Homemade Applesauce

Posted on September 21, 2011 by jgisvold

We have a bountiful of apples this year. I even went to a beautiful apple orchard with a friend, and picked some.

Our tree in our backyard is packed with them. I’ve already made some apple pie filling and an apple pie with the ones I’ve picked so far. Tonight I made apple sauce.

I sometimes buy those little cups of applesauce that you get in the store and eat them as a snack at work. I also remember getting them in my lunch bag at school. Now, they have all sorts of different flavors of applesauce like strawberry, raspberry, and peach. I feel like I was jipped as a kid.

Now that I am older and can make my own applesauce I can do whatever I darn well please with it. I can add in tons of cinnamon, mix in some cranberries, or serve it with some pork tenderloin if I wanted too. Maybe even add in some bacon? Apples and pork marry well together. Whoever thought of that was a genious.

Here’s the recipe.

Ingredients from Simply Recipes

Ingredients

3 to 4 lbs of peeled, cored, and quartered apples. (Make sure you use a good cooking apple like Golden Delicious, Jonagold, Granny Smith, Fuji, Jonathan, Mcintosh, or Gravenstein.)
4 strips of lemon peel – use a vegetable peeler to strip 4 lengths
Juice of one lemon, about 3-4 Tbsp
3 inches of cinnamon stick
1/4 cup of dark brown sugar
up to 1/4 cup of white sugar
1 cup of water
1/2 teaspoon of salt

Method

1 Put all ingredients into a large pot. Cover. Bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes.

2 Remove from heat. Remove cinnamon sticks and lemon peels. Mash with potato masher.

Ready to serve, either hot or refrigerated. Delicious with vanilla ice cream or vanilla yogurt.

Freezes easily, lasts up to one year in a cold freezer.

Fig-Prosciutto Pizza with Arugula

Posted on September 18, 2011 by jgisvold

I watched the Pioneer Woman make this on her show and I remember her saying that it was a girly type pizza. It definitely was and I loved it. The future husband took one bite of it, and said that he didn’t like it. Bummer. The combination of flavors go really well together. She should sell this pizza to Pizza Hut or some other famous chain restaurant like Pizza Luce.

I have to admit that the ingredients were kind of expensive to buy. The arugula was $3.49 a container, and the prosciutto was around $6.00. I didn’t go for the fresh mozzarella, that would have be around $15.00 for everything. The jam was from Stonewall Kitchen and I had picked it up at a Macy’s store. If you’ve never tried any of their products, I highly recommend them. I’m not a very fancy/elegant person that has to have ingredients like this all the time though. One splurge like this every once and awhile is fine enough for me.

Ingredients: from the Pioneer Woman

Pizza Crust:

1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Scant 1/4 cup olive oil, plus more for bowl

Topping:

2 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt
6 to 8 tablespoons fig spread or jam
12 ounces fresh mozzarella, sliced thin
Freshly ground black pepper
6 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto
1 bunch washed and rinsed arugula
1 cup shaved Parmesan

Directions

For the crust: Sprinkle the yeast over 3/4 cup warm (not lukewarm) water in a bowl.

In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, add the flour and salt and, with the mixer running on low speed, drizzle in the olive oil. Keep going until it’s mixed through. Next, pour in the yeast/water mixture and mix until just combined.

Coat a separate mixing bowl with a light drizzle of olive oil, tip the dough in and form it into a ball. Toss to coat the dough ball in the olive oil, then cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise for at least an hour, or up to 3 or 4 days.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Arrange the oven rack in the lowest position.

For the topping: Roll out the pizza dough on a lightly floured surface as thinly as possible Dough should be roughly 17 by 10 inches. Place on a large baking sheet. Drizzle lightly with the olive oil and sprinkle lightly with salt. Spread the fig spread all over the surface of the dough. Lay the slices of mozzarella all over the surface of the pizza crust. Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. Bake the pizza until the crust is golden and the cheese is bubbly, 12 to 15 minutes.

Remove from the oven and immediately drape the prosciutto slices over the hot pizza. Sprinkle generously with the arugula and Parmesan shavings. Cut into wedges or squares and serve immediately!

I’m not sure if I like the Pioneer Woman’s show yet. I’ve watched a couple of episodes and I know she lives on ranch, but watching the cowboy thing is kind of lame.

Apple Pie Filling

Posted on September 18, 2011 by jgisvold

Today was a busy day. I spent most of the morning up until about 1:30 in the kitchen. I peeled apples from our tree. We have a lot of them this year. Actually, I was kind of bummed because, a friend and I had gone to an orchard and picked a few and they weren’t as good as the ones on our tree. That orchard gets flooded a lot every year, since it’s near the river. The apples were so tiny, and all the good ones that were left, were at the very top of the tree. We didn’t bring an apple picker.

After, all the apples were peeled that I needed, I made a pie filling for them. Ended up with 10 quart size jars full of them. The stuff is so good, you could eat the apple pie filling out of the jars. I even had two store bought pie crusts, so I made an apple pie a long with the pie filling. It was delicious. We still have plenty of apples on our tree, and I really want to can some applesauce and maybe make some apple butter. All the rest of the apples my grandma and mom will deal with. Or, whoever else wants some too. They’re really good this year. My friend Ashley, gave me this recipe from a book she used.

Ingredients

4 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup cornstarch
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon grount nutmeg
3 tbsp lemon juice
2-3 drops yellow food coloring (we didnt ‘ add this)
5 1/2 – 6 pounds tart apples, peeled, cored, and sliced

In large saucepan blend first 4 ingredients and 1 tsp salt. Stir in 10 cups water; cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Add lemon juice and food coloring. Pack apples into hot jars, leaving 1-inch headspace. Fill with hot syrup, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. (Use spatula to help distrube syrup.) Adjust lids. Process in boiling water bath (pints) 15 minutes; (quarts) 20 minutes. Makes 6 quarts.

Before serving: Prepare pastry for a 2-crust 8-or9 inch pie. Line pie plate with pastry; add 1 quart apple pie filling. Adjust top crust, cutting slits for escape of steam; seal. Bake at 400 for 50 minutes.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Posted on September 14, 2011 by jgisvold

I got this cute pumpkin shaped whoopie pie pan at Crate & Barrel on my last shopping trip for only $14.00. Instead of boring round whoopie pies, I now have pumpkin shaped ones. Isn’t that totally cool? I don’t know why, I get so excited over shaped pans like this. I see ones shaped like ghosts or Christmas trees and have to buy them. Some, weird kind of impulse, I know….

I just love cooking with pumpkin. I’m almost out of my stock that I got last Fall. I picked up 15 cans of pumpkin at the grocery store, and I’m finally running out of it. Got one can left. I even tried making my own pumpkin puree last year. Not worth it, in my opinion. It’s much easier just to open up a can. So, if you want to go the extra distance, feel free and make your own pumpkin puree. I know that canned pumpkin is hard to find right now, so that’s just another option.

Tonight it’s supposed to freeze and it really feels like Fall out, and that put me in the mood to bake tonight. I made pumpkin whoopie pies and homemade fig newtons. Both turned out really great. The fig newtons will be another post, probably after this one. Ben just loves pumpkin whoopie pies and so do I. Definitely our favorite flavor!

Ingredients from Brown Eyed Baker

Makes about 4 dozen.

For the Whoopie Pies:
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup canola or vegetable oil
3 cups chilled pumpkin puree (canned pumpkin)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Maple-Cream Cheese Filling:
3 cups powdered sugar
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
4 ounces (½ cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger and nutmeg. Set aside.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk the granulated sugar, the dark brown sugar, and the oil together. Add the pumpkin puree and whisk to combine thoroughly. Add the eggs and vanilla and whisk until combined.

4. Gradually add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and whisk until completely combined.

5. Use a small cookie scoop or a large spoon to drop a rounded, heaping tablespoon of the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, about 1 inch apart.

6. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, making sure that the cookies are just starting to crack on top and a toothpick inserted into the center of a cookie comes out clean. The cookies should be firm when touched. Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool completely on a cooling rack.

7. To make the filling, beat the butter on medium speed until smooth with no visible lumps, about 3 minutes. Add the cream cheese and beat until smooth and combined, about 2 minutes. Add the powdered sugar a little at a time, then add the maple syrup and vanilla and beat until smooth.

8. To assemble the whoopie pies: Turn half of the cooled cookies upside down. Pipe or spoon the filling (about a tablespoon) onto that half. Place another cookie, flat side down, on top of the filling. Press down slightly so that the filling spread to the edges of the cookie. Repeat until all the cookies are used. Put the whoopie pies in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to firm before serving.

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Pumpkin fluff frosting

Posted on August 30, 2011 by jgisvold

The Fall season is almost here, and that’s my favorite of all seasons.:) It really felt like Fall today with a high of only 69 and there was a light cool breeze with rain. I’ve been craving something with pumpkin … Continue reading →

Apple Chips

Posted on June 29, 2011 by jgisvold

The first batch of apple chips I tried making didn’t get crisp at all because I had sliced them too thick with the mandolin. I tried making them again and slicing them thinner, and they turned out much better. This is a great and healthy treat to make, especially if you have kids. They’re also very addicting and would probably be good with a little salt on them.

These almost made me wish it was Fall again. I can’t wait to make these on a cool day, when we actually have some apples growing on our tree. The neighbors are starting to get some on there’s but we aren’t yet. We do have some tomatoes starting to come up, which I’m excited for.

To make these apple chips slice an apple really thin. I used a mandolin for mine. If you don’t have one of those yet, go and get one. I love mine. Place them on a lined baking sheet with parchment paper and bake at 250 for up to 3 hours or until crisp.

Using one apple for a serving would be 1 points plus for the whole entire serving. I sprinkled mine with just a little bit of sugar and cinnamon. You don’t really even need the sugar or the cinnamon and they will still taste good.

Pumpkin Parfaits

Posted on November 3, 2010 by jgisvold

Yields 4 parfaits (ingredients from sheknows.com Ingredients: 3 1/4-ounces Jell-O Pumpkin Spice Instant Pudding 1 cup cold milk 2 1/2 cups frozen whipped topping, thawed according to package directions (divided use) 3 sheets of cinnamon graham crackers, broken into crumbs … Continue reading →

Pumpkin Doughnut Muffins

Posted on October 31, 2010 by jgisvold

Ingredients

10 tablespoons butter
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon bakng soda
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 1/4 cup pumpkin puree
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs

sugar coating:
3/4 cup of granulated sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 cup unsalted butter

1 preheat oven to 350. Make together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices. In small bowl whisk together
buttermilk and pumpkin puree. Beat butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. With mixer on low
beat in flour mixture.
2. Spoon 1/2 cup of batter into each muffin cup and bake until a tooth pick comes out clean. Once muffins have cooled
for 10 minutes brush with melted butter and roll in cinnamon and sugar mixture.

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I woke up bright and early this morning. Maybe because it was Halloween? I don’t know…. I do what I normally do on the weekends. Wake up, eat breakfast, and sit around and watch Food Network until about 12:30 because most of the shows are new. I ended up falling asleep on the couch for a couple of hours after making my pumpkin doughnut muffins. Man, that is tough work baking. Ben was wondering why these muffins had the word doughnut in the title. Maybe it’s because they thought with the cinnamon and sugar and the shape of the muffin it reminded them of a doughnut?????? Who knows…. Or maybe it was the texture of the muffin? One will only find out if they ask the editors of the Martha Stewart Everyday Food magazine, which this muffin recipe came from. There is another one in the magazine (which is full of Thanksgiving recipes by the way) that I want to make called pumpkin bread pudding with dulce de leche. That sounds so good!

Tonight is Halloween, for dinner I plan on making some leftover broccoli from our party and having some pumpkin pasta.Then I will get a sugar high from all the left over candy we’re going to have after the kids come by.

Pumpkin Spice Pancakes w/ Pumpkin Butter

Posted on October 17, 2010 by jgisvold

1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 cup pumpkin butter or canned pumpkin
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 cup 1% milk
3 large egg whites
2 tsp oil
1 tsp vanilla
butter flavor cooking spray
1/2 cup pumpkin butter for topping

Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl. Combine milk, egg whites and pumpkin butter or canned pumpkin in a bowl and mix until smooth. Combine wet ingredients with the dry and mix well with a spoon until there are no more dry spots. Don’t over-mix.

Heat a large skillet on medium heat. Spray oil to lightly coat and pour 1/4 cup of pancake batter. When the pancake starts to bubble and the edges begin to set, flip the pancakes. Repeat with the remainder of the batter. Top each serving with an additional 2 tbsp pumpkin butter.

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I found this recipe at skinnytaste.com and had to try it, because I love anything with pumpkin in it! The pumpkin butter made it taste even better and was a change from using maple syrup with pancakes. I still have 2 jars of pumpkin butter to use up and now apple butter. Better start looking up some recipes. Maybe I can make apple pancakes with my apple butter. I really don’t know what else to do with it other than to put on English muffins, toast, or bagels.

Weight Watchers Recipes | Overnight Apple Butter

Posted on October 16, 2010 by jgisvold

Nutritional Information: 16 Servings

Calories: 88.5, Fat: 0.3 g, Protein: 0.2 g, Carb: 24.5 g, Fiber: 2.2 g, Points + = 3pts

Ingredients

1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup apple cider
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground mace
10 medium apples, peeled, cored, and cut into large chunks (about 2 1/2 pounds)

Preparation:Combine all ingredients in a 5-quart electric slow cooker. Cover and cook on low 10 hours or until apples are very tender.

Place a large fine-mesh sieve over a bowl; spoon one-third of apple mixture into sieve. Press mixture through sieve using the back of a spoon or ladle. Discard pulp. Repeat procedure with remaining apple mixture. Return apple mixture to slow cooker. Cook, uncovered, on high 1 1/2 hours or until mixture is thick, stirring occasionally. Spoon into a bowl; cover and chill up to a week.

Stovetop variation: Combine all ingredients in a Dutch oven. Cover and cook over medium-low heat 1 hour or until apples are very tender, stirring occasionally. Strain through a sieve as recipe instructs in Step 2. Return mixture to pan. Cook, uncovered, over medium-low heat 15 minutes or until thick, stirring frequently.

Nutrition Info:

Calories: 132 (0.0% from fat)
Fat:0.0g (sat 0.0g,mono 0.0g,poly 0.0g)
Fiber:3.1g

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I did not make this recipe overnight, even though the recipe title says you can. The last time I tried making apple butter I ended up with burnt apple all over my pot. I think the recipe was wrong, because all it called for was apples. Either that or I didn’t use the right sized crock pot.


This makes your house smell amazing. Who doesn’t like the smell of apples and cinnamon cooking together? I could wear this as a perfume if I could. This week sometime, I might make some pancakes or waffles to put this on. Or just put it on some bagels with cream cheese.

Apple Crisp with Pumpkin Icecream

Posted on October 10, 2010 by jgisvold

Ingredients

* 5 pounds McIntosh or any kind of apple
* Grated zest of 1 orange
* Grated zest of 1 lemon
* 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
* 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
* 1/2 cup granulated sugar
* 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
*

For the topping:

* 1 1/2 cups flour
* 3/4 cup granulated sugar
* 3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
* 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
* 1 cup oatmeal
* 1/2 pound cold unsalted butter, diced

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9 by 14 by 2-inch oval baking dish.

Peel, core, and cut the apples into large wedges. Combine the apples with the zests, juices, sugar, and spices. Pour into the dish.

To make the topping, combine the flour, sugars, salt, oatmeal, and cold butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until the mixture is crumbly and the butter is the size of peas. Scatter evenly over the apples.

Place the crisp on a sheet pan and bake for 1 hour until the top is brown and the apples are bubbly. Serve warm.

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If you haven’t tried Dairy Queen’s Pumpkin Pie blizzard yet, you must go out and try it. You will get obsessed if you’re a pumpkin pie fan like I am. This weekend while shopping at Wal-Mart in the ice cream aisle, I can across Edy’s pumpkin pie ice cream. It was 2 for 6.00, and I should have picked up 2 containers of it, but only picked up one. Tonight, I made some apple crisp and thought instead of using vanilla ice cream to have a scoop of pumpkin pie ice cream with this. Yum!!! What a treat this was. The apple crisp recipe I used was Ina Gartens, minus the lemon zest and and orange zest. Apple crisp tastes better with out the zest in it. Just some good ole sugar and spices.

This month going forward, I am going to feature only Fall-ish type recipes. I’ve got pumpkin butter boiling away on the stove right now and man it smells so good. I’ve also got about 8 more cans of pumpkin puree to go through as well. Thank god, the pumpkin shortage is over with. Oh yah, and sorry for the lack of posts this week, I’ve been sick.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Posted on September 26, 2010 by jgisvold

Pumpkin cookies (makes 30 cookies, adapted from George Duran):

1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup canned pumpkin puree
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup chopped pecans
Nonstick cooking spray or parchment paper

Cream Cheese Filling:

4 oz Cream Cheese (I used Neufatchel)
3/4 confectioners sugar
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips or chopped chocolate chunks

For Cookies:
1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray cookie sheets with nonstick spray or line them with parchment paper.
2. Using a mixer, beat the butter until smooth. Beat in the white and brown sugars, a little at a time, until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then mix in the vanilla and pumpkin puree.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves.
4. Slowly stir in the flour mixture into the batter. Mix just until all the flour mixture is incorporated. Stir in the chips and pecans.
5. Scoop the cookie dough by heaping tablespoons onto the prepared cookie sheets and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cookie comes out clean. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let them rest for 2 minutes. Take the cookies off with a spatula and cool them on wire racks.

For Filling:
Using a mixer, beat together cream cheese and sugar. Stir in chocolate chips/pieces.

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Today, I found 2 very successful recipes using pumpkin. The first one was soup, and the second is pumpkin whoopie pies! I love whoopie pies, but I kind of wonder how some of those bakers get them to be so round and even? This recipe said to drop the batter by the heaping tablespoonful. They still didn’t end up very even. Who cares, as long as they taste good right? For the frosting, instead of using chocolate chips, I used white chocolate chips. I adore white chocolate chips , and they tasted so good in this frosting. I’ve been adding them to everything I bake now.

Remember me posting about a craft project last month?? I’m finally done and here is a picture of a few of them.I’m so excited for Halloween and have trick-or-treaters this year at our new house. Hopefully we get some too!