I know I don't share much about food around here, but I would like to more.  Recently I was thinking about how I don't post much about food.  I am usually baking or cooking something up (more than crafting, even)!  I love to cook and to try new recipes (and it's usually not made from a box).  This year I would like to share more food on my blog.

Today, we have the privilege of having a special guest post with a delicious recipe. (And for some reason, there are huge spaces between the bullets...sorry.  I have edited it, but blogger apparently has a mind of its own today.  If you know how to fix it, please help! UPDATE: An awesome reader told me to check the HTML and I did, and had to delete a few things, and it is more normal now...yay!) :)  I will let Heather take it from here:

Hey ya'll! This is Heather from the blog Banana Pudding! I am a crafty college student from Tennessee and I am so thankful that Stephanie decided to feature me today. I have some great recipes and tutorials over at my blog, so please come by for a visit! I thought I would share with you today my mini apple pie recipe. These are so yummy and perfect for this time of year! I promise they are easy as pie and so delicious!

 Here is the recipe, and you can find the original post here!

Ingredients:

6 apples peeled cored and chopped

1/2 cup water

4 tbsp sugar set aside 2 tbsp for topping

2 3/4 tsp cinnamon set aside 3/4 tsp for topping

1 tbsp honey

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp cornstarch

1 pkg of refrigerated rolled pie crust

1/2 stick of butter melted

Parchment paper

Cookie sheet oven safe

Directions

Mix together 2 tbsp of sugar and 3/4 tbsp of cinnamon and put aside.

Put chopped apples and water in a large pot and boil at medium heat for about 15 minutes.

Stir in honey, cinnamon, sugar, and brown sugar.

Then turn down to low and simmer for about 30 minutes, until apples are tender but still have some of their shape.

Now stir in cornstarch to get filling to desired thickness.

Preheat oven to 425 Degrees F.

Roll out pie crust dough and cut into 4 triangles. There are 2 rolls in the box, so this will make a    total of 8 triangles.

Place them on parchment paper on a oven safe cookie sheet.

Add a spoonful of filling onto the dough triangles.

Bring up the ends and pinch them together, to make sort of an apple pouch.

Brush the tops of the pies with melted butter and sprinkle with the cinnamon-sugar mixture.

Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until they are golden brown. Yield: serves 8

Notes:

-You can use any type of refrigerated dough you like.

-You can mix equal parts powdered sugar and water and drizzle over the top for a nice glaze.

-The measurements are going to be based on the sweetness of your apples and the size of your batch.


Thanks so much again for having me! I hope you all have a wonderful day!

And make sure to stop by my blog and check out more yummy recipes, these crafty posts below, and so much more! :)

Sunflower and Burlap Wreath

DIY Laundry and Dish Detergent

No Heat Curls

Yum!  Those look delicious!  Make sure to check out Heather's blog!  She has some really cute ideas!

Salted Carmel Cupcakes

I don't bake. I try. But I don't do it often. So, you could imagine my shock when my husband asked for "Salted Caramel Cupcakes" for his birthday. It was a challenge and I was willing to take it! First off... there is no way that this non-baker was going to start from scratch (there are perfectly good box mixes in the store that are just waiting to be used).  Anyway... these cupcakes turned out AWESOME and I am so excited to share the how-to with you all!

I started with a basic cake mix. Why reinvent the wheel... (actually this helped limit the steps that I could possibly mess up). I added an extra egg because I read in some cooking blog that an extra egg makes them a bit more "cake" like. Sure.


I loaded all of the cake batter into a plastic bag and cut off a corner. This was very helpful in loading up all fo the cupcake tins! To store the bag of batter, I placed it in a bowl to hold the hole upright.


Once they cooled, it was time to get fancy. I filled a pastry bag full of caramel flavored topping. I "injected" it into each cupcake. For those of you that actually do bake, I am sure your are cringing at this step. I am sure there is a better way to fill a cupcake, but for someone who does not bake, my $1.99 pastry bag did the job!





Once they were all filled, I took to flavoring the frosting. I bought vanilla frosting, emptied it into my mixer, added some caramel sauce and mixed it up. It had a very mild carmel flavor but more importantly, I liked the color ;) (Or should the flavor be the more important part....??? Hm.)

I then took my nifty $1.99 pastry bag and filled it with frosting. I frosted all of the cupcakes, then placed a small piece of caramel on them (I cut the caramels into smaller pieces for the mini cupcakes), and put a pinch of sea salt on the top.

One of our favorite afternoon snacks around here are apples with cinnamon sugar.  Yum!  They are healthy and fun to eat.  It is almost like eating apple pie filling!  All you have to do is cut up an apple and sprinkle some sugar and cinnamon on top and snack on!

Before reading this... you must know that this pie is AMAZING! A friend of ours made it for us at a dinner party and I was SHOCKED to find out what was in it. I brought it to a BBQ for the 4th of July and it was a HIT! Here is the interesting part....this is a gluten-free, flour-less, sugar-less, no-bake apple pie! Crazy, right?! But I am not kidding you when I say you won't miss any of that stuff! It's that's good (and it's easy as pie to make)!

I hate to throw away bananas, but I refuse to eat them if they have the littlest spot of brown on them (I prefer my bananas to be GREEN!). I gave this muffin recipe a try today and I am in love. The crumble adds an entirely new taste to your typical banana bread. Enjoy :) 

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 bananas, mashed
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon butter