Thursday, October 21, 2004

Surprise Pie

This is one I got from Little House on the Prairie. The mother wants to make a pie, but has no apples, so she uses a squash or pumpkin instead.

The results are much better than you would expect, for those of you who have only ever used the canned pumpkin.

1 recipe pie crust
6 cups raw pumpkin (or a winter squash such as blue hubbard) peeled and sliced like you would apples
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup plain flour
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves or allspice
1 egg beaten

Make the bottom crust and set aside.
Put the sliced pumpkin in a large bowl and pour the egg over it, stir to get egg on all the pieces.
Mix together the dry ingredients and stir into the pumpkin.
Pour into the pie crust, make the top crust and cut slits to allow the steam to escape.
Brush the top with milk and sprinkle with cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar.
Bake at 400° degrees for 15 minutes then lower temperature to 350° and continue to bake for another 30 minutes or until crust is nicely browned.

Excellent served warm with ice cream or cold with whipped cream.

Yum factor: 62

Tuesday, October 19, 2004

Fall is in the air...

Time for winter food!

A simple family favorite is Sheperd's Pie. Making it with leftover mashed potatoes makes it quick!
I love this stuff way too much, so I only make it a couple times a year.

Ingredients: Potatoes, meat (lamb or ground beef are best) gravy and canned corn.

6 to 8 large potatoes, washed and cut into 2 inch cubes - you can peel them if you like I'm lazy and prefer to leave the peeling to others. DO peel if the potatoes are old or late-winter, the skins will be too tough to mash otherwise.

Cook the potatoes until soft enough to mash. Mash with butter and milk (whole milk, please!), salt and pepper.

While the potatoes are cooking, get the meat part ready. Lamb is always best in this dish, but if you don't happen to have any leftover, use ground beef, browned and drained.
If you ARE using lamb, cut it into 1 inch cubes and make a gravy from the drippings to go with it, if you didn't do that when you first made the lamb, or you don't have any left over.

Lamb: 4 to 6 cups, cubed (Ground beef: 2 lbs browned and drained)
Gravy: 2 cups

To assemble the 'pie' spread the lamb/ground beef in the bottom of a buttered 13"x9" baking pan. Pour the gravy over the meat. Drain and spread 2 cans of whole kernal corn over this layer. drop the mashed potatoes by spoonsful over this and spread to cover completely.

Dot the top with pats of butter and bake at 350° for 30 to 45 minutes, or until the edges of the potatoes start to brown.

This is just so good.

Yum factor: 75



Friday, October 15, 2004

Key Lime Cookies

This is my next recipe to try out and modify to my own taste:

Iced Key Lime Cookies

Butter Cookie
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons Key lime juice
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

Key Lime Icing
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons Key lime juice

Butter Cookies: Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping the bowl down as needed. Add the egg yolk, then the vanilla extract and 1 1/2 teaspoons Key lime juice. Lastly, blend in the flour.

Transfer the dough to a large piece of plastic wrap and form into a cylinder that is 2 1/4 inches in diameter. Refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter 2 large baking sheets and set aside.

Cut the cookies into 1/4-inch slices. Place the slices on the baking sheets and bake at 350 degrees F for 8 to 10 minutes. Place the baking sheets onto a cooling rack and cool for 5 minutes. Transfer the cookies to the cooling rack.

For the key lime icing: Combine the confectioners' sugar and 1 1/2 tablespoons Key lime juice in a small bowl. Brush the tops of the cookies with the icing as soon as the cookies are transferred off the baking sheets.

Yield: 50

recipe found here

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

Salmon Pea Wiggle

Everyone has a comfort food they go back to. In my family it's this dish. Simple and fast, it takes about 15 minutes to make. It's the one thing my younger son, Aaron wants when he comes to visit.

Salmon Pea Wiggle:

15 ounces salmon, canned
15 ounces canned peas, baby
4 cups milk
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Clean skin and bones from salmon and drain juice - feed to cat.

2. Drain peas, reserving 1/4 cup of liquid

3. Melt butter in 2 quart saucepan, add salt and pepper, stir in flour.

4. Add reserved peas liquid, stirring quickly.

5. Add milk slowly, whisking it in.

6. Simmer until the wiggle thickens.

7. Add the salmon and peas, heat thoroughly.

8. Serve over crushed saltine crackers.

9. This only actually serves 2, if I'm making it for Aaron (younger son) and myself

Coming soon!

New (to you) recipes.

Monday, October 04, 2004

Crunchatized cookies

Butter cookies with cinnamon are rolled in cinnamon-sugar mixture before baking.

INGREDIENTS:

* 2/3 cup butter
* 1 cup sugar
* 1 egg
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1 teaspoon cinnamon
* 1/2 cup crushed Cap'n Crunch cereal - original flavor
* 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
* 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

PREPARATION:
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Sift flour with baking powder and 1 teaspoon cinnamon; add to butter mixture and blend well. Chill dough for 30 minutes. In a wide shallow bowl, combine crushed Cap'n Crunch cereal with 2 tablespoons cinnamon and 2 tablespoons sugar.

Form chilled cinnamon cookie dough into small balls; roll each ball in the cinnamon-sugar-cereal mixture then place on greased and floured cookie sheets (or use silpat sheets) about 2 to 3 inches apart. Bake at 350° for about 10 to 12 minutes. Makes about 36 cinnamon cookies.