Apple Pie

I found this recipe and thought it was an interesting way to do apple pie. I made it and it was sooooo good.

Filling
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
8 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and sliced

Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, white sugar, brown sugar and cinnamon, and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.

Place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Cover with a lattice work of crust. Gently pour the sugar and butter liquid over the crust. Pour slowly so that it does not run off.

Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes, until apples are soft.

Pastry:
3 cups of flour
1 cup + 2 T shortening
1 1/2 tsp. salt
7 or so T cold water

Combine flour and salt; cut in shortening with pastry blender till mixture resembles coarse meal. Sprinkle cold water, 1T at a time, evenly over surface; stir with fork till all ingredients are moistened. Shape into 2 balls.

Layered Ice Cream Cake

I saw this recipe on TLC and thought it sounded so good. I haven't actually made it so if any of you make it, let me know how you liked it.


Ingredients:

24 ice cream sandwiches
8 oz cool whip
2 king-size butterfinger candy bars crushed
1 squeeze-bottle chocolate syrup
1 squeeze-bottle caramel topping

Instructions:

Arrange in six layers in a 9x13-inch pan:

First layer: 12 ice cream sandwiches placed over the bottom of the pan

Second layer: half of the cool whip

Third layer: half of the crushed butterfinger candy bars, topped with half the bottle of chocolate syrup and half the bottle of caramel topping.

Repeat layers 1-3. Freeze and eat as desired.

Crock Pot Potato Chowder

I'm not a big soup person, but I really liked this soup from "Real Mom Kitchen". It was really yummy. I think the cream cheese is what made it so good to me. I am a big fan of cream cheese.

Crock Pot Potato Chowder

8 cups diced potatoes
1/3 cup onion, chopped
3 knorr boullion cubes (these are two teaspoons in size, so I used 6 teaspoons of my boullion powder)
6 cups water
1 10 3/4 ounce condensed cream of chicken soup
1 8 ounce package cream cheese
1/2 lb. of bacon, cooked and crumbled
Dried parsley or sliced green onions for garnish-optional

Combine potatoes, onion, water, boullion, and chicken soup in the crock pot. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours or until potatoes are tender. Add cream cheese to crock pot and blend. Top with bacon and parsley or onions before serving.

Corn Bread and Honey Butter

I somehow lost all of my recipe books and favorite recipes I've printed and saved over the last 4 years. I remember seeing them while unpacking when we got here, but I have no idea where they got put. I've looked everywhere. So, my favorite corn bread recipe is gone. But I found a pretty good replacement from My Kitchen Cafe. It's more cake like than your average corn bread, but the kids LOVE it. We also tried the honey butter recipe and really liked it. Not at all good for you, but good. haha.

Cornbread
½ cup cornmeal
1 ½ cup flour
2/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup oil
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 eggs, beaten
1 ¼ cup milk

Add dry ingredients, make a well and add oil, butter, eggs, and milk into the center. Stir until just mixed (batter will be runny - don't be alarmed!). Bake in an 8” square pan at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. This doubles perfectly for a 9X13-inch pan.

Honey Butter:
2 sticks butter, softened
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup marshmallow fluff

Whip all together with an electric mixer and serve at room temperature (can be refrigerated and softened).

Buttermilk Chocolate Cake (from Monnie Olsen)

Cream together:

2 cups sugar
1 cup butter
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla

Add: 1 cup buttermilk

Sift together, then add:

1/2 cup cocoa
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 t. salt

Just before putting in oven, add:

1 scant cup boiling water
2 t. baking soda

Bake in cookie sheet at 350 for about 30 min or less until it tests done. (Her instructions were for a longer time, but I find around 25 min about right for this amount of batter in a cookie sheet.)

She included this frosting recipe to go with the cake, but says she likes to use the alternate Chocolate Fudge recipe that follows it.

Frosting:

1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 square baking chocolate
4 T cream

Stir while cooking 5 minutes till soft ball stage. Add: 1/2 t. vanilla. Spread on cake while hot.

Chocolate Fudge:

2 c. sugar
1 c. cream
2 T. light Karo
dash of salt
1 square unsweetened baking chocolate
1 t. vanilla

Combine ingredients. Turn burner to high, stir until it boils. Take spoon out, insert thermometer and reduce heat to med low. Cook fudge to 228 degrees. Remove thermometer, remove pan from stove to cool. Do not disturb until cool. Beat until no longer glossy. Spread on cake.

Some more crock pot recipes

Sweet and Spicy Slow Cooker Chicken



1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 (14 ounce) can petite diced tomatoes, undrained

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (I used 1/4 teaspoon)



Coat the inside of your crockpot with non-stick cooking spray. Place all ingredients in the crockpot. Cook on high for 4-6 hours or on low 8-10 hours, or until chicken shreds very easily with a fork. Season to taste with salt and pepper. (Chicken will absorb liquid after it is shredded.) Serve in tacos or however you desire.



I loved putting this chicken in the small soft corn tortilla shells with cheese and lettuce. I was seriously addicted to these little tacos when I was pregnant! We always have a lot left over, and I was up late at night eating these. I was a little worried about the tomato chunks because I am weird and the texture of warm, squishy tomatoes makes me queasy, but they just blend right in with the chicken and make it super moist and yummy.



Creamy Italian Chicken



4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 8 ounce package cream cheese

2 cans cream of chicken soup

1 packet dry italian dressing seasoning



Place the chicken in the crock pot and sprinkle the italian seasoning over it. Mix the cream cheese and soup. Pour the mixture over the chicken and cook on low for 8 hours. Serve over rice or noodles. (We love it on rice. We've never tried it on noodles.)



This recipe has become one of my staple recipes. It's really simple and yummy. And it makes a lot of left overs to have for lunches or dinners throughout the week.

Crockpot recipes

Okay, I posted four crockpot recipes below, but I have a disclaimer to make. I haven't actually tried these four recipes yet. However, they are recipes from my Winder 4th Ward Cookbook (my last ward in Utah), so I feel some level of confidence that they will be good. (Hopefully, that confidence isn't misplaced.) I'm planning to make the crockpot taco soup later this week, so I'll let you know how it turns out. The BBQ pork one also sounds really yummy, but I keep wondering if the process would be a pain instead of a timesaver...and I'm going for time saving.

I cooked a roast in my crockpot today and boy was it YUMMY!! You guys probably already have your fabulous recipes for roasts and this one is a pretty standard recipe I think. Still it turns out good. (3-4 pound roast, potatoes, carrots, 1 can cream of mushroom soup, 1 pkg lipton onion soup mix, cook on low for 8-12 hours, or on high for 4-6 hours...I also added a quartered onion in.)

If anyone else has a chance to post any quick crockpot recipes I'd love it (and Heidi too, it sounds like)! I need to find some more that will be time saving and that Alex and I will like.

I have a couple of other recipes (Crockpot Beef Stew and Crockpot Chicken Cacciatore), but I'm not sure where those recipes came from so I didn't post them. If anyone wants me to post them, I will; otherwise, I'll wait to see if they are any good if or when I try them.

Post-Edit: I've tried the Crockpot Taco Soup now and it was really good!!