What to do when you have a hankering for apples and cheese cake, but it needs to be something you can share? A recent MOPS meeting was the perfect opportunity to bake up this goodness. Enjoy!

Cream Cheese Apple Crumble

Lisa-Marie Duffield

Yield: 24 Apple Cheesecake Crumble Bars

Ingredients:

Crisp Crust and Topping:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups regular oatmeal
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 cup chopped nuts
• 6 ounces butter, melted

Cheesecake Layer:

• 1 (8-ounce) package softened cream cheese
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 large egg

Apple Topping:

·         3/4 cup light brown sugar

·         1/4 cup all-purpose flour

·         1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, plus more for sprinkling

·         6 medium apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced

·         1 lemon, zested and juiced, or equivalent lemon juice

Preparation:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 13x9-inch glass pan.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together flour, oats, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon and nuts. Stir in butter until finely crumbled. Pat 3 cups of mixture into the bottom of the prepared baking pan, pressing to make an even layer. (Reserve at least 1 cup for topping.) Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely. 
3. Meanwhile, make the cheesecake filling by beating together cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons flour, vanilla and egg until smooth. Spread cream cheese mixture evenly over partially baked and cooled crust. 
4. Sprinkle apples with the juice of 1 lemon and stir. Gently spread the other ingredients over the apples. Stir evenly to coat the apples. Spread apple topping evenly over cream cheese mixture and sprinkle with reserved crust mixture.
5. Bake 40 to 50 minutes or until apple filling is bubbly and topping is golden. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Refrigerate at least 2 hours before cutting into 24 bars and serving.

Choo-Choo Cheese Snack Crakers

These Snacks are a delicious treat for train-loving kids and adults, but of course other shapes will do just as well. These are a good substitute for store-bought cheese crackers. The texture of store-bought ones are nearly impossible to replicate at home, but these are just as tasty. Enjoy!

Choo Choo Cheese Snack Crackers

1 cup All-Purpose flour

1 cup Quick Oats
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold butter
8 oz grated cheese (mozzarella, cheddar, Monterey jack or any combo)
1/2 cup cold water
Train cookie cutter, or similar (optional)

Tips: Have the oven pre-heated and all supplies ready to go before you pull the butter out of the refrigerator. If you work quickly you can then go from 0 to Crackers in 15 minutes.

 

1.      First pre-heat the oven to 350°. In the bowl of your mixer, stir salt into flour and oats.

2.      Cut the butter into 8-10 chunks and mix with flour and oats on medium speed until blended and crumbly. Then add grated cheese a handful at a time.
3.      While mixing, add water 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough can form a ball. You want the dough as dry as possible without being flaky.
4.      Form into a ball and flatten out with your hands. Flour well and roll out to 1/8 inch. Flour both sides when finished.
5.      Cut the crackers into shapes. I use a train but any cookie cutters do fine. Pull out shapes and place on the first tray and get it in the oven. Then cut the remaining into random shapes by criss-crossing with a knife or pizza cutter. Do not re-roll. If you just want squares or rectangles you can skip the cutter all together, even cutting right on the tray.
6.      Place on un-greased cookie sheets (about three) and bake one at a time, putting the other trays in the refrigerator to wait.
Bake at 350° for 9-12 minutes, until golden brown. Remove from trays immediately. Store in an air-tight container, unless all are consumed immediately!

Summer Baking: Summer-Style Banana Oat Bread

Hot

Hot. Hot. Hottie, Hot, Hot.

*!#@ Hot.

I know it is July, so this is to be expected, but it sure puts a crimp in my baking style. A couple of summers ago, it was so hot that I decided to forgo all attempts at baking or any oven usage at all. That method left us desperate for all things baked by the time cooler weather rolled around, however.

Since then I have been more creative at making the most of oven time inspired by a few simple principles: 1. Shortest oven times possible; 2. Shortest time spent near oven; 3. Make the best use of nighttime; 4. Revival of the Summer kitchen - outside.

What follows are a few suggestions based on these principles - and please share your own ideas in the comments!

Summer Baking Tips and Ideas

1. Instead of thick-crust pizza, make multiple pans of thin crust at the same time for shorter baking times.
2. Cookie bars. Have a favorite cookie recipe? Make it as a bar, spreading it into a pan (I always grease pan first. A little shortening will not cause you to have a heart attack.)
3. Spread it out. If you usually make something in one size pan, try a larger, flatter one, or a cookie sheet. This is the trick for Spinach Artichoke dip, plus the cheese gets a little crusty just like I like it!
4. Crock pots and toasters can help you heat up only the space you need.
5. Take it out! Plug that crockpot in outside on the porch and keep the heat all the way out! Or when hot things come out of the oven, leave them to cool in the shade outside (covered with a thin cotton towel to protect from critters). Set up tv trays on the back porch and move your hot dishes (with a lid of course!) outside to serve from.
6. Make it in muffins. This works for the standard items like cakes or even cookie batter, but meatloaf muffins and any casserole you can think of does wonderfully well in muffin format, too.

Summer-Style Banana Oat Bread

So, for your summer pleasure, I would like to share my delicious recipe for Summer-Style Banana Oat Bread. This recipe "Winters" by baking for an hour in two loaf pans. Yes, an hour with the oven on in the middle of July when the temps are 100° ? Yeah, I don't think so. So I spread it out into muffins and a large dish and shazam! 20 minutes.

Something else that gives this recipe a special touch is the orange blossom water. This little ingredient gives just the right hint of exotic to an already yummy treat.

“Where do I get orange blossom water?”

You’ll want to look for this wherever international foods are sold. It is the magic ingredient to real Belgian crêpes and can be used to add a gentle fruity hint to many Mediterranean and North African foods. And once you have a bottle there are many creative uses for it, like crêpes, Victorian martinis (add several drops with gin and vermouth), Ramos gin fiz, Crème brulée, as an herbal fragrance to whipped cream, meringues, buttercream frosting, pie crust, tiramisu, other sweet things, try it in your coffee or espresso or hot tea (Thank-you Tunisia!). The possibilities are vast!

If you really must, substitute each 1/2 tsp orange blossom water with1 to 2 drops orange oil plus water to make 1/2 tsp OR 2 to 3 tsp orange liqueur such as Triple Sec.

In the recipe which follows, you could deprive yourself completely and splash in a little water or skim milk instead. But be prepared for the consequences:

Wha?? No Orange Blossom Water?

How could you do this to me?

No! I can't go on!

Don't make me invoke Clause 374 of the Shadow Proclamation.
 (theft of an artefact of great cultural value
legitimises the use of lethal force to ensure the artefact’s recovery)

SO, Consider yourself warned! Try the Orange Blossom Water!

Happy Hot Baking, Y'all!

Summer-Style Banana Oat Bread

Makes 12 muffins and a 1 1/2 inch x 9x13 loaf.

Easy to halve if you only want one or the other.



Banana Breads are like a Pro-Life movement for bananas,
since only Yellow bananas are permitted to live in this house.



 Ingredients

 1 cup shortening
 2 cup white sugar
 4 eggs
 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
 2 cup all-purpose flour
 2 cup quick or whole oats
 2 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
 1 teaspoon salt
 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
 1 cup chopped pecans (optional)
 4 cups mashed bananas
 4 teaspoon orange blossom water
 

 Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper cups and grease and flour one 9x13 inch glass baking dish and set aside.
2. Stir together the dry ingredients and set aside: flour, oatmeal, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and pecans.
3. In a mixer, cream together the shortening and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla, beat until fluffy.
4. Add dry ingredients. Layer on the bananas and pour in the orange blossom water. Mix until just blended.
5. Ladle 1/2 cup per muffin tin, then pour the rest into prepared dish. Put both into the oven at the same time. Bake for 15-18 minutes for the muffins (until evenly golden) and another 5 minutes for the dish. Let each set for five minutes in pan and then carefully remove to finish cooling. Sometimes it can be difficult to get the large loaf out of the dish without the bread breaking. Make sure you grease and flour the pan. I also recommend cutting it in half and using a large spatula or two to assist.

Saint Gerard Bread

First, the recipe, and a picture, then story time!

Saint Gerard Bread
(White Sandwich Bread)

(using Kitchen-Aid mixer with dough hook)

2 cups warm milk
4 ½ tsp yeast (or 2 pkgs)
2 tbs sugar
8 cups flour
4 tsp salt
2 tbs butter at room temperature

1. Put the warm milk, yeast and sugar in a small bowl. Then get all the rest of your ingredients together while the milk mixture and yeast hang out together for a few minutes.

2. Put flour in mixing bowl and stir in salt. Make well in the flour and place butter at bottom of well.

3. Pour the yeast mixture into the center and wait 30 seconds, giving butter a chance to soften. Gently lower the dough hook. Begin to knead, first on stir then move it up. As it is mixing add a little warm water, one tbs at a time with at least 30 sec in between additions, or more flour to get this texture just right. For fluffy, soft bread with a tight crumb, the dough should just hold together in a ball but feel dry to the touch and should not stick to your fingers. Requires some trial and error. You may need to knead it some at the end, adding a little water to your palms. Total kneading time about ten minutes.

4. Put in covered bowl to rise for an hour.

[If you need a warm, no-draft location, leave oven off and put a bowl of hot water on the bottom while dough rises. The oven stays at perfect temperature for rising. Anytime you use the oven for rising you must remove the dough before you preheat the oven for baking!]

5. After an hour, punch down dough, degassing it, and remove the dough from the bowl. Divide in half and cover. Let rest for 10 minutes.

6. Shape each ball into a loaf. [I like to pat into a rectangle, then roll it up, pinching the seam and tucking in the ends.] Put into well-greased loaf pans, seam-side down. Cover and let rise another hour or so. Loaves should rise well over the top of the pan. If not, let rise a bit more.

7. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake approximately 45 minutes. When it is golden brown and hollow-sounding it is done.

8. Remove loaves from pans immediately and cool on wire rack. The crust will soften after it cools.

Saint Gerard Bread

Are You Willing to Do the Miraculous?

Coming to this bread started as a search for Saint Gerard. And the search for Saint Gerard started as a search for a patron saint of motherhood and for those trying to conceive.

See SaintGerard.com, Saints.SQPN.com, Saints and Angels.

My husband and I have a son, Nico, who is 21 months as of this writing, and we would like more. We are committed to "trying" yet not stressing over it. The last thing we need is for our intimacy to become a source of further stress in our lives when it should be a source of strength.

But sometimes this is easier said than done, particularly for a woman, whose body cycles give her nudges and reminders that prevent her from completely ignoring it. So I decided to look toward the saints for some extra comfort and peace of mind. I wound up praying for a miracle.

Sometimes my conversations with God or the saints are like that. I begin with one intention, but through the back and forth conversation, the barriers break down, the truth comes out. This time I had to admit that I really am hoping to get pregnant. We both would like Nico to have a sibling. At least one, preferable two. I hate feeling like the clock is ticking. All life is a miracle. Is that what I was asking for? A miracle?

And Saint Gerard said, "You want a miracle. If I help you, are willing to do the miraculous? You know what needs to be done. You need to take care of yourself. Eat right and exercise. This is the miraculous. I will help you if you are willing."

I knew what he meant. The miraculous is not necessarily something shocking and unexpected. Sometimes it is the very ordinary. I knew that his help came with no promises. All of Life is always only in God's hands. But I know that I need to be ready for whatever Life God brings to me, and the way to be ready is to take care of myself. And I knew that St. Gerard would help me, because sometimes it takes a real dedication to treat yourself with the same care and love and respect that you would give your own child without hesitation.

In my reading about Saint Gerard, some mention was made of Saint Gerard Bread, eating it as a sign of solidarity with all of those whom Gerard helped in his lifetime. I could find no recipe. So I decided to make one. What kind of bread should I use? The answer was simple- the bread of everyday, ordinary life. The bread of Motherhood - of Parenthood, really. Because my first desire for seeking Saint Gerard was more about becoming a better and better parent. As a new stay-at-home mom, there is still a lot that I have to learn about my craft. It is a calling that I have followed with enthusiasm, but it is not without challenges.

So I played around with this recipe until it was what I was looking for: simple, everyday bread that is yet delicious. The miraculous of the everyday. The way it is to be a parent.

Happy Blogoversary, Praying and Oven Fries

With the start of a new year/ new semester and the upcoming milestone, it is time to get back on to regular posting! The past year of blogging has been sporadic, but I am now going to be more reliable with posting.

Praying at Bedtime

It is one of my new favorite things to do. Nico is 1 1/2, and not able to pray with me interactively yet, but he is never too young to enjoy prayer as much as I do.

First, I start with some extemporaneous prayers of thanksgiving. We pray for Mama, Daddy, Nico, Grandparents, etc. We pray for anyone hurting. We pray for all people who are helping others, missionaries, shelter workers, etc - the real forgotten heroes.

Then, chaplet style, with a few breaths in between rounds, we pray an Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, and a modified Now I Lay Me:

Now I lay me down to sleep
 I pray the Lord my soul to keep
God is with me through the night
and wakes me with the morning light.

After three or four rounds of this he usually gives one last great snuggle and then sits up and leans toward his bed. In he goes, and I leave him fall asleep while he sings to his animals. Adorbs.

Oven Fries

I have been on a great quest for yummy AND easy oven fries. Thanks to Rachel Ray, and a little modification, I found it. They were not perfect tonight, but I know the trick that will fix.

4-5 potatoes, scrubbed, leave peel on, chopped into wedges
3 tbs peanut oil
steak seasoning (I like McCormicks Montreal Steak Seasoning)
A GOOD cookie sheet/pan
Oven at 425

Rub oil on pan. Place wedges on pan. Cram on as many as you can fit if you like. Springle with Steak Seasoning. Place in Oven for a total of 40 - 50 minutes, Turning every TEN minutes. All done when Golden brown.

That is it. For every French Fry, turn turn turn, there is a seasoning, turn turn turn....