Adam and I went apple picking last year and had a blast, he promised we would get to go again this year. We ended up going with Adam’s mom, sister and niece. Adam put his niece up on his shoulders and they were the perfect picking pair they could get the super red high up apples. We ended up coming home with 20lbs of apples, so be on the lookout for lots of apple recipes on this blog in the coming weeks.

My first recipe I decided to try my apples on was applesauce, I love me some cinnamon applesauce, I never knew it was so easy to make. I used our cortland apples which were the softer sweeter ones that we picked. I also tripled this recipe but already know I will need to make more has it is AWESOME.

Adam got home late the night I made this he took a little taste before eating dinner his comment was “Dam, that is the best applesauce I have EVER had.”

Sarah’s Applesauce (Inspired By: Mrs.Bowen, From: Allrecipes)

• 4 apples - peeled, cored and chopped
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

In a saucepan, combine apples, water, sugar, and cinnamon. Cover, and cook over medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes or until apples are soft. Allow to cool, then mash with a fork or potato masher.

My grandma shared this recipe with me, at first she called them lemon bars, I was like naw I don’t need the recipe. I am not a big lemon bar fan. Then I tried one. These are AMAZING!

The layers go perfect together! For some reason when I made them my cool-whip was runny, so it was hard to get a picture. But these are a perfect and simple summer dessert to whip up.

Lemon Lush (From: My Grandmas Neighbor)

• 1 container cool-whip
• 1 pkg. cream cheese
• 4 c. milk
• 3 sm. packages instant lemon pudding
• 1 1/2 c. flour
• 1 c.  powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 sticks butter

Mix the butter and flour together and spread into a non stick 9 x 13 baking pan.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

Cool completly.

Mix cream cheese, 1 c. cool whip, and powdered sugar together. Spread on top of cooled crust.

Beat pudding mix and milk together until it starts to thicken pour over cream cheese layer.

Cover with rest of the coolwhip.

Chill until you serve.

Better late then never is what I am telling myself, I had no reason to wait this long to make this, but I did have an excuse to not post it, but that wouldn’t of been a problem if I had made the recipe earlier in the month. We are gone most of the weekend for my brothers graduation and then last night when I got home to post it, my host site had an electrical fire and my site was down… I guess this is the joys of my own site… So on to the recipe…

As promised my May tasty tool event. As soon as I saw that this months tool was a blender I knew that I would need Adam for this one. I am always in a rush to get out the door in the morning and never have time to grab a decent breakfast. So I asked Adam if he would be willing to make smoothies, he said sure. So he I bought a few smoothie books and found some recipes online. So far this is by far my favorite recipe.

I asked him to make this, I would have a glass and then I had recently bought some popsicle molds that I wanted to try, so we made orange creme popsicles too. Mister Kitty was very interested in them when I took them out of the freezer!

Orange Smoothie (From: Smoothie Web)

• 6 oz Orange juice concentrate — frozen
• 1 c Milk
• 1 c Water
• 1/4 c Sugar
• 1/2 ts Vanilla
• 10 Ice cubes

Place all ingredients in a blender. Cover and blend until smooth.

Pour into popsicle molds and freeze for 24 hours, then enjoy.

I have been wanting a mini-muffin pan for a long time, I never actually buy myself one because it’s pretty much a want not a need. Adam and I went to Target today, when Adam saw one today he threw it in the cart. Seriously he spoils me too much Once we got home I decided I need to make some muffins. But I wasn’t sure what kind.

I ended up thinking lemon poppy seed, but all the recipes I found called for plain yogurt and we didn’t have any. So I found a recipe for orange poppy seed muffins. I found these via google search, but was lead to a website called Mr.Breakfast, if all the recipes are anything like this I will be hooked, I am going to try another recipe from here soon!

These little muffins are like bites from heaven, they have just the perfect amount of orange and the poppy seeds, and are just bite size YUM!

Orange Poppyseed Muffins (From: Mr.Breakfast)

• 3 cups flour
• 2 and 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 and 1/2 cup orange juice (with pulp preferred) (I squeezed 3 oranges which got me about 1 c. then added 1/4 c. water)
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup poppy seeds
• 3 eggs
• 2 teaspoons orange extract (I omitted and used some orange zest)
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and poppyseeds. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, sour cream, oil, orange juice and extract.

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until moistened — not overmixing.

Divide batter into 24 greased muffin cups. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until tops are golden brown.

I was excited to participate in the WC Recipe exchange, I got this recipe. Although I was VERY excited to make it I realized that peaches are VERY out of season in Minnesota right now, so I ended up using frozen peaches. I also don’t like peachs so I want to try this again but want to try with fresh fruit.

Thank you to whom ever submitted this recipe

Although I didn’t try this, Adam really enjoyed it. I really like that it has a “cake” layer on the top.

Southern Peach Cobbler (From: Allrecipes)

• 8 fresh peaches - peeled, pitted and sliced into thin wedges
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
• 1/4 cup boiling water
• 3 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

The skins should slip right off.