Some great recipe finds

I needed a of couple recipes yesterday so I went on a recipe hunt on AR.
I came across these 2-
Banana Crumb Muffins
Danish Pastry Apple Bars

Both were WONDERFUL, I only tweaked the muffin one and it was a tiny tweak :) :) :)

Danish Pastry Apple Bars
Ingred;
2-1/2c. flour
1c. shortening
1 egg, separated
1/2c. milk
10 apples, peeled, sliced thin
1/2c. brown sugar
1/4c. white sugar
1/2t. cinnamon
1/4t. nutmeg

Heat oven to 375
In a large bowl combine the flour and salt, cut in the shortening.
Beat the egg yolk in a 1 c. measuring cup, add in the milk till mixture reaches 2/3c.
Mix into the flour mixture.
Divide dough in half.
Using wax paper under and on top roll out half of the dough and place on the bottom of a 9x13 pan.
Combine the apples, sugars and spices, spread out evenly over the dough.
Roll remaining crust and place on top, seal edges.
Cut slits in the top brush with the beaten egg white.
Bake fore 50 minutes.

Banana Crumb Muffins
Ingred;
1-1/2c. flour
1t. baking soda
1t. baking powder
1/2t. salt
3 banana's mashed
3/4c. white sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3c. butter, melted
1T. vanilla
1/2c. brown sugar
1/4c. flour
2T. butter

Oven 375
Mix together the banana's, white sugar, egg, butter and vanilla.
In a separate bowl sift together the flour, salt,baking powder and soda, mix into the banana mixture.
Place into you muffin cups- makes 12 regular- Mix together the remaining ingredients to make your crumb topping and sprinkle on top of the muffins.
Bake for 18-20 minutes.

I also wanted to share with you one of my favorite kitchen tools-



The Apple Peeler Corer Slicer

I got mine from Pampered Chef but I have seen them in other places. This handy dandy tool helped me peel,core and slice 10 apples in under 5 minutes. I have had this for about 8 years I think and it gets a lot of use around here :)

Welcome! Come on in and Enjoy...

a nice slice of my Mommers Apple Bread. She didn't make this loaf, sadly, but I used her recipe which is as good as I get with her being a few states away from me now :(

Last weekend the kiddos, some friends and I went apple picking

and came home with these-

Some beautiful Rome and Yellow Delicious Apples, that are frankly- Delicious. I had no idea Yellow delicious apples could be sooo good. These look (taste) nothing like the ones in the store!
OK, on to the recipe :) :) :)

Mommer's Apple Bread

1c. oil
3 eggs
2c. sugar
1t. vanilla

Mix these together than add in-

3c. flour
1t. cinnamon
1t. soda
1t. salt

When this is all mixed together stir in 3c. of diced apples, pour into 2 greased loaf pans and bake at 350 for about 1 hour.

I also want to say Welcome to anyone joining me from Willoughby's Cocktail Party, and a big Hello and Thank you to all my regular Blogging Buddies- you guys are wonderful :) :)

I just got a Letter.....

Actually it was more of a package really, a package full of treasures! When I went out to get my mail today there it was in my box, the girls and I opened it up and look, LOOK at my treasures!

These are from my Sweet big Sister B,
Candied French Violets
Candied Rose Petals
lots of Lavender

I am so excited! I will have to find something special to make with these, any ideas?

I have a recipe that I begged Sister B for all week, it requires the use of these-

aren't they pretty?

Here look again-

They look wonderful, don't they.......
Well, as we all know, looks can be deceiving! These little fuzzy fibbers were half brown on the inside! I was totally disgusted. So instead of making 2 pies we only made one, cause that's all I got out of them.

Aunt B's Vanilla Custard Peach Pie
Ingred;
1 deep dish pie crust
5 med. peaches
8 oz sour cream
3 large egg yolks
1c. sugar
1/4c. flour
2t. vanilla or buttershots

1/4c. butter
1/2c. flour
1/4c. sugar

Peel & slice peaches, arrange in the bottom of pie shell. In medium pan whisk together the next 5 ingredient until smooth & pour over peaches. Bake at 425 for 30 min.
Prepare the remaining ingredient. as a struesal topping, sprinkle over pie and return to the oven at 400 for another 30 min.
Garnish with unpeeled peach slices and a sprig of mint.

Now I couldn't garnish mine because of the peach shortage, so I gave my girls each a piece of the leftover pie dough and they made me some cute leaves to decorate the center.

Thank you Aunt B for the sweet gifts and for a wonderful recipe!

Raspberry Buttermilk Cake

I found a reference to this cake in a comment left on a cooking site, someone covered this Lovely with lemon cream cheese frosting, WHY? Why would they do that??? I am not a fan of frosting anyway but to cover up this beautiful cake with it had to be a crime.
Anyway that is how my google search for Raspberry Buttermilk Cake recipes began.
I settled on this one from Gourmet, the directions were easy to follow, but the biggest reason- it had printable directions :)


Raspberry Buttermilk Cake

Ingred;
1c. flour
1/2t. baking soda
1/2t. baking powder
1/4t. salt
1/2 c. butter, softened
2/3c. sugar, plus extra to sprinkle on top
1/2t. vanilla
1 egg
1/2c. buttermilk
1c. fresh raspberries

Preheat oven to 400. I sprayed an 8" spring form pan with Pam.
Whisk together flour, powder, soda and salt.
In mixing bowl, beat together butter and sugar.
Beat in vanilla, than the egg.
Mix in half of the flour mixture, then mix in the buttermilk.
Scrape sides mix well, add in the remaining flour mixture.
Spread into cake pan and scatter the raspberries on top,
I then sprinkled the top with some turbinado sugar.
Bake fro 25-30 min. Let cool 10 min. before removing the side of the pan.
Cool completely.

Pretty in Peach or was that suppose to be Pink???

I am posting this recipe to enter in Deb's Souper Sunday. Which is really fun, there are always a great bunch of soups, salads and sandwiches posted every Sunday. So if you like soup, and we all know I do, you should go check it out :)

I wanted to try another fruit soup so I tried this one-

Pretty Peach Soup

Ingred;
1/2c. frozen raspberries
3c. half thawed peaches
2T. lemon juice
1c. peach nectar
1c. vanilla yogurt
1/4c. sugar
1t. almond extract

Blend together the peaches and lemon juice.
Add in the rest off the ingred. EXCEPT the raspberries.
Blend until smooth.
Put some frozen berries in the bottom of your bowls/cups- 6 med sized.
Pour the soup over the berries, then garnish with a couple on top.

Now I have decided that fruit soups are a lot like fruit smoothies,
and I think I am over my fruit soup phase for now :)
This was really yummy, I tested it out on my guinea pig first, um I mean daughter.

And not only did she like it, she did this-

Then she asked " Can I have some more?"
Ahhhh the music to every Mom's ears.

I have started a couple of other blogs, one is for kids Crafts and the other one is about Herbs, Natural Healing & products. I have buttons for them on my side bar if anyone is interested in checking them out.

Breakfast treat on the First Day of School

I am a day late and as always a $ short. But better late than never right? :)
For the kiddos breakfast to go with their cinnamon oatmeal I made them
Baked Granola stuffed Pears.
I even got a picture, the camera was right there first day of school pic's & all that.


Baked Granola stuffed Pears
Ingred;
1-2 cans reg. sized pears, halved
1/4c. plain granola
1T. butter
1/4c. brown sugar
1/2t. cinnamon

Oven 450
Pour the pears, juice and all, into a cake pan or pie plate. Lay with the middle up. Put the rest of the ingred. in a food processor and blend together. Fill the holes in the pears with a spoonful of filling and sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake for about 10 min. then broil until sugar is melted, about 2-5 min.

Summer Delight Fruit Salad

Salad

Ingred;
1 pkg strawberries, washed & cut in quarters
1/2 lb red grapes, washed
1 mango, peeled & cubed
3 kiwi, peeled sliced

Dressing

Ingred;
1/4c. pomegranate juice
1T. balsamic vinegar
1t. instant tea mix

Stir together all of the fruit, whisk together your dressing ingred. and pour over top. Serve immediately. If not serving immediately keep the dressing separate until ready to serve.


This was really, really good, I could eat it everyday! Seriously, I am already planning to make this again to go with our dinner on Sunday, we are having company over and this will be a great side dish.
I used Blueberry pomegranate juice, a lemon balsamic, and a raspberry ice tea powder. I think raspberries and apples would also be delicious in this & If you didn't want to use tea you could substitute a powdered lemon or orange drink mix.

The Girls liked it so much they had a mini-fork war to get the last pieces out of the bottom of the bowl. Ya gotta watch out for the little one, she's quick.