Rob's Happy Birthday Apple Pie

First of all, Happy Birthday to My PGA Man today.....apple pie is his favorite dessert!

Ingredients:

• 1 whole Unbaked Pie Crust (I use pillsbury...the one found near the cookie dough!)
   
• 4-5 whole Medium Granny Smith Apples, Peeled, Cored, And Sliced Thin (I use my handy dandy Pampered Chef Apple Peeler/Corer/Slicer...LOVE IT!!)
• 1/2 cup Brown Sugar
• 1/2 cup Sugar
• 1 Tablespoon All-purpose Flour
• 1 cup Heavy Cream
• 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
• 1/8 teaspoon Cinnamon

Topping: (My personal favorite part!)

• 7 Tablespoons Butter
• 3/4 cups All-purpose Flour
• 1/2 cup Brown Sugar
• 1/4 cup Pecans (more To Taste)
• Dash Of Salt

 Now let the fun begin...THE RECIPE...

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Roll out pie dough and place it in a pie pan. Decorate the edges as desired.
• Add apple slices to a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together cream, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon flour, vanilla, and cinnamon. Pour over apples. Pour apples into pie shell.

• In the bowl of a food processor (or you can mix by hand) combine butter, flour, sugar, pecans (chop if you're not using a food processor), and salt. Mix until everything comes together in clumps. Pour topping over apples.

• Attach foil to the edges and lay a piece of flat foil loosely over the top of the pie. Place pie pan on top of a rimmed cookie sheet and bake for one hour. At the end, remove foil and allow to finish baking and browning. Can bake for up to 15 or 20 minutes more if necessary.
• Remove from oven when pie is bubbly and golden brown.
• Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream.

SUCCESSFUL and Delicious....I usually make him my favorite Caramel Apple Pie...but this time he requested on without caramel. This one is a Keeper! The birthday boy loved it!

A Great Lemony Desset!

Lemon Blueberry Bundt Cake

or it can be just Lemon Bundt Cake w/out adding blueberries!

(The cake my cute new polka dotted cake stand from Marshalls..true love!! Thank to my friend Jami Jill for "spotting" it for me!!)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup non-fat Greek yogurt
1 1/3 cups sugar, divided
3 eggs
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup of blueberries sprinkled with flour
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

Glaze ingredients:

1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Directions:
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees .
• Grease and flour a bundt pan. (So I way overdid this on this cake...last time I didn't do it enough and it stuck to the pan and was hideous...but still tasted great!! I was determined to get it out of the pan this afternoon...and I did!! Whew!!)
• Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl.
• In another bowl, whisk together the yogurt, 1 cup sugar, the eggs, lemon zest, and vanilla.
• Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
• With a rubber spatula, fold the vegetable oil into the batter..mix well! 
• Add blueberries and mix again.
• Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan and bake for about 50 minutes, or until a cake tester placed in the center of the loaf comes out clean. I could have pulled it out about 5 minutes early...so check it near the end of the baking time!
• While cake is cooking, cook the 1/3 cup lemon juice and remaining 1/3 cup sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear. Set aside.
• When the cake is done,  cool in the pan for 10 minutes.
• Carefully place on a baking rack over a sheet pan.
• While the cake is still warm, pour the lemon-sugar mixture over the cake and allow it to soak in. Cool.  (This makes the cake SUPER MOIST!!!!)
• For the glaze, combine the confectioners' sugar and lemon juice and pour over the cake.

DELICOUS!!  Can't wait to have it tomorrow morning again for breakfast!

Muffin Tin Pineapple Upside-Down Cakes

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake....doesn't that just scream the 1980's??.... crunchy brown sugar topping over pineapples and cake...brings back so many childhood memories. My mom used to make pineapple upside down cake in a cast iron skillet so the topping was nice and caramelized on top. Today... I just used JUMBO muffin tins instead of a cast iron skillet.

Normally, I would double this recipe because it only makes 6 Jumbo mini-cakes....but today I bought eggs at Target...and I assumed they would make it home with me...NO EGGS (I hate when that happens!!).   Today I made these for our great friend, Matt Naylor....he is celebrating his 49th birthday again today!  This is his favorite cake...so we are excited to share them wtih him tonight after a delicious meal at Vivo's!

Cake Ingredients: (remember this just makes 6 JUMBO mini-cakes)
2 eggs
2/3 C white sugar
4 T pineapple juice
2/3 C all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Topping:
1/2 stick butter
2/3 C brown sugar
1-can pineapple rings
6-maraschino cherries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray your JUMBO muffin tins with non-stick cooking spray.

In a mixing bowl, add eggs, white sugar, and pineapple juice. Beat for 2 minutes. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to the wet ingredients and turn mixer back on for 2 minutes.

In a small sauce pan, melt the butter and add the brown sugar. Stir on low heat for one minute.

Place a pineapple ring in the bottom of each jumbo muffin tin. Add a cherry in the middle of each pineapple. Spoon over a layer of the warm brown sugar mixture.

Pour cake mixture over to fill muffin tin 3/4 of the way full.

Bake jumbo cakes for 25 minutes.

Remove from the oven. Let cool in pan for 3 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of each cake to help loosen in case it sticks a little.

 

Place a wire cooling rack on top, and quickly flip over.

Place wire rack of cakes on baking sheet to cool.

Yummy...we can't wait to eat them....Happy Birthday, Mateo!!

A Burnt Orange Kind of Thanksgiving!!

Texas Longhorns BEAT the Texas Aggies 27-25 on Thanksgiving Night!

Oh, What a game...I should have hit the BLACK Friday midnight openings because I was wide awake for hours after the game. The ATM aggies are leaving the BIG XII for the SEC....so this is possibly the last rivalry game for years to come...we may still play sometime in the future but the games will never mean the same. The UT/ATM game has been a family tradition in my family since I was born....I attended every game with my parents and grandparents (my Grandma was the only Aggie in our family)  from the age 1-27 then as my life got more independent...I missed games..but I still go to every home game and tried to get to College Station every chance I could....I should have gone this year...WHAT A GAME!! It is Goodbye to A&M...just as our fight song says....Good Luck Aggies....Good Luck with LSU every year...GEAUX Tigers!!

Texas Fight, Texas Fight,

And it's goodbye to A&M.

Texas Fight, Texas Fight,

And we'll put over one more win.

Texas Fight, Texas Fight,

For it's Texas that we love best.

Hail, Hail, The gang's all here,

And it's good-bye to all the rest!

Yea Orange! Yea White!

Yea Longhorns! Fight! Fight! Fight!

Texas Fight! Texas Fight,

Yea Texas Fight!

Texas Fight! Texas Fight,

Yea Texas Fight!

More BURNT ORANGE.... recipes we had for Thanksgiving...

I made the most unbelievable Sweet Taters Ever!

2011 Sweet Taters (they could almost be Dessert!)

A double recipe is a MUST!!

CRUST
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
1 cup chopped pecans
1/3 stick butter -- melted (Do not omit or reduce this amount)

SWEET POTATO MIXTURE
3 cups mashed sweet potatoes, fresh or canned
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs -- well beaten
1 stick butter -- ( 1/2 cup) melted

Combine brown sugar, flour, nuts and butter in mixing bowl. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine sweet potatoes, sugar, salt, vanilla, eggs and butter in a mixing bowl in the order listed. Mix thoroughly. Pour mixture into buttered baking dish. Sprinkle the surface of the sweet potato mixture evenly with the crust mixture. Bake for 30 minutes. Allow to set at least 30 minutes before serving.

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My Brother and I had a pumpkin pie cook-off....mine was a sure fine winner....Caramel Pumpkin Pie!?!? Well....it didn't win the competition..so I am sharing my brother's recipe....it was delicious...cream cheese in anything is AWESOME! My pie involved browning sugar....making homemade caramel.....such a complicated process...but this pie won HANDS DOWN...Congrats, Bubba!!!

Matthew's Grand Prize Pumpkin Pie ~ 2011



8 oz Creme Cheese, Softened
2 C Canned Pumpkin
1 C Sugar
1/2 C Brown Sugar
1/4 t Salt
1 egg, Plus 2 egg yolks, slightly beaten
1 C half-and-half
1/4 C melted butter
1 t vanilla extract
1 t ground cinnamon
1/4 t ground ginger
1/4 t ground nutmeg
1/4 t ground clove

Whipped Creme, for topping
Preheat oven to 350-degrees

Bake DEEP dish pie crust as indicated (if it's not a deep dish pie crust, you'll be able to make 2 regular-depth pies...not as good, but will work!)

For filling: in a large mixing bowl, beat creme cheese with hand mixer. Add the pumpkin and beat until combined. Add the sugars and the salt, and beat until combined. Add the eggs mixed with the yolks, half-and-half and melted butter, and beat until combined. Finally add the vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and clove. Beat until combined.

Pour filling into the warm prepared pie crust, bake for 50 minutes or until the center is "set". Place pie on wire rack until cooled to room temperature. Cut and top with whipping creme.

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AN AMAZING BURNT ORANGE THANKSGIVING for the Montgomery/Marchese households!!

Roatan, Honduras ~ Our Home Away From Home!

Rob and I have visited Roatan several other times.....unfortunantly this time we could only spend about 8 hours there. It was very hard to do...we wanted to stay another week! We have close friends in Roatan that run a tour guide service...and it is one of the most popular destinations on the island. We ziplined, played with the monkeys, drank monkey lalas and banana sodas, played in the crystal blue water, and most importantly spent a day with friends we consider family!

First things First....this is a Monkey LaLa

The best tropical drink you will ever drink!

Monkey LaLa Recipe

1 oz Baileys

1 oz Kahlua

1/2 oz Vodka

1/2 oz Rum

2 oz cream of coconut

splash of  cream

1 bannana

Pour over a full blender of ice, blend for 60 seconds.

 Ziplining at Mayan Jungle Canopy

(check out the slideshow on the website...you can see my brother, Matt!)

He is the webmaster......and PR guy for Bodden Tours!

Angie

Michael

"My PGA Guy"  ~  Roberto

Sandra

Joseph

"Tia Esperanza" ~ That's me!

The group.....

Rob's brother ~ Paul

Mallory

At the Bodden's New House.....It is just BEAUTIFUL!!

 Their avacado trees were loaded with the fruit...yummy!

Sweet Angie...she has grown so much since we had seen her last!

Rob and Victor

                            

Shelsie, Angie, Me, and Janeth

Angie and Mallory.....Sweet Girls!

Monkey TIME.....

 Birds, Birds, and MORE Birds!

The Lemur

Victor and Janeth's Beautiful New Home

"Mi Casa Es Su Casa"

LOVE!! LOVE!! LOVE!! LOVE!!

 The Boddens took us to Half Moon Bay for Coconut Shrimp...Our Island Favorite!

The Bodden Girls and Michael....Oh, how I hate to say goodbye to our Roatan Family!  The tears started flowing at the house before we came to the resturaunt!  What a sweet family...love them with all my heart!

 Fun at the Beach.....along with Monkey LaLas!

Shopping before we got back on the ship...after we said our tearful goodbyes!

Rob bought me a new John Hardy bracelet from Diamond's International.

Victor's sister and nephew both work there...and gave us a special price!

 Goodbye Roatan...we will be back for a week long visit soon!!