Southern Pecan Pie

I have a young daughter that is an aspiring chef. 

She is only 11 but loves Martha Stewart and is always ready to help out in the kitchen.  She loves to peel, chop, flip, scrape, mix... and lick the bowl.  Whether it be making cucumber salad or baking a pie, my youngest is always ready.

A few weekends ago, my oldest daughter was visiting friends so B (also for Bossy) decided she wanted to bake a pie with a homemade crust.  We had all the ingredients, so I loaded Martha on the laptop and took her to the kitchen with us.  The pecan crop has been abundant in our area this year so we decided the pie would be Southern Pecan Pie.  I discovered my glass pie dish was left at Mom's house at Thanksgiving, so we ran to the store and picked up some foil pie plates and some more sugar. 

Back home we got all of our ingredients out and I did the measuring while B started putting the crust ingredients into the food processor.  As the crust chilled, we put together our pie ingredients.

We couldn't wait until it cooled to cut it, so that's why it's falling apart in our first picture.  ( I think it even steamed up my camera lens.)  The Southern Pecan Pie was divine!  The filling was light and and the crust flakey.  Well done, my Valentine!



Southern Pecan Pie

3/4 cup light corn syrup
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 cup pecan halves
3 large eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 (9-inch) unbaked pie crust

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Combine corn syrup, sugar, beaten eggs, melted butter, vanilla and salt in a large bowl; mix well. Stir in pecan halves. Pour into prepared pie crust and bake for 10 minutes. Lower oven temperature to 350°F and bake an additional 35 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean when inserted into the center of pie.  Cool on wire rack before slicing, if you can.

Pate Brisee (the French version of classic pie or tart pastry, courtesy of Martha Stewart)

Makes 1 double-crust or 2 single-crust 9- to 10-inch pies.

· 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
· 1 teaspoon salt
· 1 teaspoon sugar
· 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
· 1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water

In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour, salt, and sugar. Add butter, and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal, 8 to 10 seconds. With machine running, add ice water in a slow, steady stream through feed tube. Pulse until dough holds together without being wet or sticky; be careful not to process more than 30 seconds. To test, squeeze a small amount together: If it is crumbly, add more ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time. Divide dough into two equal balls. Flatten each ball into a disc and wrap in plastic. Transfer to the refrigerator and chill at least 1 hour. Dough may be stored, frozen, up to 1 month.

Time for Spring Training!

This has got to be my favorite time of year.

The weather is starting to warm up some, buttercups begin to bloom, and Cardinal Baseball is on the air.  That lets me know that baseball season and summer time is just around the corner.

Almost every evening is spent in the kitchen preparing dinner and cleaning up while listening to a Cardinal baseball game.  After my shower, hair still up in a towel, it's off to the porch swing with a glass of iced tea to enjoy the warm summer evening and listen to Mike Shannon call the play-by-play on the radio.

So whether you're cheering for the Yankees, the Cubs, or the Cardinals, or whichever MLB team...sit back, relax, grab a hotdog and let Spring Training begin! 



 Go Cards!

I tweaked this recipe from The 30-Day Low Carb Diet Solution book by the Drs. Eades.

I found the cheesecake to be very creamy and quite good; the crust was the best ever.  My high-carb loving Handyman didn't agree, which was fine by me.  I got to eat the whole thing all by myself and didn't have to worry about even my kids getting into it.  Yeah!  It lasted a week so I was glad to have dessert ready for when I had those sweet cravings which is most of the time.

The recipe calls for individual cupcake cheesecakes, but I baked it in a pie dish as my springform pan wasn't handy at the time.  The original recipe is at the bottom of the page.  Forgive the cruddy photo.



Mini Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

Crust:
1 cup very finely chopped pecans
3 packets Splenda
2 T butter, melted
1 tsp. cinnamon

Cheesecake:
2 large eggs, beaten
16 oz cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup Splenda (granular) or other sweetener blend
1 tsp vanilla
3 T semi-sweet mini choc chips or
chopped up SF chocolate bar

Place the finely ground pecans, 2 pks of Splenda, the butter and
cinnamon in a food processor and combine thoroughly. Press the crust mixture in a springform pan or a pie dish. Bake for 10 minutes and then cool.

Place the eggs, granular Splenda, cream cheese and vanilla into a mixer and blend until smooth. Fold in the chocolate chips. Pour the cheesecake mixture into the crust and bake for 35-50 minutes at 350º or until it looks like it is set or kinda firm in the middle . Cool in the oven for
a few hours. Refrigerate overnight.

ORIGINAL RECIPE:

Mini Chocolate Chip Cheesecakes

8 T finely chopped pecans
2 packets Splenda
1 T butter, melted
1 large egg, beaten
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup Splenda (granular)
1/4 tsp vanilla
2 T semi-sweet mini choc chips

Place the nuts, 2 pks of Splenda and the butter in
a small bowl and combine thoroughly. Line the
wells of a muffin tin with paper cupcake liners
and distribute the nut mixture evenly, about 2 tsp
per well.

Place the egg, granular Splenda, cream cheese
and vanilla into a mixing bowl and blend until
smooth. Fold in the chocolate chips. Divide the
mixture evenly among the 12 cups. Bake for 15
minutes at 350º . Cool and refrigerate for at least
one hour.

My Valentine gift turned 11 this year. 

I made her a layered chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream icing.  This started out being for the cake eaters at her party, since she had requested an ice cream cake from the local Dairy Queen.  DQ Ice cream cake has no cake and I wanted some cake, myself. 

After she saw this cake, she changed her mind on the DQ idea and I picked up some Vanilla & Chocolate Swirl Ice Cream to go with the cake.  No Neopolitan this time! 

Handyman grilled hamburgers and hotdogs and talked to the adults (family) while the kids (8 of them) played outside.  There was some type of mystery they were investigating.  They're all into Nancy Drew at this age and are intrigued by any type of mysterious finding!

After her party, we went to the mall to spend some of that birthday money.  She found a fluttery cream and brown skirt, a cream sweater and a fancy top.  At Claire's she got a small coin purse and at Bath and Body she got shimmery lip gloss.  She had a blast shopping and enjoyed her birthday very much!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Below is one of the best chocolate cakes you'll ever eat.  This recipe was given to me by a friend years ago and happens to be my mom's favorite cake.  It can be made as a sheet cake or a layered cake.



Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake

2 C sugar
2 C flour
1 1/2 sticks butter
1 T baking soda
1 C buttermilk
2 eggs
1/2 cup baking cocoa dissolved in 1/2 cup hot water.
 
Mix all together.  Bake at 350 until done, about 40 minutes or until
toothpick comes clean.

Chocolate Buttercream Icing

2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

3 tablespoons cocoa

1/4 cup butter

2 tablespoons heavy cream

1 t. vanilla

In a mixing bowl, cream  cocoa, butter, heavy cream and vanilla. Add confectioners' sugar until desired spreading consisteny.  This makes a stiff icing.  If you desire thinner icing, add small amounts hot water or hot black coffee until desired spreading consistency is reached.

She's been gone 21 years now, but I still think about her often. 

What a special lady!  Born during the depression, with a cleft pallet and hair lip, her life was full of difficulties and disappointments.  But you hardly ever knew about her hard times.  She was always rejoicing in just being alive.  She lived on disability, but she didn't let that keep her from sharing with people.  She sent boxes of clothes and other items to missionaries overseas and fed them at her dinner table in her little three room shotgun style house that was full of warmth and love.  Many times she called mom at work and invited her to supper.  Often after dinner she'd get out her auto harp and we'd sing songs there in her small living room.  She was full of joy and would often get happy while we sang.

Everyday she cooked lunch.  That was her main meal of the day.  She made the best iced tea with lemon and the very best cornbread.  I even loved her coleslaw and that is unusual for a kid!  We always had to clean up the kitchen afterwards.  I tried to encourage her to let her dishes airdry, but nothing doing!  We had to towel dry those dishes and put them back into her little upright cabinet.  That same cabinet now resides in my kitchen.  For a while, I could open it up and still smell her kitchen.  That smell is long gone as is Aunt Mary, but she still lives on in my heart.



Aunt Mary's Chess Pie

4 eggs
1 ½ cups sugar
2 Tbsp butter, softened (I used 4 because most other recipes call for a stick)

Cream the butter and sugar together.  Add eggs
one at a time, mixing after each addition.  Bake at
350º for 35-40 minutes.  Cool, slice, and enjoy!

 

This soup began as a Pot Roast with baby carrots and baby whole potatoes

baked in the oven for 6 hours at 275º.  That wasn't long enough or the temp wasn't high enough.  It was supposed to cooked in the crockpot while I was at work until I discovered my crockpot was missing in action and left at the church after the last dinner.

My cupboard was nearly bare of soup ingredients except for the 2 home-canned jars of mixed veggies sent back home with us from a trip to Aunt D's house in Kentucky. I also had a small can of tomato sauce, but no diced or whole tomatoes which I normally use in soup. 

The soup turned out to be the best I've made in a while... it was delicious!  Very hardy and full of flavor.   Only from memory, since I didn't write anything down; it goes something like this...

Hardy Vegetable Beef Soup

Small portion of leftover pot roast
Whole new potatoes, from leftover roast
Onions, from leftover roast
2 cans mixed veggies
1 small tomato sauce
2 bouillon cubes
2-3 Tbs Flour or cornstarch for thickening
1-2 cups of water

Put all in a large pot or dutch oven and cook on medium heat for 30 minutes and until broth is thickened.  Serve with cornbread, breadsticks, or saltines. 

Pacify your kids when they come asking for more, by informing them that soup's all gone but homemade Pecan Pie with a dollop of fresh whipped cream is coming up!

My Low Carb Story

February 15, 2001 was when I first started Low Carb. 

It was the day after my youngest daughter’s 3rd birthday.  We had her party at our favorite Mexican restaurant.  I made her a 2 layer cake decorated with buttercream icing colored pink.  It had the sprinkles that she loves so dearly all over it.  It was rich and delicious, but I had already made up my mind to start low carb eating the next day.  I had bought the book and had been reading it and was really excited to be making a change.  I had reached the point in my life where I was always tired and had ballooned up to my highest weight at that time.  I was ready for a change.

By September of 2001, I had lost 28 lbs.  I was feeling and looking so much better.  I kept the weight off for a year or so, then in 2003 I started a job where I sit most of the day.  I would grab anything I could find for lunch and the weight started coming back.  I gained 5-10 lbs per year until I gained it all back plus some.  My body no longer responds to diet attempts.

Every year around this time, I get that certain euphoric feeling I had when I first started low carb and my mind seems to be made up to try it one more time.  The pounds come off a whole lot slower now, but I must keep trying.  I lose inches now and my clothes feel looser, but the scale discourages me and usually by the weekend, I’ve given up once more.  Hopefully this time I can make it.  I can never give up totally.

So, I’m trying the Carbohydrate Addicts Diet, by Drs. Richard & Rachael Heller.  That allows me to have a treat at one meal, usually dinner.  I had good luck with this last spring.

From The Low Carb Friends website...This diet works because it controls your insulin release, which is related to how you store and use body fat. (See the book for all the scientific references!) You are allowed only three meals and one optional snack on CAD. This is how the insulin releases are controlled. Two of the meals are called “Complementary Meals” (CM’s) and the third is called a “Reward Meal” (RM.) There is no calorie counting, no carbohydrate counting… it is a very simple diet so none of that is necessary. If you follow the rules, everything falls into place.

CM’s are essentially very low carb meals. You divide your plate in half, and ½ your meal is protein, and the other ½ is low carb veggie. Simple. There is a specific list of veggies to choose from, called “crave –reducing” choices. The list is pretty extensive, but it does not include all low carb veggies. You are allowed to eat from this list, and that is all. If it’s not on the list, you don’t eat it. (But rest assured, there’s so much to choose from you won’t feel restricted.) It’s easy and flexible, it just needs to be balanced, protein & veggie. It is very much like an Atkins meal.

The optional snack is the same as the CM, just smaller.

An RM is a flexible meal you can have for your choice of Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner. This makes it easy to plan for events like restaurant meals or parties. For the RM you begin your meal with a salad.  Then you divide your plate into thirds. 1/3 is protein, 1/3 is low carb veggie, and that last 1/3 is ANYTHING YOU WANT. If it fits in that 1/3 balance, you can have it. Potato, Bread, Cake, Cookies, Candy, Noodles, Rice, whatever you feeling like having.

This does not give free license to pig out on carbs. It must be BALANCED. If you want more cake, you also have to take the same portions of chicken and green beans, too.

One more catch: This RM must be completed within a one hour time limit. This has everything to do with controlling the insulin release. This is very important. Also, you are not allowed to snack (aside from the optional complementary snack.) You eat three to four times a day, and that’s it. Believe it or not, this will not be a problem. Your meals should carry you easily to the next meal. It’s all about that insulin control.

Chocolate Fudge Pie

 

With work slowing down, we've found ourselves home more during the week.  What better to do than bake?!

I found an easy recipe for My Handyman to make while I was doing other fun stuff, like folding laundry and helping the girls with their lessons.  I thought he did a great job and by that evening most of this delicious pie had vanished.

CHOCOLATE FUDGE PIE

1 c. sugar 4 tbsp. flour 4 tbsp. cocoa 1/2 c. milk 2 whole eggs 3 tbsp. butter, melted 1 tsp. vanilla flavoring chopped pecans (optional)   Dump all ingredients into a mixing bowl and beat well. Pour into an unbaked pastry shell. We sprinkled a few pecans in the bottom before pouring in the batter. Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Cool before slicing.  Top with freshly whipped cream.