I’m feeling a bit of a wild hair tonight and am in the mood to get some things off my chest. I have some confessions to make… some may shock you, some, not so much. Sit back, grab a beverage, and let me share with you some of my deepest secrets.

• Let’s just get the mother of confessions out of the way here. I became Catholic in the Spring of 1998. During that time we had to make our first confession. My experience was not a pleasant one… face to face with the priest and people waiting to give their confessions just a few short feet away, most definitely within earshot. (Oh - and the people before more… juicy stuff, I tell ya’. It was like an episode of Days of Our Lives). I was not impressed and have yet to go back to confession.  If you have any knowledge of the Catholic faith, you will understand how unacceptable this is. Hopefully blogging confessions count?
• I love Little Debbie snack cakes. There… I said it (whew!). I crave them once a month (imagine that) and with their $1.19 price tag for an entire box, who can resist a Little Debbie? My favorite kinds are the Oatmeal Cream Pies, Swiss Cake Rolls and Nutty Bars.
• When I was middle school aged, my parents had a sheet of money hanging on the wall of our study. They got it at the United States Treasury when they visited Washington DC. I took it off the wall, cut it up, and used it to buy something. I’m not sure what I bought with it… probably some Little Debbie’s.
• I like to squeeze things. Give me a baby, a puppy, a hamster, a tomato and my first instinct is to squeeze it. This is an inherited trait, I’m sure, because my niece Crystal and I both do this. We laugh when we catch each other in these situations because you can see it in our faces…especially in our gritted teeth… that we have the urge to squeeze whatever we are holding.
• This confession may cause the in-law side of my family to disown me (even more then the not going to confession confession will)… I don’t love ice cream. I have sensitive teeth and hate being cold. Ice cream makes my teeth hurt and it makes me cold. It is a good thing I don’t love ice cream because my husband is an ice cream junkie, so there is always that temptation around. Luckily,  I can resist ice cream pretty easily. I do love milkshakes and… I probably shouldn’t say this outloud… but I could dump the pre-frozen cream/sugar/vanilla mixture into a cup and drink it without doing the whole ice cream freezer thing. I love ice cream “juice”.

One thing that probably does not need to be confessed because you have already figured this out if you are a reader of any length of time… I am not the most patient person. I am not a “stick the dough in the freezer and let it sit overnight” kind of girl. I can’t stand that. When I want something, I want it now. Today, when I made ice cream for my husband, I took it out of the ice cream maker after its designated time, added the fudge and salted caramel, then put it in the deep freeze to really firm up for what should have been a couple of strong hours. After about thirty minutes, I was tired of waiting and pulled it out. It looked fine at the moment, but things went south when I dipped some into a glass for my “food photo session”. Within minutes, the ice cream had lost its shape and looked like a big glass of “ice cream juice”. Melted or frozen solid, it all tastes the same, right?

Do you have time for one last confession? After the photo shoot, I licked the dripping ice cream off the side of the glass. Really, Miss/Mr Hoity Toity… don’t go telling me you wouldn’t do the same thing. Deny it and it could be confession time for all of us.

Basic Vanilla Ice Cream

BASIC VANILLA
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup milk
2 teaspoon

Whisk the eggs in a mixing bowl
until light and fluffy.

Whisk in the sugar, a little at a time
then continue whisking until completely blended.

Pour in the cream, milk,
and vanilla and whisk to blend.

Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker
Freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

**I added chopped chocolate covered peanuts to my ice cream maker during the last 10 minutes of the cycle. When I removed the ice cream from the maker, I added some salted caramel (store bought ice cream caramel in a jar with sprinkled Kosher salt mixed in) and some hot fudge. **

Do you love homemade ice cream? Check out these other delicious recipes from food bloggers around the globe:

• Milk Ice Cream from Cook Almost Anything Once
• Coffee Ice Cream from Cookbook Catchall
• Passion Fruit Macadamia Nut Ice Cream from Andreas Recipes
• Simple Fried Ice Cream from Hot Off the Garlic Press

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• We only need a couple more Veteran Food Bloggers to adopt some of the newbies. Don’t let these new kids on the block be left out in the cold. Step on up and adopt a blogger today!
• The search for my daughter, Kelly’s, real mom has begun. Check out what’s going on in the family - Dishing it Up Family Style is HERE!

I launched Adopt a Blogger #2 last week. Blogging friends, we have some eager food blogging newbies who need an experienced blogger to adopt them. Thanks to those of you who have already stepped forward. For the rest of you veteran bloggers, here are the top five reasons why I think you should adopt a blogger:

1. Adoption is cool. If you go the adopt a blogger route, it is much less expensive and you don’t have to travel internationally to pick up your adoptee.
2. Under most circumstances, your food blogging adoptee will come already potty trained.
3. How often do you get to completely influence someone without actually worrying about what kind of adult they’ll turn out to be?
4. Deb from Smitten Kitchen, Lydia from The Perfect Pantry, Holler over at Tinned Tomatoes and Peabody were all adoptive parents last go around (along with a whole slew of wonderful people!). If they have the time to adopt a newbie, you do too!
5. Oprah Winfrey has a mentor. Michael Phelps has a mentor. Wouldn’t you like to be a mentor too?

Lydia from The Perfect Pantry (who adopted 2 bloggers last time around) had this to say about her Adopt a Blogger experience.

“I just want to tell all the more experienced food bloggers out there that adopting a blogger is a wonderful thing. I’ve adopted two bloggers. The time commitment is only what you can do, and it’s so rewarding to watch your adoptive blogs grow. Please sign up!”

I am not going to beg… at least not yet… but I hope you will consider taking a part of Adopt a Blogger #2. Help a fellow food blogger get their wings and mentor someone today! Sign up by commenting on THIS post.

Just for kicks and grins, here is what we had for dinner tonight. I made some minor adjustments (didn’t have colby jack cheese, so used what we had on hand… cheddar and mozzarella) and I completely changed the tomatillos and chilies to a can of rotelle. I know - nothing like tomatillos and it is probably a bit sacreligious, but it is what I had on hand and it turned out great! This is a very versatile recipe. I hope you enjoy!

Chicken Chilaquiles (from Cooking Light Magazine)

2 cups shredded skinless, boneless rotisserie chicken breast
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese with jalapeño peppers, divided
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3/4 cup 1% low-fat milk
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 (11-ounce) can tomatillos, drained
1 (4.5-ounce) can chopped green chiles, drained
12 (6-inch) corn tortillas
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 375°.

Combine chicken, green onions, 1/4 cup Monterey Jack cheese, Parmesan, chili powder, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl. Place milk and next 3 ingredients (through chiles) in a food processor or blender; process until smooth.

Heat tortillas according to package directions. Pour 1/3 cup tomatillo mixture into bottom of an 11 x 7-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Arrange 4 corn tortillas in dish, and top with half of chicken mixture. Repeat layer with remaining tortillas and chicken mixture, ending with tortillas.

Pour remaining 1 1/2 cups tomatillo mixture over tortillas; sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup Monterey Jack cheese. Bake at 375° for 20 minutes or until bubbly.

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 1/2 cups)

Intrigued by tomatillos? Check out what these food bloggers are doing with them:

• Tomatillo and Black Bean Salsa from Kaylyns Kitchen
• Avocado and Tomatillo Salsa from Cafe LynnyLu
• Pork and Tomatillo Stew from Daily Bread Journal
• Homemade Guacamole with Tomatillos from A Veggie Venture

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• Two more days to enter the Dine & Dish giveaway for your very own set of Envirosax. Check out the details here.
• Something I found hilarious, and so very handy. Check out Inn Cuisine’s post on The YouTube Movement Against Chip Clips.
• Obsessed much? My son is a tad bit obsessed with the Olympics and Michael Phelps. At least my kiddos learned something from watching so much TV! Dishing It Up Family Style is here.

I am bound and determined to get it in gear this week. My goal is to get back on the Fly Lady bandwagon, gain control of my diet/exercise program, and to commit to menu planning again.

I used to participate in Menu Planning Monday over at the Organizing Junkie. There is something about putting your weekly menu plan out there for all to see that makes you a little more committed to sticking to it each week.  For your viewing pleasure, here is what is on the menu at the Dine & Dish household this week.

• Monday: Chicken Chilaquiles from Cooking Light (using leftover rotisserie chicken from Sunday)
• Tuesday: Steak with Golden Zucchini from Real Simple Magazine
• Wednesday: Spaghetti and Meatballs
• Thursday: Fajita Skillet from Simple & Delicious Magazine
• Friday: Homemade Pizza
• Saturday: Sausage and Pepper Calzones from Cooking Light Magazine
• Sunday: Beef & Veggie Stir Fry (lunch), Tilapia Piccata (dinner)

Earlier in the day yesterday, we had told the kids that in the evening we would light the outdoor fire pit and make S’Mores. It had been fairly cool all week, but of course last night it turned out to be sticky and warm, so my hubby felt like it was too warm to light the fire pit. I had a couple of disappointed kids when they heard the news that there would be no marshmallow roasting. When we came inside, I looked at all the S’mores ingredients laying out and suddenly remembered the cookbook I borrowed from my sisters house this summer. It was a Pampered Chef cookbook called Delightful Desserts. The recipe that I remembered was for oven S’mores, called S’mores Galore. I adapted the recipe to fit a 9×13 casserole dish and just played things a little by ear. As gooey as campfire s’mores with the same roasted flavor, this is one dessert that will turn disappointed tears into cheers.

S’Mores Galore from the Delightful Desserts Pampered Chef Cookbook

10 whole honey graham crackers — (about 5 x 2″), divided
6 bars milk chocolate — (1.55 ounces each), coarsley
chopped
1 package mini marshmallows — (16 ounces), divided
6 tablespoons butter or margarine — divided
3 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 350º.
Arrange a single layer of graham crackers to completely cover bottom of bar
pan, breaking crackers to fit. Toast in oven 2 minutes. Remove pan to
cooling rack.
Coarsely break remaining graham crackers into large bowl. Set aside.
Combine 3 cups of marshmallows, 3 tablespoons of the butter and milk,
microwave on high 1 minute. Stir until smooth. Add half of the chopped
chocolate. Stir until chocolate is completely melted.
Spread marshmallow mixture evenly over graham crackers in pan.
Melt remaining 3 tablespoons of butter. Toss with remaining graham crackers.
Add remaining marshmallows and chopped chocolate. Toss lightly.
Spoon mixture evenly in pan.
Bake 8-10 minutes or until marshmallows are lightly browned. Cool 15
minutes. Cut into bars.
Serve warm or cool.

S’Mores are so popular! Check out what our fellow food bloggers do with some of the most simple S’Mores ingredients:

• S’Mores Cupcakes from Cupcake Bakeshop
• South of the Border S’Mores from Kids Cuisine
• S’More Pie from Smitten Kitchen
• S’Mores Pancakes from Baking Delights

A Little Bit of Housekeeping

My grade school friend, Jennifer Treiber, was the daughter of our school cafeteria cook. You know how most people complain about school food? Well, I cannot relate to such nonsense. Our school cafeteria had the best food. Poor Boy sandwiches that I have never had anything compare to. Chicken Supreme that was too good to be wasted on the grade school palate. Cinnamon rolls that were so ooey and gooey they would practically melt in your mouth.

I would often go over to Jennifer’s house to play and would end up staying for dinner. When I was there, her mom would always make us homemade chicken strips and french fries. It was her special meal that she would make when I was there because she knew how much I loved them. I had never had chicken strips and fries that tasted so out of this world delicious!

Birthday’s were a pretty big deal in our house growing up. My mom, who was also a fantastic cook, would always let us choose what we wanted for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I would choose things like Funnel Cakes for breakfast, and my mom would happily oblige.  Chocolate cake for lunch? Sure… coming right up. One year, whatever year it is when you become a major brat, my mom asked me what I wanted for my birthday dinner. When I told her that I wanted homemade chicken strips and french fries she delivered. When she placed my wish meal out on the table, I took one look at the chicken and fries and balked… “I don’t want your chicken strips and fries. I want it to be like the kind Mrs Treiber makes!” Being the age of bratiness, I didn’t take one single bite. Can you imagine how much my mom probably wanted to smack my smug little face? I am sure she was so proud of making exactly what she thought I wanted, and here I go and repay her by being a complete jerk.

I am sure I hurt my moms feelings (sorry mom!), but even after that show of ungratefulness my mom called Mrs Treiber to find out what her secret was. The fries were normal homemade fries, deep fried and salted to perfection. The chicken strips? Schwans. Yep… the chicken strips that I raved and raved about and stabbed my poor mom in the heart about were frozen, deep fried, Schwans chicken strips!

I cannot make homemade french fries of any kind without thinking of Jennifer, her mom and that birthday dinner. I can tell you that tonight, when I sat the fries out on the dinner table, my four year old took one look and said “I thought you said we were having french fries with dinner… I want fries like McDonalds, Mom!”

And what is it they say about paybacks? I have a feeling, I’m about to find out!

Zesty Oven Baked Fries, from Recipezaar

A little bit of housekeeping…

Photo courtesy of Envirosax.com

I should know better than to play around with the widgets and things on my blog. I somehow messed up my subscription and most of you who were subscribed to Dine & Dish through your bookmarks or readers (such as Google or Bloglines) lost me. I’m sorry!

Would you be so kind to subscribe again? I’ve included the handy dandy tool for you to do so below. I’ve also included the option to subscribe via email… by doing this you will receive the most recent Dine & Dish news in your email inbox as soon as it happens! Once you have updated your subscription, leave a comment here. Everyone who comments will be entered into a Giveaway for a set of Envirosax’s. These gorgeous “sax” are my new favorite shopping accessory.  Going green has never looked so good! One lucky Dine & Dish subscriber will win one of their 5 in 1 pouch sets… winner chooses the design they want! Winner will be chosen through the random number generator. Subscribe today, leave a comment, and hopefully you will be the next Dine & Dish Giveaway winner! I will accept entries until Wednesday, August 27th at 10pm CST. Winner will be announced shortly after!

I admit… I was torn to see school start this year. It felt like the summer just flew by. Maybe that is something all moms say once they have kids in school, but I truly feel like summer was gone in a blink.

As sad I am to see school back in session, I am truly excited to get back into a somewhat more manageable routine. We may have more things going on during the school year, but at least we are on somewhat of a schedule.

Along with that schedule comes the challenge of finding time to sit down to dinner as a family each evening. During the summer we would eat dinner early or eat late or eat out… we ate dinner together, but it varied greatly as far as times. Now with school getting out at 4pm, and after school activities starting soon after, I am hungrily looking for delicious recipes that can fit into our ever tight schedules.

I recently found this recipe for Asian Lettuce Wraps on another food blog and now I can’t find the blog. Luckily, I did a search on All Recipes and found the same recipe. (If I commented on this recipe on your blog, please let me know and I’ll link this back to you.) I love this recipe because it gives me something besides tacos and spaghetti to use ground beef with. It is a fun, hand held dinner and it can be made in a jiffy. With recipes like this in my repertoire, I feel like I can finally get into the groove of things!

Asian Ground Beef Lettuce Wraps, from Allrecipes

• 16 Boston Bibb or butter lettuce leaves
• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 1 tablespoon cooking oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 cloves fresh garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1/4 cup hoisin sauce
• 2 teaspoons minced pickled ginger
• 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
• Asian chile pepper sauce (optional)
• 1 (8 ounce) can water chestnuts, drained and finely chopped
• 1 bunch green onions, chopped
• 2 teaspoons Asian (dark) sesame oil

1. Rinse whole lettuce leaves and pat dry, being careful not tear them. Set aside.
2. In a medium skillet over high heat, brown the ground beef in 1 tablespoon of oil, stirring often and reducing the heat to medium, if necessary. Drain, and set aside to cool. Cook the onion in the same pan, stirring frequently. Add the garlic, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, ginger, vinegar, and chile pepper sauce to the onions, and stir. Stir in chopped water chestnuts, green onions, and sesame oil, and continue cooking until the onions just begin to wilt, about 2 minutes.
3. Arrange lettuce leaves around the outer edge of a large serving platter, and pile meat mixture in the center. To serve, allow each person to spoon a portion of the meat into a lettuce leaf. Wrap the lettuce around the meat like a burrito, and enjoy!

Interested in other recipe versions of Lettuce Wraps? Check out what these food bloggers have to offer:

• Asian Turkey Lettuce Wraps, from Picky Palate
• Quick Chinese Lettuce Wraps, from Chaos in the Kitchen
• Ginger Chicken Lettuce Wraps, from The Village Voice
• Five-Spice Turkey and Lettuce Wraps, from Culinary in the Desert

There is still some room for you in the Adopt-a-Blogger 2 event. Veteran’s especially… come on out and mentor a new blogger! Click here to sign up.

My husband and I have an ongoing disagreement about hand me downs. When our children outgrow their undies, I do not believe they should be passed on… to a younger sibling, to Goodwill, to cousins.. to anyone. Yes, I know they are washed and clean but I just have issues with that kind of undergarment being passed on. His argument? It is what they did when they were growing up, and so that’s that. Why should it be any different with his kids?

Am I the only one who thinks that this kind of hand me down is a bit icky? Help me see the light or give me a good argument to go back and set my husband straight. And for those of you thinking, “Geez, don’t they have better things to argue about than this?”, we do.  Like which direction our trash can should face, or how far up in the garage I should pull the van in and my favorite… why do I get a Netflix subscription and then let the movie sit on our TV for 2 months. Lots of important arguing going on in the Doyle household, but this issue has been gnawing at me for some time now, so I just need to bring some closure to it

I do believe that hand me downs are great, but not of the undie variety. Some of the best recipes in our repertoire are hand me downs from others. One of my favorite wedding shower themes is where people share their family recipes with the bride. What a great way to start off your marriage, with a collection of favorite recipes from those you love.

My mother-in-law recently passed on the recipe for her fruit turnovers. She makes these often for breakfast when we are home (didn’t I marry into a great family? Pie as a breakfast food… genius!). What I love best about hand me down recipes is the verbage in the recipe. I’m going to share this recipe with you, exactly how she gave it to me. If you decided to make these and need some clarification, feel free to contact me and I’ll pass on to you my interpretation.

These turnovers are great for breakfast, dessert, or as a hand held picnic treat, which is why I am including them in the Waiter There’s Something In My Picnic Basket event over at The Passionate Cook.

Fruit Turnovers

2 cups flour
3/4 cup butter
Pinch of salt
10 tbs ice water (might need more)
Canned Pie Filling

Use pastry blender to blend flour with 1/4 cup butter (get crumbly) in a stainless steel bowl.
Add 10 tbs of ice water to make a plyable dough, use fork to keep mixing in until a dough ball forms.Add more water, a bit at a time if the dough ball doesn’t form right away.
Cover with damp, clean dish cloth. Chill about 15 minutes.
Remaining 1/2 cup of butter leave out until plyable and easy to work with.

Roll out the dough on lightly floured surface and then place the butter over the top of the dough - spread butter around surface of dough until thick
Pull up one corner of the dough and bring it over so corners meet (so butter to butter). Keep folding until butter starts to seem through. Keep doing this (roll, fold, fold, fold, roll, fold, fold, fold) until the butter is well incorporated into the dough. (Essentially, this is the way you knead the dough). It will be slimey.
Chill overnight in covered bowl (Kristen here - I’m an instant gratification girl and skipped this step with great results)

Roll out on flowered board, cut it into squares. Place fruit in center, fold over and seal your edges. Canned pie filling works best because it is soft and won’t bust through the dough. For apple, use one apple per turnover and a little bit of the gel. For other fruits, one small tablespoon of filling/fruit works well. Jam - use one heaping teaspoon full.
Bake at 425 for 20-25 minutes. Once cool, feel free to use a powdered sugar, butter, vanilla, milk drizzle or glaze.

A Little Bit of Housekeeping

• If you haven’t already, make sure to sign up for the Dine & Dish Adopt-A-Blogger #2 event! Space is limited, so sign up today!
• The family is heading back to school and life on the home front is a bit crazy lately. Check out what the Dine & Dish kids are up to these days. Visit Dishing it up Family Style.
• Are you on Twitter? I had Firefox issues the other day, Twittered about it and had a reply and solution from Firefox instantly. Awesome! Follow me on Twitter by clicking here.
• Do you want to get the most recent Dine & Dish updates right in your email inbox? Click HERE.
• And finally, my favorite bit of news… my 75 year old mom has started a blog! I’m so excited for her to be capturing her memories from growing up and her perspective on life in the world today. Hope you will head over and visit her at On the Inside Looking Back.

Alright folks… it is that time again. Time for all of you Veteran Bloggers to come out and give a hand to the newest folks on the food blogging block! I know you remember how anxious you felt starting your food blog. You weren’t sure what you wanted to accomplish back then, but you did know that being a part of this great community was an important thing to you! Let’s lend our hands to those just starting out, give them a leg up with our advice and expertise, and help them build some of the best new food blogs out there.

The Rules - because we can’t just let things be all willy-nilly, can we?

First, my goal is to have this be a fairly regular event now that life is somewhat under control. We had an amazing turn out with the first Adopt a Blogger event and I hope it continues! If you were adopted the first time around, consider adopting someone this time around. If you adopted before, you can adopt again. I am limiting the number of potential adoptees to 25 for this round. So, I am looking for 25 newbies and 25 Veteran food bloggers. First come, first serve basis. If you miss it this time around, we’ll get you next time!

• Newbies - Newbies are food bloggers who have a blog that has been up for a year or less. If you are just starting out, you must have had at least 1 month worth of posting on your blog.
• Veterans - Anyone who has maintained an active food blog for over 1 year. If you have a blog that is younger than a year old, but feel like you have the whole food blogging thing down and could provide some expertise to someone just starting out, then please feel free to sign up as a veteran.
• Newbies will commit to writing one post about their Veteran. Veterans will commit to doing the same. Trying a recipe out and posting this on your blog would count as well, as long as you are introducing each other and the blogs.
• You will each add each other to your respective blogrolls.
• At the end of the 3 month mentoring time, where the Veteran will help the newbie find their way, I ask that the Veteran write one post linking back to this Adopt-A-Blogger post with a piece of advice for new bloggers. I also ask that the newbies write one post about what they have learned about blogging during the 3 month mentorship. Please note that by three months, I don’t mean that you have to be in constant contact with each other. Just keep in touch with each other for the three months and be available to ask/answer any questions that might pop up. The posts that you write for this piece of the Adopt a Blogger event will be included in a round-up at the end of the 3 month period.
• If you are interested in participating, please leave a comment on this post indicating if you are a newbie or a veteran. Please make sure you enter your website information in the form as well as an email address. If that information isn’t included, I can’t get a hold of you which means you won’t be able to participate!
• Once we have reached have reached 25 newbies and 25 veterans, I will carefully match you all up and the adoption will be official!

I am also looking for someone who has design talent to share. If you can design a nifty badge for this event, I have a nice little prize package for you! Email me through my contact form.

I think that is it! I am looking forward to another successful Adopt a Blogger event!

Want to be notified as soon as a new post is up on Dine & Dish? Have posts sent directly to your inbox!

Written for Paper Palate on The Well Fed Network

I will admit… I have been a little disenchanted with some of the latest issues of Food & Wine magazine. Usually, I am able to flip through the magazine and bookmark a good handful of recipes to add to my “I will make this someday list“. Lately, however, I have bookmarked less and less.

This is why I was pleasantly surprised when the 30th Anniversary Issue arrived in my mailbox and the number of recipes that piqued my interest more than made up for the lack of recipes I had bookmarked in recent months. This issue of Food & Wine magazine takes us back to what I consider to be classic Food & Wine style… recipes that are elegant and unique, yet not so overwhelmingly complicated that it turns novice cooks away.

Some of the recipes that caught my eye were Chunky Guacamole with Cumin, Watermelon Salad with Feta, Triple-Tomato Penne, Caramelized Black Pepper Chicken, Skillet Apple Charlotte, Chipotle Shrimp Tostadas, Stir Fried Five Spice Pork with Lettuce Cups, and my favorite… Molten Chocolate Cake with Caramel Filling.

Thank you Food & Wine for bringing classic back and sharing with us some of the trends of the past and the future.  I can only hope that one trend that falls into my mailbox each month is a Food & Wine magazine packed with great recipes that readers like me love.

Molten Chocolate Cake with Caramel Filling

ingredients

When I was much younger, 6th or 7th grade,  I spent the night at my friend Ginny McReynolds house. It was a warm night and as we got into her bed I pulled the light blankets up over me, and then did as I often did and maneuvered myself so my feet stuck out at the end.

“You can’t do that!!!”, she screamed. “You need to keep your feet inside the covers. If some bad guy comes in to get us, you are making it too easy for him. He can just grab your feet and pull you out. If you at least have your feet tucked in, it will be harder for him to get you.”

Terrified, I pulled my feet in under the covers. I don’t think I slept at all that night… worrying about the “bad guy” who was going to come and untangle me out of the covers.

Would you believe that this many years later, every night when I get into bed, I think of Ginny McReynolds. Every single night, I go to put my feet out of the covers and every single night, I slip them back in… not wanting to give the “bad guy” an easier way to “get me”. Yes, I am nearing 35 years old and am still fearful of this random “bad guy”. Ginny’s advice from that many years ago has stuck with me.

What, do you say, does this have to do with those yummy muffins photographed above? Well, I’ll tie that in loosely right here. When I was pregnant with my first child, I had horrid morning sickness. Morning, noon and night sickness is more like it. One day, a co-worker of mine brought in some chunky apple breakfast bars. They were kind of like muffin texture, but in bar form. They were delicious. I ate and ate and ate those chunky apple breakfast bars. Then, within minutes of devouring the delicious bars, my child decided that he wanted to have nothing to do with those bars and decided to send them right back up. Sparing the details, that was the only day that I ended up going home from work my entire pregnancy. I was sooooo sick. Since then, that memory of the apple bars and my unruly tummy has been stuck in my brain. I could eat apple pie still, but any kind of other apple cake type thing turned my stomach upside down.

I have since decided that this is nonsense. Why should the memory of that one situation keep me away from something I loved so much? In order to show myself who is boss, I decided to start off slowly with some Apple Pie muffins. I didn’t want to go straight into the apple bars.. that would have been too crazy, but muffins I can handle, and did handle! These muffins with the small diced up apples, the lovely crispy topping, and the cinnamon flavor are amazing. My gag reflex didn’t even ignite once. Now, doesn’t that make you want one of these? Seriously, they are yummy!

Glad I took the chance on these. Now… if I can only just do something about that “bad guy” grabbing my feet in the middle of the night.

Apple Pie Muffins (adapted from Recipezaar)

45 min | 20 min prep

SERVES 18