Drumsticks just loves Apple Pie, especially when I make it with a shortbread crust. Well, unfortunately he won’t be getting any of these as I made them for one of our wonderful neighbors….Sorry, Kev. However, he did get the small apple pie in the ramekin for a taste.

I found this recipe on Pinterest (Gosh I love that site) and used my regular apple pie filling recipe. Give it a shot and tell us what you think!

(8) Granny Smith apples….get some nice size ones. You use 6 to hollow out and 2 to peel and core.

Cut just the tops off.

I found it easier to score around with a knife and then….

…hollow out the centers with a spoon.

See all this goodness from the hollowing out process?  Throw it away.  Too much core to bother with.

The 2 apples left over you:  peel, core and chop for the filling.

…and here’s what you have.  To this you add: 1 tsp. of cinnamon, 1/4 cup of sugar, 1 tbsp of brown sugar (feel free to add more or less to your taste) and mix well.

Fill the hollowed apples with the filling…or should I say “stuff and shove”?

It was less expensive for me to buy deep dish pie crusts (2 in a package) vs. the rolled pie crusts.

When it thaws, pop out of the tin and flatten out. See that stalker hand? That’s the 3 year old who must touch everything.

Measure the width of the tops of your apples. I used one of my measuring cups to cut out the top.

I cut out a small hole in the center of each top with a canape cutter and whittled out a leaf to hang on the side. Well, lets pretend it looks like a leaf.

Brush with an egg wash, cover with foil and bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes.

Take out of the oven, remove the foil and continue to bake for another 20 minutes until the crust is golden brown.

Tada!

Just a side note….I only hollowed out 5 and peeled 3. I had leftover filling this way (so that’s why I altered the recipe). Along with the extra crust, I made an extra small pie for the other half to enjoy….. all by himself.

Well, tonight we had a healthy dinner consisting of Asian Chicken & Cauliflower with a side salad. Healthy? Yeah, unfortunately. Why is it so hard to be rich and skinny, but so easy to be fat and poor?  Anyway, I decided to seal the healthy deal with something fried. ‘Cause that’s how I diet.  Something fried sounds divine. These donuts were pretty flipping delicious and easy….and all 8 were gone in 60 seconds. The filling? Our homemade Blueberry Jam that we canned last summer.

Getting prepared….

• 1 can of Grands! Biscuits ( I used homestyle)
• Heavy Whipping Cream (or milk is fine)
• Powdered sugar
• Vanilla
• Blueberry Jam (or any jam you prefer)
• Vegetable or Canola oil (heat to 350*)

Cut the centers out. I used a small canape cutter. If you don’t have one, try a lid from a 2 liter of soda or small biscuit cutter. Save the holes and fry them, too!

I made 4 with holes and 4 plain (to fill).

Fill your pan with 2-3 inches of oil.

Once the oil is hot (test it with the handle end of a wooden spoon; if bubbles form around it, it is ready), carefully drop the biscuit in.

Let it fry until it turns golden in color (about 3 minutes) and flip!

Dang. It was hard at this point NOT to quickly try one.

Completely submerge on each side in the heavenly glaze.

Glaze Recipe:

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 tbsp whipping cream or milk
• 1 tsp vanilla

Whisk ingredients together until smooth.

Now, on to the filled donuts. I almost always use a Ziploc bag. One less thing to wash!  Use a tip that has a wide enough opening and fill with your favorite jam. *watch out*…if using blueberry jam, the crushed berries can stop up your tip.

*TIP*….Drumsticks suggested I use something to help hollow out the center before I fill it, and that was a great idea.  Who wants a half-filled donut?

Squeeze the goodness in there and then dunk in the glaze….

Goot gravy! Warm….kinda chewy….sticky and sweet.

Last week while tooling around the inter-webs boasting about the peach butter we made (you gotta try it!), we had an S&D reader ask us for a simple and delicious recipe for dill cucumber pickles. To us, there’s nothing better than eating food made by nature and preparing and preserving with our hands. It’s what love tastes like!

This recipe is for hot water-bath processing (canning)

Recipe:

12-14 Medium Size Fresh Cucumbers (8 inches long)

note: If using store bought cucumbers, wash aggressively to remove the wax coating as this will inhibit the pickling process.

4 Cups White Vinegar (5% Acidity)

3 tbsp White Wine Vinegar (optional)

4 Cups Water

1/4 Cup Canning/Pickling Salt

2 tbsp Chopped Garlic

Dill Seeds

Mustard Seeds

Pickle Crisp-(optional-adds extra crispness/acts as preservative-follow directions on package for usage)

1 Fresh Sprig each Dill, Tarragon, Thyme

Directions:

Combine all ingredients above except for cucumbers in a medium pot and bring to a boil.

Thoroughly wash all cucumbers removing flowers, stems, & dirt

Slice cucumbers into discs for hamburger chips, or lengthwise for sandwich spears

Remove Fresh herbs (Dill, Tarragon, Thyme) from boiling vinegar mixture

Pack cucumbers into scalded jars

To each packed jar add 1/4 tsp dill seeds and 1/8 tsp mustard seeds (and pickle crisp, if desired)

Ladle hot liquid including garlic into packed jars leaving 1/2 inch head space

Wipe rim of jar and assemble two piece cap and ring and process in a hot water bath canner for 15 minutes.

Let cool on counter. Store in a cool dark cabinet or basement for a minimum of 24 hours before consuming. Once introduced to the cold refrigerator the pickles will crisp to nice and enjoyable crunch that will make you come back for more season after season.

Do you have a pickle recipe that you love to use? Are you new to pickling and canning in general? Share your stories or leave a question as we can all walk away learning something.

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Peaches are some of the most prized southern fruit. Known for its gentle sweetness and hunger and thirst quenching flavor, its fresh window of opportunity closes rather quickly. So, in order to capture that summertime Georgia Peach flavor, we need to preserve them in a way that is not damaging to the texture, flavor, and color. Now, we all have had, or at least heard of apple butter, but peach butter? Yep!

Recipe-

• 18-Ripe Peaches/4 lbs. (a little on the soft side is o.k.)
• 1/2 Cup-Water
• 4-Cups Sugar
• 1-Cinnamon Stick
• 1/8 tsp-Nutmeg

• Peel, halve, and seed peaches -You can do this by hand or by blanching in boiling hot water for a few minutes,  transferring to an ice-water bath. Then peel. This makes the skins very easy to remove without losing any pulp.
• Place in sauce pan over medium/low heat-At this point, use a potato masher to crush the peaches while cooking

Once the liquid pools have evaporated you can continue with the next step, or transfer pulp to a food mill or processor for further mashing. (we prefer the food mill)

Once to desired pulpiness, bring to a rolling boil, stirring frequently to prevent scorching.

• Slowly stir in sugar
• Add cinnamon stick and nutmeg
• Let simmer over rolling boil at medium/low heat and stir by scraping the bottom very frequently to prevent scorching. This should take about 30 minutes or so. This is a great time to get your water bath canner and jars ready!
• Check for readiness by dipping spoon into mixture to check its slump.
• Ladle into 1/2 pint or pint jars, and process in a hot water bath for 10-15 minutes.

Do you make your family’s jams? Have you ever tried peach butter? What are your favorite recipes?

Seems weird to talk about the fall season already, when we’re barely halfway through summer here in Va. Beach, VA. But, every experienced gardener knows that abundant crops come from early planning, seed counting, and weather forecasting. Thank God for The Farmer’s Almanac! Not to mention the amount of different foods we can grow during that cooler weather. The list is crazy long and we are chomping at the bit to get at it!

We have no choice but to start planning now for the simple reason we got such a late start in the spring season and missed out on quite a bit. Why such a late start? Hmph! Why not!? should be the question.

There’s a list an arm long why we got started so late. Check it out:

• Tore down the old 6 foot privacy fence and replaced with the Urban Farm Fence
• Extended our growing area by two-fold encroaching on the front yard
• Immense spring rain kept us indoors a good bit
• There are a few others, I’m sure. But, let’s get rolling on what we can do

In the Spring, we missed out on:

• potatoes
• carrots
• onions
• early peas
• snap pea
• beets
• scallions
• chives
• lettuces
• spinach
• and many other cool season crop plants

While we plan to grow these this fall, we will also grow turnip and collard greens. Because the greens and the potatoes take up so much space due to their wild nature, we will be caging our potatoes in what some folks call a “potato condo.” A who? This counts as “vertical gardening” and really allows more space to grow other crops, such as those listed above.

We are also planning to build a “hoop house” for the cooler days of fall and into winter. A what? Well, a hoop house is:

•   A temporary type of green house
• Inexpensively erected from plastic sheeting and plastic pipe to extend the life of summer and fall crop plants
• Around here we can keep tomatoes until the tail end of November. With the hoop house, we may get another month out of them, keeping in mind the growth and ripening rates slow tremendously.
• Will also allow us to store the potatoes in their condo’s during the winter season without critter and bugs getting at them
• Onions will be able to stay directly in the ground all the way to the new spring starting season

What are your plans for the fall season? Do you grow fall crops? Are you going to give it a go this year, like us? How successful has your hoop-house been for you? Any suggestions on the construction and materials?

Related External Links

• Reinventing the Orgainc Child