Thanksgiving Traditions...

Family lore states that this recipe was concocted by my grandmother (Charlotte, of peanut butter fudge fame) and her mother... in a time when people didn't waste a thing...

While making pies for a holiday feast, they ended up with extra pumpkin pie filling and extra apple pie filling... Not enough to make individual pies themselves, but too much to waste... So, in a moment of GENIUS they layered the apples and pumpkin and created the "PUMPLE PIE"... It just isn't the holiday's in our house without one...

Last year, I made a really AWESOME version and posted it on my "original" blog... I could not find any sugar pumpkins in the store this year, so I wasn't able to make it "from scratch" but I still wanted one... So I made an acceptable version...

Ingredients....

The players: Libby's Pumpkin Pie Filling (which I don't usually like to use, but I was in a hurry at the store and couldn't find the "real" pumpkin stuff so I made do with this), Pre-made Pie Crust (I usually like Marie Callender's but, again, I was in a hurry and it looked like they were out), Egg-Beaters (I've noticed that when I use pasteurized eggs in the carton, I don't get the allergic reaction that I get when I use whole eggs), Evaporated Milk, Butter, Pumpkin Pie Spice (I prefer this to cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg, but you can use whatever spices in whatever quantities you want), Brown Sugar, 4 Apples (Braeburn and/or Fuji - I like mixing my apples for the best combo of flavor). I got the big can of pumpkin that makes one 9" Deep Dish pie... when making Pumple Pies, this particular recipe makes two pies.

First, peel, core, and shop the apples into bite-size pieces.

Next, melt some butter in a pot...

... and add the apples. Saute for about four minutes.

Then, add about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of brown sugar and about 1/4 to 1/3 tsp of Pumpkin Pie Spice and a dash of salt.

Mix well and continue to cook until the apples are tender and the sauce starts to thicken.

Remove from the heat and let cool (I find this works best in a 9x13 glass cake pan, but use whatever you have)

While the apples are cooling, thaw the pie crust and place on a foil-lined cookie sheet (you'll be very sorry if you skip this step). Use a fork to dock the bottom of the pie crust (ie: poke a bunch of holes in it)

Next, add the pumpkin, eggs, and milk to a bowl (using the recipe on the can of pumpkin)

Mix thoroughly to combine.

When ready to assemble the pies, get all of the ingredients together and preheat the oven according to the directions on the can of pumpkin.

Add a layer of apple to the pie crust. You can spoon in a bit of the cooking liquid from the apples.

Ladle the pumpkin on top of the apples... The dark ring you see around the top of the crust is because I added too much apple cooking liquid before adding the pumpkin...

 Put in the oven and bake according to the directions on the can of pumpkin...

Just out of the oven... Now you see why the foil-lined pan is necessary... no one wants to clean their oven ON the holidays...

Let cool ... as you can see, the pumpkin slumped a bit... I did not precook the apples long enough for them NOT to shrink in the pie... Additional apple liquid bubbled up through the pumpkin... But that's only because I added too much to the apples upon assembly...

The finished product! You can see how the layers form...

If you don't want to try to make one of these yourself, just come on over to my house on Thanksgiving or Christmas... I will always have one (or two) around...

Of course, as always, if you have a favorite pumpkin pie filling recipe, apple pie filling recipe, pie crust recipe, etc, please feel free to use your favorites... This tutorial is more a "concept" than a strict recipe.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Quinoa with Roasted Garlic, Tomatoes, and Spinach

Jessie has some quinoa in her panty and doesn't know what to do with it... So I decided to research a few quinoa recipes for her. I found one that interested me enough to try for dinner tonight. You can find the original recipe here, but I decided to modify it a bit. Mainly, I adjusted the roasted garlic part... Jessie told me to roast the garlic at 375 degrees for 25 minutes... Next time I should probably go for 30-35 minutes, but I'll play with that part of the recipe later...

Most of the ingredients... The garlic was in the oven and the quinoa was rinsed by the time I took this picture...

I rinsed the quinoa, also as per directions (it keeps it from getting bitter). Note: either use a SUPER-FINE mesh strainer or use a bowl and your hand to drain the quinoa... the mesh strainer I used had holes bigger than the grain, so a bit went down the sink...

Rinsed quinoa....

As the garlic was finishing, I sauteed the shallots and crushed red pepper. I didn't measure the shallots out, I just used the smaller part of the bulb.... I also didn't measure the crushed red pepper, just eyeballed it... Added the quinoa, as per the directions and then splashed it with some white wine (probably more than the recipe called for but, meh....)

Quinoa, shallot, & red pepper flake mix... after wine...

After the addition of the chicken broth....

Of course, when cooking with wine, it is customary to pour yourself a glass, or two (or three, I won't judge)...

Wine... yummy... I had to have an extra glass since Jessie cannot (preggers)

While the quinoa was cooking as per directions, I took the garlic out of the oven and let it sit for a bit....

Roasted Garlic

Another departure from the recipe - it calls for a chopped, seeded, small tomato... I chose to use grape tomatoes cut in half and NOT seeded... but that was purely my choice...

Halved Grape Tomatoes

When the quinoa was cooked, I added the tomatoes, spinach, and parmesan cheese and mixed it all together...

Mix it all together...

Note: you should probably taste the combination after you add the parmesan and before you add extra salt... I used "full-strength" chicken broth (and not the reduced sodium type) for the recipe... The parmesan is a bit salty on its own and the addition of salt after the parmesan was added was a bit too much for me... Still edible (and tasty), but not as amazing as it could have been...

If you are making this for a side, it makes 4 servings... If you are making it as a main dish (as I was), it makes two...

I will definitely make this recipe again, as it is light enough for the times when I don't want to eat a heavy dinner, and it has a lot of nutritional value... Apparently, quinoa is high in protein, so it is good for "meatless" nights... It is also awesome for any garlic lover... It is awesomely garlicky!

Fabulous 15 Minute French Onion Soup

Pregnancy. It comes with lots of stuff but for me its filled with nausea, food aversion, and weird cravings. Oh yeah, and insomnia. That's where this recipe came in.

We cancelled cable awhile back. We weren't watching it and quite frankly most times I don't miss it. We Netflix now. :) That being said, when you're awake at 2 am there is VERY little on in rural Mississippi. We have religious programming, infomercials, bad newscasts, and PBS Create network. That last one is a savior for me. They are like HGTV without the vapid ugly decorating whores. Mostly though, at night, they rerun the fantastic episodes of French Cooking with Jaques and Julia. This is perhaps my favorite show of all time.

The episode on was for many things like delicious Choux pastry from which cream puffs and wonderful turnovers and danishes were made (that to come later). They also made a wonderfully simple onion soup. So I have had this craving for 2 days now. It's easy, takes like no time at all and tastes wonderfu1!

Fabulous 15 Minute French Onion Soup (for one)

1/2 large onion, large diced
1 can or 1/2 carton good beef stock, I go with Swanson or Kitchen Basics
3 healthy slices of a good french or Italian bread, we had some for making deli sandwiches in the house (note: don't use loaf bread here, go splurge the $1-$3 at your local bakery for good bread. It's totally worth it)
 1 1/2 cups Cheese, it calls for Gruyere but I didn't have that so I mixed a nice salty goat cheese and parmigiano
salt and pepper to taste (liberal)
1-2 tbsp butter

Depending on the size of your pot, put in enough butter to cover the bottom thinly when heated. Turn heat to high and add in the onion.  Sprinkle on a decent amount of salt. Crush some peppercorns and add. Saute until the onions are translucent.

Add in the beef stock and bring up to a nice rolling boil. Reduce to medium heat and add in half the cheese. Stir constantly until melted. it only takes a minute or two. Taste and adjust the salt and pepper as needed. Remove from heat.

I used my toaster oven to toast the slices of bread. Break them up and put them in the bottom of a nice bowl or crock. Add the onion soup over the bread. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on the top. Put the whole bowl in the toaster oven on broil until the cheese bubbles.

Wait a few minutes, hot cheese burns your mouth. It's quite delicious!

I never knew it was quite that easy but it makes a nice easy meal for one or two! (Jeff goes sin cebolla)

Pumpkin Pie? Why yes please!

My friend Kadee sent me this recipe. I, of course, tweeked it to make it super delicious. And come on, who doesn't want to drink pie! 

Makes a wonderful easy treat while watching for trick-or-treaters. 


Ingredients:
1 cup pumpkin puree (I used what we had left from last years Halloween pumpkins I had painted)
1 very ripe medium-sized banana, you can use the frozen ones you forgot about in the freezer
1 

cup fat-free vanilla yogurt, my favorite is a greek style
2 tbsp honey (We were out of honey and the honey dude hasn't called me back so I used Karo Syrup)
1 cup milk or cream, you could use any sort of liquid that suits you, I just went off of the standard pie recipe

a splash of Mocha or Chocolate flavored coffee creamer, totally optional but why not?! 

3/4 tsp Penzey's Baking Spice
a splash of vanilla extract
a handful of crushed ice

Toppings:

Whipped Cream

Candy

Throw everything in a blender. Make sure you remember the lid. Throw that puppy on high speed and let her rip! 

Pour into a lovely glass, preferably with a straw. A scoop or squirt of whipped cream on top and your favorite tiny candy crumbles on top. Perfectly festive! 

Redemption Spelt Berry Apple Pear Salad

This isn't an original but it's my tweeked version of a recipe found here: 

http://kitchenkathleen.blogspot.com/2008/03/apple-and-spelt-berry-salad.html#

It's so delicious and reminds me of good times in Florida. It was a regular purchase from Native Sun when I lived there and I missed it so bad I went searching for the recipe. 

Apple, Pear, Spelt Berry Salad

1 cup cooked spelt berries
1 pear, large diced (any variety, I liked the green ones)
1 apple, large diced (any variety, I LOVE granny smith but used Gala because it was handy)
about 1/4 cup celery, sliced thin
1/2 cup dried cranberries, soaked in about 1/8 cup water to reconstitute a little
1/3-1/2 cup greek yogurt, plain or vanilla work
2 tbsp cream cheese
1 tbsp lemon juice
2.5 tbsp honey, sugar, or karo syrup (I used karo because I didn't have any honey left, but honey tastes better)
1/2 tsp Penzey's Baking Spice (or something similar

Cook the spelt berries. Boil 1.5 cups water and add  in 1/2 cup dry spelt berries. Cover and let simmer for about 40 minutes. Turn off heat, leave covered, let cool. 

Mix the wet ingredients together until kind of soupy. 

Toss together dry ingredients until mixed well, including spelt berries. 

Combine everything into a nice serving dish or storage container. 

Keeps in the fridge for about 5 days pretty well. After that it gets a little soggy. 

You can substitute something like a kamut berry or even some almonds, cashews, or walnuts if you can't find spelt. I just ordered mine from Vitacost.com. It's a great site and clicking through here should get you a free $10 credit! 

It's a perfect breakfast, meal, or snack. 

This is what happens when I don't cook... crappy food and a worse experience!

Today my husband and I decided to try the local Pizza Hut in Starkville MS. As we entered the restaurant we immediately noticed that the decor appeared quite rundown and in a state of disrepair. The tile in the entrance was cracked, loose, and uneven so bad I tripped. The bathrooms were that of a 3rd world country with cracked bowls, no soap, and not even attached toilets! We should have turned around and left but my husband suggested we stay since the buffet appeared to be in better shape. It's pizza right? What can go wrong? After we were rudely seated by a woman who didn't bother to greet us at all but showed her horrible manners and "threw" the silverware on the table before turning around and walking away. We later learned, she was our waitress, or what should have been. She didn't do anything but throw a check on the table. The seats were badly torn to where they pulled at our clothes, my husband felt something poking him, turns out it was an electrical outlet hanging out of the wall with loose wires hanging from it! 

During our meal we were seated by a pair of women with small children. They were so disinterested in attending to the needs of the children they both screamed and yelled for nearly 30 minutes. This included the women yelling across the restaurant to employees who carried on a conversation. Apparently they thought they were at some sort of family reunion or something. Several other patrons exchanged glances of dismay but continued their meal as quickly as possible to leave. When I stood up to ask them to quiet the child down a bit so we could enjoy our meal, the two women became irate and started to defend their actions stating "children can't be trained". Maybe not theirs, of course they couldn't be trained either... Several employees (that had been yelling across the restaurant, came running over and out from the kitchen, all appearing to be friends. As the scene developed one employee wearing large hoop earrings and a red polo shirt actually physically bumped me with body language leaving no doubt she was wanting a physical altercation to ensue. At this point she started screaming and asking us to leave so I lost it and threw my bill at her (no I did not hit her, it's a piece of paper smaller than an iPhone). This resulted at her lunging at me and about knocking a table over screaming obscenities. 

An off duty police officer intervened and escorted me out of the building as the crowd was ready to draw blood while my husband paid the bill. All of this because someone asked a parent to be a parent. Several other patrons confronted me in the parking lot and said they were about to do the same thing (yeah, right) but didn't. 

Now we've traveled all over the world and been treated like crap by a lot of folks. Most of the time I can take it. This shot me over the edge. I will NEVER patronize another YUM! Brand foods family of stores again! I encourage you to do the same... 

Chicken Corn Soup

I promise, if you make this, you will LOVE it! 

1 whole chicken
4-5 stems of celery, diced
5-6 carrots, diced
1 whole medium onion, diced
4-5 cloves of garlic, minced
4 cups corn (can be frozen or fresh, don't use canned)
3 medium potatoes, diced
3 eggs
salt and pepper to taste
1-2 tbsp olive or grape seed oil

Put a rinsed whole chicken in a stock pot, cover with water, boil until falling apart. Remove from heat and let cool. If you do this the night before and put the whole pot in the freezer you get a nice layer of chicken fat on the top of the stock. I use this in place of oil in the next few steps. If you don't have time, no worries, use the oil. 

In another large stock pot add the 1-2 tbsp of oil to the pot and put on a medium high heat. Add in the garlic, onion, celery, and carrots. Saute until soft. It's ok if the bottom of the pot starts to caramelize a little. That means its' building good flavor. Spread everything to the sides and add in the potatoes to the center. You may have to add a touch more oil to combat the startchy-ness. Salt and pepper liberally to build the flavors. I use somewhere around 1 tbsp of each. 

When you get everything soft, add in the stock from the whole chicken pot. Pull the chicken out and remove bones. Cut or pull into small pieces. Add the chicken to the pot.

Add in the corn and the three raw eggs. After about 10 minutes, scoop the eggs out and let them cool a touch in a bowl. Peel and dice then add back to soup. 

Let everything get happy for another 10 minutes or so and serve. This is one of my favorite recipes from being a kid during harvest season. Plus it's how my husband and I spent our first date! He was sick, I made him this. 5 years later we're married and expecting our first baby! :-)