apples in a tub

so my least favorite thing to do is think of what to make for dinner. i know thats cliche, but now i understand why the cliche exists. youd think, hey, when you start cooking, you can have whatever you want every night! - not really... i have stopped craving anything since ive been here. i miss california :/ plus i cant make dipak have taco bell every night! for one, its so bad for you blah blah blah and for another, we're not 18 anymore.

anyway, i decided there is no solution to this problem ever. not only can we never think of anything to make, once we do think of something amazing and new, im too intimidated by the recipe to make it or its too expensive - speaking of which! i found this recipe for a less fattening fettucini alfredo. and pretty much anything in an alfredo sauce is my favorite! so i thought yay, lets do this. so i went to the grocery store (which in florida is called Publix! lol i love finding stores that are totally normal in one place that just dont exist in another :) i just love it for some reason hahaha.. anyway i went to Publix and yknow what, cheese in the fancy part of the store is EXPENSIVE!!!! the recipe says i have to use "fresh parmigiano-reggiano".. which is about 12 dollars for a measly little wedge. id end up spending like 30 dollars for all the ingredients! :( so that recipe will have to wait until i find a job :/ i cant bring myself to buy 12 dollar cheese yet.

back to the prupose of this blog: today ill write about a desert! ive never really had much of a sweet tooth, but dipak does! :) it comes in handy when i need a taste tester.. his favorites are the chocolate lava gooy ones hah and MY favorite desserts are the ones no one wants to order: key lime pie, carrot cake, cheese cake (plain), apple tart... the ones that i feel like no one wants at a restaurant lol. anyway, i decided my first dessert would be something id actually eat. i made mini apple pies! they SOUND difficult.. at least they did to me. but theyre probably the easiest, most impossible to mess up dessert ive made so far.

the ingredients are:

2 apples (i get the red/yellow ones. theyre crispy and a little sweet)
2 packages of pillsbury pie crusts (you really just need one and a half but yknow.. they frown upon splitting packaged materials in the grocery store)
2 tbsp flour (heaping)
2.5 tbsp sugar (heaping)
1 tbsp brown sugar (heaping)
1 tbsp cinnamon (heaping)
2 tbsp butter

Also i never mentioned, but most of my recipes are perfect for about 3 people. i cook for me and dipak and tomorrow's lunch. and most of my desserts make 12 cupcakes or one 9" cake pan. just fyi :)

begin by preheating your oven to 400 degrees! (400 takes MY oven all freakin morning!)

use a peeler to peel the skin off the apples.. i dont like the texture of the skin when its been cooked :/ i have texture issues lol. so peel 2 apples and cut them up into little cubes. i try to make little half inch cubes. (with two apples you will have a little left over... i still dont know exactly what to do with the left over.. so MAYBE take 1/2 an apple and just save it for the end. if you come up short at the end, THEN cut it up.)

anyway, 1/2 inch cubes of apple. put them in a bowl. dump in your flour, sugar, brown sugar and cinnamon. then use two spoons to mix it all around and try to evenly coat all the apples. i dont really care if one little pie has more cinnamon or sugar than the other.. they all taste awesome anyway :)

then unwrap your pie crusts and unroll them. i have a cutting board that i only use for bread, or dough, so i unroll the crust on that.. then the recipe i looked up initially, says use a cookie cutter to cut circles in the dough that are big enough to fit in the muffin pan with a little hanging out the top. does that make sense? like make little tubs of dough for the apples to eventually sit in ... :) cute.

i didnt have a cookie cutter.. i still dont. BUT i do have an unopened can of Planters Almonds.. so i took the top of it, washed it, and used that. its a perfect fit for me! so line your muffin pan with your dough circles. and then scoop your dusted apples and spoon them into their tubs! fill each cup until the apples are making a mound thats a little taller than the cup. the apples shrink up a little when they cook. when youre done filling the apple-tubs, take your butter and cut it into little cubes and place one small cube on top of each mound of apple.

then use the scraps from your pie crusts and make little lids for each apple cup. you can make little designs, or just slash at the dough.. i dont really care what the lids look like. you can tho! have fun with that :) ..at the very end, i take a tiny bit of butter and melt it down in the microwave, then use a brush (or your finger.. bc i dont have a brush) and put a little melted butter on top of each lid so that it'll turn golden in the oven :)

bake these little bad-boys for about 18 minutes! theyre amazing!! dipak loves having one with a little scoop of vanilla ice cream! and you can store them in air-tight tupperwear, and reheat them in the microwave for like "13 seconds" says dipak. haha

enjoy! let me know if you try this out! its one of his and my favorites!!