Sweet Potato Pie

The other day a friend asked for "my" Sweet Potato Pie recipe, and I couldn't believe I haven't posted it on the blog yet...it's truly one of my most favorite foods (and Hannah's and Dave's, but not Josh's :) ). Super yummy, relatively easy, freezes excellently.

Gwen's Sweet Potato Pie

INGREDIENTS
3 pounds yams
1 stick of butter
1 1/2 cup sugar (I use 1 cup)
1 can evaporated milk (sm can...maybe a bit less)
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla
Dash of cinnamon (sprinkle on top)
Unbaked pie shell

Peel, cut into chunks, and boil until tender. Mash up. Then add butter. Use mixer to beat potatoes and butter together. Add all the rest of the ingredients then blend up until smooth. Should be kind of pudding like consistency...if too thick, add a bit more evap milk. Pour into unbaked pie shell. Bake at 400 for about 50 minutes until knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Alterations: I generally buy a 10 lb box of sweet potatoes from Costco. I take out one potato and boil all the rest. Then triple the recipe (use a huge bowl), but only use one 10 oz can of evap milk. Make up to three pies as desired then split the remaining filling into ziploc bags (pie quantities) and freeze for later. Thaw, then place in unbaked pie shell and bake as usual (probably a bit longer).

Christmas piano concert (scary wallpaper, huh?!?!?)

 

 

another favorite part of the kid's Christmas break
 

 

Chai Tea, Pancake Syrup, and Apple Pie

I had my first friend sleepover in many years Wed night. :) We didn't actually sleep in the same room or anything, but we did stay up late talking and did lots of fun stuff the next day. So, I thought I'd share a couple of recipes we made...

Chai Tea - We determined that the spices need a bit of a bump up if you're into that type of thing. And, we thought the sugar should be cut back a bit. Makes nice Christmas gifts, but doesn't make too terribly much when you're using two heaping spoonfuls per cup.

Pancake Syrup - Pancakes were on the menu for breakfast the next morning, but much to my dismay we were pretty much out of syrup. So, off to Allrecipes to find a recipe...and we found this one. It seems completely odd, but tastes really quite good. Do make it in a larger pan as it bubbles up a whole lot.

Easy Apple Pie - This is my mom's favorite recipe for apple pie, and I was surprised that I hadn't posted it yet on the blog. One of the international students was saying how much he liked apple pie so I decided to make some and took advantage of my friend's (and her little boy's) help to make it go faster :)

1 and 1/4 sticks butter (this isn't health food!)
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1 egg
dash of salt
2-4 tablespoons water
1 c chopped walnuts
cinnamon
4-5 cooking apples

Preheat oven to 375. Grease an 8-9 inch oven safe pan. Peel, core and slice apples...drop into pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon and walnuts. Melt butter in medium sized bowl. Add sugar, flour, dash of salt, and egg in once it's cooled. Add the water as needed to make a smooth consistency. Spread over apples. Bake 40-45 minutes until top is golden brown.

couple last pics from CA
 

 

 

 

Bluebarb Coffee Cake

I wanted to share a favorite coffee cake recipe with all of you...for some reason I've made it a couple of times lately and it's always yummy! :) You can put most any kind of berry in it, but it is a particularly good combination to have blueberries and rhubarb. 

Bluebarb Coffee Cake

from a Gold Medal Baking Magazine

Crumb Topping (see below)

2 c flour

3/4 c sugar

1/4 c shortening (I generally use softened butter)

3/4 c milk

1 egg

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

1 c fresh or frozen blueberries

1 c fresh or frozen (thawed and drained) chopped rhubarb

Vanilla Glaze (see below)

Heat oven to 375. Grease springform pan, 9x3 inches, or square pan, 9x9 inches. Make crumb topping; set aside.

Mix remaining ingredients except blueberries, rhubarb and glaze in large bowl; beat 30 seconds (I generally just mix with a spoon). Fold in blueberries and rhubarb. Spread into pan. Sprinkle with topping.

Bake 45-50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of cake (not fruit) comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pan if desired. Drizzle glaze over warm coffee cake. 

Crumb Topping

1/2 c sugar

1/3 c flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 c firm butter

Mix sugar, flour, and cinnamon in small bowl. Cut in butter until crumbly.

Vanilla Glaze

1/2 c powdered sugar

1 1/2 to 2 tsp hot water

1/4 t vanilla

Mix all ingredients until smooth and thin enough to drizzle. 

Cooking tip: Grate cold butter with cheese grater rather than cutting it in. I never like cutting in butter. 

Josh is going to turn 10 in a couple weeks...
here are some baby pics
  

Cranberry Recipes

Wow, it has been four months since I posted a recipe! That is crazy...did you wonder if I had just stopped cooking for all this time? Anyways, my sis asked for a couple of recipes that I make with cranberries so I thought I'd share them with you as well...

Cranberry Sauce (based off recipe from allrecipes.com)

12 oz fresh or frozen cranberries (about 3 cups)
1/2 c white sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c water
1/2 c orange juice
(I think those are the ingredients and amounts I used)

Directions : In a medium sized saucepan over medium heat, dissolve the sugar in the orange juice. Stir in the cranberries and cook until the cranberries start to pop (about 10 minutes). The longer you cook, the thicker the sauce will be. Remove from heat and place sauce in a bowl. Cranberry sauce will thicken as it cools.


Cranberry/Rasberry Jello Salad 
(make sure to at least double this recipe, I normally quadruple it because it's one of my favorites)

1 3 oz Raspberry Jello
1 1/2 c boiling water (I normally put in a little less to make sure it sets)
8 oz whole cranberry sauce
1/2 c sour cream
1/4 c nuts (pecans and walnuts work best)
1/4 t orange peel (I don't add this)

Directions: Dissolve jello, chill till syrupy (should be just beginning to be lumpyish, maybe like molasses would be). Mix in cranberry sauce, sour cream, nuts and orange peel (works best to stir up cranberry sauce and sour cream first so they don't have lumps). Chill till set. Serve with whip cream. I normally make it the day before. 

Cranberry Orange Nut Bread
this is kind of an adult type bread, my kiddos don't really like it

2 c flour
1 c sugar
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 c fresh or frozen cranberries
1 c walnuts
3/4 c orange juice
2 T crisco (I often wonder if butter would work as well, but have never tried it)
1 egg, slightly beaten

Directions: Mix together dry ingredients, add cranberries and walnuts and mix to coat. Heat orange juice (not too hot), add melted crisco and egg together. Blend into dry ingredients. Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees for large loaf or 45 minutes for 3 small loaves. 

couple more pics from Leavenworth - my kids love taffy!

crazy hats

 

 

I thought this sign was funny for the hot sauce
 

Tea Parties

Hannah asked a month or so ago to have a tea party with her sweet friends. I said yes, and then when we wrote out all the friends she wanted to invite, there were too many for one tea party...so we had two! on back to back days so all the food would still be fresh and everything would be set up. I'd definitely recommend that way rather than spacing them out. 

We did a three course tea. Sandwiches (egg salad and tuna fish and fruit), Scones (chocolate chip and blackberry), and Desserts. It was a lot of food and the girls left very full. We also played games...spoons, charades, pictionary, bingo, and pin the top on the tea pot. Having all these most lovely girls over to spend time with us was a real treat. It is such a blessing for your kids to have great friends. 

Here's the list of recipes if any of you are looking to make some goodies. I must warn you ahead of time that there is tons of butter in many of these, but that's what makes them so yummy. :)

Scones - especially delicious with blackberries - I actually found out you could mix these up, form them, then freeze them in their wedges to be pulled out and baked later on - don't thaw (take out as warming up oven), same baking temp, couple extra minutes baking time

Chocolate Pound Cake - I use 1/2 c less sugar

Shortbread - I wouldn't make these again although I think they are good for shortbread

Fudgy BonBons - always one of my favorites

Apricot/Almond Biscotti - I should get permission to post this recipe, super yummy!!!

(side note: I keep forgetting to mention this, but the day after I read about Jesus baptizing, the next section gave a clarification that Jesus, Himself, didn't baptize, but His disciples did...sorry for leading you all astray - guess that's one problem with a One Year Bible, you don't get the whole story at one time)

table day 1

 

table day 2

 

 

my mom helped Hannah draw out two lovely tea pots for this game
 

Chopping/Baking Extravaganza

Isn't the word, extravaganza, a great word!?!?!? It just makes you feel perky. :)

Well, I can't say I'm feeling perky at the moment, tired more like it, but I wanted to share the great fun my friend Heather and I had earlier today...we decided a couple of weeks ago to get together and do some meal preparation. That would allow us to have some new meals already made and nice conversation to go with them. I had come across this blog entry and we decided to do four of the five recipes (not the peanut one as her boys are allergic). For some reason, I became over-ambitious and decided to add in making three desserts at the same time...so we made fudge, magic bars, and rocky road fudge bars. (one thing that has been a life saver for me over the past couple months has been having treats already made and waiting in the freezer for friends/family to enjoy.) We actually did all that in 4 hours which included having lunch and keeping track of kiddos. I was kind of amazed when I realized that. 

All I can say right now is, whew, glad that's done, and boy will it be nice to just pull out a bag from the freezer and smell yummy dinner smells with minimal effort...and, hooray for treats! :)

 

 

 

Sweetness & Light Muffin Cakes

Just thought I'd share my most favorite muffin recipe tonight...I think I like it so much because you can put most anything in it and it tastes yummy.

Sweetness & Light Muffin Cakes

taken from a copied recipe in my recipe binder, pg 367

1 3/4 unbleached all purpose flour

1/2 to 3/4 c sugar depending on how sweet you like your muffins

2 1/2 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

1/4 t nutmeg

1/2 c milk

1/3 c butter, melted and cooled

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1 t vanilla

Preheat oven to 400 F. Grease or paper 12 muffin cups. 

In large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. In second bowl, whisk together milk, butter, egg and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and combine with as few strokes as possible. Add in any extras (chocolate chips, blueberries, craisins, nuts, dried cherries, fresh peaches, pears, etc.).

Spoon batter into muffin cups, filling 1/2 to 2/3 full. Bake until golden brown, 15-20 minutes. 

Personal comments - I don't believe in two bowl muffins anymore. :) Basically, I just mix all the wet ingredients in a bowl. Then place the flour on top. Over the flour I put the other dry ingredients and mix them carefully together. Then do a full mix of the whole bowl. So far it's worked just fine. I also like putting a sprinkle of raw sugar on the top before baking. You can also dip the warmish muffins tops in butter and then in sugar. Super tasty and super quick - a winning combination!!!

 

 

 

 

Pasta Primavera

Here's one of my favorite recipes...super yummy, but it does take a bit of preparation.

Pasta Primavera

taken from The Southern Living Cookbook

8 oz uncooked fettuccine or linguine (I probably use more like 10-12 oz)

1/3 c pine nuts (I use whatever I have around)

2 c fresh broccoli florets (cut smallish)

1 1/2 c fresh snow peas

2 lg carrots, diagonally sliced

10 large fresh mushrooms, sliced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 1/2 c fresh Parm cheese

1 c whipping cream (I use half and half and it works fine)

6 green onions sliced

12 cherry tomatoes, cut in half

1/4 c fresh parsley (I use dried, and probably put in about half)

1/3 c fresh basil (also use dried, probably about half)

1/2 t salt

1/2 t pepper

extra Parm cheese for top

Cook pasta as usual. Toast pine nuts (350, 3-5 minutes). Steam broccoli, peas, and carrot a couple of minutes until crisp-tender. Drain and rinse with cold water to stop cooking process. Melt butter in large skillet. Add mushrooms and garlic - saute over med heat just until tender. Ad 1 1/2 c cheese and cream, stirring until cheese melts. Add broccoli mixture, green onions, and next 5 ingredients, stirring well. Add pasta, and toss to coat. Spoon onto platter - sprinkle with pine nuts. 

There's been a lot of  Nerf wars around here lately...

Chinese New Year Recipes

It seems as though the Chinese New Year is kind of like our Christmas in the sense that it's very festive and you make lots of food. So, although we didn't go crazy, we did make a couple different Chinese recipes. I think I've mentioned before on the blog that I've tried to make one Chinese recipe a week for James, and we tried a couple new ones tonight. Also, that thing hanging down from the light is supposed to be a fancy paper decoration-thing, but it didn't turn out too well as you can see. I also realize that my presentation is terribly lacking, but I didn't care too much by the time everything was getting finished...there were already way too many dishes to be cleaned in the kitchen!!! :)

Fried Rice (with some random frozen stir fry veggies and extra ginger added in)

Sesame Chicken (kind of sweet even though I didn't add all the sugar -
I also don't deep fry my Chinese food - just pan fry)

Long Soup (we really like this soup recipe although I often use chicken instead of pork,
and tonight I added homemade dumplings (a bit of a pain to make) instead of the noodles)

James said the flavorful soup overpowered the dumplings - we should have used a blander soup

And the night ended setting off leftover fireworks from 4th of July
Did you know fireworks were invented in China? 

Holiday Recipes

It sure has been a busy week since we returned...lots of Christmas activities and fun things. Somehow this time of year always seems crazier than I remember it. Anyways, we have been busy bees around here baking up lots of good things. I just thought I'd list them out for you and link the recipes if I could...

• Almond Roca - have to make this every year for Dave Sr.'s bday - a favorite of everyones it seems
• Chocolate Chip Cookies - I asked everyone what we should make for give away goodies and James voted for these - it's just the classic Nestle recipe except I made it with nuts because we are giving them away
• Peppermint Bark - we make both white and dark chocolate of this (Dave asserts that white chocolate isn't really chocolate) - Recipe: 1 bag white or chocolate chips, melt over double-boiler (I just put a bowl over a pan of simmering/heated water). Remove from heat. Add in 1 t peppermint extract and whatever amount of crushed candy canes you'd like. Mix together and spread onto a piece of wax paper. Let harden, break into pieces. People also seem to like it if you layer white and dark chocolate together. 
• Grandma's Peanut Butter Fudge - another crowd favorite and very delicious, but very bad for you
• Molasses Cookies - I should get permission before I post this recipe ;)
• German Chocolate Bars - quite yummy and very rich
• Almond Bars - one of my favorites, but often overlooked by people until tasted

And, lastly, I made this soup that everyone seems to like tonight. I cut back a bit on the tomato soup and tomatoes, but otherwise pretty much follow the recipe.

Hope you're all happily baking away as well...

some more Epcot pics

Serbian Ground Beef

It seemed about time for a recipe...this is another one I found on Allrecipes.com. I particularly like it because it has kind of a different taste due to the sweet-ish flavors included in the cloves and cinnamon. My in-laws call it "peasant food" and it does have that appearance, but it got gobbled up quite well (although not necessarily by the kids). Also good for a potluck dish when doubled. Hope you'll also like it...

Serbian Ground Beef

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 onion, chopped

1 carrot, shredded

2 celery stalks, chopped (I don't generally put these in, more carrot, I think)

1/2 tablespoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1 pinch ground cinnamon

1 pinch ground cloves

1/4 cup water

1/8 cup red wine

1 cube beef bouillon

2 tablespoons half-and-half

2 potatoes, peeled and sliced (I use my mandoline and that works great!)

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

Lightly grease a casserole dish.

In a skillet over medium heat, cook the beef until evenly brown.

Remove beef from skillet, reserving juices, and set aside.

Mix in the olive oil, and saute the green pepper, onion, carrot, and celery until tender.

Return beef to the skillet, and season with paprika, salt, black pepper, red pepper, cinnamon, and cloves.

Stir in the water and red wine until heated through.

Dissolve the beef bouillon cube into the mixture.

Remove skillet from heat, and mix in the half-and-half.

Layer the bottom of the prepared casserole dish with enough potato slices to cover.

Place the beef and vegetable mixture over the potatoes, and top with remaining potatoes.

Cook, covered, 45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the potatoes are tender.

One of the kids' favorite past times is taking cat pictures