Food Friday - An Apple Today

from Tracey G

Happy 4th of July! I can't believe it's the 4th of July already, today was actually pretty warm - it's been in the 60's for the most part around here, lol. So, it honestly snuck up on me this year. :-)

Kris and I talked about what we'd want to do in honor of Independence Day, so we thought what's more American than apple pie - or some variation on that, lol. Apple recipes I seem to have a few good ones of, but I decided on this one because they're like little mini apple pies and easy as pie to make, lol. And they are super yummy, the batch I made for this week's post got Harry's stamp of approval, lol. And from Mr. Picky, that's saying something, lol.  ;-) 

And for today's post I decided to use my iPad for the photos, with my Hipstamatic app: Loftus lens and DC film.  

There's not a lot involved, so I seem to have ended up with more photos than usual, lol, maybe to make up for the lack of trouble it is to make these, lol. The ingredient list is easy, it's refrigerated crescent roll dough butter, sugar, vanilla, a Granny Smith apple, cinnamon sugar, apple pie spice, and a lemon-lime soda. And of course, I forgot an ingredient in the photo above (big surprise there, lol), the sugar. ;-)

After you get your apple peeled and cut into 8 wedges, it's time for the crescent roll dough...

Get the dough unrolled and separated into the 8 triangles. 

Place your apple wedge on the triangle, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, bring up the corners to the center and pinch to seal, then roll them up. 

This is what your little dumpling should look like :-)

As you get them rolled up, place them in a greased 8x8" square baking pan...

Once you get them rolled up and in the pan, assemble your sugar-butter-vanilla mixture ingredients. Melt the butter...

Stir the sugar, vanilla and melted butter until well mixed. 

Spoon the mixture over the dumplings in the greased baking pan.

Pour the soda slowly around the dumplings - do not stir the soda into the pan. 

Once you get that done, it's time to sprinkle the apple pie spice on the top before baking. I didn't have any apple pie spice laying around, so I just used a combination of 2 tsp cinnamon and 1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg and it worked just fine. :-)

Bake them at 350° F for 25-30 min or until they're golden brown. You can serve them warm with ice cream as the recipe suggests, or actually mine sat for awhile, lost a bit of crispness, but tasted just as good! :-D

Crescent Roll Apple Dumplings

makes 8

1 8 oz tube refrigerated crescent rolls

1 medium Granny Smith apple, peeled and cut into 8 wedges

cinnamon sugar (I used approximately 2 tbsp or so)

1/2 c sugar

1/4 c butter, melted

1 tsp vanilla

6 tbsp lemon-lime soda

1-2 tsp apple pie spice

1) Unroll crescent roll dough and separate into 8 triangles. Place an apple wedge on each crescent triangle. Sprinkle apple wedge with cinnamon sugar. Bring up corners of dough to center; pinch edges to seal. Place in a greased 8 inch square baking dish.

2) In a small bowl, combine the sugar, melted butter and vanilla; spoon over rolls. Slowly pour soda around the dumplings (do not stir). Sprinkle with apple pie spice. Bake, uncovered, at 350° F for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm with ice cream if desired.

from Kris B.

When Tracey told me that she was going to do all of her photos for today's post with her phone or iPad, there was a part of me that just wanted to sit down and cry...not having anything to do with Tracey and her photos, but because I have a terrible relationship with my phone camera right now.  In fact, my relationship issues with my phone are the reason that you did not get a Tuesday in Texas post this week.  Let me try to explain that.

I want to love my phone camera.  I want to trust it.  I want to have it by my side at all times.  I want to create beautiful things with it.  Lately that just hasn't been happening.  All of my photos seem unfocused, grant, flat, or all of the above.  Honestly, I don't know what the problem is.  My phone and I are going to seek counseling and hope that we can get back on the right track.  

One of the things that I have done is tried different camera apps to see if that makes any difference.  Earlier in the week, my husband, who subscribes to all of the app gone free websites, sent me a link to an iPhone app called ProShot.  It allows you to set all of your shooting settings just like on your "big" camera.  Since it was free, I downloaded it knowing that I could delete it if it wasn't worthy of the space on my phone.  Upon first glance, I really liked the user interface.  The dials are all easily accessible.  You have a lot of creative control.  It looked like a great app.  I figured I would share this free app with all of you, but I thought that I should include some photos taken with it.  Here comes the problem.  My photos were still terrible and I couldn't make myself post them.  So I baled on the whole post.  Mature, I know.  Like Tracey and I have said many times here, we don't promise much, but we do promise honesty.  So there.  I have come clean.  

The app is free through July 3...today.  I know.  That gives you no time.  Here is my/our concession.  We are giving away a gift card so that you can add some photograph apps to your phone.  We are extending the time to enter until the middle of next week.  Leave a comment here to be entered into the random drawing.  The winner will receive a $20 gift card for their phone of choice.  

Now for this week's recipe...

During the school year, my husband and I take an apple in our lunches every day.  Somewhere along the line we became firm believers in "an apple a day keeps the doctor away."  Now that school is out, we still eat quite a few apples, but not every day.  On one hand I miss them, and on the other I could use a change.

The 4th of July here in the states is a big day for cooking on the grill and sharing good times with family and friends.  Rather than the traditional picnic dessert fare of cookies or brownies this year, I decided to go with grilled apples.  They are equally as tasty and maybe a tad bit healthier, but I'm not sure.  LOL!

These are not difficult to make, but they use ingredients that you don't usually think about when you are packing your picnic basket so a little forethought is in order.  If you are eating away from home, the ingredients can be prepped before you leave and the apples themselves easily prepared once you get to your destination.  Here's how you makes these:

Preheat your grill to medium.  Obviously I use a gas grill and thus can control the temperature.  You can also make these over a charcoal grill or campfire.  You just want to make sure that the sugar doesn't get super burned.  

Peel and core the apples.  My knife skills are terrible, so I rely on a good ol' potato peeler to peel the apples.  I then cut around the core.  I have found that rather than trying to remove the core from the whole apple, it is easier to cut the apple into rings at this point and punch out the centers of each slice.  This reduces the chance of breaking your apple rings, not that apple pieces are any less yummy, they are just a little more difficult to deal with on the grill.  

Once your apples are sliced, place the rings in a bowl of lemon water.  You want to keep the apples from turning brown.  

Or, if you have leftover lemon-lime soda from making Tracey;s recipe, that will work too.  Any kind of citric acid will do the trick.  

In a small glass container, melt 4 TBS of butter.  Then stir in the spices - 1 TBS brown sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, and some nutmeg.  This ratio is sufficient for two good sized apples that each yield six rings.  

Brush both sides of the apple rings with this mixture and the place them on the preheated grill.  Brush the apples another time or two on each side while they are cooking.  

Cook the apples 5-10 minutes on each side.  They are done when they feel soft when you insert a fork into them.  

The Grilled Cinnamon Apples can be eaten just as the come off the grill, but if you are feeling decadent, serve them with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  It is kind of like apple pie without the crust.

After we had fired up the grill so that I could take these shots, my husband decided it was dinner time and he threw a couple hot dogs on the grill.  (Our 4th of July picnic happened a little early.)   That got me thinking about meals using these apples rather than dessert.  Next time we make the apples, I am going to try throwing one on a grilled cheese sandwich...some buttered Texas toast, some good cheese, a slice or two of apple and toss it on the grill instead of those hot dogs.  What do you think?

To our U.S. friends, we wish you a fun and safe Independence Day celebration; to our Canadian friends, a belated Happy Canada Day; and to those of you in other parts of the world, may your days ahead bring something for you to celebrate!  And don't forget to leave us a comment for a chance to win a gift card for phone apps.