Quick and Easy Apple Tart

I guess you could follow The Pioneer Woman's recipe . . . but make it easy for yourself and use this recipe as inspiration and use the frozen puff pastry with canned apple pie filling (Comstock is excellent).  Talk about some awesome convenience foods!

Ingredients

1 whole Sheet Puffed Pastry, Thawed And Cut In Half
4 whole Apples, Cored, Halved And Sliced Very Thin
1 cup Brown Sugar
1 dash Salt
Powdered Sugar, For Serving
Caramel Sauce, For Serving

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Place puffed pastry rectangles onto a baking pan that’s been sprayed with nonstick spray. Add sugar and salt to apples. Stir to combine. Allow to sit for a few minutes.

Arrange apple slices on the pastry rectangles in a straight line, overlapping as you go. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until pastry is puffed and golden brown.

Remove from pan immediately and place on a serving platter. Serve plain, with caramel topping, whipped cream, and/or a sprinkling of powdered sugar. 

Photo and Recipe Source 

Slow Cooker Garlic Chicken

Love this type of recipe where you can throw everything together and forget about it, leaving a delicious aroma as it cooks.

Many who reviewed this recipe were concerned about the lack of liquid and added chicken broth or salad dressing.  I would agree that adding a little chicken broth isn't a bad idea . . . neither is adding more onion and some fresh chunky sliced mushrooms. 

During the end step in the oven (I would use a normal oven temperature like 350 instead of broiling), I would take some of the juices and make a gravy.  I'd also use boneless skinless chicken breasts or tenderloins which is my personal preference.  Use what you like and adjust the recipe accordingly.  

This recipe, from the Betty Crocker website, would be a great one for a beginner cook to try out and impress your guests who will think you worked in the kitchen cooking for hours.

Ingredients

1 large onion, halved, cut into thin slices 

1 tablespoon chopped garlic

1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme leaves

1 teaspoon dried basil leaves

1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 cut-up whole chicken (3 1/2 to 4 lb)



Directions

Spray 5- to 6-quart slow cooker with cooking spray and place onion and garlic in slow cooker.

Mix thyme, basil, oregano, salt and pepper in a small bowl and rub each piece of chicken with the herb mixture. 

Arrange chicken pieces over onion and garlic.

Cover and cook on High heat setting 3 hours 30 minutes (or Low heat setting 6 to 7 hours) or until juice of chicken is clear when thickest pieces are cut to bone (at least 165°F).

Set oven control to broil and line broiler pan or cookie sheet with foil.  Place chicken skin side up on pan. 

Broil with tops 6 inches from heat 4 to 6 minutes or until golden brown.

Photo and recipe source

Cherry Dump Cake

It doesn't get easier than dumping three ingredients in a pan and baking it.

Can't wait to serve it warm with some ice cream!

Gotta love dump cakes!

UPDATE

After making this dump cake, I need to make a few notes to add to the recipe.

First of all, after dumping all ingredients into the pan, stir until the cake mix is moistened.  We found that just dumping them into the pan left some spots "floury" after baking and left too many crunchy pieces throughout the cake.

Otherwise, the taste was excellent, but was very sweet and almost needs whipped cream or vanilla ice cream to offset the sweetness.

We really liked it and will be making it again!

INGREDIENTS

2 (20 ounce) cans cherry pie filling
1 (18 1/2 ounce) box chocolate cake mix or 1 (18 1/2 ounce) box devil's food cake mix, unprepared
3⁄4 cup butter, melted



DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Dump cherry pie filling into 13 x 9 inch cake pan.

Spread out evenly in pan.
Sprinkle cake mix evenly over filling.

Drizzle butter over top.

Bake for 1 hour.

Serve in pan.

Photo and recipe source

Cobblers, Crumbles, Crisps and More from Martha Stewart

One of my fond childhood memories involves wandering around the woods by my house to pick blackberries.  We'd come home with a bucket of berries for my neighbor Dot to make her famous blackberry cobbler.  She would put the cobblers together with smiles and love, singing along the way . . . she was a special lady. Cobblers, crumbles and crisps remind me of her.

Martha Stewart has put together a collection of these wonderful recipes that remind me of those good old days.  Click here to go there.