Tag Archives: baking

Caramel Apple Cookies

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The inspiration? A granny smith apple and a bag of individually wrapped caramels.

The two items sitting in our kitchen made me think “wouldn’t an apple cookie with a caramel tucked inside taste like fall?”

Let me tell you, it does! Hot cinnamon flavor dancing around toasty cooked grated apple pieces.  Make sure you take two bites so you can savor the caramel twice!

Here it is: Caramel Apple Cookies

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 shredded granny smith apple

15 wrapped caramels

Preheat oven to 350F. Line baking sheet with parchment, or lightly grease sheet.

In a large bowl, stir together flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon.

In another bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add vanilla and egg and beat until light and fluffy. Add flour mixture and stir to combine. Fold in apple pieces.

Take caramels out of cellophane and cut in half.

Drop tablespoon sized drops of dough onto baking sheet with some space in between (they will spread). Push half caramels into center of cookie drop. Make sure to leave some dough under the cookie so the caramel doesn’t burn.

Bake for 12 minutes or until edges are set. Allow to cool slightly on baking sheet and finish cooling on a wire rack.

(I tinkered with the original recipe found on http://www.chewywaffles.blogspot.com/.)

News From the North

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(Orange cookies with chocolate chips)

Time is flying by and the daylight is increasing at a phenomenal rate. After the dark lull around winter solstice, we picked up noticeable amounts of daylight every day. Now, the morning twilight is at about 8:15 a.m. and the evening twilight ends about 10:00 p.m. We’ve put foil up in our bedroom window so our cave is nice and dark and welcomes sleep.

Well, a big decision has been made. We will only stay one school year in Shishmaref and are now packing up. The best advice we read was as soon as you know you are going to move, start packing! It looks like we are heading to Anchorage. There are so many interesting places to live in Alaska. For our goals, Anchorage seems like the best fit for the next several years.

We’ve loved living in the village of Shishmaref. The natives are kind and friendly. The environment up here is amazing. I am glad that this experience has been part of my story.

Honestly, the school has been difficult to work in. The values of those who we work with and for don’t synch up with ours. There are so many things that could be easily done to improve the education of the children up here. Maybe someday I will be able to tackle that problem from the chair of the state’s education commissioner.

For now, it’s time to get ready to move from 22 miles from the Artic Circle to 350 miles from the Artic Circle.

Kiwi Oatmeal Bars

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A few months ago, our school received kiwi as the fruit of the week. A surprising number of students enjoyed the kiwi. The ones who did not like their kiwi gave the fruit to their teachers. So, Jack and I took about a dozen fruit home. The kiwi were aging faster than Jack and I could eat them. I decided to try out the jam feature on our bread machine with the remaining kiwi. The jam has been sitting in our freezer waiting to be eaten. Honestly, kiwi jam didn’t really sound that appealing. It looks kind of interesting — bright green with tiny black seeds. Jack thought a blueberry tart with a kiwi jam layer would be good.

After doing a bit of research about what could be done with jams, I settled on a raspberry oatmeal bar recipe. I followed the recipe except for the type of jam…homemade kiwi! It came out terrific. The tasty bars are mostly sweetened by the jam and have the healthy properties of oats. Mostly, they taste delicious. After eating two, Jack suggested my next endeavor should be my own little bake shop. He says my baking is now that good. Thanks, Jack!

Clearing the Pantry

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The last day of school will be May 20. The food goal is to eat everything in our pantry by the end of school. Who knows what culinary creations may occur during this process. The pumpkin craisin bread came out delicious. Just out of the oven and barely cooled, half of one loaf is already gone!

Most of what we have left seems reasonable to eat and create with. I’m not sure about the 50 pounds of dried beans and bags of pecans and almonds. Stay tuned…

What to do with half of a bag of marshmallows and a Saturday afternoon…

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Chewy chocolate cookies fresh from the oven stuffed with chocolate chips, pecans, and marshmallows. A few more marshmallows topped the cookie bites during the last two minutes of baking to give them that just toasted taste and look. Yum!