Do Again

I married a VERY picky man. To put it bluntly, he only wants gourmet food. Period. And he does not grade on a five star level. There is only one approval. A "Do Again" (DA). Thus the title of this blog! Gourmet Man has on more than one occasion eaten one bite of dinner and put his plate in the sink and had left overs from the night before (like last night! And I actually thought it was very good, but none the less... NOT a DA!)

So, I am for my own good and personal organizing starting this blog to keep track of the DAs and and Never Make This Agains (NMTA)! My Gourmet Man has impeccable taste, so I trust if he likes it you will too...

Our First Winner of the DA award goes to my new idol... The Pioneer Woman. I would like to be just like her, one day, but since I chase 2 year old triplets around all day and get so little done compared to what I would like- I doubt it will ever happen!

Her recipe for Apple Dumplings is AMAZING. My brother-in-law College Boy claimed "This is better than Apple Pie" and my other brother-in-law the Other Twin nearly disowned Gourmet Man when he ate the last piece! To keep a family feud from occurring I rushed to the store for supplies and made another batch! (Oh, I have not had a taste of these bad boys as this recipe was discovered while I was on a diet!) Needless to say, I am not wasting my time making an apple pie this Thanksgiving, especially since this takes nearly no time to prepare and only 40 minutes to bake!

I did tweak the recipe, which I always do to any recipe. I omitted the Mountain Dew and substituted Ginger Ale as I do not believe in consuming neon yellow anything! I also used part brown sugar instead of all white sugar. Here is my tweaked version- but in no way to claim this recipe as my own! All homage goes to Ree, the Pionner Woman!

Tweaked Pioneer Woman Apple Dumplings

2 Granny Smith Apples, peeled, cored and sliced into 16 slices
2 Packages of Crescent Rolls in the tube (8 rolls per package)
1 cup Melted Butter
1 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 cup White Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
8 oz Ginger Ale
Cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Butter 9 x 13 inch pan. Roll each apple slice in a crescent roll by placing slice on the widest end of the crescent roll and wrapping the narrow end around the apple. Place in a 9 x 13 buttered pan leaving a space between. I put 6 vertically next to each other then four horizontally across the middle and another 6 vertically(does that make sense?) Melt butter, then add sugars and barely stir- this mixture needs to be grainy. Add vanilla, stir, and pour over apples wrapped in crescent rolls. Pour Ginger Ale around the edges of dumplings. Sprinkle with a generous sprinkling of cinnamon and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. DO NOT OVER BAKE! They should be brown and beautiful.

These babies are best served warm with ice cream, but Gourmet Man, Other Twin and College Boy all ate them cold and plain and still raved like mad!

I will warn you these go fast and are not healthy in any sense of the word! I made batches in 3 days and the second batch did not last 24 hours (and remember I have not had one taste yet!)