Pumpkin Pie

So, this is the pie that got me into this whole pie mess. It is all made from scratch and it really helped me venture into a whole new territory with baking pies.

Ingredients:

1 pastry crust
2 large eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 1/4 cups fresh pumpkin puree (you can buy canned if you don't have fresh)
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp butter melted
1 tbsp dark molasses
A pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Heat milk in a saucepan over medium heat until it just starts to bubble around the edges. Remove milk from heat. Beat eggs lightly in a large bowl until they are frothy. Add scalded milk, stirring constantly (I LOVED my Kitchen Aid at this point). Stir in pumpkin, butter, sugar, molasses, cinnamon, ginger and salt. Whisk until thoroughly blended. Pour mixture into prepared crust. Bake until center is firm (approximately 45 minutes). Allow pie to cool completely. Serve with whipped cream (to make your own, click here - it is incredibly easy!!!).

Apple Pie

Out of the four pies I made for Thanksgiving, this was the most time consuming, but also brought the most compliments. Here is what you need:

2 pie crusts
8 cups sliced, peeled baking apples - about 3 lbs. (I used granny smith, but you can also use cortland and Jonathan or mix it up between the three types)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tablespoons butter
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon milk

In a large bowl, toss the sliced apples with lemon juice. Combine the sugars, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add apples and toss to coat them with the dry mixture. Fill a pastry lined 9 inch pie plate with the apple mixture. Dot with butter. Place the second crust over the top of the pie. Cut slits in top of crust to vent. Seal the edges of the crust with a fork. In a small bowl, beat the egg yolk and milk together. Brush the mixture over the top crust. Sprinkle the top of the pie with white sugar. Bake the pie at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350 degrees and bake 40-45 minutes more or until crust is golden and filling is bubbly.

If you make the pie ahead of time, you can pop the pie in the oven after the rest of Thanksgiving dinner is done cooking and heat it up with the residual warmth in the oven. Or you can just serve it room temperature. I have heard it is good with vanilla ice cream too.

Pie Crust

Here is what you need to make a simple, but yummy pie crust!

Yield: 2 9 inch pie crusts

2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter, chilled and diced
1/2 cup ice water

Mix flour and salt in a large bowl. Cut in butter until the mixture resembles
coarse crumbs. Stir in ice water slowly until mixture forms a ball of dough. Wrap ball in plastic wrap and put in the fridge for 4 hours or overnight. Take the dough out of the fridge and unwrap. Put flour on the surface and rolling pin and roll dough out. Cut in half to form 2 pie crusts. Re-roll each portion and press into pie pan or use as top crust for fruit pie (or both - you have 2).

Who knew making a pie crust could be so easy? Make sure you make it in enough time to allow it to set in the fridge for 4 hours or overnight.

Chocolate Pecan Pie

Here is a variation on Pecan Pie. It is just as easy to make as pecan pie. I actually made my pecan pie, then put it in the oven and proceded to begin making this pie. By the time I got it all mixed and ready to go, it was perfect timing to throw it in the oven along with the regular pecan pie (they cook at the same temperature, but for different times).

1 unbaked pie crust
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup dark corn syrup speed 6 1 min
scrape bowl
speed 4
3 squares melted unsweetened chocolate
beat 1 min
speed stir
2 cups pecan halves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine eggs, sugar and corn syrup and mix on high speed for one minute. Scrape the side of the bowl. Add melted chocolate and beat on medium speed for one minute. Stir in pecan halves. Pour mixture in unbaked pie crust and bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes until soft in the center.

Pecan Pie

I'm not a fan of pie in general (except the pizza and chocolate varieties), but somehow, I got roped into making pies for Thanksgiving this year. Well, I actually know how it happened. I wanted to make a pumpkin pie for my husband and had my mom show me how to process a pumpkin so that I had the meat of the pumpkin to use for the pie. It was a few weeks before Thanksgiving when she helped me, so she assigned me desserts. I was going to just stick with pumpkin pie and something I could stand, but then the requests came: Apple and Pecan. Well, anyway, here is the super easy recipe I used for Pecan pie.

1 unbaked pie crust (you can use store bought or make your own)
3 eggs
1 cup dark corn syrup (the dark Karo syrup has a measuring line on the bottle now. Super convenient and easy to measure this sticky stuff!)
1 cup white sugar
1/4 cup melted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup pecan halves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together eggs, corn syrup, white sugar, butter and vanilla. Dump the pecans in the bottom of the pie crust. Pour the mixture in (the pecans actually rise to the top of the gunk - it is pretty neat). Bake for an hour or until a knife inserted 1 inch from the edge comes out clean. Voila! Pecan pie.

For CHOCOLATE Pecan Pie, click here.

Mom's Pot Roast

If you know me then you know I am not a big meat eater and I very rarely eat red meat, but my husband LOVES pot roast so I finally broke down and made it for him a few weeks ago. My mom swears by this recipe and it is super easy!

Chuck Roast (how ever much you need for your family)
1 packet of Liptons Onion Soup mix
Carrots
Potatoes

Put the chuck roast in the crock pot and sprinkle the packet of onion soup mix over it (cooked it on low from about 8:30 till I got off work at 6 and it was ready to go.) About an hour before it was done I put in the carrots and potatoes. I made it tonight and did mashed potatoes instead. You may think it is weird not to add any water or liquid to the roast but I promise when it is done it is nice and juicy and falling apart! My co-worker also made it for dinner tonight and she just text me that it is the best pot roast she has ever had! So try it, you won't be disappointed! (I should mention that I did add cajun seasoning to the roast also for a little kick!)

Beef & Leeks stew

Ingredients:

12 cups of water
1-1/2lbs of stew beef, carefully cut and trimmed
12 large Russett potatoes, cubed
3 large leeks, thinly sliced
6 carrots, thinly sliced
6 stalks of celery, thinly sliced
12 beef bullion cubes
4oz Worchestershire sauce
6oz tomato paste
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp cajun seasoning

Put the water, potatoes, celery, carrots, tomato paste, bullion cubes, and seasonings in a 24 qt stew pot, set to a light boil and leave covered. Stir occasionally

Put the beef and worchestershire sauce on TOP of the leeks in a pan and cook at low temp (add a little water) until browned and almost fully cooked.

Pour the contents of the pan into the pot (juice and everything) and stir thoroughly. Cover and set to low boil, stirring occasionally.

Allow contents to boil until the leeks dissolve and the potatoes are fully cooked, then serve