Apples:
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 cups peeled, cored, and sliced apples

Topping:
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/14 cup flour
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup vegetable shortening

vanilla ice cream

Ok, I wish I could take the credit for this delicious recipe but I can’t. It’s actually my best friend mom’s recipe! She is an amazing baker so when she told me she had a great recipe for me… I jumped on it. Well… she was right. This recipe is unreal. SO good and so easy. First thing you want to do is preheat your oven to 375*F. Mix together the sugar, flour, cinnamon, and apples until all the apples are coated evenly. Put the apples into a butter 9×9 pan. Now for the topping. Combine brown sugar, flour, oats, and salt together. To that cut in, with your fingers, the butter and shortening until the mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle evenly over the apples and pop in the oven. Let cook for 35-40 minutes until the the topping is starting to get brown and the apples are cooked through. Once it’s ready let cool for a couple of minutes. Spoon the onto the plate and top with vanilla ice cream!! Delicious!!!! Hope you like it!

6 apples (any kind you want)
6 wooden popsicle sticks

Homemade Caramel:
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
chopped nuts (optional)

First things first, wash and dry your apples of choice and put the wooden popsicle sticks in them! Thats the easy part… just kidding! Don’t be afraid of making homemade caramel!!! I promise it is not as hard as it looks. I’m not going to lie… you might burn the first batch. But hey, sugar is cheap so it’s not a big deal!! What you want to do is put your sugar in a medium sized pot over medium heat and stir constantly until the sugar is all dissolved and turning a light golden color. This will take about 6-9 minutes depending on your cooktop. If you have a candy thermometer you will know the sugar is ready when it reaches about 235*F. Once it gets to the right color and temperature turn off the heat and pour in your heavy cream. Be extra careful it is VERY hot!!! It will boil up a little bit but thats ok, it won’t run over. Let it do its thing! Once the bubbles have gone down stir it all together to combine the heavy cream and sugar. Add the tablespoon of vanilla to the caramel. Let cook on medium low until for another 5 minutes while still stirring. Turn off the heat and let cool for about 10 minutes. Once the caramel is cool enough to touch dip, or spoon, each apple and cover with the delicious caramel sauce. I like to do a nice double dip to get everything nice and coated. If you would like to add any chopped nuts, sprinkles, or candies this would be the time to do it! After you are done place them on a VERY greased up sheet pan with aluminum foil on it. You don’t want your delicious apples getting stuck. And thats it! How easy is this?! Trust me… this is WAY better than those pre-packaged nasty “caramels” that you can buy. Nothing says love and fall like a delicious caramel apple. Oh, and did I mention this caramel sauce is phenomenal on just ice cream… just saying! Enjoy!

Crust:

4 cups ground Ginger Snap cookies

1 stick melted butter

Cheesecake:

1 pound cream cheese

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 tablespoon ground nutmeg

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup pumpkin puree

2 eggs

This recipe is amazing you won’t even believe it! Who needs a boring pumpkin pie when you can make this just as easily? The first thing you want to do is preheat your oven to 325*F. For your easy and delicious crust the first thing you want to do is grind up your gingersnap cookies. I find that when I do it 4 cups of ground gingersnaps came from a 1 pound bag. To the ground gingersnap cookies add 1 stick of melted butter. With a spatula make sure that all the crumbs are moistened. Put the ground cookie mixture into the bottom of a spring-form pan and with the bottom of a measuring cup pack it down and around the edges making the crust. Then put it into your preheated oven and let cook for about 5-7 minutes. Just until it sets up. While that is cooking make the batter! In a bowl with an electric mixer cream together the cream cheese, spices, and the brown sugar. Mix until all combined, scraping down the edges as you go. To the cream cheese add your pumpkin puree and mix to combine. Add the eggs and mix to combine one last time. Add the mixture to the crust and put into the oven. Let cook for 30 minutes until the cheesecake is set up. Let cool to room temperature and then put in the refrigerator to let chill for at least two hours. Slice and serve!! Most delicious cheesecake ever! It feels like the holidays already

Crust:

2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1 tablespoon sugar

1 stick butter, melted

Cheesecake:

1 1/2 pounds cream cheese room temperature ( 3- 8oz packages)

1 pint (16 oz) sour cream

1 cup sugar

zest of 1 lemon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 large eggs

Strawberry topping:

1 pint strawberries, sliced

2 tablespoons sugar

juice of 1 lemon

1 tablespoon cornstarch, mixed with a little cold water

OK, I know what you’re thinking. Stop thinking it! It’s not too hard…. I promise you!! First thing first preheat your oven to 325*F. While that is preheating make the crust. In a bowl combine graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and melted butter. Combine until the crumbs are all covered in the butter. In a spring form pan put the graham cracker crumbs on the bottom and  smash down to make it compact. Put in the refrigerator while you make the filling. In a bowl with an electric mixer mix together the cream cheese, sour cream, and sugar until smooth. Add to that lemon zest, vanilla extract, and eggs. Mix together until all incorporated. Pour the batter into the spring form pan. Around the bottom of the pan, take foil and wrap around the bottom. To ensure that your cheesecake is cooked evenly, you want to bake it in a water bath. If you have a larger, deep pan use that or if you have a roaster pan even better! Put your cheesecake in the pan and add water to the pan. Put the cheesecake in the water bath into the oven and let cook for 45 minutes. Take out of the water bath and let cool. Don’t worry.. it will still look jiggly in the middle but it will set up trust me! Let cool for at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight.  When you’re almost ready to eat this delicious cheesecake, it’s time to make the topping! In a saucepan combine the strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice and bring to a boil. Once it has come to a boil, add the cornstarch. BUT you can’t just add cornstarch to the hot liquid because it will make lumps. So to avoid the lumps, you need to add a little bit of cold water to the cornstarch to dissolve it, then add it to the hot liquid. Let cook for about 5 minutes and let cool. After it cools you can spoon it on the top or serve it alongside as a sauce. Your choice! Either way… it’s delicious. Enjoy!!

3 eggs

6 tablespoons melted butter

3/4 cup light corn syrup

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 tablespoons Bourbon

1 tablespoons all purpose flour

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup roughly chopped pecans

1 cup semisweet chocolate morsels

1 unbaked ( 9 inch) pastry shell

This recipe is amazing and makes me feel like I’m at the derby like last year. This pie is everywhere at the derby and I have to say that I ate a little too much of it! This recipe is so easy there’s really no way to screw it up! First what you want to do is preheat your oven to 350*F. In a large bowl whisk eggs until frothy. To the eggs add the melted butter, sugar, brown sugar, syrup, bourbon, flour, and vanilla. Mix together until well combined and add the chopped pecans and stir to combine again. In the bottom of a unbaked pie shell add the chocolate. Pour the pecan mixture over the chocolate  and pop it into the oven. Let bake for an hour. Don’t worry, it will be puffed up but it will go down when it cools. Once cooled, slice and serve with some whipped cream! Happy derby!!

4 egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar plus 2 tablespoons

2 large lemons, zested

juice of 1 lemon

2 1/4 cup heavy cream

This is one of the easiest desserts that you can make… I promise you. Also what I love so much about this recipe is you can really change the flavors to whatever you want. Think of it as ice cream!  In a bowl whisk the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Just until a pale yellow! After the eggs are whipped add the lemon juice and zest and lightly mix together. In another bowl with an electric mixer (clean beaters only!!!) whip the heavy cream until soft peaks. Ok so now what you want to do is get the egg mixture to the same consistency as the whip cream so how you’re going to do that is by sacrificing 1/3 of the whip cream. Take a third of the whip cream and whip it into the egg mixture. Don’t be gentle! You want it all mixed together. Once its all mixed together, take another half of the remaining whip cream and gently fold it in until all mixed together. When it is mixed together fold in the remaining whip cream gently until all mixed together. When everything is perfect, go ahead and put into you’re container and put in the freezer and let freeze for 4-6 hours. This is a perfect dessert to make in advance! I like to put mine into individual ramekins but if you don’t have individual ramekins, just put into a baking pan and scoop out like ice cream. I just like to put a little more zest of the top then serve!!! Tastes like Italy to me!

2 sticks butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa 

2 1/4 cup flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 cups chocolate chips

These are amazing and sooooo easy. Please try this recipe!!! In a bowl with an electric mixer, cream the butter, brown sugar, and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat well. After the wet ingredients are all mixed all all the dry ingredients like the cocoa powder, flour, salt, and baking soda. Mix just until everything incorporated. NO MORE!!!! We want light fluffy cookies not rocks. Once everything is mixed add the chocolate chip and mix by hand. Grease up your cookie sheet and drop your batter by the tablespoonful. Bake for just 10 minutes and bam! The best cookies ever. Your welcome.

Crust:

2 sticks butter

2 cups flour

1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar

Filling:

4 eggs

zest of 2 lemons

juice of 2 lemons

2 cups sugar

4 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

pinch salt

powdered sugar for the top

Ok, this is my Gogo’s recipe and it’s absolutely out of this world! I can’t get enough of these things and it’s super simple to do. Preheat your oven to 350*F. To make the crust, all you want to do is cut the butter into pieces and put that into a bowl along with the flour and powdered sugar. Mix with fingers until it looks like cornmeal and put in a 9 x 13 pan. Pat it down just on the bottom with your fingers and pop into the preheated oven and let cook for 15-20 minutes until a pale golden.  While the crust is cooking, make the filling. In a bowl whisk together the eggs just to break the yoke. To the eggs add the zest of 2 lemons, juice of 2 lemons (no seeds please!), sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt. Whisk together just until incorporated. As soon as the crust is done baking add the filling and pop right back into the oven.  Don’t worry about letting the crust cool down.. that’s why I love this recipe! Let the bars cook for another 20 minutes. When they come out, add some sifted powdered sugar on top. When the bars are cooled, just cut and serve! How easy is that? Thanks Gogo!!

3 egg yolks

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour