Apple Pear Crisp

Chopped apples and pears from earlier in Dec and frozen.

Cooked it down til it was soft and mushy. Turns out, pears are not so great at being frozen, then cooked, as it gets really mushed. At least apples still hold their shape... Added sugar, butter, and other good stuff... Check out the apple crisp recipe here.

Made the crisp part with grape nut cereal, oats, sugar, n butter.

Wasn't too shabby considering the pear disintegrated. It turned out to be apples in pear sauce sort of crisp, so still tasty! :)

Lemon Pudding Cake

So my dad had just given me a small bag of huge lemons from his dwarf lemon tree. We hardly just lemons, so it usually just sit around the kitchen. And then my hubby's boss gives us a huge bag of more lemons. I thought, "What to do with all these lemons?!?," searched the web and settled on this recipe because it looked different. Lo and behold! It only called for 1 lemon. -_- 

"In a medium bowl, whisk 3/4 cup granulated sugar with 1/3 cup all-purpose flour. In another bowl, whisk 3 large egg yolks with 2 tablespoons unsalted butter until well blended. Whisk in 1 cup milk, 

1. 5 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, and 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest. Pour the lemon mixture into the sugar mixture and whisk until smooth." For those that know me, I used the kitchenaid thingy as we don't have any hand whisk... I just hate washing those...

"In a medium bowl, beat the 3 large egg whites with 1/4 teaspoon salt  until firm peaks form." If I remember correctly, this took 15 minutes. I was running out of time before people showed up so the peak isn't all that firm...

"Gently fold the egg whites into the lemon mixture." I then poured the batter into a Pam'd silicon thing that had 12 rectangles. I thought it'd look like a cute mini cake. A bit too mini for my liking. Poured the batter in half way cuz I thought it would rise, it did very little, then when I refrigerated it so it could cool, the rise deflated... Then placed it in a pan. "Place the silicon pan in the oven and pour in enough hot water [in the pan] to reach halfway up the sides of the [silicone pan]."

"Bake the pudding cakes for 35 minutes or until they are puffy and golden on top."

Ta-da!

Served with whip cream and ice cream. Twas light and refreshing! The texture took getting used to though. It was like half moist cake, half pudding. 

I was thinking it'd be a great batter for those fruit tart desserts.

Half mushed Bacon Peas

What you need: 32oz pea bag, 4 tbs bacon fat or olive oil, 1 med sized onion, 1 tsp ground garlic, 1/2 tsp beef bouillon, 2 tbs water, 8 slices of bacon

Chop and brown the onion with the bacon fat/olive oil in a fry pan.

Add in the peas! I added them while they were frozen... then add in the seasonings (garlic and beef bouillon) and extra water if needed.

In a separate fry pan, fry the bacon! You could do this step first and then just cook the onions in the fat... mmmm tasty bacon fat! Chop the bacon and set aside.

Before mixing in the bacon, I took a hand blender and scooped about 1/3 of the peas and blended it in a cup, then mixed it back in. Then, mix in the bacon!

Viola! The most tasty peas ever!

New Year's Feast

Fruity delicious wine. Simply added strawberry and pear pieces and a bit of sugar to a Malbec. Stir in sugar and let sit for awhile before serving. Yummy!

Half mushed bacon peas. Turned out the hubs would've like it better if it was all mushed. 

Hubster made these awesome drumsticks and wings. Totally tasted and looked like KFC or PopEye's crispy fried chicken. We made lots more, of course!

Bruschetta. Hindsight note: Better to have chopped tomatoes on top. Whole pieces of sundried tomatoes meant putting the whole piece in your mouth...

Beef ribs.. mmmmm

Lemon pudding cake with mint ice cream.

Chocoholic candies,

And we actually left this apple pear crisp in the oven and didn't eat it til the next day.