Caramelized Apple Blondie Pie with Salted Butter Caramel Sauce

Getting ready for another Crazy Cooking Challenge hosted by Tina at Moms Crazy Cooking. This month's challenge was Apple Pie. As soon as I saw this recipe for Caramel Apple Blondie Pie topped with Salted Butter Caramel Sauce over at Crunchy Creamy Sweet I just knew it was the Ultimate Apple Pie recipe for this challenge! I must admit though that I had a bit of a tough time with the sauce - the first batch I tried to change up a bit and ended up with a batch of yummy butter toffee candy bits; the second batch I burned. Third time's a charm, right? Yep, the third batch turned out perfect. Not only was it good on the pie but it is also very yummy in coffee!




Caramelized Apple Blondie Pie
3 granny smith apples; washed, cored and chopped
2 Tbsp butter
1 1/2 Tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup liquid egg substitute or 1 whole egg, slightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

In pan saute apples in 2 Tbsp butter until soft.

Add the 1 1/2 Tbsp brown sugar and cook till sugar is dissolved and apples appear caramelized. Transfer to heat proof bowl and allow to cool. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease pie plate and set aside. In small mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. In separate mixing bowl, whisk together melted butter and remaining brown sugar. Add egg and vanilla and whisk until well combined. Fold in the flour mix, do not over mix, some lumps are normal.

Spread half the batter into the bottom of the pie dish.

Top with the apples. Spread the remaining batter over the apples. Bake for about 25 minutes or until the edges are golden brown.

Allow to cool completely before slicing.

Top with Caramel Sauce. Serve and enjoy!


Salted Butter Caramel Sauce
If you are a very visual person, you will definitely want to click the link above for Crunchy Creamy Sweet's recipe. She posted VERY detailed, VERY helpful photos on making this sauce. After two flops, I was totally focused on making the sauce - not taking many pics, lol.
1 cup sugar
6 Tbsp salted butter, room temp
2/3 cup half-n-half
dash of sea salt, optional

Pour sugar into medium saucepan and melt over medium heat. Watch as it starts to melt, whisk every 15-20 seconds. It will start to clump as it melts. Once the sugar is completely melted and golden brown, remove from heat. Add the salt. Add butter all at once, it will foam up, this is normal but be careful of the steam. Whisk until the butter is completely melted. Place back over medium heat and slowly pour in the half-n-half. Whisk together. Keep whisking until the sauce is a uniform color, no stripes. Cook the sauce over med-low heat for one minute, whisking constantly.

Remove from heat and pour into a heat proof jar(s) or measuring cup. Allow to sit on counter to cool for 15 minutes. The sauce will be very thin. Cover and refrigerate till thickened.

Serve with the above apple pie or with coffee. Enjoy!

Spicy Ranch Dressing/Dip - Crazy Cooking Challenge

Wow! Another month has passed and it is time for this month's Crazy Cooking Challenge hosted by Tina at Moms Crazy Cooking. This month's theme - Ranch Dressings and Dips. If you are not familiar with the challenge it is a fun monthly linky where we are given a certain theme. Past themes have been:

Cheesecake 

Fried Chicken

Fruit Smoothies

Grilled Cheese

Spaghetti with Red Sauce

Chocolate Cake

Chicken Noodle Soup

These are just the ones I participated in. To view all the challenges and to get all the details visit Moms Crazy Cooking - Crazy Cooking Challenge.

Now for my version of THIS ranch dressing/dip recipe from food.com. I cut it down to 1/4 the original recipe and subbed red pepper for accent seasoning (MSG). It turned out quite thick, more of a dip than a dressing.

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup buttermilk or sub 1/4 cup milk + 1 tsp vinegar or lemon juice and let sit for five minutes

1/4 tsp red pepper

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp dried minced onion

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/2 Tbsp parsley flakes

Combine all ingredients and mix well. 

Pour into jar, cover and chill. We LOVE ranch dressing with onion rings. 

So I served this up with some onion rings and burgers! The added spice made this super yummy and I may be making this again soon - but next time I won't cut it down to 1/4, I'll make the full recipe.

Peanut Butter Cup Mini Cheesecakes

It is time once again for The Crazy Cooking Challenge hosted by Tina at Moms Crazy Cooking. This months challenge is Cheesecake! When I found that out I knew I had to pay a visit to Jocelyn at Inside BruCrew Life. After searching through all of her AMAZING  cheesecake recipes I settled on Triple Peanut Butter Threat Cheesecakes! I cut the recipe in half and subbed liquid egg for the whole egg, other than that I followed her recipe exactly and it turned out FABULOUS!! I will definitely be making these again!

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8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup liquid egg or one whole egg
1 Tbsp sour cream
2 Tbsp honey
1/4 cup peanut butter
8 - 10 ea regular and min peanut butter cups
1/4 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat cream cheese until creamy. Add sugar and beat on low until fluffy. Then add the egg, sour cream, honey and peanut butter.

Place regular sized peanut butter cup into the bottom of a cupcake liner. Top with enough batter to fill to 3/4 full.

Bake for 20-22 minutes. Cool in pan for 15 minutes. Remove from pan to wire rack to finish cooling, about an additional 15 minutes. Place in refrigerator for one hour.

In small saucepan bring whipping cream to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips. Continue stirring until chocolate chips are melted.

Top each cheesecake with a generous spoonful of the chocolate cream. Allow to cool completely. Top with whipped cream, chocolate chips and a mini peanut butter cup.

Serve and enjoy!

Shared with:

Aussie Chicken

It is time for this month's Crazy Cooking Challenge hosted by Tina at Mom's Crazy Cooking. This month's challenge was for Fried Chicken. As soon as I saw that I knew I had to make this yummy Aussie Chicken by Frugal in Florida. I made her yummy Honey Mustard Dressing as well, specifically for this recipe, then forgot to use it, it still turned out great!

4 slices bacon
2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts
seasoned salt
2 slices of cheddar cheese
1/2 can of sliced mushrooms
2 slices provolone cheese

In skillet cook the bacon till crisp, reserving the fat.

 Butterfly the chicken breasts, here's how

Sprinkle the butterflied chicken breasts with the seasoned salt. Fry the chicken in the reserved bacon fat until completely done. Remove from skillet and place on foil lined baking sheet. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

>Top each chicken breast with two slices of bacon, one slice of cheddar cheese, some of the mushroom slices and one slice of provolone. Bake for five to ten minutes or until cheese melted and bubbly.

Serve and enjoy!

Nutella Banana Smoothie

It is time once again for the Crazy Cooking Challenge hosted by Tina at Mom's Crazy Cooking. This month's challenge is fruit smoothies. I actually had a little trouble finding a smoothie I wanted to make, that is until I came across this blog, Free Fruit Smoothie Recipes. This is a blog with nothing but smoothie recipes. Any type of smoothie you could want is on this blog! If you are wanting a good smoothie, but don't know where to start I would recommend checking out this blog!!

I modified this recipe slightly, to serve one instead of two and to suit our tastes a bit. This is the original version: The Great Chocolate Banana Smoothie Recipe. I used:

1 cup small ice cubes

1 large banana

3/4 cup 2% milk

1/4 cup vanilla yogurt

1 Tbsp nutella

Place ice in bottom of a single serve blender.

Adjust ice according to how you like your smoothie - less ice for more of a juice drink, more ice for more of a milkshake. (I actually did not know this before reading this blog.)

Add remaining ingredients and blend until smooth.

Serve immediately. Enjoy!

Bacon Guacamole Grilled Cheese

We had visitors! Again!  About a week ago John's parents came down to visit for a couple of days. This was just a few days after the visit from our McKinney friends. Visitors twice within a week!! How awesome is that? The folks arrived just in time for lunch - the BEST grilled cheese sandwiches ever!!

It is time once again for the Crazy Cooking Challenge! For those of you that are not familiar with it the CCC it is a monthly linky hosted by Tina at Mom's Crazy Cooking. Each month Tina selects a particular dish and all participating bloggers search other blogs trying find the perfect recipe to match the criteria for that month's dish. You then prepare and blog about the recipe making sure to provide a link to the blog you found the recipe at. Then all the recipes are posted and linked up at the same time on the seventh of each month. For more information click HERE.

This month's challenge was a grilled cheese sandwich. You would not believe all the amazing recipes I came across for grilled cheese: BLT grilled cheese; mushroom grilled cheese; pizza grilled cheese; roasted strawberry, brie and chocolate grilled cheese (oh my) and the list goes on and on. I already had many of these pinned including the one I decided on - the Bacon Guacamole Grilled Cheese. Although I'm not sure the roasted strawberry, brie and chocolate grilled cheese won't be on the menu in the not so distant future. Now for this recipe my father-in-law and I liked the sound of the pepper jack cheese used in the original recipe, my mother-in-law and husband thought Swiss cheese sounded better. So I used pepper jack on Johnny's and mine and Swiss on Pat's and John's. Neither of us was disappointed. Lots of cheese is what makes this recipe AWESOME!! And of course the bacon - bacon makes everything better right? And who doesn't LOVE guacamole? That combo makes this my new fav grilled cheese!! I found the recipe for this Bacon Guacamole Grilled Cheese Sandwich over at Mrs. Happy Homemaker. Give it a try - you won't be sorry you did!

For each sandwich you will need:

2 slices bread (we used Italian)
butter
2 slices bacon, cooked crisp
4 slices of your fav cheese
2-3 Tbsp guacamole, room temperature

Butter one side of one of the slices of bread.

Place buttered side down in skillet.

Top with two of the cheese slices, guacamole, bacon and then the remaining two slices of cheese. Butter one side of second slice of bread and place on top of cheese, buttered side up. Cook over medium heat for about three minutes or until browned, flip and heat for an additional three minutes or until browned.

Serve and enjoy.

To vote for my Bacon Guacamole Grilled Cheese click on #76, while your at it make sure to visit all the great variations on the grilled cheese sandwich that have linked up this month!

3 Cheese Baked Spaghetti

John's dear, sweet grandma - my grandma at heart as well - passed away a few weeks ago.

She is reunited with grandpa, whom she has missed dearly since his passing nearly six years ago. John's parents have been her caregivers for the last few years. So after grandma's celebration of life we invited them to join us down in Rockport for a few days. They accepted and joined us for four nights at Goose Island State Park.

I knew they would be exhausted after the nearly six hour drive, so I had a meal planned for their arrival. They typically eat out but I didn't think they would want to hassle with finding a place to eat after such a long drive. It seemed the perfect opportunity for this yummy recipe I had picked for the next Crazy Cooking Challenge.
This is my third month to participate in the Crazy Cooking Challenge. It is hosted by Tina over at Mom's Crazy Cooking. The challenge is to search other blogs to find the perfect recipe for that month's challenge, credit the blog you found it at and then the recipe with the most votes (clicks) is named the ultimate recipe for the month. For more information you can check it out here:

This month's challenge is spaghetti with red sauce. I'll be featuring two different blogs this month. First I found Quick Spaghetti Sauce at Finding Joy in My Kitchen. I normally use jarred sauces but the addition of cinnamon to this sauce caught my attention and I knew I had to try it. Then I came across this wonderfully cheesy recipe for 3 Cheese Baked Spaghetti at Beyer Beware. It called for my standard jarred sauce but I thought I would mix things up a bit and make it with the quick, yummy sounding, homemade sauce. I had to pare down the sauce to make close to the 28 ozs required for the baked spaghetti but with company coming I didn't need to make any adjustments to the baked spaghetti recipe as far as quantities which was really kind of nice, I like cooking for more than two occasionally.

QUICK SPAGHETTI SAUCE
1 lb lean ground beef
1/2 cup diced onion
14 1/2 oz can diced tomatoes, undrained
12 oz can tomato paste
1/2 cup water
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 Tbsp sugar
1/8 tsp cinnamon

Brown ground beef and onions.

 Drain off grease if necessary. Add diced tomatoes, tomato paste, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning and garlic powder; stirring well.

 Add in the sugar and simmer till warmed. Stir in the cinnamon then set aside.

3 CHEESE BAKED SPAGHETTI
Quick Spaghetti Sauce
8 oz Angel hair pasta, cooked
1/4 cup liquid eggs or 1 whole large egg
1 cup cottage cheese
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese, divided

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place cooked pasta in large bowl. Mix in egg, cottage cheese, 1 cup mozzarella cheese and 1/2 cup parmesan cheese.

Add sauce and mix well. I used my my eight cup measurere/mixing bowl from Pampered Chef - it was not big enough, I actually finished mixing it in the casserole dish. Spray a large casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray. Pour spaghetti mixture into casserole dish.

Top with remaining 1 cup mozzarella and 1/2 cup parmesan, I ran out of shredded parmesan and substituted grated parmesan instead.

Bake until cheese is melted and sauce is nice and bubbly, about 30 minutes.

Serve and enjoy.

Make sure to check out more recipes from this month's Crazy Cooking Challenge below.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cake

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The Crazy Cooking Challenge is hosted by Tina over at Mom's Crazy Cooking. I almost opted out of this months challenge. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Chocolate Cake and so does my husband. The idea of baking a regular sized cake for two people, both trying to lose weight, had me balking a little bit. Also, I don't use flour, not due to health or diet reasons just the last time I ran out I never bought anymore. That's been about a year and a half ago and we haven't missed it. Two things happened to change my mind. First I found this recipe, it uses a cake mix, so no flour involved, and who can resist chocolate and peanut butter?! Second it turns out we were going to be in Bastrop longer than expected waiting for a gate to guard. So I had a great idea: bake the cake while in Bastrop and take it over to my baby sister's house to enjoy with her family. She has five kids plus our oldest nephew lives with her and of course her hubby. So with that crew plus John and I, wiping out this cake was not a problem. 

I found this recipe for Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cake over at The Farm Girl. The only changes I made to her recipe were substituting liquid eggs for whole eggs and the pan size - she used two 9 inch round pans. I did not have 9 inch pans so I was originally going to use 8 inch round pans. Then I spent too much time thinking about it and went looking through my pans and decided to try something a little different - one 10x10 square pan and one 8 inch round pan.

Cake:

1 box chocolate fudge cake mix

1 small box chocolate instant pudding

1/3 cup oil

1/3 cup water

1 1/4 cups liquid eggs or 5 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1 T vanilla

1 cup peanut butter chips

Frosting:

1 cup butter, softened to room temperature

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

4 cups powdered sugar

1/4 t salt

1 t vanilla extract

1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

1 12 oz bag Reese's Peanut Butter cups minus two peanut butter cups - couldn't resist, chopped and chilled for 1/2 hour in freezer

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Spray a 10x10 inch square pan and an 8 inch round cake pan with non-stick spray then coat with unsweetened cocoa powder.  In large bowl mix all cake ingredients, except peanut butter chips, with electric mixer for 2-3  minutes. 

Stir in peanut butter chips and pour into your prepared pans.  Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 40 minutes for the square pan and about 35 minutes for the round pan. Let cool in pans 10 minutes and then remove from pans and let completely cool on cooling rack.

While cake is cooling make frosting.   In medium bowl whip butter and peanut butter until smooth and fluffy, about 1-2 minutes.  Add salt, vanilla, whipping cream and 1 cup of powdered sugar.  Beat well and continue to add 1 cup of powdered sugar at a time until it reaches your desired consistency.

To make cake, place square on cake stand or plate.  Spread top with 1 cup frosting.  Add the round cake to the top.  Spread the rest of frosting on sides and top of chocolate cake.  Carefully press chopped peanut butter cups into frosting and chill for 3-4 hours, or overnight, before serving.  Enjoy!

Check out all the amazing cakes in this month's challenge below.