A Delicious Discovery

How was everyone's weekend? Good, I hope! Mine was pretty nice.. the snow started to melt on Saturday morning with temperatures soaring to a whopping 50º F! Now that might not seem very warm to many of you, but for us northeastern Ohioans, that's shorts and flip-flops weather! I was almost tempted to put mine on. ;) Unfortch the wind was blowing around 40 mph so outside time wasn't as pleasant as I'd hoped it would be. Nevertheless, the wind did not take away from what ended up being a great weekend because I got some baking done, I watched a really cute (predictable, but cute - No Reservations) movie, spent some time on the phone with my favorite French baking guru, Ivonne and I received an e-mail from Nick Malgieri (squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!) who is going to be writing an article for the food section of the Washington Post and looks like our Daring Bakers might be mentioned! WOO HOO! And I discovered a fantastic dessert in my research for my latest article at FoodieView, which will be up later today. Not too shabby of a weekend, eh? :D So the article at FoodieView is on snow day desserts.. I chose to highlight two of my favorite types of desserts, bread puddings and self-saucing puddings. I could eat both of these types of desserts year round, but they are especially good in the cold Autumn/Winter months. Seriously, what is better than throwin' on the flannel pjs, and getting under your favorite blanket with a bowl of something ooey, gooey, sweet, warm and delicious? It's times like that which make me almost enjoy winter. I had decided on two self-saucing puddings to highlight, but wanted a third. In my search I found an Apple Caramel Self-Saucing Pudding at Cook Sister which looked amazing. And so right up my alley.. I loves me my apple desserts! I knew I'd be making this in the near future, this would not go into the "to make" pile to be forgotten about down the road. I just didn't know I'd be making it two days later. :) I wanted to include a photo in the FoodieView article, so I wrote to Jeanne, the author of Cook Sister, to ask permission to use her photo. Unfortunately, she hasn't gotten back to me yet - so I decided that for the sake of the article, I really should make it myself so I can photograph it. Right? I mean, it's just good journalism, yes? :P Jeanne doesn't say where she got the recipe from, just that the original used dates. She had a taste for cooked apples, so voila! A warm apple cake, that is so moist and flavorful, with a gooey, buttery rich caramel sauce hidden beneath. She described it as "Heaven in a bowl" and I could not agree more. Super easy to make, hardly no time at all in preparation and almost instant gratification when it comes out of of the oven, because you don't want to let this pudding cool off completely. To be honest, the aroma from the oven scenting my whole house in apple-y goodness, had me tuckin' my spoon in while the pudding was still steaming. heeee! As per usual, I made a couple changes when I prepared mine. I used a Gala apple instead of the Granny Smith she used. I had a pint of heavy cream that was on it's way to a lumpy coagulated death if I did not use it up soon, so I substituted it in lieu of the milk. I added a 1/2 tsp. of cinnamon to the batter as well. Once I had the batter mixed together I thought it was a little dry so I ended up using an extra tablespoon of the heavy cream. My love of apples and raisins in desserts has me thinking that the next time I make this, a handful of raisins will be added as well. I was so happy with this dessert that I e-mailed Helene the recipe with a rave review, so she made it herself last night. hahahahaaa! She went with a different variation, so check out her blog in the near future to see how she made hers. :) Apple Caramel Self-Saucing Pudding Courtesy of Jeanne of Cook Sister Below is my version: The Pudding: 1 c. all purpose flour 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. salt 3/4 c. firmly packed brown sugar 20 grams butter, melted 1/2 c. heavy cream 1/2 tsp. cinnamon 1 apple, peeled, cored and finely chopped The Sauce: 3/4 c. firmly packed brown sugar 2 cups boiling water 60 grams butter Preheat the oven to 350º F. and grease a 2 quart shallow oven-proof dish. (I used individual ramekins, not sure of their size but I got 4) Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, butter, cream and chopped apple in a large bowl and mix well. Spread the mixture into the prepared dish(s). For the sauce, combine all ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir until the sugar is dissolved and the butter melted. Pour the caramel sauce slowly over the back of a spoon over batter in dish. Bake for about 40 minutes in the preheated oven or until firm in the center. Serve warm. These were great the next day, warmed up in the microwave for about 30 seconds, there was still plenty of sauce on the bottom. :) Enjoy! xoxo

Time to Make the... Fritters!

So in my last post I wrote about two of my most favoritest people on the face of this planet. Well this post is all about two more of my most favoritest people on the planet, Helene and Gracie. I am so going to get yelled at, but... Helene called today, like she does often - bless her cute lil cotton socks. :) It was a very uneventful conversation as both of our lives have been pretty tame this past week. She's been busy with her mom who is visiting from France and I have been busy with work. So why am I even mentioning this phone call? Because I'm wicked. But in a good way? MUAHAHAHA Anyhoo, at the end of the conversation I mentioned that I had taken out ingredients to do some baking this weekend and before I could tell her what I was baking, she interrupts with, "You'll be making doughnuts, right?" I didn't say much to that, other than I had hoped that I would be able to get the doughnuts made and that we'd see. She then told me that she wouldn't be mad if I couldn't squeeze the doughnuts in and I said that I knew she wouldn't be. The whole time not one giggle escaped my lips. But they wanted to!! As! If! I would not be contributing to this awesome event called, Time to Make the Doughnuts! Gracie and Helene came up with the idea of holding an event chock full of doughy delights known as the doughnut - and every variation thereof. :) I've never made a doughnut before, but as my ass & hips can attest, I've eaten my fair share. I've always wanted to make doughnuts - the kind that are fluffy and airy on the inside, with a soft crust that is enrobed in a sugary glaze. But I figured that doughnut will most likely be made by someone else, so I spent a week searching recipes and doing a lil research until I decided that I wanted to go the fritter route. There use to be this lil doughnut shop on my way to work which was owned by a friend. So every morning, I'd stop in and grab a cup of her coffee and her deeeee-licious apple fritters. Oh my God they were so good! The fritter was the big puffy and airy doughnut that I described earlier, but there were chunks of apples and raisins throughout the dough. The whole thing was covered in a crispy glaze that was actually more buttery than sweet. And they were HUGE! Seriously huge. One of those and I'd be good until late in the afternoon. Unfortch, my friend decided to get out of the business, so she sold it to someone else who only makes wedding cakes. What Evah. Okay now here's where this post stops making any sense.. I found a recipe that I knew was going to produce big fat apple fritters like the kind I ate at my friend's shop. They are a Dutch fritter called Olie Bollen, traditionally served on New Years Day. I saved the recipe and I printed the recipe, but ultimately, I didn't make them (yet). No.. because I never know when to stop browsing recipes. Hours, I could spend HOURS looking through cookbooks, mags and websites and never get bored. So that's what happened here. I found another recipe that I decided to go with because there was a sauce that went with them, and who am I to pass up a delectable sweet sauce? The recipe I went with is called Pan-fried Apple Fritters with Apple/Honey Dipping Sauce. I came across this recipe on a new website to me called, Care2. It's a great site focusing on living green, healthy living and human rights. I found this recipe in their Green Living area. These fritters are really easy to make, and can be residing happily in your tummy in under an hour. They are crispy on the outside and so tender and moist on the inside. These fritters are made with grated apples, which really lends to the moistness of the dough even though you squeeze all of the juice out for the sauce. I will be making these over and over again, of this you can be assured. The dipping sauce is delish, but these fritters don't necessarily need dipping. They are just sweet enough and again, very moist on their own. But, never one to pass up a chance to gild the lily, I decided to spoon the sauce over a couple of them. Heavenly. But very, very sweet. Hubbs ate his plain and demanded these be breakfast every Saturday morning from now on. Which is shocking because he's such an eggs, sausage, hashbrown kinda guy, yanno? heee! The only change I made to this recipe was to add the raisins and I used cardamom instead of ginger. And the only other change I'll make to this recipe in the future, is to cut the honey in the sauce from 1/2 cup to 1/4 cup so that the apple juice stands out more. Speaking of that sauce, it gave me another idea which I plan on trying in the very near future. A syrup made from reduced apple juice and a couple tablespoons of honey and then used as a sweetener in my tea. I'm thinking the combination of the apple fritters with a hot cup of apple induced tea is going to be THE BOMB, baby! I urge each and every one of you to make these lil fritters, I highly doubt you'll be disappointed. :) Thanks Gracie!! Thanks Helene!! Love yous guys! xoxo

The Mighty Quince

This is one of two posts that are long over due as the wonderful desserts I made were enjoyed by myself, Hubbs, my sister and even my mail lady - a few weeks ago. This is the first of two GIANT THANK YOU's!! from all of us =) Part I - The Quince Starting with some gorgeous quince that have an amazing aroma - oh dear lordie did my house smell WONDERFUL that week. =) My dear friend, Elle, of Feeding My Enthusiasms has a shrub on her property that produces this heavenly smelling fruit and she wrote a post about the quince jelly she made. I had an obvious question after reading the post - how does a yellowish fruit produce such a gorgeous dark pink jelly? Well - not only did she try to answer my question, but she offered to send me some so I could experience this fruit myself! A normal pie for me.. mishapen, rips in the crust, smooshied edges - just picture perfect doncha think? Gah. You may think I'm making this next part up - but I swear it's the truth.. I almost gave my mail lady a black eye when she delivered the sweet smelling box to my door. This woman wouldn't let go of the box! She said her truck smelled so good and she didn't want the source to be taken away. HAR! I thought she was kidding but when I reached for it - she took a step back! I thought there was going to be a rumble.. she was NOT going to keep that box - no fakkin' way. Finally, after I promised to make sure to leave her some of whatever I decided to make with it. I had to actually bribe the woman to LET GO! Sheesh. Well I immediately unpacked them and set them on my kitchen table and then I had to rush back to work. Hubbs got home about an hour before me and a phone call was immediately made to tell me that the house smelled like a fruit orchard and what the hell were those odd shaped yellow things on the table? hehehe So for the next 5 or 6 days they stayed in a bowl on the table fragrancing my wee lil house until I finally found a couple recipes that I wanted to try. The first was an apple and quince pie - I figured it was fitting since it's Autumn here in the Armpit of the Midwest. Course it's still 80º outside, but my calendar tells me it's Fall. Okay well, 4 quince and 4 apples were peeled, cored and sliced up for the pie - which, really is your basic apple pie, just sub some quince for some apples. Of course my house smelled even better as it was baking and I could barely wait until after dinner to try it. You can definitely taste the difference between the apples and the quince and there is also a very different texture. The apples bake down a little more than the quince but both fruits end up very tender. With a scoop of Dulce de Leche icecream, this pie was fantastic. We both enjoyed it very much - so much so that no one at work got any. My mail lady got a huge slab and my sister got a tiny sliver that was left by the time she came for a visit 2 days later. heee! I had about 5 quince left over and the next recipe I decided to try was called Quince Dumplings with Syrup. While the apple/quince pie was baking, I peeled, cored and sliced the rest of the quince and added them to a pot of simple syrup (equal parts water and sugar) and let them poach for 3 hours on medium-high heat. Where the quince in the apple pie didn't change color by much, they sure did in this syrup. Quince the first hour. Quince after the 2nd hour. Quince after the final third hour - gorgeous! After 3 hours I had a gorgeous dark ruby red syrup that was sweet with a floral hit in the background. I could have poured it over ice with a smidge of vodka at that point. *hic* But I behaved myself and allowed it to cool. Unfortunately, I had run out of steam that night so I packed up the fruit and syrup separately and put them in the fridge for another night that week. Well.. as time seems to get sucked away from me lately, I never did get the dumplings made - Hubbs and I picked at the fruit unti it was gone and I froze the syrup. I have about 2 cups of it so I think that I will follow Elle's lead and boil it down until I've got jelly. Won't be much, but at least I'll have my first taste of quince jelly. =) Elle, I can't thank you enough for being so kind to send me the fruit - it was such a great experience cooking with them and an even better experience eating them!! It was a wonderful gift from a wonderful friend.. thank you. =)

King Arthur's Apple Dumplings

My sister is coming up from Toledo this weekend to spend 5 days with us - I'm so excited! I spoke with my Mom yesterday to see how we wanted to spend our time and she suggested that while I'm at work on Monday that she and my sister should take a drive out to our hometown and visit my lovely Auntie (who just celebrated her 80th birthday yesterday - Love You Auntie!) and that we should all meet back at my Mom's place for dinner Monday night. Sounded good to me.. Mommie's home cookin' Woo!! Then she asked if I'd make the dessert.. not a problem, I'd be happy to! She wants The Crisp. My infamous Apple Crisp that is so fakkin' addicting that it is hard not to eat the whole damn thing within 24 hours (I usually lose that battle). I couldn't not agree to do it as I always make what my Mom wants.. but I had plans to make it last night, so I had to find something else to make as there are too many apples in a 1/2 peck for even The Crisp and I didn't want them rotting on my dining room table. Okay so that's a big fat lie. Hubbs says those apples will last a good 2 weeks and we didn't have anything sweet in the house and I hadda have something, dammit. Hee! I keep hearing how the King Arthur flour company puts out some amazing recipes, so I went to their website yesterday to find something to bake. There is a long list of items made with apples, but as soon as I saw Apple Dumplings and checked out the recipe to see how involved it was, I knew I had to make them. I've only had 1 apple dumpling in my life - it was many, many moons ago and I remember how flaky the dough was and how delish the apples that were tucked inside were. The recipe was not very involved at all and I could have 8 fresh apple dumplings within an hour & a 1/2. Perfect! I've been using King Arthur flour for about a year now and I really do notice a difference, especially in my baking. Unfortunately though, no good flour was going to help this recipe. Hubbs was already sleeping by the time the dumplings were cooled off enough to eat, but I saw that some time during the night he got up and ate one - although I haven't had a chance to ask him yet this morning if he liked it or not. Just a sec... Okay he liked them. Huh. I thought for sure he would tell me he didn't. 'kay maybe this is all about me and my off taste buds. Well I can't even really say that, as they tasted really good.. but the dough was cakey and not flaky at all. I was hoping for more of a flaky pie crust dough. I hate a cakey dough - it's too heavy IMHO. I'm not bothering to type out the recipe but here is the link if you would like to try them. Again, flavor was delish.. and they are quite the lil stunners appearance wise. I was quite pleased with how they looked. The recipe was super easy - the only bitch I had was coring the apples, because I don't have a corer. The dough came together in just seconds in my processor and was easy to roll out and play with. The recipe suggested just cutting the apples in half, but I decided to slice each half into 4 slices per bundle because I thought it might help with cooking time. I was afraid the dumplings would burn by the time the apples cooked through. I don't know if it was because of cutting them or not, but the dumplings baked to a beautiful golden brown and the apples were tender. I'm going to try apple dumplings again - but next time I'm going to try a more flaky dough. Pictures below: The "before" picture.. aren't they adorable? :) The "after" picture.. goldeny brown and gorgeous! All plated and sauced up! Lil apples peeking out.. but look at that dough - cakey! Gah. Does anyone have a good flakey dough recipe for apple dumplings, by chance?

The Apple Orchard

This is just a quickie to show yous how we made out at a local apple orchard today. We got up early so we could have breakfast at this little diner we discovered last year when we were too early and the orchard wasn't open yet. The food was fabulous that visit.. I had a belgium waffle that was about 5 inches of fluffiness, my eggs were cooked perfectly (no slime!) and their homemade breakfast sausage links were better than any I had had before. Hubbs' breakfast was equally as good - although I can't quite remember what he had other than their homemade latkes, which he loved. This year, however, the diner is under new management and that's a crying shame. My eggs were cooking in that fake butter/oil stuff - so they had a very chemically taste to them (and there was slime to boot! ugh!) they don't have the previous owner's sausage and the waffle was uhmm.. 3 burnt pancakes. It seems our lil waitress "forgot" to tell me that the waffle iron was on the fritz so she just subbed pancakes, because "what's the difference?" Yeah. Hubbs ordered an scramble that included eggs (plus their shells.. bonus!) dried out corned beef and something that was suppose to be melted cheese but well.. it looked kinda like.. uhhh.. a body fluid. Needless to say, we both sent back our food, paid for our drinks and left. We ended up across the street at the local Dunkin' Donuts for coffee and a danish. Woo. But, thankfully, the horrible start of the day did not continue on with us. The orchard was busy but not so packed that we felt we had to rush. We tasted a bunch of different varieties and both chose a small bag of an eating apple - he got Macouns and I got Honeygolds. I also bought a 1/2 peck of Jonagolds to bake with. Two other fabulous finds were more Italian plums and some beautiful looking (and tasting!) Concord grapes.. I have plans for those grapes.. thanks to Ilva. ;) After the orchard we stopped in at a new grocery store in a little town we travelled through and picked up a few items and some delicious artisan bread.. oh yeah baby. The rest of the day was/is quiet and relaxing.. he's out fishing and I'm, well.. I'm on here boring the crap outta yas about my apple excursion. hee! Oh well.. at least we'll have a post or two comin' up using some of those apples and those grapes! Hope everyone is having a great weekend =) xoxo

Brownies! The Apple Variety!

I bought 8 Granny Smith's last Friday with the intention of making my Apple Crisp *swoon* for my little get together this past weekend. Unfortunately procrastination took over and I ran out of time so I didn't get to make it for my friends. Or maybe it was my subconscious subliminally forcing me not to make it so I wouldn't have to share it?? I am that selfish when it comes to The Crisp.. I admit that. But yeah.. no, it was because I was lazy and didn't want to get my fat arse up from the loveseat an hour earlier than I had too.. it was cold.. I had a blankie and 3 pooches on my lap!! hee! Yesterday morning I realized that dear Hubbs had already ate 3 of my apples. (!!) So I figured if I didn't get on The Crisp he'd eat the star ingredient and I'd be S.O.L. So directly after work last night while he was standing knee deep in some river trying to catch a smelly trout, I started peeling and slicing my apples.. I was giddy with anticipation of how my house was going to smell in just a few minutes. My oven was pre-heating and I was humming (okay badly singing) to the 80's hairband music that was playing in the living room all the while peeling and slicing and practically doing a jig in the middle of my kitchen while the kids looked on in mild alarm. I went to gather the rest of the ingredients, Rachael Ray style, piling them precariously in my arms.. when to my utter shock, as I lifted a rather light cannister of quick oats, I realized I didn't have close to enough for The Crisp! Now how the hell was I to make my number one most favorite dessert of all time without quick oats?? *sob* My apples were peeled! My oven pre-heated! What the f*ck does a girl do? Well firstly, she throws a temper tantrum. I'm so mature that way. The F bombs were flyin', the dogs were cowering and I was literally stomping my feet. I dropped the rest of the ingredients on a counter and ran back to the office in search of a new recipe that called for 4 cups of sliced Granny Smiths! I didn't feel like the apple cake I've made before - although quite yummy - I figured since I couldn't have The Crisp, I should try something new. Simultaneously searching through both All Recipes and Recipezaar, I came across a couple interesting recipes and ultimately chose something called Apple Brownies only because I couldn't be bothered with making a pastry dough as it was already closing in on 7 pm. I'm quite happy with the end result - the "brownies" were easy to put together, they baked to a lovely golden brown and although they looked exactly like the apple cake in the baking dish, I had hopes that they would be chewy like a brownie and not cake like. After a quick dinner of ham steaks, baked potatoes, kraut and green beans I sliced into the brownies, which were still warm. I topped each slice with a lil french vanilla cool whip and served it to Hubbs. This was after 9 and I was whipped, so for the first time ever since starting my lil blog, I did not take the time to take a picture of the plated slice. I know! I'm going to hell!! I'm going to have to describe what an apple brownie looks like.. okay.. refer to this picture and remove the cinnamon sauce and replace with cool whip.. there ya go! Although the brownies did resemble the apple cake they didn't taste like it at all. They are dense where the middle of the slice is on the gooey side and the sides carmelized to bring a most excellent chewy texture as well as the top being crispy. I doubled the recipe to fill a 9" x 13" x 2" baking dish (original recipe called for a 9" x 9" x 2"). The brownies are on the sweet side, so I'm not sure if that was because I doubled the ingredients or if they are suppose to be so sweet. The ONLY change I'll make next time is to cut back on the white sugar by at least 1/2. All in all, these Apple Brownies rock! I'm looking forward to trying a completely cooled slice later tonight to see if the sweetness has mellowed out. I'll letchas know! :D Apple Brownies Courtesy of Recipezaar The following recipe is doubled with the apple amount tripled 1 1/3 c. butter (ya'll!) 2 c. brown sugar 2 c. white sugar (I'd cut it to 1 cup or less) 4 eggs 2 tsp. vanilla 3 c. flour 4 tsp. baking powder (does that equal to a TBS.?) 1 tsp. cinnamon (I added this - wasn't in original recipe) 1/2 tsp. fresh nutmeg (I added this as well) 1/2 tsp. salt 3 c. chopped apples 1 c. chopped walnuts or pecans (I omitted this and subbed raisins) Preheat oven to 350º F. In two separate bowls, combine all dry ingredients and combine all wet ingredients. Add the dry slowly to the wet until just combined. Add the raisins (or nuts) and the apples, mix. Transfer to a greased 9" x 13" x 2" glass baking dish and bake in pre-heated oven for 45 minutes. If your brownies are goldeny brown at this point, loosely cover the dish with foil and continue baking for another 15 minutes. Test with toothpick for doneness. Yum! :D I'm 2 days late.. but I realized these brownies would be perfect for Sara's WCC No. 9 - the theme this month is to use an ingredient from your country's culture. Although apples are found world-wide, I believe picking apples from local orchards in the fall is quite traditional for us Yanks, so I'm going to try to slip this in if Sara doesn't mind. ;) Check out the rest of the fabulous dishes at The Weekend Cookbook Challenge!

Apple Cake with Cinnamon Sauce

My taste in deserts are pretty simple. Anything with chocolate and I'm usually happy. I mean, ANYTHING. Coming up a close second is any desert with apples. There is nothing like the smell of apples, cinnamon and nutmeg wafting through the house, regardless if it's spring, summer, winter or fall for me. A friend of mine, Kathy, gave me this recipe last fall and I never got around to making it until yesterday. I'm glad I did.. although the cake is your basic apple cake - very good, the cake is moist and flavorful with a crispy top. The chunks of apple are tender and sweet giving it great texture. But it's the sauce that makes this cake divine. Holy cow.. all I could think of was this sauce, slighly warm, poured over vanilla or cinnamon ice cream. Or hell, sucked through a straw from the saucepan! Give it a try the next time your sweet tooth is craving something with apples. =) Apple Cake with Cinnamon Sauce 4 c. peeled, cored, chopped sweet apples, such as Mollies, Delicious, Crispin or Fuji (I used Fuji) 1 c. chopped nuts 2 c. flour 2 c. sugar 2 tsp. baking powder 2 tsp. cinnamon 1 tsp. salt 2 eggs 1/2 c. vegetable oil 2 tsp. vanilla Cinnamon Sauce (recipe follows) Preheat oven to 375º F. Butter and flour a 9 x 13 inch pan. Combine apples with nuts in a large bowl and sift dry ingredients over top. Mix eggs, oil and vanilla together. Add to the apples and flour mixture and mix until well blended. Bake in prepared pan for 35 to 45 minutes, or until tester inserted in center comes out clean. Cool. Serve with Cinnamon Sauce. Makes 12 servings. Cinnamon Sauce: 3/4 c. butter 1 cup confectioners' sugar 1 tsp. vanilla 1/2 tsp. cinnamon 1/4 tsp. nutmeg 1/2 c. water Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Add the sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and water. Bring to a boil, then simmer until thickened, about 5 minutes. Cool and pour over individual servings of the cake.

Friday night's disaster

Wayne's first full day home. It was fabulous. We both had early morning appointments and then we met back at home and just lounged all day long.. perfect =) I promised another home cooked meal. But I wanted to try something new. We've had cornish hens many times and enjoy them very much. Usually we deep fry. Tonight I wanted to try another recipe I've had for years but hadn't gotten to yet. Simply called "Seasoned Cornish Hens" I have no idea where I got the recipe. Basically, it was just a marinade and then you bake the hens. Easy, eh? 'kay well the marinade was easy - basically soy sauce, oyster sauce, garlic and pepper. No problem. Here's where the problem was.. we were suppose to have the hens on Saturday night as we were going out to dinner Friday night. Well... once you and your honey have lounged all day - the thought of having to get gussied up for food just isn't as appealing anymore. So we pushed dining out until Saturday. Luckily, I had taken the hens out of the freezer early that morning. By 6 pm they were probably 85% thawed. So I figured I could count on an extra 15 minutes (give or take) in cooking time. Wrong. TWO hours later - two 1 pound each Cornish hens were NOT done. By this time, we were salivating.. literally drooling because we were so hungry and they smelled so good. But we couldn't eat! I left them in for another 30 minutes.. to still find their juices were no where near clear.. so we said screw it. Cut them up and broiled the pieces until they were done. The hell? My thermostat said 350º. My oven said 350º. I don't get it. But all was not lost.. my side dish was to die for.. thank gawd. I diced two red garnet sweet potatoes, steamed them until they were fork tender and then spread them on a baking sheet and slathered them with butter, cinnamon and brown sugar and baked them until they were crispy on the outside. Divine. For desert, I had made my apple crisp.. it was perfect. Recipe follows =) Apple Crisp For the apples: 6 to 8 peeled, thinly sliced baking apples (I used Granny Smith) 1 c. white sugar 1 TBS. flour 1 tsp. cinnamon 1/2 tsp. nutmeg For the crisp: 2 c. quick oats 1 1/2 c. flour 2 c. brown sugar 1/2 tsp. baking soda 1/2 tsp. baking powder 1 c. butter, melted 1 tsp. cinnamon For the whipped cream: 1 c. heavy whipping cream 2 TBS. confectioner's sugar 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract Preheat oven to 350º Coat the apples evenly with the first 5 ingredients. Combine the remaining ingredients well, and press 1/2 to 1/3 of the mixture into a 9" x 13" x 2" Pyrex baking dish. Place apples on crust evenly. Scatter the remaining crisp mixture on top of the apples, evenly. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes. Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. *Note: This is a sweet apple crisp. If you prefer a more tart apple crisp, cut the white sugar down considerably. This is also a Splenda friendly recipe. I have substituted both the white and brown sugars for Splenda's white and brown sugars and it turned out very good. For the whipped cream: About 1 hour before ready to serve, place your mixing bowl and mixers (or the whisk attachment if you use a KitchenAid mixer) in the fridge. After your bowl and mixers are well chilled, whisk the heavy cream at medium fast speed until it starts to form soft peaks. At this stage, add your sugar and vanilla. Whisk until just incorporated. Do not over mix.