Apple Brickle Dip

I had a few of my girls over last week and made them one of my favorite recipes.

Apple Brickle Dip.

My version comes from Taste of Home, a kajillion years ago {Pre-Pinterest} when I still found new recipes in paper magazines.

I love to make this because it's easy and yummy and always a little bit of a mystery; No one knows just exactly what the brown bits are.....

It's a perfect dip for any celebration, but especially FALL.

Even though it's easy, I'll walk you through.

Start with cream cheese that is very soft. Then add brown sugar and white sugar and a little bit of vanilla and mix it all up. 

I keep a hand mixer that I use just for this recipe...

is that weird?

It will look like this once it's all happily blended.

Then you add the secret ingredient. 

One whole bag of English Toffee bits.

Just pour it on top and stir it in. You'll think it's too much and double check the recipe to make sure it actually said to add the whole bag.

It did.

I make it ahead and set it in the fridge overnight or for several hours {although it's not necessary}. Then I set it out about 30 minutes before serving time so it can soften up enough to dip with the apples. This lets the toffee dissolve into the sugary cream cheese just the right amount.

Here's the exact recipe.

Enjoy!

Apple Brickle Dip

1 package cream cheese (8 oz.), softened

½ cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 package almond brickle chips (toffee)

Blend cream cheese, sugars, and vanilla well.  Add entire bag of brickle chips, stir to combine.  Refrigerate.  Set out about 30 minutes before serving time to soften.  Serve with granny smith apple chunks or slices.           

Grandmother's Cowboy Beans

This recipe is one of my favorites.
{Not your ordinary Baked Beans}. 

It connects me to some wonderful memories.
AND, it might be the recipe I'm asked for the most, next to Apple Brickle Dip. {maybe I'll share that one soon}! 

My Grandparents had a farm I loved, where they grew wheat and raised cattle and did other farm things that are magical in my childhood memories. 

Mud pies from trash dishes, swinging on vines, building forts in the hay barn, bottle feeding baby calves, riding in the back of pick up trucks and throwing "cake" to the cows, delicious meals around a big round table, giggling at uncles misbehaving, chasing cousins and siblings down the hill just next to the house, sleeping over and wearing Pap's tshirts for jammies....

My memories of family times at their place are some of my very favorites. 

Early cooking lessons, MUDPIES!

One of my favorite all-time pictures of my Grandmother, me, and my mom washing dishes.

In the fall my grandparents would host cookouts. My grandpa (Pappy, we called him), would rig up the most fun hayrides. After he drove us all over the pasture and through a path he made in the woods, we would all pile off the flatbed trailer we'd been riding and gather around a campfire toward the end of the pasture, almost to the tree line. 

Next to that campfire was a stove.

A stove.

I get so tickled now thinking back that it never seemed strange to me that there was a white stove/oven combo out in the middle of the pasture. Isn't that one of the joys of childhood? It didn't matter how it worked and I never really considered it, I just knew that there was my Grandmother and her Cowboy Beans there by that stove in the pasture. 

No family is perfect, 
but I had a place with lots of people who loved me. 
A place where innocent, trusting childhood was protected. 
It was a gift I didn't know to appreciate in those days.
That's what childhood should be.

We would roast hot dogs, which I loved and always have, but the Cowboy Beans were the real meal. This recipe is a sweet Baked Beans recipe with the delicious savory addition of hamburger meat browned and seasoned with onions. It seems familiar, but is also unique.

This is also a really versatile recipe, you can make it ahead and take it for tailgating or cookouts in a crockpot. 
You can bake it and wrap your pan up super tight in foil and beach towels (that's how my mom and I do it) - and it stays hot for a LONG time. 

If my Grandmother can make it work magically in the middle of a pasture, then surely these beans can be served anywhere!

You start with two pounds of ground beef, start it browning and then add a large onion, chopped up really fine (because believe it or not, there are folks who don't like chunks of onion). I use lean meat that I don't need to drain, so I also season my meat with seasoned salt and pepper in this stage.

Then you mix 4 cans of beans (2 pork n' beans, 2 Ranch Style beans) with some ketchup, some brown sugar and some maple syrup....

Now about the beans, my Grandmother's recipe instructs me to drain all but one can of beans. Maybe the products have changed some, but it seems to me that in recent years draining has been less necessary. Whatever you do, don't rinse the beans....lots of the flavor comes from the sauce they are packed in. Just pour any extra watery juice off the top of the can. 

Oh, and that little bit of fat at the top of the Pork N' Beans can, take that out. Ick.

This is my handy jar of maple syrup. I keep one on hand for two recipes; Cowboy Beans and my friend Amanda's Cake Cornbread recipe. 

Next you mix in the meat with all the yummy saucy sweet beans you just made. 

Right here is when these actually start smelling like a memory. Have you ever had that happen?

Pour the whole thing into a large baking dish (9x13 or bigger) and bake.....uncovered. 

Sooooo Delicious!

Here's the official recipe.....

Grandmother’s Cowboy Beans

2 pounds ground beef

1 large onion, chopped

2—16 oz cans Pork and Beans

2—16 oz cans Ranch style Beans

1 cup brown sugar

½ cup maple syrup

2 cups ketchup

Brown beef with onion until onions are soft and meat is no longer pink, season well with salt and pepper.  Drain all but one can of Ranch beans.  Stir all ingredients together in a large bowl. Pour into a 9x13 baking dish and bake uncovered at 350 for 30 minutes or until hot through.

Enjoy!!

Jamy

Allrecipes Love

Do you know allrecipes.com? I remember when the internet was new [to me], being amazed that I could look at recipes on this new cooking website.....the recipes were in categories and I would just read through them. It's changed a lot since then, but I still find that it's my trusted website for recipes that aren't weird.

After so many heavy posts recently, I thought it would be fun to share the links to my favorite allrecipes.com recipes. 

Here are my favorites with a few comments {in totally random order}:
Too Much Chocolate Cake with Satiny Chocolate Glaze; is easily my favorite bundt cake. LOVE IT!

Pretty Chicken; this is my favorite grilling marinade. The recipe instructions are a little fussy - not necessary, it's more flexible than it appears at first.

Donut muffins; made in mini muffin tins these are amazing. I cut the amount of nutmeg to 1/4 teaspoon.

Pineapple Sherbet and Buttermilk Syrup; I blogged about these recipes here. The wonders you find when you are stuck home on a snow day with buttermilk.

Quick Easy Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas; I was looking for something like this after a trip to New Mexico where everything delicious had green chiles. I don't do the charring of the tortilla part; just layer it all in like a casserole.....when I take this somewhere I bring home an empty pan.

Cinnamon Coffee Cake II; just yum and easy.

Peanut Butter Cake II; I made this recipe into cupcakes and loved it....I reviewed this one (and several others) as fishermomma.

Slow Cooker Beef Vegetable Soup; this is the first soup I ever made using all canned veggies. It's good and really easy.

Easy Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream; I have a table top electric ice cream freezer that holds a smaller amount than a traditional freezer.....this recipes fits, doesn't require pre-cooking, and is YUM!

Feather Light Biscuits; shortcut recipe that is amazing. I blogged about it here. I cannot find the recipe on allrecipes anymore to link - they do remove them sometimes.

Asian Country Style Ribs; I switched the amounts for olive oil and sesame oil (sesame was too strong for us) and shortened the cooking time. This is very unique and very good.

Butterscotch Bread Pudding; we make this for a large lunch we do at church. My favorite part is the description of how to tell when it's done (jiggles like a well-endowed thigh---seriously). My non-bread pudding eating friend loves this and makes it all on her own.

Chantal's Cheesecake; great classic recipe.

Heavenly Angel Food Cake; if you ever want to try making one from scratch. I frost mine with homemade cream cheese  icing.

Charleston Breakfast Casserole is my go-to breakfast casserole. The croutons give it lots of flavor and keep it from being too soggy. I leave out all the peppers and meat and make mine cheese only. Great to mix up the night before and bake in the morning.

Winter Fruit Salad with Lemon Poppyseed Dressing, I omit the cashews and swiss cheese and use walnuts and shaved parmesan cheese.

Homestyle Turkey; I make this one in my electric roaster and I brine it first - but it was my first successful turkey and I've made it several times now.

So, those are some of my favorites from allrecipes.com. I learned almost everything I know about cooking from my mom, but this website has added a few good ones too. 

This is the only picture I could find of me actually IN the kitchen! {Strange since I spend so much time here}....
This is Carly and I learning how to make creme brulee.

Do you have a favorite food website or allrecipes recipe?

Pistachio Thumbprints

I get lots of requests for this recipe, so I thought I might share it here! I first found these on allrecipes, and have changed just a very few things.  I love pistachio and almond, and I love pudding mixes see {here, here, here and here}….the possibilities are so endlessly amazing for these cookies!

I didn’t take any pictures while I was baking these, and the ones pictured here are the very last 2 cookies of the 6 dozen I made yesterday for a dear friend’s baby shower {In fact I "trimmed" teeth marks off of one}. They've been packed and unloaded twice, so they aren't at their best....but they are still delicious! 

Here's the recipe:

Pistachio Thumbprint Cookies

adapted from allrecipes.com

2/3 cup shortening (Crisco)

2/3 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 small box pistachio almond pudding mix

½ teaspoon almond extract

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

½ teaspoon salt

2 cups flour

Mix shortening and sugar together very well, add eggs and mix well. Then add the pudding mix, almond, and vanilla and mix to combine scraping the sides as you go. Add salt and flour and mix again, just to combine. Scoop into small balls (I use my smallest Pampered Chef scoop) and roll with your hands to smooth out. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart and bake for 9-10 minutes at 375 degrees. Cool. Frost with buttercream icing.

  

Here are a couple of tips:

• ·      Don’t over mix the dough after you add the flour, just mix to combine, scrape the sides and mix again for a few seconds.
• ·      For best results make the total amount of extracts add up to 1 teaspoon as you mix and match for flavors.
• ·      Resist the urge to make these big, they need to stay small…just about 1 inch wide.
• ·      Use a small scoop so that all your cookies are the same size (mine is 1¼ inch wide). I scoop all the dough out onto the counter and then roll them in my hands to make perfect little balls before I put them on the baking sheets.
• ·      They won’t really brown on top, if they begin to brown on top you are close to over baking them.
• ·      Let the cookies cool completely before icing them.
• ·      FOR GLAZE (like in the pictures): Put one can of traditional store-bought vanilla frosting in the microwave for 30 seconds. Pour it into a bowl along with about ½ teaspoon of almond extract and 1-2 teaspoons of half and half or milk.  Whisk together and add milk so that the glaze is the consistency of melted chocolate. Dip the top of each fully cooled cookie in the glaze, covering the entire top and sides of each cookie. Set on waxed paper and sprinkle with colored sugars or special sprinkles while glaze is still wet.FOR THUMBPRINTS: Buy or make buttercream icing and pipe onto the tops of cookies (similar to how you would pipe frosting onto a cupcake, but smaller). I use a star tip and swirl it in a small circle over the top of the cookie, ending with a peak in the middle – similar to the top of a soft serve ice cream.

These would be so fun to make for Easter, they are truly yummy and easy. Here are some other combinations you could use:

• ·      Strawberry pudding mix with double vanilla extract frosted with melted chocolate for a “Chocolate – Covered Strawberry” Thumbprint.
• ·      Coconut pudding mix with half vanilla half coconut extract and Coconut Frosting or Vanilla Glaze and toasted coconut.
• ·      Chocolate pudding mix with almond and vanilla extracts topped with fudge frosting and a maraschino cherry would be delicious.
• ·      Cheesecake pudding mix would work beautifully with a variety of extracts and frostings.
• ·      Vanilla pudding mix with orange extract or lemon pudding mix with lemon extract would be refreshing.
• ·      Pumpkin Spice with vanilla extract and fall sprinkles for the fall….OR:
• ·      Candy Cane pudding mix with half vanilla and half peppermint extract and crushed candy canes for a Christmas cookie.
• And of course, the original Banana Pudding is a classic....who wouldn't love a banana pudding thumbprint cookie.

So there you go!

Enjoy!