{Un}traditional Apple & Cranberry Strudel

Has anyone else been affected by the Blackberry outage over the last day? I have had my Blackberry for about a year and a half...and I hate it! I always seem to have problems with it. It freezes (sometimes even mid-ring so I can't answer the phone!), the Internet access is horrible, emails and texts are delayed, my media card broke, my Twitter connection is horrible (which is why I hardly ever Tweet)...the list can go on and on. When my phone stopped receiving emails yesteray morning, it was the last straw. I threw it into the Hudson freaked out and decided that I need a new phone (of course, this was before I realized it as a worldwide outage, but still). Argh!   iPhone here I come!

Good thing there are yummy treats to keep me occupied. And make me happy. You know what else makes me happy? When it's one of the easiest treats ever, but only seems like you slaved over it for hours.

This past weekend, Shaun and I drove out to a local farm to pick up some fall goodies. I had been jonesing for a bit of apple cider, fresh doughnuts, many apple varieties and some crisp fall air. I got what I went for!

When we decided to make our Oktoberfest dinner, I knew that some kind of apple strudel would be the perfect finale, especially a homemade one containing freshly picked apples!

This is definitely not a traditional strudel. But it's so easy and so delicious that I'm not sure why anyone would ever not make this version. I'm fairly certain that it took all of 5 minutes to come together before leaving it in the oven to bake. In addition to crisp, sweet apples, I also added some dried cranberries for a bit of tartness and texture. I think the strudel would be great without them though too! I could also see brown sugar, pecans, or any other baking fruit as a substitute. I topped the strudels with a bit of light and fluffy vanilla ice cream.

If that's not the perfect dessert, I don't know what is.

Apple & Cranberry Strudel
*Adapted from Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry
1 egg
1 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 Tbsp all-purpose flour (plus extra for rolling out dough)
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
2 large baking apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
2 Tbsp dried cranberries (or  craisins)
1 sheet of puff pastry (1/2 of a 17.3-ounce package), thawed
Confectioners' sugar (for dusting)
vanilla ice cream (for topping)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix the sugar, flour and cinnamon together. In a mixing bowl, toss sugar mixture with the apples (I used one Macintosh apple and 1 Gala apple) and cranberries; set aside.

Flour your work surface and roll out the pastry with a rolling pin, with the short side facing you. The pastry should be rolled out to about 16x12 inches. Spread the apple mixture on the bottom half of the pastry only, leaving a small border around the edges.

Starting with the side facing you, roll up the pastry very carefully so as to gather the apple mixture inside of it but without ripping the dough. Once rolled up, tuck in the ends and place on a greased baking sheet. In a small bowl, beat the egg and water together. Cut small slits across the top of the pastry and brush top with egg mixture.

Bake for 35 minutes. Cool for 20 minutes and sprinkle with confectioners sugar. Serve warm with a heaping scoop of vanilla ice cream! Is your mouth watering yet?

Mine is!

Questions of the Day:

Have you had cell phone issues in the past? Or affected by Blackberry right now?

Are you a fan of apples around this time of year? What's your favorite kind? I love honeycrisp, macintosh, galas, and fujis!

psst...It's Handpicked Peaches day over on The Peach & The Pit! We rounded up some awesome links from around the web for ya!

Ooey Gooey Chocolate Marshmallow Oat Bars

Hi, Monday. It's been a long time since I last saw you. I think I'm ready for you today. A little.

Hi friends! I have to tell you something. I've been holding out on you on a few things. First, Shaun was away all last week. He was in Sweden for work for 7 days. I hated it. I was solo for the entire week. I may have gotten to watch many, many Friends reruns and I may have gotten to eat pumpkin pancakes for dinner (twice). But I missed this guy! It's so nice to have him back home with me :)

 

I also teased you on Friday with tales of chocolate marshmallow oat bars. I hope you're not mad at me.

I made these for my bro-in-law's birthday last weekend. I created them on a whim. I wanted to make something delicious and decadent and a little over the top. Those always make the best desserts, don't they? I was also in the midst of saying goodbye to Cat, and thus rummaging through my cabinets trying to keep oh-so-busy while she left us trying to devise something with what I had on hand. Oats? Good. Marshmallow? Good. Chocolate? Goooooood.

These bars literally came together in minutes. I imperfectly threw them together, tossed them in the oven and they were ooey gooey in no time. I let them cool about 85% of the way, and then cut them up, wrapped 'em and took these little bars of heaven to Steve's birthday celebration. I liked them. A lot.

Chocolate Marshmallow Oat Bars
*bar base adapted from Betty Crocker Cooky Book's Date Bars
3/4 C shortening, such as Crisco
1 C brown sugar
1 3/4 C all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 C old fashioned oats
1 1/2 C semisweet chocolate chips
2 C mini marshmallows
3/4 C sweetened condensed milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a 13x9" pan with foil (one strip lengthwise, one strip widthwise), letting the foil hang over the edges. Grease well. Mix the shortening and sugar together in a bowl. I used my stand mixer, but a hand mixer (or even by hand) would work too.

In a mixing bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda and salt. Beat into the shortening & sugar mixture. Stir in the oats. Press 2/3 of the mixture into the greased pan.

Melt the chocolate (I do it via microwave) and carefully spread over the oat dough. Top with marshmallows and pour sweetened condensed milk over it. Top with remaining oat dough.

Bake for 25 minutes. Let cool and set. To cut up, remove from pan by using the foil as handles. Peel away. Cut off all the edges and then cut into bars. Devour discarded edges immediately. Subsequently devour bars.

 

Don't mind if I do.

I think you could come up with lots of ways to enjoy these bars! Different chocolates, candies and flavors could easily be in the center of these bars! I love them!

Questions of the Day:

What other fun combinations would you put into these oat bars?

What do you do/eat on a solo weekday night?

psst...I'm blogging about learning to sew over on The Peach & The Pit today...I'm all domesticated and stuff now :)

Individual Pumpkin Pie Trifles

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Hi friends.

I had a difficult week last week. I know it sounds ridiculous, but I'm like still grieving over this silly kitten (or Cat, as we called her; our attempt to not get attached to her. #FAIL). We found a fantastic home for her and she left us on Saturday :(  ---->me

Many of you have asked the simple question of why we couldn't just keep her. The truth is that though we totally fell in love with her, the logistics of having a cat for the next 15 years is just not something we were willing to commit to. And that's really what it came down to (the thought of a litter box in our small home especially once babies are in the picture, scratching at the furniture, leaving a kitten home alone all day while we're at work, etc); we just didn't think it would work for us in the long run. But we still love Cat, and even now I tear up thinking about her and her cute little face, leathery kisses and her overall sweet disposition. Oh and the non-stop purring. Love that.

Ok, I'm done with kitten talk now.

So obviously, I've been a silly emotional wreck.

I spent most of Saturday and Sunday cooking and baking, if only to keep my mind busy and my tears at bay (I may or may not have hid in the bathroom when Susan came to pick up Cat). I'm a lot better with bottling my feelings until I'm ready to talk about them ;) And then I unload them all on you.

So of course with cooking and baking in mind, it was beyond time to break out some pumpkin, an ultimate comfort food in my opinion. I whipped up this super easy pumpkin pie trifle in no time.

There's no baking, no cooking, no muss no fuss. It's the perfect dessert for a pumpkin emergency. It's basic enough for a Sunday night on the couch, but chic enough for a small dinner party. I just love individual desserts...I have a feeling that you and your future guests will too!

Individual Pumpkin Pie Trifles
1 pkg sugar free, fat free vanilla pudding mix
2 C skim milk
1 C pumpkin puree
3/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
6 low fat graham crackers
1 tbsp butter, melted
1 1/2 C whipped cream or Cool Whip

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the pudding mix and milk for 2 minutes. While it soft sets, stir in the pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice. Refrigerate for 5 minutes (at least; longer is ok too). Meanwhile, place the graham crackers in a food processor and pulverize. Add the melted butter, which will just slightly moisten the grahams.

In 4 glasses, layer a spoonful of graham crackers followed by a couple spoonfuls of pumpkin pie pudding and whipped cream. Repeat the layers.

Serve it up and enjoy! These can also be made in advance; simply cover each trifle with plastic wrap and refrigerate. In fact, these are even better when they sit in the fridge for a few hours since the graham cracker crumbs soften.

Delish.

Grab a spoon and dig in. Fall is here!

So that's what's going on with me. This trifle is so easy and really tastes like delicious, comforting, decadent pumpkin pie with whipped cream...except it's with a fraction of the calories or baking time! Please try it. I know you'll love it.

Questions of the Day:

What's your go to comfort food?

What's the easiest dessert you've ever whipped up?

psst...I'm blogging all about motivating myself to get back to the gym over on The Peach & The Pit today!