Willow Bird Baking - Page 58 of 127 - lessons in life & kitchen confidence

Baked Caramel Apple Cheesecake Dumplings

Baked Caramel Apple Cheesecake Dumplings

Thanks to Werther’s Original® for sponsoring this recipe post!

I may have achieved some sort of maximum gym awkwardness today. I was super proud of myself for tugging on my workout gear and going to an extra Zumba class today, but in retrospect, I can now declare with utmost certainty that I should’ve stayed home. BECAUSE:

1. I’d never been to this Zumba class before and it was in a huge classroom. The teacher was on the other side of it, meaning I couldn’t see her at all. I think plenty of other students were in the same boat and doing their own random dances, so I couldn’t really follow them either. As a result, I spent most of the class wobbling uncertainly from side to side like an antsy walrus. Probably with a really confused look on my face.

Baked Caramel Apple Cheesecake Dumplings

2. There was this one song with approximately 80 bajillion partner segments. You were supposed to find a partner and booty dance with them, but since I am socially awkward and weirdly shy sometimes, I partner danced alone. All 80 bajillion times. And forced the girl beside me to partner dance alone, too, since I was the only possible partner in her vicinity and I was clearly too awkward to bother with.

Baked Caramel Apple Cheesecake Dumplings

3. After my bizarre Zumba class, I went back to the locker room and tried to open my lock approximately 80 bajillion times. My combination is 13-21-11. That combination did not work. My only guess is that my lock forgot its own combination, because I DID NOT FORGET MY COMBINATION. IT IS 13-21-11. You may wonder why I feel comfortable announcing my lock combination on my food blog. WELL, BECAUSE:

Baked Caramel Apple Cheesecake Dumplings

4. After 80 bajillion attempts to open my lock failed, I had to ask the gym dude to please cut the lock off my locker. This sounds approximately 80 bajillion times simpler than it actually was.

Gym dude had to ask another gym dude where the bolt cutters were, look for them for 30 minutes because that gym dude wouldn’t come over to help, wait outside the locker room while a woman finished changing, send me in to evacuate the locker room, try for 15 minutes to cut the lock off, get now-changed woman’s help cutting the lock off, get lazy gym dude’s help cutting the lock off, etc.

Finally, a group of roughly 15 of us (okay, 4) got my lock cut off my locker and I was able to tell the ladies in the sauna that it was safe to come out into the locker room again. THAT’S WHY I CAN TELL YOU MY LOCK COMBINATION. Because my lock has been cut in half.

Baked Caramel Apple Cheesecake Dumplings

Needless to say, I crawled out of the gym after apologizing to everyone about 80 bajillion times and am seriously considering never going to that Zumba class again. Also, I’m going to eat a Baked Caramel Apple Cheesecake Dumpling now to soothe my nerves. In summary, I will gain roughly 2 pounds because of this trip to the gym. Exercise fail.

These Baked Caramel Apple Cheesecake Dumplings are the perfect comfort food for these kind of nights. They’re a riff on the classic Baked Apple Dumplings — apples baked in pie crust — except they include a unique cinnamon cheesecake center! Serve them with ice cream, a drizzle of Werther’s Original® Baking Caramels (did you know they make baking caramels now? So easy and quick — and made with real butter and cream), and toasted pecans.

One year ago: “Magic” Chocolate, Coconut, and Pecan Pastry Braid
Two years ago: Naked Vegan Tacos with Corn Relish and Cilantro-Lime Slaw
Three years ago: Pizzas Benedict and Deep Dish Pizza Cupfakes
Four years ago: Two Terrific Tarts: Chocolate and Raspberry Cream Cheese

Baked Caramel Apple Cheesecake Dumplings

Recipe by: Willow Bird Baking, adapted from Brown Eyed Baker and Taste of Home
Yield: 4 servings

Baked Apple Dumplings with a cinnamon cheesecake center. These are a heavenly fall dessert!

Pastry Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup lard or vegetable shortening, chilled
1/4 cup butter, chilled and cut into cubes
3 tablespoons ice water

Apple Ingredients:
4 medium apples, peeled
2 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Cheesecake Ingredients:
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
3 tablespoons teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1 egg

Sauce Ingredients:
3/4 cups light brown sugar
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup butter, cubed
pinch salt
Werther’s Original® Baking Caramels, melted
toasted pecans*

Directions:
*Note: To toast pecans, spread them out on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees F for about 6 minutes or until fragrant, tossing several times.

Make the pastry: Pulse the flour and salt together in the bowl of a food processor to combine. Add the lard in hunks and pulse for about 10 seconds until it’s the texture of coarse sand. Add in the chunks of cold butter and pulse for about 10 pulses until butter pieces are no larger than small peas. Add 3 tablespoons of ice cold water and turn food processor on low — the dough should form a dough ball in a few seconds. If the dough remains crumbly and doesn’t come together, add another tablespoon of water. Add as little water total as is required for the dough to form a ball. Divide the dough into 4 equal portions on sheets of plastic wrap, form each into a disk, and chill for at least 20-30 minutes while completing the rest of the recipe.

Make the cheesecake: In a medium bowl, mix the cheesecake filling ingredients together. Scrape the filling into a ziplock bag and chill while you complete the rest of the recipe.

Prepare the apples: Core each of your peeled apples, taking out a core of about 1 to 1 1/2-inch diameter so you have space for your cheesecake filling. Mix together the 2 1/2 tablespoons sugar and 2 teaspoons cinnamon to form a cinnamon-sugar mixture and roll each apple in the mixture. Reserve any leftover cinnamon-sugar mixture.

Assemble: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and spray a 9 x 13-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Roll out each portion of the pie pastry on a lightly floured surface to a rough 7-inch square. Place an apple on the center of each. Cut off the corner of the ziplock bag of cheesecake filling and pipe filling into the center of each apple. Then pull up the corners of the pie pastry and tuck each corner into the center of the apple, pinching the dough together to seal. Place the apples into the prepared baking dish and sprinkle with the remaining cinnamon-sugar mixture.

Make the sauce: Heat the brown sugar, water, and butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat until it boils, stirring occasionally. Pour the sauce over the apples and bake them, basting occasionally, for 50 to 55 minutes or until tender and golden brown. If the cheesecake seems to be getting too dark on top, cover it with a snippet of foil. Serve warm with vanilla bean ice cream, a drizzle of melted Werther’s caramel, and toasted pecans.

October 20, 2013 by Julie Ruble | 14 Comments

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Shrimp and Grits (with Creamy White Cheddar Grits)

Shrimp and Grits (with Creamy White Cheddar Grits)

Hickory Nut Gap Farm is a family-owned farm in Fairview, NC, a small town near Asheville. The centerpiece of the farm is a sprawling farmhouse originally built as a cabin in 1789 and transformed into an inn in 1834 for farmers herding animals to sell. I spent 4 days in early October on the farm with a small group of my students clearing trails, caring for and riding horses, pressing apples for cider, reading, cleaning eggs, and eating maple bacon ice cream.

One of the things I noticed about the farm was how many locks there were. One frigid fall morning — which would later mellow to a warm fall afternoon — my students and I stomped in our work boots down the long, winding path to the horse barn. Along the way, we passed the garden gate, which was locked with a chain that hooked onto a nail. We passed the chicken coop, locked shut with a block that pivoted around a center bolt to wedge the door shut. We passed the fence outside where the big white guard dog, Salsa, was supposed to sleep to guard the chickens. It was tied shut with twine. We passed a red gate barring the entrance to a mud path and a metal gate barring the entrance to the barn itself. Each of these was locked with a big chain that twisted around the gate and hooked back onto itself with a carabiner. Annie, who runs the farm, always remembered to call back to the last student, “Don’t forget to lock the gate!”

Shrimp and Grits (with Creamy White Cheddar Grits)

Nevertheless, something was always loose at the farm. Three chickens found a secret passage out of their coop one day, spurring four of my students to become “chicken wranglers,” laughing and grabbing the fugitive hens snugly in their arms. Two horses negotiated their way out of the gate one night at 4 am, sending Annie and her husband John on a wild goose — er, horse — chase in the middle of the night. Farm dogs Boodle and Biscuit squeezed over and under fences as they pleased, frolicking with the horses.

Shrimp and Grits (with Creamy White Cheddar Grits)

Nothing was ever an emergency, though. Annie laughed as she watched the kids running after the chickens, saying, “Well, we better get ’em back in, I guess.” She laughed telling the story of the horse escape that deprived her of her rest. She gave a warm welcome when she noticed a farm dog trotting up from wherever it pleased. She cared for her animals carefully, but also with such an open, positive spirit. The locks were there to keep animals in, to keep predators out, to define the boundaries of her farm. But there was a level of secure fluidity about it all: the land was broad and hospitable; there was no urgency. The tired and crafty locks themselves, created from twine and chain and rusty nails, spoke of the laying down of arms. It’s not that there weren’t threats: coyotes and bears and cars. It’s just that trust and peace seemed as strong or stronger on the farm.

Shrimp and Grits (with Creamy White Cheddar Grits)

I guess the reason this was so notable to me is because I’m so different than that trusting, peaceful, open land. If a chicken gets out of the coop in my life, so to speak, it does feel like an emergency. It calls for blocking the hole in the coop, adding padlocks, suring up fences, building stone walls. I see the disaster around every corner, and I spend time that would otherwise be joyful preparing for it. I brace myself for the other foot to fall. It’s like I’m on a roller coaster, almost to the crest of the first hill, hearing that slow and deliberate click-click-click but unable to predict when the drop comes.

There’s no recipe here to fix it — the only recipe is for the Shrimp & Grits — because I don’t know how. Maybe just being aware of my tendency to lock up tight will be enough to help me resist it. Maybe I can gradually replace each terrified padlock in my mind with a short length of twine. The chickens might get out — a chicken or two will be lost, even — but the hours that my heart spends open and welcoming will be worth the cost.

What role does worry play in your life? Are you the planner, organizing and preparing against things going wrong? Or are you able to be more laid back?

* * *
Shrimp and Grits (with Creamy White Cheddar Grits)

One way to feel more laid back while cooking, at least, is to be prepared. This incredible Shrimp and Grits recipe is the perfect opportunity to practice mise-en-place, or “putting in place.” This is where you prepare your ingredients and equipment — including measuring and chopping — before you begin the actual cooking process. In this particular recipe, it’s a lifesaver to have everything sitting by your skillet ready to go. I recommend starting with an empty dishwasher so that as you use each ingredient you’ve prepared, you can just toss its prep bowl in. You’ll have next to no cleanup at the end.

Enough about the prep: once you begin cooking, the entire dish is finished in around 20 minutes! The best part, though, is that it’s amazing: a spicy, sophisticated layering of flavors over a bed of the richest, most indulgent cheese grits you’ll ever eat.

Side Note: Since my visit to the farm, I’ve been rethinking my meat consumption — the amount of meat I eat and the source of my meat. I’ll write more about this in the coming weeks, but for now, I wanted to note that I bought all meat for this recipe from Hickory Nut Gap. Their pigs and cows can roam happily. And they ship! If you’re in an area where you find it difficult to get humanely produced meat, this is a great option.

One year ago: “Magic” Chocolate, Coconut, and Pecan Pastry Braid
Two years ago: Sassy Sausage and Hash Brown Breakfast Bake
Three years ago: Pizzas Benedict and Deep Dish Pizza Cupfakes
Four years ago: Two Terrific Tarts: Chocolate and Raspberry Cream Cheese

Shrimp and Grits (with Creamy White Cheddar Grits)

Recipe by: Willow Bird Baking
Yield: 2 servings

This is a truly great Shrimp and Grits recipe. Andouille sausage and smoked bacon provide a rich flavor backdrop for the fresh shrimp and white wine sauce. The creamy white cheddar grits are a decadent base for the dish. This recipe goes very quickly once you’re cooking, so it’s surprisingly easy if you do your mise-en-place beforehand (chop all your vegetables, measure out all your ingredients, get out all your equipment.) It’s much more relaxing to cook that way. By the way, in the trial of this recipe — the one photographed above — I didn’t use any bell peppers. The recipe below is the perfected version, though, and so yours will end up more colorful and tasty than the one above.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup stone-ground grits
2 cups milk
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 1/2 cups shredded sharp white Cheddar cheese
freshly ground black pepper

1/2 pound shrimp, peeled, deveined, rinsed, and patted dry
1/2 pound Andouille sausage, sliced into 1/2-inch slices
3 slices smoked bacon, chopped into small pieces
1 heaping tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions, white and green parts
1 teaspoon finely diced jalapeño, seeded
1 finely diced poblano pepper, seeded
1/3 cup finely chopped bell peppers (I used a pre-chopped tricolor mix)
1 heaping teaspoon minced garlic
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup white wine

Directions:
Get all of your ingredients washed, chopped, measured, and ready. No seriously, do it. Have all the ingredients lined up in prep bowls on your counter. As you use each one, toss the bowl in the dishwasher.

In a medium saucepan, boil 2 cups of milk and 1 teaspoon salt. Stir in the grits with a whisk. Reduce the heat to low and cook, covered, until all the milk is absorbed (see the directions on your package for how long this should take. Mine took 15 minutes). Remove from the heat and stir in the butter, heavy cream, and white cheddar. Season to taste with pepper (and salt if more is needed; I didn’t need to add any. Don’t forget that the bacon will be salty). Cover these and set aside until you’re ready to serve.

In a large skillet over medium-high heat, cook the Andouille sausage until browned and remove it to a paper-towel lined plate to drain. Brown the bacon pieces and drain them on a separate space on the paper-towel lined plate. Reduce the heat to medium. In the meat drippings, cook the shrimp until pink, about 3 minutes, tossing occasionally. Remove them to the sausage plate to drain. Discard all but about 2 tablespoons of the meat drippings. To the skillet, add parsley, onions (reserving some of the green onions for topping), jalapeño pepper, poblano pepper, bell peppers, and garlic. Sauté for about a minute, stirring occasionally. Deglaze the pan by adding the lemon juice and white wine. Cook until the liquid reduces some but not entirely, about 2 to 2 1/2 minutes. Remove the pan from heat and add the sausage and shrimp back into the skillet, tossing to coat.

Spoon grits into 2 bowls and top with the shrimp mixture. Top with green onions and bacon pieces. Serve immediately.

October 16, 2013 by Julie Ruble | 2 Comments

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Quick Weeknight Dinner: Blue Cheese Chicken Salad Wraps

Blue Cheese Chicken Salad Wraps

What kind of sleeper are you? I’m just returning from an overnight field trip with my students and I think I’ve now experienced the full range of sleep possibilities. I had no idea sleeping styles were so diverse.

We had the quiet, still sleepers. I’m one of these. I used to lay sea star (if you don’t know what I mean by that, check out this sleeping positions chart) like a rock all night without moving and certainly without much noise (besides the occasional snoring if I was sick or overly tired.) I’ve started to move a little more, lying on my side now and again, but I’m still pretty calm. Thankfully, Mike is a pretty quiet sleeper, too. He turns over now and again, but nothing too wild.

Blue Cheese Chicken Salad Wraps

Some of my students, however, were flailers. These were the kids who accidentally socked the kid in the sleeping bag beside them in the face periodically.

Some were rolling stones. These were the ones who started on one end of the room and ended up stuck under a bed on the opposite side.

Some of them were thrashers. These were the ones who had noisy, crunchy fits in their sleeping bags trying to get comfortable — usually in the middle of the night when everyone else was asleep.

And then we had the night screamer, the kid who sat bolt upright in the middle of the night yelling nonsense and then, when told she was just dreaming, fell over asleep again. The students were all wonderful during the day, but with all of this going on for four nights straight, let’s just say I need a nap.

What kind of sleeper are you? And join our conversation over on Facebook: what’s your sleep position?

* * *
Blue Cheese Chicken Salad Wraps

These Blue Cheese Chicken Salad Wraps might not help with sleep deprivation, but they’ll definitely help you create a quick weeknight dinner so you can get to sleep earlier! I started with a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store for convenience and whipped these up in no time. Don’t skip any of the components — the heat of the radish, peppery crunch of cold arugula, and rich blue cheese struck a surprisingly nice balance. We served our wraps with fresh berries and a salad of arugula lightly dressed with olive oil and lemon juice.

One year ago: Brown Butter Pumpkin Cake Cheesecake with Salted Caramel
Two years ago: The “Just Trust Me” Fried Bologna Breakfast Doughnutwich
Three years ago: Homemade Croissant Phototutorial
Four years ago: Jack-o’-Lantern Whoopie Pies

Blue Cheese Chicken Salad Wraps

Recipe by: Adapted from Food & Wine via Delish
Yield: 4 wraps

Use leftover rotisserie chicken to make this dish super quick and easy to prepare! Despite being quick, these wraps pack a lot of flavor. I loved the bite of the radishes with the musky, bold blue cheese flavor.

Ingredients:
2 ounces crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
2 tablespoons light mayonnaise
1 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1/2 tablespoon minced shallot
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
salt and pepper
2 cups diced rotisserie chicken
4 Flat-Out wraps
1/2 cup thinly sliced sugar snap peas
1/2 cup thinly sliced radishes
1/2 cup arugula

Directions:
In a medium bowl, mix together the Gorgonzola, Greek yogurt, mayonnaise, olive oil, white wine vinegar, shallot, and lemon juice. Fold in the chicken and season it to taste with salt and pepper. Place a bed of arugula in the center of each of 4 wraps. Pile 1/4 of the chicken mixture, a layer of radishes, and some sugar snap peas on each one. Fold up the wraps and cut them diagonally. Serve with an arugula salad lightly dressed with olive oil and lemon juice (I do a 1 tablespoon olive oil to 1 teaspoon lemon juice ratio) and berries if desired.

October 13, 2013 by Julie Ruble | 9 Comments

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Sausage and Thyme Stuffed Mushrooms

Sausage and Thyme Stuffed Mushrooms

I’m about to blow your mind. With mushrooms, definitely (no, not that kind of mushroom), but also with this fact: “Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo,” is a grammatically correct sentence. No really, it is! I just found this out a couple of days ago.

You already knew about this, didn’t you? If so, just pretend you didn’t. You couldn’t care less, could you? If not, just pretend you could. I need for you to share my geeky excitement.

Sausage and Thyme Stuffed Mushrooms

For those of you who just found out about this like I did, let me see if I can explain. I posted this video in an attempt to explain to my Facebook friends:

…only to find that the video didn’t help. Like, at all. So let me try again.

To paraphrase, the sentence basically says: “Bison from the city of Buffalo — that bison from Buffalo bully — themselves bully bison from Buffalo.” This cartoon might come in handy. Imagine there are a couple of bison cliques in Buffalo. I know that sounds nuts, but stay with me. Maybe one of the cliques of bison love One Direction and the other clique is comprised of diehard Bieber fans (you can tell I teach middle school.)

Now imagine that the Belieber bison beat up some of the Directioner bison on Tuesday. Those Directioners are now out for revenge, so they go beat up some of the weakest Belieber bison. So to make sense of the sentence, you could make it: “Buffalo’s Directioner Bison — that Buffalo’s Belieber bison bully — themselves bully Buffalo’s Belieber bison.” Get it??

Sausage and Thyme Stuffed Mushrooms

No? Okay. Well here are stuffed mushrooms to blow your mind instead. Believe (Belieb?) it or not, they’re even cooler than a sentence full o’ buffalo. In fact, they’re the best stuffed mushrooms I’ve ever had. Mike’s mom first made them for us in Charlotte and we both flipped. We emailed her for the recipe and made them for dinner as soon as it showed up in my inbox. Now we’ve had them for dinner twice in as many weeks, and that’s unusual for us. As a food blogger, I’m always making something new and rarely revisiting old favorites.

The first time, we ate these with Warm Chickpea Salad with Shallots & Red Wine Vinaigrette and the second we had crisp, cold iceberg wedge salads with homemade blue cheese dressing (stay tuned for that recipe!) Both meals were incredible. I don’t think you can go wrong where stuffed mushrooms are involved.

Sausage and Thyme Stuffed Mushrooms

Recipe by: Very slightly adapted from Pioneer Woman
Yield: 6 servings

This recipe is very slightly adapted from Pioneer Woman’s stuffed mushroom recipe, and features an incredible filling of mushroom, onions, sausage, cream cheese, white wine, and thyme. Mike and I eat the whole batch by ourselves as a main course some nights for dinner.

Ingredients:
24 ounces white button mushrooms
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 egg yolk
3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 pound hot pork sausage
1/2 medium onion, finely diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup dry white wine (I used Sauvignon Blanc)
salt and pepper

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line two baking sheets with aluminum foil. Clean the mushrooms and cut their stems out, finely chopping and reserving the stems. Place the hollowed out mushroom caps on a foil-lined baking sheet. Combine the softened cream cheese and egg yolk in a large bowl. Add in the grated parmesan and thyme.

In a medium skillet over high heat, brown the sausage. When it’s browned, remove it with a slotted spoon to the bowl with the cream cheese mixture. Let it sit and melt the cheese while you cook the onions until softened in the remaining sausage drippings, about 2 minutes. Add garlic and cook for about 30 seconds before adding in white wine to deglaze the pan. Cook until the liquid is gone, about 2 minutes. Add in the mushroom stems and cook until they’re tender, about 2 minutes. Spoon the mixture into the cream cheese bowl and mix it all together. Salt and pepper this mixture to taste. Pile each mushroom cap high with the cream cheese mixture. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until firm. Let the mushrooms cool a few minutes, serving warm.

October 11, 2013 by Julie Ruble | 5 Comments

cakes

Quick and Easy Sour Cream Apple Kuchen

Quick and Easy Sour Cream Apple Kuchen

Byrd is 7 years old this year. She still runs around like a puppy, but suddenly her eyes are cloudy, her fur is thin, and every now and then, her back goes out without warning. My heart vehemently protests each new sign of aging, but time marches on.

Byrdie
Byrdie.

It probably sounds morbid to say I think about her dying all the time, but it’s not — and I do. I worry about it, sure, but mostly I think about it as a self-check. I think, “When she dies someday, am I going to be satisfied with the life I gave her, or am I going to have regrets?” Dogs live such heartbreakingly short lives. It feels like the only way to make it slightly less tragic for them to leave us someday is to make those brief lives as special as possible.

Quick and Easy Sour Cream Apple Kuchen

Having that as my goal has made a lot of decisions easier. For instance, when Byrd’s knees started giving her problems a few years ago, there was no question that we had to fix them immediately. Fixing them meant prolonging her ability to fetch, which was crucial to her having a happy life. Other decisions become harder: should I get her bad teeth pulled to prevent infection, or should I let her keep them so she can definitely continue to enjoy her daily carrots? Those kind of decisions produce a lot of fretting and the occasional way-too-long conversation with the vet.

Quick and Easy Sour Cream Apple Kuchen

Recently I’ve started kind of a dog bucket list for Byrd, filled with things I want to be able to say I did with her while she was still relatively young and healthy. I hope she has MANY, many years left, but of course I don’t want to scramble toward the end of her life to try to get in the “good stuff.” Just a few:

1. Play fetch daily.

2. Let her “smell the roses” more outside.

3. Go to the beach and bury things in the sand for her to dig up.

4. Get her a heated bed.

5. Give her occasional “wet food” treat days.

6. Drive through Chick-fil-a to get treats every now and then.

7. Have at least one “Byrd day” filled with all of her favorite treats, food, and playtime.

Quick and Easy Sour Cream Apple Kuchen

That last one was inspired by an article I read once (you’re gonna need some tissues) about a dude who gave his dying dog one last perfect day. My takeaway from the article is that I wanted to do this before Byrd gets too old or sick to really enjoy it. While she’s still young, I want to give her a day full of fetch, wet food, carrots, digging in blankets, belly rubs, car rides, and snuggles.

When it is time to let her go someday (hopefully a day far, far in the future!), I’m thinking of following the lead of a friend of mine. She had a vet that made house calls, so he was able to come and put her greyhound to sleep on the comfy dining room rug where he always napped. She was right by his side in the comfort of their home. I love that and hope I can arrange the same for my sweet girl (who, as if to underscore that she’s still young and spry, is ferociously attacking a blanket beside me as I write).

Those sort of thoughts are so hard, right? But it actually does my heart good to know I have a plan for making her little life as joyful and comfortable as it can be. Do you ever think about this for your pet? What would your pet’s bucket list look like?

* * *
Quick and Easy Sour Cream Apple Kuchen

After one of our quick dinners last week, Mike and I had this quick, simple dessert made with a box cake mix. Byrd didn’t get to enjoy any, but don’t worry. She had plenty of her own food, which she likes to chomp-chomp-chomp just as Mike and I are going to sleep each night.

My mom made this for us all the time growing up, and it was one of my favorites. The sweet apples and sour cream complement each other perfectly, and the toasted pecans are the perfect nutty touch. Whip it up and throw it in the oven while you eat dinner. Serve it warm with some vanilla bean ice cream on top!

One year ago: Gooey “German” Pumpkin Skillet Cake
Two years ago: Easy Sopapilla Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars
Three years ago: Honeybun Cake with Caramel Sauce
Four years ago: Homemade Puff Pastry and Vol-au-vents

Quick and Easy Sour Cream Apple Kuchen

Recipe by: Willow Bird Baking
Yield: 6 servings

This quick and easy recipe was a dessert staple in my house growing up. The sour cream and apple combination is perfect, particularly with the toasted pecans on top.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup cold butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 box yellow cake mix
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup sour cream
1 egg
2 (15-ounce) cans (or 2 cups fresh, peeled) sliced apples
toasted pecans*

Directions:
*Note: To toast pecans, spread them out on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees F for about 6 minutes or until fragrant, tossing several times.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with cooking spray. In a medium bowl, use a pastry cutter or two knives to cut the butter cubes into the cake mix until crumbly. Press this mixture into the prepared pan, building it up slightly on the edges. Bake the crust for 10 minutes. In the meantime, mix together the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves in a small bowl. In a separate small bowl, whisk together the sour cream and egg until smooth.

When the crust is done, arrange the apples on it (I used canned). Sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar mixture over the apples. Drizzle the sour cream mixture over the apples (it won’t completely cover them). Bake for 25 minutes or until edges are lightly brown. Don’t overbake. Sprinkle on toasted pecans and serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream.