Autumn and Halloween Recipe Linkfest - My Recipe "To Do" List

My friends have been posting yummy looking recipes online. I usually "like" them in my Facebook feed and then forget about them, then wish I had the recipe later. But I saw a great one for Pumpkin Apple Streusel Muffins and my daughter and I LOVE making muffins together in the morning. Then we might have a little tea party brunch and eat the fresh muffins, and then save the leftovers in a ziploc baggy to freeze in the freezer and munch on later or pack as a snack on an outing. So many options for leftovers. The Caramel Spiced Pumpkin Parfaits just look amazing.

Here are some of the recipes. I hope to update and let you know how they turned out and if they are going to join my repetoire. The pumpkin apple muffin one has streusel. Everyone loves streusel on their muffins! My husband doesn't like pumpkin so more for me and my daughter.

Pumpkin Pie Spice Recipe
From Allrecipes.com. I already have a great taco seasonings recipe and a fajita seasonings recipe in my recipe book. I need to whip up some pumpkin pie spice and have it ready to go when I need it.
Recipe can be found through this link.

"Use this mixture in recipes that call for pumpkin pie spice. A blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and allspice that can be scaled to any size."
INGREDIENTS:
4 tablespoons ground cinnamon
4 teaspoons ground nutmeg
4 teaspoons ground ginger
3 teaspoons ground allspice
DIRECTIONS:
1. In a small bowl, combine all ingredients and mix well. Store in air tight container. Makes 8 tablespoons.


Pumpkin Apple Streusel Muffins
LIBBY'S PUMPKIN
By: LIBBY'S PUMPKIN
5 out of 5 34 ratings
Muffin recipe link here.

Prep: 20 mins
Cooking: 30 mins
Level:Intermediate
Cooling: 5 mins
Yields:24 muffins
Pumpkin Apple Streusel Muffins are moist and delicious with cinnamon streusel topping that makes these muffins memorable!

Ingredients

MUFFINS
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
2 large eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 cups apples, peeled, cored and finely chopped
STREUSEL TOPPING
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter or magarine

Directions

PREHEAT oven to 350º F. Grease or paper-line 24 muffin cups.

FOR MUFFINS:
COMBINE flour, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Combine pumpkin, eggs and oil in medium bowl; mix well. Stir into flour mixture just until moistened. Stir in apples. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling three-fourths full.

FOR STREUSEL TOPPING:
COMBINE sugar, flour and cinnamon in medium bowl. Cut in butter with pastry blender or two knives until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle over muffin batter.

BAKE for 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans for 5 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool slightly.


Caramel Spiced Pumpkin Parfait
By way of Slow Roasted Italian blog.
By way of Parade Magazine blog.

By DONNA ELICK
SERVES
4
ACTIVE TIME
20 min.
TOTAL TIME
20 min.
SAVE RECIPE
PRINT
INGREDIENTS

Caramel Sauce:
1 (11-oz) bag vanilla caramels, unwrapped
½ cup heavy cream
Pumpkin Mousse:
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1 (15-oz) can pure pumpkin, (not pie filling)
1 cup heavy cream
¼ cup brown sugar, packed
2 tsp ground cinnamon
⅛ tsp ground ginger
⅛ tsp ground nutmeg
Brown Sugar Whipped Cream:
2 cups heavy cream
¼ cup brown sugar, packed
Cookie Layer:
4 graham cracker sheets
4 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 Tbsp brown sugar
DIRECTIONS

Prepare caramel sauce: Place unwrapped caramels and cream in a microwave safe bowl and heat until melted. Stop microwave and stir every 30 seconds. Once you have a smooth mixture, set aside to cool.

Prepare Mousse: Combine ingredients in a medium bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on medium until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Place in refrigerator while you prepare the remaining ingredients.

Prepare Whipped Cream: In a tall bowl whip cream with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Add brown sugar and whip until stiff peaks form (when you lift mixer out of bowl, cream stands up on the end of the beater). Place in refrigerator while you prepare the next layer.

Prepare Cookie Layer: In a small bowl combine ingredients, smash graham crackers with a fork. Continue mashing until you have one cohesive mixture.

Assemble: Add a heaping tablespoon of cookie mixture to trifle dish. Add a heaping tablespoon of mousse. Add a heaping tablespoon of whipped cream. Pour 2 tablespoons of caramel sauce into dish. Repeat layers. Drizzle final caramel layer on top of trifle for spectacular presentation.

Chill until ready to serve. Enjoy!

COOK'S NOTE

Shortcut suggestions: Substitute a jar of caramel sauce and container of whipped topping to create a shortcut version of this fabulous treat.

Serves 4.

Salmon Chowder or Fish Chowder, either way it's soo good!

I have to post my version of this recipe from Simply Recipes by Elise Bauer. Here is a link to the original Fish Chowder recipe.

Love this recipe. It just works. I do some substitutions or just plum leave things out, but maybe one day, I will follow it to the letter. (Basically I leave out the white wine and the clam juice. I don't normally have them on hand. Sometimes I'll add a dash of vinegar to mimic the white wine, but don't be heavy-handed about it! And I might substitute just a tiny bit of Worcestershire sauce and pretend it's clam juice. It does have anchovy juice in it.)

Sometimes I can't help myself and add a little dried dill. My husband also isn't a big fan of dill, so I don't get it often and it just seems to go so hand-in-hand with fish dishes anyway. I will also cheat with the potatoes and sometimes get them softening in the microwave, to save on cooking time. I'm such a little cheater! But I like saving time!

I will use either frozen halibut or canned Alaskan salmon (the cheap, yummy, bone-filled, lower-mercury kind) in the recipe. Again, it depends on what I have on hand. I don't bother deboning the salmon bones, they are pretty edible anyway and they are good for you. If I'm going to serve some to others or drop the soup off for a friend, I'll remove more bones just to make it more appetizing for them.

And I usually won't have so much cream on hand, sometimes none, so I'll just make it with whole milk or figure something out. Milk will scorch faster than cream, so watch out! I know, I'm probably too loosy-goosy here, but I've had really great results. I've made it a few times a few ways and I've always loved it. Since I'm the only big fish eater here in the house, I'll either cut the recipe amounts in half or just store it in the fridge and have it a few days for lunch. Mm. Enjoy that chowder, and don't let fish haters in your house stop you from enjoying yourself!

----------------------

Salmon Chowder Recipe
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 40 minutes

INGREDIENTS
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 teaspoon butter
2 medium yellow onions, chopped (about 2 cups)
1/2 cup dry white wine (optional)
3 large Yukon Gold potatoes (about 1 1/4 pounds), peeled, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
2 cups clam juice (optional)
1 bay leaf
1 Tbsp fresh thyme, or 1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon Old Bay (optional, can use a little paprika and a dash of cayenne)
1 1/2 to 2 lbs wild pink Alaskan canned salmon (or fresh salmon or cod, etc.)
1 1/2 cups heavy cream or milk (but watch out for scorching if you don't use cream)
2 Tbsp chopped fresh (or dried) parsley

METHOD
1 Heat oil and butter in the bottom of a large pot (6-qt) on medium heat. Add the onions and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the wine, if using, and turn up the heat, cook, uncovered until the wine reduces by half. (If not using wine, add 1/4 cup of water with the clam juice.)

2 Add the potatoes, clam juice, bay leaf, thyme, salt and pepper, and Old Bay spice. (The potatoes should be just barely covered with the liquid in the pot. If not, add water so that they are.) Bring to a simmer, then lower the heat to medium and cook, covered, until the potatoes are almost done, about 10-15 minutes. (Sometimes I will cheat and use baked potatoes cut in cubes. You can cook them in the microwave and add them toward the end.)

3 In a separate pot, heat the cream until steamy (not boiling).

4 Add the fish to the pot of potatoes and add the heated cream. Return to the stove. Cook on low heat, uncovered, until the fish is just cooked through, about 10 minutes. Keep your eye on the heat! If you are using straight heavy cream you should be more easily able to avoid curdling, even if the soup starts to boil. But if you are substituting light cream, half and half, or milk, the mixture will likely curdle if it gets near boiling point (one of the reasons I like using straight heavy cream). Keep the temperature so that it barely gets steamy, but not simmering. If using fresh fish, when the fish is just cooked through, remove from heat.

Mix in the parsley. The flavors will improve if the soup rests 30 minutes before serving.

Serve with crusty bread or oyster crackers (not for gluten-free version).

Yield: Serves 6.

I Must Not Forget This Dinner - Swiss Alps Chalet Style

Best.
Dinner.
Ever.

Okay, best dinner in awhile. Except we had the lime pork tenderloin again the other day and that was still pretty good.

Here's what's up. It just snowed today in Albuquerque, gave us a nice dusting in the city and the nearby Sandia mountains look nice and covered. It's been cold, it's been windy, we got big, fat flakes for a little while and Adeline wanted to go run around the neighborhood with me in the flakes. It was fun! After some 50 and 60 degree F temps, it was starting to feel like winter again with the 30 to 40 F (it's still February, after all!) and we went with it.



Somebody pinned a yummy looking asparagus dish on Pinterest. It looked good but I didn't pin it. Going back, Pinterest has a pretty bad search engine so it was hard to find what I was looking for, and I don't remember who pinned it. I found some other even better looking asparagus dishes. Then I just had to get asparagus, puffed pastry, smoky Gouda (was supposed to be Gruyere, oops!), and prosciutto (for another day).



::Swiss Alps Ski Chalet Dinner breakdown::

Salad
-Fresh Express Sweet $ Crunchy (on sale at Albertsons) with green and red butter lettuce
-Topped with diced bits of Golden Delicious apples and a little bit of grated smoked Gouda
-Lightly drizzled with Braswell's (cheap at Ross, if they still have it) Vidalia Onion and Peppercorn

Main Entrees
-Pan-fried chicken breast with salt, pepper, a little Balsamic, and some Herbs de Provence on top, just a hint
-The Tart de Resistance - The Asparagus Tart with Gruyere, er, well, smoky Gouda, because I messed up. It was still super-good! Made me think of a cheese fondue with asparagus!

Side Dish
-Golden Delicious apple slices on a plate (keep the cheesy fondue chalet theme going!)
-Pasta Roni Shells & White Cheddar in case your toddler is fussy and won't eat the tart, and also if your chicken is a little dry because you slightly overcooked it



Heavenly! I took pictures of the tart, but the girl who originally posted the recipe has better picture. I had one minute to snap mine before the hungry masses wrestled the camera away from me so we could fill our hungry bellies. I try to have dinner ready at 6 p.m., but tonight it was more like 6:30 p.m. And the tart technically only takes a little over a half-hour to make and bake!

I went all out, but it was fun. It was another successful cooking adventure! Heeya! Onto the next one.

-Danelle

I'm going to repost the recipe in case her webpage goes down or something.

Asparagus Tart with Gruyere
Shaina Olmanson is the home cook and photographer behind Food for My Family and Olmanson Photography, and a daily contributor to Babble.com’s Family Kitchen Blog.
Inspired by Martha.
Yield: 4-6 servings

Ingredients:
1 sheet puff pastry dough, thawed
1 pound thin asparagus spears
1/3 cup sour cream
2 egg yolks
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
3/4 cup Gruyère, shredded (I got and used smoky Gouda, but I do know there is a difference. It's hard chasing a toddler around a grocery store. Try it sometime! It's like the shopping Olympics! The 100 meter dash!)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Unfold puff pastry dough and Roll into a 14x10" rectangle on a lightly floured surface. Move the puff pastry to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Score the dough 1" from the edge all around the rectangle with a knife. Dock the inside rectangle by poking it lightly with a fork in approximately 1/2" spaces. Bake for 15 minutes.
While the pastry is baking, prepare your asparagus spears by rinsing and removing the woody ends. Set aside. In a small bowl, mix together sour cream, egg yolks and Dijon mustard. Stir in 1/4 cup of the Gruyère.
Remove the puff pastry from the oven and spread the sour cream mixture evenly over the inside rectangle. Top with the remaining Gruyère cheese and layer with the asparagus spears. Return to the oven and bake for 15 additional minutes until cheese begins to brown lightly and asparagus is cooked.
Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly. Slice using a pizza cutter and serve.

Pork Tenderloin double whammy adventure. Honey Lime Chipotle Pork Tenderloin

I love promptings. I bought a pork tenderloin but I didn't realize that two were in the package. I found the Pork Wellington recipe and thought that was going to be the end of it, but I also found another great pork tenderloin recipe that was the runner-up. When I was out ingredient shopping for the Wellington, I just figured that maybe I should get the ingredients for the Honey Lime Chipotle recipe too, even though I would have to go and buy another pork tenderloin, or so I thought!

Imagine my surprise and pleasure when I opened the package and was surprised by TWO pork tenderloins. Well, if I was smart and had read the instructions, then I would have realized that there were two inside. But it was still a happy surprise, and it made our dinners even cheaper in the long run! We are trying to save money. Save money that we don't even have. Long sob story. But hopefully the silver lining will be visiting us soon when this year is up.

Onto the recipe! The marinade is AMAZING! Like, dip-your-finger-in-there-multiple-times-to-get-a-taste kind of goodness! I found myself drizzling it on chips after dinner and it made them taste like those FABULOUS Hint of Lime Tostitos that I could pig out on. I am wanting to make it right now! I put it on salad, I could put it on anything! Yogurt, ice cream, sure! Why not? Oh, I should clarify. It's the sauce that is saved for the drizzling later, the sauce that DOESN'T have the chipotle pepper/adobo sauce in it, not the one that the meat actually sits and marinades in.

Here's the recipe. It's been slightly tweaked from the Alton Brown Food Network one, slightly improved, I would say. The recipe is doubled and there are some slight changes, like the browning of the meat. I will include the link and also the recipe in its entirety. Please enjoy!

You can enjoy it with your eyes first, and then with your MOUTH! (Ya know, when you get around to making it for yourself and/or your family.)

Honey Lime Chipotle Pork Tenderloin
By Alton Brown, tweaked by Chaos in the Kitchen.
http://chaosinthekitchen.com/2009/08/grilled-pork-tenderloin-honey-lime-chipotle-marinade/

serves 6, prep 15 min, marinate overnight or as long as possible, cook 20 min
• 2 lbs pork tenderloin (2 small tenderloins)
• 1 cup lime juice, about 8 juicy limes
• zest from 2 limes
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 tbsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 2 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, chopped
• 1 tbsp adobo sauce (from canned chilies)
• peanut oil, or other high temperature oil
• cilantro

1. Trim tenderloins of fat and silver skin as much as possible. Place in a large ziplock bag or other container to marinate.
2. In a bowl combine lime juice, zest, honey, salt, and garlic powder.
3. Stir to combine, then pour half over tenderloins, reserving half for sauce.
4. To tenderloins add chiles and adobo sauce. Seal and marinade in fridge.
5. About 30 minutes before you are ready to cook, remove pork from fridge and allow to come to room temperature.
6. Preheat oven to 425°F. In a large, heavy oven-proof skillet (like a cast iron skillet), heat enough oil to coat over medium high temperature.
7. Remove tenderloins from marinade and sear in hot skillet on all sides.
8. Place the skillet in the oven and roast tenderloins for about 15 min.
9. Check temperature with an instant read thermometer. Remove pork from the oven at approximately 140-145, cover pork in skillet with foil. Let rest on the counter for 5-10 minutes or until temperature rises to 150.
10. Remove pork to a cutting board, pour reserved lime juice mixture into skillet with meat juices and heat on high.
11. Allow sauce to reduce and thicken slightly, then pour over sliced pork tenderloins. If you don’t have enough sauce or it thickens too much you can add a little water and continue simmering it until it is the quantity and thickness you want.
12. Garnish with freshly chopped cilantro.
If you choose to grill, start at step 5 and grill your tenderloins about 15 minutes. Remove from the grill to a platter at 140°F. Pour reserved lime juice mixture over meat and cover with foil. Allow to rest 10 minutes. Then slice, garnish with cilantro and serve.
Pork tenderloin is very lean and requires a gentle hand to keep it from drying out. If you choose to use a pork loin it will require longer cooking time and not be as tender.

Pork Tenderloin - Double whammy tenderloin weekend

About two weeks ago, I was checking the expiring meat at Wal-mart and saw a nicely priced pork tenderloin. I had never made a pork tenderloin but probably a year ago, Adam and I watched a great Alton Brown show where he went through the method of cooking a pork tenderloin. I bought it, froze it, and talked to Adam about cooking it. He recommended that I use the Alton Brown recipe.

I finally got around to thawing and cooking the tenderloin and it was FABULOUS! In this installation, I used the Pork Wellington recipe by Alton Brown. It is such a great recipe! I look forward to using it again. Come on Wal-mart, keep those cheap expiring meats coming!

Don't forget to add puff pastry, prosciutto, and fresh thyme to your shopping list. And pork tenderloin if you don't already have one. Oh yes, and some dried apple (but I forgot and in a pinch ended up using fresh diced apples, and dried thyme). Target had the first two ingredients, but no fresh thyme. And if your tenderloin comes in packs of two, like ours did, then you can make my next posted recipe, Honey Lime Chili Grilled Pork Tenderloin, also by Alton Brown. It was also exquisite!

Mmm, the puff pastry just takes it to another level. It looks like fancy catered wedding food.

Pork Wellington recipe from Food Network
By Alton Brown
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/pork-wellington-recipe/index.html

Recipe listed here as well, in case the unthinkable happens and Food Network shuts down or something.

Prep Time:30 min
Inactive Prep Time:10 min
Cook Time:30 min
Level: Easy
Serves: 4 servings

Ingredients
1 whole egg
1 tablespoon water
1-ounce dried apple rings
1 whole pork tenderloin, approximately 1 pound
4 1/2 ounces thinly slice prosciutto ham
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
1 teaspoon all-purpose flour
1 sheet puff pastry, thawed completely
1 tablespoon whole-grain mustard

Directions
Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and heat to 400 degrees F.

Whisk the egg and water in a small bowl and set aside. Place the apple rings into the bowl of a mini food processor and process for 30 to 45 seconds or until they are the size of a medium dice. Set aside.

Trim the pork tenderloin of any excess fat and silver skin. Slice the tenderloin down the middle lengthwise, creating 2 separate pieces. Lay the tenderloin pieces next to each other head to tail, so when laid back together they are the same size at the ends.

Lay out a 12 by 16-inch piece of parchment paper on the counter and arrange the pieces of prosciutto in the center, overlapping them enough to create solid layer that is as long as the tenderloin. Top with a second piece of parchment, and using a rolling pin, roll over the prosciutto to help adhere the pieces to each other. Remove the parchment paper and sprinkle the prosciutto with the salt, pepper, and thyme. Set the tenderloin down the middle of the prosciutto. Spread the dried apples in between the 2 pieces of tenderloin and push back together so the apples are held between them. Using the parchment paper to assist, wrap the prosciutto around the tenderloin to completely enclose in a package.

Sprinkle the counter with flour and roll out the pastry to 12 by 14 inches. Spread the mustard thinly in the center of pastry and lay the prosciutto wrapped tenderloin in the center of the pastry on the mustard. Fold the puff pastry up and over the top of the tenderloin, then roll to completely enclose, brushing the edges of the pastry with the egg wash in order to seal. Turn the tenderloin over so the side of the tenderloin with the double thickness of pastry is underneath. Pinch the ends of the pastry to seal.

Brush the entire pastry with the egg wash. Place the tenderloin on a parchment lined half sheet pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until the pork reaches an internal temperature of at least 140 degrees F.

Remove the tenderloin from the oven, transfer to a cooling rack and let rest for 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

Cheesecake Bites in general and plum and apple specifically

This is a new little nugget of joy I discovered. I love these cheesecake bites. They aren't as big as a whole slice of cheesecake, which is too rich anyway, and you can bake some decoratively placed fruit on the top for added visual and gastronomic enjoyment.

Oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy.

Okay, it's not my photo, but they looked kind of like this, and you could make yours like this. The recipe is pretty general and you can play around with how you add the fruit, and what kind of fruit you'd like to add. Or whatever's in season.

**Personal preference**: I also really hate it when they are in the wrappers. NOTE: No wrappers in above photo. Save everyone some time and sanity (and your money!) and just bake them right into the pan. There is enough butter in the crust that you don't need to grease it. And Pam has yucky stuff in it anyway, the artificial butter flavoring that is in everything these days really isn't good for you and the imitation butter chemicals don't do nice things to your body.)

For some reason, I wanted to make little cheesecake bites about a month or two ago. They turned out GREAT! I had written them on the back of an Adeline drawing from Nursery. (Oops, I should probably be saving some of those for her book of memories or something.) Also, I had written it in crayon! It was the only thing I could find nearby for about ten minutes, so I gave up in exasperation. And plodded on.

Actually, the first time I made these, the crust was... okay. Nothing to write home about. So I didn't write down that part. I looked up another crust and made them for our Relief Society activity a few days ago and it turned out YUMMY! imho.

Here's the recipe. It's got a little issue. The crust recipe I used is for a big 9'' crust, which makes more than 24 cupcake-sized cheesecake bites. And the cheesecake part of the recipe only makes 12. I wanted to make 24 so I doubled the cheesecake part. If you just want to make 12, then you are going to have to halve the crust part of the recipe. Sorry, I'm keeping it confusing. I know I could convert them to both be the same, but the crust recipe is a great recipe if you were making the whole enchilada, er, cheesecake, and not just the bites. And if I made them both for 24, and you only wanted 12, then you'd have to do the math and divide BOTH recipes. I'm just leaving it as is. And sorry for the many tangent.

Cheesecake Bites Recipe


NOTE: If you are going to make this soon, don't forget to get your cream cheese out now to start coming to room temperature, usually takes 30 min. Or you can try to be sneaky like me and microwave it to room temperature. I never plan that far ahead and hate waiting for it to be room-temperature. But this step to soften the cheesecake is super-important and will make for a better cheesecake, no lumps! Do not over-microwave! Cook for 15 sec intervals and check often! Don't forget that the rest of the ingredients should be at room temperature to keep from lumping and curdling, like the eggs (microwave for about 20-25 sec.) and the whipping cream (microwave for just 10 sec or so). That is like THE BIG SECRET of a good cheesecake. It's all about being a stickler pastry chef and making sure things are the right temperature.

Graham Cracker Crust
Yield: 24 cupcake-sized cheesecake bites or 9'' pie crust
Oven Temp: 350 deg F
Cooking Time: 2-3 min. for small cupcake size. (8-10 min for a large cheesecake.)
This needs to cook briefly before adding the cheesecake filling, so I would start this recipe first and make the cheesecake stuff while it's baking.

1 1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs
1/3 c. butter, melted
1/3 c. granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 350 deg F. Mix ingredients together. Spoon about 3 Tbs into each cupcake space (or just until you can't see the bottom of the pan through the crumbs. Lightly press crumbs down so that they form more of a crust. It might still be a little crumbly, and that's fine. Bake at 350 deg F for 2-3 minutes. (Definitely set a timer so you don't get distracted and let them burn.)

Basic Creamcheese Filling
Yield: 12 cupcake-sized cheesecake bites
Oven Temp: 325 deg F
Cooking Time: 12-15 min.
After-cooking "chill" time: (Your cheesecakes need to chill out, man.) 2 hours or overnight.

8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature (I just use Walmart brand, cheap cheap! And still tastes great!)
1/4 c. granulated sugar
2 tsp flour
dash of vanilla
dash of salt
1 egg, beaten, at room temperature
1 Tbs whipping cream, room temperature (Mine had gone bad so I just used milk.)
Fruit - I used some plums I had sliced and frozen and some fresh apple bits. I defrosted the plums and added a little sugar, but just pressed in the tiny apple cubes as is. You can get creative here and use what you have on hand. Sweeten if the fruit is tart and needs some sweetening.

Preheat oven to 325 deg F. Stir the cream cheese and the sugar in a medium-sized bowl for 12, and a large-sized bowl for 24. Stir until nice and soft and creamy and it just looks great. If lumpy, keep going. But sometimes the lumpiness can bake out, so again, don't think you have a huge disaster on your hands, keep cooking and hope for the best. Keep Calm and Cook On! (The first batch I made was as lumpy as all-get-out, and it still ended up looking/tasting pretty good. But the second batch was definitely better because I stopped being a lazy chef and started being a stickler.) This is probably the most important step. It's getting your cream cheese to behave.

Add the flour, vanilla, salt, egg, and whipping cream and mix until uniform. Spoon into prepared cupcake pan over the semi-baked crust, filling to about 2/3 full. Press the fruit into the cheesecake, being as creative in presentation as you like. (I like a fanning effect with the plum slices.) Bake at 325 deg F for 12-15 min. or until done. It's nice when it's getting the slightest golden color on the edges. Remove from oven, let cool for about 15 min, and remove from pan with a teaspoon, carefully sliding it around the edges and gently schooping. Haha, I typed it as schooping. I'm totally leaving that in here.

Then I let them cool completely on a plate. Because hey! You're probably going to be throwing saran-wrap over that plate and taking it to some party/function, and hey, less dishes to do! Cut out the middle man! I found that not all of them fit on the plate, so I put another layer of plastic wrap over the tops of the first layer and added another layer, and then finished it up with more plastic wrap so it wouldn't get stale.

Enjoy those cheesecake bites!

Apple Puffed Pancake - Breakfast for Dinner

Apple Puffed Pancake - A Brown Family Favorite!

Cinnamon and apples make it extra delicious.
For best results, I usually do 1 and ½ times the amount and increase cooking time. A spiral apple corer/peeler works great for this recipe.


Yum! One of my favorite things ever and reminds me of growing up.

Prep: 15 min.
Start To Finish: 40 min.
Yields: 6 servings (meh, more like 4. You will want a few slices!)

6 eggs (9 eggs)
1 1/2 c. milk (2 c. milk)
1 t. vanilla (1 ½ t. vanilla)
1 c. all purpose flour (1 ½ c. all purpose flour)
3 T. sugar (5 T. sugar)
1/2 t. salt (3/4 t. salt)
1/4 t. ground cinnamon (1/2 t. cinnamon)
1 stick (1/4 lb) of butter (1 stick of butter plus ¼ c. olive oil)
2 apples - peeled, cored & sliced (3 or even 4 apples – I love it apple-heavy)
3 T. brown sugar (5 T. brown sugar or nicely evenly sprinkled on top)

1. Preheat oven to 425 deg F.
2. In a large bowl, mix eggs, milk, flour, granulated sugar, vanilla. Salt, and cinnamon until blended. Batter will remain slightly lumpy.
3. Melt butter in a 13x9 in. baking dish in the oven. Add apple slices to baking dish. Return to oven until butter sizzles. Do not let the butter brown.
4. Remove dish from oven and pour the batter over apples. Sprinkle brown sugar over the top.
4. Bake for 20 min. in the middle of oven, or until puffed and lightly browned. Makes 6-8 servings.

Time to bust out the spiral apple slicer! This will save time.