Apple Orchard Snack Cake Perfect for Fall.

Today I am bringing you another fall inspired recipe. I have made this Apple Orchard Snack Cake a couple times now and love it every time. I originally got this recipe from Christy over at a Southern Plate last year. The first time I saw this cake and saw the ingredients I knew i had to make it. I thought the kids would love it since it was made with graham cracker crumbs and apples. I didn't have any graham cracker crumbs on hand, but I did have regular graham crackers. So I just crushed those up to make two cups. Buying a whole box of graham crackers is so much cheaper anyhow. I can get a whole box at Walmart for $1.10.



This cake is so super moist and the apples are delicious. My oldest and youngest sons love this cake, Mackenzie not so much. She liked the cake but did not care for the apples. The little girl I watch named Grace is now a big fan of the cake as well. Grace even helped me mix everything up, so I think we have a future chef on our hands. This is a perfect cake for Fall and I love that it is flour less. I was thinking maybe next time I might buy the cinnamon graham crackers in place of regular. We will see I always forget and end up grabbing the regular ones. I highly recommend this cake maybe you have a few apples lying around that need to be used up. This would be perfect for that.



Here is my helper Gracie mixing up all the ingredients.

see little feet means little helper. LOL

Pour the batter into a greased 8x8 inch baking dish

and bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes.




Gracie's favorite place when I am baking anything is right in front of the oven, she will tell me "light light".




Fresh from the oven, let cool and sprinkle with powdered sugar

Apple Orchard Snack Cake

1 - cup granulated sugar
3 - eggs
2 - apples, peeled and diced (golden delicious)
1/2 - cup butter or margarine, melted
2 - cups graham cracker crumbs
3/4 - cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)
powdered sugar ~ for topping ~

Blend sugar, margarine, and eggs in bowl with a spoon. Stir in graham cracker crumbs, apples, and nuts until blended. Spread batter into greased 8x8 pan. Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes or until firm to the touch. Sprinkle liberally with confectioner's sugar. Cool and then cut into squares.


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I'm a Kitchenista!! ~ Meal Planner Monday

I have exciting news! Starting today Monday, September 28 through October 30, 2009, I have teamed up with Velveeta and 4 other awesome mom bloggers who know their way around the kitchen – also known as the “Velveeta it Kitchenistas!

5 Kitchenistas x 5 Weeks= 25 Ideas to VELVEETA it! Over the course of five weeks, we will serve up 25 ideas to VELVEETA it! I am so thrilled that Velveeta has included me to be a part of this awesome project. I am the Kitchenista for Monday (Meal Planner Monday). So I can help you plan a weekly menu that your family will love. Each of the Kitchenista's share their cooking stories, advice and recipes to help make dinnertime a success. Become a fan of of the Velveeta Face book Page for lots of meal time ideas. I will be online at the Velveeta Face book page on my desiginated day (Mondays) to answer any question you might have about meal planning or meal ideas. Make sure to stop by throughout the week because there will be a new Kitchenista for each day of the week.

Hop on over and visit Velveetakitchenista.com and meet all of the Kitchenistas. While your there you can also see my very own Original Velveeta Recipe and have a chance to win some great prizes. You will have the opportunity to enter a daily qualified sweepstakes for a chance to win a VELVEETAit! prize package, valued at $75, complete with a Cuisinart skillet, VELVEETA cookbook, loaf saver, product coupon and $25 grocery gift card. I can't wait to talk with all of you.

The picture above is just a copy of the site my original recipe is listed at: Velveetakitchenista.com.

Tina, Meal Planner Monday Kitchenista


“I have partnered with VELVEETA to serve as one of five VELVEETA it! Kitchenistas. I have been compensated for my time commitment to the program, which includes writing about my cooking experiences, tips and advice at VELVEETAKitchenistas.com ; developing one VELVEETA-based recipe; and hosting “office hours” on the Velveeta Face book Page . I have also been compensated for the food purchased for my VELVEETA recipe. However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments.”

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Cheesy Hashbrown Casserole with Ham "Easy Meal for a Busy Week"

We had a wonderful casserole last night and I couldn't wait to post the recipe. I am a big casserole lover, my husband not so much. It is always hard to find a casserole that the whole family likes. Well I finally found it!!!!!! I saw this recipe for Cheesy Hash brown Casserole over at Eat at Home .

It looked so easy to just toss together and bake. Tiffany baked her casserole in the crock pot along with a ham on top wrapped in a foil packet. (ingenious idea). That is what I planned on doing, but I couldn't find a decent ham on sale so I scrapped that idea.

What I did find was cubed ham at Walmart. I love to buy the little one pound packages of the cubed ham, you can use them in so many different recipes. The package of ham is only $2.50 so that's a great deal. I thought instead of cooking a ham on the side why not add the ham to the casserole. That would make the recipe even quicker than it already is. I mean how can you go wrong with potatoes, cheese and ham.

The casserole baked up so pretty and golden as you can see from the top picture. I couldn't wait to dig in and get every ones opinion. Well, I am happy to say that everyone loved it!!!! My oldest son is already asking me to make this again. So this recipe is definitely a keeper. It is nice to know I can make it two different ways with or without ham.

These are the ingredients you will need:
1 bag shredded hash brown potatoes, sour cream, cream of chicken soup, 1 stick butter, 1/2 of a small onion, cheddar cheese and cubed ham.

Mix the sour cream and soup together with the potatoes,

add chopped onion, shredded cheese and melted butter.

Mix together and then add the cubed ham last.

Spread mixture into a greased 9 x 13 in casserole dish. I added more shredded cheese on top just before baking. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Make sure casserole is bubbly and lightly golden on top.




Enjoy! So creamy and good not to mention very easy.

Here is the pan, I told you everyone loved it.

Cheesy Hashbrown Casserole W/Ham

1 - (26 oz) bag frozen, shredded hash brown potatoes
1 - 8 oz container sour cream
1 - 10.5 oz can cream of chicken soup
1/2 - cup butter, melted
onion, chopped fine (about 1/2 a small onion)
1 - 16 oz package cubed ham (I used Farmland $2.50 @ Super Walmart)
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (or a bit more if you like)

Stir all the ingredients together. Place into a lightly greased casserole dish (9 x 13 in). This is optional but you can add a bit more cheese on top if you like. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 min - 1 hour. Let cool a bit and serve.

Crockpot Directions:
Coat the inside of a slow cooker with cooking spray or butter. Spoon the hashbrown mixture into the slow cooker. Cover, and cook on High for 1 1/2 hours, then reduce heat to Low, and cook for an additional 2 1/2 hours.

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Southern Sweet Potato Pie for The First Day of Fall!

Today is the first official day of Fall! We had a pretty bad storm roll through last night, lots of thunder and lightening to go along with it. I was surprised when I woke up this morning and went outside to see if we had received any damage. No damage but, instead I found much cooler weather outside. Perfect for our first official day of Fall. It is 4:00pm right now and our temperature is 66 degrees, it doesn't get much better than that. With all the rain we have been having and now the cooler weather it sure isn't hard to get a bit excited about baking some Fall Treats.

Today I am bringing you a recipe for Southern Sweet Potato Pie. I had a few sweet potatoes that needed to be used. I had planned on making sweet potato casserole but hadn't gotten around to it yet. So instead I just decided on baking a pie. I love both pumpkin pie and sweet potato pie I really can't decide which one I like best. My son Carson loves pumpkin pie so that is what I told him I was making. I wanted to see if he would eat the sweet potato or if he could tell the difference. I like to bake my sweet potatoes instead of boiling them. I think the Sweet potatoes are so much more creamier when mashed plus they don't absorb a lot of water like they do if you boil them. This sweet potato pie recipe turned out awesome, of course I knew it would. I saw Pat and Gina Neely preparing this recipe on their show and it looked so good. In the end Carson loved the pie so I guess he couldn't tell the difference. He does think it is pumpkin pie, but I wont tell him any different. LOL


Preheat oven to 350 degree F. Bake sweet potatoes for 1 hour in the oven on a baking sheet. Or bake in the microwave. When done let cool and remove the sweet potato pulp from the inside. Set aside.


In a medium bowl, beat together butter, sugar, and brown sugar until creamy.

Add eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice and salt.

Add evaporated milk and stir mixture into sweet potatoes.

Beat together with mixer until smooth.

Pour into an unbaked pie shell. Bake on bottom rack of oven for 1 hour or until center of pie is firm.

If the crust begins to brown to quickly remove pie from the oven and cover the edges with aluminum foil. Continue baking until pie is done.

Serve warm. Add dollop of whipped cream if desired.

Southern Sweet Potato Pie

4 medium sweet potatoes - cooked
1/2 stick butter, softened
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup evaporated milk
1 unbaked pie crust

Preheat oven to 350 degree F. Bake sweet potatoes for 1 hour in the oven on a baking sheet. Or bake in the microwave. When done, let cool. Scrape the pulp out of the skin, transfer to a large bowl, and mash. Set aside. In a medium bowl, beat together butter, sugar, and brown sugar until creamy. Add eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice and salt. Add evaporated milk and stir mixture into sweet potatoes. Beat together with mixer until smooth and pour into an unbaked pie shell. Bake on bottom rack of oven for 1 hour or until center of pie is firm. Serve warm. Add dollop of whipped cream if desired.

If the pie crust begins to brown to quickly cover the edges with aluminum foil and continue baking.

Recipe courtesy of: Food Network "Calleys Sweet Potatoe Pie"


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Homemade English Muffins "Thank You Toni"

~ Free "Kitchen Kids Cookbook" is at the end of this post ~

It has been raining off and on for a week here in Dallas. I am not going to complain since we really do need the rain, plus it has brought some cooler weather along with it. Today's high is 79 degrees, so I will take the lower temps it's a huge difference from our usual 90-100 degree days. When the weather is dreary outside I love to bake, I mean if you are going to be trapped inside why not bake up something nice.

Today I am bringing you a recipe for Homemade English Muffins. I didn't make this recipe today, but I did a couple weeks back. (I am so behind on my posts). I found this recipe over at The Happy Housewife. I love Toni's site, she made this look so easy that of course i had to try out the recipe. I had such great success with her Perfect French Bread Rolls, I just knew the English muffins would turn out.

The recipe is pretty straight forward and easy to read. The only thing I messed up on, and I cant believe i even did that. Was after I cut out the English muffins and placed them on the baking tray to rise. Well I forgot to spay the waxed paper with baking spray and the English muffins stuck a bit.

I know better than to do that so, I couldn't believe it when it was time to remove them from the tray and they were stuck. So don't forget to do that part or you will be in my boat. Somehow I got them off and onto the electric skillet to brown.

I guess I just assumed they wouldn't stick since they were coated with cornmeal. Well I was wrong. That was my only problem with the recipe. Look how pretty they turned out!!!!!!!!!! I was in awe at just how much they looked like store bought English Muffins. If you are looking for a easy to follow recipe for English Muffins then this would be the one to try.


Mix together water, milk, honey and salt. Add 2 cups of flour and the yeast. Mix until you have a loose batter. Cover the mixture and let rise for about 1 hour. *I was out of honey so I substituted with Moonshine Syrup.

Add the butter and the remainder of the flour.


Roll out dough on a surface sprinkled with cornmeal to about 1/2 inch thick and cut into circles. Place on a baking sheet with a sheet of waxed paper. Make sure it is greased lightly so they wont stick. Let rise until doubled (mine took a couple hours).


Cook on a hot (about 350 degrees), well buttered griddle until they are light brown. Turn once while cooking. Cool and eat… or eat while hot, I cut them in half using a fork. When the English muffins were completely cooled.

I cut each of them in half and then placed them in freezer bags. I froze half of the batch of muffins and left a few out because my son wanted mini pizzas. Carson gave me the thumbs up on the English muffins so i know they are good. I toasted mine and had butter and peach preserves. Yummo Good.

So Pretty!!!!

English Muffins

1 cup hot water
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp honey
2 tsp salt
4 cups flour (I used 1/2 white 1/2 whole wheat)
2 tsp instant yeast
3 Tbs. softened butter
Cornmeal

Mix together water, milk, honey and salt. Add 2 cups of flour and the yeast. Mix until you have a loose batter. Cover the mixture and let rise for about 1 hour. Add the butter and the remainder of the flour. Roll out dough on a surface sprinkled with cornmeal to about 1/2 inch thick and cut into circles. Place on a baking sheet with a sheet of waxed paper. Make sure it is greased lightly so they wont stick. Let rise until doubled (mine took a couple hours) Cook on a hot (about 350 degrees), well buttered griddle until they are light brown. Turn once while cooking. Cool and eat… or eat while hot, I cut them in half but you can also pry them open with a fork



Printable Recipe

I also wanted to add a freebie I found. Wisconsin Cheese is giving away a free copy of "Kitchen Kids". Our brand new Kitchen Kids Recipe Booklet is a boon to the whole family. Fabulous recipes plus helpful cheese and cooking tips will provide great times and meals. Request your copy of the cookbook here

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Thank You Jamie & Bobby Deen!!

We had such a awesome time at Borders Books in Dallas last night. Jamie and Bobby were in town promoting their new released cookbook The Deen Bros. "Take it Easy". This is a really great cookbook. I had plenty of time to scan through it while we were waiting in line to have it signed. Just a few of the recipes I cant wait to try are Granny's Fried Chicken, Grilled Chicken w/Brown Sugar & Pineapple Rings, Sweet & Spicy Pork and Jamie's Five Layer Beef Taco Pie. Goodness I haven't even made it to the dessert section, but I am sure it is going to be just as good. I have included a link to The Deen Bros Book Tour & Signing so you can see if they are coming to your city. I couldn't believe that Jamie and Bobby just walked in the front door of Borders all by themselves. I didn't even notice because I was already in line for the book signing. My daughter ran over to tell me "mama their here" and she was gone like that. I couldn't get out of line so I gave my camera to my oldest son to get a few pictures of them coming in the lobby.

I so did not expect them to run over to me with the picture above. Mackenzie you lucky girl is all I could say when they showed me that picture. Jamie and Bobby were nice enough to stop and pose for a picture with her, how cool is that! We stood in line for about a hour before they came out and signed books. I gotta tell you both those boys are easy on the eyes. Borders said they would not be posing for pictures, but as I got closer to the front they were letting people pose for pictures after they signed their book. I was so excited to have a chance of getting a picture with them. When it was our turn Jamie and Bobby were so nice. They sat and talked to us while they signed all my cookbooks. They told us they were taking pictures with everyone!!!!!!! I was so excited, I told them that was very gracious of them to take the time and pose for pictures with everyone Bobby said it's not a problem. So you can see I finally got my picture and now I have met the whole family. Awesome night is all I can say. Click on the link below for more pictures.

Bobby and Jamie telling Mackenzie your the little girl we saw at the front door. She said yep this is my mommy.


Jamie told her she was a sweetheart and very pretty. Mackenzie got so embarrassed and turned red.


talking sports with Travis.


I got to tell Bobby that I won a contest on wfaa channel 8 and I went on the show and made their chocolate chip pie from "Recipes from the Road". He thought that was very cool!




Bobby trying to give Carson a high 5 but he was to shy LOL


Jamie was talking to me about his son Jack and telling me how shy he is but not in front of a crowd.


They signed all three of the cookbook that I own. To cool now I have all of their cookbooks and each of them are autographed!!!!!

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