How are ya?  That’s good!  Let’s just say I have been better.  I will take a few minutes to recap yesterday and all its glory.  Well in order for the full story you will need some background from the weekend.

On Saturday we had a lot of rain and high winds – which always concerns me as far as the new house – so I drove out Sunday morning to have a look.  Ran down the basement to check for water… all is clear.  I take a walk up stairs around the perimeter of the house just checking the floors to make sure the roof is not leaking… all is clear.  I wander around a little longer to the south  side of the house and I see wet marks on the floor next to the windows.  My heart beats faster and I say ” Oh Dear”.  I look to another window and see the same thing.  WINDOWS ARE LEAKING!

I call the builder on Monday morning and tell him and he says “ I know Cory… I was down on Sunday at 7:00am because I couldn’t sleep last night”. What are we too do?  Well the guys decided to do a water test yesterday and sure enough the windows are leaking - but how and where.  We call in the siding guys and they take some siding off and do a few more tests.  It turns out the window is leaking itself.  It is not an installation issue but even worse – a product issue.  Now I am upset and borderline cranky.  I got the call as we are waiting in a three hour line up for our H1N1 immunization.   So I immediately called the supplier of the windows and asked to have a rep sent out on site ASAP to get this fixed. As I type this I feel like I am pounding on the keys a little harder than normal so I am going to stop now and get to the good part of this post.

On to the Food

As promised from yesterday’s post I have the easiest tasty apple crisp ever for you today.  We had about 8-10 apples left over from the orchard pick so I thought I would use them up and make a sweet treat.  7 ingredients for a dessert is pretty easy so here goes.

Ingredients

• 8 Cups sliced apples
• 1/4 Cup White Sugar
• 2 Tbsp. Flour
• 1/2 Tsp. Cinnamon
• 1 Cup flour
• 3/4 Cup brown sugar
• 1/2 Cup soft butter

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare baking dish by rubbing butter all over it
2. Combine apples, white sugar, 2 Tbsp. Flour and cinnamon in a large bowl and mix together.



3. Toss into baking dish and spread evenly



4. For the topping combine the final 3 ingredients and spread evenly over the top of the apple mixture.



5. Bake for 45-60 minutes depending on your oven.



6. Remove and let rest
7. Serve warm or cool



8. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: I like to make a thicker apple crisp in a smaller pan because as the apples cook they will begin to shrink and your crisp will fall.

This is a super fast dessert and goes great on a cool fall day.  I like to serve with homemade whip cream or my favorite… vanilla ice cream.  It can also be a great breakfast or even a nice mix into oatmeal.

Question of the day?

Does anybody like oatmeal?  What is your favorite oatmeal topping of all time!

Speaking of oatmeal, I need to try the new Autumn Medley recipe recommend by Chef David from the Quaker Challenge.  For those of you who haven’t already, please vote for me by giving my video a thumbs up!

Have a great day and just so you know – by the time I got to the end of this post, I think I feel better.  it must have been working with the apple crisp pictures.  Have an awesome Thursday.

Take care

zesty

Hey there!  I am going to make this post fairly short and sweet by letting the pictures speak for themselves.  This dessert I am about to share with you is nothing short of “KILLER“.  Do you love a moist flavorful cake topped with a warm caramel sauce and hit with a scoop of vanilla ice cream?  Enough Said!

I have to thank the Zest-In Law yet again for supplying a delicious dessert as the thanksgiving day finale.  Below is the scoop on how to pull this off.

Ingredients

• 2 Cups  coarsely chopped pitted dates
• 13/4 Cups Water
• 1/3 C butter
• 11/3 cup sugar
• 3 Eggs
• 2 Cup flour
• 3 Tsp Baking powder
• ½ Tsp. Ginger

Sauce

• ¾ Cup Butter
• 2 Cup brown sugar
• 1C whipping cream
• ½ tsp vanilla

Method

1. Lightly butter a 9×13 pan and find a roaster that it can fit into – for water bath !
2. Place dates in water cover and bring to boil.
3. Uncover and gently boil for 5 min remove from heat and stir in  baking soda.
4. Cream butter and sugar in mixer. Add eggs one at a time.  Beat well after EACH EGG ADDED.
5. Add the dry ingredients and mix well into sugar/butter /egg and pour into prepared pan.
6. Bake in water bath  at 350 for 20 min then reduce heat to 325 and bake for about 35 more min ( Until cake tester comes out clean ).
7. Remove pan from water  bath and serve  (I didn’t serve right away – I am a rebel that way).





8. For the sauce, melt butter and add brown sugar – cook until dissolved and well blended.





9. Add cream  and vanilla – Gently increase heat and bring to a gentle boil – cook for a few min until slightly thickened.
10. ENJOY!!

Zesty Tip: When baking any kind of cake in a pan, I like to cut around the edges with a knife as soon as it comes out of the oven to prevent it from sticking to the sides of the pan.

Have yourself a great Thursday and remember to come back for tomorrow’s big launch of the Zesty Video debut with Quaker and Goodbite.com

Take care

zesty