Smashing Apple's

No we are not literally going to be "smashing" apples, that could get messy and right now for once my kitchen is actually pretty clean, something that NEVER happens!! Honestly its funny because we rarely eat in there but its my haven and where I do all my "work"!!! I think I think better in my kitchen, either way its by far my favorite room in the house... I mean how could it not be? That’s where all the good stuff is!!!! And I think the kitchen is the most forgiving room in the house, it has to be cause it sees us wiping the crumbs off the counter on the floor in that hurried moment, eating that late night snack right out the fridge, drinking milk from the carton (you know everyone is guilty of that at some point), kicking the dog out the way... I mean come on, the best and worst comes out of us in the kitchen!! I absolutely love it!!!

  Alright sorry for going into all that, back to the point at hand.... smashing apples! I gave it this name because they are "smashingly good"!! :) and oh so easy. You don’t know this yet because I am trying to hide it for as long as I can but the truth must be set free.... I stink at baking. I LOVE TO.... i just burn, under cook, measure wrong, improvise.... u get the point, i do all the things you cant do in baking!!! I still try and this is prob why you don’t know this yet because I only will post edible stuff!! No really I can but I have bad luck in most attempts I suppose... I blame my oven mostly!! *wink wink* But this concoction turned out good and will be done many more times (if my oven chooses to let me).

First I started off with

· 4 Gala apples,

· 2 cups of brown sugar (keep half sep)

· 1 tbs cinnamon

· 1 tbs nutmeg

· handful crasins

· handful pecans

· 1/2 apple cider vinegar

· 4 tbs butter

Next we make a spot for the goodness. Use apple core, pairing knife or teeth (haha, please no) but whatever you do make sure you don’t puncture through the bottom. Have the hole about an inch around or so and down deep enough you get all the seeds out. I like to keep more apple in mine but for my husband’s I hollowed out much more so this is completely up to your apple/sugar ratio you got going on!!

Now the only real smashing we will be doing is when you add one cup brown sugar and everything else but the vinegar and the butter to a bowl and combine.

Place the apples in a 2 quart deep dish then fill those puppies right up to the top with the filling!!! Its ok if it doesn’t all fit, hang on to it trust me you will use it. Dab a tsp of butter right on top of each one.

Pour the vinegar into the dish and reserved cup of brown sugar and stir around. Into the oven they go at 350 for about 35-45 mins uncovered. Periodically you want to open it up and spoon the drippings over the apples.

DING!!!!! alright you ready to see what your in for????

                                                         SMASHING APPLES!!!!!!

 Once you pull them out top with whatever left over sugar pecan mixture and let cool for just a few mins before you serve. Oh right now your house is wafting with sweet nutmeg goodness. It doesnt smell like a homemade apple pie.... its even better smelling!!!

And then you take a bite..... oh that first forkful is so heavenly I am kicking myself now wondering why I only made 4 (one each... I might want more!!!) well one was plenty and i cant imagine they re warm well!

They were such a hit this will be my new go to treat all year long!! Serve with a scoop of icecream, drizzle with chocolate who know what else I'll come up with but YOU have got to make them and see for yourself!!

Roasted Potato Hearts

I do feel presentation is everything but if it taste like crap who are you kidding... its a fail!! lol well these my friends were not a fail but a winner for sure. I made them for my family for valentines lunch but I am thinking just how cute these would be to add a little love to any plate just for some flair.



Roasted Potatoes



• 2 lbs potatoes
• olive oil
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 2 tbs paprika
• 3 tbs caraway seeds
• 1 tsp thyme
• fresh chopped parsley

I peeled and sliced the potatoes in about half inch slices then used a heart cookie cutter to make my little hearts but if you dont want to spend that time or do this just any day this recipe is still of course awesome!!

      Considering I was in a crunch for time to get dinner on the table after church for my family I turned on a pot of salted water while I worked away cutting the potatoes. Once they were cut and cute threw them in the pot and par boiled them for about 4 mins.

     Next drain them really well and put them on a cookie sheet. Actually if you want to take an extra step (and this case it helps) put them in a bowl, drizzle them with olive oil and dowse them with all seasonings but parsley and let them soak up this goodness for a few minutes.

    THEN put them on a pan and roast them in the oven on 375 for 15 mins, carefully flip them and back in the oven for another 15-20 mins. They will be perfectly soft and tender inside but you want to achieve and crispness on the outside. Thats why you dont want to "stir" them or mess with them too much. In the last 5 mins throw on a nice handful of parsley to let that crisp up with them!!!

   Obviously you can use any seasonings you would like but these flavors are great and really different than the usual salt, pepper and Italian seasonings. Thyme is my typical go to herb that adds a unique flavor but I LOVE the crunch that the caraway seeds give, look and really has wonderful flavor as well. But branch out and use what you want!!! Whatever you do just make sure when you test them the fork goes through the "crust" but nice and tender on the inside!!! And now the fun part... serve and enjoy!!!

Another BBLS!!

Ok so this past Sunday was another BBLS!! Bourque, Bish, Loftin Sunday lunch (thats me, my hubs, mom and paw paw for all those others who may tune in. Anyway, I knew I wouldnt be able to spend valentines day with them so I wanted this Sunday to be kinda our Vday dinner. The menu was a  sweet and savory pork tenderloin, creamed spinach and mushroom, roasted potato hearts, and baked stuffed apples for dessert!!!! YUM!!! The thing with these lunches is I try to have them EXTRAVAGANT food, different flavors yet doesn't break the bank and can be done within an hour of getting home from church!!! So in comes the ol crock pot. I have NEVER been a user of this wonderful creation mainly because I love to cook and cherish my time in the kitchen... i love to stir, add, taste, simmer and fuss over my food during the prep process and the "pot" takes all that away. However, it does do miracles like cook a supper tender pork tenderloin while I sleep and go to church and I will have to say after 9 hours lifting that lid gave me much more joy than I anticipated when pure heaven billowed out!!! Score!!!! (my fear is that time and I know it will happen where it will not be such a good surprise inside.... hopefully I'll prolong this as long as possible)

 I LOVE little touches. I think its more than "finishing touches" but more or less adds so much flair and makes ordinary become extraordinary. We are all water drinkers, so no fancy drink required or something to waste time on...... so little red heart ice cubes added just the touch i needed!! I used crystal lite water also to add just a hint of flavor instead of using food coloring. hehe, i think im cute!! :)

Next, I did a quick creamed spinach and mushroom and mom made a green been casserole (my all time fave) but the SHOW stoppers were my roasted hearts and baked apples!!!! oh oh oh my so good!!!!

Roasted Potatoes (Hearts)
http://atreasuredlegacy.blogspot.com/2012/02/roasted-potato-hearts.html

Holy cow look at my potatoes!!!! yes all cut by hand!!!! oh so good and so cute!!! and the stuffed apples stuffed us alright but worth it!! all the flavor and smell of a apple pie but in my opinion better!!

Stuffed baked Apples

It was a short lunch both left at 3:30 cause Paw paw had homework lol for his bible study and mom had a shower to go too but it was awesome none the less and as always it blesses my heart to have them and try to spoil my family in any way I can!!! And lets face it I do it best with food. LOL paw paw said after i handed him this apple and coffee "never know what that little girl puts in front of me, but Im learning its always going to be good!!" Hehe it is funny because I always have to explain what the heck I serve which is half the fun!!! This is what i wanted this to become too. We all eat pretty basic during the week in our ruts so sunday is the day to wake up those taste buds!!!!! lol and get in some added calories that may not be needed but hey its sunday, God wouldn't let something so great to be bad for us right??? Thats my story and im sticking to it!!!!

Black cherry vanilla oatmeal bath salt

So for Valentine’s day this year I work with all woman at my new job and my mind was reeling for things to do.... most are dieting so sweets were out the question. I wanted to do personalized pictures, cups, coasters etc but only knowing them a month posed problems in all those areas not knowing too much about them. SOOOOOO, bath salts is what I came up with!!!

 

 

   I've been collecting bottles for crafts I just knew I'd need them for... lol my husband now just shakes his head at the growing collection which is not bad at about 20ish bottles. Either way I knew I needed to find a use for some of them and FAST!! These particular ones I got from the restaurant one night after "detailing".. (no I didn’t steal them for all unknowing readers, I work in a restaurant as well!) anyway, as I was tossing the empty Heinz 57 bottles in the trash I quickly saw potential and rescued them right back!! And yeah trust me, plenty of crazy looks from my co workers as well for some reason they didn’t see what I saw! Well look who is laughing now? With just a little love and lots of scrubbing these babys were just what I needed!

 

I supper glued a small muffin wrapper on the lid that I had left over from my cupcakes I cooked the day before or I would have used fabric however I thought these did nicely, filled with my home made salt and then HAD to spruce them up and add hand painted initials on all of them (easier too since there are 9 total)

I mean really how fun is that!!!???? You could use stickers, stencil, etch the glass to be extra fancy or just leave them plain. I free handed all the girls first intials with just some craft paint but what you do at this point is all up too you!!

 

 

Alright now i gave those away but can you guess these???

 

 If that doesnt look like LOVE what does????? :)

 

 

Ok, well in case you couldnt tell, the larger two are apple butter jars, the skinny one hot sauce and well, u got me I bought the last one... thats my special one for my momma!!! I have some jelly jars that are square too that will be adorable for the next go around but really any old container will do just be creative... and as you see you dont have to spend lots of money on "special glass containers" you find in stores but by all means you can!


Anyway, enough about the jars and now on to the salts!! I picked my scents to my theme... and my co workers are on diets so I wanted something "sweet"... hehe how bout a bath full of calories after a long day at work?? ok, not really but that was my thinking... so I did a Black cherry and vanilla Oatmeal soak/salt.

 

If you have read one of my earllier post you know I LOVE to buy bulk so I went for a 10 lb bag of epsom salt at sam's for 6 bucks... oh yeah!!! I picked up some essential oils that I thought would smell nice too and a thing of sea salt. The mixture I chose was about 1/2 cup of sea salt to 2 cups of epsom. So here is what I did....

• 2 cups epsom salt
• 1/2 cup sea salt
• 15ish drops black cherry oil
• 5ish drops vanilla oil
• red food coloring

****It is important that you do not just drop in the food coloring and oil to the whole amount of salts... it will clump and not mix evenly. I found what worked best was use the measuring cup and combine it well there then add to the rest. I also had mine in a butter tub, sealed the lid tight then "shake, shake, shake"!!! Yep I was dancing around the kitchen during this process!! I feel that helps as well! Each time open the lid, "test" out the strength of the "flavor" and color.... and repeat process as many times as you need!!! I decided I wanted to add an extra Love to mine and took some oatmeal (not quick cooking) buzzed it in the food processor and added about 1/2 cup to my salts as well. This will add a mellow smell, texture and softness to the bath water!!!!!! YUMMY!!! Oh my goodness everytime I lifted that lid I did extra little happy dances!! Really the strength and scent is up to you and what you think the person would like. I didnt want mine TOO strong but then again not too weak. THE great thing is you can always add salt if you make it too strong (especially if you do like me and have enough)

   Yep so thats it, my "black cherry vanilla oatmeal bath soak" I dont know about you but I hear some hot water calling my name!! oh yes ofcourse I made a bit too much so I can enjoy all my hard work as well!!

Freeing my Camellia tree

Freeing my Camellia tree of some sort of nasty overgrown vines was my Monday morning task that I had been putting off for about a month now. I was waiting for warmer weather and Monday proved to be just that as hoped for. I bought some small and I mean small pruning clippers that I thought would work and set out to undertake the challenge. I was not prepared for the Divine message that God planed to reveal in my little yard work. As you can see this had been growing for quite some time I can imagine and not as easy as I thought. I laughed to myself as I try to find a place to begin. This thing is seriously daunting and I quickly asses the volume and already settle that it will probably take me more than just this morning. My tactic is just to randomly start clipping and clipping, pulling just to find NOTHING giving way. This has a root system I find like 15 feet away (really) and I am really wishing I had my husbands machete with me because that would be better suited for this job.

But I dont and this is my only morning off so I keep clipping and using this time to pray. God starts working with me and each vine I clip it means something to me.. a part of me I need to clip. This week we have also been fasting... which ironically was facebook, blogging and pintrest for me. But I reflect how much of my life I still control and havent given to God. I wander what I look like to God, how covered am I with vines? I think to myself... oh who am I kidding I was talking, audible and prob pretty loud to myself actually, "well, Ashley dont get discouraged... your "vines" have been growning for YEARS now too... it takes time to groom..... right? right! Well too my surprise after a while... ehhhh about an hour or so each tug pulled off a hunk, then some more and I started to notice the stuff towering way above was even coming down with it!!! Oh my JOY!!!! I had started enjoying the pruning and just taking it twig by twig just blindly clipping and VOILA.

There is so much more details but lets just say I have never cried so much doing yard work lol!! But oh so great tears of joy feeling Gods hand on me and what he does for us and constantly doing in me. And there I go getting ok with dealing with it slowly and BAM God proves he can tug it all off at once too!! Just get out there with a willing heart and a desire to free your camellia's 

IT"S FREE!!!! God did a great thing Monday morning and see this pretty bush is there to prove it!!!!!

Spunky Pineapple Sassy's

   This treat holds the ultimate Triply "S" that I LOVE.... salty, sweet and spicy!! What wouldn't taste good with that combo? OK, well I can think of a ton of things... this however is NOT one!! I love me some fresh, frozen or even canned pineapple any day of the week. This week I have been planning all kinds of treats for my LOVED ones for the infamous Valentines day and it has been a challenge, weight watchers menu for some, full fat for others, savory and non edible etc. But I am most excited about this special treat for my beloved Aunt D who is my kindred spirit. She is to say the least "sassy" "sweet" and a little "spicy" too!! We were talking early about a recipe I gave her and she even wanted to add some more spicy to that which was shocking, but the thing she loves most is her chocolate.... really, like don't invite her over, keep her out too long or even have a dessert without chocolate being involved. Seriously, serve something sweet for dessert that doesn't have chocolate... lol she will eat it then keep looking for the real thing, how she is barely over 100 lbs is a mystery to me!!! Anyway, today we were talking about us being our "sassy" selves especially with our new short haircuts and our plans for when she comes in town next week... and of course my mind is reeling on what special "happy" to have for her. This is what I came up with and I do believe it will knock her socks off!!!! I have dearly named it this because I have been called spunky by my entire life and Sassy is my new nickname for my Aunt D.... enter the creation of.....

                                    Spunky Pineapple Sassy's or (Sassy Pineapple Skewers)

• Cut, chore and cube half a fresh pineapple (if none available you could use canned I GUESS, but I would not cheat yourself of this if all possible)
• 2 bars of a good quality dark chocolate
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp sea salt (flaky)

  Ok how easy is this right? Just a few GOOD quality products and you get what you pay for!!

First you want to make sure you have your pineapple's prepped and ready on their skewers sitting on wax paper. It is also a really good idea to dry them off with a paper towel first as well.

Now I use the ol microwave to melt my chocolate (just personal preference) but by all means ladies (and maybe gentleman) break out that double boiler if you are feeling extra spunky!!! Once you have that melted stir in the sassy cayenne pepper and start your dippin!!!! Don't cover the whole pineapple, you want to be able to see what it is and have that contrast is wonderful. Once you have tipped their toes in that "hot bath" place them on the wax paper and sprinkle with some salt flakes..... Important note dont get too carried away dippin these guys that you forget to sprinkle while they are still wet. Once that chocolate hardens obviously the salt wont stick and it adds just the perfect touch. Next pop in the fridge and chill for about 30 mins until hardened then you are set to impress!!!

And there you have it!!!! Oh such heaven and I might add quite healthy!! At about 60-70 calories a piece that aint a bad Vday dessert!!! More pics will follow of this I'm sure as I "do the real thing"... shhhhhh test runs are always my favorite though of trying any recipes I cant lie!!!