Apple Cinnamon BBQ Sauce

I like to do this with pulled pork sandwiches.

I want to get a rub that matches this sauce, that is still in the works.

Here is the sauce:

This makes enough to serve 8-10 people depending on how liberal you are with your sauce.
In a large frying pan, mix the following ingredients and bring to low simmer.

1/2 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar
1 Cup Ketchup
Just less than a full cup of mustard (5/6 cup)
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 Teaspoon of kosher salt
1/2 Teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 Teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
2 Tablespoons of honey
1 Teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 to 1/2 garlic clove minced

Apple Sauce:
Put into food processor or blender
2 peeled, sweet apples, I use brae burn
1/2 Teaspoon cinnamon
4-7 Tablespoon water
2 Tablespoon packed brown sugar

Mix apple sauce into sauce, stir continuously and simmer for 10 - 15 min to let flavors blend.

(If the pulled pork is done when you are making the sauce adding a little bit of the drippings to the sauce is a good idea too.)

Put on pulled pork, beef, or chicken.

Freaking good stuff! Enjoy!

Cherry-Almond Muffins

Personally, I think these are wonderful and they're a hit for the whole family! It does make about 35 dozen muffins so you might want to 1/2 the recipe.

4 1/2 Cups flour

2 Tbsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/4 Cups sugar

3/4 Cups softened butter (I use 1/2 cup butter & 1/4 cup shortening)

4 eggs

1/2 Tbsp. vanilla extract

1/2 Tbsp almond extract

2 Tbsp. lemon juice

3/4 Cups milk

2 Cups sour cream

1 cup slivered almonds

4 cups pitted and chopped cherries or 1 lb. of dried cherries re-hydrated (I take the dried cherries and soak them in hot water then drain off the water. It's a lot less work and it's cheaper!)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease muffin tin or use papers. Mix butter, eggs, vanilla and almond extracts, lemon juice, milk and sour cream until blended. Add flour, baking powder, salt and sugar and mix. If using an electric mixer fold in nuts and chopped berries and mix by hand or you'll smash the cherries too much. Bake for 27 to 30 minutes. You might want to check at 20 minutes just in case your oven cooks hotter than mine does. You can serve with cream cheese frosting if you want, but I like them without.

Moroccan Chicken & Couscous

4 chicken breasts

10 oz Couscous

1 can chicken broth (2 cups)

2 cups water

1/2 tsp Salt

1 Tbsp olive oil or butter

1/2 cup golden raisins

1/2 cup diced onion

1/4 cup or a little less of chopped walnuts

1 tsp cinnamon

2 Tbsp honey

In a medium saucepan, water, salt, and olive oil to a boil. Stir in couscous; cover, remove from heat, and let stand 5 minutes. Meanwhile, fry onion in olive oil. When golden add honey, raisins,, cinnamon and walnuts. When caramelized, add to the couscous and mix well. Then put in a greased baking dish. Pour chicken broth over couscous. Place chicken breasts on couscous mixture, cover with foil. Bake at 420 for 25 minutes. Remove foil, cook 10 more minutes or until chicken is golden and cooked through.

Zucchini, yellow squash, or turnips are good side veggies if you're wondering what would go well. If you like pumpkin, that goes well on the side too.

Tortellini

This dish is delicious and takes about 20 minutes! Sorry, no pretty picture. My camera batteries were dead when I made this the other night.

15 ounces cheese tortellini

10 oz frozen broccoli

1 jar RAGU Roasted Garlic Parmesan Sauce

1 small red pepper, diced

6 slices cooked bacon, crumbled

Boil tortellini according to package instructions. Add broccoli during the last 2 minutes of cooking, drain. Meanwhile cook the red pepper for about 4 minutes in a small frying pan. Add red pepper, Garlic Parmesan sauce, and bacon. Mix. All done! Is great with garlic bread on the side.

Pumpkin Soup

I thought this was an appropriate October recipe! I really love it and it's way easy to make. I serve it with scones or rolls. My youngest son ate 3 bowls full then climbed in my lap and asked for mine!

2 tbsp butter

1 small onion, finely chopped

5 cups of chicken broth or you can use 5 cups of water and 4 chicken bullion cubes

1 tsp salt

1 (1 pound) can pumpkin, or 1 little pie pumpkin just peel the skin off and steam it like you would squash or zucchini before adding it to the soup.

optional: if you want thicker soup you can add 2 potatoes

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Dash of pepper

Dash of nutmeg

Dash of cloves

Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan and cook the onion until soft. Add the broth, salt & pepper, nutmeg & cloves. Bring to a boil. Add the pumpkin (and potatoes if you choose), combine thoroughly, lower the heat and simmer, covered for 45 minutes. Add the cream and heat through For a creamier texture I then blend the soup in my blender, but you don't have to.

The Great Salad

So this has a cheesy name, but there's no better name for it! =) This stuff is so so good I think. Kind of a lot of steps, but it's worth it!

nickel-sized bunch of spaghetti - break in half, boil, rinse in cold water

1/2 head cabbage - chopped

1/2 head lettuce - chopped

1 carrot - grated

3/4 C frozen peas (strain w/ hot water)

1 bunch green onion

1/2 cucumber - cut in bite sizes

1 tomato

1/2 C grated motz cheese

handful of broccoli

handful of cauliflower

(I double the recipe for the dressing, so that's why there's some weird measurements. I don't know how to convert them!) =)

Dressing:

1/2 C sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 C milk

1 C mayo

3 Tbsp vinegar

5 tsp lemon juice

4 Tbsp sour cream

2 tsp mustard

1/2 tsp horse radish

1/4 garlic pwd

1 C parm cheese

Bake and slice breaded chicken and put in on!

Yum yum!

Breakfast Ideas, Anyone?

Anyone with good breakfast ideas, please share! My husband won't eat breakfast, I have no desire to make a nice one if he's not going to eat, but my kids still must eat breakfast and so I need ideas. I cannot for the life of me convince them to eat eggs, so we do waffles and pancackes a lot. Any suggestions???