November Cupcake Of The Month

I FOUGHT THE CUPCAKE AND THE CUPCAKE WON!

Well I came to tell you, I totally bombed cupcake of the month, this month. I have attempted this recipe three different times. Three totally different recipes, for the same cupcake, and all three failed. So I am setting this idea aside and will try it again down the road.

Ok I should mention how much I LOVE both of my mixers. One to mix the crust and one to mix the batter.

These were suppose to be pumpkin pie cupcakes.In the midst of this I have found a pie crust recipe that I utterly love. If you don't have this book, you really need this book. I am using Cybel's Pumpkin Pie Crust. It is beyond dreamy.

So I rolled out twelve mini crusts and put them into a cupcake tin. I filled with batter.

And baked, and baked, and baked, and baked, and brunt. And they still didn't turn out.

And because I have been working so hard on this idea, I have not gotten to the potm, (pie of the month). So hoping tomorrow with my awesome new crust to make a cranberry apple pie....Stay tuned.

OMG To Die For Fries

Kind of an oops tonight in making dinner and I honestly thought I had died and gone to heaven. So I got a new Jamie Oliver cookbook and he had a recipe in there, where you cut up potatoes really finely and fry them up. I was suppose to add like lemon peel or something but I didn't have it so skipped it, and really looking at things I did not cut up the potatoes so finely.

But any who. I cut them up as finely as I would say McDonald's fries. As I cut I put them into a bowl of ice cold water well the oil was warming up. I cooked these in my cast iron dutch oven. Man I love that pan, how did I ever live without it?

So once the temp hit 350 I started frying, I took a handful of potatoes out of the ice water and dried them the best I could and put them in the oil. It was Canola Oil tonight. I let them fry until they were golden brown. The first batch took forever, but every batch after that took 8-10 minutes.

I have never been able to make fries like this. Honestly they tasted like McDonald's french fries. Do you know how long it has been since I have had McDonald's fries?

Enjoy....

Apple and Sasuage Stuffing

So the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, I realized there is really nothing at the dinner table that my hubby could eat. He had just given up potatoes, on top of being gluten, dairy, soy free. So me starting to freak out, he said a good stuffing would work.

So I went on the hunt for a good stuffing. And found one in the Joy of Cooking Cookbook.

It came out Amazing. It smelled awesome, and hubby loved it.

1 pound sausage
4 cups apples peeled and diced

I browned the sausage, once browned I mixed in the apples and let it sit on low and soak.

4 to 8 tablespoons Earth Balance Butter
2 cups chopped onions
1 cup chopped celery
1/4 cup parsley
1 teaspoon thyme
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/3 to 1 cup chicken stock
1 pound or about 10 cups of gf bread crumbs

In a pan melt the butter, add in onions, celery. Once cooked and tender add in the rest of the ingredients, except chicken stock, and bread crumbs. Let cook up for a few minutes. Once done, in a big bowl combine sausage, apples, cooked up stuffing mixture and bread crumbs. Add in chicken stock until happy, mix well. I did use 1 cup. Once fully mixed put into a baking pan and bake at 350 for 25-40 minutes.

This will now be something I do at every big get together meal. It was amazing.

Canned Chocolate Syrup

Well Blogger won't let me up load photos tonight, I even restarted the computer. So for now you get a recipe and I will try to update tomorrow. Now please keep in mind this is NOT a USDA approved canning recipe.

It was so pretty when making it, and it was something quick to make, it just didn't make a whole lot. I want to say 3 half pints per recipe? I did the recipe three times. I would have kept going but ran out of cocoa. I think it would be a great Christmas gift to give.

Chocolate Syrup

1 cup cocoa
2 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
1 tablespoon vanilla

Combine cocoa, sugar: blend until all lumps are gone. Add water and salt. Mix well. Cook over medium heat, bringing to a boil. Keep boiling until thick, stirring to keep from overflowing. Remove from heat. Let cool. Add vanilla. This can be waterbath canned for 10 minutes.

When Life Throws You Snow...You Make Snow People

So we got hit with some snow yesterday, and more overnight and even more today. Roughly 3 inches or so. So we kept the kids home. They went out front and built snow people. Mom sewed up some scarfs from scraps, but only had pink. Explain to mom why she has pink fabric and three boys? Any who here are photos from two of the three boys out playing and building.

Caramel Apple Butter Canning Recipe

Yes, you can have Caramel Apple Butter and have it dairy free. HOW? You say Marcie? Well it ain't easy I will tell ya that. First you need to make your own Caramel. I found a recipe to try, I will post below. I am not to happy with it. For canning apple butter it was fine, but to have it stand up as a candy it really would not work well. My hunt will continue!

Anywho, I made the caramel a few days before I was to make apple butter and just kept it in the fridge. So when I was ready I just pulled it out and dumped it into the crockpot. I used This Crockpot Apple Butter Recipe although I used 6 pounds of apples and 2 cups of sugar. I'm not a big fan of sugar around here.

After letting the apple butter sit in the crockpot for awhile, I added the caramel and just left it on low for a few hours. Until it looked way too good to be possible, I then jarred it up and canned it up. I did 10 minutes bwb. Enjoy.

Caramel

1 Cup Coconut Milk
1 Tablespoon Vanilla
5 Tablespoons Earth Balance Butter
2 Teaspoons Sea Salt
1 1/2 Cup Sugar
1/4 Cup Honey
1/4 Cup Water

Line bottom and sides of an 8 inch square baking pan with parchment paper, then brush parchment lightly with oil.

In a small saucepan, combine coconut milk, butter, and sea salt. Bring the mixture to a boil stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and set aside.

In a large, heavy sauce pan set over medium to medium-high heat, combine sugar, honey, vanilla, and water. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring. Once the sugar is dissolved, cook the mixture until the temperature reaches 248 degrees F, gently swirling the saucepan (do not stir). Carefully stir in the coconut milk mixture. It will bubble up, so take care not to burn yourself. Continue to simmer, swirling the mixture frequently, for 15-20 minutes, or until the mixture thickens and turns golden brown. While simmering, do not allow the temperature go higher then 250 degrees F.

To determine if the caramel with your fingers to determine if the consistency you like, drop a small amount of caramel into a bowl of cold water. Test the ball of caramel with your fingers to determine if the consistency is right.

Pour the cooked caramel into into the prepared pan. Let the caramel cool for 2 hours. Let cool for about 2 hours and cut and wrap each square. ( I did not cut and wrap, knowing I would just dump into the crock pot)