Apple Pie Filling

I love the fall. All those apples and the millions of things you can do with them. One thing in particular is the smell of apple pie. It's a warmth and smell that just fills your house with goodness. It's also a great time to get all that canning done that you've been meaning to do all summer, but have put off until the last possible second!?! No of course not, we are all perfect housewives who get all the ironing, cooking, cleaning, laundry, watching the children, running errands and darning done in one day. And if you don't know what darning is... well, never mind then, you must be the perfect housewife if you never have to darn a thing!

So anyway, I just really wanted to post this recipe before I lose it again in my perfectly clean house. (you can't see me right now, but I'm rolling my eyes) This recipe has nothing to do with the season. In fact you won't be able to use this recipe for probably a good...well when fall comes around again. It is delicious when you bake it into a pie and it would even be great warmed up and served with ice cream. It is easy to can, even for the newbie!

Ingredients:

Apples

1 cup corn starch

dash of cloves

4 1/2 cups sugar

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

3 teaspoons cinnamon

10 cups water

Directions:

• Peel, core and slice your apples. Place into jars, filling the jar to just the bottom of the rings.
• Mix together the corn starch, cloves, sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon.Add 10 cups water to the dry ingredients and mix well.
• Boil the mixture until the sugar dissolves.
• Pour over jarred apples.
• Process for 20 minutes

Makes 7 jars

• Tips: Don't boil your mixture too fast. Gradually bring it to a boil. I think it gets too thick too fast otherwise.
• I like to use my apple peeler/corer. They aren't expensive and they make the job go so much faster. Then all you have to do is slice the apples.

source: Claudia Clayson via April Clayson

Aunt Joan's Christmas Jello

So my Aunt, Joan Haws, shared this recipe with my parents several years ago. Growing up, we had it every Christmas eve. However, now Heather and I actually tend to have it at Thanksgiving with my family more than Christmas, but is still just as delicious and unique no matter when we have it. You may think it's weird looking at the ingredients, but trust me, it's DELICIOUS. Thank you to my sister Andrea for sending me the recipe! This will be included in our family recipe book forever.

1 large pkg. Cherry Jello
1/2 Cup Red Hots (Cinnamon Imperial Candies)
2 Cups water + 1-3/4 Cups water
1 red apple, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1/2 Cup chopped walnuts

Dissolve Red Hot Candies in 2 cups boiling water, then stir in Jello to dissolve. Pour into 9x13 pan. Stir in 1-3/4 cups cold water. Stir in apple, celery, and walnuts. Chill several hours, or until set.

Source: Joan Haws

Breadsticks

These are delicious bread sticks. They are soft, warm and buttery. Nothing is better than butter, as Paula Deen would say! We had these at our friends house. I love bread! We decided that we needed to get off of our little dessert kick that we have been on lately, and post some other recipes. So we hope that this is a sign of things to come!! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups warm water
1 Tbsp. Yeast
2 Tbsp. Sugar
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cube butter
garlic salt
Parmesan cheese
parsley flakes (optional)

Directions:

Mix together the warm water, yeast and sugar. Then add the flour and salt. Mix together and let rise for 1/2 hour.

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Place one stick of butter on a cookie sheet pan. Place in heating oven to melt.

Put some flour on a board and roll out dough. Cut into bread sticks and dip them in the butter and arrange on the cookie sheet.

Sprinkle the tops with garlic salt, Parmesan cheese and parsley flakes. Put as much garlic as you would like.

Let raise for 15 minutes.

Bake for 20 minutes or until light brown.

• Tips: Grated Parmesan in a bottle is better than fresh shredded parmesan on these, but shredded will work just as well.
• It is OK to omit the parsley flakes. I think they would taste just as good without it.
• The more garlic salt you use, the more intense your garlic flavor will be.

source: Jennifer Holman via her sister Sarah Feil

The Cookie Monster!

When my husband and I were in college there was this pizza joint that we always used to eat at. It was called Craigo's. They had the best cheese bread sticks! But they also had a dessert that would feed like 10 of us girls who wouldn't eat much, because there are guys that you like around and so of course we ate before we showed up type deal!?! Nah! That wasn't me!! Anyway, it was called the Cookie Monster. It was like a little piece of heaven on your plate. So my husband and I have been on a dessert kick lately, if you couldn't tell and we decided to make our own cookie monster.

Ingredients:

Prepared cookie dough. (You can use whatever you would prefer!)

Caramel sauce

Chocolate Sauce

Vanilla Ice Cream

Whipped Cream

Nuts - optional

Directions:

Shape your prepared cookie dough on a round pan. Bake until golden brown. Let cool.

Slice your cookie like slices of pizza. Take a slice and top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, caramel sauce, chocolate sauce, whipped cream and nuts. Enjoy!

Candy Crunch Pudding Pie

If you love chocolate then you will love this! I was in the store buying pudding for my Smore Cookies when I happened upon this recipe. This was an impulse buy if ever there was one and let's be honest, it probably had more to do with my sudden and inexplicable urge for chocolate! Of course my husband and I ran into some people we know at the store and he proceeds to tell them that it seems like with each child we have, I get more and more into chocolate. Well if that's the case, then I am going to be one big chocolate mess by the time I hit my mid-thirties! Anyway, this recipe ended up being fantastic. It was simple, fast and it wasn't too rich at all. In fact it was just right.

Ingredients:

1-1/2 cups cold milk

1 pkg. (5.9 oz) chocolate instant pudding

1 tub (8 oz) whipped topping, divided

2 milk chocolate English toffee candy bars (1.4 oz each), chopped and divided

1 Oreo pie crust

1 square BAKER'S semi-sweet chocolate, melted

Directions:

Beat milk and pudding mix with whisk for 2 minutes. Stir in 1/2 the whipped topping and all but about 3 tablespoons of the candy.

Spoon the mixture into the crust.

Top with remaining whipped topping and candy. Drizzle with melted chocolate.

source: Jell-o brand Chocolate Instant Pudding Box

Nikki's Amazing Smore Cookies

This recipe comes to us from our Niece-in-law Nikki. She is chalk full of great recipes! This recipe is just one of many. They are so yummy and soft. Aaron and I both agreed that they were even better the next day. They reminded me so much of my many fun camping adventures with my family. Many of which ended with someone falling out of a hammock, or falling in the lake or falling out of a tent! Ah, the memories! So if you are missing out on that campfire ritual of smore's then you will love these cookies.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 cup butter, softened

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 (4oz) pkg. chocolate instant pudding (powder only)

1 tsp baking soda

2 1/4 cups flour 1 cup mini marshmallows

1 cup crushed graham crackers (makes sure it's not too fine you want some chunks)

1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

Cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs, vanilla and pudding mix.

In a separate bowl mix baking soda and flour. Gently add to wet ingredients. Add marshmallows, chips and graham crackers

Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

Tips:

• After I mixed the batter I put it into the refrigerator for 30-60 minutes, it makes the cookies fluffy.


• It's hard to mix in the marshmallows, so you may need to put them into each cookie as you roll it into a ball. I put in 3 marshmallows per cookie.


• I used parchment paper on my cookie sheet and also sprayed it with some Pam. I didn't want those marshmallows to stick!


• I cooked mine for 8 minutes and then let them sit on the cookie sheet for about 2 minutes before I transferred them to the cooling rack. They might not look done at 8 minutes but they will cook while they set on the pan and this way they will be soft and chewy!

Refreshing Raspberry Jello Salad

We re-discovered recently that we really enjoy jello salad. However, we don't have many on here except for Heather's Grandma's Jello and Rainbow Jello . We made this recipe the other night when we had lots of ripe bananas on hand. It turned out great! Somehow I need to get a hold of my Sister Andrea to get the recipe to my Aunt Joan's Christmas Jello recipe as well. One of my favorites! In the meantime, enjoy this one!

2 cups boiling water
1 (6 ounce) package raspberry flavored gelatin
1 (10 ounce) package frozen raspberries in syrup
1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple, undrained
4 bananas

Add package of gelatin to boiling water and stir until dissolved. Refrigerate until thick and syrupy (but not set). Thaw unopened package of raspberries in cold water for about 10 minutes. Carefully add to gelatin. Stir in crushed pineapple. Dice bananas and add. Pour into 9x13 dish. Refrigerate and let set overnight, if possible, or for several hours.

Yield: about 12 servings.

Source: The Essential Mormon Cookbook