Alas, apple pie...

After my good fortune with the pancakes, and having an excellent pie dough recipe, I tried my luck with Google and apple pie. I found this one from Allrecipies.com. It boasts 101,000 saves, five stars, 3,800 reviews, 62 photos, and 68 custom versions. I made one yesterday. As many people commented about, I added cinnamon and vanilla, and I mixed part of the goo into the apples, then poured the rest on top as instructed. I baked per the original recipe. Smelled of heaven, looked nice. And...... meh.

What happened?? Well, all the thickening is on the top of the pie. When the apples juiced up, they soaked my beautiful bottom crust and made it mushy. It also needed some salt and a lot more spice. One teaspoon of cinnamon and one of vanilla just didn't do the trick for us. It was, well, ok. Not great. I was looking for outstanding. Guess the numbers don't always mean anything special. Next time I may look to Julia Childs.

Pancakes

Based on the notion that 77,000 people might know a good pancake recipe, I chose "Good Old Fashioned Pancakes" from Allrecipies.com: 4.5 stars, 4,550 reviews. I had my kids make them. It's really easy. Turns out, it's really good too. My husband liked it quite a bit. He's not really a pancake fan, and has not really liked any of the other recipes I've tried. Go figure. ;)

LAL's Cinnamon Rolls

Quest for the Ultimate Cinnamon Roll: Completed!

A friend and I have discussed cinnamon rolls for months now. In fact, more like a couple of years. Here is the current revision of the recipe.

What we talk about really is how amazing TJ Cinnamons® cinnamon rolls were, and how sad it is that you can no longer get them. We alternated trying recipes. We tried Alton Brown. Tried an old recipe I had saved long ago. Tried one from the Bread Baker's Apprentice. Tried the filling from King Arthur Flour. I've lost track of all the recipes we tried. They mostly make good cinnamon rolls, and our family and friends enjoyed eating them. But, somehow, they always missed the mark. I started to doubt my memory of the amazing rolls, now lost to a fast-food chain, and modified beyond recognition. Googling for TJ Cinnamons® turned up dozens of copies of the same recipe that, just from reading it, I knew by now was not worth trying. So I looked instead for old recipes, and found one called "Mom’s Cinnamon Rolls" by Amy on October 11, 2009.

Finally, this sounded about right.

Cheesy Breakfast Beans

As you might suspect from the title, this is not really a baking recipe. But it is quite good, and made a great substitute for cheese grits. It is here because I like it. :) It also helps make up for the sugar-shock of having cinnamon rolls for breakfast on other days. :D  I think it would also qualify as a low-carb recipe.

Sliders, Yum!

We made sliders at home, and they were definitely worth the trouble. We used Alton Brown's recipe, and added home-made buns from King Arthur Flour. Two of my favorite food sites, together making something wonderful! They're great in a sack-lunch too.