5 Star Brownies......

Do you ever just need chocolate? I decided to try out this from scratch brownie recipe and they were delicious.

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1/4 cup shortening, melted
• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup baking cocoa
• 1-1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1 cup chopped nuts, optional

Directions:

• In a large bowl, beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla until blended. Beat in butter and shortening until smooth. Combine the flour, cocoa and salt; gradually add to egg mixture. Stir in nuts if desired.
• Line a 13-in. x 9-in. baking pan with foil and grease the foil; pour batter into pan. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack.
• Using foil, lift brownies out of pan. Discard foil. Cut with a star cutter or into bars. Yield: about 3 dozen.

German Apple Pie

This is a super easy recipe. I usually used a tart apple like granny smith, which hold up the best for baking. This time I used some of the free apples that the kids and I found down by the library. They are a nice tart apple like the granny smith and the hubby thought the pie tasted great.

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 c. sour cream
1/3 c. flour
1 c. sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
4 cups of apples
pie crust of choice

Mix together the the first 5 ingredients & then add the sliced apple. Mix together well and pour into pie crust. You can either top it with another crust or make up a crumb topping. For my crumb topping is use: 1/2 c sugar, 1/2 c. flour, & 1/4 c. cold butter. Cut butter into the flour & sugar till it forms a crumb mixture.

Bake pie at 350 degrees for about 1 1/2 hours. Let cool & enjoy! Refrigerate if the whole pie is not devoured.