a large (9 x 13") baking dish.
6. Layer ingredients in pan in this order: Meat, noodles, cheese, meat, noodles, cheese, ending with meat. Except we always run out of the meat sauce before the last layer of noodles/cheese, so instead of putting meat sauce on top we put the jarred spaghetti sauce on top. Make sure all the noodles are fully covered (or you'll have tough noodles!)
7. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes.
 8. While it's baking, munch on any leftover lasagna noodles. Mmm, noodles! (Ok, this isn't really a step. But we always do it!)

Pretty easy, as far as lasagna goes, and obviously tasty enough that our friends devoured it! I'm pretty sure I'll be making this for my husband's birthday every single year for at least several years to come.

Porkin'!

Every time I cook pork, I think of this story my mom tells. When they were little, someone asked her brother what his favorite kind of beans was. He promptly replied "porkin'!" (aka pork and beans.) Hehehe. It makes me smile every time.

I've made this recipe once before and decided to give it another go. Last time I cut the pork in little tiny medallions, but this time I went for bigger slices. My husband liked it last time, but he LOVED it this time, so I guess bigger is better!

Here's where I got the recipe originally.

Maple Rosemary Glazed Pork
Ingredients:
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
1 tsp dried rosemary (or 2 tsp fresh)
4 thick sliced pork chops or pork loin
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp vegetable oil

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Season both sides of each pork chop/pork loin slice with the salt and pepper.
2. Heat the oil in a heavy bottom skillet over med-high heat. When the oil starts to smoke, add pork to the skillet. Sear approx 3 minutes on each side until well browned. Transfer to a baking sheet (I cover mine in parchment paper) and set aside.
3. Drain the fat off of the skillet, add the syrup and rosemary. Cook about 30 seconds to 1 minute, until fragrant. Put the pork back into the skillet to coat with the glaze (I make sure both sides are coated well), then put back on the baking sheet.
4. Place pork in the preheated oven and cook 15-20 minutes. Allow to rest a few minutes before serving.

 

Na na no no mo

Well, I THOUGHT NaBloWriMo coincided with NaNoWriMo, but apparently Blo is in October and Wri is in November. Shucks! Although, there's nothing to say I'm not allowed to do a personal challenge of blogging every day this month, right?

So--November 1! It was 77ish degrees today, and it's supposed to be 50 tomorrow and possibly snow tomorrow night. That's Kansas for ya, I guess.

It was great fall weather over the weekend so I did wind up making that beef stew--yummy! It turned out really well. I added some frozen corn as well as the frozen peas, because it seemed like a fitting addition. I think next time I won't cut the beef into QUITE so bite-sized chunks--after it had cooked for several hours, a lot of the pieces kind of disintegrated so there were tiny threads of beef in the stew and not many chunks. I don't want the honking big chew-for-5-minutes-before-swallowing chunks of beef in my stew, but I think I can find a happy medium somewhere in there. Regardless, the stew was awesome and I will definitely keep that recipe in my file!

The other lesson learned the hard way was that the cast iron lid to the dutch oven does NOT cool down instantly after removing from the 250 degree oven it's been sitting in for the last several hours... I picked it up with my bare hand and kind of scorched my fingertips. I was at the sink and only picked it up a couple of inches, but I did chip the enamel on the lid and on the edge of the pot when I dropped the lid. Oops. :( Lesson learned... and I've had more painful burns before, so it could have been much worse.

I tried a recipe last night for Granny Smith Apple Crisp, and oh my... it is so delicious! I found this recipe via Foodgawker and it tastes just as good as it looked. The oats in the topping make it nutty and sweet and so amazing. I could rave for hours about this stuff. I could eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (and might have... shh!)

Now... because I have really missed sharing my crappy cell phone pictures... I'm going to share a recipe of my own instead of just raving about everyone else's!

Taco Ring

I can't really claim this recipe as "my own." My husband actually brought this recipe into our marriage (along with more questionable choices like "cheeseburger soup" and the obviously tasty recipe for his mom's lasagna.) I was pretty skeptical at first, but after he made it for me I was sold. It's one of our easy go-to meals when we don't feel like exerting much effort, or on the occasion when I'd rather let my husband cook something than get in the kitchen myself.

Ingredients:
2 cans refrigerated crescent rolls
1 pound ground beef/hamburger
1 pkg taco seasoning
shredded cheese (we like the pre-bagged Mexican cheese for this)
Any other taco toppings you like

Process:
1. Preheat oven according to directions on the crescent roll package.
2. Brown hamburger and drain; add taco seasoning and a minimal amount of water (just enough to get the seasoning distributed, but not enough to leave liquid in the pan.)
3. Add cheese to hamburger and mix until melted. You can add as much or little as you like here--you want it to be enough that the hamburger starts sticking together when you spoon it up and doesn't crumble apart all over the place.
4. Arrange the crescent roll triangles on a round baking sheet/pizza pan/pizza stone. Arrange so the bases of the triangles overlap slightly and form a solid ring toward the center of the sheet, and the points of the triangles point out and hang off the edge. You want a good 1-2" ring of solid crescent roll dough at the center, with a hole in the middle. I googled and found this image to illustrate:

We usually wind up with 2 crescent rolls left over for some reason--we just roll them up like normal crescent rolls and stick them off to the side of the pan when cooking.
5. Spoon the taco meat/cheese mixture onto the solid ring of dough. Try to keep it even and not drop any into the middle. This would be a good time to add other toppings (tomatoes, whatever) if you want, too. If there is a lot of liquid in your pan, try to avoid transferring it to the dough--it'll make your dough too wet and it won't cook and crisp properly on the bottom.
6. Once all the meat is on the dough, begin folding the tips of the triangles back toward the center, arching over the meat. There will be stripes that the dough doesn't cover--that's okay. Tuck the points in along the dough at the center so they stay wrapped over the meat.
7. Bake for the time indicated on the crescent roll package--until golden brown and crispy, top and bottom. Nobody likes soggy bottoms.
8. Remove and slice as big or little as you want.

Here's the result! You can see on the top how the triangles were folded back over, and how they didn't totally cover the meat.

I have seen variations on this recipe in a few places--you could make a pizza ring with sauce and toppings if you wanted. I have yet to try them, but I'm sure they would be equally tasty. 

Soup Season

It's finally officially CHILLY out! I love it. I especially love that I can try making all different kinds of SOUP and not feel guilty! I sometimes have trouble eating leftovers but soup is easy to reheat for lunches during the week.

This week I tried making my sister's baked potato soup recipe. It was AWESOME! You can view a picture on her (somewhat defunct) food blog, but I'll post the recipe here (so I can refer back to it later!) This weekend I'm going to steal another awesome-sounding recipe from My Kitchen Apron--beef stew! Yum! I can't wait. :)

I had intended to make this on Wednesday night, so I was going to bake the potatoes on Tuesday so they'd be ready to go when I got home from work the next day. Of course, when I got home my husband informed me that he had been invited over to a guy friend's house on Wednesday for clam chowder and horror movies. So... I made my soup a night early and my husband had to wait an extra hour+ for dinner while the potatoes cooked. Oh well!

Restaurant-Quality Baked Potato Soup
3 russet potatoes
3 tablespoons butter
2 cups chopped white onion
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 cups chicken stock
2 cups water
1/8 cup cornstarch
1 1/2 cups instant mashed potato flakes
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
1 cup heavy cream (I had some leftover cream from making mashed potatoes, so I did 3/4 cup heavy cream and 1/4 cup 2% milk)
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
8 ounces bacon – cooked and crumbled
2 green onions, chopped (optional--I didn't have these.)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Bake potatoes for 1
hour, or until done. Set aside to cool. (Or put in the fridge for 3o minutes.)

Melt butter in a 3 quart saucepan over medium heat. Saute onions until
tender and golden brown. Stir in flour, and cook 5 minutes to make a
roux.

Pour in chicken stock and water. Add cornstarch and mashed potato
flakes. Season with salt, pepper, basil and thyme.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 5 minutes.

Remove the skin from the cooled potatoes, and discard. Dice the
potatoes into 1/2 inch cubes, and stir into soup, along with the
half-and-half.

Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, or until thick. Spoon into
bowls, and garnish with shredded cheese, bacon and chopped green onion.


----------------
In non-food-related news, I'm so glad it's the weekend. It's been a really slow week but very stressful at the same time. Not a fun combination. I had to laugh at (with?) my husband tonight, though. He has a part-time gig where he supervises rental facilities--so people rent a building for a party or wedding reception or rehearsal dinner, and he sets up tables and chairs and sits in the back room watching TV until the event is over and he can mop the floor. A pretty easy gig, usually, but sometimes it's more than he bargained for.

Because my husband is in the back room with a TV, he can sometimes be a kid magnet. He often becomes the unofficial "babysitter" while Mommy and Daddy are drinking and chatting with friends in the other room. If the kid(s) sit down and watch The Incredibles and don't bug him too much, my sweet guy usually doesn't mind. Tonight, though, he had a couple of young boys in the room with him, running around playing while my husband tried to tune them out. Suddenly he heard, "I'm going to pee on you!!!" and turned around to find both boys, pants dropped, PEEING at each other (and all over the floor!) Of course he yelled at them, "What are you DOING?" and went and found their parents, but oh man... I can just picture it!

So now my husband says it'll be 7 years until we consider having kids. When we got married (less than a year ago) we said 5 years. A long weekend with the nieces and nephews (who did a lot of ear-splitting noises and crazy running around) made us say 6. And now we're at 7! Good thing we have older siblings who will be looked to first to supply grand-kids... at this rate, it's gonna be a while before we get around to it. ;)

Apartment Living

Apartment living can be pretty hit-or-miss in terms of amenities. My first solo apartment was a modified studio. It had terrible drafts, a living room so long and narrow that any other place would have called it a hallway, and a kitchen with incredibly limited counter space. We're talking two 12" square counters, here. One on either side of the sink. Put in a tiny microwave and a toaster, and well... you can probably imagine why I didn't do a whole lot of cooking.

My second apartment was also a studio, although a much nicer one. It had the same stove as my first apartment--a very tiny apartment gas stove/oven. The top was maybe 12" x 16". I couldn't use some of my cookie sheets in the oven because they were too long. At least Apartment #2's stove looked like it was made in the last 10 years, unlike Apartment #1, and it had more counter space. Apartment #2 also had a dishwasher and a washer & dryer in unit. I've since decided that those are amenities I do not want to live without.

When my dear husband and I married (9 and a half months ago!) he moved in with me. It was definitely a challenge to share a studio apartment with someone else. I enjoy the quiet; my husband was used to leaving South Park dvd's on in the background all day. I had a full size bed; my husband was used to having a queen sized bed to sprawl out over. I go to work at 8; my husband has to be at work by 6. It was rough, but we managed to overcome our differences (and sleep deprivation) and now I can look back with fondness on our first few months sharing a studio meant for one.

Our current place is much bigger--two whole bedrooms! Real ones! With doors! A dining room! A fireplace! We got our in-unit laundry, and our kitchen has a dishwasher (although it's so old we have to completely wash everything by hand before we use it, which kind of defeats the purpose.) It has a full sized refrigerator (oh, the space!!) and best of all--a full sized electric stove and oven. I don't have to worry as much about burning everything I cook (if you've never had a cheap gas stove, I'll tell you--it has two temperatures. "Fire" and "off." There is no "low.") I have multiple oven racks so I can put more than one thing in the oven at a time.  The counter space still leaves something to be desired, although it is an improvement over that first apartment I had.

I'm waxing poetic over things like counter space because I just cooked another dinner where I occupied every square inch of available space before I was done cooking. Fortunately my husband and I have this deal worked out where if I cook the dinner, he does the dishes. Works for me!

Tonight I tried a recipe from a blog I just discovered this week--My Kitchen Apron. All of her recipes seem very down-to-earth--no esoteric ingredients or specialized equipment required. I read all the way through the entire blog and only found a couple of things that didn't sound like something I would like to try. My husband is very anti-"foodie" so anything too "out there" doesn't fly. I think I'll be visiting My Kitchen Apron a lot in the future to find good new things to feed my man! 

I also made mashed potatoes for the first time. A few weeks ago I tried making Pioneer Woman's Smashed Potatoes, except that recipe calls for a potato masher and I didn't have one. In what can only be classified as a moment of sheer idiocy, I thought a meat mallet would work as a decent substitute. I'm sure you can imagine the results. (Potatoes on the walls, anyone?) My mom took pity on me and the next time I saw her, she gave me my very own potato masher. I figured it was past time to put it to use!

So for dinner tonight we had Double Crunch Honey Garlic Pork chops and Perfect Golden Mashed Potatoes. The pork chops were really tasty, and I'm not usually a big fan of pork. The coating was crunchy and a little spicy; the sauce was a sweet honey/soy sauce glaze that really added a nice kick. The potatoes turned out well, I think, although I still am working on timing things to get done at the same time, so I had to reheat them a little and add a touch more milk which might have made them too creamy. I don't think my husband is used to Yukon gold potatoes, either, so he kind of thought that they "didn't taste like potatoes". He still ate them, though, so I don't think they were bad. He said the consistency was good. I'll definitely try making my own potatoes again another time.

Here are a couple of photos of our dinner--again, cell phone pictures of less than stellar quality, but enough to give you an idea.

So now I'll kick back, put my feet up, and relax while my husband does the dishes. :)

Sweet Autumn

I love autumn. There's just something about fall that makes everything seem rosy. I love the foods of fall, as well. They're warm and spicy and comforting.

One of my favorite foods in fall is apples. As a little girl, I remember looking forward to Jonathan apples every year as the first true sign that fall had arrived.

The grocery store has been selling big bags of Jonathan apples for a great price--a dozen or so to a bag. It's impossible for me to resist. My husband has been very tolerant of all the apple desserts making their way into our menu!

One of the easiest things to do with apples is fry 'em up. You don't need any special ingredients, just things that are already in the pantry. Quick, easy, and absolutely irresistible.

Skillet Fried Apples
5-8 medium apples
1/4 cup butter (half a stick)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Directions:
1. Slice your apples thin. I used an apple cutter and then cut each slice in half again, so I got 16 thin slices per apple. You don't need to peel the apples, just cut them and remove the core.
2. Melt your butter in a large skillet with a lid. Once the butter is all melted, put in your apples.
3. Add your brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. I put in a little more cinnamon, maybe more like 1/2 tsp.

4.   Stir everything up and cover with the lid. Cook 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Apples should be very soft (able to bend in half) and juices should be caramel brown and bubbly.

5. Serve hot, either plain or spooned over ice cream--or any other way you like!

All the tender apples and sweet spices of an apple pie in a fraction of the time. What's not to love?

Chicken Pot Pie

My dear husband and I spent the weekend in Lawrence. Saturday was spent with my husband and his grandfather under my car, replacing the sway bar link that broke a few weeks ago and has been held together with duct tape since then. (I feel so white trash saying that!) Then today we went to the KC Renaissance Festival. My husband did NOT wear his pirate costume this time, which was kind of a relief. Until I have a costume I can wear, too, I feel pretty weird being the chick in jeans walking around with Captain Barbossa.

Of course, once we got home we were both pretty worn out. I decided to try and throw together something new for dinner that hopefully wouldn't be TOO hard. I started with this recipe (found via Pinterest) and made some changes. My apologies if the instructions aren't great--I don't have a lot of experience writing out my own recipes! I also apologize for the lame cell phone picture.

Easy Chicken Pot Pie
Ingredients:
1-2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
3-4 small red potatoes
1 box chicken broth
1 bag frozen mixed vegetables, thawed (peas/carrots/corn/green beans)
1 can cream of chicken soup
Seasonings (I used a bay leaf and a little sage and thyme).
1 cup all-purpose baking mix (like Bisquick)
1/2 cup milk
1 egg

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. I used a stoneware pie plate and put it in the oven as it was heating so the stone would be nice and hot.
2. Heat chicken broth in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Chop your potatoes into small, bite-sized pieces and put into hot broth. After 5 minutes or so, add your chicken pieces. You want your potatoes and chicken to be cut small enough to cook quickly. I threw the bay leaf in while these were cooking for a little extra flavor.
3. Stir chicken and potatoes occasionally until chicken is cooked through and potatoes are fork-tender. (Maybe 10 minutes once your chicken has been added.) Drain, but retain some of the chicken broth to go in your pot pie. (At this point, I removed the bay leaf and discarded.) 
4. Chop or shred your chicken until it is in small, bite-sized pieces, if needed. (Use your best judgment--if you like bigger chunks of meat, you may not need to cut further.) 
5. Put potatoes, chicken, and mixed veggies into a bowl. Add cream of chicken soup. Stir, adding in small amounts of broth until everything is well mixed. (Maybe 1/2 cup broth total.) Try not to have TOO much excess liquid or your pie may be too full (mine was!) Season to your taste (I just shook in a little sage and thyme.)
6. Pour your chicken/veggie mixture into pie plate and put in oven. (Since my pie plate was already in the oven, I just pulled out the rack and poured it in.) If you have 2 racks in the oven, it might be a good idea to put an empty baking sheet on the rack below your pie plate to catch any liquid that bubbles over.
7. While your chicken and veggies are heating in the oven, mix together the baking mix, egg, and milk. Carefully pour/spread the baking mix over the hot chicken/veggie mixture in your pie plate. It may or may not cover the entire surface. Hopefully your pie plate won't be as full as mine was--I had quite a few drips as I added the biscuit mixture on top. Thankfully I had that baking sheet in place!
8. Cook for 20ish minutes. Keep an eye on it--depending on your oven and your baking mix, the biscuit part may cook in more or less time. Remove when the biscuit top is nice and golden brown.

I've tried similar recipes  before and always had trouble getting the biscuits on top to cook completely. The bottoms usually are super doughy. I think that having the filling already hot and then just pouring the biscuit batter on top (instead of forming and cutting out full, thick biscuits) helped the batter to cook all the way through. My husband ate two big helpings and practically licked his plate clean, so I think it was a success!

Simple Pleasures

Sometimes things just suck. Work lately has been pretty crappy and it's hard to come home after 9 hours of blah and put a smile on my face. So, I've tried to come up with things that can instantly boost my mood. At the top of that list? French Bulldogs.

The Daily Frenchie is my one-stop-shop for adorable Frenchie faces to melt my heart and make me smile. Then of course there are all the YouTube videos out there of French Bulldogs. Here are a few of my favorites:

And the heartwarming conclusion:

There's also this one, which is just hilarious on so many levels. I love how the guy is in his underwear and apparently has no clue he's being filmed. The interaction between the guy and dog is just precious.

And last but not least, the Very Thirsty Puppy.

Watch his tummy at the end. SLOSHING.

Sometimes it's the little things in life that make us happiest.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

I got this recipe off a blog sometime last year, but it looks like they've moved servers and not transferred over their old posts. I guess that means I get to type it up myself!

The weather cooled off enough this week to make me want to stir up some soup. When I asked my husband he requested a repeat of this Chicken Tortilla Soup. We tried to get some friends over to share in the bounty, but no such luck. Oh well, my sweet husband was appreciative and we'll have leftovers for the next decade or so. :)

This recipe is actually pretty speedy. You can cook up the chicken in advance. The most time consuming part is all the vegetable chopping and shredding the chicken. I talked my husband into shredding the chicken while he watched TV--meanwhile I did the rest.

Saute up some onions, red & green bell peppers, and spices in a dutch oven with a little olive oil.

Mix in a little tomato paste, a can of Rotel, and couple of boxes of chicken broth.

Look at that expert shredding job! The chicken is really well seasoned before cooking, which just adds to all the spicy good flavors in the soup.

Mmm mmm mmm... look at all that chicken!

Some frozen corn and corn tortillas add to the flavor. Once you simmer for 10-15 minutes, the tortillas dissolve and thicken the soup.

Ready to eat!

Served up with some fresh shredded cheddar and tortilla chips. Delicious!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

For the chicken:
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Olive oil
Chili powder
Garlic powder
Ground cumin
Salt & Pepper

For the soup:
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1/2 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1-1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1-1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, or to taste
Ground pepper, to taste
2 teaspoons tomato paste
1 can Rotel
2 (32 oz) boxes chicken broth
8-10 corn tortillas, sliced into strips and then cut in half
1 cup frozen corn


To cook the chicken:
Place chicken breasts on foil-lined baking sheet (I have a stone baker I used instead). Brush with olive oil and sprinkle liberally with chili powder, garlic powder and cumin. Season with salt and pepper. Don't be shy with the spices--they'll just add to the flavor of the soup once you add in the chicken. Place in 400 degree oven. The original recipe said to cook 12-15 minutes; it took more like 30 minutes to cook mine all the way through because they were pretty seriously thick.


For the soup:
In a large dutch oven over medium-high heat, add the olive oil, onions, bell peppers, and seasonings. Drop the heat to medium and saute until the onions are translucent and the bell peppers begin to soften, about 7-8 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the tomato paste and mix into the vegetables. Add the Rotel and the broth and bring up to a boil. Meanwhile, shred the chicken and add it to the soup. Reduce the heat to a simmer and add the corn and sliced tortillas. Taste for seasonings and adjust if necessary. Cover and allow to simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.
 

Enter, stage right

I've had several blogs before--some public, some private--but figured I would give it another shot and see how long I can stick with it.

I've been married for eight months now. It feels like we've been married forever. It feels like it has been no time at all. It hasn't been as much of an adjustment as I thought it would be. I think the biggest adjustment has been financially--combining our incomes, paying all our bills. It's a struggle, honestly. I know it won't always be this way--I know that sooner or later we'll pay off debts and have more freedom. It's just been really difficult to build up any kind of savings or to think of making any larger purchases when every month we are tiptoeing to make sure we don't cross into the red. Then when unexpected expenses pop up--like $100 for glasses, or the mysterious clunking noise from the bottom of my car--it's a scary thing to know whether we'll balance it out.

So currently there's a part of my car being held together with a rag and duct tape until we both get paid again. Whee!

Our biggest weakness is eating out--that's our standard "date", how we relax and celebrate the weekend or what we default to when we're too tired to cook. I'm proud to say that we've cut our eating out bill in half, saving our dollars for special occasions and not spending money on food we don't love. I'd rather forego a couple of fast food lunches if it means we can go get really awesome burgers at our favorite burger joint later.

One big change since I got married has been in the kitchen. I see cooking as my big contribution to the household. Mostly we've had hits, but a few misses have been along the way as well. Tonight I made meatloaf--one of my dear husband's childhood favorites, but not one of mine. But I figured, what the heck--I can't remember the last time I had meatloaf, so why not give it another shot?

I tried this recipe from A Sweet Pea Chef. I didn't get the Italian parsley, and I forgot to add in the Worcestershire sauce (after buying it especially for this recipe, grr argh!) but I was still feeling okay about it. In the end it came out really soggy and was too moist and squishy for my taste. My dear husband helpfully told me (after the fact, of course!) that his parents used to A) make meatloaf in the microwave (???) which he did NOT recommend, but also B) take it out halfway through and drain off some of the liquid. NOW he tells me! He seems to be coming down with something and was asleep through the cooking process, though, so I can't really hold him responsible.

Tomorrow I plan to tackle another childhood nemesis: pork chops. A couple of months ago I made some maple-rosemary glazed pork medallions that were good, but I'm almost fully convinced that I just don't like pork. Bacon is good, ham is sometimes okay, but pork? I don't know. I'm willing to give it another shot, though, because honestly there's only so many things you can do with chicken and ground beef.


I guess that's enough of a start to this, so... until next time!