HER LATE NIGHT CRAVINGS

Friday, November 11, 2011

GUEST POST: Love, Lindsey

It's been awhile since we've brought you guys a guest post from a blogger friend of ours, so we are super excited today to welcome Lindsey to HLNC. A perfect compliment to our fall-inspired post yesterday over at Lindsey's blog, which you can see here, she brings to us a Stuffed Apples recipe that looks absolutely scrumptious and appropriate for the upcoming holidays!

Hello Her Late Night Cravings readers! My name is Lindsey, I blog over at lovelinds.com, mostly about DIY projects. The lovely Mendi and Jayme agreed to let me do a guest post for you all. I must say I am beyond thrilled about this, I even busted out my favorite Fall recipe. My mother-in-law gave this to me last Christmas, and I have not stopped making these ever since. These are beyond easy, and are a sure way to impress guests! Let's dive in!

You will need:

Apples (McIntosh apples are the best)
Brown Sugar
Butter
Granola/oats/raisins/dried fruit/anything of the sorts

Shallow baking dish

Lemon juice

--Preheat the oven to 425 degrees--

Step One -- Cut off the top of your apples

Step Two -- Core out your apples. I used a grapefruit spoon, a regular spoon works just fine too.

Step Three -- Put a little bit of lemon juice inside the apples so they don't turn brown.

Step Four -- Line the insides with butter. Remember, whenever you bake to use real butter not margarine.

Step Five -- In a separate bowl, mix in granola, oats, and dried fruit (I used raisins). For every tablespoon of those ingredients, add a tablespoon of brown sugar.

Step Six -- Spoon in the brown sugar, oats, etc. into the apples.

Step Seven -- In a small dish, pour about an inch of water into the bottom, this keeps the apples from breaking open in the dish. Place the apples in, and stick them in the oven. Bake for 20 minutes or until soft.

Step Eight -- Serve and enjoy!

What is better than stuffed apples during the Fall? I will tell you, absolutely NOTHING! I know you will all love these as much as I do. Good luck baking, readers!

xoxo Lindsey

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Lone Star Love

HLNC went to Texas today!! Well, not literally...but, you can find us posting over at Love, Lindsey. If you haven't met the adorable Lindsey yet, then head on over to check out her blog, where you'll see her love of fashion, beauty tutorials, recipes and DIY projects.

We're thrilled to be sharing our TOP TEN FAVORITE FALL ACCESSORIES with this Lone Star State blogger and her fabulous readers.

We hope that you'll go check it out and that you'll enjoy what we put together!

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Fall Clothing Haul

Just wanted to share with you guys some items that I added to my closet recently. With the weather changing, I needed a few basic and inexpensive pieces to add to my rotation. Mendi and I are extremely lucky that we get to wear casual clothes like the ones in this video to work most days, so sometimes when you see that I've gotten the same shirt in multiple colors I'm thinking about workwear too! That and I really have issues! :-)

These purchases were made over the course of several weeks in October.

Thanks for watching! Let us know what you've hauled recently.

Jayme

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Italian Sausage Rigatoni Recipe (...well sort of)

Hey guys! So, after a long break from cooking (some might call it laziness), I finally got back in my kitchen this past weekend to whip up something warm and cozy for dinner. I found my recipe online, printed it out and armed with all of the ingredients on a handy dandy list, off I went to the grocery store. Seems simple enough, right?!? But, let me just say this...I get easily distracted. Most of the time it's by shiny things, but apparently I also get glamoured by fresh breads, hot soups and warm cookies. After spending about half of the afternoon in the fancy prepared foods and bakery section of my grocery store, I realized that I still had a grocery list in my hands that I was "supposed" to stick to (please tell me that I'm not alone in this). Getting back on track, I cruised through the remainder of the grocery store & set off for home.

Later that evening, when the hubz hollered that he was getting hungry, I started gathering all of my ingredients for the recipe, when IT happened...

How do you go to the grocery store with an ingredient list for an Italian Sausage Rigatoni recipe and leave without picking up a box of rigatoni noodles???? I don't know. I blame the cookies.

Thank goodness that "Improvise" is my middle name...and that I had some elbow macaroni noodles in the pantry. So here I bring to you: Italian Sausage Elbow Macaroni (actually, I think that has a nice ring to it!)

WHAT YOU NEED:
1 pkg (19 oz) Italian Mild Sausage Links, grilled and coin-sliced
1 pkg (1 lb) elbow macaroni (or rigatoni pasta if you'd like)
3 Tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large sweet red pepper, chopped
2 Tbsp Italian parsley, chopped
1 jar (26 oz) of your favorite pasta sauce

Cook your sausage links according to the package directions. While that's going, cook your pasta noodles also according to the package directions, then drain and set aside.

(the result of having to use two different boxes of elbow macaroni)

In a large skillet, heat your olive oil until hot, then add the minced garlic and saute for 30 seconds or until golden. Toss in your chopped red peppers and saute those for approximately 2 minutes or until crisp-tender. Quickly coin slice your cooked Italian sausage into 1/4" slices and add them to the skillet.

Grab your favorite pasta sauce and stir it into the skillet. Here was my pick:

Heat through, then add the pasta noodles. Toss to combine and sprinkle with fresh parsley.

Now serve it up to your hungry fam. And if they're a good fam, then they won't even notice that they're eating elbow macaroni noodles in an Italian Sausage Rigatoni pasta dish. My hubz passed the test. :)

Original recipe attained here, but tweaked by yours truly.

Hope you guys enjoy! Let me know if you decide to whip this up yourself. If you're hungry right now, then I guess I successfully accomplished what I set out to do (regardless of the sneaky yummy cookies in the bakery).

Mendi