"Apple Pie" Spiced Applesauce

Sometimes the simplest things to make are the ones I would never think of trying to make homemade. Applesauce for instance, up until it a few days ago it never crossed my mind to try and make it at home. I mean, its as simple as simmering apples in a blend of sugar, water and whatever spices you like- pretty easy. 

I was terribly sick last week and Josh had surgery (everythings ok!), we both needed something cold and refreshing for our sore throats so why not make applesauce? It's moderately healthy and oh-so yummy!

I also played around with spices a little bit and instead of doing a traditional apple sauce, I thought it would be fun to make it taste like apple pie. A little cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, & vanilla and all I was missing was the crust.

Apple Crumble

Have you ever had one of those spur-of-the-moment baking urges? Whether you were watching a cooking show or reading a recipe and realize you have all of the ingredients in your kitchen to make this dish and it sounds amazing RIGHT NOW. Well,  I had one of those moments last night. I was watching the food network Melissa D'Arabian's 10 Dollar Dinners and she made an apple crumble. It was cold outside, I was hungry, and I realized I have apples, cinnamon, sugar, flour, and butter.. I can totally make this right now! So that is what I did.

This crumble made my house smell amazing, exactly what "the holidays" should smell like. The best part about this crumble (and, well any crumble) is the topping! What isn't great about butter, sugar, and flour? I would have been satisfied just eating the entire bowl of crumble topping by itself.

Caramel Apple Upside Down Cake

Remember when I said I had lots of left over caramel from the other night, well I found this recipe for a caramel peach upside down cake, but since I also had a couple apples I decided to make it a Caramel apple upside down cake!

The recipe does have its own caramel recipe included, but I just used the cake batter part and used my own caramel

yom kippur & apple crostatas

It was Yom Kippur this past weekend (fri night-sat night) and as part of the holiday, we fast for that 24 hour period and no work is meant to be done. Once the sun has set on the second night, it is customary to have a big dinner to break the fast, which my family did. It is hard to have a dinner prepared when you are not supposed to be cooking during the day, so my go-to recipes are easy and mainly make-ahead dishes.

I'm only going to be posting about the dessert I made, but if anyone is interested about the main courses I made a variety of salads: spinach salad, curried chicken salad, egg salad, and potato salad. The chicken, potatoes, and eggs can be cooked the night before and the rest of the ingredients can be mixed in minutes before guests arrive.

The dessert I made, an apple crostata is basically a free-form tart. This recipe comes from my favorite chef, Giada De Laurentiis, with a few additions of my own. I love this dessert because it is rustic and virtually impossible to mess up. It is free-form, meaning you can shape it however you want, and it will always look yummy.  I also made a quick caramel sauce to drizzle on top.

Recipes and how-to pictures below!