What's cooking at my house this weekend

My list this weekend consisted of cooking.  I started strong, dwindled a bit on Saturday and ended just right on Sunday.  I shop at Costco, so we have stuff in bulk, which I love, except the produce we can't eat through it fast enough.  So I have started blanching and freezing the stuff we usually won't get through when it's fresh so there's no tossing good veggies.  It also is nice to have some produce on hand on that last week before we make it shopping again, granted it's frozen but it's way better than canned or nothing.  Lots of times it is just used in soups and stir frys and lots of baking if it got too soggy or mushy (like yucky bananas for banana bread, or carrot cupcakes with lemon frosting, I've even tackled the spinach brownies).  So here's my list I tackled on Friday:

• a batch of chicken noodle soup (minus the noodles) with some carrots and celery that needed to be used.  I ended up with a family sized batch and a kid sized batch for those days we eat something not Amelia friendly. 
• blanched and bagged 3 ziplocs full of broccoli and carrots.  
• my weekly batch of Mel's kitchen cafe rolls. I have drooled over these on here before.  Still drooling.  
• some chicken breasts to have on hand for quick meals.  
• and for dinner I made a batch of cream of broccoli soup.  It was a little cold outside and those homemade rolls and a hefty sprinkle of sharp cheddar cheese on the soup was perfect.  Doesn't get much better.  

Then Amelia requested apple pie and my mind started thinking what I could do instead of that.  I don't like apple pie.  I will eat it once a year to pretend to be patriotic or indulge someone who has slaved over one for the holidays, but I can do without.  But she is a little carboholic and has a big sweet tooth, and I love catering to that because she gets it from me.  I decided to do apple turnovers instead.  I made them a year or so ago on a whim with some mealy apples and leftover puff pastry I had and my husband couldn't get over how good they were.  He's not one to rave over desserts, so if he asks for it again, you know it's good.  Just good comfort food and super easy.  Here's how.  And I love that puff pastry is Amelia friendly.  Makes the world of pastry not so bleak for her. I cooked down some granny smith apples with butter (Amelia friendly, but real would have been even better) and once they were soft added 3 hefty spoonfuls of sugar and some dashes of cinnamon.  Then cut the softened and rolled out puff pastry in 4 squares.  I pricked one triangle corner with a fork.  Then scooped a big amount of apples on the pastry keeping to the triangle corner I pricked and sealed up.  Baked at 400 for 20 minutes or so.  This is what they looked like coming out.  (If you look really closely above the turnover you can see white lines.  I love that  my camera picked up the steam.  The steam kept fogging up the lense and it took a few tries to focus.  That's how fresh out of the oven these are).

 But of course you can't eat turnovers, or pie, plain, so I added a scoop of vanilla bean (soy for Amelia) ice cream and some dairy free caramel sauce I made a while back and keep on hand in the fridge for these very occasions.  Don't let the dairy free get you, that caramel is good enough to snitch with a spoon when you need a sugar rush.  Now if only I can remember how I made it because I am almost out!!!

And of course, the happy customers digging in while watching a special Friday night movie and staying up way past their bedtime!!!