Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Who needs a recipe?



At the last few visits we made to the local auction, we found they were selling produce. Such a great idea. They have been selling some items that most of us can really use, and the prices were right, too. I bought 6 Huge Granny Smith apples. They were selling 3 apples for $1. I got 2 lots. The grapes were heavenly, too, but the subject for my post today is the apples.

I have never been one to stick to a recipe, although we HAD to do so, for most of the latter years I worked for the local school system. I grew up "making do" with what we had on hand and that is a hard thing to overcome, not that I would ever want to. We were very poor, growing up, and hardly ever got "sweets". Most of the sweets we did get came from something I had concocted using whatever we had on hand in the cupboards. Mom always had this one rule that we knew better than to break. We were allowed to make or cook up anything we could find the ingredients for, but it must be eaten. We could not afford to mix up something and toss it out simply because it did not turn out to suit us. We would have to rework it into something that was edible. Whether it meant adding peanut butter, or oatmeal, or sorghum. It had to be made edible. If nothing else, we could make it up into a cake. It is amazing what you can come up with, if you have that rule hanging over your head.

I usually got the job. I don't know if I cooked back then because I enjoyed it, or if I learned to enjoy it later in life, because I had those cooking experiences as a child. nevertheless, I do enjoy experimenting with foods. Today, I decided to try my hand at the apple dumplings or a close attempt with no recipe. Usually, I will hear someone telling what all they used in a recipe, and I can come up with a pretty close dish of my own.

Without hunting up a recipe, I knew I had the Granny Smith apples. That is the type most ladies mention that they were using. An apple is an apple to me, but then I never was much of a connoisseur on apples. I had crescent rolls,  cinnamon and sugar, butter, sugar water (since I had no Sprite), and cream cheese. I don't remember if the others used cream cheese or not, but I love it so I'm tossing it into the mix.  I tossed the diced apples in my sugar and cinnamon mixture then I wrapped one of the crescent rolls around several pieces of the apples, along with a small chunk of cream cheese, and placed the finished product in my casserole dish along with a half stick of melted butter. I sprinkled a little more cinnamon and sugar over the rolls, then poured 1 cup of water mixed thoroughly with one cup of sugar, over the entire dish. I baked it at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until the rolls were brown on top.

It was heavenly. Perfect for a midday snack, especially since Carmen, David, and the Grand children are planning me a Birthday Supper tonight with Cake and Ice Cream.

I got a $10 Starbuck's gift certificate today from my first cousin in Alaska. That would be so nice with my Apple Dumpling snack, but I guess I will have to wait until we go to Louisville in the next few weeks to use the certificate.

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