Apple Nachos... How have we not met before?!

How is it that I had never heard of apple nachos?!

I was reading one of my new favorite blogs, Manifest Vegan, when I came across a very interesting recipe for a fruity nacho. Hence the apple nacho name.

Apparently this recipe has been around for quite a while and I seriously must be one of the last few people in the blogosphere to hear about it! Basically it's just thin slices of apple, and then I drizzled on a wee bit of organic peanut butter, unsweetened coconut, almond slivers, walnuts and a few chipits for fun :)

In the original recipe I linked to above she uses pecans which would be awesome to and what about a few dried cranberries on there instead of the chipits? I am SO doing that next time!!

What a great snack it made for the children this afternoon when their tummies were growling and it was way to early for supper :) It's pretty healthy right? I guess maybe the chipits aren't LOL.

Okay now be honest... if you have never heard of apple nachos you have to let me know that I'm not the only one that missed out on this fun food idea *grin*.

Hugs,
Rosina

Mouthwatering Rhubarb Pie ~ Recipe

Rhubarb season is in full swing and there is no shortage of it around here! We've been eating it in muffins, cakes and now pie :) The tartness of the rhubarb mixed with a good dose of sugar makes for a mouth watering combination. If you're not crazy about a sweet pie then a warm slice of rhubarb pie might change your mind. The tart bite of the rhubarb counteracts the sweet and melds together perfectly.

Pull out your food processor and start feeding in fresh stalks from your rhubarb plant. The amount of sliced rhubarb you need will depend on the size of your pie plate so pull out an empty pie plate and start filling it with your sliced rhubarb until you have a really heaping dish full. It will shrink as it cooks so more is better than not enough!

I have quite a deep pie plate so I used about 10 cups of sliced rhubarb while my mom can only squeeze about 8 cups into hers so using your pie plate will give you the perfect amount :)

Once you have all of your rhubarb sliced and measured out put it into a large bowl and add:

1 1/2 cups sugar
6 heaping Tbsp. minute tapioca
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 egg lightly beaten

and mix all of it thoroughly together. If you are worried that it's to much sugar, don't. You could cut it back a bit but I wouldn't take away to much. You need that sweet to keep you from puckering up to much when you take that first bite *grin*.

I know that lots of people use flour as a thickener in their pies to help all of those juices set but I really like to use tapioca because you don't have to worry about getting any lumps. It's just that easy!

Now that you have your rhubarb all mixed up, pour it into your pie plate that is lined with an unbaked pastry shell for the bottom of your pie.

Tuck a few dabs of unsalted butter on top of your rhubarb filling and cover with another sheet of your pastry. Pinch, roll, or tuck the ends of your pastry tightly together to help seal in all of that rhubarb goodness and to finish it off you can sprinkle a little bit of sugar over the top of your pastry. I also like to take a sharp knife and cut in a few slits across the center of my pastry to let steam escape as it cooks.

Place in a pre-heated oven at 400 degrees fahrenheit for the first 15 minutes and then turn your oven down to 350 degrees fahrenheit after that and continue cooking for another hour.

Mmm, mmm!

You will know your pie is good and ready to come out of the oven when your pastry has browned up, you can hear it bubbling and some of the juices are starting to escape :)

It's always a good idea to put a sheet of foil or parchment paper underneath your pie as it cooks because more often than not there will be a little bit of delicious sweetness that escapes and drips out of your pie. This makes clean up a cinch!

If you can keep yourself from cutting into your rhubarb pie while it's hot it will set up beautifully and the pieces will come out nice and solid. Of course we couldn't help but dip into our pie while it was still hot so we made a bit of a mess of ours but it was so worth it *grin*.

Enjoy!
Rosina

PS. Looking for more yummy recipes?? Check out this week's Hearth and Soul blog hop

Holiday Slices

We've been busy little bees today making Christmas cards and drying slices of apples and oranges for decorations :) Every year we dry a fresh batch of fruit slices for garlands and tree decorations.

To make quick work of the slicing I used my mandolin slicer creating these lovely rounds with their pretty star centers :) I made them as thin as possible to help speed up the drying time.

I pulled out both of the big oven racks and the kids placed them on them as I kept reminding them not to eat to many *grin*. I swear my two youngest ones would have gobbled up the entire tray if I hadn't cut some extras just for them to munch on :)

With one rack loaded with slices I headed downstairs and balanced it on top of an empty coffee tin on the woodstove :)

I don't know how many trips I made up and down those stairs today as I kept a close eye on them. We had a few incidents of fallen apple slices which sizzled and blackened almost immediately and I learned that I have a super hot spot on the back left portion of the stove top that charred the bottoms of a few of the orange slices despite being flipped and watched closely! Thank goodness the majority of them survived *grin*.

Hugs,
Rosina