Apple Festival and A Recipe!

Our county has many apple orchards and to celebrate our apple-ness, an Apple Festival is held annually on the third weekend of September. An Apple Queen is crowned a few weeks before, the Home Extension Agency holds an apple recipe contest, a craft show is held, the Apple Festival 5K run takes place, it's a big deal here in Lincoln County!

The best time to go to the Apple Festival is in the morning before it gets hot and super crowded. The official opening time is 9 a.m. but we were strolling downtown at 8:30. Many craft vendors, band boosters, churches, hopeful politicians, and of course the apple growers have booths set up through downtown. You can take your pick of what you would like to eat, the most popular are the bananas dipped in chocolate (or Wild Thangs) sold by the Lincoln Squares Square Dancing group. And there's nothing like munching on a giant turkey leg while walking around the festival!

So we have already been there, done that for the Apple Festival 2010. So in honor of another successful Apple Festival, I made a Pampered Chef recipe, Glazed Apple Daisy, for breakfast. So good and I remembered to take a photo of it, too bad I forgot my camera for the Apple Festival.

Glazed Apple Daisy by
The Pampered Chef
1 package (17.5 oz) grand size cinnamon rolls with icing
1 Granny Smith apple peeled, cored, and sliced
1/4 cup pecans chopped
1 orange

Preheat oven to 350F. Set icing aside. Seperate cinnamon rolls. Using 5" Utility Knife, cut each cinnamon roll in half. Arrange cut halves in a circle, pinwheel fashion, on 13" Round stone leaving center open. Gently press cinnamon rolls together with fingers to seal. Using lightly floured dough & pizza roller, roll dough out to within 1 inch of edge of stone. Peel, core & slice apple & nuts, place in small batter bowl. Using lemon zester, zest orange to measure 1 teaspoon, set aside. Juice orange to measure 4 teaspoons juice, sprinkle 3 teaspoons over apple mixture. Spread apple mixture evenly over cinnamon rolls. Bake 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven, cool 5 minutes on nonstick cooling rack. Add orange zest & remaining 1 teaspoon juice to icing, mix well. Drizzle over warm cinnamon rolls, serve warm.

Yield: 10 servings
Approximately 190 calories & 7 grams of fat per serving

Have a great weekend!
~Melissa

*Crowd photo from the Lincoln Times-News