Tasty Tidbits

INGREDIENTS

5 Granny Smith apples
1 tablespoon or so of butter
¼ c. packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon (or more to taste)
1 teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ginger powder
Pie crust, homemade or premade, doesn’t matter as long as it’s thawed when you need it

PROCEDURE

Preparation- Use an apple corer or a melon baller to remove the cores of the apples. Then, carefully, peel just an inch or so from the hole at the top of the apple so that you have unpeeled apple to scoop out. Carefully scoop out the inside of the apple. Make sure you leave yourself about two millimeters of apple skin and apple flesh so that your apple doesn’t fall down around your pie. You will be putting the pie filling back inside the empty apple.
Apple filling - Take the apple bits that you’ve carved out and cut them into smaller pieces. For my pies, I make them about half inch chunks. Place all of the apple bits into a saucepan over medium heat with the butter. Let the butter melt some, stirring constantly for about a minute. Then add the brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. Let it cook down, this is important. The apples bits need to be softer, but not mushy. You should NOT be able to put a fork through one with ease. There should still be some crunch to them.
Crust - When the apple filling is done, heat the oven to 350F or 190C. Let the filling cool while you work with the pie crust. (I went for a simple lattice design, but you can just as easily use a round cookie cough cutter and cut rounds for the top.)
- - - Lattice top: Cut strips of pie cust about three inches long and about three-fourths of an inch wide. (NOTE-depending on the size of your apples and the opening you cut, you may need to adjust the size of the pieces. You should be able to have at least a quarter inch overlap on the sides) Weave the pieces together, three across and three down. Set aside.
- - - Circle top: Take your pie crust and punch out holes, set aside. NOTE-if you do it this way, you will have to use a paring knife to poke holes in the top of the crust. I suggest doing it in an radial spoke fashion.
Cooking - Place your hollow apples in a muffin tin. You may want to line it with foil or something just to make it a little easier for you to clean up later. Fill your hollowed out apples with the apple filling and drape your choice of crust on. Gently press the sides of the crust to the sides of the hollow apple. Place in oven for ten to fifteen minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

INGREDIENTS:

• Olive oil (use sparingly)
• Garlic (extra-finely minced)
• Bacon
• Chicken chunks
• Rosemary (10 inch sprig)
• Basil (about 20 leaves)
• Thyme (2 quarter-sized sprigs)
• Basil pesto
• Parmesan cheese
• Motzerella

PROCEDURE SO FAR:

• Add to frying pan in order, starting with a little olive oil. Saute the garlic for just a minute, then add the bacon. When the bacon is cooked, remove the bacon leaving the bacon rendering and the garlic. Add the chicken and cook thoroughly, add spices and simmer for a minute to let the flavors meld. Add the pesto and the cheeses last. 

INGREDIENTS (continued)

• Cannelloni tubes
• Marinara sauce

PROCEDURE:

• Cook the cannelloni tubes until they are still a little crunchy on the inside. Then, strain them and rinse with cool water. IMPORTANT!!! If you do not rinse the starch off of the tubes, they will get stuck together and will rip when you try to pull them apart.
• Holding the tube in one hand so that one end sort of rests on your palm, use a spoon to scoop the chicken filling into the tubes. This does take time, but be patient and recruit a little help if you have it. Gently pack the filling into the tube so that it doesn’t just fall out. The cheese should glue it together if you’ve packed it well.
• When you’re done stuffing them, lay them in a baking dish and cover them in marinara sauce.
• Bake at 350 degrees until done

»This is not an original family recipe, however, I don’t remember where we got it. It was most likely FoodNetwork.com. If this is your recipe, note that I am not claiming credit for it, also, let me know so I can give credit where due. We did tweak it, though.«

INGREDIENTS: 

• 1 cup self-rising yellow cornmeal
• ½ c. self-rising flour
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 egg
• 1 ear of corn off the cob*
• ¼ cup beer/wine at room temperature
• about 1 cup cheddar cheese - based on preference 

*You can either leave the corn as whole niblets, or you can cut, mash, food process them to some pulpy paste. If you don’t want the full on spice, I recommend the whole niblets as you can take a bite with the corn chunk and have it be sweet, and then take another bite that is spicy - BUT - the corn chunks get cold faster AND they do have a squishy kind of texture, so if you have people who have texture issues, this isn’t for them. The smaller pieces of corn are good to make the spiciness of the jalapeños a little sweeter on the whole. It doesn’t diminish the spice at all, just sweetens it - it makes for a really tasty combination.

PROCEDURE: 

• Mix ingredients
• Drop into oil (use tablespoons. You want bite-size and uniformity)
• Fry until golden brown. If they’re all uniform and bite in size, you shouldn’t have to worry about the insides being mushy
• Using whatever method you prefer, remove them from the frying pan and set them on a rack to drain. If you don’t do that, they WILL become mushy and won’t have that nice crunch.

Because I am a goober, and jetlagged, I didn’t remember to post the apple pie filling for the crepes, so here it is.

Unfortunately, many of the recipes I create just don’t use real measurements, and for that I apologize.

INGREDIENTS: 

• Granny Smith apples (Or another really firm, rather tart apple) skinned, cored, and cut into thin wedges. The side that used to be skin should be no more than a centimeter wide. 
• Cinnamon - about a tablespoon for five apples
• Nutmeg - about a teaspoon for five apples
• Brown Sugar (If you’re health-conscious/diabetic/just don’t want brown sugar/etc., brown sugar Splenda can be used instead) - about a quarter cup for five apples

Of course, you can change the measurements to taste. Just make sure you don’t overdo the nutmeg as it has a particularly potent flavour.

Simmer on medium heat in a sauce-pot until the brown sugar melts, then turn it down a notch. Stir until the apples are just a little mushy and you can cut them with a fork with just a little bit of pressure.

Wait til it cools and put it on the crepes, or just eat it plain!!!

It also works with pancakes, although I have a modified version that is more syruppy.

This is a family recipe, created by the master-griller, my grandpa, and passed down thence.

*Thaw some chicken* As noted later, breasts are best for this marinade.

It gets a little twisty as there are no exact measurements, so bear with me. Other than that, you pour it right into a large zip-top bag, add the chicken, shake, and let it chill in your fridge.

INGREDIENTS: 

• Olive oil
• Rice vinegar
• Lime juice

IMPORTANT: This is where it may get a little confusing… I really apologize.

You need more olive oil than lime juice by a little, you need more lime juice than rice vinegar by a lot. 

If you’re a mathmatical person: Olive oil > Lime juice »> Rice vinegar. 

I’d hazard a 4:3:1 ratio of olive oil, lime juice and rice vinegar respectively.

• Sweet basil
• Oregano
• Garlic
• Red hot pepper seeds 
• Salt

Add all according to taste remembering that it’s not the same as seasoning a dry piece of meat where all the flavour of the spices is just on that one piece. You need more in the marinade to get the taste.

Pour all of these into a large zip-top bag, add in the chicken (personally, I recommend breasts - thighs are too fatty for the marinade to properly soak in, and the marinade makes the breasts juicier so you don’t have to worry about what we call “astronaut chicken”.) Make sure the marinade covers the chicken liberally. It doesn’t have to cover it so that the chicken is floating surrounded by juice, just make sure that there is enough marinade to evenly coat the chicken. Then place it in your fridge.

Optimum fridge time: Anywhere from one hour to overnight, depending on your schedule. (Please don’t leave it more than 24 hours. That’s just icky. A marinade is not a preservative, it’s a flavour-er) 

I’ll add in pictures when I take some… I haven’t made these in a while… 

Ingredients:

2 eggs

1½ cups milk

1 cup flour

1 tablespoon melted butter

¼ teaspoon salt

Procedure:

• Combine all ingredients, the order doesn’t really matter here, just make sure there are NO LUMPS in the batter. It should be really runny, don’t worry.
• Heat the pan of your choice. Nonstick is the best, and I prefer a smaller pan just because small crepes mean more filling-to-crepe ratio.
• Re-grease the pan frequently.
• Cook one side until slightly brown, then flip. Technique: I hate to use metal on the nonstick pan, but I also find that spatulas or other rubber utensils are just to big and unwieldy and crush the crepes. So for this one rare exception, I use a butterknife to gently pry around the sides of the crepe and use it to pry up one side to see if it’s done. If it is, I pry around the sides, and carefully just pick up the crepe with my fingers and flip it. 
• Cook the other side for just a few seconds. The crepe should be slightly crispy, but not hard. They also shouldn’t be mushy. If they’re mushy, your batter’s too thick, so add tablespoons of milk until the desired consistency is achieved.
• Use only enough batter to cover the bottom of the pan.

I will have a recipe for apple pie like filling shortly. 

Enjoy!

2½ cups sugar 

3 tablespoons cocoa powder

1½ cups milk

¼ pound butter

• Boil for one minute, then add:

 ½ cups peanut butter

1 tablespoon vanilla

3 cups quick oats

• Drop by tablespoons onto parchment (waxed) paper and allow to cool.

 

 

Ingredients:

½ cup butter (softened NOT MELTED)

¾  cup light brown sugar, packed

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

1 cup (more-or-less) miniature chocolate chips of your choosing

Chocolate for melting. I used Bakers Choice semi-sweet blocks. For this recipe, shave and melt about five blocks of them.

Finely crushed Chocolate Teddy Grahams (or just regular chocolate graham crackers)

More cocoa powder if you want. (for rolling in)

Parchment paper or some equivalent. Don’t want your truffles sticking to the surface…

Procedure:

1. In a large bowl, use electric mixer to cream together the butter and the sugar. Add the vanilla. 
2. In a separate bowl, mix (with a fork, doesn’t have to be thorough) the flour and the cocoa powder.
3. Add the flour mixture slowly (½ cup or so at a time) to the brown sugar and butter bowl and beat. Beat until all the chunks of brown sugar and butter are incorporated. If you see any chunks, squish them.
4. Beat in the sweetened condensed milk.
5. Add chocolate chips.
6. Cover the bowl and refrigerate until the dough is firm. (about an hour or so)
7. Towards the end of that hour, take the dough out of the fridge and form it into balls, and put them on parchment paper. Then put them back in the fridge for a few more minutes while you do the next step.
8. Shave the chocolate blocks down for melting. Then melt. I started it at 2 minutes, stirred and then one minute bursts after that as required. WATCH THE CHOCOLATE carefully as it melts. When it’s all nice and melty and creamy and such, take it out and let it cool some. Stir occasionally. Don’t let it get hard.
9. Take the dough balls out of the fridge. Using a fork, scoop up some of the chocolate mixture. Take a ball and roll it so that it is covered. CAUTION: I know this might be silly to say, but the chocolate may be extremely hot. Be careful.
10. Take your sticky chocolate-covered dough ball and roll it in your graham cracker(or cocoa, or BOTH if you’re feeling crazy!!!) mixture. Set finished ball on parchment paper. *
11. Re-refridgerate
12. When the chocolate is all nice and hard… ENJOY!!!

*I wouldn’t advise covering them in chocolate shavings. They get kinda melty…

—Recipe adapted from RecipeGirl.com which in turn is adapted from FoodNetwork.com—

The one in the foreground is rolled in cocoa powder to combat the sweetness of the dough.The one in the foreground is rolled in crushed chocolate teddy grahams to add another texture.