Southern Apple Dumplings

Hello Spring!!!

In honor of Spring showing is beautiful face, here's a recipe that takes advantage of the abundance of fresh produce available to each one of us.

How about some good ole Southern Apple dumplings.

Here's a quick and easy recipe that you can pop into the oven and have done lickety-split.

Southern Apple Dumplings

2 cans of Pillsbury Crescent rolls
2 large Granny Smith apples
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/4 cup Sprite/ 7-Up

How To:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 13x9 baking dish
Peal and cut each apple into 8 wedges.
Separate the crescent roll dough into each individual piece.
Roll each apple wedge into the crescent roll dough, starting at the widest end. Pinch to seal and cover the apple. Set aside.
In medium mixing bowl, mix together sugar and cinnamon. Roll each covered apple in the sugar and cinnamon mixture and then place in the greased baking dish.
Melt the butter and stir in the Sprite/7-up and then pour over the apple dumplings.
Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until golden brown.

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Loaded Potato Soup

One potato, two potato, three potato, four...Oh how I love potatoes, I want to eat more!

As most folks in the South can tell you, potatoes are a staple in any traditional Southern meal and are greatly enjoyed throughout the year. We like our potatoes mashed, fried, steam, roasted, in casseroles, or as potato chips.

During this crazy cold weather we are having, potato soup would be a great comfort dish to make your family for dinner. I have tried many potato soups and have finally found one I love and want to share with you.

Loaded Potato Soup

Ingredients:

6 slices country ham, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 medium onion, chopped
6 whole carrots, cleaned and chopped
6 stalks of celery, diced
6 medium, Russet Potatoes, peeled and diced
8 cups vegetable broth
3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 teaspoons salt, may want more to taste
black pepper to taste
1 cup grated cheddar cheese


How To:

Add ham pieces to soup/stock pot over medium heat and cook until crisp. Remove the ham from the heat and set aside. Pour off most of the grease but do not clean pot.

Return pot to medium-high heat and add the onion, carrots, celery and potatoes. Cook for 5 minutes and season with salt and pepper.

Pour in the broth and bring to a gentle boil. Cook for 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Whisk together flour and milk, then pour into the soup and allow soup to cook for another 5 to 10 minutes until your desired thickness.

Once soup is to your desired thickness, add in your ham pieces and cheddar cheese. Add additional salt and pepper to taste.

Homemade Apple Butter

It's that time of year again...Christmas!! The season is here again and it's time to bring out new recipes and give them a try.

Today's delicious creation is apple butter; now not to confuse anyone but apple butter is not your typical dairy butter with an apple flavor. Apple butter it is actually cooked apples to the point where they caramelize and turn deep brown in color and gives the apples a much deeper flavor profile. You can serve this warm or cold but either way it's delicious.

Here's my recipe for this delicious spread! Hope you enjoy!

Homemade Apple Butter in a Crock-Pot

Ingredients:

6 pounds of Pink Lady apples- peeled, cored and sliced
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice


Directions:

Placed sliced apples and vinegar into large crock-pot.
Set on HIGH and cook for 8 hours.

After 8 hours, stir in white sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, clove and allspice and cook for another 8 hours on LOW.

Once it has completely cooked, you can enjoy warm or let cool and store in an air tight container.

Enjoy on some warm biscuits or cornbread!!

Crock-Pot Minestrone Soup

It’s soup time!! Now that the weather is changing, it is time to stock my freezer with yummy soup for those cold winter days ahead. 

Minestrone soup is a one of my new favorite soups to make. Minestrone typically has tomatoes added and no potatoes but I am not a tomato fan so therefore I used tomato paste. Potatoes I just love to of coursed I added them to my soup.

Here’s my recipe so enjoy!!

Ingredients

4 cups reduced-sodium vegetable or chicken broth

1 lbs. sausage, browned and drained

1 (12 ounce) can, tomato paste

1 (15 ounce) can, white navy beans, drained

2 cups potatoes, peeled and chopped

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

½ tablespoon Italian seasoning

2 bay leaves

2 medium zucchini, chopped

2 cups ditalini pasta

1 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon pepper

Directions

In a crock-pot, combine broth, sausage, tomato paste, beans, potatoes, carrots, celery, onion, Italian seasoning, bay leaves, salt and pepper.  Cover and cook LOW for 6 to 8 hours or HIGH 4 to 5 hours.

About 45 minutes before soup if done cooking, add ditalini and zucchini. Cover and cook for 45 more minutes. Remove bay leaves and season to taste with more salt and pepper.



Crock-Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup

I have recently been experimenting with some new crock-pot recipes for my family. Cooking in the crock-pot is so convenient, it allows you to make dinner while you are at work and come home to a ready cooked meal.  Since the season has changed soup was sounding really good for dinner. So I researched some chicken tortilla soup recipes and gathered the ingredients I wanted to put in my soup and went to the kitchen.

Here’s what I came up with!

Ingredients:

3 to 4 chicken breast meat, shredded

 1 can (15oz) reduced sodium black beans, drained

1 can (15oz) whole kernel corn

1 taco seasoning packet

1 can (15 oz) chicken broth

1 jalapeno pepper, diced (remove the seeds)

How To:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Season your chicken breast w/ salt and pepper and bake for 30 to 45 minutes depending on the size of the pieces. Once finished, let rest and cool and then shred.

In your crock-pot, combine the rest of your ingredients. Set your crock-pot to low and let cook for 6 to 8 hours. 

Enjoy your soup w/ some tortilla chips, shredded cheese, sour cream or maybe some salsa!!

Slower Cooker Pinto Beans w/ Smoked Sausage

Happy Fall Everyone!

Now that Fall has arrived it is time to pull out those new recipes and get to cooking! I have lots of yummy recipes to share with you so let the cooking begin!

So my first recipe of the season is at the request of my fiance. He is a meat and potatoes kind of guy so pinto beans were right up his alley. I asked if he would rather have seasoned canned beans but no, no dried beans were what he wanted. I did some research to figure out how to prep the beans and recipes recommend for cooking time. After my research I gathered my ingredients and went to work.

Here is what I decided on:


Slow Cooker Pinto Beans w/ Smoked Sausage


Ingredients:
1lbs. dried pinto beans
3 celery ribs, chopped
2 green bell peppers, chopped
1 sweet onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp Creole seasoning
2 cups of chicken broth
1 package smoked sausage, sliced

How To:
Soak dried pinto beans in a stock pot overnight. Pour beans into the pot and fill up with water to completely cover the beans with a the water line about half an inch above the top of the beans.

Once beans have soaked, combine all ingredients into your crock-pot and add 1to 2 cups of beef or chicken broth to mixture.

Cover and cook on HIGH for 8 hours or until beans are tender

Serve with rice if desired!

Oven Roasted Brussels Sprouts

I’m sure when you hear the word brussels sprouts your  thinking “yucky”, “stinky”, “never going to eat that.” I had the same reaction until I actually took a bite.

Soap Box Moment: Brussels sprouts have many healthy qualities that some may not realize. They provide you with some special cholesterol- lowering benefits when they are steamed; brussels sprouts will bind together with the bile acids in your digestive tract thus helping come you out! Brussels sprouts also have cancer preventative components due to the specific combinations of amino acids as well as they provide for a healthy thyroid function.

You can look up recipes for roasting brussels sprouts and a lot of them are the same, they include olive oil, salt, and pepper so I used the same ingredients but when it comes to salt and pepper to each their own. 

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

1 lbs of brussels sprouts

3 tbsp olive oil

Sea salt

Black Pepper

1 medium onion, cut into large slices

Pinch of Brown Sugar

How To:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Cut off the ends of the brussels sprouts and pull off any yellow/dirty outer leaves. Cut up onion into large slices.

In a bowl, mix together with olive oil, salt and pepper and onion.

Pour them onto a sheet pan and roast for about 40 minutes until crisp. Shake the pan about 20 minutes in to evenly roast.

Once done, sprinkle w/ more sea salt and pinch of brown sugar. Serve immediately and enjoy!