Lots of cooking....

...not so many pictures. As in, no pictures. I'm not quite certain where my camera is. So if you're Catholic, say a prayer to St. Anthony for me. Everyone else, just say a prayer ;)

One of my favorite foods--okay, my absolute favorite food-- is this:

Not the most healthy meal under the best of circumstances, and certainly not when you're pregnant and have a tendency towards high blood pressure and swelling. When my ankles started to swell Thanksgiving night, it ocurred to me that maybe now was the time to cut back on my sodium intake. Which, sadly for me, means cutting out my beloved mac 'n' cheese.

The obvious solution, for a normal person, would just be to make mac 'n' cheese. Unfortunately, I'm spoiled, and I've never liked homemade macaroni and cheese. It's always tasted grainy and gross to me. Yesterday, though, I was flipping thru my copy of America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, and found a recipe for "Creamy Stovetop Macaroni and Cheese." What the heck, I thought. I don't have much to do today, I'll give it a whirl.

I was pleasantly surprised. I'll be honest--it's not the same as the delighfully creamy Kraft version. But, for a girl who's a confessed addict of the "real" thing, it was a pretty decent substitute. It's very smooth; not at all grainy. When I reheated the left overs today, I did put in a bit of milk, and it was just as good today. Not only did I enjoy it, but Darren seems to be in love with the stuff. I felt more than a little guilty when I gave him bites of the processed Kraft version, but felt no quilt about giving him the homemade stuff. I mean, it's noodles, milk, and cheese. Certainly not a balanced diet, but in conjunction with other foods, it seems pretty healthy to me. (Recipe will follow at the end of this post.)

Last night, for supper, we had Farmhouse Chicken. This is so easy, and so delicious. I think next time I make it, I'm going to just make my own stuffing, rather than using StoveTop.

Today, on a bit of a whim, I made Burnt Sugar Cake. The first time I made it, about a year and a half ago, I had never heard of it. A friend/old man/bar patron told me I should make him one (his mom always used to make it). Always one for a challege, I went looking for a recipe. At the time, I could only find one recipe on the internet, and I had to look hard for it (it was some archived page). Of course, a couple of months later, I found several recipes in various cookbooks I owned (including my beloved Betty Crocker cookbook, listed under "Caramel Cake also called Burnt Sugar Cake").

I'll always be grateful to that man, though, because it's now one of my favorite cakes. The recipes for it vary greatly, but what follows is my favorite. I'll admit, 7-Minute Frosting is a bit of a pain to make, but it's definately my favorite frosting, so I endure the hassle.

"Aunt Mae's Burnt Sugar Cake with Burnt Sugar Frosting"
From The Pioneer Lady's Country Christmas, by Jane Watson Hopping

3 tbsp. burnt sugar syrup (recipe follows)
3 c. cake flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
.5 tsp salt
.75 c. butter or margarine, softened
1.75 c. sugar
1.33 c. milk
1 scant tbsp. vanilla
4 egg whites, beaten into stiff peaks
Burnt Sugar Frosting (recipe follows)

Burnt Sugar Syrup
.5 c. sugar
.33 c. boiling water

Place sugar in a heavy-bottomed (I used cast iron) frying pan; cook over medium heat until sugar becomes a bubbly rich golden brown syrup. Remove from heat. Very carefully add .33 cup boiling water to the sugar (the water will make the syrup boil up). Set aside until needed.

Cake
Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9 x 13 cake pan. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt three times, ending with it in a medium-size bowl. Cream the butter; gradually add the sugar, beating until light and fluffy. In a small bowl, combine the milk, Burnt Sugar syrup, and vanilla. Stir into the butter-sugar mixture sifted flour alternately with flavored milk. Lightly fold the egg whites into the batter, being careful not to decrease the batter's volume. Gently spoon into pan. Bake until golden brown and firm to the touch, about 25-30 minutes. Once cool, frost.

Frosting
3 tbsp. Burnt Sugar Syrup
1 c. sugar
1 tsp. cream of tartar
a few grains of salt
2 egg whites
1 tsp. vanilla

In the top of a double boiler, combine the syrup, sugar, cream of tartar, salt, and egg whites. Place over boiling water and beat with a rotary beater for five minutes. Add the vanilla and continue beating two minutes more. Remove from heat and use immediately.



Creamy Stovetop Macaroni and Cheese
From America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

2 c. macaroni
salt
2 lg. eggs
1 (12 oz.) can evaporated milk
1 tsp. dry mustard, dissolved in 1 tbsp. water
.25 tsp. Tabasco
Pepper
4 tbsp butter
3 c. shredded cheese (I used half cheddar, half colby-jack)

Boil pasta until tender. Meanwhile, mix together eggs, half of the evaporated milk, mustard mixture, Tabasco, 1/2 tsp. salt, and 1/4 tsp. pepper. Drain pasta and return to pan. Set over low heat and stir in butter until melted. Stir in egg mixture and half of the cheese. Continue to cook on low, gradually stirring in remaining milk and cheese until hot and creamy (about 5 minutes).

Make sure to scroll down!

I made several posts today (well, three, total). I finished both a pair of socks and a romper this weekend, and posted them each in their own post. Scroll down to check 'em out.

Now for the "regular" post :)

First, I want to make sure to thank Mrs. Wilt of The Sparrow's Nest for my new look. She's been working with me for a couple of weeks now to make sure it was exactly what I wanted, and I'm thrilled with the new look.

Since my last post was on pumpkin it seems only appropriate to continue on a theme:

Pumpkin Gooey Butter Bars

(I swear it's pumpkin!)

One tray is to take to a friend's house tomorrow, one is to take to work with me tomorrow. (No, not for coworkers, but for the card players who come in every Tuesday night. To hear them talk, you'd think they eat once a week.)

I haven't made these in a while, and I'd forgotten how wonderful they are. The last time I made them, I made them in August or some other extremely hot month--not a good idea. The bars got moldy quite quickly. They are extremely moist (as the name implies), so if you don't plan on eating them quickly or if you plan to make them during a hot month, make sure you store them in the fridge.

This is a semi-cheater recipe: the crust calls for a box of cake mix. As you know (well, maybe you didn't, but now you do), I don't normally "do" cheater recipes. If it calls for a "box" of this or a "can" of this, I'm not very likely to try it. I do have a couple "cheater" recipes in my repertoire, though, that are just too good to be snobby about. This is defiantely one of them!

Edited to add: I had to run to town to get the cream cheese for these this morning. I had planned to buy the generic cheese, of course. Much to my glee, the Philadelphia brand was on sale, 4 @ $5. Of course, I whipped out my calculator to make sure it was really a deal. Sure enough, four packages of the generic would have been $5.80. I feel incredibly dorky to be so excited about an $0.80 savings, but I know some of you will understand!

Pumpkin Gooey Butter Bars

Crust:
1 package yellow cake mix
1 egg
1 stick (8 tbsp) butter, melted

Filling:
1 (8 oz.) packaged cream cheese, softened
1 cup pumpkin (or, one 15 oz. can)
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 stick (8 tbsp) butter, melted
16 oz. powdered sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp clove
1/4 tsp allspice
dash salt

To make crust, combine ingredients; mix well. Pat into greased cake pan.

To make filling, beat cream cheese and pumpkin until smooth. Add eggs, vanilla, and butter; beat together. Add remaining ingredients. Mix well.

Spread over crust; bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes. Do not over bake--center should still be a little gooey.

Pumpkin Pie

So it's not exactly an inspired title. With rare exceptions, I'm not witty when it comes to that sort of thing.

After reading a thread on Ravelry about pumpkin pie, it occured to me that perhaps there's a dearth of good pumpkin pie recipes. Several people said that they didn't like pumpkin pie made with fresh pumpkin ("it's runny; buy the canned stuff"). I have never been so horrified in my life. I recoil at the very notion of using canned pumpkin. Just last month, I was telling my mom I just didn't understand why anyone would used canned pumpkin. You can buy and entire pumpkin for $3 and get a dozen pies from it. Why would you buy a can? She did point out that most people don't bake quite as often as we do. Okay. So I can accept that the average person makes pumpkin pie once a year, not several times a month, and for that, it's more convienent to buy a can of pumpkin. But to actually prefer canned pumpkin over fresh? That's blasphemy!

So while I'm not sure how many people will read this, I feel obligated to share my grandma's, Guaranteed-to-Turn-Out Pumpkin Pie Recipe. (And since my grandma got it from her mother-in-law, I can practically guarentee that it was not created for canned pumpkin and will thus turn out just fine with fresh pumpkin.)

In the event that you have never prepared a fresh pumpkin, allow me to explain the "difficult" process (ha!).
1.) Obtain a pumpkin.
2.) Cut the pumpkin in half.
3.) Scoop out the seeds.
4.) Put halves on a cookie sheet and place in an oven heated to 350.
5.) Cook until done--fork tender, like squash.
6.) Take out of the oven; allow to cool.
7.) When cool, place in ziplock bags in one-cup "servings."
8.) Freeze until ready to use.

Should you find it water, just squeeze out the water before placing in the bags.

Tammy, over at Tammy's Recipes, has a great post on canning pumpkin. While it's no longer officially sactioned by the FDA (and as such, you proceed at your own risk, yada yada yada), it's another option if you don't have much freezer space. And Tammy's post is a fabulous tutorial in how to do it. (I believe she boils her pumpkin, though. We've always baked it.)

And without further ado, the much awaited recipe:

Grandma Schmidt's Pumpkin Pie
1 c pumpkin
1 c sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp butter
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp clove
1/8 tsp allspice
1 c milk
Dash salt
1 large tbsp cornstarch ("large" as in heaping; as much you can get to stay on the spoon)

Dump all the ingredients in a blender. Blend until smooth. Pour into pie crust (you did copy down the recipe from yesterday, right?), bake at 350 until center is firm (um, 30-45 minutes, maybe? I guess I've never timed it).


Which leads me to one more question for ya'll: do any of you test your pumpkin pie with a knife? I see all sorts of people cutting into the center to see if it's done. (The worst, though, was when I saw a pie in a magazine with a tell-tale knife mark in it.) I just don't get it. Tap the top of the center of the pie. If it's firm, it's done.

Kinda like this post :)

22.5 Cups

That's how much flour it takes to make 15 pie crusts. Can you guess what I did this morning?

While I do usually make several batches of pie crust all at once (I mean, if you're making one anyway, what's five?), I've never made a batch quite this large. The coming weeks, however, look to be Pie Baking weeks, so I'm getting ready. Next week, Mom needs to make two pies for the church, two for our neighbor, one for my cousin, and one for home. And, of course, next week is Thanksgiving, so I'll be making an apple and a pecan pie to take to my aunt's.

While every pie baker swears to have the secret to the perfect, flaky crust, I swear my secret is the only right one *wink* The key is to use half butter (I use butter flavored Crisco) and half lard. And let me assure you, there is a scientific basis to this! The key to a flaky crust is not using too much water. Lard has less water natually present than does butter. Thus, you the baker control how much water you use; you are not bound by the amount already present in the butter. (I did read this in a cookbook. It was worded better than this. Of course, I dont remember which cookbook it was in.)

Resist, however, the temptation to use only lard in an effort to further control the water content. Yes, your pie crust will be flakier, but it will taste suspiciously like bacon. (Ask me how I know.) Using half lard and half butter gives you the perfect balance of flakiness and taste.

I did not come upon this revelation the easy way, however. The recipe for pie crust in the 1936 Watkins cookbook specifically calls for half butter, half lard. Of course, I figured it was a fluke. It wasn't until I read the scientific basis for it that I believed it. (Yup, I usually make things more difficult than they need to be.)

I include the Watkins recipe, with the measurements for 15 crusts (should you be so inclined) in parenthesis.

1936 Watkins Pie Crust
Note: One recipe makes enough for a single crust, with a bit left over.

1.5 c flour (22.5 c)
1/2 tsp salt (7.5 tsp)
1/4 c lard (3.75 c)
1/4 c butter (3.75 c)
1/3 c (or less) water (4.5 c)

Sift together dry ingredients (I usually just wisk them together with a fork). Cut in lard and butter. Add enough water until crust just holds together.