Apple Crisp

I hadn't made this since last year, so I recently decided to make it again. This was my second time making it homemade and it turned out really good. It's a pretty simple recipe, in my opinion!

Ingredients:
6 medium sized apples (I used both gala and granny smith, but I don't think it would matter kind you use. I doubt the taste would change that much)
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 cup water

First what you want to do is preheat your oven to 350. Then grease your baking dish.

Wash off your apples.

Then start slicing them. I used an apple slicer just cause it was faster.

Make sure to remove the skins of the apples as well. Place them in your baking dish.

In a bowl mix together the brown sugar, oatmeal, flour, butter and ground cinnamon.

Spread the mixture evenly over your apples. Then drizzle 1/4 cup of water over everything. Once you've done that, pop it in the oven for about 45 minutes. You want the apples to be tender and the top crisp (obviously!).

The finished product.

Enjoy!

Haluski

This is a popular Slovakian and Polish dish. You can find it at pretty much any block party or church picnic during the summer in my area. People use all different kinds of noodles, or slice (instead of dice) their onions, but this is the way I prefer it. It can be served as a side dish or the main meal. 

Ingredients:
1 decent size head of cabbage
16 oz. bag of egg noodles
1 large onion
1 and 1/2 sticks of butter (yes, a lot of butter!)

First, peel and chop up your onion. Like I said, some people just use slices of onion but I like everything teeny tiny when I'm adding it to something like this, so I just diced mine.

After you've cut up the entire onion, put it in a large pot. Add 1/2 a stick of butter, and saute them until they're soft. I kept mine on medium heat just because there are other things that you need to chop up and cook that will be added to this pot. You don't want the onions to get completely done way before everything else!

Next you want to cut up your cabbage. You can do this by hand, but I wanted small pieces so I used the food processor. I chopped up the cabbage into chunks first, which then fell apart and turned into what you see above.

If you use a food processor like I did, you're obviously going to have to use it more than once to grind up all the cabbage. I just dumped the shredded cabbage into a bowl until I was finished with the whole head of cabbage. Once you're done, add the cabbage in with your onions. Add another 1/2 of stick of butter. Give it all a stir and let everything cook together.

While that cooks, get another pot and start boiling the water you'll need to cook your noodles.

Once it comes to a boil, add in the noodles!

Drain!

Now add your noodles in with the onions and cabbage. Add one last 1/2 stick of butter and stir everything together well. By now your onions and cabbage should be soft. If it's not soft enough, just give everything some more time to cook.

Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Truffles

Now, I know I JUST made a post about Oreo truffles a few days ago but I made them both for Easter. I promise my posts will not be this much alike in the future. They were just so tasty that I felt the need to post them both. Personally, I prefer the Oreo truffles over the peanut butter ones, but these were a big hit - everyone loved 'em. I have a lot of peanut butter lovers in my family so I'm not really surprised!

Ingredients:
  16 oz. Creamy style peanut butter
  16 oz. Confectioner's sugar (you might need a bit more to get the right consistency)
  1 Cup (2 sticks) of butter (slightly melted)
  2 pkg. Baker's semi-sweet chocolate (melted)

Start off by melting your butter. I cut the sticks into smaller blocks, just so it's easier to mix around. I popped it in the microwave for about 10-15 seconds. You don't want it to completely melt, you just want to soften it. In a bowl combine the peanut butter, confectioner's sugar and the butter.

Your mix should look like this. You might need to add more confectioner's sugar to get the right texture in order to form balls. For me, I probably had to add an extra 1/2 cup.

Prepare two trays with wax paper.

Next, melt your chocolate. You can use a double boiler, or do what I did and pop it in the microwave! I melted one package of chocolate at a time. I started it out at 1 minute, then gave it a stir. Make sure there's a smooth consistency to it. I had to put mine back in the microwave for another 15-20 seconds to make sure all the chocolate was completely melted.

Form the mixture into (approximately) 1 inch balls and set them on a tray. I had some problems with the balls not forming correctly when I was trying to roll them in my hand. I found out that if you get too much peanut butter stuck to your palms (which is bound to happen), it will just turn into mush. It's best to have a paper towel nearby to just wipe your hands off now and then if you start having problems.

Drop the peanut butter balls into your melted chocolate. I used two forks to roll them around. Make sure you have an even coat of chocolate covering them!

Doesn't that look yummy?

You don't have to do this part, but I put sprinkles on top of them before the chocolate hardened. If you make more than one kind of truffle like I did, this is a good way to tell them apart..and it just makes them look cute. ;-) 

Once you're done that, place the trays in the refrigerator. Let them sit for about an hour. After the chocolate has completely hardened, place the truffles in an airtight container and keep them in the refrigerator.

Enjoy!

Oreo Truffles

I love these things! A couple years ago a family member had made them and given us a few to try. I was amazed at how good they tasted. I had never even thought of the possibility of an Oreo being a type of truffle before but now I think they're my favorite kind!

Ingredients:

  1 pkg. (8 oz.) Philadelphia cream cheese
  1 pkg. (16.6 oz) Oreo cookies (finley crushed)
  2 pkg. (8 squares each) Baker's semi-sweet chocolate (melted)

First what you want to do is crush up your Oreo cookies. I used a food processor to do this. In the past I had always done this by hand but this way is much faster and works just as good, if not better.

It will look something like coffee grounds by the time you're finished!

In a medium sized bowl mix together 3 cups of the ground up Oreo cookies and the package of cream cheese.

It should turn out something like this. A little mushy-looking, but it still needs to be firm enough to form into balls.

Which is your next step! I formed all the batter into little balls and had them ready to be dipped in chocolate. It's easier to have them laid out like this because you don't want to coat a few of them in chocolate and then have to stop to form more balls. It takes up more time and it can get messy! They should be about an inch in size. Some of mine came out bigger and/or smaller than I intended to make them but that's okay - the truffles can be any size.

Next you want to have two trays ready for after you coat them in chocolate. Lay a piece of wax paper on each tray.

Now unwrap your chocolate pieces and put them in a microwave safe bowl. You can melt the chocolates using a double boiler (or improvise by placing it in a glass bowl, over a pot of simmering water). Or you can use the microwave - which is what I did. I melted one box at a time..Heating it up for 1 minute, then checking on it to see if it needed more time. Usually it took about 1 minute 20 seconds total for the chocolate to be completely melted.

Once all the chocolate is melted, start coating the balls. I dropped one in at a time and used two forks to roll it around, making sure there was a coating of chocolate completely covering them.

Like so!

It looks a bit messy on the tray, but that's okay. They'll look nicer once they're completely finished.

Since you only used 3 cups of Oreo cookie crumbs to make the truffle mixture, take some of the left over crumbs and sprinkle them on top of the chocolate covered balls. Make sure to do it before the chocolate starts to harden! Then place them in the refrigerator and let them sit for about an hour. After they have completely hardened, place them in an airtight container and keep them in the refrigerator.

Enjoy!