September 2020 – Simply Made Kitchen and Crafts

While looking through one of my older cookbooks last week, I stumbled across a recipe for a breakfast sausage ball that would make for a welcome addition to my brunch menu. I had the few required ingredients on hand and I was in the mood to try something new.
Talk about an easy recipe… 3 ingredients are combined with an optional dash of water to moisten the mix. Adding a side of scrambled eggs, coffee, orange juice and fresh fruit rounded out the meal. This is a plentiful recipe. If you make the full recipe, you’ll have extras to warm up for weekday quick fixes. I throw them in the microwave for 10-20 seconds and they are ready to eat. They freeze well too. A win-win for my busy family!

I’ve include the original recipe link below… along with the adjusted recipe that I am using instead.

Easy Breakfast Sausage Balls

4 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
3 cups baking mix
1 (1 lb) package ground sausage

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 °F. Spray a baking sheet with vegetable oil cooking spray.

Combine all ingredients in a large glass bowl. Mix well with your fingers. The mixture will be very crumbly.

Form into 1 inch balls, squeezing the mixture so it holds together, then rolling it between the palms of your hands to form balls.

Place the balls on the baking sheet. Bake for 18-20 minutes until golden brown. To prevent sticking, move the balls with a spatula halfway through cooking.

Adapted from: https://www.pauladeen.com/recipe/sausage-balls/

Last weekend, we donned our masks and headed to the local apple orchard. It was a beautiful day and we were able to pick a variety of apples. After arriving home, I scrolled through a few YouTube videos to find new and unique apple recipes that I hadn’t tried before. I stumbled across this video and realized that I had the cookbook with the exact recipe on my kitchen shelf. I had purchased the cookbook many years ago when visiting Georgia. We had just eaten in Paula Deen’s restaurant and I picked up the cookbook in the souvenir shop on my way out of the building.
I hadn’t tried this recipe until I watched Paula pull all of the ingredients together to make a dense, moist, scrumptious looking cake.
Wow, this cake does not disappoint! I’ll be making it all season long!

In fact, I took the opportunity to bake it again for a birthday celebration. This cake travels well. I packed it up in a cake carrier and I’ll sprinkle it with extra powdered sugar before serving.

Scrumptious, moist, and full of apples, pecans, and coconuts… Then, soaked in a buttery sauce.

The original recipe from my Paula Deen Cookbook

Here’s the link for the Paula Deen recipe.

You’ve got to try it!

Georgia Fresh Apple Cake

Ingredients

3 cups divided sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1/4 cup orange juice
3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons divided baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 cups peeled and finely chopped apples
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1/2 cup buttermilk

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 °F. Generously grease a tube pan.

For the cake: in a large bowl, combine 2 cups sugar, eggs, oil, orange juice, flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, salt, cinnamon and vanilla extract; and mix well. Fold apples, coconut and pecans into batter.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake until a tester comes out clean, about 1 1/2 hours.

Shortly before the cake is done, make the sauce: Melt the butter in a large saucepan, stir in 1 cup sugar, buttermilk and 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, and bring to a good rolling boil, stirring constantly. Boil for 1 minute. Pour the sauce over the hot cake in the pan as soon as you remove it from the oven. Let stand 1 hour, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.