A Lot About Nothing

A little while ago I went on a mini-road trip to Kingston, and one of my friend’s asked me (okay, she practically threatened me) if I could stop at this place called The Big Apple on the way and pick her up some apple pies. I’m thinking, what’s so special about this particular apple pie that you’re telling me to veer off the highway and make sure I get you a couple boxes when I get back to Toronto?

Boy, did I sure I find out when I tasted a juicy morsel. These pies were delicious!

The Big Apple is easy to see off the 401. About 1 1/2 hours from Toronto, there’s a giant apple that can be seen from the highway once you reach the city of Colborne and a short drive to the front doors from there. There’s a small petting zoo outside the grounds (including ducks, llamas and goats) and even a mini-putt golf course.

When you get inside the restaurant, you go through a couple of turn-styles and greeted with a large menu sign that lists all the pies available. The kitchen is also right there, so you can view the bakers making the pies. Once baked, the pies are put into colourful boxes and rested on the counter for customers to choose from. They go for a whopping $10 each, but it’s so worth it. Took me about a week to polish one off… that pie was huge.

There’s also non-apple things on the menu, such as fries, burgers and hot dogs. And of course they have candied apples. The only thing I still don’t understand which my friend had warned me about was their reluctance to provide forks to people who purchase whole pies. When my mom had ask for a fork the cashier had said that they were only for people who buy slices to eat in the restaurant. They’d probably make more money selling forks for 0.25¢ than by losing business of people who’d opt to buy a slice over a whole pie just to get a fork. I had to wait until I got home to eat my wonderful-smelling pie, but it was well worth the wait.

There were about 20 different types of flavoured apple pies to choose from. I purchased Apple-Maple (my favourite out of the two I got) and a Mumble Crumble. Others I was tempted to get were Apple-Strawberry and the Caramel Apple pies (next time!).

So if you’re in the GTA and planning a road trip east to somewhere like Ottawa or Montreal via the 401, make sure you make a stop at The Big Apple in Colborne, Ontario.

I usually don’t like eating bananas when they are too ripe, so when I remembered I had a couple of ripe bananas in my kitchen the other day, I decided to make a batch of banana muffins from scratch. I also wanted to make this batch a little different so I added an apple to the recipe, used sour cream to make the muffins soft, along with a brown sugar topping and ended up with a dozen tasty treats! Since I added the apple, I was also able to cut down on the amount of sugar that’s usually called for in regular banana muffin recipes. Feel free to substitute the oats for granola for the crunch topping, or omit the nuts.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Servings: 12 medium-large muffins

Ingredients:

Muffins:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup butter (melted, at room-tempurature)
2 large-sized bananas (ripe)
1 apple (peeled and diced)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Topping:
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup Quaker Oats
1 tbsp. flour
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tbsp. butter (melted, at room-temperature)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. For the topping: in a small bowl mix together the brown sugar, cinnamon, oats and melted butter with a spoon, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside.
3. For the muffins: In a medium-sized bowl, mash bananas with a fork or potato masher.
4. Using a wooden spoon, mix in the diced apples to the bananas. Then add the melted butter, vanilla, beaten egg and sour cream to the banana-apple mixture until blended.
5. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon.
6. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture until just combined. Fold in chopped walnuts, being careful not to over-mix.
7. Pour batter into a lightly greased or lined 12-cup muffin pan, about 3/4 full.
8. Sprinkle a small amount of the the sugar-oat topping on top of each banana-apple muffin.
9. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of a muffin comes out clean.
10. Cool in pan for 5-10 minutes before removing. Eat and enjoy!

I totally forgot to post some of the pics I took of all the goodies I baked over Christmas. Oh, well… better late then never!

Peppermint Swirl Cookies - One of the recipes I got from a holiday issue of Canadian Living. These came out really well.

Sugar Cookies - These were so yummy! Melt in your mouth!

Angel Food Cake - This was my first time making this type of cake from scratch… I didn’t realizes it would be so easy!

Peanut Brittle - My mom loved these… Got the recipe off allrecipes.com

I’m really lovin’ this Mexican food! I tried to make flan for the first time a couple Saturdays ago and it came out tasting delicious! There’s a bunch of different variations of flan recipes out there, but using my best judgment, I think the following ingredients make for a great-tasting, and low-fat-as possible flan dessert.

Ingredients:
2 whole eggs
4 egg whites
1 can (300mL) low-fat condensed milk
1 can (370mL) fat-free evaporated milk
1 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract

Equipment:
1 8-inch round glass/silicone dish
1 roasting pan (large enough for the 8-inch dish to fit in)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Pour sugar into a heavy saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir constantly to prevent burning until the sugar is liquefied and golden in colour. Quickly pour the caramelized sugar into the glass dish, swirling around the sides to coat the surface evenly. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, beat egg whites and egg yolks. Beat in the condensed milk, evaporated milk, vanilla and cinnamon until smooth. Pour egg mixture into the caramel-lined glass baking dish.
4. Place the baking dish in the roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with boiling water (enough to cover halfway up the sides of the glass dish). Bake for about 1 hour until the centre is just set. Cool for an hour on a wire rack, then chill in the fridge for several hours or overnight.
5. Run a knife around the edge of the glass dish and invert the flan onto a serving platter to unmold.

One of the things that I love about visiting the National Women’s Show is learning about new products (and of course freebies :D). One of these freebies that I got a couple weeks ago was a 15-pack of Sun-Rype Fruit Source Bars. There was a choice of strawberry or wildberry “plus veggie” flavours, so I opted to try the one with the veggies. I didn’t recall tasting these particular bars before (I usually buy the smaller Fruit-To-Go snack bars), but I’m glad that I did, because they are super-tasty!

Made with 100% fruit and vegetables, these bars contain fibre, potassium, Vitamin A and 3 servings of fruit and veggies in each one. I could hardly taste the carrots that are part of the ingredients, so the bar has a nice, naturally sweet taste. No artificial colours either, and it’s only 130 calories with no fat–perfect for that mid-morning snack. Chewy (but not sticky), these Fruit Source bars should be a staple in your kitchen when you want a healthy snack alternative