NOT...with capital letters!

For the past week or so, the weather on the Bayou has been a tad dismal.  While there have not been torrential downpours, the skies drip just enough to keep one inside.  Well, I get bored easily when cooped up inside so leave it to me to start dabbling around in the kitchen.  I knew I had several chores that needed tending so I set to work.  Orange peels were dehydrated and ground for use on chicken and seafood dishes as well as in baked goods.  A half gallon of ground peels were readied for the shelf today.  Then I moved onto making Sweet Potato Jam which has become Mark's new "favorite" toast-topping!  I made enough to keep him happy for a few weeks and promised to make more tomorrow.  A pot of homemade chili was the next thing on the agenda.  There is nothing better to warm the body on a cold, wet, wintry day.  Yep, I have to keep these menfolk fed!  

Come late afternoon, the weather was no better.  It did not look like I would get out and about today.  No treks to the pier, no hikes around the hillside were in order for Ms. Ez and me on this drizzly afternoon.  So....I headed back into the kitchen!  This time, I had found a recipe that sounded delicious!  Apple Crumb Squares would be attempted in the kitchen at the Little Bayou House!  Michael came into the kitchen just as I started.  I excitedly showed him the recipe!  He looked at the page and asked, "Another recipe that you are NOT going to follow?"  It was then that I realized that he was so right!  I always find some recipe and have great intentions of following it to a T!  Then something happens....I start substituting this for that and adding just a "tad" of vanilla or a "smidgen" of cinnamon or even a whomping handful of cranberries! Why, this time I even added a large "dollop" of sweet potatoes!  Michael had spoken the truth.  I looked at him and sheepishly smiled.."I try!"..to which he simply answered, "No, no you don't!"   Well, I cannot lie, even with this incredible recipe, I could not hold true to the ingredients.  My Apple Crumb Squares took on a whole new identity and soon became known as Apple/Cranberry Dessert! Oh, my goodness!  This lovely new dessert filled the house with the most inviting aroma!  When Mark tasted it, he said that the filling tasted so much like the "old-style" Apple Strudel that he remembers as a kid.  Both he and Michael said the recipe was a "keeper"! 

Tomorrow, I will try to replicate the dish that I made today writing down the ingredients and measurements as I go along.  If it turns out as well as the first dish, I will post a new recipe!  Perhaps it is a good thing that I do NOT follow recipes as Michael says!  If I had, this warm, gooey dessert would never have been made and I would have had two hungry fellows snooping about the kitchen in search of a snack!