Baked Apple Crisp

I've had apples sitting in my fridge since November (yuck, I know) They came straight from the orchard when I wanted to make an apple pie and I had some left over. (When properly stored, apples can last for a while) I'd been eyeing baked apple recipes and toying with ideas for them. Recently I saw a picture of single serve apple pies baked right inside the apples. This peaked my attention but I was not in the mood for making pie dough (it's too messy and finicky). Since I prefer apple crisp I set out to see if I could make an apple crisp baked inside the apples. And guess what, it worked!!
Baked Apple Crisp
Ingredients
2 apples
lemon juice
2 T butter (softened)
2 T brown sugar
2 T flour
2 T old fashioned rolled oats
1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
Directions
1. Cut the tops off the apples and hollow them out.

 2. Save the apple pieces that you hollowed out and put them in a bowl with lemon juice and water to keep them from browning.

3. Mix together rest of the ingredients making sure to chop up the butter and spread over the drained apples (This makes enough topping for more than two apples)

4. Bake at 350 degrees F until apples are soft and filling is bubbling. About 10-15 min.

 5. Enjoy it plain or with a scoop of ice cream!

Kung Pao Mac and Cheese

I'd like to introduce you to a little dish I like to call Kung Pao Macaroni and Cheese. It's like mac and cheese with a spicy kick. Truly delicious in my opinion. I found the recipe on pinterest, but it originally came from Southern Living (here). They call it King Ranch Chicken Mac and Cheese, but this name is deceiving as there is absolutely no ranch in the dish at all.

(source) 

I forgot to take my own picture and because it was so good it's all gone

This recipe is modified from the original to please my tastes and cooking techniques

Ingredients
 16-oz. pasta (elbow, fusilli, penne, or other small pasta)
2 tablespoons cooking oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 (10-oz.) can diced tomatoes and green chiles
1 (8-oz.) package Velveeta, cubed (I used more than this because it was cheesy enough for me)
3 cups  cooked chicken, shredded
1 (10 3/4-oz.) can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°. Prepare pasta according to package directions.


Meanwhile, heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onion and bell pepper, and sauté 5 minutes or until tender. Stir in tomatoes and green chiles and prepared cheese product; cook, stirring constantly, 2 minutes or until cheese melts. Stir in chicken, next 4 ingredients, and hot cooked pasta until blended. Spoon mixture into a lightly greased 11- x 7-inch baking dish; sprinkle


Bake at 350° for 25 to 30 minutes or until bubbly.

Enjoy!!

We are reenactors

Husband and I are French and Indian War reenactors. He's been reenacting since he was young, and I have been since 15. I don't remember the story of how his family started, but I started when my best friend invited me to join her family for the weekend. That weekend was a lot of fun! Husband and I actually met at that same reenactment the next year when we were 16. It's funny because that weekend a lady was telling us about how she had met her husband at an event years ago and I thought that was the cutest thing, but enough about us.

I have slowly been working on replacing our machine sewn clothing with hand sewn because only rich people had sewing machines in the mid 18th century (that's 1750s for those of you who get confused by centuries like I do). Sewing by hand can take forever, but I find it relaxing to be able to sew anywhere I want; in font of the TV, in my sewing room, on the couch, in bed, while I'm driving, at dinner (ok, so I admit, I've never done those last two.)

Last fall I began working on a Robe à l’Anglaise (or English Nightgown) for myself as I had had been reenacting for a while and wanted a fancy dress for a Christmas ball we were having.

Underneath the dress is a set of panniers. They enhance your hips and allow more of the dress fabric to be shown. I made my own pair, but do not have a picture. They look like this:

(source)

Every piece of this dress is hand sewn, and while I didn't keep track of how long it took, if I had to guess it would be over 48 hours of sewing. 

This is the best picture I could get of the pleating I did on the back of the dress. The pleats flow down into the skirt of the dress. 

In my sneak peek from earlier this week, I started working on a new waistcoat for Husband. I haven't finished it yet, but I promise it will be done soon.

Busy, Busy, Busy

With the start of a new school semester (last semester before student teaching!) I thought I might warn you that blog post may be more infrequent than before. I am currently working on two projects, one sewing and one knitting but have no idea when either is done since I am trying to stay ahead this semester. Plus husband and I have started working on our house again.


Since I don't want to disappoint you, I'll leave you with a sneak peek of one of my projects. 

My silly kitties immediately think that anything new is a toy for them. (Charlie and Captain Jack)

English Muffins

A week or two ago my sister came to visit and we decided to make english muffins based on a recipe found on none other than pinterest. The only problem was they didn't turn our right and we ended up finishing them in the oven because they weren't cooking through. After a little more digging on my part, I found a recipe with good reviews and just as simple, And I Made English Muffins!!! (recipe here, but I made my own tweaks to it)

 

English Muffins

Ingredients

1 cup milk
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1/4 cup melted shortening
6 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
Corn Meal

Directions

Warm the milk in a small saucepan until it bubbles, then remove from heat. Let cool until lukewarm. In a small bowl stir together sugar, yeast and warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.

In a large bowl, combine the milk, yeast mixture, shortening, salt and flour cup by cup until dough is smooth. Knead. Place in greased bowl, cover, and let rise.

Roll out dough to about 1/2 inch thick. Cut rounds with biscuit cutterSprinkle waxed paper with cornmeal and set the rounds on this to rise. Dust tops of muffins with cornmeal also. Cover and let rise 1/2 hour.

Heat greased griddle. Cook muffins on griddle about 10 minutes on each side on medium heat. Allow to cool and place in plastic bags for storage. To use, split and toast. Can be frozen. 

The best part about making my own English muffins is I know exactly what I put in them. I don't know when it started, but, lately I've been big on making my own food to save money and to lessen preservatives. Part of it stems from my food allergies but the other part I think is me wanting to be more healthy and stay away from preservatives. While time consuming and making my kitchen a disaster, it's worthwhile to make my own English Muffins!

Homemade Nutella

I was craving Nutella today but not interested in spending the $3.50+ it costs per jar and not interested in the "mystery" ingredients. I had found a recipe for homemade nutella on pinterest and decided today was the day to try it. (Here is the recipe I used Homemade Nutella)

Homemade Nutella

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup whole hazelnuts (The grocery only had chopped hazelnuts, so recipe will reflect that)

1 1/2 cups whole milk

3/4 cup powdered milk

1 Tbsp. honey

pinch salt

1 heaping cup chopped bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, or chips

1 scant cup chopped milk chocolate, or chips

Directions
On a rimmed baking sheet, toast the nuts in a 400ºF for about 5 minutes, or until fragrant. While warm, transfer to the bowl of a food processor and blend until they go from finely ground to pasty and thick, like natural peanut butter.

Meanwhile, warm the milk, powdered milk, honey and salt in a small saucepan just until it starts to boil. Remove from heat. In a double boiler or in the microwave, melt the chocolates, stirring occasionally until smooth.

Add the melted chocolate to the ground nuts and continue to process the mixture, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the warm milk mixture and process until everything is well blended and as smooth as you can get it. 

Store in refrigerator and enjoy on crackers, bread, cookies, etc.

Be aware that it can look soupy at first but will thicken as it cools. Also, The original recipe said it would make 2 cups of spread, but I ended up with almost a whole quart! I don't know what I did differently.