Things I did a LOT in 2012

As much as I don't care to admit it, 2012 was a pretty big year for me. I think the reason I don't want to admit it is because I wish I was further in my career life than I am, but other things are going just swimmingly, so give and take, so shall it be.

this year I...
...got my first and second big girl jobs
...moved out of my home state and in with a boy
...became the legal owner of the third cutest dog ever
...didn't really lose any friends
...met LOTS of new people
...fought with my parents
...made up with my parents
...spent some quality time with Grandma
...HAD ONCE CELL PHONE FOR OVER 365 WHOLE DAYS AND NIGHTS OMG
...volunteered. a lot.
...at a LOT of chicken wings
...watched my boyfriend graduate
...watched Aladdin on ABC Family. twice.
...went crazy over the Olympics
...pinned so much wedding stuff on Pinterest that people thought i was engaged
...had a friend GET engaged in front of Cinderella's Castle!
...celebrated the last 12/12/12 for 1000 years
...discovered that I can make greeting cards, and kind of cook
...cried in church (A LOT)
...drove across America without getting a ticket
...got my car almost towed once
...looked at myself in June Carter-Cash's vanity mirror
...screamed at a Penn State game
...discovered Nebraska like the commercials told me to
...stood inside a B-52
...chopped down my first Christmas tree
...had my first ever walk in closet
...discovered my second favorite winery ever (Niner!!)
...got my car stuck in snow
...grew out a little
...grew up a LOT


...mostly that's it. Thanks to everyone who makes my life oh so thrilling every single day (and to David for making me laugh 20 times a day EVERY day. Happy New Years wonderful boyfriend. And everyone else too.)

See you in 2013, hope it's not unlucky! <3 br="br">

Creative Dinner Crepes (Bacon and Cheese)

Tonight we are making ricotta cheese, jack cheese and bacon crepes. We are also dancing in the kitchen while Peanut, OUR NEW ADOPTED DOG!!! watches with disdain. Simply put, peanut is NOT impressed.

 These crepes are a two person job for us because David is the Bacon Man and I am the Ricotta Cheese Girl. That doesn't sound right. Well whatever. I know how to home make ricotta cheese now and David cooks bacon. And Crepes. He has a crepe recipe that he has made for me once with bananas and chocolate and I devoured it, so we're making savory crepes (as the foodies would say). Besides that one time, I know little to nothing about crepes except that I will eat them. I will add the ricotta cheese recipe and link as well (it is also on the BFF Manicotti post).

Additionally, this weekend is Thanksgiving and we have some adventurous dishes (something with jersey sweet potatoes and a bacon covered turkey) and some not so adventurous (mashed potatoes with salt, butter, and cream YUMMM.) The original idea was to include bacon in ever dish, but then we decided that that might be a tad too much. So we're leaving it out of the potatoes, and one of the (THREE AMAZING) stuffings. I will blog it probably this weekend. We are also getting a tree this weekend (an early tree is a tradition of David and his family that I am more than happy to jump on the train for. We usually realize that we don't have a tree on the 22^nd or 23^rd. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I just love Christmas trees and would have one all year round if nobody would look at me funny and they sold them year round. But that's for Saturday. This is today.

To get you in the mood, a quote from David, “Crepes are like tortillas from France, so you can fill 'em up, and eat 'em with whatever you want.”

Thank you for painting that culinary cultural landscape for us David. Let's begin.

These recipes are in the order that we made them in the kitchen.

Ricotta by Charlotte

Ingredients:

4 C whole milk

1 C butter milk

1/3 C cream

more salt than you think, but in small doses

To Cook: Simmer in a pan for 15 minutes. Spoon the mixture into a cheese cloth lined strainer with a slotted spoon. I use the coffee filter thing from David's coffee maker to get the last bits in. Tonight I poured very hot water on my hand, so that was SUPER fun. So I will add this NOTE* don't forget that just because it looks like ricotta cheese from the refrigerator does not mean that it is cold like normal cheese. It is hot. As you spoon it in, have your salt shaker around to add little layers of salt as you go. We probably added ¾ tbsp total.

Bacon by David

Ingredients:

Bacon

To Cook: Place is frying pan and flip as necessary. Don't forget that after you take it out of the pan and put it on a plate lined with a paper towel, the strips will get a tad crunchier.

Crepes by David (if I ever start designing clothes, this is what my baby clothes line will be called)

Ingredients:

1 C milk

2 C eggs

1 tsp vanilla (We left this out of the savory crepes.) (Slash, we didn't have any in the house since I used it all for David's birthday cake and we haven't invested in a new bottle since then.)

mix together

add:

1 C flour

¾ C powdered sugar

¼ tsp salt

mix together

add:

3 tbsp melted butter

Mix it up real good.

To Cook: Pour a little in a greased, buttered or oiled pan, you can make big big crepes or little crepes. The batter should look like a runny (and maybe a little lumpy) pancake. Continue to cook like a pancake. The first one will always be a fail, so don't get discouraged! David also wants me to write that you should grease the spatula too (WHAT A SMART GUY).

Filling: These can be sweet for breakfast, sweet for dessert, or dinner like we are doing, depending on your filling. David has melted chocolate chips and sliced bananas before (SO good with coffee omg)

David suggests having one spreadable component to keep the dish from being too dry. This can be butter, melted chocolate, peanut butter, ricotta cheese, cream cheese, jelly, etc. Once this has been spread on the crepe, roll the crepe up and add whatever else you want to the top. A few topping ideas are banana, bacon, sausage, apples, ham, shredded cheese, peaches, the list is endless!

Thanks for joining us on David Night in the kitchen!

Lovesies, Charlotte and David

BFFL Manicotti

On Thursday night our one (maybe only, but he's like, the best) BFFL friend came over and we made him dinner. We decided on Manicotti (My grandpa's favorite). I also found a recipe for Ricotta Cheese home made so I decided to try it. We have this great local dairy near our house that uses glass bottles and it's super cheap for as much milk as we drink. Using a local product also feels good, and using glass bottles is great, especially in a state that is virtually unconcerned with the concept of recycling (Californians you have it made. Talk about Global warming guilt. I wonder if the people who decide on the recycling rules here have ever watched Wall-E...just saying). Back to the food, the first time I made manicotti was when I had to cook dinner for my family in a cooking class in 7^th grade. I knew nothing about cooking chicken and I just remember it being super messy and all of the noodles splitting and being super frustrated, which is funny because now I find myself tearing the noodles open because it's easier to stuff them, and then just facing the tear towards the bottom of the baking pan. Things have so changed. Anyhoo, here is our rendition of Chicken Spinach Manicotti with home made Ricotta Cheese.

Why you should make Chicken Spinach Manicotti with home made Ricotta Cheese: Well, for starters, manicotti is a great way to spend time in the kitchen with your special someone. It is also super easy to make (so almost no brain power necessary). As for making Ricotta Cheese, I'm not sure if it is less expensive since it requires buttermilk which I mean, what else am I going to use this quarter of buttermilk for now? And cream, which, I will find a use for (see Game Day Quiche), and cheese cloth which, conveniently, the only other time of the year I use cheese cloth is Thanksgiving to cover the turkey, which is next week. So that's awesome. Does anyone know if you can freeze buttermilk? Is that a dumb question? Sorry. POINT: Home made ricotta cheese seriously is super SUPER easy to make and tastes WAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY better than store bought. WAY. BETTER.

BFFL Manicotti (Recipe invented by me)

The original cheese directions can be found HERE.

Cheese Ingredients

-4 cups whole milk

-1 C buttermilk

-1/3 C heavy cream

-Salt

 Everything else Ingredients

-manicotti noodles (it doesn't really matter what kind of noodle you use, but David lived with an Italian who was kind enough to inform us that Barilla is actually the number one pasta in Italy as claimed on their box (LOL). Although, we definitely saw a Barilla Pasta factory in Iowa, soooo...I don't know about that one.)

-1 large can of tomato sauce (The options are tiny, regular, and large, the large one.)

-1 chicken breast diced

-Seasonings: salt, pepper, fresh/dried basil, savory, minced garlic

-1/2 a package of spinach

Directions

Step 1. Those Chicks are so Hot. Dice up a chicken breast, it doesn't have to be pretty because you will be demolishing it later anyways. Tin foil that cookie sheet and spread a little olive oil around on it. Spread out the chicken and squish it as thin as possible so that it just cooks fast. Season it with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and whatever else you want it to taste like. Throw it in the oven. You can set a timer, or you can time it with how long it takes to make the next thing (This is the part where you get to feel like you have your own cooking show.)

Step 2. I Have a Cheesy Boyfriend. This process will take about 15 minutes, the amount of time that the chicken should be in the oven. Get a frying pan with tall-ish sides, or I guess a pot would really work, but you have to scoop out the cheese at the end, which might prove a bit difficult from a pot. Your choice. Get whatever type of heating container you would like, and pour in the whole milk (4 C), buttermilk(1C) and cream(1/3 C). Bring the liquid to a boil and watch it. My experience was that it did nothing for the first 5 minutes, and then when I turned back around to check on it, it looked completely curdled, but it was not yet. Even though it looks done, let it cook for a whole 15 minutes. I mixed it a few times with a spatula but the part that would normally sink to the bottom and get stuck to the pan (like with rice, or beans) actually floats up to the top. Fun Fact. The floaty chunks are called curds, and the rest of the liquid is the whey. Nursery rhymes anyone? TRUE LIFE. THEY AREN'T ALL JUST STORIES. The best part about making your own ricotta is that you get to use a cheese cloth for its god given purpose, MAKING CHEESE!! No ladies and gentlemen, this is not just something used to keep your turkey moist. Cheese making tiiiiimmmeee!!! Gosh, I felt so gourmet using a spoon to spoon out the whey and add salt (about ¾ tsp salt total). IT. FELT. AWESOME. Don't bother squeezing out any extra liquid, just try to leave as much liquid in the pan when you are scooping, as possible. If you do decide to squeeze out more liquid, and you get too excited and go overboard, you can always add a little cream to the cheese and it will moisten it right up! *note: if you eat the cheese right after you make it, it might not taste like what you are expecting. Well, if you eat plain ricotta a lot, it will, but I only eat ricotta IN things so it just tasted like solid milk when I first tried it and it was gross. But it was SOOOOO creaming and delicious in the final product. Set aside.

Step 3. Once the cheese is made, fill a pot with water, bring to a boil, and then cook the manicotti noodles.

Step 4. Pull the chicken out of the oven. Take a strong spatula and dice it up with the end of the spatula, pulling it off the baking sheet as you go. You want it in small enough pieces that it won't get in your way when you're stuffing your manicott, but big enough that it doesn't feel like canned chicken, because that freaks me out. Mix the chicken and the ricotta cheese in a large bowl. Here you can mix to taste, add salt, pepper, garlic powder, parsley, whatever you want. Set that to the side.

Step 5. take a big ol' hunkin' handful of spinach and put it in a frying pan/sauce pan/whatever you want that has a lid. Add like ½ C of water to the bottom and heat it until it flattens out. Drain (or use your already dirty slotted spoon from the cheese making) and add the spinach to the cheese and chicken mixture. Mix it up so everything is blended through really well.

Step 6. take your noodles out of the water and cool with cold water (just to speed up the process a little. I've heard on Chopped that this does both very good and very bad things to the noodles, but I'm not a noodle connoisseur, i'm a Central California Coast wine snob and a Peet's coffee drinker. Sue me.)

Step 7. If you have two people, start the sauce now. One of you can mix it and check on it and the other can stuff the noodles. 7a. Sauce: We save mega bucks and buy hunts tomato sauce in a can and add our own spices including but not limited to: pepper (it's already pretty salty), a dash of olive oil, garlic minced and powdered, basil leaves, dried savory, thyme, hot pepper flakes, and parsley. We also like to make our own sauce because we have spent literally hours of our lives standing in the sauce aisle arguing about what brand and what mix of sauce to get. It's embarrassing really. But also slightly hilarious. 7b. Now since we are baking the manicott, i'm going to blow your mind and make your life wonderful. NOBODY WILL KNOW IF YOU TEAR THE NOODLES TO STUFF THEM BECAUSE IT'S ALL MESSY WHEN IT COMES OUT OF THE OVEN. Split all the noodles (some of them will tear naturally) and “stuff” them with the cheese mixture. See how that took you 5 minutes instead of 15? Awesome right? I know. I'm smart because I have a degree.

Step 8. Oil the baking dish and add the manicotti, tear facing UPWARD. Once the sauce is to your tasty liking, pour it over the noodles in the baking dish. You can either add bread crumbs, or sliced mozzerella (from the deli so you don't have to slice it and don't have a ton extra left over. I figured this one out on my own, by the way. GO. ME.

Step 9. Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes until the cheese looks like what you want it to look like.

Step 10. Call Charlotte and tell her how awesome this recipe is.

Recap:

1.)Dice 1 chicken breast and bake on oiled cookie sheet in oven at 350 for 15-20 minutes.

2. Simmer 4 C whole milk, 1 C buttermilk, and 1/3 C cream for 15 minutes until separated. Spoon into cheese cloth lined strainer and transfer to large bowl.
3. Take chicken out of the oven and chop up into fine pieces with a spatula. Add to the cheese.
4. Boil water and cook manicotti noodles.
5. Steam large handful of spinach either in microwave or covered on the stove. Add to the cheese and chicken mix. Season to taste.
6. Strain manicotti noodles and stuff with mixture.
7. Pour tomato sauce over stuffed noodles in an oiled baking dish. Layer the top with sliced mozzerella.
8. Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes

Happy eating!-Charlotte, David, and our BFFL JP

Game Day Quiche

Today, we went to a WINNING FOOTBALL GAMEEE!! in the largest football stadium in America. Besides the win, I would say that the highlight was singing Journey and Gangnam Style with over 100,000 people. WOO WOO! WE ARE...

So after the game we came home, walked the little bean, turned on the TV just in time to watch USC lose, and settled in to make quiche. Today is a very exciting day. Today is the day that I premiere my first ever recipe that was not based off of someone else!!! I have been making quiche since my first college kitchen, and as my father has told me with several other recipes, you probably won't mess it up, so don't stress out about it. So without further ado,

CharChar's Quiche

Why you should make this recipe:

Quiche left overs are AWESOME. The are great for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They are super easy to take with you in a tupperware, they are deeeelicious with coffee, they can be microwaved, or as my dad would say, “nuked” to absolute perfection. Quiche left overs are fantastic. We now have easy breakfast for the next 4 days. Quiche can be frozen, it can be baked to re-heat, it is the greatest and most utilitarian of the left overs. This will ALL be devoured and nothing will be wasted. So grab some eggs, a pie tin, and a frying pan, and get cookin'!

Ingredients

Crust (This is my forever crust recipe. It has turned out amazingly well for apple pie and now for quiche, and it is just simple, tasty, and generally a sure bet. I would guess that if you added a little sugar, cinnamon, and/or vanilla, it would be even better for pie, but that is besides the current point.)

-1 ¼ C flour

-1/4 tsp salt

-1/2 C / 1 stick of butter

-3 tbsp. Cold water.

NOTE: this amount will make for 2 full crusts or one top and bottom. Since this recipe only needs a bottom crust, you can always halve it. We will be using ours for our chicken pot pie later this week.

 

Filling

-5 pieces of cooked bacon

-1 small white onion

-1 medium white potato

-4 eggs

-1/2C cream

-1/2 C cottage cheese

-1 ½ C shredded cheddar and swiss cheese

-olive oil

Ingredients to taste/estimate since it's in raw egg:

-chili flakes

-parsley

-basil

-paprika

-salt/pepper

Directions

Step 1. Le Crust. Mix pie crust ingredients in a bowl in the order given. Once it is a cohesive lump, ball it up and put it in the fridge to set. This will chill it out and make it a little easier to work with later. The great thing about making your own crust is that it is SUPER DUPER CHEAP compared to frozen crust, it is SUPER DUPER easy, and you feel like you're on the Food Channel in your own show when you're making it because compared to spaghetti or baked chicken, it's basically gourmet.

Step 2. Heat Everything so you Don't get Food Poisoning Part 1. Cook the bacon. Once the bacon is done (David does this so don't ask me), place the pieces on a paper towel on a plate. Take the potato, pierce it with a fork and (forgive me mom) microwave it for about 3.5 minutes. Slice the onion and chop it all up. Once the potato has cooled to the touch, cut it up in cubes. Saute the potato pieces and the chopped onion in the bacon grease (yay for easy clean up!). Feel free to add any seasonings for the time being to this mixture. We want the onions to become clear (I don't know the official word) and ideally the potatoes would be a little crispy. If this takes too much time, don't worry about it, just make sure the onion is cooked enough for your liking.

Step 3. Make it Look like Pre-Dinner. In a separate bowl combine: eggs, cream, cottage cheese, and shredded cheese. Tear or cut up the bacon and throw that in too. This is also where you can add all the spices you want! I have recently decided that when it comes to spices, salt and pepper, go big or go home. I think I've said this before but I find that if there is either too much salt or pepper, you can generally add some of whatever there is less of to the top of the dish and it will even it out. You may also notice that for the first time in world history, we did not add garlic powder or minced garlic to this recipe. That is because I have found out in the past (the hard way) that quiche can be easily overpowered if there is one glaring spice (ex. too much oregano). Just keep it equal and it will be tasty.

Step 4. Don't Forget the Starch and the Onion. Once the potatoes and onions are done, or once you are satisfied with them, add them to the egg mixture. Set aside.

Step 5. Heat Everything so you Don't get Food Poisoning Part 2. Pull the pie crust dough out of the refrigerator. Take half of the crust (or all of it if you already halved the recipe) and roll it out to fit the pie tin. Grease the pie tin with olive oil and lay the crust down in the tin. Pour in the filling and bake at 350 for 50 minutes.

Options: I forgot to add spinach to this, but that is often a good idea. The ingredients that are necessary for a quiche are: eggs, cream/milk, shredded cheese of some type, cottage cheese (if you know what's good for you) and bacon depending on your definition of “necessary.” You can also make like, a 'Cheese and spinach” or “Mushrooms and Onions” or whatever. I prefer the all or nothing approach. Also I do not believe that potatoes are traditionally in a quiche, but in Spain they have what they call tortilla, but it is a crust-less quiche with large pieces of onion and potato and it is served at room temperature. It's a great game day finger food there. STORY TIME! When I went to Spain, during the World Cup Semi-Finals in 2010 between Spain and Alemania (Germany), my roommate and I went to a bar to watch the game where we knew the bar tenders because we spent so much time there in the afternoons bc they had air conditioning and wi-fi (wee-fee in Spainish...that's not a joke). When we were there, a man came who's mother had cooked a large tortilla for him to take to the bar to share with his friends. We ate it and it was basically the best food that I ate the entire time I was in Spain because Spanish food is not delicious. (Even the Spanish Rice-a-Roni is gross. Always get the Mexican Rice-a-Roni).

Moral of the Story: Make quiche because you will have food for a thousand meals, and never buy Spanish Rice-a-Roni because Mexican is probably what you actually want and you just don't know the difference.

Happy Sassing!-Charlotte

Spinach Pasta (like pesto, but better)

Tonight was David's night so technically I'm hosting his food in this post, but it was just so unbelievably tasty and he stuck so amazingly well to the RECIPE (although this time he actually could have added Parmesan cheese and it wouldn't have messed it up) that I felt that I just had to shout it from the rooftops. This is even easy enough for you to do at the end of the day when you are exhausted and just want to have food in your belly to pass out.This recipe is a healthy spin on pesto pasta. Healthy and amazing.

The Best part about this recipe is that 1. you most likely have everything in your kitchen already, 2. it will fill you up, and 3. it will make you feel at least a little healthy because it has green things in it.

David's Ingredients:

-Pasta

-10 oz. Frozen/fresh chopped spinach (Bless David's heart, when he makes dinner now, I think he feels a significant amount of pressure to not ruin our biggest meal of the day or waste money so he sticks to the recipe. It is almost painful how close to the recipe he tries to stray. Painful and very adorable.)

-1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes

-3 ½ cloves minced garlic, or the rest of the garlic in the jar (we finally ran out today, OH MY!!)

David's Directions:

Step 1. Boil water. Add noodles and chopped spinach to water.

Step 2. When pasta is almost done, heat a large saute pan with oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes

Step 3. When pasta is done, drain lightly. Pour pasta and spinach bits into pan with oil and garlic. Let cook 5 minutes until garlic is just done.

Step 4. EAT!

At first, David said that he felt like something was missing but I thought it was DELICIOUS. Easiest recipe ever. We ate this with a few bites of steamed veggies on the side for the whole health factor. We also haven't been eating pasta hardly ever since I started feeling larger than I have felt in the past. But anywho, this was super tasty and it's almost easier than spaghetti with sauce and definitely easier than spaghetti and meat sauce.

Tasty Tortilla Soup Heaven

Before we stuff our faces with delicioso food, I present to you, Ladies and Gentlemen, My boyfriend the Photographer!!!

 I absolutely love these photos. 

How they appear is exactly how it feels to walk in these woods.

Beautiful and quiet.

I can't decide which ones I like the best because they are all so fabulous.

 Foodie Time:

Today we are trying (again) to make tortilla soup (Original recipe HERE). This is something that David has always enjoyed, and I've never really tried it. I'm a bit scared that I won't appreciate it, but that's okay. It was easy and took almost no effort. Crock Pot win.

This recipe is DELISH! I generally post my reviews at the end up heads up! This one is SOOOO worth making. Now, I used both chicken from chicken breast and chicken from 2 drumsticks, I tried to shred it as best as I could. OMG it was tasty and SO EASY.

*Side note. My definition of easy is this: all ingredients are already in my cupboard or total less than $8 not including meat.

My Ingredients:

-meat equivalent to 2 chicken breasts

-olive oil

- some big scoops of minced garlic

-5 shakes ground cumin

-10 shakes chili powder

-1 chopped sauted onion

-chicken broth (yours or from the can, 2 cans/5 cups worth)

-1 can of drained corn

-1 lemon worth of lemon juice

-2 cups chunky salsa (I used diced tomato, red onion and cilantro

-stale/regular tortilla chips for plating

-salt and pepper

-a little extra spice to your preference (David said he's used to tortilla chip soup coming out spicier, but it was just perfect for me)

-Peanut wanted to add this bone for flavor but I told him it wouldn't fit into the crock pot

Directions:

Non-Crock Pot (How dare you!!! Just kidding.): If you are using a regular pot, use a large pot to saute the onion and chicken in some oil, and then add everything on top in the one big pot. Cook for 30-40 minutes and serve.

Crock Pot Groupies Unite!!: If you are using a slow cooker, saute the onions and then trow everything in the slow cooker. Let it sit on high for 8 hours. If you want the chicken shredded, take it out at some point and do so.

To Serve: Place chips in the bottom of the bowl, pour soup across the top. EAT! NOMNOMNOM.

*Note: Try not to lose your dog in your laundry while you are waiting 8 hours for your dinner. Like I did.

Terrifying Chili

Today I am venturing out with my recipe. I've been trying to do at least one thing every week that makes me nervous because I think it's probably good for me. I try to find a recipe that uses ingredients that I recognize, but that I can't imagine the combination of in my head. In addition to the one thing every week that makes me nervous, David and I have decided that he will find two or three recipes every week.

Normally what ends up happening is on the weekends or when he has less homework, he will come to me and say “hey Char, you've been doing the cooking all week. Go sit down. I'LL be taking care of this one tonight!!!” Which is great of him to notice and show his appreciation by helping. The only problem is that if I was the one to find the recipes, and put all the ingredients together, he has no idea how to make anything on the weekly menu. So then I end up getting up and down like 6 or 7 times while he makes food. I also end up cutting the onions, and once I start cutting onions, I just cut everything else because I happen to be faster than he is at slicin' and dicin'. In addition, if David doesn't quite, know how to make something, or he doesn't know the expected taste outcome, he inevitably ends up adding Parmesan cheese where it does not belong. (In his head Parmesan cheese is like another spice.)

So without further ado, I will first list our menu for the week briefly, and then I will explain this Terrifying Chili that I have attempted to make today. We'll see.

This Week:

-Chicken Drumsticks, broccoli, cheese sauce

-Yogurt and Parmesan cheese chicken baked with boiled brussels sprouts (boiled is the fastest and most thorough, new chicken recipe but looked fairly straightforward, was not exciting enough to blog about and it will be a good back up recipe on super lazy nights/when David leaves for Christmas.)

-Black Bean, Sweet Potato and Quinoa Chili (aka Terrifying Chili)

-Tortilla Chicken Soup (tried to make this once, turned out bean goop, trying it with crock pot and no fear this time.)

-Pork Fajitas (We usually do chicken but David decided to mix it up, if you're not a home made fajita regular, just wait til you hear the secret ingredient, omg)

-Spinach Pasta (David Recipe)

-Chicken Stir-Fry (David Recipe)

Total $: Around $50 (we were under budget so we stocked up on some spices that we've been cheating on recently)

The goal every week is to have at least one green thing/something from the produce section besides onions and potatoes, on the plate every night.

Terrifying Chili:

*Usually my chili consists of tons and tons of tomatoes, a can of corn, bell peppers, onion, ground beef, and an amazing chili seasoning. Am I missing anything Dad? I think that's it.

Original recipe can be found HERE.

Ingredients that I used:

*NOTE: This list looks long and intimidating but you will find that you most likely have a majority of these ingredients in your kitchen already. hence, the brilliance of this recipe*

1 Tsp. Olive oil

1 small/medium onion, diced

2 heaping spoonfuls of minced garlic

1 big handful of chopped baby carrots (much easier and cheaper than buying two big carrots, cleaning, peeling, dicing, and having half a carrot left over and no bunny to feed it to)

½ tsp. Turmeric (Never used it before. Eek)

¼ tsp cinnamon (this part should be exciting)

shake of nutmeg (christmassy I think?)

1 teaspoon cumin (we've been substituting a combo of paprika, mustard powder, and chili powder for this. Anyone know if that makes sense or not?)

2 Tsp. Chili powder (my second favorite ingredient to life)

1 tsp. Smoked Chipotle Tabasco sauce (how to I explain this, Tabasco sauce freaks me out and kind of grosses me out a little, and I have no idea why, my irrational fear only worsened when I actually poured it into the crock pot.)

Salt to taste

1 can (15 ish oz. )tomato sauce

2 cups cooked red quinoa (this is the only kind I can ever find at the grocery store. This is also the most expensive ingredient besides the Tabasco sauce if you don't already have that in your house)

1 bag of dried black beans

3 cups of chicken stock (or chicken legs from last night left in the crock pot overnight to make chicken broth. p.s. If you decide to do that, take the skin off the chicken so that it's not just chicken spices broth)

1 large white jersey sweet potato (the same ones from the fail fries last week), peeled and diced into small cubes

creamy topping:

-1 cup of Greek yogurt

-garlic powder

-chili powder

-Tabasco Sauce

Directions:

Step 1. Add broth to CP

Step 2. Saute Onion.

Step 3. Add dried black beans to crock pot.

Step 4. Add everything else (Just want to make sure that the beans are covered)

Step 5. Cook for 8 hours or more on high.

So, needless to say, these ingredients, besides the spices, are things that I would normally never ever eat individually, hence the fear in the title.

I'll let you know how it turns out when we eat it....

Soooo..... BLECH. David liked it, actually he liked it quite a bit. I felt like it was too one dimensional in flavor, there was something missing.The one thing that I would say is that the combination of spices was great. It would taste really great if it wasn't seasoning basically a bean soup.

These are the changes I would make:

½ the beans, ½ the liquid, cut the carrots in chunks, add bacon, add 1 extra sweet potato.

It just felt like something was missing. It tasted fine, but I just wish that for the amount of food that I put into the crock put, that it tasted a little better.The creamy spicy topping was great. I'm eating it on tonight's dinner too. I think it could also go on chicken and be baked. It was GREAT.

All in all, the discussion that ensued in discussion after dinner about the dinner, was that bacon makes everything better, including this.

Quinoa "I Really Hope This Works" Burgers

So tonight's plan is quinoa burgers. If David heard me say that, he would say, “you mean quin-no way burgers?” Just kidding. He's not as against it as I keep thinking he is (strangely enough). When planning for this week, I guessed that this was a fairly healthy meal. We are using swiss cheese instead of cheddar and I don't know about you but I always feel healthier eating swiss cheese. I have no idea why. As I tried to figure out how to cook quinoa, I was watching a tv show where first time home buyers tried to buy their first home. I wish I could take out a loan for $150,000 and be at the top of my price range. LOL California inflation.

How to Make Quinoa Burgers:

Ingredients according the the recipe (Original recipe can be found HERE.):

2 rounded cups cooked quinoa (see note below for cooking instructions)

3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese (or other variety, if you prefer)

1/2 cup low-fat cottage cheese

1 medium carrot, finely grated (OR 1 cup shredded zucchini, squeezed dry)

3 eggs

3 tablespoons all purpose flour

2 green onions, including white parts

1 /2 teaspoon Splenda or sugar

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

Olive oil for frying

MY ingredients:

1 C quinoa (We used red quinoa because it was all we could find and I was tired of shopping, and it was right before the hurricane and seeing all of the empty shelves at the grocery store was freaking me out and I just wanted to get out of there.)

1 1/8 C shredded swiss cheese

¼ C cottage cheese

5 or 6 baby carrots finely chopped

1 ½ eggs (maybe a little more than half, but it's hard to halve an egg)

1 ½ tbsp flour

¼ tsp. Sugar

A bunch of shakes of : black pepper, salt, garlic powder, paprika and chili powder (I don't have cumin or remember what it tastes like but paprika+ chili powder=the right color and some extra flavor so it's probably close enough)

Butter for frying ( I couldn't help myself.)

Directions:

Step 1. make quinoa

Step 1A. Follow directions on box or bag to make 1:C of finished quinoa.

How that went for us: I followed a recipe that said to boil water and add quinoa in a 2:1 ratio. After the allotted time, I tasted it and it didn't seem done. So I added some more water and when I came back 5 minutes later, BURNT. It was completely burnt to the bottom of the pan and instead of the kitchen smelling faintly of potatoes, it smelled like burnt popcorn (as does the rest of the house now. Great.) Apparently quinoa is my kryptonite, maybe because there's no butter in it. After the MAN of the house came in, made a happy baby turtle face at me (I'll find a picture later), gave me a few belly bumps (exactly what it sounds like), and wood peckered my cheek with his nose for about a minute, we decided to jump back on the horse and try again. Since I refused to touch the stuff, David made the quinoa and it turned out brilliantly! Save the day! Get the girl!

Step 2. Combine everything in a bowl and mix until it is spread evenly.

Step 3. Melt a light layer of butter in a frying pan. Use a ¼ C measure to scoop out patties. Make sure the heat is medium and cook for 5-6 minutes on each side. Flip them when it seems like they won't fall apart. If they do, I don't know what to tell you because this is one thing that , surprisingly, I actually didn't screw up.

Step 4. THAT'S IT! We always toast our buns in the oven with butter, salt, pepper, and sometimes garlic powder depending on what we're eating it with. We ate the patties on bread with cold red onions (one of my FAVORITE foods I have recently discovered) and mayo, ketchup and mustard (for David).

Step 5. Bask in my own glory. I was sooo expecting David to fight me tooth and nail on this recipe simply because it had no meat and was something different, and he's not always the greatest with new things-EXCEPT FOOD!!! Which I totally forgot. So David, I'm sorry I doubted you. We didn't skimp on the saesoning (like last night) and everything went quite smoothly. The absolute highlight of my night, and my whole day really, was the following direct quote from David: "I'm scared to say this, but I actually like these a lot." BAM. HANDLED.

Notes: The original recipe says that if you make double the amount that I did, that it makes about 10 burgers. Well, using the ¼ C measure as directed in that recipe, and halving the recipe, I made 7 individual patties. So I'm not sure how that happened, but I'm definitely glad I halved everything.

All in all, this was a GOOD solid recipe that I am proud to add to my stock pile of weekly recipes.At the end of the meal, the hassle from the beginning fully felt like it was worth it (The hassle's worth the tassel, as some would say.)

Welp, Peanut is getting antsy so, that's all for now!

Filled with rabbit food for the night, Charlotte (and sleep-talking, back laying Peanut)

Sausage Stuffed Jalapenos and Cheater Baked Potato.

OK, tonight we tried a new recipe called something something stuffed jalapenos. I picked the recipe off of a low-carb blog. (Find it HERE. She's funny too.) What's great about this specific blog is that it's called low-carb, but it uses a TON of cheese and dairy, which is awesome because we're not eating a lot of carbs so I feel healthy, but it still tastes delicious. So the official name of the recipe is Sausage Stuffed Jalapenos.

Ingredients:

8oz. Cream cheese (YESSSSSSSSSSSSS)

1 lb. Jalapenos halved and rinsed of seeds and innards

1 lb. sausage (we used spicy I-talian. Will let you know if that was a mistake)( Retrospect: probs saved the dish)

1 cup shredded cheddy cheese

2 finely chopped green onions

Directions:

Step 1. Brown sausage. I took mine out of the casings. It was fun.

Step 2. While I stood over the stove (like a good little house-girlfriend. The people in the Romney commercials would be proud, especially that one mom disgusted with the Obama commercial on her iPad.) my amazing little personal chopper cut up two chives thingies, shred cheese, and help cut the peppers in half and clean them out of seeds and the inside stuff.

Step 3. Once the meat is done, drain if there is fat, and put it in a bowl with all the other ingredients.

Step 4. Line a cookie sheet with foil (dishes are the devil) and “stuff” the halved peppers with the meaty mush. Bake for 12-15 minutes.

ALSO... We also made these Cheater Baked/Roasted Potaties. Supes easy.

Ingredients: potatoes, salt, pepper, paprika, LOTS of Paula Dean's Blood (aka butter)

Step 1. Slice potaties down the center long ways and then twice across to vent.

Step 2. Microwave potaties for 3.5 minutes wrapped in a paper towel.

Step 3. Cut potaties open so that they are mostly flat (see finished product photo)

Step 4. Smother, and I mean SMOTHER potatoes in Paula Dean Butta.

Step 5. cover with salt, pepper, and lots and lots of paprika.

Step 6. Bake at same time as peppers (but for 20 minutes).

How It Went:

Well, for starters, I would not skimp on the butter on the potatoes before baking. I should have known better. Paula Dean's gravestone will probably say “There's no such thing as too much butter.” Shame on me for not remembering that. If you don't put enough, the potaties might dry out a little too much. In addition, like it says in my earlier post from this week, I've never worked with jalapenos so I don't know the general kitchen physics of them (Kitchen Physics: knowing that if you don't but baking soda in cake, then it will taste like a biscuit.). So I tonight learned that the longer you bake a pepper, the more it will collapse, as in, not crunch so much when you bite into it. That being said, if you want crunchy jalapenos, then 12-15 minute away. I kind of felt like it made it seem undercooked and it wasn't hot enough temperature-wise for a tasty steaming entree for dinner (even though these are kind of tailgate-y food, but its Sunday night football so watch me care). So since I have a giant bowl of the stuffing left over, since we didn't use a whole pound of jalapenos, I might try this again for lunch or something and bake the jalapenos for like 15-17-20 minutes.

The last mistake that I made was not seasoning the stuffing enough. We both took our first bite and decided that the peppers were good, but didn't seem like anything special, and obviously if I want to be the worlds greatest cook, that's not what we're aiming for here. The ROOKIE mistake that I made in the stuffing (and that I roll my eyes at in every single episode of Restaurant Impossible) is that I did not add enough salt and pepper. The other reason that I am kicking myself for this is because I'm pretty sure that in every single post that concerns food, I say, (and I quote myself) “Don't be afraid to add lots of salt and pepper!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” The second we added salt to the top of the peppers, they were great. LESSON. LEARNED.

Peanut was smiling too.

Chicken with a side of Try Not to Get Jalapeno in my Eye

Today's adventure is called, Cilantro Lime Slow Cooker Chicken. I am calling it, Chicken with a side of Try not to get jalapeno in my Eye.

So today I made what I believe is officially called Cilantro Lime Slow Cooker Chicken, but you know, whatever. I'll cut the (awesome) commentary and skip to the ingredients:

Ingredients from recipe that I lost:

((get Santa Barbara Salsa medium in the dairy aisle, if you should be so lucky. ))

-1 24 oz jar of medium or mild salsa

OR

-1 red onion, 4 tomatoes, ½ c fresh cilantro, 3 cloves/ spoon fulls of minced garlic, 1 lime, 1 tomatillo, ½ of a jalapeno, salt to taste

-Juice from one lime

-1/4 cup fresh cilantro

-one 1.25 package of taco seasoning

-2 finely chopped jalapeno peppers

Ok so since a lot of the ingredients from the salsa and the slow cooker are the same, these are the ingredients that I actually used:

-1 red onion (1/3 in separate bowl, we'll call it Other Bowl)

-4 tomaties diced/cubed

-1 to 2 tomatoes for Other Bowl later

-3 spoonfuls of minced garlic/ chop 3 cloves of garlic and have smelly fingers. (½ a spoonful to Other Bowl)

-one bushel of cilantro chopped (pretty strong flavor, 1/3 C in Other Bowl , big handful into the crock pot, find somewhere else for the rest (I found the trash can).

-1 package of taco seasoning (okay, so I folded on the store bought creole seasoning, and I'm doing it again. I know it doesn't make much sense to go through all the effort to make my own salsa but then use all the chemicals in taco seasoning but I haven't found any good pre-made salsa in Pennsylvania in the grocery stores. I have no other excuse.)

-3 finely chopped jalapenos (quarter peppers, 2 chopped quarters go to Other Bowl, see notes below)

-1 real big chicken breast, cubed.

Directions:

Step 1. Dice tomatoes, onions, cilantro and chicken and throw them into the Slow Cooker/ Other Bowl as designated above.

Step 2. Add Taco seasoning.

Step 3. Add garlic to Crock Pot and Other Bowl.

Step 4. Cut the lime into 8 wedges. One wedge can be squeezed into Other Bowl, and the rest can be squeezed into the Crock Pot.

Step 5. Jalapenos: Now, as I have researched a bit, it is not wise to touch jalapenos and then touch your eyes. As I am an eternal eye rubber, I was quite worried about this one. Once time I got Icy Hot in my eye, it was 10 times worse than it sounds. First it was icy, and then it was miserably hot. I figure jalapenos can only be worse. I made sure to only touch the peppers with my left hand. I cut them into quarters and then used a regular old spoon to scoop out the middle part and the seeds. I was surprised that the inside looks just like a regular red or green pepper! Except I knew that I would be blinded for life if I touched my face, so it was overall a terrifying experience. I will say, that the worst of it was when I was scooping out the center of the second to last piece, something wet went from the pepper to my nose. I basically had a heart attack. So maybe wear safety goggles for this one kids. After I chopped the peppers, put 2 quarters in the Other Bowl, and the rest in the slow cooker, I washed my hands with dish soap. My last recommendation on this task is, when nobody is looking, huddle in the corner and if you lightly lick your fingers, you can tell if you missed any spots from the pepper juice. I missed my thumb, so I went back and re-washed, giving my nails and cuticles a nice little massage. It was wonderful.

Step 6. I mixed everything together in the crock pot, I figure it might be good to get all that icky taco seasoning spread around the other ingredients. Then I turned the Crock Pot on low at noon and walked away.

Step 7. Dice 1-3 more tomatoes and throw them in the Other Bowl (depending on how you like your salsa) and put the bowl in the fridge to marinate for later...i already stole a taste- YUMM!

So What Happened? WELL, no offense to my boyfriend who will eat almost anything and gobbled this entire dish up, but this recipe was a DISASTA!!!! There was so much acidity from the tomatoes. A million tomatoes is worse than one. I think next time maybe just put one tomato and some apples and honey. Probably at least two limes since I could barely taste the lime at all, and you know that cilantro that I threw in my trash? Shoulda put it in the Crock Pot. FAIL. 

Other Mistakes: I cut up the chicken. I should not have. The jalapenos I was worried about, I should not have been. I also should have added chili powder because the dish was not spicy, at all. If I had gotten jalapeno in my eye and then the food wasn't even spicy, I don't even know what I would have done. Probably thrown out my Crock Pot for life.

Recipe I Would Have Done (but if you follow it, you can't get mad at me since I didn't actually make this one):

-1 red onion (all in Crock Pot)

-2 diced tomaties (all in Crock Pot)

-1 diced apple (I'm thinking the sweeter the better, all in Crock Pot)

-3 tablespoons of Honey

-3 spoonfuls of minced garlic/ chop 3 cloves of garlic and have smelly fingers. (all in Crock Pot)

-1 bushel of cilantro chopped (all in Crock Pot, maybe a little if you also want to make salsa)

-1 package of taco seasoning (into the Crock Pot, even though I HATE instant stuff, I think this saved the recipe from above)

-5 finely chopped jalapenos (all in Crock Pot)

-1 can of black beans OR (is your mind ready to be blown?) if you simply put healthier and less processed dried black beans into the Crock Pot for 8 hours they will cook through. Best kept cooking secret. Right there. Nobody even told me. I felt so left out the first time it worked.

-2 whole chicken breast

-salt, pepper, chili pepper (LOTS OF EACH!)

-maybe a little water (depending on how dry the Crock Pot is whenever you check on it)

I would also serve it over rice instead of in tortillas like we did.

So all in all, not my greatest kitchen masterpiece. Luckily I am dating a guy who will literally eat almost anything and thinks that everything except coconut is delicious. What more could I want, seriously. ( Sorry, no pictures because it was such a mess, I was distracted.)

That's all for now, Charlotte

Chicky Wings and Oven Tries, I Mean, Fries

Tonight I am making wings and potato and sweet potato fries. Except that, the grocery store was out of wings, so it's drumsticks, and we couldn't find sweet potatoes, so it's white sweet potatoes... I think. At least, I cut it open, and it was the same color as regular potatoes. In addition, I have never successfully made my own french fries, so tonight is yet another “recipe”, and yet another try. As I am writing, things are currently in the oven on like 20,000 baking sheets. Okay, 3, but we only have 3 baking sheets in the whole house, plus a pizza thingy, so it's basically 20,000. And I didn't really follow the recipe I looked up because as I have previously stated in my blog posts, I prefer to wing it so that if it comes out awesome, I can claim it as my own. Bam.

How I Tried:

Chicky Ingredients:

-drumsticks (it never occurred to me that chicken legs would only be half covered on skin. Lol biology.

-creole seasoning (I tried to make this from my own cupboard last week but since I was missing half of the ingredients, it was basically the same 'recipe' that I use to spice everything, so this time I just spent $5 at the grocery store [I HATE DOING THAT.] on a jar of creol seasoning.)

-4 tbsp. Vinegar

Separate:

-vinegar ¼ C

-baking soda ¼ C

-water1 ½ C

Directions ( I even timed it out for you so just follow the steps):

Recipes I Loosely Followed: vinegar wings and french fries 

Step 1. Find yourself an AWESOME cooking buddy in a sweet Halloween costume. This is mine:

Step 2. Mix together ¼ C vinegar, ¼ C baking soda, and 1 ½ C water in a bowl. Soak sponge in solution and clean bottom of oven from apple pie spillage from the other night.

Step 3. Pre-heat oven to 425.

Step 4. “Toss” drumsticks with creole seasoning, aka line them up on a cutting board or put them in a bowl and sprinkle seasoning on, as much as you think you can handle. I don't think that mine are going to be spicy enough for me, I can already feel it in my heart. I wonder if I can just sprinkle chili powder over them when they are done cooking. I'll figure something out.

Step 5. set drumsticks on cookie cooling rack, and place it over tin foil (avoid cleaning up), on a cookie sheet. Bake for 50 minutes. Set timer for 20 minutes.

Step 6. Take the next 20 minutes to slice potato/sweet potato as thin as you can. You will know they are thin enough when you start cursing at your wrist. And the knife. And the potatoes. And the cutting board.

Step 7. Toss in oil. Now, I mixed in salt and pepper before I laid the potato slices out on the foil over cookie sheet, but as SOON as I stuck my hands back in the bowl to toss them more, I could feel the exfoliation. And nobody needs that. So after that, I sprinkled s&p over fries once they were laid out on the sheet. Once the timer went off I threw (yes mom, THREWW!!!) the sheets of fries in the oven and set another timer for 30 minutes.

Step 8. Mix 4 tbsp vinegar with some salt (sea salt if you want to be fancy, Pink Himalayan rock salt if you are one of those people obsessed with Trader Joe's) and sprinkle it on the wings. Don't be afraid!!! You really have to saturate them to even start to get the flavor through, especially if you used seasoning as strong as creole. I don't want to assume that that's what you actually used as I'm not one to follow recipes much, obvi.

Reflections After the Point of No Return:

I'm thinking that it would have maybe been wise to cover the chickens in oil to make them crispy. Oh well, we'll see.

Fries Came Out: FAIL-A-SAURUS. How big of a fail were they you ask? Well, let me just show you.

“Silly Charlotte,” you say, “that looks great!” Wait for it....

Fail (n): Burnt on one side and not even crispy yet on the other side.

Final Fry analysis: It is easiest to simply settle for mashed potatoes (I use the word settle loosely as mashed potatoes are my favorite food), or buy frozen fries and settle for their awkward post-frozen taste. I didn't follow the recipe 100%...I cut the potatoes much thinner than ½ an inch because I thought that would help make them crispy. Turns out, I'm too good at guessing this kind of stuff.

(Fries on the left are traditional taters, on the right is white sweet potato, which besides the burnt part, was actually pretty tasty, and I only eat sweet potatoes for David and his family. This is all I got out of two whole potatoes. They took up two full cookie sheets to bake on. Say it with me now, FAIL!)

Chicken Came Out: OMG I didn't totally screw it upppp!!!!!! Angels are ascending from heaven upon my chicky drumsticks AS WE SPEAK!

Holy crap, it's even crispy without the oil!! I. AM. A. PAULA. DEAN. ROCKSTAR. (This isn't her recipe, I just like her a lot...and butter.) And it tastes PERFECT! (It is spicy enough, definitely.) This SO made up for the fail fries.

So the moral of the story here is to never try to make french fries unless you have a deep frier. Just go to mc donalds or In-n-Out (if you should be so lucky) and pick some up before dinner and put them on a tray in the oven so people think you made them. The other moral of the story is that I can do no wrong with chicken (and I would expect that to be true for most fake chefs like myself.) So carry on my sassy cookers!

See you next time.

CharChar

Hurricane Pie Recipe OF MY LIFE

Since I can't think about this hurricane too much without having a baby panic attack, and since I have no money and am unemployed, and since Kim Taylor told me that she used to bake during storms, and since I have lots of baking ingredients in my cupboard, and since Wendy Barrie posted a status about baking and listening to Christmas music simply because she could, I decided to make an apple pie from scratch.

Recipes I borrowed from:

Pie:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/apple-pie-by-grandma-ople/#

Crust:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/basic-flaky-pie-crust/detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Title&e11=pie%20crust&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Home%20Page

Crust Design:

http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_make_a_lattice_top_for_a_pie_crust/

                                                        **Pre-baked pie**

 

My Official Recipe (because apparently I'm not too bad at making up successful recipes. So that's awesome.):

Crust: 

Followed the recipe exactly (Gasp! That never happens.)

Filling:

½ C / 1 stick of butter

3 tbsp. Flour

¼ C water

½ C white sugar

½ C brown sugar

3 redish yellowish apples that I had in my fridge, sliced

Directions:

Follow directions on the crust link. If you don't have a rolling pin, just use a stemless wine glass (obvi!!). 

For the filling, turn on some Christmas music for effect. Then, melt the butter on a sauce pan aka frying pan, add in flour (for those of us who are more baked, make a rue). Once mixed in, add water, white sugar, and brown sugar. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly to save yourself the scrubbing later. Get someone else to stir the sugary mixture for you while you do the other steps before pouring or turn down heat to simmer and wait until you put the apples in the crust to pour the mixture. In the meantime, put the crust in a buttered/greased pan. Place apples over bottom crust. Pour filling over apples. Now, in the recipe in the link, she pours the sugary mixture over the crust, but I didn't read that far in advanced, so I just poured it over the apples. I think it will probs taste mostly the same. Pouring the mixture will be heavy so either be super strong, or get someone else to hold the other side of the pan with an oven mitt, or pour it into a bowl or pyrex dish with a handle to make your life easier. Braid the top of the pie over the apples. Make sure that you talk like your favorite food network celebrity (obvi mine is Paula Dean ya'll!!) while doing this part because only fancy people make fancy pie crusts and really, when is the next time there's going to be a hurricane that is going to give you enough time inside the house, with baking therapy, to actually take the time to make a fancy pie crust? I'm just saying. It doesn't happen as often as you'd think it does. Next step, is to forget to line the bottom of the oven with foil, have the pie boil over, and fill the entire apartment with smoke. Now, this step is ABSOLUTELY KEY in creating the perfect pie and pie experience.

The last thing you absolutely MUST do is accidentally make butter out of cream when you're trying to make whipped cream.

If you follow all of these steps exactly as described, you will have the best apple pie you have EVER home made.

Note: Definitely make the braided fancy crust bc it was a tiny bit runny and a full crust won't allow anything to steam off, but it wasn't runny runny, it was like, delicious goopy runny that you can scrape off your plate with a fork...or another piece of pie.

ENJOY!