Month: September 2012

apple bacon monkey bread minis

Amy6 Comments

Monkey bread for all seasons is what I’m talking about.  And while we’re at it, let’s add a few extra food groups to the mix and make them in individual servings.  Of course you can make your own bread dough, but I went the quick route and used canned biscuits.  I find it most satisfying to cut through the buttery biscuit dough with kitchen shears.

Once the dough is divided, coat the pieces generously in cinnamon and sugar (shake ’em in a bag!).  Chunk up a few apples (I used Gala this time) and break apart baked bacon pieces.  Load up the popover tins in layers of cinnamon sugar dough, apples, and bacon, then spoon about 2 teaspoons of melted butter and brown sugar over the tops.  Bake for about 20 minutes at 350-degrees.  These monkey bread packages are most delicious straight from the oven.

The flavors were inspired by one of my favorite autumn meal pairings of pork barbecue sandwiches and cinnamon apple cobbler.  The little bakers twine bow and parchment paper package was inspired by these brown paper (CAKE) packages tied up with string.  Happy Fall, All!

fabric apple favors

Amy10 Comments

For the party we had for my folks last week, we wanted to send our guests home with something cozy and fallish. What says that more than a pouch of fragrant mulling spices nestled inside of a fabric apple? My sister sewed the apples while my niece and I measured out spices into cheesecloth pouches (the apple template came from a Gooseberry Patch Christmas book). We finished them off by tucking in a recipe for spiced cider and a cinnamon stick for the stem. After the spices are used, the apple pouch can be stuffed with anything and tied up for decoration. I don’t know about you, but I could smell some mulled cider or wine everyday for the next four months.

(not) back-to-school piñata

Amy9 Comments

Happy September (deemed “apple month” by my sister)! Many students and teachers are returning back to school after the Labor Day holiday if they haven’t already: bless ’em all. And though I didn’t make this folksy apple piñata for back-to-school, I like the idea of having something stress relieving to smash (that explodes with candy) after saying goodbye to summer vacation and hello to classroom assignments. Rather, a few special milestones in my family have passed: my parents both retired from public school teaching this summer, and they also celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary last week. It called for a celebration (involving peaches and apples…), and we are looking forward to a festive cookout with our family this weekend! The piñata was made by covering a punching balloon using a basic papier-mâché method of dipping newspaper strips in a paste mix made of warm water, rice flour, and liquid glue. Once everything dried, the vessel was filled with little sweets, sealed up, and spray painted red.