Mini Apple Cream Tarts

Over the past few weeks, I have started making a lot more desserts. Probably because I've been trying to eat healthier meals...which leads me to eating/craving desserts at night. There's only so much I can do!

I must say that I usually try to give away some of the desserts so I don't eat them all myself. I brought these to this week's 'board meeting' and they were enjoyed by all. There's just something about bite-sized desserts that no one can pass up! The next time you're craving an apple pie, try these instead. You won't be disappointed! I love the combo of the crunchy, sweet cookie crust, the creamy layer and the traditional apple pie flavors. Fab!

Mini Apple Cream Tarts

an Erin original

1 pkg sugar cookie dough

3 T granulated sugar, divided

2 T butter

2 granny smith apples, peeled and finely diced

1 t cinnamon

1 (8-oz) pkg cream cheese, softened

2 1/2 c powdered sugar

4-5 T milk

1 t vanilla extract

caramel or butterscotch ice cream sauce, for serving

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease/spray mini muffin pans well. Cut dough into 1/4-inch slices and roll each slice into a ball. Place each ball in a muffin cup, gently pressing it in. Bake 15-20 minutes or until cookies are slightly golden.

Place a tablespoon of sugar into a small bowl. Dip the end of a spoon handle into the sugar and press into the center of the cookies to make an inch-wide indention. Cool completely.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Add apples, sugar and cinnamon. Cook until apples are softened but still slightly crisp, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and let cool.

In a mixing bowl, add cream cheese, powdered sugar, milk and vanilla. Mix until smooth and it reaches the desired consistency. (You may need to add a little more powdered sugar and/or milk to achieve your desired consistency - I wanted it pretty thick, but you can thin it out if you prefer.)

To assemble, place a dollop of cream sauce (about 1-2 t) into the bottom of each cookie tart. Top with another dollop of the apple mixture. Just before serving, drizzle a little caramel (or butterscotch) ice cream sauce over each tart.

*Cook's note: these don't keep well past 24 hours because the cookie crust loses its crispness. Refrigerate any leftovers.

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Not Audrey's Crab Casserole

{Audrey, Finley & Andrew, Christmas 2009}

My husband's beloved grandmother, Audrey, passed away last April. She was one of the kindest, most loving, humble and humorous women I ever met and I feel like I am a better person for having known her. Auj made it seem as though her husband was in charge, but anyone who knew her well, knew that she truly was the backbone, and the matriarch, of the entire family. I never saw her happier than when she was holding one of her great grandchildren, and boy, did the babies love her right back! We have so many sweet and treasured pictures of Audrey and Finley!

When I first met Auj she was already in her late eighties and didn't cook much anymore. But the one dish she would cook for every family gathering was her famed crab casserole. Andrew mentioned yesterday that he'd been craving it lately. The only problem was that I didn't have a copy of her recipe and wasn't able to track one down on short notice. At first I set out to try and recreate Audrey's recipe as best I could from memory, but I quickly realized that my imitation would never live up to the real thing. So since I didn't her actual recipe in hand, I decided to make my own, totally different version of a crab casserole, aptly named Not Audrey's Crab Casserole. It was a really warm, comforting dish that we all enjoyed. After my husband took his first bite, he said, "oh my gosh, this is so good...but it's not Audrey's crab casserole." I had big shoes to fill and I tried my best! At least I knew I picked the right name for this dish :-) And it may not have been Auj's crab casserole, but he did go back for seconds...

{Not Audrey's Crab Casserole}

Not Audrey's Crab Casserole

4 T butter

4 green onions, sliced

1 green bell pepper, seeded and finely chopped

2 celery ribs, finely chopped

8 oz mushrooms, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 1/2 t Old Bay seasoning

1/2 t Creole seasoning

1/3 c white wine

8 oz cream cheese

4 oz Colby-Jack cheese, shredded

1 lb. lump crab meat

2/3 c seasoned croutons, crushed

salt & pepper, to taste

parsley, for garnish

mashed potatoes, for serving (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt butter and add green onions, bell pepper, celery, mushrooms and garlic. Saute until vegetables are softened, about 5-7 minutes. Add Old Bay and Creole seasonings and white wine. Allow vegetables to simmer until liquid is reduced by half.

Reduce heat to low and stir in cream cheese until it has fully melted. Stir in colby-jack cheese. Taste for seasoning. Add salt and pepper, if needed. Gently fold in crab, being careful not to break up the lumps. Pour mixture into a greased casserole pan. Top with seasoned crouton crumbs.

Bake for 15 minutes, or until bubbly. Garnish with chopped parsley and serve over mashed potatoes.

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Watermelon-Mint Granita

This has to be the easiest, and most refreshing, dessert in the history of the world! I'm serious. Totally serious. Nothing tastes better on a hot day and after a big meal than watermelon-mint granita. With only three ingredients and hardly any work at all, you have no excuse not to try this recipe.

One of my friend's husband is a wonderful cook. He's so adventurous in the kitchen and I always look forward to his food. He made this dessert for us over a year ago and everyone loved it. It's light, it's sweet, it's icy and it's just delicious. And so much healthier than just about any other dessert. Next time you're going to a bbq or a picnic, forego taking sliced watermelon and whip up this little treat. Everyone will thank you for it, I promise!

Just one piece of advice: make sure you buy seedless watermelon so you don't have to spend an hour picking out all the seeds! Not a fun way to spend the afternoon - I learned this the hard way!

Watermelon-Mint Granita

recipe courtesy of Robert

6 cups watermelon chunks

1/2 c packed mint leaves

2 T sugar

Combine the ingredients in a food processor and puree. Pour into a dish and place into the freezer. Every hour for the first three to four hours, take a fork and scrape the granita to keep it slushy. Serve and enjoy!

Thanks for visiting! Please leave questions or comments - I always love to hear from you!

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Dinner Menu - June 6th thru June 12th

If you read my post from last week, then you may notice some repetitions from that menu on this week's menu. Life just got crazy/busy and I didn't end up cooking a real meal several nights last week. But this week will be different...fingers crossed that it's at least a little less hectic!

Dinners:

1.) Crab Casserole; Mashed Potatoes; Green Salad

2.) Neely's BBQ Spaghetti; Grilled Romaine Salad; Baguette

3.) Chicken Tikka Masala; Jasmine Rice; Veggie Side Dish TBD

4.) Cajun Rice with Sausage (one dish meal - yay!)

5.) Thai Chicken Satay; Spicy Cucumber & Carrot Salad; Peanut Noodles

6.) Sloppy Joes; Sweet Potato Fries; Fresh Fruit

7.) Creamy Pasta with Fennel & Artichokes; Roasted Lemon Broccoli

Thanks for visiting! Please leave questions or comments - I always love to hear from you!Erin

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Chicken Club Salad

I love making something pretty simple for meals on the weekends because we're usually too busy (or too lazy!) to do a lot of heavy lifting in the kitchen. This recipe was great because it made enough for two meals, a dinner and a lunch. Score - two for one! Andrew and I both really liked it when we ate it for dinner as a salad and I found myself looking forward to eating lunch the following day. I'm not usually a leftover lover so that's says a lot! To make it a little different, we ate it as chicken salad sandwiches for lunch.

Chicken Club Salad

4 chicken breasts, cooked, cooled and diced

4 slices regular or turkey bacon, cooked and crumbled (I used turkey bacon)

1 shallot, minced

1 1/2 c cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered

3 celery ribs, sliced and their leaves, chopped

1 avocado, diced

1/2 c olive oil mayonnaise

1 t coarse mustard

2 t white wine vinegar

1/2 t celery salt

1/2 t celery seed

Freshly ground black pepper

Romaine lettuce and/or bread, for serving

In a large bowl, combine chicken, bacon, shallots, tomatoes, celery and celery leaves.

In a smaller bowl, combine mayo, mustard, vinegar, celery salt, celery seed and pepper. Mix well. Pour over chicken mixture and gently fold together. Refrigerate for several hours for flavors to marry.

Right before serving, gently toss in avocado. Serve over lettuce as a salad or make into sandwiches.

Thanks for visiting! Please leave questions or comments - I always love to hear from you!

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Cajun Potluck - June

We have a rotating monthly potluck dinner with our friends and when it's your turn to host, you get to pick the theme. We've been doing this for about three years and it's amazing to think how much everyone's lives have changed during that time - weddings, pregnancies, babies, new homes, new jobs, etc. We decided that we're going to start taking pictures every month so that we can have them as a reminder of all the fun times we always have at potluck. That idea got me thinking that it would be fun to start doing a monthly post with pictures and recipes for all the dishes we bring each month. So this will be the first of many potluck posts, I hope!

This month Candace and Craig chose to do a Cajun theme. They made a magnificent Shrimp Creole for the main course, which I ate (and thoroughly enjoyed) over Hunter's dirty rice. I've never eaten a lot of Cajun/Creole food, so I had no idea what to bring. After giving it some thought, I decided grilled corn on the cob would work just fine. In order to make it fit with our theme, I decided to serve it with a compound butter full of Cajun flavors. Easy-peasy, a lot more fun than plain ole butter, and it really gave the corn a great flavor; however, the butter was far from attractive. Because I made the unfortunate decision to roll into a log shape, there were quite a few comments about it looking phallic or poop-like. I think next time, I'll just put it in a ramekin! Also, grilling the corn with the beer in the foil packets really added a great dimension to the flavor that I highly recommend!

Recipes will either have a link under the picture or the full recipe will be found at the bottom of the page. I hope you enjoy the recipes as much as we did!

{Lora's cajun crab stuffed mushrooms}

These were so good, and boy, did they go fast! I'm not sure everyone even got to try one before the entire platter was devoured!

{Candace's shrimp creole}

{Hunter's dirty rice}

{Robyn's cajun corn pudding}

I've never had a corn pudding with bacon before, and it added such a great smoky flavor that everyone loved. I know at least one person went back for seconds but I'm not saying who!

{my creole compound butter}

See what I mean about it looking dirty?!? Even extra herbs and tabasco sauce couldn't help it at all - may have even made it look worse!

{my corn on the cob}

{Candace's tres leches cake - not cajun but it was Jennie's birthday and it's her favorite}

I'm not a fan of tres leches cake because I find that so many of them are verging on completely mushy and way too sweet! But I loved this one though - it was moist without being soggy!

{bourbon cake}

This was sooo good! The bourbon added a really nice flavor without being overpowering. Plus I thought it was really cute spin on the cajun theme - a bourbon cake for Bourbon Street!

{banana pudding}

{my dessert plate - why choose just 1 when you can have all 3?!}

Shrimp Creole

adapted by Candace from Southern Living

2 (14 1/2-oz) cans stewed tomatoes, undrained

1 (28-oz) can diced tomatoes, undrained

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 small onion, chopped

1/2 c chopped celery (about 2 ribs)

1 T olive oil

1 garlic clove, minced

2-3 t hot sauce - depending on how spicy you like it

1-2 t Creole seasoning

1 lb peeled large fresh shrimp

white rice, for serving (I prefer to use long grain rice, but you can easily use Minute Rice to speed things up)

Prepare rice according to package directions; keep warm.

Pulse stewed tomatoes in a food processor 3 or 4 times or until chopped.

Saute green pepper, onion and celery in hot oil in a large nonstick skillet for 8 minutes or until tender. Add garlic and saute 1 minute. Stir in chopped tomatoes, diced tomatoes, hot sauce and Creole seasoning. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes.

Stir in shrimp, cover, and simmer 3 minutes or until shrimp turn pink. Serve over hot cooked rice.

Dirty Rice

recipe from cooks.com

1 lb. sausage

1/2 lb ground beef

3 stalks celery, diced

1 medium onion, diced

4 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 c parsley, chopped

3/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp black pepper

4 c cooked white rice

2-3 green onions, chopped

Cook sausage and beef in large skillet until almost browned. Drain all but 1-2 tablespoons drippings. Add celery, pepper, onion, garlic and spices. Cook until meat is browned and veggies are softened, about 5 minutes. Drain any excess grease. Combine veggie mixture with rice and mix well. Stir in parsley and garnish with green onions.

Grilled Corn with Creole Compound Butter

12 ears of corn, husked

1 bottle dark beer (I used Shiner Bock)

1 stick butter, softened

1 garlic clove, grated

1 lime, zested

2 t chili powder

1/2 t celery salt

1/2 t onion powder

5 - 10 dashes Tabasco sauce, depending on how spicy you want it

2 t fresh chives, snipped

To make the butter, in a small bowl, combine butter, garlic, lime zest, chili powder, celery salt, onion powder, Tabasco and chives. Place softened butter mixture into small ramekin and smooth top. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Wrap each ear of corn in foil and add 2 T beer to each foil packet. Wrap it up carefully so the beer doesn't leak out. Grill for 10-15 minutes. Let cool a few minutes before eating. Serve with compound butter.

Candace's Tres Leches Cake

a Candace original!

for the cake

1 box Betty Crocker Super Moist yellow cake mix

1 1/4 c water

1 T vegetable oil

2 t vanilla

4 eggs

1 (14-oz) can sweetened condensed milk

1 c whole milk or evaporated milk

1 c whipping cream

for the frosting

3/4 c whipping cream

1/3 c sugar

1 t vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350 degrees (325 degrees for dark or nonstick pans). Grease and flour or spray bottom and sides of 13x9-inch pan.

In a large bowl, beat cake mix, water, oil, vanilla and eggs with electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, then medium speed for 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour into pan.

Bake 29 to 35 minutes or until edges are golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let stand 5 minutes. Poke top of hot cake every 1/2 inch with long-tined fork, wiping fork occasionally to reduce sticking. (Don't hold back on the holes - the more, the better :-)

In a large bowl, stir together sweetened condensed milk, whole milk and whipping cream. Carefully pour evenly over top of cake. Cover; refrigerate about 1 hour or until mixture is absorbed into cake. Frost with frosting and store in refrigerator until ready to serve.

For the frosting, place the whipping cream, sugar and vanilla into the bowl of a stand mixer. Using whisk attachment, whisk together on medium/high speed until stiff peaks are formed.

Banana Pudding

recipe from the Jell-O box

2 pkg (3.4-oz) Banana Cream flavor instant pudding

2 1/2 c cold milk

1 box mini Nilla Wafers

3 bananas, sliced

1 tub (8-oz) Cool Whip Lite, thawed

Beat pudding mix and milk for 2 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes.

Arrange layer of wafers on bottom and up sides of a 2-quart bowl; top with layers of half each banana, wafers and pudding. Repeat layers; cover with Cool Whip. Refrigerate 3 hours.

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Mini Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes

{the perfect little bite-sized snack!}

Yesterday was another "board meeting" with my mom's friends (and now my friends too) and I showed up with these ridiculously cute Mini Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes. I was pretty popular! These are ridiculously cute, aren't they?!? And they only have a total of 8 ingredients...okay, 9 if you count water.

I can't wait to make them again because they would be a great addition to any party or get-together. While there are three parts to this recipe, it wasn't difficult at all. The assembly took a little time, but not too much longer than most standard cupcake recipes. I loved the super simple ganache. It ended up with the perfect consistency, looked beautifully glossy, and it wasn't too sweet, which was a perfect pairing with the sugary custard layer. I have to admit, when I read that you make the ganache by microwaving baker's chocolate with Cool Whip, I was really skeptical. When I first pulled it out of the microwave my skepticism was raised to new levels. It looked like a watery/chocolatey mess, but with a little stirring it smoothed right out. A-maz-ing!

It's important to note that the cupcakes need a little time (minimum of 15 minutes) to set up before serving. And the leftovers are still really good the next day too. Especially when served for breakfast with a steaming mug of coffee. Just throwing that out there.

The only thing I'll probably fiddle around with a little next time is the custard. It didn't have quite enough pizzazz for me. Maybe I'll substitute a French Vanilla pudding or something insanely difficult like that :-)

Mini Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes

adapted only slightly from a KRAFT recipe via allrecipes.com

1 pkg (2 layer size) yellow cake mix (plus ingredients needed to make cake - mine called for

water, eggs and vegetable oil)

1 t vanilla

1 1/2 c cold milk

1 pkg (6 serving size) vanilla flavor instant pudding

1 3/4 c thawed whipped topping, divided

4 squares semi-sweet chocolate, roughly chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare cake batter according to package instructions and the vanilla. Bake in mini-muffin tins for 10-14 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove to wire racks and allow to cool completely.

Beat milk and pudding mix with whisk for about 2 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, use serrated knife to cut cupcakes in half horizontally. Gently fold in 3/4 c whipped topping. Spoon about 1 T of the pudding mixture onto the bottom half of each cupcake; cover with the top half.

Microwave remaining 1 c whipped topping and baker's chocolate in a small bowl for 1 1/2 minutes. Stir until chocolate is completely melted and mixture is well blended. Let stand 10-15 minutes to thicken. Spread onto the top of each cupcake. Refrigerate at least 15 minutes before serving. Store leftovers in refrigerator.

Thanks for visiting! Please leave questions or comments - I always love to hear from you!

Erin

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