Apple Crisp

My regular scheduled grocery shopping day is a few days away and this weekend my husband and I were craving something sweet. He offered to make his potato candy, but that would have been just a quick fix. I wanted something that would last until I could get to the store this week. So, first I looked through our pantry to see what I had that would make a great dessert.

I usually try to keep something in there to make in an emergency. Mostly, I do this in the winter when there's always a chance of getting snowed in for a few days. Today, I found a large can of peaches in there and I do make a really good peach cobbler, so that was my first option. Then, I decided to look through my recipes for an idea and that's when I found my Apple Crisp recipe.

This is perfect because I have a bag of apples that I need to use before they go bad. So, Apple Crisp it is. Below is my recipe. I only wish I had some ice cream to go with it.

Apple Crisp

3 c. of sliced apples
1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. rolled oats
1 c. brown sugar
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. nutmeg
1 c. water

Place apples in a buttered baking dish and sprinkle with 1/2 c. brown sugar and add water. Mix together the flour, oats, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg until well blended. Sprinkle over the apples and dot with butter or margarine. Bake at 350° f. for 30-35 minutes or until the apples are tender. Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Carol

Mini Meatloaf

I will be the first to tell you that I do not like meatloaf. However, this meatloaf is one that I do like and want to share it with you. Although it is not your normal recipe, if you have someone like me who doesn't care for meatloaf this might just fit their picky eating habits.

Mini Meatloaf

1 pound lean ground beef
1 box Stovetop Stuffing mix
1 T. garlic powder
3/4 c. barbecue sauce
3/4 c. shredded cheddar cheese
1 c. water

Preheat oven to 375° f. Mix together the ground beef, stuffing mix, water, and garlic power until well blended. Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray and press the meat mixture into each cup. With a small spoon, make an indentation on top of each mini loaf and fill with the BBQ sauce. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle the tops with the shredded cheese and bake for 5 minutes more minutes or until the cheese has melted.

Ground Turkey Recall

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced a recall of ground turkey containing salmonella. The turkey was sold across the United States in many different stores. Read about the recall here.

Hospital Food

I've spent the last two days sitting with a friend in the hospital. It didn't take more than my first trip to their cafe to find out that hospital food still isn't good.

It was about 11:00 am when my stomach informed me that it needed to be fed. I was the second to make the voyage to the basement where the cafe was located. I refer to it as cafe because that's what they called it at the hospital. I would have thought at 11:00, there would have been a good selection of food available. After all, I had just looked at a card that told that they had opened at 8 am.

I was wrong. The only thing available were cold sandwiches and cups of fruit. I should have chosen the fruit, but picked up a cold ham and cheese on wheat instead. It had no taste. I also got a cup of coffee, which was terrible, too.

The next day, I waited until lunch time and found three choices of food: pizza, chicken or fish, and hot sandwiches. Guess which line was the longest? Yep, the pizza line. I was in a hurry and decided to get a white meat chicken patty. Well, what I thought was chicken turned out to be fish and what I thought was fish was chicken. The chicken was tender enough, but had no flavor what so ever. With the chicken, I had new potatoes and corn, both of which were good. Before taking my lunch back to the room to eat with my friend, I looked for some salt. LOL, yeah right. There was no salt anywhere to be found.

After my visits to the hospital, I have decided that eating healthy my be good for you, but the flavor has much to be desired.

Carol

Where Have I Been?

Have I been missing? I discovered last night that I haven't posted on here since June. OMG, what a surprise! I had no idea. My excuses are many.

1. It could be the heat way. It's so hot to sit and type on my laptop right now.

2. Could be the writing I've been doing on a book, but I abandoned that around the second week of July (see previous excuse).

3. I've been doing some traveling, but that was only one weekend.

4. My daughter is home from Mississippi visiting.

5. I went to a writers' convention, but that was last weekend.

6. My mom had a medical procedure done and that took five days off from work.

I guess that just about covers the month, but it's not over yet. The heat is still on and I still have a book to write. I'll be traveling again today and no computer access tonight, but will try and work up a recipe to post as soon as I can.

Carol

Potato Salad

First, Happy 4th of July to my fellow Americans. This is the holiday of picnics, cookouts, and eating too much. One dish I normally prepare for the 4th is potato salad. It's one of about three dishes that I make without using a recipe or measuring any of the ingredients, which makes it a hard recipe to share with my readers. I subscribe to the Betty Crocker email newsletter. I highly recommend it. This week in the newsletter, it had a recipe for potato salad that is very close to my recipe. Here's the link to Betty Crocker Potato Salad. The only difference between my version and "Betty's" is that I leave out the vinegar and use sweet relish instead of celery.

Enjoy your holiday and please be safe.

Carol

Product testing results

Back in April, I blogged that I was participating in a product testing of Miracle Whip Salad Dressing and said I report the results back on my blog. Unfortunately, I forgot until now to do that.

To the right, you will see the two generic jars of Miracle Whip that I was sent to test. I was to use the first one for one week, recording the dishes that I prepared with the dressing. Then, do it all over again the second week with the other jar. The survey instructions said to use each product as a spread or condiment on sandwiches as often as possible. In addition, use the product in salads, such as egg salad, potato salad, dips, or heated recipes. The three questions on the survey were what I liked about the products, disliked about the products, my thoughts on the products, and finally I had to list the types of foods/dishes that I used the product on.

The first week, I used jar #1 on a ham, cheese and lettuce sandwich; chicken salad; cheese sandwich; potato salad; and tenderloin sandwich. I liked jar #1. It had the normal consistency of Miracle Whip and the taste was wonderful. There was nothing I disliked about the product.

The second week, I prepared a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich; tuna salad, egg salad, potato salad, and tarter sauce. The consistency was the same as the first product, but the taste was not as sweet. However, I liked the second jar just as well as the first and if I had to chose which one I liked the best, I don't think I could.

The only thing I did not like about the testing was the over-use of Miracle Whip. With only one week to test each jar, I had to make a lot of sandwiches, etc. with Miracle Whip. I normally don't use Miracle Whip that often in my normal making of daily meals. By the time the second week was over, I was pretty sick of making things with that product in it. My additional comments on the survey were that the testing period needed to be spread out over more than one week for each jar.

I didn't get paid for the product testing, but I did get to keep the remaining salad dressing and kept using them. I have no idea what the difference was between the two jars, but if one of them was fat-free or sugar-free, I could not tell much difference.

This was the second product testing that I have done for the survey company. The first time, I tested mascara. I'm hoping to be able to product test for them again. I enjoy taking part and hope that my opinions can help make a better product.

Carol