Homemade Apple Cobbler

Fall has arrived and it's time for the best apple dessert ever - this apple cobbler!

I tend to focus on pretty much all things pumpkin when fall rolls around that I forget about apples and making apple treats. I do like apple treats - just depending on what it is. It's kind of like how I am with bananas. I don't like bananas by themselves whole, but I'll eat them sliced. I don't care for apples when they are mushy but I'll eat apples baked into desserts, even if you still get whole pieces of baked apples. It doesn't make any sense, but I just go with it. I adore this apple cobbler and I have to admit that I am always grabbing for churro ice cream when I can find it for topping cobbler. It's amazing paired with cobbler. This one was especially good with churro ice cream and caramel sauce!

Apple Pie Oatmeal

If you have 5 minutes to spare, this fall breakfast will start your day off on the right foot!

I feel like I've posted a lot of oatmeal lately but I definitely don't get sick of it myself. Especially with all these really easygoing variations. I love love apple cinnamon oatmeal and that's basically what this is but it's not a prepackaged microwave packet. It's freshly made and it's fantastic. I'm not much for apple pie, but I love this apple pie oatmeal. It has the right amount of sweetness. I love using green apples for their crisp tartness. And you cannot get more fall than with cinnamon!

Caramel Apple Muffins

The perfect, indulgent fall breakfast packed into these sweet apple muffins topped with caramel!

I'm so happy it's finally September. I live for the time when fall comes around each year. It's my favorite season of the year - good weather, good food, my birthday, school starts (loved it as a kid, love it as a parent haha), and did I mention good food?! Bring on all the apples, pumpkin, and comfort food. It seems like fall is just comfort in general and I love that. These muffins are taken from a base muffin mix that Sally of Sally's Baking Addiction shared on her website. She shared tons of mix-in's and I knew I wanted to do the caramel apple version. I love the bits of fresh apple in it. I went the green apple route because I love the tartness!

Turtle Cheeseball #FantasticalFoodFight

Welcome to another Food Fight! Fantastical Food Fight is a group of food bloggers who will get a theme or ingredient each month and make some sort of variation for it. It could be traditional or nontraditional and can be found in a cookbook, on a blog, or be a blogger's own creation! For more details, check out this page.

This month's Fantastical Food Fight theme is CHEESEBALLS. No, not the little bright orange snacky treats. But the appetizer composed of cheese - usually cream cheese and other cheeses, but not always. Why cheeseballs? Why today is National Cheeseball Day! So Happy National Cheeseball Day! I hope you all enjoy the treats we have to share with you today. They truly are wonderful appetizers for family/friends gatherings or holiday get-togethers.

My cheeseball went the sweet route and it is probably my favorite cheeseball of all-time. This Turtle Cheeseball has the classic elements that make up turtle desserts: caramel, chocolate, and pecans. You can use basically whatever dippers you want, but I highly highly recommend apples. I have trouble finding caramel bits, although you can order them off of Amazon, so I used caramel squares cut into quarters.

Sausage & Pecan Cranberry Stuffing

Dress up (pun intended) that premade stuffing mix with spicy sausage, tart cranberries, and pecans and be a Holiday Hero!

I still haven't quite figured out the difference between stuffing and dressing when it comes to holiday food, but I do know that I have always loved Stove Top stuffing. But it seemed like most times when it came to stuffing/dressing on the holiday spread, I wasn't a fan. One of my food aversions is wet bread/crackers. I don't dip breads in anything that will make it soggy. No crackers in my soup. No way.

When I moved to Tennessee, my aunt had made cornbread stuffing for Thanksgiving and I fell in love. It was the perfect texture and tasted amazing. I decided to try my hand at a stuffing recipe for Thanksgiving and could not have been more happy. It has spicy sausage, a sour green apple, pecans, and tart dried cranberries. You can choose what type of stuffing you want to use, but I reached for the cornbread stuffing because it's my favorite and honestly, why wouldn't you pick cornbread stuffing?! I am happy to report that everyone who tried it enjoyed it immensely and it will definitely be a go-to side dish recipe for the holidays.

Oatmeal Cookie Apple Crumble

This fantastic autumnal dessert is reminiscent of a dump cake and is the best crumble ever!

Tomorrow is the first day of fall here in the Northern Hemisphere and that means I have been ready for everything autumnal for the past month or so :) I made this apple crumble recipe out of season, but I cannot remember when. Then I lost my pictures in the Horrible Harddrive Failure of June 2018. I, of course, was absolutely distraught at having to make this recipe again to get new pictures - NOT! It's such an easy dessert and it reminds me a lot of a dump cake recipe. The end result is a magnificent autumn dessert. My favorite way to eat it is warm with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream on top - but that is only because I can't find the cinnamon bun ice cream I used to love for any dessert with cinnamon in it. Honestly, I could see a couple different flavors of ice cream being a great match with it!

Slow Cooker Apple Cake

This wonderful fall dessert is made in the slow cooker and takes little effort to throw together!

Slow cooker desserts are among my favorite thing because you can set them and forget them and you have a delicious dessert ready after dinner. This particular recipe for apple cake is perfect for late summer into fall. It's pretty much a dump cake because you just put all the ingredients into the slow cooker and cook it. There is not beating of ingredients and a crazy amount of preparation. It is simply tossing the apples with cinnamon and sugar, topping with cake mix, topping with melted butter, and cooking. This is a great dessert to make with children or for a potluck. You can even add some caramel sauce when you serve it up for a little caramel apple goodness!

Apfelkuchen

This buttery apple cake is perfect for fall and perfect for celebrating Oktoberfest!

Last Thanksgiving, we had our first big Thanksgiving with all of the siblings (my husband's) having significant others. It's so exciting to have all the newbies join in and I love just how huge the family has gotten. As I've mentioned a few times before, my brother-in-law met his wife in Germany while he was stationed there. We've all been really over-the-moon excited to learn about a new culture, so-to-speak, from someone who knows it well. And, of course, we are all enjoying in trying German cuisine. Because we made a lot of traditional American desserts during the holidays, I decided to whip up a German dessert for my newest sister-in-law. I am sure she gets quite homesick and I thought it may be nice to not have something so overwhelmingly sweet.

What I initially thought of this cake is that it would be perfect with a cup of coffee. It's such a great dessert for fall and you can make it using different types of apples. I chose to do Galas because that is what Sarah of Curious Cuisiniere had on her recipe list and that is where I found this recipe (as well as many other German recipes!). It's a denser cake, but still very light in your stomach. It is sweet, but not overly so. I don't mean that in a bad way at all, but it's not rich and make-your-teeth-hurt-sweet. It's a very subtle dessert. :)

Apple Cider Donut Muffins

Forget pumpkin, these apple cider donut muffins are where it's at!

Please forgive me, Pumpkin. I didn't mean it! But seriously, I think apple can get a little overshadowed and that makes me feel bad. I definitely go pumpkin crazy as soon as September 1st hits, but I had to share this little recipe because it makes me reminisce autumn in upstate New York. Cider donuts are definitely a must up there and I haven't found any like it anywhere else I've lived. These definitely helped me cope with that missing part of autumn.

They are super simple to make. I was unable to make them with the apple cake mix, so I subbed in spice cake mix. The apple cider adds so much flavor and moisture to these muffins, plus they are so light and fluffy with the cake mix as a base. The sugar cinnamon is just icing on the cake -- or in this case, topping on the muffin! :)

SRC Orphan Rescue: Apple & Cinnamon Crumble

Fantastical Sharing to the rescue! There was an orphan for today's Group B reveal for the Secret Recipe Club and I am sharing a recipe from the orphaned blog, so they aren't left out :) What is the Secret Recipe Club? It's a group of food bloggers who are split into four groups. Each month, we are assigned a blog from our group secretly and we pick a recipe to make. We photograph it and write up a blog post and all of the group posts on one designated Monday in the month. For more on SRC, be sure to visit the site.

Group B's orphan was Corina of Searching for Spice. Corina is a mom who likes to experiment in the kitchen, but doesn't like to spend ALL her time consumed in the kitchen making food. I totally get that. I love making new foods too, but I also don't like being tied down in my kitchen all day long. I like to make something, enjoy it, and hope that the cleaning fairy comes by, so my mess disappears ;) Don't we all do that?! Corina's blog is a way for her to document her favorite recipes that she's made and she loves to use and discover new spices (hence the blog name!).

Corina has a bunch of great looking recipes on her blog, but I was craving something sweet to go with my lunch and needed to make something that used ingredients I had on hand. I decided upon the Apple & Cinnamon Crumble. I had some green apples in my fridge and for some odd reason, I have a surplus of cinnamon in my pantry, so it seemed like destiny here.

I adjusted the measurements ever-so-slightly because I only had 2 apples instead of 3 and Corina noted that sour apples may call for a teeny bit more sugar. I used brown sugar because I felt like having more of the richness of the brown sugar and I added a pinch of nutmeg on top, just because. A little extra spice is nice!

These crumbles were cute, tart, and ahhh, exactly what I needed! So glad I had the opportunity to make something from Corina's blog!

Secret Recipe Club: Zingy Green Smoothie

This month I was on the hunt for a good summer-y recipe from my assigned blog: Food Baby Life written by Aussie mom of two, Susan. I almost went with the The Hulk Green Smoothie...and can't help but have been tempted by these Easy Nutella Brownie Bites or these Cappuccino Brownie Bites. But ultimately I decided upon the Zingy Green Juice recipe and modified it to a smoothie recipe because unfortunately I don't have a juicer. But I really wish I did! I cut down one apple and used Greek yogurt as my base with a little bit of pineapple juice.

I loved how just absolutely delicious this smoothie was. The kids gobbled it up too, which is a huge deal to me because Matthew is much like me where he won't really eat a lot of fruits because of their texture - smoothies/juice are usually the perfect compromise. I can't wait to make it again because I want to put in my popsicle mold! The lemon and ginger really brought out that little zip to make it more than just a fruity sweet smoothie :)

Beer Week: Apple Cheddar Beer Bread

It's me again - I'm stealing my husband's week of spotlight for one day to share a recipe I made with one of his beers :)

Tasty Thursday #82: Apple Butter Hotcakes

Welcome back to Tasty Thursday!!

The original recipe also had a recipe for flavored butter and a warm cherry sauce. I used leftover TX Roadhouse butter and just did syrup. It's totally up to you what you would like. I personally thought that the cherry sauce may take away from the fall-feel to this breakfast. The cinnamon honey butter was the perfect touch though!

(Print)
What you need:

• 1 1/2 cup pancake mix
• 3/4 cup milk
• 2 tbsp. cooking oil
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup apple butter

Directions:

Stir together all ingredients until just moistened.

Add about 1/4 cup batter to heated griddle.

Flip when top is bubbly and then cook until golden brown on each side.

Recipe from Better Homes & Gardens

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Caramel Apple Rolls

I've seen these floating around the web for some while now and I am so behind in the seasonal stuff. For shame! These were really good. You all have to try them!

(Printable Version)
What you need:

• 1 loaf frozen bread dough, thawed
• 2 Granny Smith apples, diced
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tbsp. cinnamon
• 3/4 cups oats (optional)
• 1/2 to 1 cup pecans (optional)* omitted due to food allergy
• 1/2 cup white corn syrup
• 1/2 jar caramel ice cream topping

Directions:

Mix apple, brown sugar, cinnamon, oats, and pecans.

Roll dough into a large rectangle.

Spread the corn syrup over the rectangle.

Sprinkle apple mixture on top of it.

Roll the dough up and cut into 1 1/2 inch slices.

Spread caramel in the bottom of a 9x13x2-inch pan.

Place slices on top of the caramel and cover. Let rise until doubled.

Bake at 350 for 30 to 35 minutes - mine cooked in about 20 minutes because of the bread dough I used...just  use your best judgment.

Serve with caramel side up!

Recipe from Mixing Bowl member JoyfulCook

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Easy Apple Strudel

I love all the possibilities from puff pastry and I’m always looking for a quick and easy breakfast. I’ve also been trying to get the kids to eat apples. I’d love to offer applesauce at lunchtime, but they won’t touch it. Thankfully, both of them ate this. So maybe it’s a step in the right direction.