some fall favorites

Made Caramel Apple Pork chops Thursday night with smashed potatoes, crusty bread, and salad with Gorgonzola/apples/dried cherries/cherry republic dressing/almonds.

Friday night I made Mom's Orange Chicken

ORANGE CHICKEN

1/2 cup flour
salt, pepper & paprika (to taste)
4 chicken breasts halves
5 Tablespoons butter, divided
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
2 cups bread crumbs
1/2 cup Lemon Juice
1/2 cup honey
1 cup Orange Marmalade
2 tablespoons Soy sauce

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Melt 3 tablespoons butter in 9x13” glass baking dish.
Place flour, salt, pepper and paprika into plastic zip lock bag. Add chicken breasts one at a time; shake off excess. Dreg chicken in egg/milk mixture then press into bread crumbs. Drag through melted butter, coating both sides. Bake 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, put 2 tablespoons butter, lemon juice, honey, Orange Marmalade and Soy sauce in small saucepan. Heat to boiling; reduce heat and simmer until reduced by half.
Take out chicken, turn over, and then pour mixture over. Bake an additional 30 minutes.

With Giada's Risotto recipe, peas, and garlic crescent rolls. Then I made molten lava cakes.

Dark Molten Chocolate Cakes
(from Baker's chocolate, but I used Ghiradelli chips)
Prep Time: 15 min
Total Time: 30 min
Makes: 6 cakes or 12 servings, 1/2 cake each

1 pkg. (6 squares) BAKER'S Bittersweet Chocolate
10 Tbsp. butter
1-1/2 cups plus 1 Tbsp. powdered sugar, divided
1/2 cup flour
3 whole eggs
3 egg yolks
18 fresh raspberries

GREASE 6 (6-oz.) custard cups or souffle dishes (I have a pan with the bottoms that pop out, makes them come out easy). Place on baking sheet.
MICROWAVE chocolate and butter in large microwaveable bowl on MEDIUM (50%) 2 min. or until butter is melted. Stir with whisk until chocolate is completely melted. Add 1-1/2 cups sugar and flour; mix well. Add whole eggs and egg yolks; beat until well blended. Pour into prepared cups.
BAKE 14 to 15 min. or until cakes are firm around the edges but still soft in the centers. Let stand 1 min. Run small knife around cakes to loosen; carefully unmold onto dessert plates. Cut in half. Serve warm topped with remaining sugar. Garnish with berries.

more apple adventures

I found an apple butter recipe in my favorite Betty Crocker cookbook today so I gave that a whirl. Was pretty easy and smells nice and seasoned.

Now that I have almost 4 cups of apple butter, I'd better keep cooking with that ;) lol. May try this sometime in the next 3 weeks (its shelf life in the fridge). Grilled Turkey with honey apple glaze.

Let me know if you have a good recipe that calls for apple butter now ;) I may be set for regular apple recipes, as after tonight's pork roast I'll only have a few left.

Apple Butter (from memory, if its not 100% I'll come back and tweak it)

4lbs of apples, peeled, quartered and core removed
1 1/4 cup apple juice (I used cider)
1 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp cloves

Put everything in a large dutch oven. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer and cover, stirring occasionally. Simmer one hour. Mash up apples with masher or fork. Return to stove and simmer uncovered for one hour, or until nice and thick. Remove from heat, cool 2 hours, then place in containers and can be kept in in fridge for up to 3 weeks.

apple pancakes

Today's apple adventure I think will start with apple pancakes. Going to use the syrup recipe from this recipe but just make my standard bisquick supreme pancakes with some finely diced apples in there and some cinnamon and other fall spices. Also going to have turkey sausage patties on the side, not in the pancakes.

Here's the apple cider syrup recipe I'm trying:

CIDER SYRUP:
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 cup apple cider
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons butter or margarine

For syrup, combine the sugar, cornstarch and pumpkin pie spice in a saucepan. Gradually stir in cider and lemon juice until smooth. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Remove from the heat; stir in butter until melted. Serve warm with the pancakes.

Apples!

Went to Brookwood Fruit Farm on Friday with my MOMs group and little miss. Got a big bag of apples; cortlands, jonathons, and jonamacs (jonathon-macintosh hybrid). Mmmm. Apples. Means its time for apple cooking. Made some of Mom's apple sauce right away, plan to have that tomorrow with the apple pork loin roast I love.

Tonight we had hamburger soup and then had apple dumplings (new recipe, I still want to try the other one, this is a quick one) for dessert. YUM. I halved the recipe (only had one sheet of pastry and 4 people to feed) and didn't allow them to cool all the way before we inhaled, or make the glaze. That's what vanilla bean ice cream is for, duh ;) So good when melty ice cream and apples meet.

If you have a tried/true apple recipe please share :) my friend from college is coming Thursday so I may make an apple coffee cake for us to munch on Thursday & Friday.

Apple Dumpling Supreme

Found the elusive apple dumpling recipe that a previous boyfriend's mother made (that was OMG amazing) when I "came home to meet the parents" once. Yeah, not the man I married ;) but the apple dumplings that woman made made me obsessed with finding the recipe for awhile. I follow a live journal community called vintage recipes and someone posted this today.

Anyways, onto the recipe :) typed as written, for sure an old recipe as the layout is not the common day recipe layout. I wonder if I could cheat and use Pillsbury premade pastry? ;)

Betty Crocker Apple Dumpling Supreme
pastry makes 6 dumplings

sift together: 2 1/4 cups flour
3/4 tsp salt

cut in with pastry blender or two knives: 3/4 cup shortening... first adding most of it until mixture looks like "meal" and then cutting in the rest until particles are the size of giant peas.

Sprinkle over mixture 5 Tbsp of water... mixing enough to make dough stay together.

Round up into a ball, let stand for a few minutes to make easier to roll out. (If desired, divide into 2 or 3 parts to make it easier to handle). Roll out dough 1/8inch thick on lightly floured cloth covered board. Cut into six 7-inch squares.

Now...

Pare and core 6 medium sized tart juicy apples. Place an apple on each square of pastry.

Fill apple cavities of apples with a mixture of:
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Dot with 1 tbsp of butter.

Then the ad shows a song lyric "button up your overcoat" with the instructions for sealing the dumpling.

Moisten points of the pastry square (be sure not to use too much water). Fold up opposite points up over apple, overlapping them. Seal well.

Place about 2-inch apart in a 9x13x2 baking pan. Pour hot syrup (recipe below) around dumplings in pan. Bake immediately for 40 to 45 minutes in a hot oven (425).

Syrup:
Boil together for 3 minutes: 1 cup sugar, 2 cups water, 4 Tbsp butter, 1/4 tsp cinnamon.

For less rich syrup use 1/2 cup each of sugar and corn syrup, 2 Tbsp butter, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, and only 1 cup of water. (or use maple syrup)

apple cheesecake

Yes, I'm a cheesecake fan, won't deny it. :)

I'd printed this one out back in 2005 and found it again this weekend and decided to finally try it. I'd bought a bag of jonamac apples at the store and some cream cheese so it was bound to happen. My aunt had an open house this weekend so I had an excuse to make a cheesecake, that's all I needed. ;)

Here is the original recipe, I naturally changed things up immediately, so I'll post the recipe I followed below. I'm not sure I'm done tweaking this one, but as is its pretty good, other than the non-existent crust.

Apple crumble cheesecake

1 1/2 cup nilla wafer crumbs
3 tablespoons white sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

cinnamon sugar
3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 cups apples - peeled, cored and thinly sliced (about the size of nickles)
1/3 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
dash of cloves

1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter softened

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a large bowl, stir together the nilla wafer crumbs, 3 tablespoons sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and melted butter; press into the bottom of a 9 inch springform pan. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar after cooled. (not sure I'm in love with the crust, seemed thin and got soggy... anyone have a great not chocolate crust for cheesecake?)

In a large bowl, combine cream cheese and 3/4 cup sugar. Mix at medium speed until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Blend in vanilla; pour filling into the baked crust.

In a small bowl, stir together 1/3 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Toss the cinnamon-sugar with the apples to coat. Spoon apple mixture over cream cheese layer. In the future I may combine the apples & sugar first, then set to strain juices out before adding the spices and then top it.

Combine the butter, brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon with a pastry cutter until a crumby texture forms. Sprinkle over apples.

Bake in preheated oven for 75-85 minutes in a water bath. Let cool, then remove the rim of pan. Chill cake before serving.

apple sauce

Fall is upon us so its apple season :)

This is what I do for applesauce, thought I'd share since someone had asked me for the recipe recently anyways.

APPLESAUCE

3lbs of apples (granny smith or another cooking apple work best), peeled, cored, and sliced
1/2 cup water or cider
1/4 cup sugar (or to taste)
1/4 to 1/2 tsp of cinnamon (or to taste)
Nutmeg, allspice and cloves may be added to taste

Put everything in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Cover and cook until the apples are very soft, about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Transfer the apples to a bowl and mash with a fork or potato masher. Allow sauce to cool and place in a container with a tight fitting lid. Store in the fridge, can be kept up to a week.

pork loin recipes

Bought a decent sized pork loin at the store last night for dinner, today I just had to decide what to do with it. I have two really good recipes, one involves the grill (we do it on our rotisserie) the other the oven. Chris voted for the rotisserie one, but I'll give you both :)

rubbed and grilled pork loin from the pork council. We do it the same way except rotisserie it for a couple hours on medium. We have a meat thermometer on our grill so I'll stop the rotisserie and stab it in after its been about an hour and a half then every so often to check if its done. We had ours get a little charred last time from flare up but it was mostly the fatty part which we cut off anyways. This time Chris wants me to use the smoker box in our grill so we'll see how it is smoked.

recipe #2 is the apple-topped pork loin from allrecipes. It's great, my grandparents liked it so much when they got leftovers (I seal a meal / freeze stuff for them) that they called me right after they ate it to tell me it was the best pork they'd ever had.