Apple Crisp

I ate an apple every morning for breakfast during my senior year. I appled myself out and ever since then, I don't really eat them. However, this pregnancy, I find myself wanting to eat apples again. And since the apple season is upon us, I'm going to kick off the season with some apple crisp. I get my new oven today (long story, it's on my other blog if you want to read it), so I'll post a picture as soon as I make it. I am going to experiment substituting some of the sugar with brown sugar for a more caramely flavor. I'll let you know how it works.

*I used 1/2 cup white sugar and 1/2 cup packed brown sugar and I loved it!

Apple Crisp

4 cups sliced (or diced) apples

¼ cup orange juice or 3 Tbs. lemon juice

1 cup sugar

¾ cup flour

½ tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. nutmeg

½ cup butter

Mound apples in a buttered pie dish, sprinkle with orange juice. Combine sugar, flour, spices and dash salt; cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle mixture over apples. Bake at 375 for 45 minutes or until apples are tender and topping is crisp. Serve warm with cream (not whipped) or vanilla ice cream. Serve 6.

Sharon's Potato Salad

With Fall coming on and all the reasons to make potato salad cooling down, I thought I'd post my favorite one. While I love my mom's, I love my mother-in-law's more (don't tell my mom ;)

Now, before I get a bunch of comments (wait, has that ever happened?), there are no quantities, you'll have to decided how much of each you want. Just eyeball it. Usually I do one potato (and you always do the same amount of eggs as potatoes) per person. But, sometimes not.

Sharon's Potato Salad

White Rose or Russet potatoes (rose are a bit firmer, but I like the earthier flavor of the Russets)

Boiled eggs (same amount as potatoes)

Radishes

Green onions

Celery

Mayonnaise

Mustard

Dab ketchup

Salt and Pepper

Boil eggs and potatoes; let cool and peel and chop (I actually peel the potatoes before I boil them, even though you're not "supposed" to). Chop remaining ingredients into bite sizes pieces. Add mayonnaise and mustard and a dab of ketchup and mix until blended. Season with salt and pepper. Chill.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

I'm telling you, over the years, Brian has taken things that I just DON'T like and has made them delicious!! He modified this recipe from Emeril Lagasse and it's fantastic, I think I ate at least 3 servings throughout the evening. I couldn't help it (well, I probably could, but didn't)! It has quite a bit of garlic, but I'm a garlic lover and I thought it was a PERFECT amount!

Garlic Mashed Potatoes-Brian's Version

1 head roasted garlic
2 lbs. potatoes, skinned and diced
1/2-2/3 cup butter
1/2 cup or so of heavy cream
salt and pepper

How to roast garlic:

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Place the garlic on a pie pan and drizzle with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Place in the oven and roast for 35 to 40 minutes, or until tender and golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool. Squeeze or remove the garlic cloves from the head and place in a small bowl. Using a fork, mash the garlic until smooth.

Potatoes:
Place the potatoes in a pot of salted water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook the potatoes until fork tender, about 12 to 15 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and drain. Place the potatoes back in the pot and return to the heat. Stir the potatoes, constantly, for 2 to 3 minutes to dehydrate the potatoes. Remove the potatoes from the heat. Add the garlic and butter. Using a hand-held masher, mash the butter and garlic into the potatoes. Add enough cream until desired texture is achieved. Add salt and pepper.

These are so good, that I'm eating some for breakfast. He also made a modified recipe of Parmesan Mashed Potatoes, which were equally as good. I'll post that recipe later.

Pumpkin Banana Bread

I'm not a big banana bread fan, it's okay, I'll have a piece here and there. I had some bananas that needed to be used and I didn't feel like normal banana bread, nor did I want to make banana cream pie (which I actually really like). So, I thought I'd try pumpkin banana bread. It's pretty darn good. I got the recipe off the Libby site, the people that make the canned pumpkin.

Ingredients

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 can (15 oz.) LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cup (2 medium) very ripe bananas, mashed
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

PREHEAT oven to 350º F. Grease and flour two 9 x 5-inch loaf pans.

COMBINE flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Combine pumpkin, eggs, granulated sugar, brown sugar, bananas and vegetable oil in large mixer bowl; beat until smooth. Gradually beat in flour mixture; stir in nuts. Spoon into prepared loaf pans.

BAKE for 55 to 60 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.