Raisin Infused Baked Apples

Can I scream YUMMY? These apples are perfect for transitioning into the fall and winter season. Their warm cinnamon smell and soft yet spicy taste will get you primed and ready for all the seasonal festivities. These apples are great as a quick treat for you, your family and friends, or Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas; the list goes on and on. The best part of all, they don’t really take that much work and anyone, regardless of your baking ability, can make them.

Before we get started I would like to note that it’s best to have an apple corer but is not impossible. I completed these without having one, just be cautious on your first apple. The core flew out of mine and hit me in the face. Ha-ha! Luckily, I was wearing glasses at the time so no harm to foul.

Raisin Infused Baked Apples

Raisin Infused Baked Apples
(Serves 4-8)

4 baking apples (Golden Delicious or Jonagold)
1/3 cup brown sugar
½ cup raisins**
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
butter
¾ cup boiling water

**Unless you want to add nuts (pecans/walnuts then you will want to do 1/3 cup of each)

1.     Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2.     In a small bowl combine brown sugar, cinnamon, and raisins (and nuts if used). Mix together.  Set aside.

3.     Get a small pot of water boiling (enough to extract ¾ cup)

4.     Wash apples and remove cores. It is easiest to do with an apple corer but can also be done using a paring knife and a tablespoon. Gently cut and remove the core and remove all seeds. The opening of your apple should be no longer than ¾ to 1 inch wide. 

5.     Equally stuff the raisin/brown sugar mixture into the apples. Top the apples with a slab of butter (1/4 of the tbsp).

6.     Place apples into a 8 by 8 inch square baking pan and pour ¾ a cup of boiling water into the bottom of the pan.

7.     Bake 30-40 mins or until the apples are tender but not mushy. Remove apples from oven and baste the apples several times with the pan juices.

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream. Enjoy.

Cored Apple - Step 4

Cored Apples in Pan - Step 4

Stuffed Apples - Step 5

Step 7 - Baste Apples w/pan Juices

Serve with Vanilla Ice Cream. Enjoy!

 

Lemon Parmeggiano Pasta

LEMONS, LEMONS, LEMONS….Oh even as I write this my mind races with the possibilities. Until this past week I had not worked with fresh lemons; actually, I hadn’t really worked much with fresh non pre-made packaged foods. I love the smell of freshly grated lemon zest. I can not take full credit for this recipe as it is a close adaption of “spaghetti limone parmeggiano” as found in Gwyneth Paltrow’s “my fathers’s daughter” cookbook. I did make slight adjustments to the preparation and ingredient levels. This is definitely one of my favorite summer pasta dishes. 

Lemon Parmeggiano Pasta

Lemon Parmeggiano Pasta
(serves 4)

1 lemon
3//4 box of pasta (spaghetti, elbow, macaroni, etc)
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
½ tsp ground peppercorn (or ground pepper)
handful of basil (fresh or dried)
pinch of salt

1.     Bring water to a boil in a medium pot add salt and oil to “season” the pasta and help keep it from sticking. Strain pasta but retain about a cup of the pasta water. Place strained pasta back into pot.

2.     In a large bowl, grate the zest of the lemon. Then cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice from the lemon into the bowl.  Add the peppercorn, salt, and Parmesan cheese with the lemon juice mixture and mix thoroughly. Add in about 5 teaspoons of pasta water to the mixture.

3.     Over low heat, mix together the pasta and lemon mix and stir until the cheese is melted.  (should only take a minute or two. Our goal is NOT to cook the pasta but to melt the cheese)

4.     Enjoy!

Chocolate Cheesecake Crumble

This is an extremely rich tasting cheesecake. Not only is this recipe easy to make it's also extremely versatile. If you don’t want a crust then don’t cook the crust and only prepare the filling. If you don’t want to make your own piecrust and do not follow a GF diet, you can substitute with a store bought crust.

Gluten Free Chocolate Cheesecake Crumble

Chocolate Crumble Crust
1 cup of finely ground corn Chex  (substitute Graham cracker if not on a GF diet)
½ cup finely ground semi-sweet chocolate morsels
1/3 c solid butter

1.     Lightly butter the bottom of a 9 inch round nonstick baking pan.

2.     Mix Chex and chocolate together in a bowl. Combine 1/3 solid butter until well blended.

3.     Press mixture into the bottom of the pan. Try to make as even as possible but do not “over” press as this will remove the moisture from the mixture that we want to retain.

4.     Cover with csaran wrap and place in the freezer for at least 2 hours. We want to make sure all of the ingredients freeze together to create a consistent tempature for baking.

Gluten Free Chex and Semi-Sweet Chocolate Crust

Chocolate Cheesecake Crumble (filling and assembly)
2 8 oz packages of Cream Cheese
1/3 c sugar
2 eggs
½ tsp vanilla extract

1.     Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Once ready, place your frozen crust in the over for 7-12 mins. Remove crust from oven.

2.     In a large mixing bowl combine the cream and sugar. Mix thoroughly adding in one egg at a time. Add the vanilla after eggs are mixed and make sure the entire mix is even consistency.

Uncooked Cheesecake Filling

3.     Pour filling into the crust you removed from the oven. (if timed correctly) you should be finishing your filling just as the crust is finished preheating.

4.     Bake the cheesecake for 40 mins. You will know the cheesecake is done when the top has a light brown crisp all over.

5.     Serves 8-12. Enjoy!

Fresh out of the oven and perfectly baked on top.

Orange Citrus “Summer” Chicken Marinade

I had a blast creating this chicken marinade. Not only was it my first time making a marinade but it was my first time zesting a lemon.  This citrus chicken infusion is the perfect compliment to a simple salad of iceberg lettuce, pasta, white rice, or quinoa.

Orange Citrus Grilled Chicken
has been paired with simple iceberg lettuce, peaches,
lemon, and orange slices for a nice summer salad.

Orange Citrus “Summer” Chicken Marinade

Chicken tenders – thawed
2 peach slices
½ cup orange juice
1 lemon

1.     In a plastic freezer bag: ½ cup of orange juice, peaches slices, the zest of one lemon, and half a lemon (cut into aprox. 4 slices). Save the other half of the lemon as a garnish or dressing.

2.     Push all of the excess air out of the freezer bag and seal. Work the juices into the meat by lightly needing it for a few seconds. Place the marinade into the refrigerator for at least 30 mins but NO longer than 2 hours as the protein in the meant will begin to break down causing the meat to become mushy.

3.     Remove chicken from the marinade. Discard the marinade and grill or bake your chicken.

Birds Eye View of the Marinade