Test Kitchen - Personal Apple Pies

Hello there!  'Tis the season for gatherings and parties and what better way to celebrate than with a bit of dessert?  I made these personal apple pies with inspiration from Renata at Testado Provado Eaprovado blog for our office wide Thanksgiving feast this week and although they didn't turn out quite like I imagined them, they weren't too shabby!  

I started out with a dozen medium sized granny smith apples and sliced off the top of the apple.  The hubs and I then proceeded to go to town on the apples coring each one first with a melon baller to eliminate the seeds (we found that it had nice sharp edges to work with) and then with a spoon to get the rest of the good stuff.  There was some trial and error early on in the process but eventually we had a mini assembly line going.  

To keep the apples from going brown, we periodically sprinkled them with a bit of lemon juice.  

In a separate bowl mix together the following ingredients:

12 Tbsp sugar

6 Tbsp all purpose flour

3 tsp powdered cinnamon 

Sprinkle over the apple bits and toss well.  Spoon the bits into the hallowed out apples.  

For the topping, I took a shortcut by using store bought pie crust to crown the apples and then I used a small flower shaped cookie cutter to create the pattern but really, anything goes.  Just provide a little bit of space for the apples to vent while baking.  Have fun with it!

Ok, so we were quite proud of ourselves up to that moment.  Everything was looking really good!  I put them into a 370 degree oven for 40 minutes with the intent on checking back every so often.  Then I got caught up watching last night's How I Met Your Mother (for those of you who watch it, I hope you know what I mean when I let out an audible "gasp!").

I ran to the kitchen after the show finished and panicked.  This is what came out -

Yup.  The apple containers exploded.  All that work down the drain.  

And if you don't already know by now, I'm not an expert baker of any kind so a number of things might have been the deciding factor to their demise:

a.  I left them in the oven too long

b.  I didn't allow for enough venting

c.  The temperature of the oven was set too high

d.  A mystery yet to be solved

e. All of the above

I'm going to go ahead and go with E.  Do any of you know what could've happened?

I still needed to get a dessert together for the feast so I wasn't going to give it all up.  I proceeded to carefully spoon all the fillings of the cooked apples filling including the pretty topping carefully into cupcake liners.  They held up pretty well, thankfully and no one was the wiser!  

Two of the apples survived the ordeal and I'm happy to present them here as my intention all along:

Hopefully you'll have more luck than I did and in the meantime, I will try this recipe again. Cheers!

August Break - Day 1: CRAVE

If you remember from this post, I told you about participating in the August Break 2011 where we are to post a picture every day about anything.  Sounds pretty open ended, yes?  Why not, says I - sounds like a challenge!  I will post a new picture every weekday (and weekends if I feel up for it).  Sometimes I will elaborate with a long rant about something or another, but most likely I'll spare you of my charms.  So lets kick this off shall we?

This weekend we visited Houston and one evening we had a mad craving for cupcakes and what do we happen upon?

Crave Cupcakes in Houston.

What are the odds?  I love their logo on the door. 

Little Mister Birthday Party Edibles

I am not tooting my own horn when I say that the food at the birthday bash was A.W.E.S.O.M.E.  Seriously, I take no credit for the great food that came together on that beautiful spring day.

I knew in my heart of hearts that I would be a crazy mess on the day of the party and that the food would be an afterthought.  My wonderful family came to the rescue and went above and beyond in helping me prepare.  They could whip up some amazing food and I was not disappointed in the least:

1.  Fried chicken wings
2.  Spicy Pork Salad
3.  Shrimp in a Basket
4.  Eggrolls
5.  Chicken Curry Puffs
6.  Pasta
7.  Fried Rice
8.  Stuffed Chicken Wings
9.  Pad Thai

Okay, now wipe up that drool off your keyboard (don't deny it).  I heard compliment after compliment about the food.  I should have told everyone to come hungry.

It was at the dessert table that I really brought the colors of the party together complete with birthday cake, cake truffles, carrot cupcakes (for the kiddos), kusintas (a Filipino dessert), and chocolate drizzled marshmallows.  There were also iced cookies that came after these pictures were taken.  

Food photos courtesy of Jennifer at Architette Studios.

Sources:
Cake Truffles and Cupcakes: ~bonbon~
Birthday Cake: Cakes by Cathy Young (210-493-8466)
Cake Plate: Aedriel Originals

And you know that picky eater I was telling you about the other day?  Well, he decided not to be picky any longer and ate and ate and ate.  Maybe it was because Papa was holding him.  What a little stinker.

Up next: Party Details!

Dinner Drama

Little Mister used to be a star eater.  Anything I put in front of him, he willingly put in his mouth.  Butternut squash, green beans, broccoli?  Yes please!  Dumplings, meatballs, noodles?  Couldn't get enough!  I was a baby food making machine and took a lot of cues from all the blogs out there.  My favorites:  Styleberry Blog, Wholesome Baby Foods, Either/Or/And, Yumnums, and Weelicious!  Everyone had their own take as to what to offer baby and I'm so glad everyone did a lot of the legwork for me with various recipes and helpful hints.  Our small freezer made no difference, I wanted to make sure he was getting a wide variety of all sorts of foods. 



I was particularly interested in incorporating my own family's Thai foods into his daily intake.  I want him to get used to all the great food that I grew up with.  I can't remember a time that my mom, aunts, and grandmother weren't in the kitchen preparing lunch and then immediately working on dinner right after.  It was great and a real testament to the heart of the home being centered around the kitchen. 



But lo, when Little Mister turned 11 months, 2 weeks (I remember the day) - the finickiness set in.   "What?" I would say, "You liked this yesterday!"  I didn't give up completely and continued to offer foods to him even though he would outright reject them.  The dogs love sitting by his highchair and Little Mister is getting very adept at offering them "bites."  Even when I make his food in the mornings for school, I think to myself, "He's going to hate me for this one."  Sure enough, I would pick him up and he wouldn't have eaten a thing.



He's growing and gaining weight so there's nothing to worry abut in that department.  He's getting his nutrition from somewhere.  A child's growth is amazing. 





So dinners as of late have been filled with a lot of sad faces from baby, mommy, and daddy.

Last night's dinnertime spread consisting of ground turkey with tomato sauce, sauteed zucchini and squash, cheese, spaghetti noodles, and strawberries.

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

Notice much of a change?  Me either.  I needed to document this Food Drama mostly for my own sanity and hopefully some day, I can look back on this and laugh.  I feel bad for Little Mister, really I do.  We'll just keep trying and see what happens.



Does anyone else have eating problems like this or am I the only one?



 

mmm Banana Bread

The other night I made banana bread for ourselves and the Little Mister.  I had never made it before and I guess I was always just intimidated by the supposed complexity.  I am the first to admit that I'm the farthest thing from a homemaker and cooking (especially baking!) is not my forte.  I want to be better at these sort of things and thankfully, to help me along the way, my good friend Melissa gave me this simple recipe that I would love to share with you.

mmm Banana Bread

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 egg
1 cup mashed bananas (3 medium)
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cooking oil
1 tsp finely shredded lemon peel (optional)
1/2 cup uncooked oats


Aaaaand make it!
1.  Pre-Heat Oven: 350 / 50-55 minute bake time
2. Grease the loaf pan. In a medium mixing bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda & cinnamon.
3. In another bowl combine the egg, bananas, suger cooking oil & lemon peel. Add egg mixture all at once to dry mixture. Stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy). Fold in oats.
4. Pour the batter into previously greased pan. Bake in preheated oven 50-55 minutes or until wooden toothpick comes out clean.
5. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pan (you should literally be able to turn the pan over and have the bread dump out). Wrap and store overnight.

So tasty!