Apple Dumplings

Time sure can get away from us doesn't it? I can't believe its been so long since my last post. We have been super busy with buying a new house, getting another dog and lots of family get-to-gethers. I haven't been cooking as much this summer but I have tried out a few new recipes.

One of my favorite fall activities is going to the apple orchard and picking apples. My sister in law and I have gone the last two years and have a great time. So I love to bake with all these extra apples. This time I made some apple dumplings with a recipe I got from my mom. Its easy and delicious.

• 4 Granny Smith apples
• 2 cans Crescent rolls
• 2 sticks butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• Can of Mountain Dew

Peel and quarter apples. Wrap one triangle of crescent rolls around each apple slice. Place in ungreased 9x13 dish. Melt butter and mix in sugar and cinnamon. Spread over rolls. Pour can of Mountain Dew around edges of dish. Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes. 

So easy and they taste like little apple pies! And what would apple pie be without vanilla ice cream?

Pork Chops

So it was back to the spice rack for this recipe and the spice chosen was rosemary. I had never made pork chops before so I thought this would be the perfect thing to make. I found a recipe because I really wasn't sure what I was doing but I wasn't wanting something sweet so I kind of did it on my own. I warmed some vegetable oil in a skillet. Then I fried some sliced onions before adding my pork chops and sprinkled them with rosemary. They were very thick bone in chops and they were delicious. I really had no idea what I was doing or how long to cook them so I probably cooked them for 30 minutes. I have a meat thermometer but it just didn't seem like it was accurate so I may have cooked them longer than needed but they came out very nice. Then I made these roasted potatoes as an excellent side dish. So while this may not have been anything too special I was pretty proud of myself for cooking something I hadn't before and for adding variety to our weekly meals. 

Happy New Year!

Well the new year is upon us (ok so we're a week in now lol) and while its been a while since I've blogged I have been cooking. Husband and I are wanting to save some money while getting healthier. In order to accomplish these we are determined to cook more at home. I have a few recipes that I have been wanting to try lately so hopefully I can keep this up.

I thought I would start my new year blogging out with something simple I made. We had tons of parties to got to in December where we brought a side dish. Our go-to dish is always deviled eggs. However, when it was my work's holiday lunch I was a little late signing up for a dish and someone else had already agreed to bring eggs. So I decided to bring another small appetizer that I've eaten but never made. They were very simple but I was nervous about how they would come out.

So these are my pickles wrapped in beef. They may seem like a weird combination but they are quite tasty. I used two jars of the small dill pickles, a thing of cream cheese and 5 packages of beef lunch meat. I took two pieces of meat folded in half. Spread a generous amount of cream cheese on the meat and roll the pickle up in the meat.  Then I cut each one into three pieces making them nice and bite size. This did make quite a few as we have an office of 50 people and I only had a few left but this could easily be adjusted to make for any number you need.

Cajun Chicken Pasta

I kind of stole the idea for this meal from one of my favorite restaurants. Its actually one of the first meals I made when I first lived on my own. It may not be super fancy but I loved feeling like I was making a nice home made meal. And the best part about this is its so easy to adjust how much you make. I used to make just one chicken breast and it was perfect just for me. Now I cook two chicken breasts for my husband and I. I usually make extra pasta too so that I have some for lunch the next day.

So I start with boneless skinless chicken breasts. I have some Cajun seasoning powder that I found at the store in the spices aisle. I put on the seasoning and then cook them on my George Foreman grill. Then I make some egg noodles and warm up some Ragu Alfredo sauce. I have never done home made Alfredo sauce so that may be something I have to try sometime. I do warm my sauce on the stove though so I feel like I'm really cooking it lol. I usually make some frozen broccoli but we were out of it tonight. It's great mixed into the pasta or eaten on the side like my husband likes it. So thats really it. Its something that husband and I really like and its nice and simple and delicious!

Creamy Baked Ziti

On my adventure to find new meals to make I found this recipe for baked ziti. I knew this was something my husband would love as its very similar to what he gets at one of our favorite restaurants. I made it according to the recipe however we both agreed it would need a little adjusting the next time we made it. We found that the sauce was a little plain. I'm going to try it again using spaghetti sauce with meat (husband said it needed  meat but ground meat is not my favorite) and try it without the cream cheese. Husband also thought it was too cheesy (I didn't think too cheesy was possible lol) so I'm going to cut down on how much cheese I use. Our plan is to perfect the recipe a bit then cook it for our friends during our up coming ski trip. Hope it turns out well.

Edit:  So I made this again and changed it a little bit. Instead of using marinara sauce, I used spaghetti sauce with meat. I also left the cream cheese out. We decided we liked this way much more. It was less cheesy and the sause had a lot more flavor. I think its ready to try out on our friends during our ski trip!

Apple Crisp

This dish was inspired by a trip to a local apple orchard with my sister in law. We are having a family get together to carve pumpkins so I wanted to use the delicious apples I got to make a dessert. I love apple crisp so I found a great recipe in my Better Home and Garden cookbook.

Fruit Crisp

• 5 cups sliced, peeled cooking apples, pears, peaches, or apricots or frozen unsweetened peach slices
• 2 to 4 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup regular rolled oats
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg or cinnamon
• 1/4 cup butter or margarine
• 1/4 cup chopped nuts or coconut
• Vanilla ice cream (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degree. If fruit is frozen, thaw but do not drain. Place fruit in a 2 quart square baking dish. Stir in granulated sugar. 

2. For topping, in a medium bowl combine the oats, brown sugar, flour, and nutmeg, Cut in butter until until mixture resembles course crumbs. Stir in nuts. Sprinkle topping over filling.

3. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes (40 minutes for thawed fruit) or until fruit is tender and topping is golden. Cool slightly. If desired, serve warm with ice cream. 

We made this without the nuts or coconut. My wonderful husband peeled and sliced all the apples while I made the topping. We used cinnamon instead of nutmeg. Cinnamon was also the next spice we picked from our spice rack so I'm glad I finally got around to making something with it. 

Fall, football and chili

Well its that time of year. Saturday was the first Husker football game (they won of course!) and nothing goes better with football than chili. Of course there are many ways to make it but this is one that Nathan and I have enjoyed for the last few years, courtesy of an old coworker of mine.

• 2 or 3 pounds ground beef, browned and drained
• 2 packages of chili seasoning
• 1 medium green pepper, chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 cans chopped tomatoes
• 2 cans beans, don't drain juice
• 1 40 oz jar of V-8 juice (we just use a can of regular tomato juice)
• 1/2 to 1 tsp of chili powder

Mix all ingredients and simmer on stove or cook in crock pot for three to four hours. The longer it cooks the better it tastes. 

This recipe is nice because you can adjust it as much as you want. Nathan and I compromise on this one a lot. We use two pounds of hamburger cause I like it a little less meaty, one can of tomatoes for him and a can of chili beans and a can of kidney beans. We also added a jalapeño pepper this time to give it a little kick, although next time we might try two or three. I like to top mine with shredded cheese and some chopped onion. We just love how much chili this makes. Its perfect for having people over to watch the game or to freeze for lunches. Here's to the Huskers last season in the Big 12, hope its a great one! Go Big Red!