In the kitchen

My kitchenaid was given a work out this week with these new recipes! :-)

First, easy apple tart with homemade pie crust, courtesy of the next Food Network Star Melissa Darabian. Bookmark this one ladies! While practice makes perfect, I'm happy to say my first try didn't turn out half bad, and was greeted with great reviews. *Lesson learned-best served fresh out of the oven, warm and ooey gooey good. :-) Post picture, I made a whip cream topping with some cinnamon to garnish. Maybe next time around I'll tackle the crumble topping. Maybe...

Next-melt in your mouth, take that Quaker Oats, homemade granola bars. I'm so excited to eat these for breakfast this week, and feel like this is a must have mommy recipe. Because I needed to re-use the dish for Rice Crispy treats, I went ahead and cut the bars out and pre-packed into snack sized, ziplock bags. And voile, breakfast is served! *Lesson learned-adding a little extra honey and butter goes a long way in the texture(more chewy, less crumbly). Also, I substituted a 1/2 of rice crispies with the Oates and really enjoyed the result.

And last but not least, the cake boss' special recipe for Chocolate chip cookies-simple and delicious! In spite of his loud Italian heritage, I heart Buddy the cake boss, and was super excited to catch him on the Rachael Ray show last week. A little piece of "Carlos Bakery" in my own kitchen! This is a clean, classic, tried and true choco-chip cookie recipe, and makes enough to freeze for later(love love love it when that happens). *Lesson learned-who knew you could taste the difference between light and dark brown sugar? Okay, just me? Blush.... Also, if you've run out of baking soda-or vacuumed it all up as I did-you can substitute baking powder by using 3x the amount baking soda required.

I have to say that Yankee Candle can't touch the sweet smell of golden chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven, or fresh apple pie with a pinch of cinnamon swimming in the living room air. There's nothing like a warm stove, clean kitchenaid, pink measuring cups and a favored, flour crusted apron to make my afternoon!

Recipe sources:
Quick cinnamon apple tart
Homemade granola bars
Buddy's chocolate chip cookies