Baking - Apple Tart Tatain

Tart tatain is a super easy fruit tart that can be made with just about any fruit.

Start with recipe with a simple pie crust.  Unfold the crust.  Center the fruit in the middle of the crust.  Fold up the edges of the crust and bake.  SO EASY!!!

Don't feel pressured to make a homemade crust.  You can also make this recipe with a store bought refrigerator crust.  (I like Pillsbury, but use what you like).

Unfold pie crust on a cookie sheet or other flat pan.  Center fruit (sliced fresh apples, drained canned peaches or frozen berries).  Sprinkle berries with 2-3 Tablespoons of sugar.  Fold up the edges of the crust around the fruit.

Bake at 350 degrees until crust is brown and fruit is tender.

That's it!

Baking - Skillet Apple Pie

Since it's apple picking time, a LOT of us have loads of apples laying around.  Here is a great use for all of those extra apples.

Skillet Apple Pie

Any kind of apples (sliced)
1/3 c. butter
1/2 c. sugar (brown or white)
2 Tablespoons all purpose flour
1/2 t. cinnamon

Mix sugar, flour and cinnamon in a bowl.  Melt butter in a skillet.  Remove butter from heat.  In the skillet, toss sliced apples in butter until all apples are coated.  Sprinkle apples with sugar mixture.  Toss apples until they are evenly coated with sugar mixture.

Top apples with 1 pie crust.  Cut vents (slits) into the crust. 

Bake at 350 degrees until crust is brown and apples are tender.

Enjoy!
   

Food Processor Pie Crust

Let's face it - I'm lazy.  I really enjoy the easy way out.  This crust to totally the easiest way I know to make a pastry crust.

1 1/2 c. all purpose flour
1/3 c. plus 1 teaspoon of shortening
1/2 t. salt
3 Tablespoons ice water

Assemble your food processor using the cutting blade.  Add flour, shortening and salt to the blender bowl.  Pulse until flour and butter are blended and the mixture looks like crumbs.

Add water while pulsing until mixture looks like large crumbs.  Remove from food processor and gently press crumbs into a ball.  Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Roll out crust and use as desired.

All Natural Apple Jelly

It's apple picking time again!

This weekend we went apple picking.  While this was a fun family activity I was feeling a little stressed about the MOUNTAIN of apples that now live on my dining room table.

I ended up making a batch of all natural apple jelly.  It was SUPER easy.  Here's what I did:

Apple Jelly

3 cups of fresh squeezed apple juice
3 cups of sugar

We have a juicer.  So I juiced enough apples to yield 3 cups of apple juice.  Combine juice and sugar.  Heat over medium heat.  Stir until sugar is dissolved.  Boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture is reduced by half.  If you have a candy thermometer, it should reach approximately 220 degrees.  When the jelly is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, it's done. 

It should be the consistency of honey.

You can pour the jelly into lidded jars.  Allow to cool overnight.

If you would like to can the jelly for longer storage, watch this video.


The processing time (the amount of time you boil jarred jelly) is 5 minutes.

More adventures in smoothie's

This morning - Crazy Easy Mango Smoothie

I've been trying to find a smoothie that's easy, healthy and doesn't require a lot of ingriedients or measuring.  This morning I blended frozen mango and pineapple juice.  Voila - smoothie!

It was creamy and delicious and took just seconds to make. 

I'm been watching The Chew on ABC and Daphne Oz says that I her parents always added vitamins to their morning smoothie.  So, I added 1/8 teaspoon of Ester C (I bought the tablets and ground them in my coffee grinder) and 1 teaspoon of psillium husks (for added fiber). 

I used my ice tube tray from yesterday to freeze the left overs into popsicle's for after school.  Stealth health AND a frozen treat.  You can't go wrong with that!

In case you missed it, here's the recipe again

Crazy Easy Fruit Smoothie

1 handful of frozen fruit
3/4 cup (or so) of fresh juice

Blend until smooth.

Optional Add ins:
1 Ester C tablet  (or 1/8 t. ground ester C)
1 teaspoon of psillium husks

Fresh Fruit Pops!

I know that farmer's markets are just about done now, but I recently made a great discovery that I just have to share.

First of all, i'm thrifty.  The only thing that makes me happier than a good deal is a good idea.  This is both.

A few weeks back I discovered an indoor farmers market in my area.  The deal with this place is that they take fresh fruit that has just a little bit of shelf life left.  So i'm able to buy ripe fresh fruit at deep discounts.  This week I bought berries.  The berries were ripe and ready to be used.  The problem is that I didn't have enough uses for the amount of berries that I had.  SO - I made mini fruit pops!

I placed all the berries in my blender with a bit of pineapple juice.  I processed until smooth.

Next I poured the fruit puree into an ice TUBE tray.  I got this one at Walmart for about $5.  It's the kind of ice tray used to make ice for water bottles.

I put a craft stick in each tube of juice and froze it for a few hours.  Voila!  Fruit pop!  They're all natural and WAY cheaper than buying the grocery store version.