Girls just wanna... eat goooooood!

This past weekend was our monthly girls night with 3 of my bridesmaids and myself. This month I had the honor of hosting for the first time at the new love nest of the husband and I!

Since it is a chilly October here in Rhode Island, I decided to use a fall theme for the meal... lots of warm flavors with a hint of spice and lots of yummy goodness!

Enjoy :)

Apple Cider Martinis



Ingredients

2 oz vodka

1 oz butterscotch schnapps

1 oz apple cider

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Shake with ice until chilled.

Serve in a cinnamon sugar rimmed glass.

Apple Butter Pork Loin, Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Baked Acorn Squash




Pork

Ingredients

• 
  

  1 ½ pound pork tenderloin

  
  


• 
  

  s&p to taste

  
  


• 
  

  2 cups apple juice

  
  


• 
  

  1/2 cup apple butter

  
  


• 
  

  1/4 cup brown sugar

  
  


• 
  

  2 tablespoons water

  
  


• 
  

  1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

  
  


• 
  

  1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

  
  

Directions

1. 
   

   Place pork in bottom of crock pot.

   
   


2. 
   

   Mix juice, butter, sugar, water, and spices together in a bowl and pour on top of roast.

   
   


3. 
   

   Cook on low for 8 hours.

   
   


4. 
   

   An hour before serving, stir in a slurry of cornstarch & water to thicken sauce.

   
   

Potatoes

Ingredients

3 lbs yukon gold potatoes

1 stick unsalted butter

1 cup heavy cream

2 heads of garlic

evoo

S&P to taste

Directions

Begin by roasting the garlic: preheat oven to 375, slice tops off garlic so bulbs are exposed. Place garlic in baking pan, drizzle with evoo and season with S&P. Bake for 45 minutes. Let cool completely.

Peel and cut potatoes into small cubes. Boil until soft.

Place cooked potatoes and butter in mixing bowl. Combine. Add peeled garlic cloves. Combine again. Add cream until you reach desire consistency. Season with S&P to taste.

Squash

Ingredients

2 acorn squash, sliced in half and seeds removed

4 tbsp butter

4 tbsp brown sugar (light or dark)

Pam cooking spray

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray cookie sheet with Pam and place squash halves cut side down. Bake for 45 minutes or until soft to the touch.

Remove squash from over, flip so cut side is up. Fill the hole of squash with 1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp brown sugar each.

Return to oven for 15 minutes, to melt butter and combine sugar.

24 down, 12 left.

So I stumbled across a recipe for apple cookies on allrecipes.com and thought "I could do something like that, but better!). Here's my "better"!

However, while whipping up my own concoction of Granny Smith apples, cinnamon, and oatmeal... I decided to bake them at 375 for 11-12 minutes as the inspiration recipe stated. Well, needless to say, the title of this entry is what happened... I ended up with only 12 cookies because I burnt the first 24 I put in at 375.

Soooo, I kicked the oven down to 350 and put them in for 8 minutes and they came out perfectly! These cookies are spicy and sweet all at the same time... Enjoy :)

Oatmeal Apple Cookies with Cinnamon Glaze


Cookies…
1/2 cup butter
1 1/3 cups packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 granny smith apples - peeled, cored and grated (squeeze excess juice out)
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup rolle oats

Beat butter and brown sugar together.
Beat in egg and blend thoroughly.
Stir together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg.
Stir half the dry ingredients into creamed mixture. Stir in apples and then stir in remaining half of dry ingredients and milk. Mix well.
Drop from tablespoon 1 1/2 inches apart onto lightly greased baking sheet. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes. Remove cookies to racks.

Glaze…
1 1/2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Combine powdered sugar, butter, vanilla and enough milk to make glaze of spreading consistency. Beat until smooth. Drizzle on warm cookies.

Caramel Apple Pie... x's 2!

I stumbled across this recipe while visiting the RI Nest page as I sometimes do to take a peak at what new recipes those fab women are cooking up. Everyone seemed to be raving about this pie so I figured I'd give it a whirl!

My Dad is a diabetic so with the amount of apples I had (two 1/2 pecks form a local farm stand!), I figured I'd make 2 pies and then have my future in-law's over for pie on Sunday evening!

Both pies browned up really nicely and tasted yummy however, they were both so watery... maybe it was the type of apples? Who knows! It certainly did not hurt the taste of the pie in anyway! It just made it more like an apple crisp once I scooped it out of the pie dish!

I did make some slight adjustments to the recipe... Beyond the switch of Spelnda for sugar, I did not have pumpkin pie spice so I did a 50/50 ration of cinnamon and nutmeg for that. And, for the apples... I used way more than 6 apples. I like an over filled pie and that's what these both endedd up being. I'd say that from the two 1/2 pecks we had, there were only 5 apples left!

I would make this pie again, just maybe with a different apple to type to see if I could reduce the wateriness... and maybe add more caramel on top for more of a punch!

Enjoy :)


Carmel Apple Pie
Adapted from the RI Nest board & their recipe site.



1/2 Cup(s) sugar (for the sugar free pie, I used Splenda)
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
1 Tablespoon(s) cornstarch
14-16 peeled cored apples -- aproximatley 5 pounds for a heaping pie (I used Macintosh)
1 Tablespoon(s) lemon juice
1 Teaspoon(s) rum or rum extract
9 " unbaked deep dish pie crust
6 Tablespoon(s) divided butter or margarine
3 Tablespoon(s) caramel ice cream topping
1/2 Cup(s) flour
1/3 Cup(s) brown sugar (for the sugar free pie, I used Spelnda brown sugar)


Mix sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and corn starch in a large bowl. Cut apples into 1/4" thick slices and place in a separate bowl. Sprinkle apples with lemon juice and rum; add to dry ingredients. Stir to combine. Place in pie crust. Dot with 2 tablespoons of butter. Drizzle with caramel sauce.

Stir flour and brown sugar together in small bowl. Cut in 1/4 cup butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. Sprinkle evenly over top of pie.

Bake in a preheated 400°F oven for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350°F and bake an additional 40 to 50 minutes, until golden brown.