Apple Cinnamon Syrup

I am making apple chips, and I got a little overzealous slicing a boatload of apples, only to realize that the dehydrator would only fit like half of what I sliced.  I hate wasting food, so I decided to salvage the leftover apple slices since otherwise they would go bad.  I threw them in a sauce pan (with no idea at the time what they would turn out to be) with other random things around the house and this is what I ended up making:

Pancakes with cinnamon apple syrup! (no, the apples did not end up making pancakes, the pancakes were just the medium on which to eat the apple syrup).

The recipe is below, but like usual when cooking on the stove top, I didn't measure. Anything. I literally threw things together until it looked and smelled right.

Ingredients:

Apples (mine were sliced, but only because their original purpose in life was to become apple chips; if I were making this again I would probably cut them like I was making apple pie)

Apple Juice

Brown Sugar

Cinnamon

Pumpkin Pie Spice (or nutmeg, I really only used it for the nutmeg..)

Directions:

Throw apples in a sauce pan with enough apple juice to submerge them.  Turn heat on to medium-high and stir in brown sugar (taste frequently! I didn't measure this traditionally, but I did taste measure--you don't want this to be overly sweet!).  Stir in as much cinnamon as you want (again with the tasting).  I added a few dashes of pumpkin pie spice to add a little nutmeg; cinnamon is the major spice here, though, so I added a ton of that.  Stir together until liquid dissolves the sugar and spices.  Let it boil and reduce for... a while.  I didn't check the time, I just kept checking on it and stirring every now and then to make sure it was all still mixed together and not burning.  I did take pictures, though.

At first it looked like this:

Really liquidy and boiling little teeny foamy bubbles.  After it was done it looked like this:

Darker in color, and a real syrup consistency.  Then I put it on pancakes because delicious syrup needs pancakes or waffles to make its life complete.

And yes, I ate breakfast for dinner. :)

Lemon Blueberry Cookies

I made these up the other day when I really wanted cookies but we had like nothing in the house, and Campus Cookies had closed for the Summer.  I found some random things that we typically always have on hand:

...also remembering the delicious Lemon Blueberry cake from Our Daily Bread, I decided this was awesomeness waiting to happen (and it was).

Ingredients:

1 batch of sugar cookie dough (you can make this from scratch from whatever recipe you prefer, or be lazy like me when hungry and prepare a mix)

2 lemons (this may change depending on how big your batch is. Remember, I hate measuring when cooking, and I rarely, if ever, do.)

2 cups of blueberries (same comment as above. Also, this probably will taste better using fresh fruit, but all I had at the time was frozen..)

Directions:

Prepare cookie dough.  Zest 2 (or however many you prefer) lemons and stir zest into dough.  If the dough doesn't taste lemony enough to your liking you can always use a squeeze or 2 of said lemons; it really just depends on how much lemon you like.  I added an extra squeeze of juice because when it comes to citrus, I believe you can never have too much.  That's the Floridian in me, for sure.  Next mix in the blueberries.  Add as many as you like, really.  Be careful not to mash them too hard (gently mix them in) unless you want purple cookies.. and hey, maybe that's what you want, and if so I say go for it and mash away.  Cook according to sugar cookie recipe.  My mix said 375 degrees F but perhaps yours says something different.  Cook until golden but not burnt.  No one likes burnt cookies. :)

NOM!