Baked Apples - Not Quite There Yet....

I like the way these photos show the evolution of our baked apples:

You'll notice that these apples somehow managed to be half-firm, half-collapsed.  I'm befuddled.  We used the same recipe before and the apples were fantastic.  This time, they weren't.  And neither kid is interested in eating the leftovers (that was most decidely not the case last time around!)

We'll have to get back with you on this one.

In the meantime, back to Thanksgiving preparations!

Chipolte Cheddar Biscuits from Baked

This is one of my sisters, taking on a new recipe with her niece.

She brought Baked: New Frontiers in Baking with her on vacation and they tried the chipolte cheddar biscuits out.  My sister began with a caveat "I'm not a calm cook like your mom, okay?"  Then proceeded to test my daughter's full range of skills, from measuring to mixing to grating. 

My son popped in for a few minutes to see how things were going, and to see my new favorite ingredient: chipolte pepper powder!  If you've ever had those leftover cans of chipolte peppers and sauce, this is for you!  I can never use an entire can, and I've frozen the leftovers for "later" but "later" is buried somewhere in the back of my freezer with those ziplocs!

They put together a huge batch of biscuits that didn't last much past the morning breakfast rush.

The chipolte powder made these flavorful without being too hot - even the kids enjoyed eating them.  In fact, my daughter's only complaint was that they had too much cheese in them.

We sampled a few other things from that cookbook, and when I got home, I had the local bookstore order me a copy!  Can't wait to make some more of those here.

Thanks, sis!