Apple Berry Salsa w/ Cinnamon Chips

I know I know, it's been a while. A long while. I have a lot to post, but no time to do it. Anywho, I have a quick, delicious recipe for you. This is a Pampered Chef recipe...I just tweaked it a bit.

(I doubled my recipe because I was bringing it to a party, you can half it and it will easily feed about 8 people.)

Apple Berry Salsa with Cinnamon Chips

Begin by peeling 4 Granny Smith Apples

Core them..

And give 'em a rough chop.

Next, peel and rough chop 2 kiwi's...Add them to the apples.

Next, chop 1 pint of strawberries, add them to the bowl. This salsa can be as chunky or a finely chopped as you like, I like it a little bigger so you can taste the flavors or the fruits.

Give everything a good toss, then add about 2 tablespoons of orange zest, and 2 tablespoons of orange juice.

Add 4 tablespoons of brown sugar, and 2 T of apple jelly (I actually used raspberry jelly...You can use whatever you want/have.)

Give everything a good toss and cover and refrigerate until chilled.

I made cinnamon chips to serve with the salsa.

1. Use 1 package of burrito sized flour tortillas and cut into chips. I used a pizza cutter and just stacked them up and sliced them into 8-10 slices.

2. Melt some butter and brush it on one side of the tortilla

3. Sprinkle it with cinnamon sugar

4. Bake on 350 until browned and crunchy, about 10 minutes. Watch carefully, it burns quickly.

(Make sure you only put butter and cinnamon sugar on ONE side, if you do both it melts and sticks to the pan and makes a great, big, ooey gooey, mess.)

Allow chips to cool and harden. Serve with salsa, yum :)

cupcake love.

delightful.

Blueberry Ricotta Muffins

Alright, I have this bad habit of taking pictures of the food-making process, but forgetting to take pictures of the finished product--which might just be the most important part. When I start the recipe I always say, "Okay, Rochelle...you need to take pictures before you eat this."...And then when I put whatever it may be in the oven, I repeat this again. Then, as I'm licking the final morsels of food off my plate, it's always, "Rochelle!! You forgot to take pictures before you ate it!" Apparently I'm hungry most of the time.

So in my iPhoto here, I have a batrillion (may not be a word?)pictures of different recipes, but no finished product...and the problem with me is that I rarely make the same thing twice, so the chances of me repeating just to get a finished product aren't looking up. Maybe I'll get around to a post some day of a bunch of recipes with unfinished pictures....We shall see..We shall see...

Okay, these here Blueberry Ricotta Muffins were my first ever attempt at muffins from home. I've made plenty of muffins at work, but there is definitely something different about making things in a teeny-tiny apartment kitchen compared to a big, fancy, industrial kitchen...I actually had to go out and buy a muffin pan because I didn't have one. I also bought a little dough-scooper (actually, an ice cream scooper--but who cares. It works.).

Let me just say that these muffins were delectable. The hubby and I aren't really big on sweets and baked goods...But we devoured these in a couple days. So moist and flavorful plus the pop of the fresh blueberries...yuummm. Introducing fabulous muffins, my new muffin tins, and my fancy little scooper.

Blueberry Ricotta Muffins (adapted from bakingbites.com)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter, melted

1 cup ricotta cheese

1/2 cup milk (lowfat is fine)

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon lemon zest

1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries (or raspberries, cranberries, mixed berries...any kind of berries, really.)

Preheat your oven to 350˚F. Line your muffin tin with paper liners.

In a medium bowl, mix melted butter, ricotta, milk, eggs, lemon zest and vanilla until smooth. In a separate bowl, mix together your dry ingredients (the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar.)

Mix your wet ingredients and dry ingredients until just combined...careful, you don't want to overmix this here. Then, fold in your delicious, washed blueberries (or other berries) :)

Scoop your batter...

Into your lined tins.

Bake them for 18-22 minutes, or until they pass the toothpick test. I brushed mine with a little egg to make them nice and shiny.

Let them cool a tad, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Refrigerate in an airtight container and they should stay moist for several days :)

summer 2009.

It's been a pretty quick summer. I think last summer we forgot to blog all summer and ended up doing one post of a recap of our summer--I'll give you the same thing this year :)

Beginning of summer--school started. During the summer? School? I know....but it hasn't been all that bad. I've really been enjoying it. I'm coming to the end of my first quarter here next week and I can't believe it! 1 down, 5 to go. I hope to make the Dean's list...that's my goal this quarter. For those that know me---school and I don't get along, so the Dean's list is a pretty big goal. Next quarter I have baking--this should be fun. Expect lots of baked goodies on the blog :)

Well, we got a grill. We grilled every night for about 2 weeks straight, until the little old lady downstairs yelled at us and informed us we weren't allowed to grill at the apartment. The next day the landlord handed out a notice from the fire department informing us that grilling is no longer allowed at our complex. Bummer. It was fun while it lasted. We now have a portable grill for the occasional picnic...and about a years worth of propane.

In June we took a trip to Michigan for my Grandparent's 50th anniversary party. We had a family picnic at Lake Michigan, which was a lot of fun. I miss Lake Michigan.

We will be returning in a few weeks for a whole week for Mike (my brother) and Katie's wedding.

Meet Millie:

Millie is a dog we rescued at the beginning of July. When we found her she super malnourished, sick, and full of fleas. Blech. We thought she could be a good companion for Gracie since we've been so busy lately, but as it turns out, being super busy is no good for a new puppy and the potty training process. We found a good home for Millie, so she's no longer with us, but I wanted you all to meet her.

Gracie wasn't a big fan.

Back in July our good friends Nick and Aubrey (you may remember them from here) got married. We were both honored to be in their wedding party. We got to go to Ohio for the weekend for their wedding festivities. Unfortunately, I forgot the camera...so, no pictures from that event until they get their actual wedding pictures back.

In August we traveled to Dearborn, MI for a wedding of one of Paul's friends from high school.

In the car I was able to work on my new hobby:

Embroidery

there will be more on this at a later date.

Anyways, the wedding. It was amazing. Beautiful.

After the wedding, we headed to Grand Rapids for a couple of hours to meet a very special person.

Meet Claire:

No, no, no. She's not special....well, she is...but she's not the special person we went to meet. We already knew her. Claire is my bestie. We've been friends since 6th grade. This person that we went to meet wasn't around in 6th grade. She was born on July 20th. She is Claire's daughter.

Meet Rylee:

She is pretty much the most precious thing ever...maybe I'm a little biased...maybe not. Stephen and Claire make a cute baby.

Anyways, it was so good to see my bestest, even if it was just for a few hours. I'm excited to get to spend more time with them in a few weeks.

Me touching an infant.

More photos of our summer adventures are here. (As well as lots of other, older pictures.) I'm trying to keep our gallery updated.

Hopefully I'll have a few more recipes for you soon...I made a delicious soup tonight at work that I'd like to share with you.

Signing off,

Rochelle :)