My favorite fall treat : Apple Strudel

My mom use to fill the house with the smell of Apple Strudel each fall. I still remember walking in the house and just melting from the smell. This is one of my all time favorite recipes!

Apple Strudel

• one sheet of thawed puff pastry
• two apples, peeled, cored, and cut into thin slices (I recommend using two different kinds of apples just to add a little interest to the flavors. My favorite? Granny smith and Honey Crisp)
• 2-3 tbsp of sugar depending on how sweet your apples are
• 1 tbsp of flour
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• a good pinch of salt
• 1 egg

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
2. Slice up your apples as thin as you can. If you slice them thickly you will want to add a few minutes to baking time. Put the apples in a medium bowl.
3. Sprinkle the sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt over the apples. Toss the apples really well with those dry ingredients. You want all the slices to be coated well.
4. Roll out the sheet of pastry till thin but not too thin.
5. Pile the apples along the bottom edge, but leave a good margin of pastry as a border.
6. Fold the pastry over the apples as of you are wrapping a present ( which really you are!) , and pinch the edges together. You'll end up with a long rectangular shape that looks like a giant toaster strudel.
7. Carefully put the "log" on a baking sheet, pinched-edge-side down. Fold under the ends to make sure everything stays where it's supposed to.
8. Brush the top with a little beaten egg, and sprinkle with a bit of sugar. Cut about three slits in the top so steam can escape.
9. Bake for 25-30 minutes until the top is brown and you're intoxicated by the smell of apples.
10. Cut it into slices, and serve with vanilla ice cream.Or go wild and add a little caramel sauce . Holy sweetness.

Turning 45? Feeling a little mid-life crisis coming on? The cure - Bake!

Oh the joy of an upcoming birthday...It use to be that I looked forward to these days with anticipation, knowing that surely it would be a terrific day. But this one, oh part of me just wishes the day would just pass by without happening. The weekend before my 45th birthday is presenting me with a slight pain of life contemplation - so what better to distract myself - bake! Nothing better than the sweet smell of butter and cinnamon, peanut butter and chocolate, raspberries and almonds to wipe away the fears of middle age and make one feel like a kid again...And so I bake!

First on the list - Monkey bites

Oh you have all heard of monkey bread- that sweet cinnamon and sugar bread that is sure to make you swoon but Monkey bites- are like little bits of heaven, melting in your mouth, a delight of flavor rolling over your tongue, not enough to overwhelm but instead the perfect tease of flavor - slightly orgasmic if I do say so myself!

1 package Pillsbury cinnamon rolls
Butter
Cinnamon
Sugar
Vanilla extract

Instead of baking the Cinnamon rolls as is, roll each out into a long strip. Cut into 1 inch wedges.

In the bottom of a muffin tin, fill each compartment with a half a pat of butter.
Spoon in a half teaspoon of sugar
Next add a 1/4 tsp of cinnamon
Place 3 of the wedges on top of the cinnamon, these should be placed next to each other so they form a little triangle of dough.
Put another half pat of butter on top of the dough
Add another 1/2 tsp on sugar on top of the butter
Add another 1/4 tsp of cinnamon on top of the sugar
Now top each with just a smidgen (a drop) of vanilla

Put these babies in a 375 degree oven until golden brown and bubbly.
Immediately drizzle with just a little sweetened condensed milk and cool.