Apple Crisp

It’s that time of year again and while apples are in season it’s the best time to make some yummy treats!  This is a pure comfort food dessert.  Super easy and the house smells amazing while it’s cooking!!

6 large apples peeled, cored and sliced
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp white sugar
1 ½ tsp. cinnamon
4 Tbsp melted butter

Combine all in a bowl and set aside to marinate together

Make the sweet buttery topping
½ cup quick cook oats
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
¾ cups heaping all purpose flour
1 ½ sticks of room temperature butter

Combine oats, sugars, and flour and mix until well incorporated. Add in the room temperature butter and use a fork or a pastry cutter to form crumbles

Place the apple mixture in a lightly greased 13×9 cake pan. Sprinkle the crumble top evenly over the whole top.

Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 32 – 35 minutes (or until evenly browned)

 

Concord Grape Jelly

It’s almost Concord Grape season in our area.  I had one quart and one pint of homemade grape juice that we canned in 2015 left in the cellar.  Last night was the perfect night to process it into some beautiful, sweet grape jelly.

You can see how we process our jelly on an older post here:  Concord Grape Jelly

Grandma Ruth’s Preserve Thumbprint cookies

These cookies are delicious!  Rich buttery flavor with the touch of fruity sweetness from the preserves.

The man’s mother makes a cookie tray for each of her children.  These are one of her cookies and my favorite by far!  This year she turned 80 and has realized it’s too much work to make so many cookies.  She made a 3 ring binder for each of her grandchildren with all of her recipes and a beautiful handwritten not to each of them.  What a special gift!!

Last night we made her thumbprint cookies.  This was my first shot at making these and while not as pretty as hers (which are always perfectly round), they taste the same!  We are bringing them to a family party tonight.

These are ridiculously simple with easy ingredients and dough that is perfect to work with!

2 Cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 cup butter softened

2 eggs, separated

1/8 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

finely chopped pecans (or walnuts) to roll cookies in

Any flavor fruit preserves (I used apricot and raspberry)

Preheat the oven to 350F.  In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, butter, egg yolks, salt and vanilla.  Beat at low speed scraping the bowl often until smooth (about 2 minutes).

Shape rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into 1-inch balls.

In  small bowl whisk the egg whites until foamy (this is clear with many bubbles)

Dip each ball into the whites and then into the finely chopped nuts.

Place about 1 inch apart on greased cookie sheets (or parchment/silpat)

Make a depression in the center of each cookie with the back of the teaspoon.

Bake for 8 minutes, remove carefully and place a small teaspoon of preserves in the center.  Return to oven and bake for approximately 7-9 more minutes (or until lightly browned on the edges).

Makes about 36 cookies!

 

Grandma’s Applecrisp

This is such a delicious comfort food/dessert.  It makes your house smell wonderful while it bakes and it’s such a sweet, buttery and moist dessert your family will love it!

I know I say it often but this is truly very easy!

Prepare your apples

Add some brown sugar, white sugar, cinnamon and melted butter and stir it around

Set it aside and make your buttery mouthwatering crumbly topping

Once it’s incorporated and crumbly, pour the apple mixture into a lightly greased cake pan and cover evenly with the crumbles

Bake at 375 for approximately 32 – 35 minutes or until it’s golden brown in color

Grab some vanilla ice cream, whipped cream or eat it plain while it’s still warm!!  YUM

And then hide it where you can’t see it and slice a little piece every hour on the hour so you can enjoy it for more than 3 hours 🙂

Recipe

6 large apples peeled, cored and sliced

2 Tbsp brown sugar

2 Tbsp white sugar

1 ½ tsp. cinnamon

4 Tbsp melted butter

Combine all in a bowl and set aside to marinate together

Make the sweet buttery topping

½ cup quick cook oats

½ cup brown sugar

½ cup white sugar

¾ cups heaping all purpose flour

1 ½ sticks of room temperature butter

Combine oats, sugars, and flour and mix until well incorporated. Add in the room temperature butter and use a fork or a pastry cutter to form crumbles

Place the apple mixture in a lightly greased 13×9 cake pan. Sprinkle the crumble top evenly over the whole top.

Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 32 – 35 minutes (or until evenly browned)

Cherry Season!!

It’s cherry season here. It’s a little early and unfortunately the cherries are splitting because of all the rain we have had.  But we were able to take the kids and get a good few bucket fulls of sweet beautiful cherries.

I process our cherries 3 ways to have throughout the year:

1) Canning them

2) Flash freezing

3) Cherry Pies stored in the freezer (these are just like store bought, you pull them out and bake them when ready)

You can see our recipes (and the awesome technique for pitting) on our Facebook page here:  Cherry Season

Watermelon Jello

Super fun for the kids and great for a get together!

You can see how we make ours on my Facebook page here:  Watermelon Jello

Cranberry Sauce

In our area you can buy fresh cranberries between October and December and then they are very hard to get.  The stores have great sales on them so I always try to grab them and make our supply of cranberry sauce and can it for the year.  I also froze 6 bags so I will be able to utilize fresh cranberries when we need them (especially since my son saw the batch of cranberry sauce I made today and said “mom that won’t last until Christmas”).  He LOVES the stuff.

I made it today using my recipe at the bottom of the post.  I made a double batch so you would need to double the recipe if you are making a double batch also.  I find it best to only double the batch and make multiple batches if you want more than 6 jars as it sets up better.  I will make another double batch next week to can.

First wash cranberries.

In a pot add 1 cup of water per 12 oz bag and 3/4 cups sugar and bring to a boil.

Place cranberries in boiling sugar water and boil gently for 10 minutes (they will start to pop and foam and look like this picture).

After 10 minutes take the hot cranberries and pour them through a fine strainer or use a food mill to separate.  I have done both and there are not lumps or pieces of fruit in the sauce after you strain it.

  Today I used the food mill.

Once you have it separated you can do:

1) if storing in the fridge, pour into the containers, let cool and then place in the fridge for up to 10 days.

2) if canning it get the jars prepared and water bath

THIS IS FOR CANNING:

Take the strained juice and place it back into the rinsed out stock pot.  Bring to a boil and add 1/2 bag pectin (1.75 oz box) or 3 heaping tablespoons.  Boil for approximately 1 minute.

Ladle into hot prepared jars and put them in the water bath.  Once the water is boiling again, time it for 15 minutes with the lid on and boil gently.  After 15 minutes turn the heat off, remove the lid and let them sit for 5 more minutes.  Remove and place on a towel or wire rack and let sit for 24 hours before moving.

This was a double batch

 

Store in a cool dark place for up to a year.

As a tip when we are going to eat one I pull it out and put it in the fridge for a few hours so it’s chilled!!

CRANBERRY SAUCE RECIPE (for 12 oz bag)

12 oz bag cranberries rinsed

1 cup water

3/4 cup sugar

pectin (if canning)

Bring water and sugar to a boil.  Add cranberries and boil gently for 10 minutes stirring frequently.

Remove from heat and pour into a bowl with a fine mesh strainer or use a food mill to separate skins and stems.

IF REFRIGERATING — place in jars or container and let cool.  Cover and store in fridge for up to 10 days.

IF CANNING — have water bath boiling and jars/lids hot

Place the strained cranberry sauce back in the rinsed out stock pot and bring to gentle boil.

Add the pectin and boil for 1 minute stirring frequently.

Remove from heat and ladle into hot jars and cover with lids and screw bands until tight

Place in the water bath and bring to a boil and boil gently for 15 minutes.

Turn heat off, remove cover and let them sit for 5 more minutes.

Remover from canner and place on dish towel or wire rack and let sit for 24 hours before moving them.

Store in cool dark place for up to a year.

IF YOU WANT TO FREEZE YOUR CRANBERRIES YOU DO IT THE SAME WAY AS I HAVE SHARED FOR OTHER FRUITS SUCH AS PEACHES.  DIRECTIONS HERE:  Flash Freezing Fruit

Apple Cake

This is a very simple and delicious cake.  It can be served as a dessert, a coffee cake, or as a snack.  It’s wonderful warm out of the oven!!  It’s a dense cake full of baked apples.

You can find the recipe I used to make our Apple Cake on my Facebook page here:  Apple Cake

Apple Juice (make it yourself!!)

During apple season, I hate to waste anything.  When making apple bread, sauce, or pies I take the peels and cores and boil them to make apple juice.  There is nothing like homemade apple juice!!  It is delicious.

Depending on the type of apples you use, the color is always different but the flavor and health benefit is a plus!!  You can sweeten it with sugar, honey or agave.

You can find my recipe on my facebook page here:  Apple Juice homemade

Applesauce…sauces

Today was the day to make a few batches of crockpot applesauce.  This is great for dinners, to put in kids lunches and for baking!!!  There are a lot of recipes that cut down on fat and calories by replacing oil with applesauce.  It’s great to have some ready for whenever you need it.

I freeze our applesauce but you can also place it in jars and can it.  We always make a few different batches and today we made cinnamon, chunky, and plain.

You can find our family recipe on my facebook page here:  Applesauce recipe

 

Cinnamon

Chunky

Plain