Blog Surfing

Annie's Eats has a very special treat. These Caramel Apple Cinnamon Rolls would be great for a special brunch. Her Caramel Apple Cheesecake Pie is her most popular post.

How clean is your kitchen? You might reconsider your answer after you read this article from The New York Times. Here is another link to see How to Clean 5 Common Kitchen Surfaces. All from The Kitchen.

If you have a donut pan, these Baked Caramel Apple Donuts are a nice alternative to fried. It would be hard to make them look like donuts without a donut pan. The batter looks great and could be used to make muffins instead. From Shutterbean.

It wouldn't be fall without Pumpkin Scones. They have four spices in them plus a spicy glaze. From Pennies on a Platter.

I like a little peanut butter with my apples and this Apple Peanut Butter Crisp sounds great. From Tasty Kitchen. Also from Tasty Kitchen, this Roasted Heirloom Tomato Soup sounds amazingly good. These Three Cheese Stuffed Shells with Meaty Tomato Sauce will be very good because they are from The Pioneer Woman herself, Ree, creator of Tasty Kitchen. Tilapia is a great fish, but it doesn't have much flavor of it's own. I am always looking for new tilapia ideas. This recipe for Parmesan Garlic Tilapia Sticks sounds great and it is baked. Thanks to Tasty Kitchen.


The pizza muffins from Mennonite Girls Can Cook look good and are made with one bowl and a muffin tin. You can find the recipe here. It would make a great snack for hungry kids!

The Brown Eyed Baker has a yummy looking recipe for The Baked Brownie. They look like a true chocolate fix!

Our Krazy Kitchen has a recipe for Stuffed Bell Peppers Italiano. They are filled in layers that include small pasta, a cheese mixture, sausage and marinara sauce.

How do Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Caramel Frosting sound? Cooking with Christine has the recipe and they look and sound great. You can find the recipe and picture here. The recipe makes six large cinnamon rolls.

One Perfect Bite is sharing a recipe for Georgia-Style Brunswick Stew. This recipe is different from the recipe I use but it sounds good. The meat and vegetables are pre-cooked so the cooking time is actually the time it takes to warm everything up.

Baking Bites has a recipe for Dark Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies that look very good, especially if you are a dark chocolate lover. The dough need to chill for at least an hour before slicing. You can also any type of chip that you prefer. You can find the recipe here.

Taste of Home has made over Mac 'n' Cheese with lower fat and calories and it is made in the crockpot. You can find the recipe here.

Tablspoon has a recipe for Pumpkin and Granola Cookies. I like the idea of having something crunchy in a normally soft pumpkin cookie. Here is another recipe that is for Topsy-Turvy Apple Pie and you can find it right here.

This recipe is for Boston Cream Pie with a twist, Bananas. You can see this recipe from Food.com here.

Cherry Chocolate Chip Toffee Cookies and Chocolate Fudge Cookies with Toffee and Dried Cherries

I made both of these recipes in the last six weeks and gave them to different familys. I keep recipes I have made in a notebook(s) that pass my keeper-worthy tests; the recipe needs to be easy to follow, it can't have too many complicated steps or ingredients and it needs rave reviews. These recipes got rave reviews and are definitely worth keeping! 

The batch of these Cherry Chocolate Chip Toffee cookies turned out great. They are very easy to put together if you have the ingredients, mainly the dried cherries and toffee pieces. They turned out crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. I made them about a year ago and they turned out really good and were worth making again.

The original recipe is from Martha Stewart called Torie's Cherry Chocolate Chunk Cookies. When I made them, I used Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips in place of the chocolate chunks. We prefer the tart dried cherries for the extra burst of cherry flavor. I have found when I use other dried cherries, it tastes like raisins, not cherries. I also used the Heath Bar toffee pieces that you will find near the chocolate chips on the baking isle.

This recipe was adapted from the Martha Stewart website.




These cookies use some of the same ingredients, but with the addition of cocoa powder to the dough. I made these for another family and got rave reviews on these also. I can't believe it, but I didn't get any pictures. I have searched through my picture files because I though I must be overlooking them, but there isn't even one picture.I first saw this recipe at the website, ReTorte, and it is originally from the cookbook, In the Sweet Kitchen by Regan Daley.



Enjoy!

Peach Galette with Fresh Peaches

A few weeks ago, when the peaches where at their peak of perfection, we decided to make a peach galette. Due to time constraints, I used a pre-made Pillsbury pie crust. The Pillsbury crust that can be found in the refrigerator section of most grocery stores is my choice for a pre-made pie crust. I found a recipe that I wanted to try and we weren't disappointed. Because the crust recipe looked like it would be really good, I am posting it here also, for future use.

We placed the pie crust on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper

We used four fresh peaches

Dear hubby peeled and sliced the peaches

We swirled fresh raspberry jam in the middle of the crust and then placed the peaches over the jam and pulled the sides up around the peaches

We mixed the custard filling ingredients in a bowl and poured it over the peaches after it had baked for 25 minutes

Total time in the oven was about 43 minutes

A galette doesn't need to be perfect, it should look rustic

Ready to eat

You can make this using any type of fruit, fresh or frozen. I also sprinkled a spoonful of "sugar in the raw" over it for a more rustic look before putting it in the oven. It was very easy, especially using pre-made pie crust. This was made in my sister Lori's beautiful kitchen.



Enjoy!

Getting to Know the Neighbors - Heirloom Rose Gardens

Wiley came to spend the day at the farm with Gramma and what a day we had! Wiley loves to hear stories about the farm and stories about animals. As soon as he sees me he usually asks me if I have any new stories, so I was really glad that I had a new story!

I told him about spotting a large hawk nest on top of a power pole as we were taking a drive a few days before. He wanted to know all about it and so we jumped in the car and I took him to see it rather than just talk about it. We started out on our first adventure of the day.

We could only look at it so long, hoping that a hawk would fly in and sit down for a while. We would still be there waiting if Wiley was the driver that day.

From the hawk nest, we drove to the Heirloom Rose Gardens in Saint Paul, Oregon. They have a lot of beautiful roses. If you are a rose lover like I am you should make the trip if you are anywhere near Saint Paul.

The cute little gift cottage is on the right

Ready to enter the first garden

Wiley leading the way

 Roses

We took time to smell a lot of roses

Wiley wearing a pair of my sunglasses

They have lots of places to sit down

Lots of places to climb

Lots of places to take drinks of water...

...and more water!

You know what happens when you drink a bottle of water. That's right, you need an outhouse! Quick!

Wiley's first outhouse can be seen in the background

I wasn't sure what he was going to think about going in an outhouse. He marched right in and of course, took a look down, way down. I won't write what he said but we had quite a conversation about the whole concept of outhouses. He stood tall and took care of business and doesn't seem to be permanently scared by what he saw down there. The good news, it was exceptionally clean and didn't smell at all. In fact, all we could smell was roses!

As we left the outhouse, we heard a loud noise coming down the road behind us. A man stopped to put a large branch in the back of his tractor. Wiley ran to the fence and said "Excuse me, is that a John Deere tractor?" The man laughed and said yes it was. Wiley proudly told him "I have a John Deere tractor, too!" The nice man talked to Wiley for a minute or so about his tractor, and then we watched him drive away.

Nice man driving his John Deere tractor

We stopped in the cute little gift shop filled with all sorts of great yard and outdoor things. After than, Wiley was ready to go.

Wiley had seen enough roses for one day

Time to head back to the farm

A view of the Willamette river just before dusk

Wiley fell asleep mid-sentence, he was so tired! 

He was still holding his special "cherry" apple he picked while sitting on Papa's shoulders.

Heirloom Rose Gardens doesn't seem to have a website, but if you are interested in visiting the gardens, you will find their address and some other information here.