Baby Apple Dumplins'

I've said this before and I'll say it again. I like to cook, but not so much bake. Way too much measuring for my tastes. So, whenever I do bake it has to be simple. These little dumplings were right up my alley.

Baby Apple Dumplins'

2 granny smith apples
2 cans of crescent rolls
2 sticks of butter
1.5 cups of sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 can of Mountain Dew
cinnamon **I used cinnamon sugar that I got at the Amish store**

Peel apples and slice each apple into 8 wedges. Wrap each wedge in a crescent roll. Place in a greased baking dish. Mix together melted butter, sugar and vanilla and pour over dumplings. Pour Mountain Dew into dish around dumplings. Sprinkle all with cinnamon. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes.

Serve warm, preferably with vanilla ice cream.

Lovely Lemon!

This year for Easter I wanted something lemony. I traditionally make lemon bars but decided I wanted a pie or something, but I didn't want the gel type pie filling. This reminds me more of a lemony cheesecake.

Lovely Lemon Pie

1 can of sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup of lemon juice
half a container of cool whip
graham cracker crust

Mix together condensed milk and lemon juice until it starts getting thick. Fold in whipped topping. Spoon into crust. Chill in fridge, preferably overnight.
Eat!
Could it be any easier??

Festive Fall

I always get festive with the fall cooking the week of Halloween. Here were my adventures this year.



Dinner in a Pumpkin
2 lb. lean hamburger
1 (8-12") diameter fresh pumpkin

3 garlic cloves, minced
1 med. onion, chopped
12 sm. mushrooms, sliced
1 med. bell pepper
1 1/4 c. uncooked rice
1 1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
5 tbsp. butter
1 #303 can stewed tomatoes
2 c. beef broth
1/4 c. grated Cheddar or Longhorn cheese
Parsley sprigs
8 to 12 cherry tomatoes
Wash the pumpkin and cut the top stem out to create a lid. Scoop out the seeds and stringy fibers. Melt the butter but only 2 tablespoons and take a plastic sandwich bag to dip into the melted butter to oil the inside of the pumpkin. Turn the pumpkin on its side and remove to sprinkle inside with 1/2 teaspoon salt.Saute onion, mushrooms, bell pepper, and garlic in the remaining 3 tablespoons butter. Add the 2 pounds lean hamburger, brown, and drain. Then add the rice and stir until thoroughly mixed. Add the remaining salt and pepper, the stewed tomatoes, and the beef broth and bring to a boil. Boil for 2 minutes then fill the pumpkin with this mixture. Replace the pumpkin lid and place the pumpkin in a shallow greased baking pan. Bake approximately 1 to 1/2 hours at 350 degrees. Pumpkin is ready when tender and should remain firm enough to hold the filling without danger of collapsing. If necessary, more beef broth can be added as needed. When baked, remove from the oven, lift lid and sprinkle inside with the 1/4 cup cheese. Return pumpkin to oven, lift lid and sprinkle inside with the 1/4 cup cheese. Return pumpkin to oven without lid until cheese is melted. Remove from oven, replace lid and garnish around the bottom of the pumpkin with fresh parsley and cherry tomatoes. Serve from the pumpkin, scraping some of the pulp into each serving. Serve with green salad and French bread. Serves 12.


Maryland Pumpkin Seeds
4 cups pumpkin seeds, raw, rinsed and dried on papertowels
1/4 cup Old Bay seasoning
a good drizzle of olive oil

Drizzle the oil over the seeds. Sprinkle with the Old Bay and toss well to coat. Spread out in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes at 300 degrees.


And lastly here are the "kitty kat" cookies me & my 3 year old son put together...

Bridal Shower Treats

I also recently hosted a bridal shower. I went with a finger food theme and the bride requested a chocolate cake with peanut butter icing. I think everything turned out rather nicely if I do say so myself.

Here are a few peeks of some of the fare.

Bacon & Tomato Tarts


Fig, Goat Cheese & Prosciutto Crostini




Smoked Salmon & Cucumber Roulades


Devil's Food Cake with Homemade Peanut Butter Icing
(this icing was quite greasy, but wow was it ever sinfully delicious!)

Hummingbird Cake

I am not a baker. I love to eat the sweets, but I do not like to make them really. Too much measuring and following of instructions. I'm way too crazy for all that. lol I like to cook so I can tweak and do my own thing, thus, always breaking the rules. With that being said I was asked to make the dessert for a friend's baby shower and she requested a Hummingbird Cake. I did some searching took a couple of recipes and put them together to still make it my own creation. It got rave reviews unless everyone was lying. :) Seriously though, I would have picked chocolate any day myself, but this did turn out really moist and flavorful.

Hummingbird Cake
1 yellow cake mix, mixed up using directions on box
Add to mix:
1 can crushed pineapple drained
2 cups of banana, mashed
1 cup of chopped walnuts
Bake at 350 in two nine inch pans for 1 hour and cool.

Frosting:
8oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 pound butter, softened
1 pound powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Blend all together and frost middle, top and sides of cake.
Sprinkle with more chopped walnuts.

Candied Grapes

I recently had these at a friend's house for lunch and they were just that little extra spark I needed to add to my boring ol' midday fruit snack.

Candied Grapes
-Red or Green Seedless Grapes
-Sugar Free Jello Mix

Rinse grapes and then while still wet roll them around in the sugar free jello mix of your choice. Chill in the fridge and serve.

**I used red grapes and orange flavored jello because I had it on hand. The cherry flavored ones I had at my friends were even better!!**

A few Christmas goodies...

Here are a few things that we had for Christmas this year.

Ranch Chex party mix...although I took the original party mix and the ranch party mix and picked my favorite ingredients out of each recipe and vamped it to create my own party mix. lol




Lots of Christmas cookies. My favorites are the toffee bars that are the ones on the end and they are super easy to boot! I love to cook, but am not really into baking all that much(I hate to have to measure ingredients!), so these cookies are right up my alley.


Toffee Bars
1 sleeve of graham crackers, crushed fine
1/2c of butter
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
1/2 pkg of mini chocolate chips
1/2 pkg of Heath toffee chips

Melt butter and pour in a 9x13 pan. Sprinkle graham cracker crumbs on top and press down. Pour milk on top and spread evenly. Sprinkle with chocolate and toffee chips, press down. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown.


Polish Roses
**my mom always made these and my DH loves them**


Polish Roses
8oz cream cheese, softened
2T prepared horseradish
5oz jar of sliced dried beef
green onions

Mix together cream cheese and horseradish. Spread onto each piece of beef. Place onion in center and roll up.

And last but most certainly not least I cooked my first prime rib this year for Christmas dinner. It was a hit!

Coconut Macaroons

Coconut Macaroons

I love these! They are also good half dipped in chocolate.

1 bag of coconut
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
2 tsp vanilla

Mix all together well. Drop by the spoonful onto greased cookie sheets and bake at 375 for 12-13 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

Happy 4th of July!

I hope everyone had a great holiday. We did. Just chilled at home. We had good intentions of grilling ribs outside, but due to the rain, we had to throw them under the broiler. They were still delish.



BBQ Rib Goodness!


Pasta Salad throw together!


Wild Cherry Chocolate Cookies




Wild Cherry Chocolate Cookies
( I got this idea from the Vicarious Foodie, but adapted to my own version of chocolate cookies instead of oatmeal)

one Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix
1/2 cup of melted butter
1 egg
1/2 cup of cocoa powder
Wild Cherry M&M's

Mix sugar cookie mix, butter and egg together well until dough forms. Add in cocoa powder. Add M&M's and mix lightly. Drop by the spoonful onto greased cookie sheets. Bake at 375 for 12 minutes.

Caramel Apple Salad

So simple, yet so good. Nuff said.






Caramel Apple Salad

8oz cream cheese, softened
7 oz marshmallow fluff
5-6 granny smith apples
1 bag of mini snickers

Mix together cream cheese and marshmallow fluff well in a large bowl. Cut apples into bite size chunks. Unwrap snickers and cut into fourths. Toss cream cheese/fluff mixture with apples and snickers. Chill & Serve.

Happy Earth Day!

In honor of Earth Day today, my kiddo and I whipped up a "dirt cake". He had alot of fun making it and actually didn't even leave me with much clean up. He was on a bit of a sugar high afterwards from all the oreos and gummi worms though. LOL I did make this as a reduced fat version using fat free products and you could not tell a bit. The crunch of the cookies combined with the creaminess of the pudding mixture made for a quite thrilling after dinner dessert.

What did you do today to celebrate Planet Earth?




"Dirt Cake"
1/4 cup softened butter
8oz softened cream cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 boxes of chocolate fudge instant pudding mix
3 cups milk
1 container of Cool Whip
1 package of Oreos, crushed
Gummi worms to garnish

Mix butter, cream, cheese, sugar and vanilla on low until well blended. Mix in pudding mixes and milk a half a cup at a time until well blended. Fold in Cool Whip. Layer cookies, then pudding, then cookies, then pudding and finally top with cookies. Garnish with Gummi Worms.