It's Apple Season Again!

We went apple picking this weekend, and managed not to go overboard with the number of apples that we brought home.  That's got to be a record!

The first thing I made was apple butter.  Homemade apple butter is sooooooo good.  Store-bought just cannot compete with homemade.  The apples spent ten hours in the crockpot, which seemed to me to be a really long time.  But it was definitely worth it.  A trip in the blender made the apples nice and smooth, and this batch debuted on some biscuits the next night next to some pork chops and butternut squash.  It made for a LOVELY fall dinner.  :)

This is the recipe that I used.  "Tastes of Lizzy" Apple Butter

Eat Your Veggies!!

We're always looking for new, innovative ways to get more fruits and veggies.  OK.....we're always looking for ways to make them palatable and not eat as many carbs.  Brian and I are total carb lovers.
The first one was my idea:  baked zucchini parmesan.  And by "my" idea, I mean that I found it on Pinterest and decided to make it one night.  It was quite easy, and fresh too.  Served with some marinated chicken and a little penne.

I love to test-drive cookbooks before buying them, because it stinks to buy a book, like one or two recipes and despise the rest.  This is where the library really comes in handy.  I brought home a Good Housekeeping Book of comfort foods that are 400 calories or less.  These crockpot pulled pork sandwiches came out of it, as well as the recipe for "Honeyed radishes and turnips."  Normally I don't like turnip.  But this was surprisingly sweet and delicious!  I think it would also go well with kielbasa and a scoop of mashed potato.  

A Chicken in Every Pot

When I wrote the menu last week, I decided to give something a try...

I go home for lunch most days, it's a nifty benefit of living and working in the same town.  So...why not put together a crockpot meal while I'm there?  I chose something easy, Crockpot Chicken Teriyaki.    This way, there wasn't chopping of a million ingredients or having to pre-cook anything.  And hey, if it didn't come out well, there's always pizza.  (my standard answer to bad dinners everywhere)

It came out better than well.  It was great!  Imagine coming home from work after picking up the kids at school/preschool, to the smell of dinner already cooking.  All that was left to do was make rice, steam broccoli and thicken the sauce with a little cornstarch.  (We were out so Brian used a tiny amount of flour while I was folding laundry.)  Bang!  Dinner on the table at 6pm, leaving time for Will and I to finish watching "Goonies."

Hmmm...."Crockpot Monday" may just become a thing!

Apple Butter

Welcome to another episode of "Homemade vs. Store-Bought."  Today I'm talking...apple butter.

A few weeks ago, Brian made some chicken and butternut squash in where the recipe called for apple butter.  He bought a huge jar of apple butter, which served as a glaze to the meat and squash.  It was good, but not good enough.  I expected more flavor, but it was flat.  I didn't write about it for that very reason, it was disappointing because it's got a bunch of my favorite stuff in it, and I adore autumn flavors.  (Apples, pumpkin, squash, cinnamon....you get the gist.)

My mom came to visit this weekend since we were going to Rhinebeck for the NY Wool and Sheep Festival.  She was telling me about the apple butter that she had made, and was going to ask my Dad to bring a jar of it when he came the next day to celebrate my son and my SIL's birthdays on Sunday.  As soon as I opened the jar on Sunday, I instantly knew what the difference was.

I grabbed the jar from our fridge and presented it to Brian.  "Smell this."  He obliged and I asked him what it smelled like.  He said "It smells like nothing."  Exactly!  Next he smelled the homemade apple butter.  All the difference in the world!

I grabbed a couple of butter crackers for a taste test.  And another test.  And another test.  I finally sealed the jar and put it back in the fridge, because the homemade stuff that my mom made was so good, I was sure that I could eat all of it on crackers!

So....homemade is the way to go.  It's labor intensive, Mom said that it spent several hours in a crockpot, and was in the oven for quite a while too.  But so worth it.  I think that we should try the chicken and squash recipe again!

Shredded Beef Tacos

A new Pinterest recipe!   Chillier nights mean autumn is coming, and that always gets me thinking about the crockpot.  Some people like to use theirs in the summer but it's just not my thing. I've seen a lot of recipes for cooking meat in the crockpot for tacos but never tried one.   The set-and-forget was really great this weekend, too.  I'm pretty sure that this cooking at home was the only reason we didn't get dinner out on Saturday after going shopping at the mall.   This one did not disappoint!

Plus....lots of leftovers for a busy Monday at work!  Win, Win!

A Woman of my Word

I said last week that we'd make meatballs, and I keep my word.  Last night:  meatballs.  :)  I originally wanted to make these on Sunday but we as a family (read:  Crafty Mama)  tend(s) to overcram Sundays.  So last night after dinner, it was meatball city!

No recipes...just flying by the seat of our pants.  A package of ground pork, a package of ground beef.  And I got really daring and didn't measure ingredients.  Sometimes it's best that way.  Some bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, two eggs, oregano, rosemary, garlic powder, salt and pepper.  Brian rolled them and fried them in vegetable oil while I worked on feeding kids and doing dishes.  (We make a good team that way.)    He used his induction cooker to better control the temperature, which seems like it was a good idea.  Next time Brian wants to make them like his mom made them growing up:  added to sauce and simmering in a crockpot for several hours.  I've had Mom G's meatballs, they are pretty good!

All in all, I'd say the process only took about an hour, give or take.  I wish I had taken a photo of the meatball assembly line, but alas, I did not so you will have to imagine it.    Now there are several bags of (hopefully) good-quality meatballs in my freezer, and one bag to go with cheese tortellini and leftover marinara tonight.  Looking forward to it!

Dinner, Saved!

On Monday holidays when I have the day off, I like to put a crockpot meal on the menu.  So last week's Monday dinner was supposed to be Honey Sesame Chicken.   I got the recipe from Pinterest and had made it before and knew it to be fabulous.

Except, last time I had set the crockpot on the low setting and cooked for 4+ hours.  This time I didn't have time for that, with running around with the boys and doing errands.  So I followed the "high" instructions and gave it 2.5 hours.  I checked the chicken thighs at the two-hour mark, and to my dismay they were quite raw.  Auggghhhh!

There was a time in my life that I would've thrown this out and ordered a pizza.  But I hate to waste food, so I set about my salvage mission.  With the rice cooking on the stove, I quickly chopped the chicken thighs and added them to a frying pan with a little oil.  In another pan I poured all the sauce and set it to boil, so there would be no issues with raw chicken juice.

While all this was going on I decided to try my hand at a new veggie:  roasted butternut squash.  Ok, so butternut squash is not new in this house, but usually it's served as a puree with cinnamon and butter.  Instead  I cut it into one-inch pieces and roasted it.  I prepared two cookie sheets and roasted it two ways, one with just salt, pepper and olive oil, the other with the aforementioned and some chili paste.  Livin' large and flying by the seat of my pants!

With the sauce cooked and safe from the boiling, I added some cornstarch and whisked until it was velvety.  Time for plating!

The verdict?  Not only "saved" but downright delicious!  The chicken flavor was incredible, and the squash was awesome too.  Though the chili paste version was much better than the "naked version."

Thank you Food Network, for what you have taught me.

My First Pot Roast

I can't believe I'd never made a pot roast before....we had it a lot when i lived at home with my folks.  Mom had a recipe where you added meat, veggies and the cooking liquid to a plastic bag and put it in the microwave.   Unconventional,  I know, but it was delicious.  She always served it with buttered noodles, peas and carrots.   Mmmmmmm childhood.  :)

This was a McCormick recipe, and a simple one at that.  Veggies, meat,  water and spice packet, then "set n forget" on low for eight hours!  I love dinners that kind of take care of themselves like magic.  The meat was fork-tender, and there's plenty of leftovers.  Add my mom's roasted beets plus biscuits on the side and you've got a pretty good way to end a weekend.