(Not) Saturday Morning Snapshot
Dog treat photo shoot outtakes…
State of the Blog
How was your week? Did you make anything delicious? Have a good Memorial Day? My sister came up for a visit over the long weekend and we had a low-key family BBQ, so I’d say mine was pretty near to perfect.
This week on the blog, we had one last Nerd Month post in which I rounded up of some of my favorite nerdy recipes from other bloggers. Go check it out. They are AMAZING. Then on Wednesday I posted one of my favorite quick weeknight dinners, and on Friday my Caramel Apple Pie Sundaes went up.
If you like apple pie, you have to try them! It was seriously dangerous photographing those things with no one there to feed them to because I totally could have eaten them all! I didn’t, but it was a close call.
Next Monday we start a new month-long recipe series in honor of summer. Wednesday get ready for lots more Ella pictures because there’s a new dog treat recipe going up. Friday, I’m in the process of writing way too many words about some of my favorite low-cost kitchen tools and on Saturday, there will be a new Simple Saturday recipe that tastes great over waffles…
Recipes/posts released this week were:
Nerd Month Retrospective and 40+ Perfectly Nerdy Recipes – 40+ of my favorite nerdy recipes inspired by books, television, and movies. Recipes for everything from ‘Game of Thrones’ and ‘The Walking Dead’ to ‘Star Wars’ and the Marvel Cinematic Universe!
Quick Rosemary Pork Chops – Quick pork chops made with rosemary and sherry that can be on the table in about 20 minutes. So easy and delicious you won’t believe it.
Caramel Apple Pie Sundae – Apple pie in sundae form! Tart Granny Smith apples cooked with brown sugar and cinnamon and dowsed in caramel sauce. Served over vanilla ice cream in a flaky homemade (easy!) buttermilk pie crust shell.
Pop-culture Corner
Aside from some spectacular American Gods casting , mysterious Star Wars reshoots , and lots of angry writing about whether or not fandom is broken, it’s been a pretty quiet week in pop culture. So lets talk summer movies!
Do you have any you are looking forward to seeing this summer? I’m most excited for the new Ghostbusters , but I’ll probably end up seeing most of the big ones just because it’s so hot here in the summer, and going to the movies is one of the few tolerable daytime activities during June through August.
Sony Pictures via Tumblr
Will I ever stop posting that GIF? No. No I will not.
Meal Planning
Saturday: Easy Weeknight Chicken Cacciatore Sunday: Takeout Monday: Breakfast for Dinner Tuesday: Basil Chicken over Angel Hair Pasta Wednesday: Easy Homemade Panini Without a Panini Press Thursday: Simply Delicious Asian Chicken Salad Friday: Roasted Summer Veggies and Chicken Sausage
Apple pie in sundae form! Tart Granny Smith apples cooked with brown sugar and cinnamon and dowsed in caramel sauce. Served over vanilla ice cream in a flaky homemade (easy!) buttermilk pie crust shell.
Weather check in time. How’s the weather in your part of the world? Here in sunny SoCal, it’s starting to get HOT. It’s hot and it’s the worst. We haven’t had our first 100° day yet, but I’m pretty sure it’s coming this weekend.
I know a lot of people love warm weather, but I am not one of them, and in my book there is only one good thing about summer: summer means ice cream weather.
And ice cream weather means ice cream sundaes! And oh what a sundae I have for you today, a Caramel Apple Pie Sundae!!
Do you like apple pie à la mode? You are going to love this.
It’s vanilla ice cream served in a homemade pie crust cup and topped with an apple cinnamon and caramel sauce.
You assemble these with the crusts straight out of the oven, with sauce warm, and it’s like taking a bite out of the best apple pie you’ve ever eaten, only perfect for summer.
This dessert looks a little fiddly, but it’s actually pretty simple. We are using my favorite buttermilk pie crust again, which you know I love because it is so great to work with and is made in the food processor, so it’s suuuuper easy.
You form the cups by cooking them over the bottom of a cupcake pan. And don’t worry, no delicate, crumbly cups here. They’re surprisingly sturdy!
And you have plenty of time to make the apples (and optionally, the caramel sauce) while the cups bake. The worst part about this dessert is that if you make your own caramel sauce , you have to cook the apples and caramel separately, so there are two pots to wash. Booo, I know, but it’s worth it. I promise!
By cooking them separately, the brown sugar and cinnamon with the apples don’t melt into the caramel sauce, so when everything is mixed together, you get these amazing swirls of cinnamon brown sugar that is just to die for. Trust me. You want to wash that extra pot.
Set your pie crust cups on a cute plate, add a scoop of ice cream, and positively drown them in your caramel apple sauce. Then take a bite and ascend to a higher plane of deliciousness.
I know it’s a little early to say, but this might just be my dessert of the summer.
Ingredients
Special Tools
- ▢ Non-stick muffin pan
Pie Crust Cups
- ▢ 1/2 batch My Favorite Buttermilk Pie Crust prepared and chilled
- ▢ Flour for dusting
- ▢ 1 egg beaten
Topping
- ▢ 1 large Granny Smith apple diced
- ▢ 1 tablespoon ( 12 g) brown sugar
- ▢ 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- ▢ 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- ▢ 1 cup caramel sauce homemade or store-bought
- ▢ Vanilla ice cream
Instructions
Pie Crust Cups
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Allow chilled pie crust to sit at room temperature for 5 minutes to soften slightly.
- On a well-floured surface, roll out pie crust to 3/8-inch thick. Cut 5 4-inch rounds using a biscuit cutter or large cup, balling and re-rolling the dough once if necessary*. If your dough is becoming warm and your rounds stick to your cutting board, use a metal spatula to carefully dislodge them.
- Flip your muffin pan upside down and drape dough over alternating cups. Gently squeeze dough down so that it is loosely molded over the top of the cups (it doesn’t have to be perfect, just vaguely cup-shaped).
- Refrigerate for 15 minutes to firm up slightly. Brush with egg wash, being careful not to drip egg onto the pan as it can cause the cups to stick.
- Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, until golden. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before gently removing cups. If they have stuck to the egg wash, carefully use a spatula to loosen them first.
Topping
- While cups bake, in a small pot, over medium heat, combine apple pieces, brown sugar, butter, and cinnamon. Cook, stirring occasionally until apples reach your desired consistency, about 4 to 6 minutes. (If making your own caramel sauce, prepare it while apples soften.)
- Remove from heat and stir in warm caramel sauce.
Assemble
- Place pie cups on plates and fill with a scoop of vanilla ice cream each. Spoon caramel and apple sauce over the top and enjoy!
Notes
Nutritional Information
Strawberry Limeade is the perfect summer drink for BBQ’s or a mid-afternoon treat. Keep this mix in the fridge and enjoy your limeades on demand all summer long.
It’s the first full week of June, which means it’s time to start a new monthly series! In May, we did an entire month of Nerdy recipes . This month, we’re returning to the once-a-week themed recipe model and making a BBQ menu!
I’m starting with a beverage, and over the next three Mondays, we’ll have a BBQ-friendly side, entree, and dessert so at the end of the month, you’ll have an entire delicious BBQ menu ready to go.
For the beverage, I went with a strawberry limeade mix, because nothing says summer to me like a limeade.
Were you a limeade kid? I was. Sonic was one of the few drive-through places near my house growing up, and my family would take late-evening trips in the summer and go get one of their cherry limeades.
As an adult, I rarely drink soda, so I hadn’t had a limeade in yeeeeeears. When I was putting this menu together, a limeade immediately came to mind. I had some strawberries left over from my Strawberry Mimosas , and limes and Sprite from my Red Wine Popsicles , so I whipped up a quick batch of limeade mix to see if I even still liked them.
Um yes. Yes I do.
I had forgotten how a glass of limeade is like sipping summer over ice. The strawberry gives the drink a deeper, more interesting flavor than the traditional cherry, and a hearty squeeze of lime juice is so crisp and refreshing as you sip that you’ll wonder why you don’t drink these all year round.
Making these as a mix is really convenient too. It keeps in the refrigerator for up to two weeks, so you don’t have to worry about finishing up a huge pitcher of limeades or letting it go to waste, and it lets your friends and family control how much limeade goodness they want in their drinks, which is great, because everyone has very different levels of sweet preference.
