Apple Pie

'Tis the season for apple picking.  I went this morning with my Mom and one of my sisters.  We picked three big bags of Cortland apples, and spent the rest of the morning/early afternoon making apple pies and crisps. 

Here's my Dad's recipe for the perfect homemade crust:

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
7 tablespoons shortening
6 tablespoons of ice cold water (MUST be very cold)

Instructions:

Mix flour and shortening thoroughly.  Add the cold water.  Stir, and then roll your dough into a ball.  Cut in half.  This makes you a top and bottom crust.  Roll it out with a rolling pin and make sure the crust is an even thickness.

And here's the recipe for making the pie filling:

Ingredients:

5 apples
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions:

Peel the apples.  Chop into manageable pieces.  In a bowl, mix the apples with the sugar, flour, and cinnamon until all apple pieces are coated.

Once your bottom crust is pressed into the pie tan, poke a few holes into it with a fork.  Add your apple mixture.  Place your top crust, and pinch all the edges of the bottom and top together.  Then, poke a few more holes into the top crust.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes.  The pie is done when the crust is golden brown. 

Enjoy!

There I am in the apple orchard!

 

 

Slow Cooked Chili

Here's another great crockpot recipe which is perfect for the Fall season.  The nights are getting cooler here, so I thought I would make some comfort food: chili and cornbread!

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef
1 yellow onion, chopped into small chunks 
1 can of diced tomatoes
2 cans of tomato sauce
1 can of kidney beans
3 cloves of chopped garlic (I like a lot of garlic; adjust to your preference)
1/4 cup of chili powder
2 tablespoons cumin
Dash of salt and pepper
Shredded cheese, for topping

Just after the ingredients were added...that's a full crockpot!

Instructions:

You can use ground beef that is fully thawed and put it into the slow cooker as is - no need to brown the beef first.  The beef that I used had thawed partially overnight, but it still had some frozen spots.  I let the slow cooker do the work for me.

Chop the onion and dice the cloves of garlic.  Drain and rinse the kidney beans.  Put all of the ingredients and spices into your slow cooker.  Give it a stir so that everything is mixed. 

I used the "low" setting on my crockpot and cooked the chili for about seven hours.  If you used fully frozen beef, I would adjust to a higher setting on the crockpot.

I cheated and did not make the corn muffins homemade, but if you're feeling ambitious, you definitely could look up a good recipe for them! 

Pork Roast

 *Guest post from Turtle's Mom*

Here's a recipe for a really tasty pork roast.  This is a simple recipe that you can make on a busy day, because it cooks slowly in the oven.  You can make the roast into pulled pork after it's cooked, or serve it in a few different ways.

Ingredients:

3 lb. pork roast
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons brown sugar

BBQ Sauce Ingredients:

1 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons yellow mustard
1/2 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon honey
Splash of orange juice or apple juice

Instructions:

In a Dutch oven, put the pork roast, the water, and sprinkle the brown sugar on top of the roast. Cover with a lid and cook at 350 degrees for about two hours.  Then, mix up your barbecue sauce and take the roast out just long enough to drizzle on the sauce.  Put it back in the oven for about another hour (covered.)  When you take it out of the oven, and your pork is tender enough that you can pull the meat apart with a fork, it's done!

If you have extra liquid in the pan, you can spoon it out.  Then, shred the pork.  You can serve on a bun (like we did) or you could eat it as a main dish.  A great serving idea is to eat the pork on a bun with coleslaw!

*yields at least 6 servings*





Here's the finished product!  Doesn't that look great?

Pumpkin Shortbread Cookies

In the spirit of making new Fall recipes and indulging in my pumpkin obsession, I made these pumpkin shortbread cookies yesterday!  They were a hit, and the subtle pumpkin flavor means that anyone who likes cookies will like these. 

Ingredients:

¼ cup softened butter
¼ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup canned unsweetened pumpkin
½ cup sugar
¼ cup confectionary sugar
¼ tsp. vanilla
1 egg
2 cups flour
¼ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
½ tsp. cinnamon
¼ tsp. nutmeg

Glaze:
1 cup confectionary sugar
2 tbsp. cold water

Instructions:

Mix the butter, oil, pumpkin, and egg.  Blend well.  Now, stir in both sugars, flour, and baking soda. Add the vanilla and spices.  Blend until the batter is fully mixed.  The cookie batter will be a little bit stiff.

Shape the batter into dough-balls and bake at 350 degrees for about ten minutes.  In the meantime, stir the ingredients for the glaze together.  When the cookies have cooled for about five-ten minutes, you can spoon a bit of the glaze onto each one.  It will take a little while to harden, but you can always test-taste a few in the meantime!

 

*yields 2 dozen* 

Pumpkin Bread

Fall is my favorite time of the year and I love all things pumpkin!  I decided to bake different pumpkin-inspired recipes this Fall, and I'll be sharing them here.  

It may not officially be Fall yet, but I baked pumpkin bread as my first seasonal recipe.  It was really easy and tastes great!  I plan on having this with coffee for breakfast, but it is also a great dessert treat.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup canned unsweetened pumpkin
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon


Instructions:

In a large bowl, mix the white and brown sugar with the pumpkin and oil.  Once thoroughly mixed, add a beaten egg and the flour.  Mix well, and finally add the baking soda and spices.  Once all stirred and mixed together, pour into a loaf pan (coat with a nonstick spray first) and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 55 minutes.  When you insert a knife into the bread and it comes out clean, the bread is done. 

*yields one small loaf

Slices of the pumpkin bread in my new pastry dish.

Enjoy!