Thursday, November 29, 2012

Apple Pie Caramel Apples

Today, I attempted to make these beauties.

I have never made a caramel apple. But these looked FAB. I figured, what the heck.
THIS is where I got the recipe from.
Hers looks way better than mine. Don't judge.
Anyways- here is the recipe.
 
Apple Pie Caramel Apple
Ingredients:
1 bag Kraft caramels
4-5 large, tart apples (You can use red apples too but I like the contrast of the tart apple with the caramel)
1 bag white chocolate chips or white chocolate candy melts
cinnamon sugar
 
Directions:
1. Wash, scrub, and dry apples. This is important or your caramel won’t stick because of the coating stores put on apples.
2. In a medium saucepan, melt caramel according to package directions.
3. Put popsicle stick in the apple. Dip in melted caramel making sure to fully coat it. **I thought I had popsicle sticks, but I did not. I only had the sticks for like suckers & cake pops. I highly recommend popsicle sticks. They'll be easier to eat in the end**
4. Place on parchment or wax paper that has been sprayed with cooking spray. **Tried the sprayed wax paper. They still stuck, and a litttttttle bit of the paper ripped off. I used a mat for the chocolate layer, worked much better for me.**
5. Cool in the fridge until caramel is set up. If you want a thick caramel layer, add another layer of caramel here and let it set up again.
6. Melt chocolate chips in the microwave in 30 second intervals. You can add a little shortening if the mixture is too thick.
7. Coat the apple with the chocolate.
8. Let it set up a little bit before sprinkling it with the cinnamon sugar mixture. **This is a must. Look at the back left apple. HA!** 
9. Cool completely in the fridge.
10. Cut into slices and serve.
Can be made up to one day ahead of time. Store in the refrigerator.

It took me 2.5 apples to finally figure it out. The chocolate part needs to be quick, my caramel melted if I took too long.
These were SUPER yummy! Totally keeping on our keep list.
 

Monday, November 12, 2012

YUMMY Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

WOW! I have not been on Blogger for waaaaay too long! It's all totally new and different. How fun!

I haven't been on Pinterest for a very long time either. Well, yesterday, I got an email saying that one of my pins that had only 15 pins, was repinned & repinned until it hit 112! I was kind of in shock. So, I decided that I should get back on this "A Date with Pinterest" thing. My husband misses all the yummy food I use to make. Of course, we don't miss the yucky. But the goodness makes up for the awfulness.

The other day I decided to make a super YUMMY chicken noodle soup from scratch. The canned stuff is kind of "meh" to me. My mom has been making this recipe forever. The noodle recipe is actually my Great-Great-Great-Grandma's recipe. In one of her books, she wrote in the column a little story about the noodles. She wrote, "I was down to my final 3 eggs and decided to make noodles with them to make them stretch further. I made the noodles, rolled them extra thin, and set them out to dry. Then the horse got at them. I would have killed that horse if we didn't need him so much!" Lol! So funny.

Ok, here we go! I don't really have a recipe, but in the end I will list everything you will need.

 
Yummy Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup!

So, I baked 3 small chicken breasts in the oven, just covered the tops with salt & pepper. You can use more or less chicken.
While the chicken was baking, I cut up some carrots, celery, and onion. And put those aside. I probably used 2 stalks of celery, 4 carrots, and half an onion
Then I put 10 cups of water on the stove to boil. I didn't have any chicken broth, but if i did, I would use like 6 cups broth, and 4 cups water. Since I didn't, I will be using 6 cubes of chicken bouillon.
While I was waiting for the water to boil. I made the noodles.

Here is my Great-Great-Great-Grandma's recipe :)
2C flour
3 Eggs
2tsp salt
1/4-1/2C water
Mix. Roll SUPER thin. They will grow when boiled, and I sometimes forget and have monster flour noodles, no good. Then cut into strips.

Once the water begins to boil, drop in the bouillon cubes to dissolve. After they're dissolved, add the noodles and then the veggies. After it boiled a while, my chicken finished, so I shredded it up, and dropped it in. Then turned down the heat a little.

In the end, I mix a little corn starch with COLD water until smooth, then slowly add it to the soup to thicken it up a little.
Add a little salt & pepper to taste.

BAM! Done.

:)
It's pretty easy. And soooooooo yummy!!

Ready for a kicker?? People think we are CRAZY!! But we LOVE to serve this over some homemade, warm, fluffy mashed potatoes. I know, I know... I'm half Idahoian, I love my potatoes!! But really. Try it. You will be amazed. I swear. My sister in law thought we were nuts, then she tried it because that's how we all were eating it. Yup, she loved it.


Ingredient overview:
3 small chicken breasts
Celery
Carrots
Onion
10C Water & 6 cubes of Chicken Bouillon OR 4C Water & 6C Chicken Broth
Salt & Pepper
2C Flour
3 Eggs
2tsp Salt
1/4-1/2 Water