The first time I ever made an apple pie, it didn't go so well. I think I cheated and used a pre-made crust, but I spent a lot of time peeling, coring, and slicing apples. I put it all together and was excited about how amazing it smelled. And then I cut into it and found that there was a pool inside my pie. All of the apple slices were hanging out in a crazy amount of delicious-smelling liquid. Mocking me. I hate kitchen failures, but I really hate baking failures. So I didn't give up but I did get smart and take a pie class at a local cooking school.

While the class was great and taught me a lot (and boy did I have a lot of questions for that poor instructor), the pie crust recipe never worked outside of the class. I hate that. However, I got the recipe for this amazing apple streusel pie, and this alone made the price of the class well worth it. If you like apple pie, brown sugar, and oatmeal cookies, you will love this pie. Like shove it in your face love it. Essentially it is a thick brown sugar oatmeal cookie on top of an apple pie. I swoon. I had to get this pie out of my house because I had resigned myself that I would eat the entire thing, fork by fork, until it was gone. I figured it would take me a week or so, but I knew I could and would do it. I had zero will power when it came to this pie. So when my parents called looking for a dessert, I happily told them they could eat the rest of my pie. Let them test their will power! I highly recommend you make this for Thanksgiving and Christmas and every other time of year when the calling for pie hits because this one is absolutely incredible.

Apple Streusel Pie Recipe
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1 9-inch pie crust, unbaked

For the filling:
3-4 cups Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and sliced (about 3 apples)
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon butter, melted

For the streusel topping:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup oats
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons butter, cold (1 1/2 sticks)

Press the pie crust into the pie plate and crimp the edges.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and move a rack to the lower third of your oven. This should keep the pie crust from browning too rapidly.

In a large bowl, stir together the sugar, cornstarch, and cinnamon. Add the apples and toss to coat. Drizzle the lemon juice and melted butter on top of the apples and stir until coated. Spoon into the prepared pie crust.
 
To make the streusel topping, mix together the flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Use a pastry blender or fork to cut the cold butter into the brown sugar mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs. Pour this mixture on top of the apples, making sure it goes all the way to the crust. It's a lot of topping, but you'll want to use all of it.  

Bake for 50-60 minutes or until the pie is bubbly around the edges. Check the pie halfway through to ensure the crust isn't getting too brown on the top. If it is, cover it loosely with foil. Let cool before serving.  

Recipe from Kitchen Table Cooking School

It may surprise some of the people who know me, but I haven't always been a baking and cooking enthusiast. Through high school, I regularly ate parmesan noodles and grilled cheese sandwiches. When I was a single girl, I was all about pasta, pasta, and more pasta. I bought treats from the grocery store. (I know, right? I couldn't even splurge for bakery treats.) If I made chocolate chip cookies, it was purely so I could store the dough in fridge and chow down on it over a couple of days. (I wanted to say a week there to make myself look a little better but we're all friends here, right?) And then when I got too lazy to do that, I bought the packaged cookie dough (again from the store) and kept that in my fridge. I'm not saying that I never baked...every year before Christmas, my mom and I made a large assortment of cookies from her 1974 red Betty Crocker cookbook that she got from her mom at her bridal shower, I made boxed brownies, and cakes from mixes.

My first cookbooks were ones on how to doctor up cake mixes, recipes for your bread machine, Cooking for One (yikes! Singledom!), and Weight Watchers for when I thought I weighed more than I should, which is extremely ironic because now I wish that I weighed what I weighed back then and I don't have that cookbook anymore. In fact, I don't think I ever made a recipe from it either. 

So when did I make the turn you ask? I think it was mainly when I started dating my now-husband, Shamus. I knew that I couldn't get away with serving pasta for every meal (although I tried and now he has a serious aversion to it). Cooking for two is so much more fun and interesting than cooking for yourself. I started baking more regularly, too. He loves chocolate chip cookies, so I set out to find the perfect recipe since I actually had to start baking my cookies. I took a community college cake decorating class before I met him and learned some good tricks and slowly started to bake more often. Getting a Kitchen Aid mixer certainly helped me want to bake more often. 

One day I was baking with a friend, and we were going to make sugar cookies and oatmeal raisin cookies. I was making my family recipe for the sugar cookies, but I wanted to find a great recipe for soft and flavorful oatmeal raisin cookies. I did some internet hunting and found this one. I'm in love with these. They're soft and stay soft (because that's what makes a good cookie in my opinion), and they have wonderful spices. They're perfect at any time of the year, but they're especially great during fall with lots of cinnamon and cloves. If you have raisins that have been sitting in your pantry for awhile (guilty!), letting them soak in hot water for about 10 minutes really plumps them up and softens them. I highly recommend it.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies Recipe
Makes about 40 cookies
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1 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups oats
1 cup raisins

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and spray baking sheets with non-stick spray.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugars with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl as needed. Add in the vanilla, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt and mix until combined. Mix in the flour and then add the oats. Once the oats are fully incorporated, mix in the raisins.

Form the cookie dough into one-inch balls and place 2 inches apart from each other on the greased cookie sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are lightly brown. Cool for two minutes on the sheet before removing to a flat surface to cool completely. Store in an airtight container or bag.

Source: I don't remember where I got it...maybe Allrecipes? If you know, please tell me!

I have a confession to make...I've never had granola. The thing is, I don't like yogurt. At all. And since most people (I think) put their granola on top of yogurt, it's not something I've ever really been interested in. Until, that is, I saw it on this website. I love pumpkin, and I love pumpkin/fall spices. So you pair that with some oatmeal and other mix-ins and then bake it, I can get behind that.

When I read the recipe, it looked like a lot of sugar to me. While I like sugar, if I'm really going to be eating my calories at breakfast, I want a croissant or a cinnamon roll. Granola is supposed to be healthy, right? So I cut down the sugar. This (obviously) makes it less sweet, but I think it's great. I went light on the mix-ins and only added in larger amounts of raisins, pumpkin seeds, and pecans. Most people are more adventurous than me, so I'm going to include the recipe for all the mix-ins below. Feel free to add/subtract whatever you want. You can definitely make this recipe what you want. And certainly serve it over a container of yogurt, or if you're like me, in a bowl of milk.

Pumpkin Granola Recipe
Makes 4-5 cups
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3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 cups old-fashioned oats
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup pecan halves, chopped
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup unsweetened coconut
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

In a large bowl, stir together the pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, salt, brown sugar, maple syrup, and vanilla. Add in the oats and other mix-ins and stir until everything is coated and combined.

Spread onto the baking sheet in a single layer and bake for 20 minutes. Stir and then bake for another 15-20 minutes. Let cool completely; it will harden/crisp as it cools. Store in an airtight container or bag.
 
Source: Barely adapted from A Bitchin' Kitchen who adapted it from Pastry Affair

What's better than an oatmeal cookie and chocolate fudge together? Um, nothing. My friend, Adria, sent me this recipe over a year ago. In fact, it was closer to two years ago, and now I'm kicking myself that I haven't been enjoying these beauties that long. The funny thing is that what stopped me was that the instructions said to cook the fudge on the stovetop, and I was too lazy to do that. When I finally made them, I put all the fudge ingredients into a microwave-safe bowl, and melted them until smooth. Problem solved for this lazy bones. I still can't believe that's what stopped me. The girl who cooked and stirred 15 pounds of fudge last year during the holidays.  

These take a little bit of time because you have to make the cookie mixture and the fudge, but everything bakes at once, so it's not too bad. I also halved the recipe, which was a great idea for me (since on the day I made these, I also made salted caramel brownies and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream sandwiches). If you're going to a BBQ this summer, bring these. Your friends will be thrilled.

Oatmeal Fudge Bars Recipe
Makes a 9x13 pan
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For the cookie bars:
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/2 cups oats
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

For the fudge filling:
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and grease a 9x13 pan.

In a stand mixer or using an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugars. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix. Stir in the baking soda, salt, and cinnamon until combined. Mix in the flour until combined and the oats until combined. Press a little more than half of the mixture into the bottom of the pan.

In a saucepan, cook the chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk, butter, salt, and vanilla over medium low heat until creamy (you also could do this in the microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring in between). Pour this mixture over the dough in the pan, but avoid pouring it near the edges. Flatten pieces of the remaining dough and put on top of the fudge. You'll want to leave windows for the fudge to peek through.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until topping is light brown and fudge is set. Cool for 30 minutes and store at room temperature.

When I was little, I ate oatmeal all the time. And by oatmeal I mean the convenient flavored packets. At my office, a lot of people eat oatmeal for breakfast, including myself. However, there's something about those packets that makes me wonder. For one, I always have a funky taste in my mouth after I eat them. Secondly...what exactly is in that powder? Also, have you ever read the ingredient list for the strawberries and cream or peaches and cream flavors? Those "strawberries" or "peaches" that you're eating actually are dehydrated apples, and then there is flavoring to make it taste like the fruit. That seems a liiiiittle devious to me. Yet despite all those factors, I was still eating the packets. Until now.

I came across this recipe on the Sprinkled With Flour blog and immediately was intrigued. I had never had steel cut oats before, but they're good--they have some texture to them. In case you've never had them, let me save you a head-scratching minute of standing in the breakfast aisle looking at the oats. They're not there. They're in the fancy flours section (or the organic section). I found them at my regular grocery store with all the small Bob's Red Mill bags...those little bags with the yellow or blue labels.

The great thing about these is that you boil the oats at night, place them in the individual jars, and let them sit on the counter overnight. The next morning, you add your sweetener/spices/fruit and stick them in the fridge. There's a bit of prep work involved, but it's so easy when you're ready to eat. You can grab a jar, take it to work or wherever, microwave it, and eat. No more packets with questionable ingredients! The original recipe calls for 6 jars, but I switched this to 8 because I don't like to eat a lot for weekday breakfasts. Plus, it was hard to stir in the add-in ingredients, and when I heated them up in the microwave they overflowed. So your jars will be a little less full than the ones in my pictures. If you like a big breakfast or you're making them for hungry people, I would use 6 or 7 jars. Or you can use bigger jars, too. 

Update (April 17, 2012): I ate my last jar this morning (more than 2 weeks after I made them), and it still tasted great. It didn't have any fruit in it, so I'm not sure how long those would last. If you have jars with just spices in them, you can keep them for at least 2 weeks in the fridge.

Grab and Go Oatmeal
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1 2/3 cups steel cut oats
4 cups water
Pinch of salt

8 half-pint jars (8 ounces)

In a large saucepan, combine the oats, water, and salt and bring to a boil. Boil for 3 minutes and then turn off the heat. Using a large spoon or ladle, spoon the oats and water into the jars. Cover tightly and let sit on the counter overnight.

The next morning, add the spices/sweetener/fruit for the flavors you want. I used sugar, but I think you could use Splenda or another sweetener with good results. I recommend starting with 1 tablespoon sugar and 1/8 teaspoon of spice. I ended up doubling both of those, but you can adjust according to your tastes. Here's the flavor combinations I tried:
 
Strawberry:
1 tablespoon sugar
1 strawberry cut into pieces

Brown sugar cinnamon:
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

Cinnamon raisin:
1 tablespoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
2-3 tablespoons raisins

Apple cinnamon:
1 tablespoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 of a Granny Smith apple peeled and cut into small pieces. Microwave with a splash of lemon juice for 30 seconds to 1 minute until soft.

Cinnamon spice:
1 tablespoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
Dash nutmeg

Stir the ingredients of your desired flavor and 2 tablespoons of milk (optional) into the jars. Seal tightly and store in the fridge. When you're ready to eat, microwave for 2-3 minutes until hot. You also can add the milk before or after you microwave them.

Once peaches come into season or I have enough motivation to buy a bag of frozen peaches, I plan on trying peaches with 1 tablespoon sugar, too.

My favorite flavor so far is the apple cinnamon. Love it. The cinnamon raisin is good, but the raisins get very plump sitting in the liquid for so long. If you aren't a fan of that, I would make it without the raisins and then add the raisins in right before you microwave it to eat.

Source: Barely adapted from Sprinkled With Flour