Applesauce Drop Doughnuts

Ooh, how I LOVE donuts. I drool like Homer every time I think of donuts! Krispy Kreme are especially my favorite. Warm. Soft. Crispy. And Creamy. Yuumm. Nothing beats a fresh donut alongside a hot cup of joe... yet another addiction of mine.

Well, these donuts were no krispy kreme, plus I didn't have any coffee, but they were still tasty. The whole process from start to finish took me a little while to do... 2 hours to be exact. Yep, two hours! The actual ingredient prep only took maybe 10 minutes, but I'm very appliance starved, I have no deep fryer, which means I had to cook these little suckers in a small pot that would only allow 4-6 donuts at a time depending on size. Someone more fortunate than me, who has a deep fryer, will be able to fry these up MUCH faster. It was worth the time, though. The house smelled soooo good. I love recipes like this that just stink up every room, nook, and cranny. I like to step outside for a few minutes then walk back in just to have those delicious smells smack me in the face.

                     

Anything that smells that good has to taste good, right? Oohh yes. Yes, Yes, Yes. Like bite-size apple fritters. They were pretty cinnamon-y because I have a thing for cinnamon and can't help adding a little extra than what's called for, plus I covered them with cinnamon-sugar. It wasn't til the last batch that I thought to dust them with powdered sugar, which is what I will do next time. You MUST try one while it's still fairly warm. That's the best way because while they're warm they're still very crispy on the outside, and the inside is soooo soft and, well, warm! Nothing beats a warm donut... where's that coffee?! The first batch I made I did rounded Tablespoons, which came out pretty big (like 2 bites big). I decided that I wanted them smaller, so I switched to rounded teaspoons. This didn't help time wise, but it did give me perfect little bite-size balls that were easy to pop right in your mouth. That's actually a bad thing for me... if I don't think about it I'll easily pop 20 of these things in my mouth in just a few minutes time!

  

-Jess

Applesauce Drop Doughnuts

Recipe from Taste of Home

Printable Recipe

Yield: About 5 dozen

Ingredients-

3 Tbsp butter, softened

3/4 cup Sugar

3 Eggs

1 cup Applesauce (I used cinnamon flavor)

1 tsp Vanilla

4 1/2 cup Flour

3 1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Cinnamon

1/4 tsp Nutmeg

1/4 cup Milk

1 Apple, chopped

Oil for frying

Sugar or Powdered sugar to coat

Directions-

In a deep-fat fryer heat oil to 375° F

In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder, salt, and spices; set aside. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each one. Beat in applesauce and vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour. Stir in chopped apple.

Drop teaspoonfuls of batter, a few at a time, into hot oil and fry until golden, about 1 minute each side. Drain on paper towels, and roll in sugar while still warm.

Enjoy!

Tuna Burgers

One food I really love to eat is hamburgers. Hamburgers, cheeseburgers, guacamole burgers, bleu cheese burgers, mushroom and swiss... so many toppings, and they're all so good. But there's one thing that's always the same.... The burger! Even though I love beef burgers, I'm always on the lookout for a different way to eat them. Not necessarily a healthier way, just different. Whether it be an all veggie burger, a different meat, or even just different seasonings, all I want is variety. I came across this recipe and thought it seemed interesting. I've never heard of using tuna for a burger before, but I love tuna sandwiches so I thought what's the harm? When it comes to food, I'm always up for trying something new.

I'll be honest, I was a little nervous about trying this one. There's few different flavors coming together in it, and I was afraid of what the finished result would be. It was actually a lot better than I anticipated, and very easy to make. I really liked the texture this burger had. It was fairly moist, with a subtle crunch of the veggies in it, which I didn't really notice too much, but the Man of the house complained and said next time he'd like them chopped up more. What a whiner... They were very flavorful, delicious. If I made these again though, I would replace half the seasoned bread crumbs with regular crumbs just to bring out some more of the other flavors. I topped mine with good ole' lettuce, tomato and ketchup served along side sweet potato fries.

  

-Jess

Tuna Burgers
Recipe from All Recipes

Printable Recipe
Yield: I doubled the recipe to get 4 thick patties

Ingredients-
1 can tuna, drained

3/4 cup Italian bread crumbs - I recommend regular, or a combination of both

1/3 cup minced onion

1/4 cup minced celery

1/4 cup minced red bell pepper

1/4 cup mayonnaise

2 Tbsp chili sauce

1/4 tsp salt

dash ground black pepper

dash hot pepper sauce (I used Frank's RedHot)

dash Worcestershire sauce

hamburger buns

tomato, sliced and leaves of lettuce (optional)

Directions-

Combine all ingredients (except buns, and toppings) in medium bowl. Mix well and shape into patties. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to make the patties easier to handle, if desired.

Coat a non-stick skillet with cooking spray, or with butter; fry tuna patties for about 3 to 4 minutes per side, or until cooked through. These may be fragile, so be careful when turning them.

Serve on buns with desired toppings

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Carrot Cake

  One of my favorite desserts of all time is carrot cake. I love it! Growing up my family never really ate it, not even for Easter. I can remember we used to go to buffets for special family outings. There would be so much food, mom would try to make sure we all had a salad or some fruit first, but I had my eyes on the desserts. There were always two things I was after, Cheese cake, and.... Carrot Cake. This was the only time I was ever able to get my hands on it, so it became a very special treat to me. I savoured it every time.

These days I still don't eat much carrot cake. I guess it really is more of an Easter thing...I think that should change. I've never made a carrot cake before, actually I don't recall ever having homemade carrot cake, so I jumped at the opportunity to make one for Easter. I made one cake a day before Easter, but it did not turn out like it should have. The taste was bland, and the center fell, but that could have been my fault. When I make something in the kitchen that doesn't turn out well I get upset, but it drives me to try it again and make it better. I searched and searched and searched for a recipe, but found nothing I liked. Suddenly it hit me. My favorite ingredient of all.... Pumpkin!! I always say 'Pumpkin makes everything taste better'. Really, it does. So I asked my boyfriend, the Man, what he thought of the idea, and he seemed to like it. Now I just needed a recipe. Naturally, with a pumpkin recipe, the first place I looked was Libby's. That was all I needed.

   
I was three days late making the cake, but it was sooo worth the wait. The cake was very, very moist. The pumpkin flavor was very subtle, it didn't overwhelm the carrot at all. I am a cinnamon nut, so I did add extra to the batter. I also finely chopped some walnuts to mix in. However, next time, I'll leave them out of the cake because I think it added too much texture. The thing I love about carrot cake is its moistness, and I want that without hard chunks. The recipe calls for coconut and pineapple, I think this is just to help make it moist cause I didn't taste them at all. Raisins were also called for, but the Man doesn't like them so I left them out.


I covered the cake with a traditional cream cheese frosting, with some added cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice. To finish I covered the sides with chopped walnuts. This cake was amazing! I know that's true when the Man tells everyone they HAVE to try it. Try it!! :)




Pumpkin Carrot Cake

Slightly adapted from VeryBestBaking
Printable Recipe


Ingredients-

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup milk

1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice

3 large eggs

1 1/4 cups Pumpkin

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

8 oz. crushed pineapple, drained

1 cup grated carrots

1/2 cup flaked coconut

1 cup walnuts, chopped and toasted


Directions-

Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease two 9-inch round cake pans.


Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in small bowl, set aside.


Combine milk and lemon juice in liquid measuring cup; set aside The mixture will look curdled...Don't freak out! Beat eggs, pumpkin, both sugars, oil, pineapple, carrots and milk mixture in large bowl; mix well. Gradually add flour mixture; beat just until combined. Do not over mix! Stir in coconut and 1 cup nuts. Pour into prepared cake pans. 


Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans for 15 minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool completely before frosting.




Cream Cheese Frosting

Slightly adapted from All Recipes
Printable Recipe


Ingredients-

2 - 8 oz packages cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 cups sifted powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

I added an extra t. vanilla, and enough cinnamon to suite my taste, plus a tiny bit of

pumpkin pie spice


Directions-

In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until smooth and velvety. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in powdered sugar.(and spices if using)


Frost between layers, on sides and top of cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. Garnish with remaining nuts, if you like. Then eat it! Store leftover cake and frosting in refrigerator after use.


Enjoy!

A little intro

My whole life I've eaten pretty much nothing but unhealthy, pre-made packaged, canned, and frozen meals. After moving away from home, and living with my boyfriend for a couple of years I realized we were still eating the same boring junk I ate growing up, and it was taking a toll on our health! Even though I exercise regularly and try to be healthy we still managed to wind up eating gross, unhealthy junk food.
But that all changed last year when I discovered the world of food blogs. I've never seen people make such amazing looking homemade food. It definitely sparked an interest, and I almost immediately began to teach myself how to cook and bake from scratch.
Not only did home cooking allow me to reach my fitness and health goals, it has enabled my boyfriend and me to actually enjoy food again. Plus, I discovered that I absolutely LOVE food, and being in the kitchen cooking up something tasty is the single most thing I can do to feel completely happy and stress free.
Recently I started thinking ' Why not start my own blog?'. The idea was intriguing, but I felt slightly discouraged to do it because I'm a complete amateur at this. I've never written anything in my life, my pictures look awful (I'm not a photographer, and I desperately need a real camera), and I'm still very new to cooking... Almost everything I know now I've taught myself, and I continue to learn more every day. But then I thought none of that matters because this is about cooking, which is turning into a passion for me, and I just want a fun way to share that passion with others who feel the same way.


-Jess