Fall Favorites (1)

I love this time of year!! The cool crisp air, bon fires, chili, football season starts, apple orchards and nothing like a good ol homemade apple pie!!  Mmmmm Mmmmm!!
Addison and I visited an orchard with some friends down in Lakeville and she had so much fun picking apples, she kept saying, "I pick apple!" and would show me each one. What to do with all the yummy apples we picked...well first off I made a delicious apple pie today!! I found the recipe from all recipes.com
Apple Pie by Grandma Ople
Ingredients:

• 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 8 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and sliced
• cinnamon and nutmeg to taste (I added this on my own to the recipe)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, white sugar and brown sugar, and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.
2. Place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Cover with a lattice work crust. Gently pour the sugar and butter liquid over the crust. Pour slowly so that it does not run off.
3. Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes, until apples are soft.

here are some fun pictures from the orchard

pulling her wagon to go apple picking

checking her apples

 

Valentine Fun

Happy Valentine's Day!!
My morning started out with waking up to beautiful flowers and a cup of coffee waiting for me...my husband is AMAZING!!

After breakfast and a little play time, Addison and I got all dolled up for our Valentine Parties with our friends

the first party was at her friend Adry's house. They had so much fun!! We made crafts, played with lots of fun toys, exchanged Valentine's and of course there was SNACK TIME!!

the second party was at our friend Cassidy's house. There were more fun toys to play with and Valentines to exchange, oh ya and don't forget the good food... Pizza and Cupcakes!!!

After a morning filled with parties we headed over to Gramma and Grandpa's house to give them their Valentine and play for a few hours!!

(this is gramma and Addison at the zoo)

We ended the day with a yummy dinner,

Broiled Halibut with Lemon & Herbs and Dijon Roasted Potatoes

and for dessert....

Strawberry Chocolate Ganache Cake...mmmmm and a glass of wine!!

Top 5 Pumpkin Ideas

Now what do we do with you Mr. Pumpkin?!!!?

5.

So lets start with the pie that is a must have at every Thanksgiving dinner...I have to admit I am not a pumpkin pie fan...I know I know, what world did I come from right!! well, I have just never really ever been a fan of it, but now maybe this year I will search for a good recipe and see if I can master the art of pumpkin pie making:) (side note if I were to make pumpkin pie it would not look anything like the picture above, I am almost sure of this, my pie would probably be burnt, and a little lopsided...who knows)

4.

Oh no no...DO NOT I repeat DO NOT let those pumpkin seeds go to waste!! It is kinda gross but get  your hands dirty and separate the seeds from the slimy innards!! Put the seeds in the collandar and rinse them off. After rinsing lay the seeds out on your baking sheet to dry. After the seeds dry place them in a bowl and coat them with olive oil and creole seasoning(or whatever seasoning fancys you) Turn the oven to 350 and bake for 40minutes! Then wa la!! the best tasting pumpkin seeds EVER!!!

3.

Make Pumpkin Gingerbread !! I found this recipe online at allrecipes.com. This recipe is actually what inspired me to figure out ideas on how to get the best use out of our halloween pumpkin. This bread warm out of the over with your favorite cup of jo is mmmm delish!!

2.

Pumpkin Ice Cream!???! who would've thought!! well, whoever did, GENIUS!! I will have to go and search for a good recipe for this, but I am sure it wont be hard:) Since ice cream is a favorite around here I thought I would try my hand at making homemade pumpkin ice cream!!

AND the #1 idea IS....

1.

Well, you gotta puree the pumpkin to get to any of the above... right!! :-) I found way to puree my pumpkin...I scraped out the innards and cut the pumpkin up into 1/4 sections, put some water in the bottom of my baking pans and placed the sections in the pan. Then I turned the oven on to 450 and let them bake for 45minutes. After letting them cool I scraped the pumpkin off of the skin and placed in my food processor for pureeing. I am not good at guessing how big our pumpkin was but I got 8 16oz jars of pumkin puree!! If you are in the giving mood you could can the puree and put some ribbon around the jar and give the pumpkin puree as a gift:)

Happy Pumpkining!!

Ummm...YUMMEEE!!

The original name for these bars are Warm Toasted Marshmallow Bars from Betty Crocker, I have changed the named to Yummeee Smore's!! You can also say I "enhanced" the recipe a little:) ok all I did was use Nutella chocolate instead of the suggested chocolate chips!
div>Here is what you need:
1pkg of Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie mix
1cup of crumbled up graham cracker
1cup of butter(melted)
1jar of Nutella Chocolate
1/2bag of mini marshmallows

Here is what you do:
Heat oven to 375°F. In large bowl, stir together cookie mix and crumbs. Stir in melted butter until soft dough forms. Press into ungreased baking pan

Bake 18 to 20 minutes or until set. Immediately spread chocolate evenly over crust.

Set oven control to broil. Sprinkle marshmallows over melted chocolate. Broil with top 5 to 6 inches from heat 20 to 30 seconds or until marshmallows are toasted. (Watch closely; marshmallows will brown quickly.) Cool 10 minutes.

ENJOY!!

Guilt Free Brownies!??!!!

Yes it is so, I was prusing the aisles of Trader Joes and found this box of brownie mix. All you add is a thing of vanilla yogurt, stir the yogurt and brownie mix together and bake for 25 minutes. I was a little skeptical at first but I have to admit they are the yummiest brownies I have had...sorry Pillsbury and Betty Crocker!! They are super moist and all sorts of yummy chocolately goodness:)

Cashew Chicken Thai Salad

YUMMEEE is all I can say about this recipe. I found it on http://www.cookinglight.com/ . I have to admit I changed a few things about the recipe... for instance, the recipe is actually called Peanut Chicken Soba Salad. I grilled the chicken in a frying pan instead of boiling it, and then cooked the cashews(I also used cashews instead of peanuts) with the chicken for a few minutes. Instead of Soba noodles (I could not find these noodles for the life of me) I used Pad Thai noodles. Being that I love lots of sauce I doubled the ingredients for the dressing as well!!(just an FYI the sauce recipe below is not doubled) All I can say is we love love love this salad. I think it just became a regular meal around the Ver Strate household!!!

Ingredients
Asian Seasoning
6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
4 teaspoons unsalted, dry-roasted cashews

Sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 tablespoons roasted peanut oil
2 teaspoons low-sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon chili garlic sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 bag of Pad Thai noodles cooked
1 cup grated carrot
1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions
1/4 cup minced red onion
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
Lime wedges (optional)

Preparation
Cut the chicken into salad pieces and season with Asian Seasoning. Cooking in frying pan until done. Add the nuts and cook for 5 minutes. (Set aside)
Combine vinegar and next 5 ingredients (vinegar through salt), stirring with a whisk. Pour over chicken; let stand 5 minutes. Add Pad Thai noodles and the next 4 ingredients (noodles through chopped basil) to chicken mixture, and toss well. Garnish with lime wedges, if desired.