I Hope There's Pudding!

In case you were wondering, the only thing more American than fried apple pie, is fried apple pie with ice cream.  This week brought us to Oklahoma where the fried pies are the chosen dessert. I found a seemingly easy recipe and was excited to dive in. That was a bit of sarcasm. I hate dicing apples and making pie crusts. This recipe had both. Regardless, I sucked it up and prepared myself for the task on hand. First up... Dicing the apples. Three apples later, it was done. Thank goodness... I almost broke a sweat.  Next came the pie crust. Pie crusts are finicky and delicate. I do not enjoy them. But with (what I thought) the hardest parts out of the way, I moved on to filling and frying. The making the filling part was easy... Cook the apples in spices, water, and sugar. Easy enough.  Then came the filling. I thought I hated dicing and pie crusts... No. Filling the dreaded crusts with the dreaded diced apples, was an arduous task. The syrup fr

Every time I visit Ross or Home Goods on a mission to find something, I usually come across something I love. This specific journey, I was looking for a bundt cake pan. The recipe I found for a Meyer Lemon Cake was a bundt cake one. I didn't already own one and decided it would be a worthy addition to my collection.  I struck gold with the one I found. Because it sure made a beautiful cake... This was as delicious as it was beautiful. The recipe used made more than enough batter for my pan. I may have overfilled the pan a little bit, as my oven had a little bit of cake shared with it on the bottom. There was also this... Due to the overfilling of the pan, I had to bake the cake for a little bit longer than the recipe required. This yielded a little bit more brown of a cake than I prefer. This also made it a little tough around the edges. Fortunately, the glaze hid the over-baking and it was still delicious. This cake makes a delicious addition with coff

Watch this Video Before Reading Glad to be back in the saddle again, cross country baking with the best little sister known to man (or woman). We started off this year with North Carolina (sweet potato pie) and California (meyer lemon cake) because they both required produce that is in season. There's no clear winner in my book, both for desserts and states. North Carolina I have converted a number of Californians to sweet potato pie. I use a personal recipe that has developed over time, and uses bourbon. The bourbon is key, as are the candied pecans. (Also, using sweet potatoes and not yams.) Here she is: Comments on this pie include: --"The best pie I have ever eaten." -- Huge Notre Dame Fan --"I'm on the fence. It's good, but I'm not sure it's the best ever." -- Queen B --"I love it! Except for the sweet potato part." -- Random 7-Year Old I am also nearly certain that I only get invites to Thanksgiving because of th

I have a confession to make... For the longest time, I was very anti-sweet potato. There was no real rhyme or reason to it. I just did. But have no fear, I am Team Sweet Potato and I am a changed woman. Especially with this pie. Jennifer and I decided to renew the challenge this year after debating on it a few times previously. We started in the great state of North Carolina since sweet potatoes are currently in season. This pie... let me tell you. It was delicious. With the sweet potatoes and the maple whipped cream... I was in heaven. It is very simple to make. A little consuming, solely based on baking the sweet potatoes beforehand. The recipe I used made way too much filling for just one pie and I made a second crustless version. It was not as good as the original, but still tasty. I am a fan will definitely be making this one again! Love, Amanda Recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/calleys-sweet-potato-pie-recipe-2085595

Dessert is coming for you. XOXO, America

THE BEST COOKIES OF ALL TIME* For Alaska, I wanted to try Agutuk (Akutaq), which was described by the internet as: This is the most Alaskan of desserts, though only a few hardy travelers try it. Native Alaskans create this “Eskimo Ice Cream” by mixing seal oil, reindeer fat, snow, and berries. The ingredients are hand-whipped until they form a foam. Sugar is not traditional but adds fluffiness. This food was originally eaten for survival rather than as a treat, and recipes have been passed down through generations of Native families. Other traditional ingredients include moose, caribou, and fish. Modern variations often include Crisco. ASN, the party pooper, wanted none of this, complaining that she wouldn't be able to find reindeer fat. THE INTERNET defeats ASN. (She was unconcerned by the utter lack of snow in Raleigh, apparently.) So we decided upon Tongass Forest Cookies, which sounded positively yucky, and which the internet admitted had no origin story. But,