Cinnamon Rice Crispie Treats

Fall is here! All those fall flavors are back in style and I thought I would put a new twist on a classic recipe to make it more appropriate for the season.

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Cinnamon Rice Crispie Treats
3 T butter
5 1/2 C marshmallows (I used the mini ones)
6 C of Rice cereal
3 T Cinnamon
1 C Melting chocolate (optional)

Melt the butter completely in the microwave and mix with the marshmallows in a large bowl. Add the 3 tablespoons of cinnamon and mix well.

Transfer the mixture to a pot and cook on medium until all of the marshmallows have melted. Immediately add in the rice cereal and mix thoroughly.

Transfer the mix to a greased pan and mold them to the desires shape (simply pressing and packing them down to the bottom is fine.)

Optional: Melt the melting chocolate per its instructions, and spread over the top of the treats

Let them cool completely and them cut into the desired shapes. Enjoy!

Baker's Tips:
-For the melting chocolate, it really depends on the brand that you buy. I used Wilton's melting chocolate which is to be microwaved for 1 minute and then at 30 minute increments until it reaches the desired texture. I found that 1 minute and 30 seconds did the trick. Be careful, some brands may turn to powder if you heat them for too long.

Banana Cupcakes

Why is it that all of these posts seem to always start with me having to get rid of something old? Well, for those of you who like me, buy produce and then forget it's there, I have another installation for you!

I bought bananas last week and one of them had gotten to the point where it was so ripe, I didn't want to eat it, but I only had one banana; what can you make with that? Usually I make banana bread with old bananas but I thought I'd be a bit more creative this time....

 
Banana Cupcakes
makes 12 standard cupcakes

6 T butter (room temperature)
3/4 C sugar
2 eggs
6 T sour milk
1/2 C mashed bananas ( ~ 1 medium banana)
1 1/4 C flour
1/4 t salt
1/4 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder

Preheat the oven to 350 F
In a medium bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add in the eggs one at a time.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. add the banana mix to the dry ingredients and mix well. then add the sour milk and mix until smooth.

line the cupcake tin with cupcake foils and fill them half-3/4 of the way full (depending on how round you like the top of your cupcakes).

Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes; until you can stick a toothpick in them and have it come out clean.

Ice the cupcakes with your favorite icing (I suggest chocolate)

Enjoy!

Baker's Tips:
- If you don't have any sour milk (I'm pretty sure they don't sell that) you can easily make some by adding a couple of teaspoons of lime juice to regular milk (whole, skim, 2%, whatever) and letting it sit for at least five minutes.
- Depending on your oven, you may need to rotate the pan halfway through just to make sure you get an even bake.
- Make it your own! spice it up with a bit of vanilla or cinnamon. This recipe is easily manipulated.

Potato & Sausage Hash

Potato & Sausage Hash

So, once again, it was time to get rid of something that has been in my fridge for a while. Only this time, it was two potatoes that had been sitting there for about 2 and a half months (don't worry, they were still good, i checked.)

So I decided to make a hash with some sausage, corn and broccoli that I had. It was all relatively simple, so I thought "How can I make this special?" by adding a homemade sauce of course! So below is my Potato & Sausage Hash coupled with a homemade steak sauce.

Potato & Sausage Hash

2 mid sized potatoes
1/2 lb sausage meat
1 can corn
1/5 C frozen broccoli florets
5 T olive oil (you need enough to completely cover all of the potatoes
salt
pepper
variety of spices
2 t lime juice (optional)

Preheat the oven to 425 F
Wash both potatoes thoroughly (we will be keeping the skins). Cube the potatoes and wash them again (squeaky clean).

Boil the potatoes for 10 minutes.

Drain the potatoes and add enough olive oil to coat the potatoes. Add salt and pepper to taste.  Place the potatoes on a pan and bake in the oven uncovered for 20-25 minutes or until browned.

Season the meat to taste and cook until done. Set aside.

For the vegetables I pan cooked them with the lime juice, salt and the drippings from the sausage meat. If you choose, you may cook them steamed as well. Just make sure that they are not cooked for to long.

Once all of the components are done mix them together for the meal to be complete! For the topping, check below for the simple homemade steak sauce recipe.

Homemade Steak Sauce 
NOTE: this may not seem like a lot of sauce, but i like to use it sparingly. If you would like more, just increase the ingredients accordingly :)

2 T Soy sauce
1 T ketchup
1 1/2 t apple cider vinegar
1/8 t pepper
1/8 t garlic powder
2 t brown sugar

Simply mix together all of the ingredients in a bowl at room temperature until smooth and voilá! steak sauce to top your masterpiece :)


COOKER'S TIPS:
- Do the potatoes first, and then cook the sausage while they are baking to maximize your time. If you time it right, you could cook the sausage, vegetables, and whip up the sauce all while the potatoes are in the oven.
- Experiment with the steak sauce! If you like a sweeter sauce, add more brown sugar. If you don't like the tangy taste, cut down on the apple cider vinegar; make it your own!
- For a low sodium steak sauce that is still homemade, try equal parts worcestershire sauce and ketchup. Add sugar to taste.

Enjoy!

Apple Pie Filling Cupcake

Being a college kid, I buy things in bulk; I figure it will be cheaper that way. However, then you end up with leftovers thinking, "Now what am I going to do with this?" That was me yesterday with some apples that had been sitting in my fridge for who knows how long. I google searched for some cupcake recipes using apples that I didn't really like. So, I ended up modifying a vanilla cupcake recipe I found on food.com as well as a flour based frosting recipe I got off of tastykitchen.com


I give you the Apple Pie Filling Cupcake

(makes 12 standard cupcakes)

Apple Pie Filling
1 large apple
2T cinnamon
1/3C brown sugar
1/2T butter

Batter
1 stick of butter (1/2C) - room temperature
1C sugar
1 1/2 t vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/4C milk
1 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 1/2C flour

Frosting
5T flour
1C milk
2 sticks of butter (1C) - room temperature
1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 C brown sugar
1T cinnamon

Frosting:
The first thing your going to want to do is add the 5 tablespoons of flour into into 1/4 cup of the milk one tablespoon at a time. Mix thoroughly in between so that you don't get any lumps. Then, add the rest of the milk to the mixture until smooth.

Put the milk four mix in a sauce pot and on about medium on the stovetop and whisk it continuously. You want a thick paste to be made out of this. Once you get a pretty thick paste (and I do mean thick) take off the heat and set it to the side. This mixture needs to be cooled COMPLETELY before moving on.

Add the one teaspoon of vanilla into the flour milk mixture and stir. In a separate bowl whip the butter and both sugars until fluffy. Add the flour mix and a tablespoon of cinnamon. Set aside to frost later (I suggest the fridge)

Apples:
Peel the apple and chop it into small chunks. Then, add all of the ingredients in a sauce pot and cook on medium until apples are soft and mushy. Set aside.

Batter:
*Preheat the oven to 350F and place cupcake foils into your cupcake pan*
Whip together the butter and sugar in a large bowl until fluffy. And the vanilla and then the eggs one at a time, whisking in between. Add the apples you have cooked; drained of as much of the juices as possible. Set the extra juice aside.

Add the flour, salt, and baking powder. Mix well. Then add the milk.

Spoon the batter into cupcake foils and bake for 25 minutes.

After your cupcakes have cooled, ice them however you like and then drizzle the leftover apple cinnamon juice on top. Enjoy!

BAKER'S TIPS
1) Cook the flour milk first, as it takes a while to cool. You can then cook the apples and bake the cupcakes. Make the frosting while they are baking.
2) Be very careful with the butter for the frosting. If it is too warm it will start to separate. It will still taste great, but it might not look the best.
3) this cupcake has a very thick texture to it. If you want a light cake, I suggest adding another teaspoon of baking powder and not filling in the foil as much.

check out http://tastykitchen.com/blog/2010/03/a-tasty-recipe-thats-the-best-frosting-ive-ever-had/ for the original frosting recipe and http://www.food.com/recipe/simple-vanilla-cupcakes-178370 for the original cupcake recipe


Please leave comments! How did yours turn out?