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.

The orginal recipe was for blackberry almond bars, but I gave Adam his choice of berries, he picked blueberry so mine are Blueberry Almond Bars Adam and my brother said these bars are amazing!!! Sorry these aren’t the best pictures

  For the shortbread:
  

• 12 Tbs. (1 1/2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup ground toasted almonds
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt

For the blackberry curd:

• 2 pints blueberries
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 1 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
• 4 Tbs. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into 1-inch pieces

Confection sugar for dusting

Preheat an oven to 350°F. Lightly butter a 9-by-13-by-2-inch cake pan.

To make the shortbread, in the bowl of a food processor, combine the butter, flour, almonds, granulated sugar and salt and process until small lumps form. Sprinkle the mixture into the prepared pan and press evenly into the bottom. Bake until the shortbread is golden, about 20 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack. Reduce the oven temperature to 325°F.

Meanwhile, make the blackberry curd: In a food processor or blender, puree the blackberries until smooth. Pass the puree through a chinois set over a bowl, using a pestle to press on the solids and extract as much juice as possible; discard the solids. You should have about 3/4 cup juice.

In the top pan of a double boiler or in a nonreactive saucepan, whisk together the eggs and granulated sugar until blended. Then whisk in the blueberry juice, salt and lemon juice. Set the top pan over but not touching simmering water in the bottom pan, or set the saucepan over medium-low heat. (If using a saucepan, take care not to heat the mixture too quickly.) Cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spatula or spoon, until the mixture is warmed through, 1 to 2 minutes.

Begin adding the butter a little at a time, stirring each addition until blended before adding more. Continue cooking, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom of the pan, until a finger drawn across the back of the spatula leaves a path, 8 to 10 minutes more. Immediately remove the pan from the heat. Pass the curd through the chinois set over a bowl and let stand for 10 minutes. Whisk to blend, then pour the curd over the shortbread, spreading it evenly to the edges.

Bake until the curd is set, about 30 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool completely. Cut into individual bars, cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Dust the bars with confectioners’ sugar before serving.

Makes 20 bars. 

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.