Apple Pie Bar Cookies

Autumn is finally here and I always get the need to bake things that are warm and full of spices.  I love the way it makes my house smell and am greatly rewarded by praise from the family.

One simple recipe I am naming  Apple Pie Bar Cookies because they taste just like a slice of apple pie with the yummy struesel topping. 

They are apple-ie, buttery, and crunchy all at the same time.  And most of all they are EASY!  Ridiculously easy!  You must try them because you will be rewarded!  I'm thinking you could change these up with any fruit jam or butter.  Can you imagine how yummy they would be with strawberry, cherry, or peach?  I have to make double batches of this because otherwise they are gone in an instant. I use musselman's apple butter, but use what you like.


Apple Pie Bar Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 c flour
• 1 c old-fashioned oatmeal
• 3/4 c light brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 8 Tbsp butter, melted
• 1 c MUSSELMAN'S Apple Butter
• 1 granny smith apple, peeled, cored, and sliced thin.  Only use granny smiths because they hold their shape and have better texture!

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Coat an 8 x 8 baking pan with vegetable cooking spray. Line with heavy-duty foil or parchment paper, leaving an overhang on two sides to facilitate removal of bars from pan. Coat foil with cooking spray.

Mix flour, oatmeal, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. Stir in butter with a fork until well mixed and clumps form, and then spread half the oatmeal mixture over foiled pan bottom, pressing to form a thin crust. Spread butter over crust  and then put sliced apples in a single layer across that. Then sprinkle remaining oatmeal mixture on top.

Bake until crisp and golden brown, 30 to 40 min. Cool to room temperature. Use foil “handles” to remove bars from pan. Cut into squares and serve.

Makes 16 servings

Texas Sheet Cake - A Standby Dessert At My House

Here is a recipe for a favorite dessert at my house.  Every time I make it my family raves, and I have taken it to several get together's and people LOVE it! It is rich, chocolaty, and moist. The reason I love it is it's easy to make, fast, and feeds a crowd.  I like it topped with homemade whipped cream.  This would be perfect to take to a fall picnic or other autumn get together.  Click HERE to get and easy printable version.

Photo Credit from All Recipes

Making Pickled Grapes

I know, why would you want to pickle grapes after all? And what the heck do they taste like?  But trust me these are worth it. They make a wonderful condiment for chicken or turkey, and are a very special gift for that food gourmet in your life. 

I got the recipe from that pickling Bible 

The Joy Of Pickling 

which I think any serious or even pottering home cook should own.  She has such an abundance of recipes from fermented pickles, Asian pickles and fruit pickles that you can really find a recipe for anything you have too much of at the moment!  And as with most cookbooks that I actually deem worthy of purchasing (I am so pathetically cheap) it is a highly entertaining book with tons of history of the different types of pickles and how they came to be in different cultures.  

Well on to how I first tried pickling grapes.  I actually received a box of beautiful green interlaken grapes from a friend and had way to much to use before they went off, but certainly not enough to make jelly.  Interlaken are small green seedless grapes that are similar I suppose to champagne grapes in looks but not flavor of course.  Well now I was in a conundrum!  I hate to waste any food but had no way to use them up and I remember reading in the above book about pickled grapes.  What the heck I thought!  If we don't like them we can throw them to the chickens!  Rather than cutting the grapes in half I pickled them whole as they were so tiny and the results were just delicious.  They aren't vinegary or salty at all but more like whole cranberry sauce only grape flavored.  My very picky family just loved it and we ate them with roasted chicken and it was at the table for Thanksgiving.  This also is a wonderfully easy recipe which also earns brownie points for me.  So this year with grapes on a great sale I bought a bunch just for making into pickles.  I used her dark grape recipe and these are called midnight beauties and are seedless eating grapes.  But I will say that I liked the results from the smaller whole grapes much better.  You can often find interlaken grapes at farmers markets, or use some other seedless small grape.

WASHING AND STEMMING THE GRAPES

THE HALVED GRAPES AND PICKLING SOLUTION HEATING UP

THE FINISHED PRODUCT WHICH WILL BE READY IN TWO WEEKS 

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Easy Icebox Desserts for Easter

Easter is almost here and I am starting to plan the menu for that days special dinner.  I try to make festive meals as special as possible without over-stressing myself.  I want to be able to enjoy the day with my family and not be in the kitchen the whole time!  My solution is to make things ahead of time and choose recipes that can be adapted with that in mind.  Ice box cakes fit the bill perfectly!  They are delicious, impressive, and crowd pleasers.  And best of all they can be made the day ahead, and in fact should be!  make one or two of these for your Easter gathering and be ready for compliments.  These are recipes I have found to be excellent.  Click on the links to be taken to the recipes.

4 Layer Lemon Icebox Delight

No-Bake Banana Split Cake Dessert

Éclair Icebox Cake



Easy Southern Banana Pudding 

Ice Box Cake

Grandma's Icebox Cake

Healthy Homemade Kool Aid

During the heat of summer I try to get my children to drink water or liquids as much as possible to ward off dehydration.  The problem is that they want flavor in their drinks and as I don't buy pop and juice is so expensive!  I have used Kool-Aid but always feel very concerned about what exactly is used to make it?  Plus Kool-Aid needs allot of sugar to make it palatable.  So I have found a way to make my own homemade Kool-Aid from herbal teas!  You can find many of these herbal teas at the grocery store, but ours didn't have a good selection so I ended up ordering from amazon which I find has the best prices and the best selection.  I chose teas that I thought would be good cold.

I ordered

Country Peach Passion

Wild Berry Zinger

Cranberry Apple Zinger

Black Cherry Berry

For a half gallon of drink I used six tea bags and poured half a jug full of boiling water over it.  Then I let it steep for 15 minutes.  These are caffeine free and made from herbs and fruit.

After steeping I filled the rest of the way with cold water and added about 3 tablespoon of sweetener, I used honey.  Compare that with a full cup of sugar for standard koolaid!

Then I just pop the jug into the fridge until cold and serve over ice.  So far the favorite for our family is the Country Passion Peach which is amazing!  If you like peaches you will love this one.  It has an intense peachy flavor.

Recipe

6 standard bags Celestial Seasoning Fruit Tea of your choice

4 Cups Boiling Water

Sweetener To Taste (honey, sugar, stevia)

Additional fruits such as lemon/lime slices, crushed berries

4 cups cold water

Instructions:  Pour boiling water over teabags in a large pitcher, let steep 15 min. at least.  Remove tea bags and add fruits, sweeteners, and cold water.  Chill in refrigerator and serve over ice.  Keep refrigerated.

Easy Summer Breakfast that's high in protein and kids love!

photo credit- Allrecipes.com

Right now I am trying to shift from store bought easy breakfasts like cereals for my family to more healthy home made ones.  Not only are store bought expensive, but they are highly processed with doubtful ingredients, preservatives, and GMO's!  It has been a challenge because I am NOT a morning person.  It takes me a good hour plus coffee to get up to par. Our mornings start horrifically early as our children are extreamly early risers.  Fortunately I wake up at 5 am every morning without fail or alarm clock.  Years of breastfeeding babies has trained my internal clock to wake up like that so I usually have an hour to get primed for the morning rush.  My children do not like things that would go into a crockpot like oatmeal or cornmeal mush.  But I think I have finally found a winning recipe that not only is easy, but healthy, delicious, and filling.

The recipe of course is German Pancakes, also called Dutch Babies.  Could we love it because I am part Dutch :) ?  This is simply a puffed oven pancake that serves a family of 6 easily.  I like it because while my coffee is brewing I simply throw the four ingredients into my mixer, melt the butter in my cast iron skillet and preheat the oven.  Then throw it in and 1/2 hour to 45 min later I have a hot filling breakfast for my children.  I love it topped with powdered sugar and berries.  It can also be topped with maple syrup, honey, molasses, stewed fruits, or plain powdered sugar.  Because it has 6 eggs in it the protein helps my family feel full longer and helps with energy in the morning.  If I were to make just eggs and toast for breakfast we would need about 18 to feed our family.  The other reason this is a time saver for me is because while it is baking I can get on with other morning chores such as making lunches, starting laundry, and assisting the kids get ready for school.

I found the recipe on all recipes, but also have found another recipe that calls for less eggs if you need to stretch them and has a much more detailed instruction.  Eggs are not an expense for us because we have chickens that lay 7 a day.

My children absolutely LOVE these and literally have pleaded with me to make them.  Talk about a hit!  So if your looking for a easy and healthy recipe for your family breakfasts try the one I posted below. Click HERE to go to the allrecipes post.  Or go HERE to see the alternative recipe for less eggs at a great sight called Recipes From a German Grandma.  Love the name :)

As you really MUST have a cast iron pan for this consider investing if you don't already have one. The higher the sides the puffier the pancake so a dutch oven would be perfect! Click on the picks for buying options. Scroll down for the recipe!

German Pancakes/Dutch Babies/Oven Pancakes

Ingredients

Original recipe makes 6 servings        

                       

1/4 cup butter

1 cup all-purpose flour

 1 cup milk

6 eggs, lightly beaten

1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Melt butter in a medium baking dish (best if you use cast iron).
2. In a medium bowl, mix flour, milk, eggs and salt. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish.
3. Bake on center rack in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, until golden brown.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve while still warm.

Healthgiving and Delicious Dandelion Tea Recipies

The best time to harvest Dandelions is right now when they are young and tender.  When harvesting wait until the afternoon when the dew is dried off and always pick from un-sprayed/chemical treated areas!  Enjoy!

Frugal Tips: Making Syrup From Canned Fruit Leftovers

Being a stay at home mom means that we have a much more limited income than the average American family.  I have learned to live on less, never use credit cards (we don't even have one), and buy everything in cash.  Needless to say I have turned frugality into a fine art to stretch those limited dollars.

One way is to never throw out food that could be used in some way,  the bones from chickens and beef to make broth, drying stale bread for bread crumbs, etc.

My favorite recycle idea for something that would be thrown out is to make fruit syrup for pancakes out of the syrup leftover from my canned fruits.  Instead of paying up to $5.00 for expensive premium fruit syrups that are probably made from cheap ingredients I have a free source of cherry, plum, and peach syrup for our breakfasts and ice cream.  I don't do this with store bought fruit because they use high fructose corn syrup for the sugar and I avoid that stuff like the plague.  But since I can almost all of our fruit I don't need to really worry about that.  I always make my fruit in a heavy syrup because I plan to make syrup from it after the fruit is used up.  Preplanning pays off!

First save your canned fruit juice leftovers

When you have a few jars saved up pour into a large saucepan and bring to a boil

Boil or simmer until reduced by half or until desired thickness.  If you have a very light syrup or just fruit juice you should add a couple of cups of sugar and also a tablespoon of corn starch to aid the thickening.  Be careful not to let it scorch.

When thickened pour into clean jars and refrigerate

 Great on pancakes, waffles, french toast, and ice cream

Heartwarming Autumn Meals and Treats!

I love baking and the smells of spices and cider.  Autumn is my favorite time of the year and this year I am looking forward to it more than ever.  This summer has seemed endless with it's blasted heat and smoke.  I thought I would share some recipes that look to good to pass up for this fall.

My favorite fall activities is decorating, baking, going for walks to admire the colors, hot cider next to a burning hearth and candle lit rooms.  Enjoy!

Two-Ingredient Pumpkin Cake with Apple Cider Glaze

In Anticipation of Thanksgiving: How To Roast a Perfect Turkey Easy

Sunset; James Carrier; Ojai Roast Turkey with Rosemary, Lemon, and Garlic

 

 

I love turkey, in fact I love it so much that when it is on sale I buy as many as I can fit in my freezer so that we can eat it year round.  And at 75 cents a pound or less around Thanksgiving its a great money saver. 

I know that many women are intimidated by roasting the holiday bird so I thought I would give my never fail method of cooking the best turkey you've ever had. Also my turkey is, if I do say so myself, famous.  This is because I do two things that make it moist, flavorful, and falling off the bone (no joke) delicious.

First I brine my turkey - submerge in a herb, salt, sugar bath- for at least two days

Second I roast it in a Reynold's Turkey Bag



Those two steps ensure a moist tender bird!  If you want to have the best turkey ever this year think about brining it and using the turkey bag.  The bag requires no basting, you just throw it in there and let it go, and the brine will give your bird a ticket to flavor town.

Here's my method

Turkey Brine

2/3 cup kosher salt
2/3 cup sugar
5 fresh sage leaves or 1 T dried
4 sprigs fresh thyme or 1 T dried
2 bay leaves
6 whole cloves
1/2 tsp black peppercorns crushed
1 plastic oven bags turkey sized
1 big roasting pan
1 big stock pot

Possible additions:  Fruit juice such as cider or apple juice in place of two cups of the water

Put all ingredients in a 3 - 4 quart sauce pan.  Add 8 cups water or 6 cups water and two cups fruit juice.  Bring to a boil over medium high heat.  Stir until sugar and salt are dissolved.  Boil three min.  then remove from heat and add 4 cups cold water and stir.  Let cool.

  Place your thawed, rinsed, raw turkey into a really large non reactive stockpot that it will fit in.  Pour cooled brine over the top and pour an additional two cups cold water on top of that.  cover with its lid or tinfoil.   Place turkey in the fridge or a really cold room that is secure from your dog getting at it.  Allow to brine from 12 hours (for a smaller turkey) to 48 hours (for a 20 lb or bigger turkey)

When ready to roast remove from pot and rinse with cold running water on the inside and outside really well.  Especially if you used the juice because the added sugar content can cause the skin to over brown if not rinsed off.  Rub fresh herbs and olive oil over the skin but no more salt!

Place in  turkey bag according to its directions.  I don't stuff my bird so I place a quartered apple, onion, and some fresh thyme sprigs in the cavity.  Seal and bake according to directions on the box.

When done slit open the turkey bag to keep it from sticking to the skin.  It is normal to see the meat actually starting to fall off the bone a bit.  Cover immediately with a tin foil tent and let rest 20 minutes.  This allows the juices to distribute and makes for moister meat.  Then carve, serve, and give thanks for the amazing turkey!

First big preserving project of the year! Tomatoes if you can believe it!

Every week I try to get down to the food bank in our town to donate food and clothing and help out if I can.  In our little community the food bank is very important to the elderly and poor families as driving an hour or more to the next nearest food bank is out of the question.  This time I brought in a 50 lb bag of flour for them and a bunch of heavy blankets.

While I was there I chatted with some other ladies from my church that were also volunteering and I noticed that they had just gotten a huge delivery of boxes of tomatoes.  They looked amazing and I mentioned it to the food bank director.  She just laughed and begged me to take as much as I wanted because they couldn't give even part of them out and the tomatoes would be rotten by the next week. Our food bank only operates once a week.

So I took two big boxes home and decided to make marinara sauce from my favorite recipe.  I put them in my freezer because there wasn't enough to bother with canning since we'll use these up within a month.  It turned out amazing and you can use this sauce for pizza, spaghetti, lasagna, or whatever.  It's the only spaghetti sauce I genuinely like since I'm not  a big tomato fan.  All that is in this excellent marinara sauce is tomatoes, red wine, garlic, salt, sugar, and a little water.  I add onions because I like them and then when I use the sauce I add fresh basil at the end.

some of the tomatoes

blanching the tomatoes to remove the skins

the skinned and de-seeded tomatoes, about 14 quarts

onions and garlic

cheap wine

my huge stock pot that I use for canning and preserving

the sauce before cooking

all done and ready to freeze, this made 9 cooked down quarts

this took me start to finish about hour not counting the cooking down time

The best Banana-ie Banana Bread Ever!

 

 One of the things I frequently bake is banana bread.  Not because I like it, but because my family does (same goes for spaghetti) and it uses up any bananas that go past fresh eating stage.  I always found banana bread not banana-ie enough and somewhat dry.  So when my kind neighbor brought over 20 lbs of fast ripening bananas she got from a church I thought "Great, banana bread forever!"

However a lady I met at a playgroup suggested a new recipe for me to try that uses twice the usual amount of bananas.  This makes the most moist, delicious, banana intense bread you can imagine.  I am now an official lover of banana bread!  I am going to make this for my Christmas gift baskets for our neighbors.  Click the link!

Banana Banana Bread

Oh as a side note instead of butter I used cooking oil and it turned out fine

Original recipe makes 1 loaf        

Makes servings USMetricAdjust Recipe (Help)

                        

2 cups all-purpose flour

                       

1 teaspoon baking soda

                       

1/4 teaspoon salt

                       

1/2 cup butter

                       

3/4 cup brown sugar

                       

2 eggs, beaten

                       

2 1/3 cups mashed overripe bananas

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.

Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

Teeny Tiny Spice Co. Of Vermont Review and Giveaway!

 

Do you like to cook or know someone who does?  Well have I got a review for you!  I personally love to cook, and I especially love trying new flavors.  One of the ways to flavor your food is herbs and spices of course.  Other cultures use herbs much more than Americans in their traditional foods.  But other than making your own it's hard to find pre-made spice mixes in your standard grocery stores.

 

That's why I was so excited when Teeny Tiny Spice Co. Of Vermont offered to let me review two of their spice mixes.  Here is a little info on the company.

Teeny Tiny Spice Company of Vermont, LLC is a family owned and operated business that grew out of our love of cooking and international cuisine. Our challenge was that at the end of a busy day, when we wanted to make something new and interesting, we often found that we did not have the ingredients or the energy to tackle the recipes that caught our eyes. We believe that clean, real food not only provides a delicious meal, it is also a key to health and vitality. So we started creating our own blends to have on hand, making it simple and easy to prepare a tasty, healthy meal quickly with our basic pantry of ingredients. We solved our problem and thought that other people would enjoy what we had created...a business was born. After more than three years in business and many tens of thousands of tins sold, we often marvel at how many meals must be being made with our spice blends every day. We hope that you enjoy them as much as we do.

 

Teeny Tiny Spice Co. Of Vermont let me choose two of their organic spice mixes that are made in the USA to review.  First off it was extremely hard to choose!  There are so many spice mixes that I wanted to try and they all sounded so good!  Many of their spice mixes are very exotic and come from Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. They have a recipe page HERE for ideas on how to use their spice mixes. I finally settled on the Persian Adwiya and the Shepherds Herb Mix. 

 

 I tried the Shepherds Herb Mix first.  It is a blend of spices that reminds me of Herbs De Provence with a little more Mediterranean flavor added in.  It contains: Lemon Peel, Lavender Flowers, Spearmint, Basil, Sage, Rosemary, Fennel, Black Peppercorn, Parsley, Thyme, Marjoram, Oregano, Himalayan Pink Salt, Onion, and Garlic.

 

I used it as a wet spice rub on a pork roast.  I let it marinade over night and then roasted it in my slow cooker.  The flavor was wonderful and the herbs complimented the pork perfectly!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next I tried the Persian Adwiya spice mix.  This is a middle eastern spice mix from Iran and contains many floral notes typical to that area. It Contains: Red & Pink Rose Petals, Sweet Cinnamon, Lemon Zest, Cumin, Coriander, Orange Zest, Nutmeg, Cardamom, Black Peppercorn, and Himalayan Pink Salt. 

 

I put it in ground beef and served it on naan which is an Indian flat bread and tzatziki which is cucumber yyoghurt dip from Greece.  So that is quite a mix of national foods but hey it tasted great!  I cant wait to try the Persian Adwiya in rice and on chicken. 

 

In Conclusion:

 

Teeny Tiny Spice Co. Of Vermont gets 5 stars in my book for the following reasons

 

• Quality Ingredients that are fresh and vibrant
• Unique and Exotic Spice Mixes
• Made in the USA
• Affordable (the same price you would pay in a grocery store for run of the mill spices)
• Certified USDA Organic
• Certified Kosher
• Gluten Free
• Non-GMO
• Nice website with guides on what to use the spices on and in depth descriptions

Their Spices would make a wonderful gift this Holiday Season for the Foodie or Cook in your life.

 

Connect with Teeny Tiny Spice Co. Of Vermont

Website

Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

 

Giveaway!

 

 

Teeny Tiny Spice Co. has generously offered to give one lucky Thrifty Housewife reader a Organic World Herb Blends Variety Pack that contains three of their spice blends!  Use the rafflecopter below to enter, all entries are optional, all winning entries are verified.  Good Luck!

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/33ddb961/" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Thrifty Housewife was not compensated for this post, I did receive a sample product(s) for the purposes of review. This did not influence my review or my opinions. My views are 100% my own. This giveaway is not affiliated with facebook, pinterest, twitter, or any other social media website.  The winner will be chosen through the rafflecopter form which uses Random.org.  Winner will be notified by email within 48 hours of contest end.  Winner has 24 hours to respond to the  email.  Failure to respond will result in a new winner being chosen.  Open to US only.  All Entries are verified.