I love to make fruit crisps during the summer and fall months. From strawberry rhubarb crisp in the spring to apple crisp in the fall. One of my favorites is an apple peach crisp. Yum! I’ve made it twice so far this summer, and the second time I even remembered to get a few photos before it was all gone. This is a wonderful dish for a pot luck dinner, or to make ahead and freeze for a holiday dish later.

Here it is served up with some delicious homemade ice cream! Yum!

Apple Peach Crisp

Ingredients:
4-5 large sweet apples, I used Gala
5 large or 6 medium peaches
2 cups oatmeal ( I like slow cook)
3/4 cup coconut oil (or Canola)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1.Preheat your oven to 350`F.

2. Peel, remove the seeds, and slice the apples and peaches into a 9×9 baking dish, sprayed with non stick cooking spray, or lined with a little of the coconut oil.

3. Sprinkle the 1/2 the cinnamon, and about 1/4 cup of the sugar over the apples and peaches.

4. In a mixing medium bowl mix together the oats, the rest of the sugar, the oil, the rest of the cinnamon, and the vanilla.

5. Pour the oat mixture over the top of the fruit, and spread evenly.

6. Bake at 350`F for about 35-40 minutes.

I took my last crisp to a family reunion last weekend, and there was nothing left in the dish when it was time to come home! So I would say it was a hit.

I’ve been toying with the idea of baking pumpkin blondies for a couple years now. This week I decided I would give them a try, so I dug in and browsed through quite a few recipes, both online and off. In the end I decided to combine a simple blondie recipe, with a pumpkin pie recipe and see what happened.

The pumpkin blondies turned out great, I baked them in a 9×9 baking dish, but I wish I would have used a 9×13 for a thinner bar. I made the blondies and the pumpkin separate, then swirled them together in the baking dish.

Pumpkin Pie Blondies

First up the Blondies:

• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups flour

1. Preheat the oven to 350`F.
2. Lightly coat a 9×9 baking dish with no stick cooking spray (again I think a 9×13 would work better).
3. In one mixing bowl mix together the flour and baking powder.
4. In another bowl cream together the melted butter, vanilla, sugar, and eggs.
5. Add the flour slowly to the butter and egg mixture.
6. Spread in the bottom of your baking dish.

The Pumpkin Pie Layer:

• 1~ 15 oz can of pure pumpkin
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 2 large eggs

1. Mix all the ingredients together, then pour them over the top of the blondie base.
2. Use a butter knife to swirl the pumpkin layer into the blondie layer. Just run the knife through the whole mixture once or twice to fold the two lightly togethe
3. Bake at 350`F for 50 minutes to an hour, or until it is done all the way through.

It turned out to be a wonderful fall combination, the blondies are thick and chewy with wonderful flavor. I think I’ll definitely make them again, or maybe try the combination in mini muffin pans to make a small tartlet.

I’m behind yet again getting this posted! I can’t believe it’s November already. Thanksgiving and Christmas are both right around the corner. Are you ready for the holidays? I have to say I’m always excited for the holidays to get here, but this year I’m feeling rushed already. There’s been sooo much going on. There’s usually a break between summer and the holiday rush, but this year it seems like things have been non stop.

I do have some wonderful crafty (and foodie) links to share with you this week. Hopefully I can get back on track and post these on time next week! We’ll see! Enjoy!

• Six Sayings ~Just some fun hand written fonts and sayings

• Beading Arts~ Cyndi just finished a 45 hour project that reused antique steel cut seed beads…and some steel buttons!
• Cthulhu Ski Mask and Mittens~ A crocheted Halloween costume for the geek or H.P. Lovecraft fan in your life.
• Creative Dreamer~ Cookies are one of the simple pleasures in life… and when you can “remake” a recipe to make it your own, it can be lots of fun… come see what I did to alter a recipe, and its name, to create my own version.
• Eileen – The Artful Crafter~ There are various options for printing greeting cards onto glossy photo paper. Here are some money-saving tips from Eileen.
• Rice Krispy Treat Turkey~ These are fun to make, and they’re sure to be a hit at your Thanksgiving party.

I’ve been really hungry for pumpkin cheesecake lately, so I decided tonight I was going to make one. A friend of mine gave me a recipe for pumpkin cheesecake several years ago, but I couldn’t find it in my recipe box tonight. Not sure what I’ve done with it.

I decided to give Paula Deen’s pumpkin cheesecake recipe a try, so here is my adapted version of the recipe. I’m never good at following a recipe perfectly, I always have to make a few little changes. Plus after two trips to the grocery store in one day, I didn’t have any sour cream in the fridge (head slap).

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Crust:

• 1 3/4 cups graham cinnamon cracker crumbs
• 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 1 stick melted salted butter

Filling:

• 3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 (15-ounce) can pureed pumpkin
• 3 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350`F. Mix the crust ingredients together, then pat them in the bottom of a Non Stick 9-Inch Springform Pan.

Beat the cream cheese to soften it up. Combine all the filling ingredients in a large bowl, until they’re all well mixed together. Pour the filling on top of the crust. Put the springform pan into a little larger baking dish, and put an inch of water in the bottom of the baking dish. Slide the whole thing in the oven and bake it for one hour.

Once the cheesecake is finished baking remove it from the oven and let it sit for about 15-20 minutes. Then cover it with plastic wrap and slide it in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours. I put mine in the fridge over night.

We ate some of the cheesecake in slices, but I used some to make these adorable pumpkin cheesecake pops, dipped in white chocolate. One thing led to another, and I ended up dipping the pumpkin cheesecake pops in melted orange chocolate to make little pumpkin cheesecake pumpkins (hop over and check them out I posted them at The Kid’s Birthday Fun Review).