Deep Dish Apple Pie with Streusel Topping December 4, 2007

Ingredients
1/4 C. Brown Sugar
1/4 C. White Sugar
1/2 t. Ground Cinnamon
1/8 t. Ground Nutmeg
Pinch Salt
5-6 Apples (I like to mix varieties..)
1 T. Lemon Juice
1 Deep Dish Pie Shell (Marie Callendar makes a good one in the frozen food section)
2 T. Unsalted Butter (cut into bits)

Topping:
1 Stick Butter (8 T.)
1/2 C. Brown Sugar
1/2 C. Walnuts (Chopped)
1 T. Lemon Juice
1/2 t. Ground Cinnamon
1/2 C. Flour

Method
1. Peel and core apples. You can buy a nifty device in the grocery store gadget aisle that cores and slices in one step–it’s about $1 and totally worth it!.
2. Toss together sugars, spices and salt. Toss the apples with the lemon juice, then this mixture.
3. Add the apples to the pie shell and top with butter pats.
4. Cream together the butter and brown sugar for the topping. Add the walnuts, lemon juice, spices and flour. Put topping over top of apples.
5. Bake at 375 for 45-60 minutes or until center of pie is bubbly and streusal mixture is browned.

Note: I have had great luck making these pies, then wrapping tightly in plastic wrap and a couple layers of foil before baking, then freezing. I then bake the frozen pie for 60 minutes at 375. I do this advance prep for Holidays–take the kiddos apple picking in the fall and have great pies for Thanksgiving. I also made a bunch of these pies for my wedding because my husband hates cake and loves apple pie. With the help of one of my bridesmaids, we set up an assembly line and catered the dessert portion of the wedding in under an hour! We baked the pies the day before and it worked great.

Whole-Wheat Pumpkin Bread December 4, 2007

Ingredients
2 C. White Flour
1/2 C. Whole-Wheat Flour
1/4 C. Cornmeal
1/4 C. Wheat Germ
1/2 t. Salt
1 T. Baking Powder
1 C. Sugar
2 Eggs
1/4 C. Butter (melted)
1 1/4 C. Milk
1 Can Pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie filling)
1 t. Ground Cinnamon
1/2 t. Ground Ginger
1 Pinch Ground Cloves
1 Pinch Nutmeg
1 C. Chocolate Chips (if you’re feeling wild!)

Method
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a loaf pan.
2. Combine all the dry ingredients. Add the egg, butter and milk. Add the pumpkin.
3. Bake 1 hour.

Notes: I make this for my 17 month old daughter for breakfast (without the chocolate chips). It’s easy, she loves it, and it’s good for her (and cleaner than oatmeal!). You can make the same recipe with apple sauce, substituting it for the pumpkin. If you want it as a dessert, add the chocolate chips and serve it warm with butter. Delicious!

Buffalo Chicken Chilli December 6, 2006

Ingredients
1 T. Olive Oil
2 T. Butter
2 lbs. Ground Chicken (white meat, I used ground skinless breasts, omit if making vegetarian)
1 Large Carrot (um, I used 3…)
1 Large Onion (Chopped; Bagged Works Well)
3 Ribs Celery (I used like 5…)
5 Cloves Garlic (Chopped)
1 T. Smoked Paprika
1 Bay Leaf
One Can Kidney Beans (use 3 cans if you’re making vegetarian; this wasn’t in the original recipe, but I like the added fiber and lower calories and cost)
3 Zucchinis (Chopped) (these weren’t in the original recipe, but I had a bunch that were about to go bad…)
Salt and Pepper
2 C. Chicken Stock (I used half chicken, half vegetable stock because I had some of each leftover; use vegetable stock if you’re making vegetarian)
1/4-1/2 C. Hot Sauce (I used lots of “dashes” of a hot sauce, maybe around 1/4 C. in total, and a small container of wing sauce)
1-15 oz. Can Tomato Sauce
1-15 oz. Can Crushed Tomatoes (I like the ones with the basil and garlic, but you could also use the ones that have jalapeno here if you like it hot)

Method
1. I literally just threw all this in the crock pot and went Christmas shopping…the original recipe says to brown the chicken in the olive oil and butter, yada yada, soften onions in butter, yada yada, all of which I considered to be a valuable waste of time. It turned out fine and I wouldn’t waste the time doing it step by step, unless you don’t have a crock pot (in which case you will brown the chicken, saute the veggies, add the rest of the stuff and simmer till it seems cooked…but seriously, buy a crock pot!)
2. Top with fresh parsley.
3. I also put some of those Terra Chips (Sweet Potato and Beet version) in a broiling pan and topped them with gorgonzola (me) and “a really good cheddar” (for the very unadventurous when it comes to cheese, Bryan), then put them in the broiler till the cheese was melted and crushed that over top. Um, yea. It was that good. I also reheated some leftover Appetizer Cheese Toasts I got the recipe for over on Bek’s cooking blog, which I had cut into croutons, and put those on top.

I like to make chilli because it’s really easy and you can use whatever you have lying around, but I’m sorta over regular chilli, so I’m always trying to come up with new ones. I hijacked this one from Rachael Ray’s new talk show and put my own spin on it (crock pot, more veggies and beans). She had the topping as corn chips with blue cheese, but I thought the sweet potato and beet chips were tastier and better for you. Bryan probably told me 35 times during dinner how good this was! I liked that I could use the crock pot and that it didn’t have red meat in it. You could easily make this vegetarian by omitting the chicken and adding more beans, and replacing the chicken stock with veggie stock.