Apple Crisp

I was raking leaves yesterday and picking up apples in my backyard when it hit me... an apple hit me on the head.  Then it hit me, I should use these apples for Apple Crisp, a treat my mom used to make all the time.  I gathered apples this morning and made the crisp for a Sunday sweet tooth cure.




Four cups sliced thin apples (I quarter cut them, cleaned out the cores, then cut the fourths into about four slices each)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup flour

In a 8x8 inch greased casserole dish (I used margarine to grease the pan) place the apples. Mix the cinnamon and the water and pour onto the apples.  Mix the sugar, butter, and flour in a bowl just until crumbly.  Sprinkle the sugar, flour, butter mixture on top of the apples.  Bake at 375 for 45 or 50 minutes or until top is brown and the bottom is bubbly.

(I didn't have an 8x8 pan handy, so I used this 7"x11")

Easy Friday Dinner

I cooked tonight, and after a busy week, I was ready to make something fast, and popular with the kids.  This is one of the easiest meals since Tuna on a Plate.  I boiled chicken in one big pot, just getting it to a boil, and letting it go for about a half hour.  In another large pot I put in a bottle of italian dressing and two of the empty bottle filled with water.  I quartered small round red potatoes and added the potatoes and some carrots to the dressing and water.  I boiled that concoction until the veggies were soft, then added the chicken.  A note on the chicken.  I always shred it after it is cooked to get out the gross veins and connective tissue and fat.  It is worth the burning fingers and the little extra time. Also, I like to cook up egg noodles and have it more like a soup.  I make a bed of noodles in a bowl, then spoon on the italian chicken.  About half the kids take it with noodles.

I am going to try posting a picture of tonight's meal.  Here's hoping.  If only I was good at computer.

For those of you wondering what "Tuna on a Plate" is, my twin brother and I were sleeping over at a friend's house (I'll leave out his name to protect privacy).  It was the middle of the night, and we were all hungry.  I would say we were about eleven years old.  My friend said "I can make us something to eat, it is so good, you'll love it; it is Tuna on a Plate".  My brother and I waited while he sneaked upstairs, and prepared his masterpiece.  After a few minutes, he came back downstairs with a plate that had nothing but an pile of tuna on it.  It was obvious he had opened a can of tuna, upended it and put it on a plate, like he was feeding a cat.  He still sold it like it was a meal, and something to be admired.

Friday Lunch at Pepper's Pita

The company and conversation was set this lunch break at Pepper's Pita in Downtown Salt Lake, just west of Main on 300 South.  The space is small but not crowded; inviting.  There were a mix of people, some in business attire and others with hardhats and reflective vests.  There was not a lot of time to people watch, however, because our order was prepared very quickly.

I ordered the wheat pita with mozzarella, tomato, and pesto.  The biggest reason I selected it off the menu was to see how it would stand up to a similar sandwich made by the beautiful and talented Mrs. Lloyd.  It was not as good as her homemade, but yummy nonetheless.

Balance is the best thing my sandwich had going taste-wise. The cheese was not cut too thick, thus overpowering the tomato and pesto.  I could taste the tomato, but like the cheese, it did not take over.  The pesto was a nice complement to the whole.

Appearance it lacked.  It came out on a small pizza pan, with a plastic cup of passable coleslaw, the bread was brown and looked from the top and the side like a tortilla cut in half then stacked on itself. The sandwich was only about a half inch tall, and none of the fixin's were visible, without picking it up first.  It was kind of like looking at a half of a frisbee.

We don't go to a place like Pepper's Pita for the look of the food, but the taste and ability to eat between court and court, and other meetings. The food was good and just right for busy people in need of food.  I recommend it.

Happy Halloween! Spiderweb Pot Pies

i wish i could say i was creative enough to come up with this idea on my own.  but alas, those of you who know me know that i only have a left brain.  http://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/spiderweb-pot-pies/131a3fb7-3d63-497a-ba93-8c7b852efcd0  i couldn't quite make the spiderweb as awesome as pillsbury though.  i used only two crescent rolls per pie.  i tore the triangles into strips.  draped 2 strips in an "x" across the top of the pie, then wrapped another strip and some spare pieces around the edge of the ramekin.

Spiderweb Chicken Pot Pie

1 can Pillsbury crescent rolls

2 c cooked chicken, shredded

1 c frozen peas, thawed

1 c frozen corn, thawed

1/2 c milk

2 cans (10 3/4 oz each) condensed cream of potato soup

1 c cheddar cheese, shredded

1/2 c sour cream

whole olives

Preheat oven to 350.  Combine chicken, peas, corn, milk and soup in medium saucepan and heat until bubbly.  Add the cheese and sour cream and cook until cheese melts.  Scoop 3/4 cup of hot chicken mixture into 6 ramekins or custard cups.  Place on a cookie sheet at least 2 inches apart.  Top with crescent roll dough and bake for 20 mins.  Cut 3 olives in half for spider bodies.  Cut a few more olives into thinner strips for spider legs.  Top each pie with an olive spider.

i only have 4 ramekins.  the recipe makes way more filling than even 6 would hold.  so i put the rest of my chicken mixture in an 8 x 8, topped it with another can of crescent rolls (rolled out the dough on top) and popped it in the freezer.  so when i need a quick meal some time over the next few weeks we'll be having a much less festive chicken pot pie.

Mikelle's Healthy Skilletini

i got spaghetti squash in my basket this week.  i've used it as a side dish before, just cooking it in the microwave with some butter and cinnamon, but this time i wanted to use it as a main dish, using the squash as "spaghetti noodles".  i googled different ways to cook the squash, and one suggestion was to cook it in the crockpot.  i'm all about using my crockpot whenever possible.  the pros to using the crockpot were that i didn't have to try and cut the squash in 1/2 before cooking, like i would for the microwave, and it would be ready when i got home from work, rather than need an hour or more in the oven. win and win.  i put a cup of water in the crockpot, put the squash in, and let it cook for 8 hours.  worked like a champ!  here's the con, and how you can avoid it:  the squash seemed to have absorbed the cup of water i cooked it in, or squash is really juicy, because when i put it on the cutting board on the counter and cut into it, liquid went everywhere!  so, cut yours in the sink.

scrape out the seeds, then scrape the sides out into a bowl or straight onto your plates!  i chopped up 2 red peppers, 2 yellow peppers, and an onion and sauteed them in a little olive oil.

meanwhlie, i baked some chicken sausage stuffed with mozzarella and artichoke.  i bought it at costco after having a sample awhile ago.  it's delicious.  so the final product was spaghetti squash, topped with homemade spaghetti sauce (thanks grandma cookie!), peppers and onions, and finally sliced sausage.

i thought it was very good, mostly due to the sausage.  mr. d thought it was ok, he didn't like that some bites "tasted like squash".  but he was excited that it was healthy.



Autumn Chopped Salad

i've been seeing some pins on pinterest for an autumn chopped salad that looked so good!  http://espressoandcream.com/2010/11/autumn-chopped-salad.html  and we've totally been craving salad since i made that yummy caribbean chicken salad and since we had delicious salads at slick rock cafe in moab.  i gave this one a try, and sadly, i did not love it.  neither did mr. d.  i think it had a lot of potential, but i made some mistakes.



first of all, i tried to halve the recipe.  i was making the salad for 2 and i wanted to mix the dressing into the salad, which means leftovers wouldn't really work, so i didn't want to use the 6-8 cups of lettuce the recipe calls for.  i used 3 cups of lettuce and 1/2 cup dressing, which was way too much dressing.  it was drowning.  second, i thought we had pecans, so i didn't buy any.  turns out mr. d finished them off, so i used sliced almonds instead.  while they were ok, i don't think it added quite the same flavor.  third, the pears i got with my basket were bosc pears, better for baking than snacking, i figured it would be fine, but the one i used wasn't quite ripe enough to add a lot of sweetness.  finally, in an effort to make this healthy, i used turkey bacon, which never brings a lot of flavor to the table.  also, i left out the cheese.  we're not fans of feta at our house.

Autumn Chopped Salad

3 c chopped romaine lettuce
1 medium pear, chopped
1/2 c dried cranberries
1/2 c chopped pecans
4 slices turkey bacon, crisp-cooked and crumbled
Poppy seed Salad Dressing

Balsamic Vinaigrette

On a large platter, combine the lettuce, pears, cranberries, pecans, and bacon. Drizzle generously with poppy seed dressing, followed by some of the balsamic vinaigrette. I used 1/2 a cup of dressing: 70 percent poppy seed dressing and 30 percent balsamic vinaigrette.



Crockpot Chicken Tortilla Soup

i was excited to try this for dinner this week because 1, it's been freezing here which makes soup perfect, 2, i love easy crockpot meals, and 3, the pictures from this blog made it look so good!  http://www.chef-in-training.com/2011/12/crockpot-chicken-tortilla-soup/  it was so good and so easy!  i gathered my ingredients, threw them in the crockpot, and when i got home from work, the house smelled so good, and dinner was ready.  i love days like that.

now, you can't see from the picture, but my second can of rotel is hot.  mr. d likes things a little spicy, so i thought i'd throw one can of hot in.  boy, was it hot.  mr. d liked it, a lot, he was raving on and on about it, but it was a bit too spicy for my taste.  the tortilla chips on top were my favorite part.  adding some crunch and salty flavor.

the recipe called for 1-2 cups of water, but i did not add any.  after putting all the ingredients in the crockpot, it looked to be about the right "soupy" consistency i wanted.