I had exactly 3 apples in my fridge and they were glaring at me everytime I opened the fridge door. I was researching recipes online for Apple Muffins and I landed on Apple Streusel Cheesecake Bars. It's a Betty Crocker recipe that calls for boxed cookie mix and canned pie filling. I was not digging that. I wanted to go homemade all the way. So I whipped up an oatmeal cookie recipe for the crust portion, I semi-followed their cheesecake recipe, and made a homemade apple sauce for the filling. It seems like a lot of work, but it truly wasn't that bad. It helps that I've started to master the art of time management, at least in the kitchen, haha. I hope you guys enjoy it!
Crust:
2 1/2 cups oatmeal
1 1/2 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon
Apple Filling:
3 apples, peeled, cored and diced into small pieces
1/2 cup apple juice
1/2 cup water
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 13x9 baking dish. In a large mixing bowl, cut butter into oatmeal and brown sugar until crumbly and combined. Add in egg, vanilla extract, flour, baking soda and cinnamon until well mixed. Press crust into bottom of prepared baking dish. Bake in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes.
While crust is cooking, prepare apple filling. Place apples, apple juice, water and lemon juice in sauce pot. Cook on medium-high heat for 7-10 minutes, until apples are softened. Drain water/juices. Add brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Allow to cook on low until crust is done.
While apple filling is simmering, prepare cheesecake filling. Beat cream cheese and sugar together until smooth. Add in vanilla extract, almond extract and eggs until well combined.
Remove crust from oven. Pour cheesecake filling over top. Pour apple filling over top of cheesecake filling. Bake in oven for another 35-40 minutes. Set in refridgerator for 2-4 hours to set. Enjoy!
This is going to be hard because sometimes my memory doesn't quite like me. So I'm going to attempt to recap last week.
Sunday 10/31
Happy Halloween! Definitely one of my most favoritest holidays! I was born early October so I love everything and anything fall. As beautiful as New England falls are, I hate the winters that follow. So, living in Hawaii, I just light some apple scented candles and call it fall. I've only ever heard the stories of what Halloween is like in Waikiki and this year I decided to get in on the action. First, I had to work 8:30-4:30. Then, I ran home, got changed, and had my mom cut and sew my costume to a shorter length. Good thing she lives within walking distance.
My friends and I decided to go with a group theme of Disney Princesses. We took lots of pictures with other random Disney characters and other crazy people we found. Funny story is that the picture of the double Jasmin and Aladdins is apparantely a friend of my younger sister's. I didn't know that until I posted the picture on my facebook and my sister commented. Small world. Enjoy the pictures :)
Monday 11/1
So this was the day after Halloween and I was scheduled to work at 5:30am. Level 8 fail. I stayed in Waikiki until around 12:30 am, so we didn't get home until around 2am. Luckily my manager texted to say she wanted us all to come in at 7am instead. It was still early just not "it's still dark out" early. We had a floor set to do and ended up not getting out until 5:30pm. Due to sleep deprivation, I was semi crazy and full on obnoxious. I kept yelling out "aww yeah the cab's are heaaaa". I got home around 7pm and Jon cooked me dinner and let me catch up on my DVR. Love him!
Tuesday 11/2
View in Manoa :)
Election Day! My mom hooked me up with a job working on the Colleen Hanabusa campaign from 10-6 on Election Day. I headed into town and had to walk door-to-door in Manoa and Kalihi. Kalihi was small kine scary, they had some big doggies at those houses! I did get Starbucks in the morning because I was still exhausted from my 10 hour shift the day before. We got Boston's Pizza for lunch, which was the first decent pizza I've had since living in Hawaii. Hanabusa ended up winning. I got a $20 gas card and a $90 paycheck, so win for me too!
Wednesday 11/3
Back to work at Things Remembered from 11 to 7. Nothing exciting there. I drove home, picked up Jon and we headed back up to town to go to Dave and Busters with some people from my old job at Best Buy.
Thursday 11/4
Work again. I went to Walmart to buy groceries because they are sooo much cheaper there than at Foodland. I also bought SATC2. YESSSS!!!
Friday 11/5
A day off! This day I decided to cook up a new recipe of Chili with Oven Baked Garlic Parmesan Fries. I did this while watching Grey's Anatomy and Master Chef on Fancast. I also made my Apple Crumbler because I was going to a friend's house for dinner the next night and I was bringing beer and dessert.
Saturday 11/6
Their cool crooked glasses!
Work 10-6. Afterwards, Jon picked me up and we went to Target to get beer for the dinner. We somehow managed to spend $81. I swear I do that everytime I go into Target. After that, we went to my new friend Angelina and her husband Jeremy's house. She made some delicious enchiladas. Soooo delicious. Maybe I can get her to give me the recipe to share with you guys? They have a really adorable tea cup Chihuahua named Lola and a cute black and white cat named Riley. They are so cute! She also decorated her condo exactly how I wish I could decorate mine. I am sooo going to Pier 1 and Ross to buy some stuff. It still looks like Jon and I just moved in.
Anyways, that was my average week. I am so thankful for the friends I have made living here in Hawaii. Hope you guys enjoyed reading! Only a few days left of this blog challenge. Then, it'll be back to mostly recipes. Not sure if that's a good or bad thing? xoxo
I am SO excited about this post. Last night, I was craving something sweet. I was going to attempt to make an apple pie and then realized I didn't have a pie dish. So, I moved onto the next best thing, Apple Crisp. I looked up recipes online and nothing was jumping out at me. So, I moved onto Apple Cobbler, nothing jumped out again. The same happened with Apple Crumble recipes. So, I decided I would just throw elements from each together and make what I'm calling an Apple Crumbler. It was amazing.
I was born in October in New England which is Apple pickin' season, so I am programmed to love anything apple. Especially around this time of year, even living in Hawaii, I get crazy cravings for apple dishes. I've never attempted an apple dish at home before, I wish I had tried sooner! To make mine a little different, I added some maple syrup to the filling and made a glaze for the top. The glaze isn't too sweet because its balanced out with some lemon juice.
If you guys have been reading this blog but don't know which recipe to try, start with this one. It was easy to throw together and so tasty. Send me your feedback: cookingwithcait@gmail.com.
Apple Crumbler
Filling:
3-3 1/2 cups apples peeled, cored and diced into small chunks
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tbsp all purpose flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
Crumbler:
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 stick butter, room temperature
Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 1/2 tbsp milk
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients for filling. Spread into 8x8 baking dish. Set aside.
In same mixing bowl as filling (you will pick up some of the yummy spices and juices) combine all ingredients besides butter until incorporated. Using an electric mixer, beat in butter until dry ingredients have stuck to it and made a crumbly texture topping. Spread this topping over apple filling until fully covered.
Bake in oven for 35-40 minutes. While it is baking, prepare glaze.
Combine all ingredients for glaze in small mixing bowl and whisk together until smooth.
Pour glaze over top of crumbler as soon as it gets out of the oven. Serve with some vanilla ice cream and enjoy!
Sorry it's been a while, it's been a crazy week for me! Anyways, yesterday was my dad's birthday so I figured I'd celebrate him and share my favorite dish he makes, Baked Brie with Apple Sauce! I'm also going to share some pictures from the beautiful checkerboard cake I made him. Maybe someday soon I'll share that recipe too, I want to experiment a little more with the recipe first though :)
Baked Brie with Apple Sauce
1 wheel of brie cheese
2 sheets puff pastry
3 tbsp butter, with extra to grease pan
2 apples
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup water
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 8x8 baking dish with butter. Tightly wrap cheese wheel with puff pastry on top and bottom, pinching sides tightly together. Place in baking dish. Chop butter into pieces and place on top of brie. Bake for 40 minutes or until golden brown.
Peel and core apples and chop into small chunks. Allow to simmer with water, sugar and cinnamon until soft. Pour over brie before serving.
Here are some of the pictures of my dad's epic birthday cake! Hope you like the recipe, email me some feedback cookingwithcait@gmail.com :)
A special message to my dad: Dad, you are amazing. You have been such an inspiration to me my whole life. You are such a hard worker, and an amazing cook. I love you so much and thank you for everything you have done to get me to where I am today. You are the best dad I could ever ask for. Stop being so hard on yourself for your cooking, I hope to be half the cook you are someday! I love you!!!
