Wassil Cider

This Hot Apple Cider is so good and perfect for a cold Sunday afternoon!

Wassil Cider (Hot Apple Cider)
Ingredients:

• 64 oz Apple Cider
• 1 1/2 cups Cinnamon Red Hot Candies
• Sugar to taste

Directions:
Put apple cider into a sauce pan. Add the red hot candies. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently to prevent sticking, until candy is dissolved completely. Add sugar if desired. Serve with a cinnamon stick in the cup.
You can adjust the ingredients to your digression.
There are some variations of this recipe that we didn't try. But they are still really good, here they are!
Hot Spiced Cider Punch with Red Hots II
Ingredients:

• 1 Gallon Apple Cider
• 1 Quart Orange Juice
• 1 Quart Pineapple Juice
• 1 Cup Lemon Juice
• 24 whole cloves
• 1 Cup Red Hots candy

Directions:
Put apple cider, orange juice, pineapple juice, and lemon juice into a sauce pan. Add the red hot candies and cloves. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently to prevent sticking, remove cloves after 10 minutes and then continue until candy is dissolved completely. Serve with a cinnamon stick in the cup.

A Healthy Vegetarian Sandwich

I'm back in Oklahoma, Cameron surprised me and came up for the weekend!

For lunch my mom made this delicious vegetarian sandwich (which is really healthy too). It's super easy and doesn't require anytime at all to prepare. So I thought I would share it.

Ingredients:

• 1 English Muffin (Toasted)
  
• 2 Slices of Tomatoes
• 3 Slices of Red Onion
• Handful of Lettuce
• 1 Packet of Laughing Cow Cheese

Directions:

Toast the bread and assemble the ingredients together. Put the cheese on first and then the lettuce, I found this was the easiest way to keep lettuce to stay on the sandwich and then add the rest of the ingredients. ENJOY!

Cameron's Meal and A Fun Present

A couple of things... First I officially got into Culinary School! I just ordered my chef's coat and pants and set up a meeting with my adviser! I'm so excited and I start in August!

Second, I went to Dallas last week for a lunch and meeting with the Baylor Advisory Board. I told Cameron I really wanted to cook dinner instead of going out that night. When I got out of my exam and started driving to Dallas I called him to ask what we were going to cook.

He responded with "I don't know, I have a Voila in the freezer, I thought we could just make that." Needless to say I was disappointed, but I was excited to see him, so I tried to cover up my disappointment and told him that would be a nice dinner.

An hour and half later I got to Dallas. As soon as I opened the door I could smell a bunch of different ingredients and knew that he had lied and was surprising me with a homemade dinner.

I got to the kitchen and he told me we were going to make shrimp. He had already peeled and devained all the shrimp so everything as ready.

Cameron's Dinner (Shrimp, Peppers, and Salad)

Ingredients:
(Since Cameron was in charge of getting all the ingredients I don't know how much he used, but you can never have too much garlic!)

• Shrimp
• Butter
• Garlic
• Bell Peppers (Orange and Red added a lot of color)
  
• Mozzarella
• Cheery Tomatoes
• Black Olives (Sliced) Although Cameron doesn't like olives, so I just had some in my salad
• Olive Oil (Italian Dresseding or any kind of dressing works)

Mince the garlic, Cut the peppers, Peel and devain the shrimp. Heat a medium skillet and add the butter and garlic. Then add the shrimp and cook until pink. Next add the peppers to the butter-garlic mixture and cook for 5-8 minutes.

Cameron sauteing the Shrimp.

Mix together the mozzarella , cherry tomatoes, and olives (or pick out the olives like Cameron) and then toss with olive oil or Italian dressing. (Maybe even add some basil too! We didn't have any but fresh basil would be great in that salad.)

The dinner was delicious and I was so thankful that Cameron put together such a great dinner.

My third announcement is my AMAZING gift from Ryan. Every year my roommates do a Secret Santa (this way we all get special gifts and it saves us poor college girls some money!) Anyway we went to Nifas and Ryan gave me this gorgeous apron! I can't wait to wear it when I'm cooking at home for the holidays!

Chili Cheese Rice and Another Pie

Greetings for the land of pots and pans!

I'm finishing up my last Fall semester and have been so busy with work I haven't had a lot of time to cook! Last Sunday Cameron and I went to my professor's house for a Christmas party, and so of course I cooked for the occasion! I made a Chile Cheese Rice Casserole and a Blackberry-Apple Pie (my second one!) I ended up having a lot of filling left over, so I made an extra pie for my roommates.

And my professor liked my chili cheese rice so much he asked me for the recipe...

Chile Cheese Rice:

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of cooked rice ( I put in 4 cups because otherwise its just too cheesy)
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 cup chopped scallions (this is about a whole bundle)
• 4-oz can chopped green chiles
• 1 cup shredded cheddar
• 8-oz parmesan
• salt and cayenne to taste (and then more to top off the casserole!)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450. Mix the cooked rice, sour cream, scallions, green chilies, cheddar, salt, and cayenne together in a bowl. Then in a casserole bowl, butter, and sprinkle parmesan on the bottom. Spread the rice mixture in the bowl and then sprinkle parmesan on the top and dot with butter. I added a bit of cayenne to the top to give it an extra kick. Bake for 20 minutes. A great and easy side dish.

Blackberry-Apple Pie

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 Tbl lemon juice
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 lbs tart apples (about 6 apples)
• 2/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar, divided
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 2 cups frozen blackberries (not thawed) or fresh
  

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 9-inch deep-dish pie pan with nonstick spray.

Combine lemon juice and vanilla in a large bowl. Peel, core and cut apples into 3/4-inch chunks, tossing them in the lemon juice mixture as you work. Let the apples soak in the mixture.

Mix 2/3 cup sugar and cornstarch and toss with apples. Add blackberries.

Place pre-made (or homemade, I didn't have time to make my own) pie dough in the bottom of the pie shell. With a rubber spatula, scrape the blackberry-apple filling into pie shell. Cover the top of the pie with the second pie dough. Press together edges of pastry to seal. With the tip of a sharp knife, cut 3 or 4 short slashes to vent steam. Moisten a pastry brush with water and lightly brush top of pie. Sprinkle with the remaining 1 Tbl sugar. Place the pie on a baking sheet with sides.

Bake until crust is golden and filling bubbles, 45 to 55 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for about 1 hour. Serve warm or at room temperature. (Make you bake it unit the pie crust is golden, my crust cracked, so I guess I'll have to keep experimenting so that it won't do that again!)

A Thanksgiving Side Dish

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Some of my family came into Oklahoma this morning to spend Thanksgiving with us.

Today I was in charge of the carrots. The biggest part of Thanksgiving dinner, second only to the turkey. I found a really good recipe. I have to quadruple the recipe for my family. But the recipe I'll give is only for 1 lb of carrots.

All the girls worked all morning to get the dinner ready for everyone. We had turkey, two different kinds of stuffing, broccoli cheese casserole, green beans, rolls, gravy, candied fruit, and of course carrots.

(Left: Aunt Na, Boo, and Emily) (Right: Boo and Mom)

(Dad and the 21 lb turkey! A lot of meat!)

The Recipe (Glazed Carrots):

Ingredients

• 1 pound carrots, approximately 7 medium, peeled and cut on the bias 1/4-inch thick
• 1 ounce (2 tablespoons) unsalted butter
• Heavy pinch kosher salt
• 1 cup good-quality ginger ale
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley leaves

In a 12-inch saute pan over medium heat, combine the carrots, butter, salt and ginger ale. Cover and bring to a simmer.

Once simmering, remove the lid, stir, and reduce the heat to low. Cover again and cook for 5 minutes. Remove the lid, add the chili powder and increase the heat to high.

Cook, tossing occasionally, until the ginger ale is reduced to a glaze, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Pour into a serving dish and sprinkle with the parsley. Serve immediately.

To end the season of Thanksgiving, Richard discovered that he is allergic to cats and his eye swelled up and shut. Not a good time to find that out, but after the cat went outside Richard's swelling went down.

My First Blog and My First Pie

Hello from the land of pots and pans.

Tonight I made my first apple pie! We're not eating it until tomorrow, but it looks and smells delicious!

After everything I cook I always take a tons of pictures and then text the pictures and description to Cameron, my boyfriend, and my family. So I thought I would create a blog instead of racking up my phone bill.

Grandad and I have been working on the name and profile for my new blog. We collaborated with Cameron in Dallas and my parents in the kitchen the whole time trying to pick the right name. Finally we decided on the name, picked one that was available and here we are.

So the pie... I asked if I could make the pie for Thanksgiving this year. I've never made a pie before, but I thought Thanksgiving dinner with 20 hungry people would be a good time to start learning.

It was the first time I've ever peeled apples by hand before. It wasn't hard once you got the hang of it. I only used eight apples and then Ford ate the last one.

The Recipe:

• 1 recipe pastry for a 9-inch double crust pie
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 3 Tbl flour
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 Tbl vanilla
• 8 apples- peeled, cored, and sliced

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, white sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.

Then you place the bottom crust in your pan. (I just used a premade crust, I thought it would be way to much to make my first crust too!). Then I took the sauce off the pan and in a large bowl combined the sauce and the apples, and let it marinate for a bit.

Next I filled the pie and scrapped EVERY SINGLE drop of the sauce out of the pan and into the pie. I covered the filling with a lattice work (weaving the crust).

Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and continue to bake for 40 minutes, until the apple are soft. I thought my crust was getting a little too brown, so I covered it lightly with foil and it turned out great!

I haven't tasted it yet, but my dad snuck an apple covered in the sauce before I poured it into the pie and he said it was good.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!