Caramel Apple Pie

Yum!!! This is an easy to follow recipe and will reep great rewards!

Ingredients:

2 Pie Crusts-refridgerated pie crust dough makes it easy, if you make your own, way to go!!

Apple Filling:
6 granny smith apples-peeled, cored and chopped 1/4" thick
3 Tbsp. unsalted butter
3/4 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. salt

Caramel Sauce:
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup cream, room temp
1/4 cup butter, room temp

Appliances:
Dutch Oven-for apples
Large scale sauce pan-deep and wide
Pie Dish

Directions:
Apple Filling:
1) Put dutch oven over med-high heat. Once warmed throughout, add in cut apples, stirring for about 1 minute, make sure not to burn, but to warm the apples, you'll begin to smell them-delicous! Add in butter, incorporate all apples with butter, sauteing, lower heat. Continue stirring, apples to become soft. After 3-4 minutes, add in dry ingredients, and if needed a bit more butter-it never hurts! Bring pot back to med-high heat until sauce is near bubbling, then reduce heat to low, cover, stir occasionally, should not be near burning temp.

Carmel:

*Special Note*-Proced with caution, always, when working with any candied topping. Make sure no babies or puppies nearby.

1) Pour sugar into pan, swirling around to evenly distribute. Heat on medium until sugar melts and caramelizes. Sugar will turn a reddish-brown color when ready. Do not stir or disturb. If sugar needs to be redistributed, gently swirl pan.

2) Stir butter and cream, being careful to avoid splashes-I added cream first, with pan off heat, will sizzle. Caramel will be extremely hot! Then add butter, off heat still to avoid major splashing onto yourself and onto stovetop. Continue stirring until butter and cream are fully incorporated.

3) Let simmer on medium heat for one minute. Remove from heat.

Prepare pie crust dough:
1) Heat oven to 350 degrees.

2) Dough should be at room temperature. Add first pie crust to bottom of pie dish, pressing into dish and against sides. Make three long slits into other pie crust, this is your vent for the top. Set aside.

Adding pie filling and caramel sauce to pie crust dough.
1) Take applie filling off of heat, uncover, and stir one last time.

2) Pour/ladle half of apple filling into pie dish. Pour caramel evenly over the apple filling, then add the remaining applie filling mixture.

3) Cover with remaining pie crust, folding top into dish to create a seal with the other crust. I'm not creative with crimping yet, but both crusts should meet, no curst hanging over edge of dish. Push dough against pie dish, then taking a fork, press fork into dough, all along the edge of dish. If this doesn't make sense, look up crimping pie dough on youtube to get demonstration. Once you have done this, you have it down pat!

4) Place pie dish in center of oven rack, bake 30-40 minutes, pie should be golden, filing bubbling. Set on pie rack for 2-3 hours, cover with lose dish towel.

5) Servie it up! If you want it warmed, place back in oven on warm setting.

If you wish to omit caramel, then omit the caramel recipe, everything else should follow suit.

Bon appetit!!

Chicken Noodle Soup

I believe some old fashion recipes are important to have in a cooking repertoire. Chicken noodle soup is one of them, because it is not just tasty, but nutritious, healthy, and helps soothe whatever is ailing anyone, with all the vitamins from the veggies and the protein from the chicken. I know that this recipe will carry me many years to make for my family, whether for sick little ones, to warm the tummy, or as a to be cherished comfort food. Prep is simple, crockpot does majority of the work, ingredients simple.

Ingredients:

1 whole fryer chicken
2 cartons Kitchen Basics Chicken Broth
4 large celery stalk sticks-3 chopped, one cut in half
3 large carrots-2 chopped, one cut in half
2 yellow onions-1 quartered, one chopped
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. minced garlic
1/2 package whole wheat flat noodles (or whatever type of noodle you prefer)
Seasonings: salt, pepper, sage, rosemary, mustard seed, thyme (have all on hand and add to taste, gonna need to season this generously, but to your standards and desires, I love flavor, so I was very generous-especially salt and pepper!)

Appliances:
1 large oval crockpot, large enough to hold chicken and the broth
1 Large skillet

Directions:
1. Let's start with the mirepoix (pronounced meer-pwa). Put the skillet on med-high heat, add in olive oil. When you feel the warmth on your hand hovering over the skillet, add in the chopped onion, chopped carrots, chopped celery and minced garlic. Distribute the mirepoix to incorporate the oil, and continue to saute, lowering heat if needed-no browning. All veggies should become soft and translucent. Might take 15 mins to get desired consistency.

2. Turn on crockpot to high.

3. Next, combine 1 Tbsp. each of the seasonings to make a dry rub, and rub this onto entire whole chicken-wash your hands afterwards!! Place quartered onion, carrot cut in half and celery stalk stick cut in half, and insert into the empty chicken cavity, legs should be tied-I found the chicken at Fresh & Easy, already ready to use, no yucky cleaning out cavity, and already tied perfectly. Place chicken into crockpot, add in the broth. Add generous salt and pepper to the broth, and let this all sit for 3-4 hours, turning chicken over once or twice-broth might not cover chicken, and that is ok, but turning it to coat it is key to tenderness and flavor.

4. After 4th hour, remove chicken from pot, remove onion/celery/carrot from cavity and disgard. Remove string. Chicken should be fal off the bone tender. Begin pulling meat from bones, disgarding fat if desired as well, using tongs and fork. Once meat off all bones, using two forks, shred meat into strands, leaving some whole pieces if desired. Once shredded, add back to crock pot, taste broth for savor level, and reduce heat to low for 2-3 hours.

5. Finally, add in noodles in last 1/2 hour, remember to taste broth again to see if salt/pepper needed, prior to noodles and after. If too salty, add in some water.

6. Remove from heat, let stand for 15 minutes off of heat, in a soup terene for example then serve. This is so delicious, and will receive praise and cheers.

I will attempt to make leftovers into various international soups, such as adding Asian ingredients for a "pho". Once you have this base, you can morph left overs into your desires.

Bon appetit!!

Portobello Mushroom Burger

I loved this! Just made it tonight. The key to making this tasty is the marinade.

Ingredients:

1 Portobello Mushroom cap (Fresh & Easy has them w/out stems-thus "Easy"!)

1 Whole Wheat Hamburger Bun, sliced

2 tomato slices

1 slice low fat mozzarella

1 Tbsp dijon mustard

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

2 tsp vinegar (I used cabernet wine vinegar)

Dash of dried oregano, salt and pepper

How To:

1) Turn on broiler to high heat. You could grill this as well, I opted for indoors tonight.

2) Whisk together oil, vinegar and spices in large glass bowl. Add the mushroom cap, turning over and over to make sure it gets coated, let sit for 15 minutes, flipping over every now and then. You will want flavor to really soak into mushroom. If marinade isn't enough, double the amount, depends on size of mushroom cap.

3) Line cookie sheet with aluminum foil, coat the area where you will place the mushroom with a little bit of olive oil, take paper towel to help spread out-you don't want the mushroom sticking to foil. Place mushroom stem side up first, heat for 5 mins, flip over and heat smooth side for 5 mins. At 1 minute left add the slice of cheese, and its ready to come out of the oven.

4) Build your Mushroom burger, adding dijon to top and bottom buns, pile on tomato slices, mushroom, whatever else you want to add. It is a really healthy and hearty sandwich, and is quite satisfying.

The flavor of the marinade really came through, and it was so delicious-can't wait to make it again! Hope you enjoy, and mix up the fixings, just like any old burger. I'd imagine sauteed vidalia onions would boost flavor!

Bon appetit!

Easy Coq au Vin

This is a French dish, and I will pronounce it hear for you: "coke o van" (however, you want to anticipate the n in van, like the n is in your throat, but don't pronounce the n.) Coq au vin began as a dish when the country folk of France had their rooster, and when he could no longer crow, this was the end of his life, but a good one, because he was bathed in wine and good vegetables! Here we are 2009, and most of us don't live in the country and/or have a rooster crowing us awake at 4:30 in the morning. So, I have simplified it, and instead of using our new Le Creuset dutch oven, I used our new 6 quart crock pot, that is oval in shape, rather than a narrow cylinder pot. Le Creuset says this can be done in a few hours, crock pot says 8, I say 6 hours, first two on high, last 4 on low...you decide what is best for your schedule.

Ingredients:

8-10 baby new potatoes (yellow in color, not red)

3-5 slices of bacon, chopped (or chopped prosciutto is fine as well)

2-3 boneless chicken breast fillets

2 large carrots, sliced in medallions

1 bushel green onions, chopped

1 carton baby bella mushrooms (found near the salad bags in your grocery store)

1 small bag of frozen pearl onions, found in grocer's freezer department (or you could chop a medium white onion)

1 1/2 cup Burgundy wine (I couldn't find this so I used Mouton Cadet Bordeaux-it has to be red!)

1 cup chicken broth (Kitchen Classics is best)

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp sage

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp sea salt

*note: season to taste, you might want to add more spices as you cook

Directions: The cooking can be done many ways, I used 4 recipes to create this one, and it worked fine for me! In a skillet on medium-high heat, brown bacon with green onions. You want the onions to sweat, so if med-high heat is too much, and you find your onions are burning, not browning because of bacon, lower it immediately! Once bacon is well cooked and onions are translucent and soft, discard into a bowl lined with paper towel, however KEEPING the bacon grease in the pan-this is what you brown the chicken with. Season the breast filets with the spices, mix the spices in a bowl if you wish, and sprinkle/rub over both sides of the breast. Add in the breast filets to the still hot skillet, maybe a splash of olive oil if needed, however, you don't want to cook them thoroughly, just make them goldeny brown on outside, they are absorbing the bacon drippings and onion flavoring at this point-a few flips per minute might do the trick. You might want to bring the heat a tad up doing this, make the pan sizzle a bit to really make the chicken have a crust and look a beautiful golden color.

Turn your crock pot on, add in carrots, potatoes, mushrooms, pearl onions, add in the chicken, top everything with the bacon and green onion mixture, and add in the chicken broth, stir it all up. Set your crock pot to high for 2 hours. Stir occasionally to make sure all ingredients are coated with the broth, like once per 1/2 hour. After 2 hours, add in the wine, mix all ingredients again, and now you will put your crock pot on low for 4 hours, again stirring every 1/2 hour. Mixing the wine now and the bacon scented broth, this is when you are where you want to be, it smells divine! Do not worry if your mushrooms look black, by the way, they are not burnt, this is how they look when cooked and absorbed with wine.

About 2 hours before the last hour, taste the broth. Should be really savory. This is when, per your palette, you decide if needs more salt, pepper, a dash of this and that. If taste is a bit bitter, add in a table spoon of dijon mustard, and a splash more of the wine in the last hour-this is what I did, as I always have dijon on hand (psst, I suggest you do the same).

In the end you should have a really hearty stew type of dish. Chicken will be so tender you can shred it with forks, and maybe do this the last 1/2 hour to let the juices mingle with the chicken that has been soaking for about 5 1/2 hours, it will be totally tender and juicy!

Serve up in a bowl, if you wish to have more of a stew, and have some bread on the side to help soak up the juices-we had a whole grain sliced artisan loaf from our grocer's baker, which we will use for sandwiches this week. Baby ciabatta rolls work fine as well if you have them available in singles, or a pack for the whole family.

This is simple. Other recipes call to flambé the chicken in cognac before adding to crock pot: I will not temp this until I have a stainless steel kitchen! It is a beautiful dish, although a crock pot, and should be watched every 1/2 hour, it is simple. I would not leave this to cook and leave your house for 8 hours, like other crock pot recipes suggest, but is very manageable and is very cheap, in my opinion. You can research and find recipes if you're serving to 6 or more guests, but this for even 2 people, made enough for us both to have left dinner tomorrow.

I hope you enjoy this. Bon appetit!!