Pumpkin Pie

Thanksgiving is a time to gather with family and friends, show your thankfulness for your blessings, and gorge on foods you only see once a year. This year, my new husband and I decided to have our first Thanksgiving together at our home, alone, watching Star Wars.

Since it was the two of us, I only wanted to make one dessert. But which one? I have hundreds of recipes and a dozen favorites. I decided to go traditional: pumpkin pie. That didn't make the choice any easier. How do you go about picking a good recipe off paper, without having tried it before?

When I browse my cook books or favorite websites (cooks, food network, all recipes, to name a few), some things I look for are pictures, ingredients in my pantry, number of steps, and reviews. Sometimes I like to spend hours prepping a special dish, using scientific techniques and gourmet ingredients. However, since I was making an entire Thanksgiving dinner by myself (except for my human food chopper, Adam), my goals were for it to be simple and quick.

I got this recipe from here. It was easy, quick, and delicious! None of the spices overwhelmed it, so if you love your pie to have a zing to it, add more cloves or nutmeg.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups pumpkin puree, canned or fresh
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• pinch nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup evaporated milk, undiluted
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 unbaked pastry shell (9-inch) Marie Callender in the freezer section or homemade, recipe below
• whipped cream or whipped topping, for garnish

Directions
Turn oven on to 400°. Combine pumpkin, sugar, salt, spices, and flour in a medium mixing bowl. Add eggs; mix well. Add evaporated milk, water, and vanilla; mix well. Pour into pie crust. Cover with a crust shield. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes; reduce heat to 350° and bake 30 min, then remove crust shield. Bake 10-15 minutes longer, or until center is set and crust is golden.


Pie Crust:
1 1/4 cups of all purpose flour, plus more for dusting the work surface
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbl sugar
1/4 cup vegetable shortening, chilled
6 tbl cold butter, cut into 1/4 inch pieces
3-4 tbl ice water

In a food processor, mix flour, salt and sugar until combined. Add shortening and pulse until it looks like sand. Add butter, and pulse until the size of small peas. Put mixture into a medium bowl, sprinkle 3 tbl of water and mix with a spatula (your warm hands will melt the fats). If too crumbly, add remaining water. Once well mixed, fold it about four times until it is a solid ball. Short cut: Put dough into the pie plate, press down, cover with plastic wrap, and roll it out using a mini roller or anything small and round. Press up the sides until it is all even. Remove plastic wrap. Cut off the rough edges with a butter knife then flute with your fingers. Use your thumb and forefinger of one hand and your forefinger on your other to press the flutes in around the edge.

Crust Shield
This is important when baking something for longer than 30 min. Tear off enough aluminum foil to cover the pie and quarter fold. Cut a half moon shape out of the center, unfold, and you have a crust shield! You may have to do this a few times to get the hang of it.

Apple Oatmeal Cookies

This weekend my husband and I are going camping for the first time since getting married! Some of my favorite memories growing up are with my family on camping trips in the Tennessee hills. My mother would not pack hot dogs or pre-cooked meals. Oh, no. We'd take food to make every meal from scratch, so setting up our campsite was quite the process! We had every tool you could ever need in our cooking box; we had it down to a science. While I appreciate those memories, I've found that paper plates and meals you only have to reheat are much more my style of camping.

So, here I am, preparing all the food ahead of time. My husband's favorite cookie is oatmeal raisin, but I wanted something a little heartier to sustain us on hikes and fishing excursions. We just bought a bag of apples so that sparked an idea! It then evolved to include craisins and walnuts as well. If I'd had them, I would have thrown in white chocolate chips to finish it off!

My little experiment went well, and we are all set for our trip!

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
Mix together in a large bowl

3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp cinamon
1 1/2 cup quick oats
Mix together in a medium bowl.
Add dry ingredients to the first bowl, mixing well.
Then add:
1 apple, cored and chopped
1/2 cup craisins, soaked in warm water for 15 min, then drained
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Put your craisins on to soak, then mix the ingredients as directed above.
Scoop out into whatever size you prefer, they don't spread much.
Bake 10-20 min, depending on your pan, oven, and size of the cookie. It'll be easy to tell when they are done, they start to look dry and brown on top. When baking cookies, be sure to baby sit them. Check every 5 min on how the top vs bottoms are cooking, and raise or lower your rack to compensate.

Here's how I did it, then you can use your own judgement. Using Pampered Chef's Large Scoop, I scooped out 15 large cookies onto two pans, a metal and a stoneware pan. The metal pan cooked quickly on the bottom, so I moved to the top rack and it took them 18 min. The stoneware cooked evenly on the middle rack, and took 17 min.

Makes 15 giant cookies, 30 normal sized.

Coconut Cherry Pie

Unexplained cravings are again responsible for spontaneous semi-homemade desserts. This time, it was cherries and coconut. But how to combine these two random, yet delicious ingredients? A pie, of course! Take a traditional crumble topping, add coconut flakes, and put on top of your own cherry filling, or, like me, a canned filling. Wha-la! You've got a pie. 

The delightful surprise of the toasted coconut gives the cherries an added dimension, without overpowering the dish or taking away from the comfort a cherry pie offers. 

1 regular size can cherry pie filling. (I used the one without HF Corn Syrup.)

1/3 c. coconut flakes

1/4 c. brown sugar

1 tbl cinnamon 

3 tbl flour

1/3 c. oats 

3 tbl butter, chilled

1 pie crust (my favorite pre-made is Marie Callender in the freezer)

Heat oven to 375. Pour can into pie crust. Cut butter into 1/4 in pieces. Mix dry ingredients together. Cut butter into crumble mix with a pastry blender or two knives until the size of peas. Spread evenly on top of the pie. Make a pie shield out of aluminum foil. (see previous posts) Bake for 30 min. Remove foil and bake for 15 min longer. Let stand before serving to gel and avoid tongue burning. 

Verdict: it was delicious. 

Guilt-free Chocolate Chip Banana "Bread"

Necessity has forced me to clean out my freezer. I recently got married, and between my old fridge, his fridge, and wedding leftovers, we were out of space. I set out on my counter a few random items, trying to brainstorm what action to take.

If you're like me, you hate throwing food away, and stick things in the freezer when they're on their last leg to preserve them for some future moment when you know you'll just crave that half a serving of casserole or a few slivers of chicken breast. Thus said, I always put browned bananas in my freezer for baking. I also had a carton of egg whites (yes, you can freeze eggs), so this is what I came up with: wheat free, dairy free, mostly fat and sugar free yumminess!

4 bananas, previously frozen, thawed
1 cup egg whites
1 cup oats (I used gluten free)
1 tablespoon Pampered Chef Cinnamon Plus spice blend
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Heat oven to 350. Mix together with an electric mixer. Because the bananas have been frozen and thawed, they are really juicy and mix well. Choose a baking dish that is easy to clean, such as glass, corningware or stoneware. This will stick, and you'll want to use an abrasive pad. Bake until it doesn't jiggle and it's slightly browned on top. 20 minutes or so.

Serves 4

Chocolate Cake with Fudge Icing

 My fiance and I were putting together an impromptu dinner for our good friends when we remembered that Megan's birthday was this week. Adam suggested we stop and buy a store-made cake to surprise her. Every ounce of baker in me repelled this idea, so I went to my stand-by recipe, grabbed all the ingredients, and headed to his house. Within 30 minutes we had cupcakes cooling and icing waiting for the great reveal after dinner! It pays to keep a well-stocked pantry, and oddly enough, I happened to have buttermilk from a recipe last week. For a list of items to always keep on-hand, see the list at the end of the post.

Cake Ingredients
1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup, less 1 tbl unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, melted
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups buttermilk

Icing Ingredients
1/2 cup (1stick) butter, softened, not melted
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar,
3 ounces (3 squares) unsweetened chocolate, melted
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325. Line 2 cupcake pans with paper cups. In a medium bowl, mix flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla, beat well. Fold in 1/4 of the flour mixture at a time, alternating with the buttermilk.

Fill cupcake tins 1/2 to 2/3 full. Anymore and it will overflow. Bake for 15 min-20 min, or until the tops are just firm and a toothpick comes out with a few little crumbs attached. If you bake until the toothpick is clean, they'll be too dry.

While they're baking, prepare the frosting. Beat soft butter and confectioner sugar until light and fluffy. Melt the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl at 30 second intervals, stirring well each time. Add the chocolate while beating the butter mixture. Add vanilla and beat until smooth. Put icing in your decorating bag or a gallon ziplock and let cool to room temp. When the cupcakes are completely cool, put a small amount of icing on each cupcake. If you want to pile it on thick, you'll need to double the icing recipe. Add sprinkles or choc shavings before the icing dries.

Pantry Staples 
(everything you need to make almost every cake, cookie, and pie)
All-purpose flour
Granulated sugar
Powdered sugar
Brown sugar
Salt
Baking Soda
Baking Powder
Vanilla (clear if you need to make white cake or icing)
Cocoa Powder
Chocolate Baking Squares
Chocolate chips, white and semi-sweet
Shortening
Eggs
Milk
Butter
Oats
Raisins

Pumpkin Bread

Nothing says fall like sweet breads made out of gourds. In October, my boyfriend Adam and I went to a pumpkin carving party with our friends. His vision was to scrape the inside of the pumpkin until it was paper thin and the pattern could show a soft orange glow when the candle was lit. After 30 min of constant scraping, we left with a stuffed gallon-sized bag of shredded pumpkin. What else to do, than to make pumpkin bread! My search for a recipe led me online to Food Network and Alton Brown. I omitted the pumpkin seeds, because from previous experience, their texture isn't pleasant once the bread isn't fresh. 

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups shredded fresh pumpkin

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Mix the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together.In a separate bowl, mix the sugar, vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla. Combine both mixtures and fold in the shredded pumpkin. Once the ingredients are all incorporated, pour into a greased muffin tin. Bake for 30 minutes. At this point a toothpick inserted into the middle of a muffin should come out clean. 

I acquired this recipe from Alton Brown on the Food Network. 

Chocolate Pecan Bourbon Pie "Derby Pie"

• Last year I had the good fortune to be set up on a girl date with who is now my best friend, Bonnie. She and I share a love of horses and often talk about Kentucky and the races. This summer she made a "Derby Pie," and I will never look at a pecan pie the same way. 
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• The Derby Pie is a tradition of Kentucky, and the only original recipe is a well kept family secret. This version is a cross between a chocolate chess and a pecan. 
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• Frozen Marie Callenders crust 
• 1 1/2 cups chopped pecans 
• 1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate morsels
• 1 cup dark corn syrup
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar 
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup bourbon or water 
• 4 large eggs 
• 1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted 
• 2 teaspoons cornmeal
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Sprinkle pecans and chocolate evenly onto bottom of piecrust; set aside.
• Combine corn syrup and next 3 ingredients in a large saucepan, and bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, 3 minutes. Remove from heat.
• Whisk together eggs and next 4 ingredients. Gradually whisk about one-fourth hot mixture into egg mixture; add to remaining hot mixture, whisking constantly. Pour filling into prepared piecrust. Cover with crust shield for first 30 min. 
• Bake at 325° for 50 minutes or until set; cool on wire rack.
• Cynthia Ann Briscoe, Birmingham, Alabama, Southern Living 

Oatmeal Cookies

Sometimes you can't improve upon an old recipe. And sometimes you can!

Recently Colorado was bombarded by 8 different forest fires, one of which was in the foothills near my town of Fort Collins. The organization Samaritan's Purse came in to help people sift through remains, clean windows, and put tarps on roofs. Hundreds of volunteers headed up into the mountains everyday with sack lunches. Some of the ladies at my church were asked to bake cookies, so I had a few girls over to share in the experience. We landed on traditional Oatmeal Cookies, and after baking one batch, we mixed it up a little by substituting white chocolate and craisins for raisins. Both were equally delicious!

In my early adolescence, I tested out many different recipes for oatmeal raisin cookies to please my daddy. Every batch was a little different; fluffy, crispy, sweeter, heartier. . . but, alas, none could satisfy him. Finally I called my grandmother in Florida and asked for the recipe she used to make when my father was a boy. She laughed and replied that it was on the Quaker Oats carton! Well, why not? Sometimes simpler is better!

1 cup (2sticks) butter
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups Quaker Oats
1 cup raisins

Heat oven to 350. Beat together butter and sugars until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla, beat well. In separate bowl, mix flour, soda, cinnamon, and salt. Then add oatmeal and raisins. Add dry mix to batter in fourths until fully incorporated. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheet, 2 inches apart. Bake 10-12 min, or until golden brown. Cool on a rack, then store in an air-tight container to keep soft. Makes about 4 doz.

Apple Dump Cake

One of the things I love about cooking is taking an in-season ingredient and transforming it into something amazing. Last fall a friend gave me apples from his yard. I made apple pies and bread and still had some left over, so I peeled, sliced and froze the rest. I recently came across them and decided I would throw them in with some sugar and cinnamon for a quick dessert. Based upon what I had on hand, this is what I came up with, and it was wonderful! My apples were very tender and moist after being frozen, perfect for short cooking time.

5-6 cups of peeled, sliced apples
Hand full of raisins
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ginger
1 stick butter, divided
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/2 yellow cake mix

Preheat oven to 350 with 1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) of butter in a glass 9x13 pan. Mix sugars and spices in a large bowl, toss apples and raisins to coat. Once butter is melted, tilt dish so that it coats the whole pan. Dump apple mixture in. Sprinkle cake mix evenly over the top. Add pecans evenly. Melt remaining 1/2 stick of butter and drizzle over the top. Bake for 30 min or so on the lower middle of the oven. (don't want to burn the pecans!) If the top starts to brown before you think the apples are done, cover with foil and cook another 10 min.

Mississippi Lemon Chess Pie

One of my best girlfriends, Jennifer, recently inherited a priceless collection of recipes from a beloved aunt. My little southern heart beat fast at the prospect of finding original recipes like my grandmother and great-grandmother used to make. With her permission, I took pictures of several and am eager to put them all to the test.
My first try was this wonderfully rich pie. Chess Pie is at the heart of any true southerner, and this recipe artfully balances the sweet with the fresh lemon flavor. I'm not typically a huge lemon dessert fan, but this has won me over and I've made it twice already.

See the recipe in the picture below and read my previous posts to find crust recipes and tips.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

The iron skillet. It's a staple in the Southern kitchen. I learned to make cornbread, country ham, and fried okra in this skillet. It's even heat conducting makes it a perfect way to caramelize the pineapple and pecans before popping the cake in the oven. This thick batter creates a nice pound cake like texture. The pecans get caramelized, adding a pleasant surprise to each bite. 

Start with 4 tablespoons of butter, melted slowly over medium heat. As soon as it's melted, add 3/4 cup brown sugar, and stir until dissolved. Increase the temp to med high and cook until it begins to bubble, about 2 min. Meanwhile, drain 1 can of pineapple tidbits, reserving the juice. Add pineapple to sugar and cook until it is a nice caramel color, about 2 more min. Remove from heat, gently stir once, and add 1/2 cup halved pecans. 

Heat oven to 350. Stir together 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, and 1/4 tsp salt.
In a separate bowl, whip 1 cup of sugar and 1 stick of butter,  room temp,  until light and fluffy. Add 2 eggs, and beat until just incorporated. (Over beating eggs makes for a tough cake.)
Gradually add flour mixture and 1 cup of buttermilk alternately, mixing on low. Add 1 1/2 tsp vanilla and 1 tbl dark rum.
Gently spoon on top of pineapple.
Bake for 25-35 min, or until golden brown on top and a toothpick comes out clean in the middle (don't insert all the way down). Cool for 4-5 min (no more!) , loosen with a knife, place a cake plate on top, use oven mitts and flip over quickly. May be messy, but it's delicious! Serve warm with vanilla ice cream. Yum!

Tips: substitute 1/4 cup buttermilk with pineapple juice, or save for a steak marinade!
Put aluminum foil under your skillet in the over to catch spills

Pecan Pie

What are the holidays without a Pecan Pie?

My favorite Thanksgiving memories are when my family in Tennessee would gather at my Aunt Meg's house. We would pack in cousins, in-laws, grandparents, uncles, and close family friends. One year we had three dogs and a cat! Now that was a lively day. In order to feed all 20-30 of us, the women folk would work for hours the days before to prepare a feast. Aunt Meg's kitchen island would be covered with a wide variety of pies, cakes, and cookies to tempt and delight. The list usually included molasses cookies, buttermilk pie, mincemeat pie, and pecan pie. Even though I didn't get to spend the day with everyone this year, my brother and I carried on the traditions here in Colorado with his family.

This year, rather than using the usual recipe on the Karo Syrup bottle, I decided to try something a little more complex. It took more time, but the results were amazing!

1 Pie crust, deep dish. (I have a simple recipe for one on the apple pie blog. If you must use store-bought, I recommend Marie Callender's.)

6 Tbl butter, cut into 1 in pieces
1 cup packed, dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3 large eggs, beaten
3/4 cup light corn syrup
1 Tbl vanilla
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans, toasted

Heat the oven to 375.
Toast pecans for 8 minutes, or until you can start to smell them.
Place pie weights in the crust, either using dry beans in aluminum foil, using it to also cover and protect the edges (this is to prevent bubbling). Bake the empty crust for 25 min. Carefully remove the foil and beans, return crust to oven for 5 min until bottom of crust is dry.
Decrease oven to 275.
Filling: place a medium glass bowl in a skillet of water. Bring water to boil, reduce to simmer. Add butter. Once melted, add brown sugar and salt, mix well. Add the eggs, corn syrup and vanilla. Beat together, then stir regularly until the filling is hot and reads 130 degrees. Remove from heat and add pecans.
Pour into prepared shell, cover with crust shield, bake for 40 minutes. Remove shield, bake another 15-20 min, or until the pie doesn't jiggle, but gives when pressed in the center.

Classic Apple Pie

My dear friend Jennifer gave me a wonderful cookbook for my birthday this year. Best Recipe from a test kitchen. They take the most popular recipes and test all the different variations. I will say this was very well balanced for texture, apple flavor, and seasoning.

Ingredients 

Pie crust (recipe at bottom)
2 tbl flour plus more for dusting the work surface
3 large Granny Smith Apples (about 1 1/2 lbs, for tartness and crisp texture)
4 large McIntosh Apples (about 2 lbs, for sweetness and soft texture)
1 tbl juice and 1 tsp grated zest from 1 lemon
3/4 cup plus 1 tbl sugar
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp salt
1 large egg white, beaten slightly with a dash of water

Directions:

Lower oven rack, heat to to 500 deg

Roll half the dough on a lightly floured work surface with a piece of parchment paper or wax paper on top. Roll into a 12 in circle, using your flattened hand to make sure of even thickness all around. 

Roll the dough around your rolling pin and then unroll it onto your pie plate, easing it into the corners and leaving excess. Place in refrigerator. Peel, core, and slice the apples into 1/4 inch slices and toss with lemon juice and zest. In a medium bowl, mix the dry ingredients together (reserve 1 tbl sugar), then toss with apples. Empty bowl into chilled pie shell, mounding in center.
Roll out the remaining half of crust and place on top by following previous steps.
Trim edges of crust to 1/2 inch all the way around, tuck the top layer over the bottom and into the pan, flute edges with fingertips. 

Cut 4 slits on top of pie with a knife. If dough is very soft, place in the freezer for 10 min. Brush the egg white on the top crust and sprinkle evenly with remaining sugar. 

 Place pie on a baking sheet and lower oven temp to 425. Bake the pie until the crust is golden, about 25 min. Rotate the pie, reduce oven temp to 375, continue baking until the juices bubble and the crust is a deep golden brown, 30-35 min longer. 

Cool to room temp, at least 4 hours to let juices set up. 

Serve with your favorite vanilla ice cream! Mine is Breyers.

Pie Crust:
2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour, plus more for dusting the work surface
1 tsp salt
2 tbl sugar
1/2 cup vegetable shortening, chilled
12 tbl (1 1/2 sticks) cold butter, cut into 1/4 inch pieces
6-8 tbl ice water

Mix flour, salt and sugar until combined. Add shortening and butter, cutting in with a pastry blender, a food processor, or two knives. Do this until it resembles coarse crumbs, the size of small peas. In a medium bowl, sprinkle 6 tbl of water mix with clean hands by scraping the edges and folding in on itself. If too crumbly, add remaining water. Do this until well mixed. Divide in half, cover, and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Chocolate Chess Pie

I have the great honor and privilege of living close to my brother and his three amazing children. Time to time, when I babysit them, I let them help me cook and try to pass on my knowledge to their young, eager faces. This was a perfect opportunity to bake a pie: their father's birthday.

Now in the south, a Chess pie is a tradition. It's one of the first recipes I learned, passed down from my grandmother along with this story. The old saying goes, that a yankee was enjoying a delicious pie baked for him by a southern cook when he asked what kind of pie it was. The cook, in a heavy accent, said, "It's jes' pie." Thus, the name, "Chess Pie." What's better than a pie full of sugar and butter? A pie full of sugar, butter and chocolate. So here's the variation on the old favorite.

Ingredients
3 cups sugar
7 tbl cocoa powder
3 tbl flour
1 cup milk
4 eggs
1 stick butter
1 tsp vanilla
2 regular pie shells or 1 deep dish.

Directions
Heat oven to 350, place pie shells on a cookie sheet. prepare a crust shield (directions in Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake).
In a small saucepan, heat butter on low just until melted, remove from heat and add cocoa until melted.
In a bowl, mix sugar with flour, then add remaining ingredients. Add butter/cocoa mixture. Pour into crusts.
Bake for 30-40 min, until a crust has formed on top of the pie. (it will be cracked and not sticky to the touch)
Remove crust shield during the last 15 min of baking.
Cool completely before slicing. We call this "Settin' up."  (trust me, resist temptation or it will be pure liquid inside!)

Funny side note: After baking this and putting the sweet darlings to bed, I couldn't resist tasting my creation. So, I confess I nibbled a bit :) It made Twitter with a picture of the creator/culprit.

Apple Cinnamon Bread

Fall is here, accompanied by the fragrance of apples and cinnamon filling my home with the sound of rustling leaves for background music through the open window. A friend of mine gave me a bushel of small, tart apples to feed my cooking fetish, so this is my first try at Apple Bread.

One fall, several years ago, I was blessed to visit the state of Maine during its height of color. The coastline was lined with antique stores, book shops, bead and breakfasts, and bakeries that made me feel like being transported back in time to simpler days. So, when I came across this recipe from Ogunquit, ME, I knew I had to try it. It is every bit as delicious as a slice of New England history should be.

Ingredients
3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup melted butter
1 tbl vanilla
2 cups apples, peeled, sliced 1/4 in thick and cut in half
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 tbl flour

Directions
Heat oven to 350, grease the bottoms of 2 glass loaf pans.
Toast walnuts in heating oven 10 min or until you can smell them. Cool, then toss with flour.
In a medium bowl, mix flour, cin, soda, salt, and baking powder.
In a separate, large bowl, beat eggs for a minute.
Add sugar, butter, oil, and vanilla, stir just until incorporated.
Add flour in quarters and stir just until mixed. Add apples and walnuts.
Pour into two pans, bake for 1 hour, rotating half-way through.
Check 10 min early and then at 5 min intervals until a toothpick comes out mostly clean.
Let cool for 5 min before dumping out of pan.
Savor the smell!

Key Lime Pie

As I was walking through the grocery store this afternoon, I spied some key lime pies on the shelf that got my mouth watering. As much as I may be tempted to buy premade treats, I am always halted by the memory of my mother's homemade creation. Its cool, creamy texture and tart taste are refreshingly perfect for a hot summer's day. Once again, thank you Mama for this family favorite! (My brother is so jealous right now)

8oz sour cream
2 8oz pkgs of cream cheese, room temp
Juice of 1 lemon
Juice of 1 lime (even if small)
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 dash salt
Graham cracker crusts: 1 deep dish (with leftovers) or 2 regular crusts or 12 mini crusts

Mix all ingredients until smooth. Pour in crust, cover, and refrigerate 4 hours or overnight. Serve cold.

Tips:

• Microwave the lime and lemons for 20 seconds and roll on the counter to loosen the juices. 
• Microwave the cream cheese for 30 seconds in a glass bowl to make it easier to mix. 

Garnishes:

• Take an extra lime and slice thinly then cut half-way through on one side. Open and twist the sides in opposite directions. 
• Add whip cream and lime zest.
• Score the lime from top to bottom before slicing to add flair to the rind.
• Eat it all right away before you have time to garnish it.

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

• I woke up this morning to grey skies, the wind rustling the leaves outside of my window and the soft patter of rain serenading me. I started thinking of all the wonderful things I could make for breakfast when a Jack Johnson song started playing in my head, "Banana Pancakes." That sparked another thought, chocolate chip banana bread, one of my favorite comfort foods. 

Yesterday I had a bunch of girls over to watch a movie and do a chocolate tasting, so, conveniently, we had a selection of chocolate to choose from. I mixed dark chocolate with orange, sea salt chocolate, several milk chocolates, and a 85% dark chocolate. It keeps the banana muffins mysterious, and hard to pinpoint what you're tasting!

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• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 3 large over-ripe bananas from your freezer, thawed
• 2/3 cup plain yogurt
• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 cups dark chocolate bar, chopped up

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cream bananas and sugar, add eggs, butter, vanilla, yogurt, mix well. Mix dry ingredients in separate bowl, add to banana mixture 1/3 at a time. Add chocolate, just stir to incorporate. 

Grease a muffin tin or a loaf pan. Bake muffins for about 15 min, until sides are brown. Bake Loaf for 30-40 min until a toothpick comes out clean in the center. Don't open the oven too much as it can cause the center to fall. 

Tip: When your bananas start to go bad, throw them in the freezer. The peel protects them, and when you thaw them out they are a nice soft consistency that mixes well. 

Old-fashioned Buttermilk Pie

This pie is famous in my family. At my great-grandmother "Ma's" funeral, it was even mentioned as something to be remembered. It's the first pie I ever made, and the one I make when I want to get into my daddy's heart. So simple, yet so unique. Enjoy!

Ma and Father Gunn, my great-grandparents

2 cups sugar
1 heaping tbl flour
1 cup buttermilk
3/4 stick of butter, melted
6 egg yolks, save whites for meringue
1 1/2 tsp vinegar, preferably apple cider
1 deep dish pie shell. My favorite is Marie Callender's in the freezer case with the Coolwhip

Preheat oven to 325.
In a large bowl, mix sugar and flour. Add rest of ingredients, mix well. Pour into crust and bake for 60 to 70 min, until it doesn't jiggle and it is light brown in spots. A crust shield is needed for this recipe. Remove at the 50 min mark. Let cool completely, even overnight, to let it set-up. Cut SMALL slices and serve! Also known as "death by sugar pie" hahah!

Meringue:
6 egg whites
1 tbl cream of tartar
2 tbl sugar
1 dash salt

Beat it on high until stiff peaks form. Spread on cooked pie. Cook at 450 until top is golden brown (doesn't take long, so watch it!)

Spring St, Ashland City, TN, 1970

Southern Molasses Cake

Molasses. What a sweet word. Since I can remember, we've had a jar of Sorghum Molasses on our table right next to the honey and butter. I grew up in a small town just outside of Nashville, TN and this is something we take seriously in our family! My second cousins will drive 2 hours just to get an authentic jar of this thick, black stuff. It's hard to find in grocery stores, they'll try to sell you corn syrup or Black Strap molasses. While good in its own rights, this is not what we aim for, what we cook with, and what we slather our biscuits in five nights out of the week. 

Molasses can be put to use to make grits edible, to substitute sugar in oatmeal, to give meaning to a biscuit, or to bake with. My all-time favorite molasses recipe is the famous Molasses cookie, but we'll save that for another day. 

I came across this in a cookbook for Armour's Hotel in Red Boiling Springs, TN. It's one of the first recipes I found myself when I started to bake as a teenager. I'm hooked, it's in my collection forever. 

1 stick butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup molasses

1 cup water

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp cloves

1 1/2 tsp soda

2 1/2 cups flour

2 eggs, beaten separately

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Cream butter and sugar together, add molasses and water. In a separate bowl, combine all dry ingredients thoroughly. Add flour mixture slowly while folding in. Add eggs, don't over beat. 
• Pour into well greased bundt pan. 
• Bake 30-40 min or until toothpick comes out almost clean. 
• Start sauce recipe 10 min before cake is done.
• Cool for 5 min, then turn onto serving platter. 
• Pour sauce over hot cake and serve! 

Sauce:

1 stick butter

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup half and half

1/4 tsp each: Cinnamon, ginger, allspice. 

Melt butter in saucepan over low heat. (Did you hear me? turn that burner down. ) Add sugar, stir until dissolved. Turn off heat, add spices and cream, mix well. 

Enjoy!

Cooking Tips:

• grease your measuring cup before putting the molasses in, or use Pampered Chef's Measure All Cup, great for sticky and thick things like Crisco or peanut butter. 
• If the cake is stuck and won't come out of the pan, freeze it then pop it out with a flexible spatula knife. (If this happens, reheat it before pouring sauce over it since it won't absorb it cold) 

Mocha Tart

This recipe will impress everyone! Beware, it has caffeine content!
My favorite food magazine for years was Family Circle. This is one of the gems I collected from there. Perfect for grown-up events.

1 ready-made pie crust
2/3 cup semisweet choc chips
1 cup rough chopped walnuts
3 Tbl butter
3 Tbl instant espresso powder
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup dark corn syrup
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
Whipped cream (recipe can be found on my other recipes)

• Heat oven to 350 degrees. Fit pie crust into a 9 in removable-bottom tart pan.
• Sprinkle chocolate and walnuts evenly over crust. Set aside.
• Microwave butter in large glass bowl 40 or until melted. 
• Whisk in espresso powder.
• Beat in brown sugar, corn syrup, eggs, and vanilla.
• Pour into crust.
• Bake in lower third of oven for 35-40 min. Cool on rack to room temp. Remove outer rim and garnish with whipped cream before serving.