Fall has arrived and with it has come a bounty of apples. I find myself enchanted with the thought of going to the apple orchard and picking some apples just like my family did when I was a kid. I can remember bushel baskets of apples in the garage for weeks and weeks. I also remember my mother making apple pies and apple crisp. If you want to meet a good cook, that would be my mother! I can remember her making the pie crust from scratch and me and my siblings would hover around waiting for her to roll in out and then cut off the excess pie dough from the edge of the pie pan. As quickly as she would cut it off, we would have our fingers in there to snatch it up and eat it. How is it that something so simple (flour, salt, lard, water) taste so good? I know many people like to take it scraps, sprinkle them with cinnamon and sugar, and bake it. Not me, I'd rather eat it raw any day.

I think an Apple Pie is in my near future. I can't hardly wait!

Happy Baking....

Veggie Potato Pie

The inspiration for this recipe came from two sources. This first was a veggie pot pie recipe that I had been thinking about making, and the second part of the inspiration came from watching Rachel Ray create a burgandy beef shepard's pie. Since burgandy, nor beef are items that would be found in my kitchen, I decided to combine the two inspirations into what I now call Veggie Potato Pie. For the veggies, feel free to use whatever combination you would like based on your likes and what's in your kitchen. My guys loved this meal (rated it 4.5 out of 5 stars) and I hope you do as well.

Veggie Potato Pie:

Ingredients:

2-2 1/2 pound potatoes. You can use what you like. I used a combination of russets and sweet potatoes

Boil the potatoes until tender.

While the potatoes cook, you can work on the veggie filling for the Pie.

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped

8 oz mushrooms

1 clove garlic, minced

3 large carrots, diced

2 potatoes, peeled and diced (I used sweet potatoes)

2 stalks celery, diced

1 cup green beans or peas, which ever you prefer

3 cups vegetable broth

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp black pepper

2 Tbsp corn starch

2 Tbsp soy sauce

Heat oil in a large skillet. Add onions, mushrooms and garlic and cook 3-5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add all of the other vegetables and the vegetable broth. Bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer. Cook until the vegetable are just tender - about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

In a small bowl, stir together the corn starch, soy sauce and 1/4 cup water until the cornstarch is completely dissolved. Then stir this into the vegetables and cook until the sauce thickens, about 3 minutes.

Meanwhile, once your potatoes are tender, mash them with a splash of milk and some butter, and a handful of chives.

Scoop the vegetables into a 11 x 7 baking dish, or individual ramekins. Top the veggies with the mashed potatoes and place it in a 425 degree over for 5-10 minutes. If you'd like to brown up the potatoes, you can mix 1 egg into your potatoes, and then place the finished dish under the broiler until in browns up.

That's it. This would be nice dish served with a small green salad of your choosing.

Spinach Fettucine with Stephe's Red Sauce

This recipe is a family favorite. The red sauce is the creation of my husband Stephe's. This is a very quick and easy meal to put together, and you can make variations on the red sauce by adding different vegetables. Our favorite is simply with onions and mushrooms.

The sauce can be paired with your favorite pasta. Today we opted for the spinach fettucine. Enjoy.

Ingredients:

1 28 oz. can tomato sauce

2 6 oz cans tomato paste

2 Tbsp. dried basil

2 Tbsp. dried oregano

3/4 Tbsp garlic salt

4 + Tbsp olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

1 8 oz. package of mushrooms, sliced (button or baby bellas - I prefer the baby bellas)

Prepare your choice of pasta per package directions.

In a large skillet, heat 1-2 Tbsp. olive oil. Saute the onions and mushrooms for 2-3 minutes. Then add all of the other ingredients to the pan and simmer until heated through.

This is a thick, hearty sauce. If you wanted to thin it out a bit, you could add a little more tomato sauce. In our house, we like it thick and hearty!

If your family is like mine, and you have both meat eaters and non meat eater to feed, you could simply fry up some ground beef in a separate pan, and the meat eater can simply add it to their sauce when it is served. It keeps everyone happy!

This worked really well for us when we we're at my mother's house. She couldn't imagine spaghetti without meat in it. Funny thing is, even when I was a meat eater, I hated meat in my spaghetti sauce :) Life is funny.....

Chocolate Cake w/ Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting

This recipe was adapted from a cake recipe that my mother always made when I was growing up. The original recipe just happened to already be vegan friendly and now I tweaked it and made it gluten-free as well. The frosting is also vegan and gluten free. Unfortunately, it is still full of sugar. But remember, deserts should not be the mainstay of our diets. Just a nice treat every now and again :) I hope you enjoy!

Chocolate Cake:

2 tsp baking soda

3 cups gluten free flour (I used quinoa flour. Brown rice flour would probably work too)

1/3 cups cocoa

2 cups white sugar

2 Tbsp white vinegar

2 tsp. vanilla

3/4 cup canola oil

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift together into a 9" x 13"cake pan the dry ingredients and make three holes. Add the liquid to each of the three holes. Then pour 2 cups of water over it all and stir. I use a whisk.

That's it. Bake for 35-45 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting:

1/2 cup natural peanut butter

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup nondairy milk (I used almond milk because I had it on hand)

2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

Cream together the peanut butter and cocoa. Add the milk and beat until smooth. Add the confectioners' sugar, salt and vanilla, then add a little more milk if needed to get a good spreading consistency.

Enjoy!