I absolutely love holiday breaks. I don’t know what it is about them, but every day during winter break is like a Sunday… my family is home under one roof, no school or sports practices to rush off to. Mornings are slow, without the normal hustle and rush of needing to get out the door by a certain time. Evenings are leisurely, without the stress of spelling tests to study for and homework.

We all settle into our own activities, returning to hobbies that have been neglected, or binge watching shows that we haven’t had time to see. I swear I also read more books in the few weeks of the holiday break than I do all year. Besides summer, Christmas vacation is my favorite time of year!…

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I’ve had this recipe for Apple Cider Glazed Apple Pie Rolls rolling around in my head for quite some time, but I wasn’t quite sure if the execution of my idea would work.

You see, I like apple pie enough. I don’t love apple pie, but I like it. If I’m being truly honest with myself what I like the most about apple pie is the cinnamon sugar mixture soaked into the pie crust with the flavors of apple juice mixed in. Melted ice cream obviously makes it even better. …

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The post The Good Stuff {Recipe: Cider Glazed Apple Pie Rolls} appeared first on Dine and Dish.

Part three of the Breakstone’s Holiday Showdown had us creating a delicious holiday dessert recipe featuring Breakstone’s sour cream.

I love dessert and I especially love over indulging during the holidays, but sometimes it just feels like there is too much food all the time. I kept this in mind when I created my holiday dessert recipe and decided to go with something that isn’t overly heavy and won’t weigh you down at the end of the holiday meal.

Baked Apple Brulee is a dessert with tender, sweet apples and a caramelized sugar and Breakstone’s sour cream sauce. It isn’t your traditional holiday dessert, but I think that this year can be all about starting new traditions, don’t you think?

Head over to the Breakstone’s Better Homes & Gardens Holiday Showdown page each day to cast your vote. Voters will be entered to win a weekly drawing for a $50 gift card. In addition, one lucky voter will win the  $2500 grand prize. Voting on the Holiday Showdown entries on the contest page will immediately enter you into the grand prize drawing. Thanks for voting and good luck!

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Baked Apple Brulee

A delicious, creamy, unexpected apple dessert.

Ingredients

• Recipe: Baked Apple Brulee
• 3 large Golden Delicious Apples
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 cup Breakstone’s Sour Cream
• 4 heaping tablespoons brown sugar

Instructions

• Peel, core and cut apples into 1/2-inch-thick slices.
• Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add apples; sauté 9 minutes or until apples are just tender.
• Stir in sugar and cinnamon. Cook for 1 minute or until sugar melts.
• Transfer apples to 4, individual 8-ounce ramekins. Top each ramekin with ¼ cup sour cream then 1 heaping tablespoon of brown sugar (evenly distributed over the top)
• Broil on high 4 inches from the heat for 5-8 minutes or until bubbly and sugar is caramelized.

This is part of a sponsored post series from Breakstone’s Sour Cream and Better Homes and Gardens. I was compensated for my time and ingredients. All opinions expressed are my own.

The post Breakstone’s Holiday Showdown {Dessert Recipe: Baked Apple Brulee} appeared first on Dine and Dish.

Our air conditioner is turned off for the season, our windows are wide open, light quilts and long pajama pants are pulled out from the back of our closets, Saturday’s are devoted to college football games… and my allergies are driving me crazy. This can only mean one thing, my friends. Fall is officially here!…

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The post A Touch of Fall {Apple Cider Recipe Roundup} appeared first on Dine and Dish.

My dear blogging friend, Maria, and her husband Josh, are getting ready to welcome their first baby into their “pod”. A sweet little boy. I am so excited for Maria to experience all the firsts that a mom gets to experience. I won’t go on about the eye opening firsts that I remember as a new mom, but I will tell Maria that she is in for a joyous and exciting and sometimes challenging ride. Being a parent is something I feel so blessed to do (although if you would ask me on most days, I’m ready to pull my hair out because of the kids typically).

Maria – take lots of pictures, treasure the moments, and enjoy being a mama to your sweet new bundle. Congrats to you and Walter Dan Josh. From our family to yours, much love and happiness. I can’t wait to meet him!

Several bloggers have joined together for a surprise virtual baby shower for Maria and Josh. Check out the list of participants below the recipe! I hope you’ll take a minute to click around and visit some of the great blogs participating!

Recipe: Oven-baked Apples

• 4 tart apples, such as Fuji or Jonagold
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 4 Tablespoons butter
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Scoop out the core from top of the apple, leaving a well. Do not cut all the way through.
3. Stuff each apple with 2 Tablespoons brown sugar and 1 Tablespoon butter.
4. Place in a shallow baking dish and sprinkle with cinnamon.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes, until apples are tender.

Drinks

Simple Bites – Lemon Balm infused Lemonade

Ingredients, Inc. – Healthy Fruit Punch

Food for My Family – Lemongrass Soda

Heather’s Dish – Mixed Fruit Punch

She Wears Many Hats – Mini Pistachio Smoothies

Appetizers/Savory Bites

With Style and Grace – Truffle Popcorn

Family Fresh Cooking – Baby Peas & Cheese Frittata

Barbara Bakes – Creamy Orange Fruit Dip and Fruit

Aggie’s Kitchen – Pasta Salad with Balsamic Basil Vinaigrette

Reluctant Entertainer – Nutella Berry Bruschetta

Dessert

TidyMom – Blue and Chocolate Cake Balls

i am baker – Baby Pea Baby Shower Cake

Brown Eyed Baker – Pavlova

Picky Palate – Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookie Sandwich

What’s Gaby Cooking – Coconut Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

Cookin’ Canuck – Nutella & Cream Cheese Swirled Blondies

Kevin and Amanda – Baby Blue Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookie Cups

Sweetopia – Decorated Sugar Cookies

Mountain Mama Cooks – Lavender Shortbread Cookies

Sweetapolita – Decorated Sugar Cookies

Bake at 350 – Petit Fours with fondant pea pods

RecipeGirl – Baby Button Cookies

RecipeBoy – Mud Cups with Gummy Worms

Add a Pinch – Blackberry Tartlets

Dine and Dish – Oven Baked Cinnamon Apples

Crafts

Wenderly – Handmade Sweet Pea Cards

Our Best Bites – How To: Make a Diaper Cake Centerpiece

The post Baby Boy Joy {Recipe: Oven Baked Cinnamon Apples} appeared first on Dine and Dish.

Autumn conjures up so many warm and cozy feelings for me. Just a few of my favorite autumn things are:

• My birthday is in October, so it is no wonder I love this time of year!
• School supplies… nothing says Fall to me like a box of new crayons and freshly sharpened pencils. Of course, with school starting in early August now, this correlation will probably be extinct by the time my kids get to be my age.
• College football. I still love football this time of year. By January I am ready to kick football to the curb, but in the fall there is nothing like the spirit and excitement of college game day.
• Candles – I love the Yankee Candle fall scents. For some reason, I rarely burn candles in the summer, but in the fall, I have candles burning all day long.
• Visits to the pumpkin patch. This is probably my all time favorite family activity. We usually go out to Weston, Missouri to the Red Barn Farm. The trees are abundant with color, the pumpkin patch is full of pumpkins to choose from, the allergies are fired up… it is always a fun, memory filled day!
• Clothes that cover the pudge. I love for it to be cool enough to wear jeans and a light sweater, but warm enough that you don’t need to put on a heavy coat.
• The slight chill in the air. I love having the windows open and feeling the cool breeze come in.
• A light quilt and a good book. I love quilts that are well worn… the kind that seem to conform to your body in all the right spots. Give me a quilt and a good book, let me sit by the window or out on the deck, and I am in pure bliss.
• Fall flavors… pumpkin, baked apples, cinnamon and spice… Autumn is the best time of year for baking.

Today I was browsing through Yankee Candle and even though I just ate breakfast, I was starving by the time I left the store. I, being the foodie that I am, tend to navigate towards the food scented candles. Apple Pie, Oatmeal Cookies, Chai Tea… no wonder I was hungry. My belly thought it was going to be getting some great food, but instead it was nose that got all of the pleasure.

In an effort to give my tummy some pleasure, I came home and began flipping through my new “go to for desserts” cookbook, The Pampered Chef Delightful Desserts. A recipe that I had been flipping past, waiting for just the right occasion, jumped out at me as the perfect way to welcome Autumn. These apple bundles are all of the cozy things of Autumn all wrapped in a delicious dessert.

Make these and you won’t need a Yankee Candle to fill your house with the scents of Autumn. Sit down, savor the moment, and think about what you love about the beginning of this new and wonderful season. Care to share?

Apple Bundles from Pampered Chef Delightful Desserts

2 lg apples
1 pkg refrigerated breadstick dough — 11 oz
1 med orange
2 tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
Preheat oven to 375F. Peal, core, and slice apples. Cut slices in half. Unroll dough; separate into 8 breadsticks. Cut each in half crosswise to make 16 strips. Place 3-4 apple slices at the end of each piece of dough; roll up. Arrange bundles in greased 7×11″ pan. Zest 1 t. orange rind, set aside. Juice orange. Pour orange juice into bottom of pan (but not over bundles). Brush bundles with butter. Mix zest, sugar and cinnamon; spoon over bundles. Bake 25-30 min. or until golden brown.

Are you ready to welcome Autumn with some yummy apple recipes? Check out these other recipes from food bloggers around the blogosphere:

• Homemade Apple Pizza from Tammy’s Recipes
• Apple Fritters from The Picky Apple
• Apple Chicken Stew from Taste Buds Are the Best Buds
• Teddie’s Apple Cake from The Wednesday Chef

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• Adopt-a-Blogger matches should be coming out within the week. We could still use a few more Veteran bloggers. If you are interested in mentoring a new blogger, contact me as soon as possible!
• I participated in Wordless Wednesday for the first time over on my family blog – Dishing It Up Family Style
• I am looking for a good blog designer who can work on a special project for me. I’ve contacted my go to designer, Jules from Everyday Mommy, but if she isn’t available I’d love to have some other people to check out. Know of anyone? Let me know!

The post Autumn in a Bundle appeared first on Dine and Dish.

“You can’t do that!!!”, she screamed. “You need to keep your feet inside the covers. If some bad guy comes in to get us, you are making it too easy for him. He can just grab your feet and pull you out. If you at least have your feet tucked in, it will be harder for him to get you.”

Terrified, I pulled my feet in under the covers. I don’t think I slept at all that night… worrying about the “bad guy” who was going to come and untangle me out of the covers.

Would you believe that this many years later, every night when I get into bed, I think of Ginny McReynolds. Every single night, I go to put my feet out of the covers and every single night, I slip them back in… not wanting to give the “bad guy” an easier way to “get me”. Yes, I am nearing 35 years old and am still fearful of this random “bad guy”. Ginny’s advice from that many years ago has stuck with me.

What, do you say, does this have to do with those yummy muffins photographed above? Well, I’ll tie that in loosely right here. When I was pregnant with my first child, I had horrid morning sickness. Morning, noon and night sickness is more like it. One day, a co-worker of mine brought in some chunky apple breakfast bars. They were kind of like muffin texture, but in bar form. They were delicious. I ate and ate and ate those chunky apple breakfast bars. Then, within minutes of devouring the delicious bars, my child decided that he wanted to have nothing to do with those bars and decided to send them right back up. Sparing the details, that was the only day that I ended up going home from work my entire pregnancy. I was sooooo sick. Since then, that memory of the apple bars and my unruly tummy has been stuck in my brain. I could eat apple pie still, but any kind of other apple cake type thing turned my stomach upside down.

I have since decided that this is nonsense. Why should the memory of that one situation keep me away from something I loved so much? In order to show myself who is boss, I decided to start off slowly with some Apple Pie muffins. I didn’t want to go straight into the apple bars.. that would have been too crazy, but muffins I can handle, and did handle! These muffins with the small diced up apples, the lovely crispy topping, and the cinnamon flavor are amazing. My gag reflex didn’t even ignite once. Now, doesn’t that make you want one of these? Seriously, they are yummy!

Glad I took the chance on these. Now… if I can only just do something about that “bad guy” grabbing my feet in the middle of the night.

Apple Pie Muffins (adapted from Recipezaar)

45 min | 20 min prep

SERVES 18

The post Bad Guys & Apple Bars appeared first on Dine and Dish.

I am so tired of making apple pies. My husband loves apple pie. Every weekend he always asks “are you making me an apple pie this weekend?” He’s even willing to do the daunting task of peeling and slicing the apples if I make the crust and pie. I usually give in to his apple pie cravings and make him his precious pie. Sometimes I vary and try out new recipes, but they are still apple pies.…

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