Homemade Baked French Fries

It has probably been close to a year since Eric and I made homemade French fries. We used to do it all the time. They require a little more prep than just roasting diced potatoes, but they are worth it. Much better than the frozen ones you buy at the store. And healthier than the fries at fast food joints (though those are yummy).

Homemade fries and fish sticks

Ingredients:
Potatoes (I've used russet, white, red, just whatever I've had on hand)
olive oil (vegetable or canola oil works too)
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste
any other season you'd like (We usually do garlic powder and cayenne pepper. Grated Parmesan is really good too!)

Directions:
Turn oven to broil.

Cut potatoes into sticks. Rather than trying to explain how to cut a potato into fries, here is a video for you. It really isn't that difficult. Mix olive oil (about 1 tablespoon for every large potato) and seasonings in a small bowl. Toss with fries.

Place the fries in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Bake for 15 minutes then flip the fries and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes or until the fries are crisp.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Potato Recipes
Potato Chips in the Microwave
Salt and Vinegar Roasted Potatoes
Twice Baked Potatoes
Very Simple Roasted Potatoes
 

Savory Baked Apples Stuffed with Sage and Sausage

I've been dying to do a savory apple recipe. When I told Eric that I planned to make apples stuffed with sausage, he was less than excited. I should have taken a picture of the face he made. But I wasn't going to let that deter me. And I'm glad I didn't. These turned out fabulous. I fell in love with them at first bite. It took Eric a couple more bites to come around. After the first bite, he said it was different. And it did have a different palate than what we're used to. But he finished every last bite of the stuffed apples and then declared that they were good. I honestly can't wait to make them again.

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter, divided
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons yellow onion, minced
1/2 pound spicy pork sausage
1 teaspoon ground sage
1 teaspoon dried thyme
salt
pepper
1/2 cup breadcrumbs (I made my own by toasting a couple pieces of white bread and crumbling them)
4 to 5 apples (I used Fuji)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8x8-inch baking dish with cooking spray.

In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon butter and olive oil over medium heat. Add onions and cook until tender, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the sausage to skillet. Break the meat up and cook until it's no longer pink, 5 to 8 minutes. Stir in the sage and thyme. Season with salt and peeper. Stir in breadcrumbs and remove from heat.

Cut off the tops of each apple. Scoop out the insides of the apple including the core, seeds, and flesh. I used a regular spoon, though a melon baller probably would have made it easier. Discard the insides.

Divide the stuffing among the apples, packing each apple full. Place the apples in the baking dish. Dot each apple with a small dab of the remaining butter.

Bake apples until the flesh is tender, 45 to 60 minutes.

Because Eric was so unenthusiastic about this dish, I only made 3 apples; that way he'd have leftover sausage to eat for dinner in case he didn't like the apples. Thankfully he did! But I could have easily stuffed 5 apples with the sausage.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Apple Recipes
Baked Apple Chips
Apple Rings!
Delicious Apple Pie 
An Apple Cider Cake
Apple Cider Cupcakes with Caramel Filling and Spiced Rum Frosting

More Sausage Recipes
Black Bean and Sausage Stovetop Casserole
Cheesy Sausage and Potato Casserole
Pasta with Vodka Sauce and Sausage
Pumpkin Penne Casserole
Roasted Sausage, Potatoes, and Peppers 
Sausage and Bean Casserole
The Tale of Two Quiches: Spicy Sausage and Spinach Quiche

Haunted Gingerbread House 2013

Arya in her Halloween costume!

Just three days out from Halloween and I finally finished my haunted gingerbread house! It's a gingerbread kit from Target. Other than what came with the kit, I used some store-bought red frosting, Wilton Sparkle Gels, pumpkin spice marshmallow (not really a fan of the taste, but they're cute on a gingerbread house), and Kraft ghost-shaped marshmallows. Next year I think I'm going to have to make my own  royal frosting instead using what comes with the kit because I could not get it to stick to the gingerbread (as you will be able to tell by the pictures).

You can also check out the Haunted Gingerbread House I made last year!

Target Kit

Front

I drew the ghost's face, spiderweb, and spider with a toothpick and Wilton's Sparkle Gel.

The witch head came with the kit. The body is made out of pumpkin marshmallow and covered in Wilton's Sparkle Gel.

I used Wilton black Sparkle Gel and a toothpick to draw on the jack-o-lantern's face.

A chocolate ghost marshmallow. The package came with orange ones too but I didn't use any of them.

For the green frosting on the ground, I just added a little blue and yellow food coloring to the orange frosting that came with the kit. It didn't want to stick to the cardboard any more than it wanted to stick to the gingerbread.

 

 

And here's a quick peak at my mom's Haunted Gingerbread House:

 Happy Halloween!

~Krissy

Also check out:
Christmas Gingerbread House

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies with White Chocolate Chips and Dried Cranberries

So I've been trying to not go too crazy with pumpkin recipes this year. Eric loves pumpkin, but I wear him out on it every fall. So this year I'm trying to be good. How good, we'll see. But I have been wanting to make pumpkin oatmeal cookies for some time now. Threw in some white chocolate chips and dried cranberries (I love dried cranberries) for good measure and came up with a pumpkin cookie that even Eric couldn't say no to (he also did not want to share them).

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 15-ounce canned pumpkin
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups flour
2 cups quick oats
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup dried cranberries

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl, beat the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until creamy. Add in pumpkin, egg, and vanilla. Combine well and set aside.

In another large bowl, mix together the flour, oats, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Gradually stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Fold in the white chocolate chips and dried cranberries.

Drop a rounded tablespoons of the cookie dough onto a cookie sheet about two inches apart. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until the edges of the cookies start to turn a light brown.

Meet Arya, my little helper and crumb catcher and new member of our family.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Pumpkin Recipes
Cheese Tortellini in a Pumpkin Sauce
Cinnamon-Sugar Pastry with Pumpkin Dip
Mini Pumpkin Cupcakes
Pumpkin-Black Bean Stew with Spicy Sausage 
Pumpkin Bread!
Pumpkin Butter
Pumpkin Caramels!
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Brownies
Pumpkin Fudge
Pumpkin Hot Cocoa 
Pumpkin Lasagna Rolls
Pumpkin Oatmeal
Pumpkin Penne Casserole
Pumpkin Swirl Brownies
Roasted Pumpkin Chickpeas
Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Pumpkin Ale Bread

Keeping with our autumn theme, we had Blue Moon Harvest Pumpkin Ale at our wedding reception. Well, we had some left over and neither of us are big beer drinkers. We gave some away and I've been trying to come up with ideas for the rest. I love cooking with alcohol and beer bread seemed like a natural first choice! I have to say the pumpkin ale gives the bread a wonderful autumn flavor. 

Recipe adapted from here. 

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 12 oz bottle of Pumpkin Ale

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-inch by 5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray or butter.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and spices in a large bowl. Stir together until well combined. In the center of the bowl, make a well and pour in the beer. Beware: the beer will foam up. Fold the dry ingredients into the liquid until well combined. However, do not over mix or your bread will come out dense.

Pour the batter into the pan. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the loaf comes out clean.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

Mini Pumpkin Cupcakes

Eric's coworkers surprised us with wedding gifts--money for our honeymoon and a gift card to Bed Bath & Beyond. It was incredibly unexpected and thoughtful of them. As a thank you I baked 6 dozen mini pumpkin cupcakes and had Eric take them to work. Eric said everyone loved them--and they must have because not a single one came back home with him!

I used to make this recipe all the time as a cake with my pumpkin dip as a filling. It was my signature dessert, if you will. I always got compliments on it, and everyone wanted the recipe. Well, I ended up making this cake so much that I got sick of it and haven't made it in years. But when I was trying to decide what goodies I should send Eric to work with, my mind immediately went to the pumpkin cake. As a cupcake, I made it with buttercream and chocolate buttercream frosting. While delicious, it really is so much better with the pumpkin filling. So I will give you directions to both the mini cupcakes with buttercream and the cake.

I think this recipe originally comes from Kraft, but I've had it for so long that I no longer remember. 

Mini Pumpkin Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting
Cake
Ingredients:
1 yellow cake mix
1 cup canned pumpkin
4 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Either line mini muffin pan with mini cupcake papers or grease and flour them (this is what I did).

In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients together with an electric mixer until well combined. Fill the mini muffin pan 3/4 of the way full with the batter. Bake for 10 to 14 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcakes come out clean. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.

Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients:
3 cups powdered sugar
2 sticks of unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 to 6 tablespoons milk
(if you want chocolate buttercream frosting, add 1/2 to 1 cup cocoa powder, sifted)


Directions:
Place the the butter into a large bowl and cream with a hand mixer or standing mixer.  Add vanilla and mix. Add 1 cup of sugar and blend on low speed until well incorporated. Then add another cup of sugar and beat until well blended. By now your buttercream is getting thick. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons milk and mix. Blend in the the final cup of sugar. Add a couple more tablespoon of milk if desired. (Beat in the cocoa powder, if desired). To get light, smooth buttercream you need to blend the buttercream for 15 to 20 minutes on low.

Frost your mini cupcakes. Store in an airtight container.

We got a standing mixer as a wedding gift and I am in love with it! Making buttercream has never been so easy!

The stackable wire racks were also a wedding gift that I love!

Four Layer Pumpkin Cake
Ingredients:
Cake
1 yellow cake mix
1 cup canned pumpkin
4 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Filling
1 8-ouce package cream cheese, softened
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 cup powdered sugar
1 8-ounce tub cool whip, thawed
1/4 cup caramel topping

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9-inch cake pans.

In a large bowl, combine all the cake ingredients together with an electric mixer until well combined. Evenly divide the batter between the two cake pans. Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

Meanwhile, beat the cream cheese in a large bowl until creamy. Add powdered sugar, pumpkin, and pumpkin pie spice. Combine well. Gently fold in the cool whip.

Once the cakes have cooled, cut each horizontally in half with a serrated knife so you now have four layers. Place one cake layer on your serving plate. Spread 1/3 of the filling on top of the cake. Continue to stack with remaining cake layers and filling. Drizzle the caramel topping over the top of the cake.

Store in the refrigerator.

Just typing out the directions to the pumpkin cake kind of makes me want to make it again. Maybe for Thanksgiving?

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Pumpkin Recipes!
Cheese Tortellini in a Pumpkin Sauce
Cinnamon-Sugar Pastry with Pumpkin Dip
Pumpkin-Black Bean Stew with Spicy Sausage 
Pumpkin Bread!
Pumpkin Butter
Pumpkin Caramels!
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Brownies
Pumpkin Fudge
Pumpkin Hot Cocoa 
Pumpkin Lasagna Rolls
Pumpkin Oatmeal
Pumpkin Penne Casserole
Pumpkin Swirl Brownies
Roasted Pumpkin Chickpeas
Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Homemade Streusel Topping for Muffins, Pies, and Coffee Cakes

I made streusel topping for the first time to put on top of an apple pie. It was so good that I just might put it on top of my apple pies from now on. It's a simple, quick, easy thing to make. I can't believe I hadn't made it before now.

Streusel recipe comes from here. It will make enough to cover the top of an 9-inch pie plate.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:
Combine all the ingredients in a bowl. You can use a fork or your fingers to do so. I cut the ingredients together with two knives. You could also toss all the ingredients in a food process and pulse until the mixture becomes crumbly.

Sprinkle over pie (or muffins or coffee cake) before baking.

Enjoy!

~Krissy