New England Fall Desert

I love fall in New England.  The sights, sounds and smells of the season are amazing.  Fall is also a season when some of the best classic New England foods and flavors are traditionally made.  Personally, I like to cook with apples in the fall.  Nothing tastes like fall to me as freshly picked apples.  Below is one of my favorite desserts to make in the fall. 

Part 1 of the dessert is to bake several apples:

• core 3 large apples
• cut apples in half 
• in a separate bowl combine the following ingredients for the topping mixture:
• 3 tablespoons of melted butter
• 1.5 tablespoon of cinnamon
• 4 tablespoons of rolled oats
• 3 tablespoons of sugar 
• 1 tsp nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 375.  Place the apple halves on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Press the topping mixture onto the apples.  Place the apples in the oven for 30 minutes.

Part 2 of dessert - Vanilla ice cream!
Once the apples are finished don't waste any time in putting some delicious ice cream on top of the baked apples.  I would have posted pictures of this.....but we ate them too quickly!

Part 3 of dessert (optional), homemade apple butter:
This is a really easy way to make amazing homemade apple butter that can be a delicious topping for ice cream, bread, crackers, or even chicken!

First.... core and quarter about 5 pounds of apples. Place the quarters of the apples in a large stock pot with 5-6 cups of water.  Bring the mixture to a boil, and allow to boil until the apples and water are the consistency of apple sauce.  Next drain the apple mixture through a mesh strainer into the slow cooker.  Add 1.5 cups of honey, and 1/2 cup of agave nectar.  To this, add 2 tablespoons of cinnamon and 1 tablespoon of nutmeg.  Cook on low heat for 8 hours.  This will make your house smell amazing, and is truly a sinfully good topping on anything.

Enjoy!
-Sara 

Happy Wednesday..... Puppy Style

Ohh to be my dogs.... they get served meals, get petted at all hours of the day and night and get to nap on a couch all day.  I"d take their life anytime! 

Hard life..... now the rest of us have to get back to work.  Have a nice day napping in the sun puppies! 

Royal Icing Cookies

There is something insanely fun about decorating cookies, I don't know what it is, but making cookies is an activity that always improves one's move!  For the last few years i've been trying to find the perfect royal icing recipe.  Royal icing can be a really fun icing to work with, and can make cookies look amazing.  However, the icing has be the perfect consistency in order to properly set on the cookies, and getting the perfect consistency takes a bit of practice.   I really like the recipe below:

3 egg whites at room temp.
4 cups of confectioners sugar
1-2 tsp vanilla extract.

Whisk all the ingredients together, if using a kitchen-aid use the whisk attachment.  Mix until the icing is stable.  If you feel you over mixed and the icing is too firm, add in a tsp of warm water - on the other hand if you feel the mix is too runny add in a bit more confectioners sugar.  Next you may want to separate the icing into different bowls for each color you plan on using.  Also remember that it is a good idea to keep some of the icing in the mixing bowl (a very small amount) and add some additional confectioners sugar to this icing, and use it as your outline icing.  This small batch of icing will be thicker and should be used to trace the outline of the cookie and will hold all of the other icing in place.

I was in a rush to finish the cookies above and did not use outline icing and you can see that the colored royal icing did not stay in a perfect circle.  However - they still tasted delicious!!! 

Have fun decorating cookies! 
 

A new take on fajitas!

Most of the posts on the blog up to this point have been about the pup's or baking.  Today I thought I would discuss one of my favorite new takes on fajitas!  My husband and I have these nearly every week, they are delicious and easy to make. 

Place 1 pound of ground bison in a bowl.  Into the bison add 1tsp of salt and pepper.  At this point you can experiment with different spices and herbs depending on what you like.  My favorite combination lately has been: a dash of chili powder, dash of paprika, 2 cloves minced garlic, 2 tablespoons of basil and 2 tablespoons of parsley.  Mix all the spices into the meat, however be cautions not to overwork the meat.  

Next, saute 1 large diced white onion in a large pan.  When the onion is translucent add the meat mixture into the pan and brown the meat.  When the meat is browned add in 1 cup of low sodium beef broth, and lower the heat to on the stove so the mixture is at a simmer.  Simmer the mixture for 20 minutes (this time is dependent on how cooked the meat is at this point), and if all the beef broth is absorbed into the meat add more in, 1/4 cup at a time.

When the meat mixture is done place the meat in your choice of fajita shell.  Nick and I follow a paleo- inspired diet, so do not eat wheat products when possible.  As a substitute we use one of two things: (1) green peppers (see photo below), or (2) leaves of Boston lettuce.  

I hope you like this creative take on fajitas!