Apple Crisp, in an Apple

Despite the many things I love about fall, apples are one of my favourite.  I absolutely love the Honeycrisp apple.  If you have ever had it, you know why.  It's soft, but not too soft, sweet but not too sweet, with a little bit of a bite.  I also happen to REALLY love apple crisp.  So, when my mom gave us a few of their Honeycrisp apples last week, I decided to try and make apple crisp, in 2 of the apples.  I based this recipe off of my mom's apple crisp recipe, although, there are TONS of recipes online for these apple crisp apples.

Materials and Ingredients:

- cutting board and knife

- spoon

- bowl

- baking dish

- apples (which ever variety you choose.  I used Honeycrisp)

- cinnamon

- white sugar

- butter

- white flour

Directions:

1.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Then take just the top part of your apple off.  I sliced about half a centimetre off the top of the apple to make it flat.

2. Start hollowing out your apple with the spoon.  Make sure to separate the core from the rest of the delicious apple insides.  Keep the 'good,' apple aside in the bowl. If you are worried about the apples turning brown, just add a little lemon juice to them to prevent that from happening.

3.  Once cleaned out (leave about a centimetre of apple against the peel) take all of the apple insides and cut it up into smaller pieces.  Add the apple pieces back into the bowl.  Add approximately a teaspoon of white sugar, and half a teaspoon of cinnamon. I honestly just poured some in.  If you like it more sweet, add more sugar, if you like it more cinnamon-y, add more cinnamon!

4.     Put your hollowed out apples into the baking dish (I lined mine with parchment, not necessary, I just hate mess...).  Then spoon the apple mixture back into the apples.

5.  Take about 2 tablespoons of butter and melt it.  In a separate bowl, put approximately 3 tablespoons of brown sugar, and 1 table spoon of flour.  Slowly add the melted butter and using a fork, press together so you get a 'crumb like' consistency. 

    

6.  Put this deliciousness on top of the apples, and bake for 35 minutes.

These were absolutely delicious!  Next time (and there will be a next time) I personally would leave them in a bit longer.  The apple wall, and some of the larger apple chunks were a bit too crunchy for me.  But for a cool, Sunday morning, these apples make for a great brunch.  This cat was definitely alive!

Mashed Potato Balls

Alright, we have my first semi failure! I have had this recipe on my Pinterest for a year or so, and never got around to making it...until now.  I was craving something crunchy, cheesy, salty and potato-y.  I figured this would be a great idea!  I based my attempt off of this recipe from Tablespoons (by Bev Cooks): Loaded Cheesy Mashed Potato Balls

I did not have chives, so I substituted them for green onions. I am a huge fan of cheese, so I added a little bit of Parmesan to the recipe. I also really like hot sauce, so I added some hot sauce to mine as well. 

Ingredients and Materials:

- mixing bowl
- fork
- package of instant mashed potatoes (cooked to package specifications)
- 3/4 cup of cheese
- 1 Tbsp of Parmesan cheese
- 2 green onions chopped up
- 3-4 pieces of crisp, cooked bacon
- 1 large egg
- 1 Tbsp of dried parsley
- 1 1/2 cups of Panko (or other breading)
- large pot
- 4 cups of oil (for frying)

Directions:

1.  Make the instant mashed potatoes (according to the package) and let them sit.  They can be plain, or flavoured.  I used garlic flavoured ones.  Make sure you let them cool to be room temperature (I even put mine in the fridge for a bit to cool down.).

2.  While the potatoes are cooling, take this time to shred your cheese, chop the onions (or chives) and crumble your bacon.  Measure out any other ingredients that you will be using and have them ready.  Put your Panko into a shallow dish, so it will be easier to coat the potato balls in it.

3.  Add of your ingredients into the mashed potato bowl, and stir to combine (a fork works nicely for this).

4.  Make balls about 1 inch in diameter, and place into your Panko (or other bread crumbs).  Roll the ball around in the panko and place on a cookie sheet for 15 minutes to set, and cool.

5.  Heat up the oil in your pot.  Make sure that it is hot enough before putting your first ball in.  If you are unsure, grab some Panko and put it in.  If it bubbles and starts to float, the oil is ready.

6.  This is where I did something wrong.  Shortly after my potato ball went in the oil, the whole thing started to disintegrate!  I'm not sure if the oil wasn't hot enough, the potatoes were too wet, or too warm.  In the original recipe they are suppose to fry up and become a delicious, golden brown.  All I had left were Panko globs, and bacon chunks.  So I devised a new plan! 

7.  My potato balls were already resting on the cookie sheet, so I decided to crank my oven to 450 degrees.  I baked them for about 25 minutes.

8.  Although they didn't come out really golden brown, the egg at least got cooked, and they were slightly crunchy.

I served the potato balls with a spicy sour cream (sour cream and Sriracha). They did end up being quite tasty.  They were not quite as brown as I would have liked them, so I might leave them in longer next time.  You could definitely play around with this recipe adding other things to the balls (shredded meat, sautéed mushroom or onions, herbs, corn etc.).   I would say that the cat was dead when we opened the box, but we resuscitated it, and it was on life support. I would also say that I realized I am not a mature 27 year old, because I giggled a little bit most times I wrote, or  said balls while writing this post. :D