Beginning to Look a Lot Like Summer!

I love June. It means Summer vacation, swimming pool, the beach, grilling and extra time with my little man. My boyfriend handles the grill so this month was amazing for me as far as the AllStars goes!

Let me start off by posting what we were given as our goodies for the month. We weren’t required to use these in any of our assignments, but we received Simple & Crisp Dried Fruit Slices. These were…bland to say the least. Our OPTIONAL job with these was to pair them with something, anything (food wise of course) and share. These are gluten-free and healthy. In my opinion, that means taste-free…which they were…

One of our jobs for the month was to select up to three grilling recipes from the site and rate, review and photograph them. I chose three and I really loved two of them but one could have used some…work.

My first grilling recipe was Beer Butt Chicken. We’ve always called it beer can chicken. Please forgive the picture. My boyfriend cooked this and he kind of walked away for too long and he got a little well done but it was still tasty and I guess because of the beer, he was actually still very moist.

My second recipe was Spicy Chicken Breasts. These were amazing! They were so full of flavor. I did reduce the ground cayenne a little bit because the rest of my family doesn't care for spicy too much but even with the reduction these were amazing! Definitely one for the regular rotation!

My third recipe was Bacon Wrapped Hamburgers. As soon as we saw these we knew we had to try them. I mean.... everything is better with bacon and having it cooked ONTO the burger so it doesn't fall off, GENIUS! However! Reading the ingredients, I was a little weary as it sounded like a recipe for meatloaf. Well my suspicions were confirmed as they tasted a little like meatloaf. Not too much, but enough that I think we'll be sticking to our regular way of cooking burgers. They were good, just not for us since we have a specific meatloaf recipe we use (that has bacon in it! lol). We don't need a GRILLED meatloaf recipe. Lol. The bacon was also slightly overdone even though they looked well done.

As a little history lesson for you guys, AllRecipes® used to have recipes from the Taste of Home site, however, in March of 2012, Meredith Publishing purchased AllRecipes® and the Taste of Home recipes were kicked to the curb. As most of those recipes were popular though, AllRecipes is in a search for replacement recipes. That leads us to our second assignment. We were given a list of recipes along with some of their key ingredients and told to recreate away! We had to keep the recipe as the same type and include the main key ingredients. I only made one because I really didn’t have the time to be inventive this month with planning the Summer, balancing a new Summer schedule and trying to get things ready for my son to go to camp.

I'm calling my Taste of Home remake Cheesy Ranch Spirals. I tried these once with an entire packet of dry ranch but they were grainy and WAY too.....ranchy! lol. I went back and tried them with a half package of ranch (used the other half on some ranch chicken I made for dinner) and they turned out really well.

Disclaimer: 

I am an AllRecipes AllStar Brand Ambassador. This is a voluntary position which I am not compensated for.

May AllStars Adventures... Lots of Chicken for This Girl here!

For the month of May, the AllStars were given (number) tasks. We were to put faces on some of the AllRecipes® Australia site recipes. We could do as many as we wanted! They had some interesting recipes. We were also supposed to choose a MyPlate recipe to create.

My first Aussie recipe was a Cheesy WhiteSauce. I have to say that I found it slightly flavorless. The recipe just called for grated cheese and I used mild cheddar. Maybe a sharp cheddar or another flavor would have made it better but with mild cheddar it was bland. I don’t think I would have used it for anything other than eating with tortilla chips.

My second recipe was Chicken Strips. These weren't very flavorful either. I thought it was me, because I had been sick and two items in a row were bland, but I ate some other foods and could taste them just fine. Recipe instructions don't completely match the ingredient list either.... might have tasted better with flavored bread crumbs or by adding something to the bread crumbs. In this case it literally tasted like unseasoned chicken coated in bread crumbs.

My third Aussie faceless was a Creamy Chicken Bake. I really liked this one. Quite tasty although when it says powdered chicken noodle soup, you have to get the whole soup mix from the soup aisle and then either strain out the dry noodles or just add them to the mix. I'm thinking chicken boulin might have worked just as well. I couldn’t find any standard powdered chicken noodle soup, so unless what I used is what the recipe calls for, this must be something they have in Australia.

My fourth faceless was beyond bland. It tasted more like a bland stir fry. It was called Chicken Paprika with Pasta. It needed something.... the other review on the site said they added cream and cheese near the end. I should have done something similar. This wasn't a favorite.

My first MyPlate recipe was Savory Roll-Ups. These were DELICIOUS. These will definitely be made again. I had a similar dinner once at Houlihan’s but mine was better. There’s was too covered in bread crumbs and very dry! I will say that these turned out moist and the cheese was very flavorful.

My second MyPlate recipe was Tzatziki Sauce (Yogurt and Cucumber Dip). I've made this so many times before as I love to eat it with pita bread. I liked this version, however, this recipe calls for mint where I usually use dill. It was ok with mint. At least your break smells fresh in the end! Lol. I also watched this videoon AllRecipes® to see how someone else actually does it since I don't know anyone personally that's made it. He uses mint and dill and suggests parsley. I've only ever used dill but I might try parsley next time.

It was a fun month though. I had a lot of fun making these recipes and some of them made it into the monthly rotation!

Disclaimer: 

I am an AllRecipes AllStar Brand Ambassador. This is a voluntary position which I am not compensated for.

Shouldn't Mexican Month Be in May?

Oh boy! This month our sponsors were Herdez® and Sauza®! Salsa and tequila oh my! I honestly believe that these should have been sponsors for May with Cinco De Mayo and all, but I guess if you have time to figure your stuff out in April, then you'll be able to have one kick ass Cinco De Mayo party!

Moving right along... Herdez® sent us two bottles of two different flavors of cooking sauce. They also sent us awesome tortilla warmers as you can see in the picture!

For Herdez®, we were supposed to make our own recipe using one of the two types of cooking sauces we were given. I was getting slightly sick of chicken and beef and I went Mexican (which I'm sure seems...predictable). I chose turkey. I know that's close to chicken but still slightly different! My recipe that is now posted on AllRecipes® is Turkey Tomatillo Verde. I thought it turned out really well. Between the fajita mix, sour cream and tomatillos verde cooking sauce it was amazing!

Sauza® sent us a bottle of their new Blue Agave Tequila. Tequila is my favorite liquor period so I could have drunk it straight but alas, we had to make up to three margaritas from this list on AR. Because I love fruit, I chose the Strawberry Sauza®-Rita and Merry Mango Sauza®-Rita. They were both delicious but I have to say that the Strawberry was my favorite. I liked that you could taste the alcohol and the strawberry flavor but it wasn't overpowering. With the Mango drink, the mango didn't come through so well.

I enjoyed the projects for this month. Anything with alcohol is fine by me and I walked away with a new simple recipe that my family loved. Since I can switch out the turkey for chicken, I can also make this with regular chicken breasts and have a quick and simple meal on one of our many rushed baseball nights!

Disclaimer: 

I am an AllRecipes AllStar Brand Ambassador. This is a voluntary position which I am not compensated for.

Johnsonville® Sausage"mania"

This month for the AllStars, our sponsor was Johnsonville® and their wonderful sausages. We eat sausage on a regular basis but we've never really experimented with it. We've had the standard sausage in Jambalaya or Beaufort Boil or we've eaten sausage for breakfast, but nothing experimental. This month's assignments gave me that opportunity!

First, let me show you what the amazing people at Johnsonville® sent us!

Yes! We got these amazing casserole dishes completely free! These things cost $60 on Sur La Table! We also got several coupons for FREE sausage for our recipes. I received four which worked because we had to do three original recipes and then change up a ground beef recipe and use sausage instead.

I sent them a thank you email for being our sponsors and for sending this amazing gift and they responded with a wonderful letter as well as MORE coupons for $1.00 off their sausage. GREAT sponsors! Just amazing!

Now. Onto what I made throughout the month! It was a yummy month! My first recipe was 1-2-3 Jambalaya. Oh man! We've had Jambalaya before but this was AMAZING and so simple to make. You just use ZATARAIN'S® boxed Jambalaya mix, some creole seasoning, diced tomatoes, shrimp and sausage and BAM! You have a "one pan" dinner that's sure to please. I've made this again since but the second go-round, instead of cooking the rice in one pan and the sausage and shrimp in another and then combining, I used my handy George Foreman skillet and cooked up the sausage and shrimp then drained and wiped the pan. I then made up the rice mixture, added in the meat and set it to cook. We used it as a side the second time but it was definitely big enough and hearty enough to be considered a meal!

My second recipe was Johnsonville® One-Pan Italian. This is basically spaghetti with sausage. This is exactly how I cook my spaghetti only we use ground beef. Spaghetti was going to be my substitute recipe but then I found this one and decided to just make this one as my second required recipe. I used the Johnsonville® Italian Mild Sausage along with Prego® Italian Sausage Sauce and oh my gosh! It was delicious. I think it might be the best spaghetti I've ever made, seriously!

My third and final REQUIRED standard sausage recipe was Johnsonville® Italian Sausage Sliders. These were pretty good. I doubt we'd have them solely for a meal in the future because they're small (duh, they're sliders), however, as a breakfast food or a party/tailgating event these would be awesome. They're the perfect snack size. They're not messy and you can pretty much eat them anywhere, even if you're shouting at a TV because your team is losing!



My FINAL recipe for the overall March mission was my integrated recipe. We were to take a ground beef recipe and create it like usual only instead of ground beef, we had to use sausage. I made Taco Salad with mine. It was....interesting. I used Italian Mild Sausage, which combined with taco seasoning and eaten alone, was not the greatest. It tasted....sour maybe? I'm not sure how to describe it. However, after mixing it with the lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, sour cream and chips, it was actually pretty good. Oh yea, let me add that is also requires French dressing cooked into the meat which..... I've never seen done before. Maybe that's where the funny flavor came from. As I said though, all mixed together, it was actually pretty good.

I really enjoyed my month working with Johnsonville® sausages. There were plenty more recipes that I want to try and I will but it'll be a slow progression throughout the next few months. My poor family said they had enough sausage in one month!

Disclaimer:
I am an AllRecipes AllStar Brand Ambassador. This is a voluntary position which I am not compensated for.

Co-Parenting With My Mom....

Keegan and I love talking about my mom. We talk about how they used to play together and it astonishes me that my son can remember things he did at the age of 4 or younger. A lot of kids later in life don't remember those ages. Maybe it's because he's still close to that age or maybe he just REALLY loved Nana and remembers her that well but he can bring up things I can't remember!

It came to my attention however, that he was told my mother raised him and not me. I have to say that this pisses me off. Yes, my mother helped me in so many ways. I never moved out so of course he had extended family in this house. My mother babysat for me so I didn't have to pay for daycare and yes she watched him for me to go out with friends, however, that didn't happen often.

For the first year of my son's life, I took him to every appointment, fed him 90% of his meals and rocked him to sleep 95% of the time. My mother was with there WITH me through all of this. I was 19 when my son was born. My mother helped me through all of the sleepless nights, mounds of baby clothes and various doctors appointments but not once in that first year did I request she do it alone nor did she. We did it together, like a married couple would. She was my son's "father" during that year.

In 2005 after his first birthday, I began college on campus. My mother watched my son for me while I was in class. Generally I came straight home from classes and occasionally I would call my mother and ask if I could hang out with friends after class. If she said she didn't mind, then I would stay out for a couple hours but I was always home to rock my son to sleep. When I began working that would sometimes change as I was in school all day and at work until we closed at 11 every night. I'd get home after midnight and if my son woke up, I cared for him and got him back to sleep. It was no different than a married couples relationship except she was my mother. She was the father my son didn't have. His father was off playing daddy to a brood of children that were NOT his. During the times I was working and going to school, the ONLY time I went out after work was if mom told me Keegan was sleeping well and probably wouldn't wake up, or if he was actually at his father's for the weekend. During this time, my mother did take my son to appointments and oftentimes she was the one to delivery him to his father or pick him up from his father, however, it was not because I was out partying. It was because I was trying to get an education and earn a paycheck.

During the time I was in classes online, and working from 7am-6pm every day, I went grocery shopping with MY money, fed MY family on MY paychecks and came home and cooked dinner for everyone in this house. It was a fair trade for my family and for my mother to watch my son. She saved me money in daycare fees and I took care of the family. There are those that only got ONE side of the story or only saw what they wanted to see. My son was very close to my mother and he misses her dearly all the time. For that, I will never regret the way he was raised, especially those first 4 (almost 5) years of his life. If anyone has a problem with that or things that I didn't care for my own son, screw you. I was and still am a good mother. My love for my son and his love for me is proof of that.

I'm an Allstar!!!

I became an Allstar this month!!! For those of you that have NO clue what that is, AllRecipes® has an Ambassador program that one can become part of through trials and tribulations (so to speak) and once you do, it is AMAZING! That’s what I hear from my girl Faith anyway. I have to say this month was pretty cool. I received an awesome welcome package with a cute little potholder and an insulated grocery tote. For the next 12 months, I get to cook and share it all with other men and women like myself who also love to cook and share it with others! Yay! I hope the rest of the months are as fun and adventurous as February was. Because the Allstars is about cooking and sharing, I figured instead of starting a whole new blog, I’d just post all my fun adventures in this one!

Moving right along! For the month of February, we had to choose three Faceless recipes (recipes on the site with no picture), make them up and post a picture of what our creation looked like. Let me tell you, some of mine weren’t so pretty, however, they got done!

My first recipe was a Garlic Chicken Breast. It turned out pretty tasty but it was very bland looking. I discovered during this dish that my oven’s temperature control is apparently busted. My oven is cooking at 425° no matter what the temperature is set at. The funny thing about this is however, I had to cook the chicken longer than the recipe called for because it wasn’t done at the time allocated! I figured that even if the time in the recipe was off, cooking at a good 75°hotter than it should have, it would’ve gotten done quicker. NOT! Either way it came out pretty good. Tad bit dry but tasty.

My second recipe was fairly easy and simple since all it required was a little booze, lemon (and peel), honey and hot water! It was a......Hot Toddy Cocktail! No, I'm not a boozer (much) but we make these all the time when we have terrible colds or the flu and we had all the ingredients on hand for a change! I discovered with a lot of the faceless recipes, I didn't have a lot of the ingredients on hand (or we wouldn't like them). Yes, I have enough food to feed an army but there are things we do not own!!!!

My third and final faceless for February was Savory Diet Chicken. We discovered why it was called "diet chicken." I'm not so sure why the savory was included in there. I followed the directions exactly and well....as you can tell from the picture it was bland looking. It was pretty bland tasting too. We love chicken and we cook it in a million different ways but this will most likely not be one that we add to our collection.

February was fun though. We did get to try some new recipes. I learned a lot of other spices, condiments and necessary ingredients that I might need to make it through the rest of the program, so we'll see what happens! See you in March!

Disclaimer:

I am an AllRecipes AllStar Brand Ambassador. This is a voluntary position which I am not compensated for.

A Positive Thought Cannot Be Denied

I've been trying to have a more positive outlook about things. I've been trying to do better on a daily basis in a lot of areas. I've been going to bed "early" every night and either staying up once Keegan is off to school or only sleeping until about 9:30 or 10. I've found that I'm more productive this way, go figure! With that, I read an article that states that writing down three positives that happen to you during the day can improve your mood and gets you thinking positively so I've decided I'm going to try each day to write down, somewhere, three positives about the day. Today's positives:

Tony and I are getting along! This is definitely an achievement.

Keegan and his basketball team are getting better with each game. They didn't win, but they are getting better and they go out and give all the heart they can.

Keegan and I made it to and from town safely.

Unfortunately I have a meeting with Keegan's teacher and I think it might have to do with something I said at the Advanced Training meeting on Monday. I guess I should have gone to her first before I mentioned anything to the other teacher and assistant principle. I didn't mean anything by it and I wasn't going to them first as opposed to going to her. We were just chatting about how things were different this year for us than they had been in previous years and I felt like there was more she could be doing. I'm only guessing that's what this is about. For all I know, it could be something totally different but Keegan's been pretty good in school since the Christmas break so unless he's doing poorly grade wise, the meeting has to be about me. I feel bad because if this is the case, then in her eyes, it seems like I went to other staff members, especially the assistance principle before going to her, which I was going to do. I was going to try to schedule a meeting with her this coming week. Anyway, that entire situation might make my tomorrow a bad day... Hope not. I hope she understands the situation and doesn't hold it against me or Keegan for the rest of the school year.

time to worry about ME

It’s officially New Year’s Eve and I’m laying here next to a man who makes me want to hug him and push him in front of a bus (moving of course) all at the same time. I can’t help but hope we can always be like we are at this moment, the night we had, the love we shared and the compassion and caring he showed me when I truly needed it.

This is what I do late at night… when I can’t sleep. I ponder my meaningless life and type up old journal entries just so I can have my thoughts doubly recorded. I need a life, seriously. I can’t say much. I had/have great friends that I do get to hang out with these days, but after this whole incident with this one girl, I just don’t know if I want to be around any of them honestly. I feel so fucking betrayed. I guess I’m confused on what true friends are maybe…

It’s been kind of liberating just worrying about me and Tony. For the last few months, I’ve run to Faith with all my problems. This isn’t necessarily a problem but I’m constantly comparing my relationship to hers. I’ve also been having an online affair with Michael (my ex), I guess if that’s what you want to call it. I was so fed up with Tony that I decided we were done and I spent a good few months making plans with Michael to get him back in SC and with me and boot Tony to the curb. Somewhere around Halloween, the shit hit the fan and I let it all out what was going on, how I felt and what I wanted to do. Tony had tears in his eyes telling me he was sorry for everything and how he wanted to make it work. I fell for it again like a jackass. What can I say? I love the man. This of course left Michael thoroughly pissed off with me because he felt like I was playing him and betrayed him. I didn’t mean to of course. Perhaps if Tony and I weren’t living together, it may have been easier to walk away and let the relationship fall in the cracks, but we live together, he’s helping raise my son and I owe that to my son at least, to give it another try. Well Michael and I began talking again as friends. Nothing else but he still wants to be together and he was supposed to come down for Christmas and we were going to see each other. Some shit happened with his job and he was unable to make it to SC. I saw this as a blessing in disguise. Then some other stuff happened with my so called friends and one of them went crazy on everyone which I later found out she was only mad with me. I still don’t understand this, because I bought so much shit for this girl and did so much for her and she still turned her back on me. Trifling 22 year old child. Whatever. I’m going to rise above all that. The point is, it’s now leaving Tony and I to spend New Year’s Eve together. I’m considering all of this as signs that Tony and I are supposed to try and work things out. He needs to do better with working and being a support system and I have to learn to stop criticizing him and setting him up to fail. I need to take his word for things and try to trust that he’ll do right. We’ve had a great week so far and I am proud to say that part of it is because I’m not running to my friends with my problems. I’m not worrying about hurting anyone but Tony and Keegan. I’m only considering our feelings in our relationship and I’ve been trying to give Tony the benefit of the doubt. He came through on Christmas. He’s keeping my truck with gas and he’s done 90% of everything I’ve asked him to do. If he’s willing to try, then so am I. It’s the least I can do. 

Holiday VoxBox 2012

I received my first VoxBox ever from Influenster today, on Christmas Eve of all days! Merry Christmas to me right??!?! YAY! Anyway. I was really excited about getting it so I could have cared less what was in the box. Seriously. It could have been dog food and I would have still been happy! Anyway. So, I had 5 ACTUAL PHYSICAL items I could touch in the box, and one coupon code.

The items in the Holiday 2012 VoxBox were:

Quaker Real Medleys Oatmeal (we got the Summer Berry one)

NYC New York Color Liquid Lipshine (Nude York City colored)

Kiss Nail Dress

EBOOST

Goody QuikStyle Brush (paddle)

Sole Society (coupon code for $25 off first purchase)

So the Quaker my son and I eat on a regular basis. I’ve always hated oatmeal but the berry one is actually pretty good, so I gave it to my son. He says thank you to those great people at Influenster! Lol.

I also gave the Lipshine to my sister. I’m not big on lip gloss and believe it or not, I actually have that same one. I’m a nude girl and I bought it at a local drug store, looking for something that would make my lips shine but not make them go BOOM! I didn’t have a problem with the lipshine itself, I just realize that I use my chapstick WAY too much to wear lip gloss.

I haven’t tried the Kiss Nail dress yet. Not these anyway. I have tried some that came as a sample in a magazine once and it didn’t work so well. Maybe they didn’t work because they were exposed to the elements in the magazine. It could have been me. We’ll give it a try again, because I really like the design on these! I actually wish I had time to do them tonight because they would match my outfit for tomorrow very well!

I haven’t tried the Eboost yet but maybe tomorrow! Lol. I’m going to need it with everything we have going on.

I did use the brush today. If I have to be honest, I’m going to say that it doesn’t seem anything different than a regular brush. I feel like my hair dried in the same amount of time that it always does. I don’t really think it absorbed a lot. Once again, could’ve just been me. It does brush well though. No catches or pulls.

I don’t know that I’ll use the coupon. If a company is willing to allow that much off of a first purchase, then their products are probably REALLY expensive and I can’t afford too much for shoes. I’d love to purchase some because they look amazing but I never go anywhere to need those kinds of shoes!

Thanks to Influenster for giving me the opportunity to try this cool stuff though!

Caramel Apple Jello Shots, Pain in the ASS!

I love trying new things when it comes to food. I love trying new recipes and being able to turn one thing into something totally unexpected. Pinterest has become my new best friend for food experimentation, however, there's one recipe I may not EVER try again. Then again, now that I have the correct tools to do the job (according to the recipe), who knows?!?!

Ok, so... these are alcoholic which means I shouldn't complain about what it took to make them. I should've just swigged as I worked like any normal critical blogger would do!

Alright... since I only have one picture of what these things look like, I'm stealing a photo of what they SHOULD look like. Below, find the photo-shopped picture of someone's results (I could be wrong, lol. Their's could have really looked like this, but I would have had to photo shop them so I maintain that this person did too!)

Alright, so the ingredients consisted of

granny smith apples

knox gelatin

water

coconut milk

yellow food coloring

caramel hot chocolate (regular will do if you can't find caramel)

sugar

lemon juice (I'd recommend buying lemons)

AND THE BEST PART

butterscotch schnapps (if you want more alcohol content you can try a caramel vodka)

I did get a picture of the ingredients though!!!

So you start by hollowing the apples. You cut them in half from the stem down and hollow those suckers. The original poster says she used a melon baller, because every home has one of those.... Well... I had no melon baller. I know, WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME?!!?!?!? I do own one now though, bought immediately after this....... experiment. Moving on. I used a spoon. Clearly I see why the melon baller is better. It's has a thinner but durable wall which will cut into the apple better. The spoon is rather dull so yea, didn't work so well. I had apples torn all over the place but I wasn't about to throw those bad boys away! 

You then you squeeze lemon juice on top to reduce browning. I didn't buy lemons (because the recipe simply states lemon juice). I guess any normal super mom/wife/party guru would know to buy lemons, not juice! I bought a bottle of lemon juice. Kind of hard to squeeze lemon juice out of a huge gaping hole in the top of a bottle. So... I poured some lemon juice in a bowl and rolled the pieces of apple around in the juice. It affected the flavor so I'll be using real lemons next time. After this, I'd recommend keeping the hollowed apples in a sealed container in the fridge. This will also reduce the browning. 

Next, you mix 1/2 cup water with an envelope of the caramel hot chocolate in a sauce pan. Whisk that sucker good to be sure all the hot chocolate is combined. Add in 1/2 cup of coconut milk and whisk again! You didn't do it right if your elbow doesn't hurt. 

You then sprinkle your gelatin on top and let sit for a few minutes. Notice the funny change. It begins to look slimey! After ogling over the funky reaction, turn the heat on low/medium and mix the gelatin until it’s all combined.

Add in ¼ cup sugar and simmer until the sugar is combined, BUT ONLY SLIGHTLY! Have you ever burned sugar? Don’t. I wouldn’t recommend it. Plus you have to start over. It’s a good thing I always buy double or triple of the recipe ingredients or else I’d have been screwed… I mean, sugar is a household ingredient but who the hell has knox gelatin and caramel hot chocolate just lying around? Oh wait, those perfect housewives do!

Anyway, after you add in the sugar, add in food coloring to get the color caramel you want. I used 4 and it was slightly too yellow. The original poster used two, so it’s all about your preference. After that’s done, let the mixture sit and cool down some to warm. Then add in ½ cup butterscotch schnapps or caramel vodka, whichever you chose. I used butterscotch schnapps. Next time I think I might try the caramel vodka. I bought both! Like I said, maybe I should’ve just chugged while I worked.

After arranging your apples in a container if you haven’t already (mine were arranged and in the refrigerator). Pour the caramel jello mixture into the apples and refrigerate overnight. This obviously sets up your jello and they’re best served cold anyway! I mean, they’re apples for crying out loud!

After they’ve been chilled, cut them in half, then cut those pieces in half again. I’d recommend a SHARP knife as a semi-dull one would totally screw up what you’ve done. If they’re browned, either trim off the brown area or toss those apples, but if you haven’t done a LOT, then well, you’re throwing away your product and alcohol! NOOOOOOO!

So… things I’d change would be how I hollowed the apples. As stated before, I’m not the proud owner of a melon baller. I will also buy actual lemons instead of lemon juice. I’m also going to try the vodka instead of schnapps. I might give these a go again for our New Year’s get together. Our group tends to just drink and forget the fruit, so…. I might not! I do see Jello shots in the future though.

I also failed to mention that this batch will fill about 10 whole apples (or 20 apple halves). So clearly if you need more you’d need to double up.

You’ll notice in the picture below that I have a MESS! I did mention somewhere up there that I had a lot of torn apples but that I wasn’t going to throw them away. I don’t throw perfectly good food away because it’s slightly flawed. It just turned out a little messy! According to my friends they were good, and most were eaten, but as also stated before, we kind of just swigged all night so we forgot about them later on!

Good luck to those who read this and give it a try!