Joanne's Creamy Pumpkin Pie

You know what? I've never yet made any of Joanne's pies; it's entirely possible I never will. But I still think of her often, and particularly on this day, which would have been her 71st birthday.

Creamy Pumpkin Pie

½ C cold milk

1 pkg (6-serving size) vanilla instant pudding & pie filling

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 C Pumpkin

2 ½ C Cool Whip

Graham Cracker Crust Pie Shell

Beat milk, pudding mix spice with whisk for 1 minute (very thick).  Whisk in pumpkin.  Stir in whipped topping.  Spread in crust.  Refrigerate at least 2 hours or until set.

Pasta Sauce

Bill got an ENORMOUS crock pot for Christmas. I was happy enough with my old £5-bargain-from-the-fleamarket-15-years-ago crock pot, but he wanted one that you could take the 'crock' part out and soak it. 

I've been trying to think what to do with this GIANT thing other than cook 16 meals worth of beans at a time. I think of crock pots as being mainly to do with beans or with meat. I don't wish to add substantial amounts of meat either to our diets or our pocketbooks. 



One thing I did remember cooking 20-some years ago when I lived in Salt Lake was the pasta recipe from The Tightwad Gazette.  As I recall it was practically a party day any time I took a jar off the shelf for dinner. 

I had loads of homegrown tomatoes then and I did the proper canning thing with a hot water bath and all. I remember being really paranoid because of the odd case of botulism associated with home canning, so I was very careful to follow the rules. And I promised myself NEVER TO TASTE something I'd canned that wasn't just right - I'd talked to a woman recovering from botulism who'd done just that, even though she knew it was risky. She was lucky to have survived.

The recipe doesn't call for a crock pot, but I remember struggling to get it all into my biggest pan. So I decided to see how it worked in the new BIG crock pot. I used tinned tomatoes (on sale at my green market four 800g tins for £1!), counting them out and squeezing most of the juice/water out. Bill helped me by grinding the onions and green peppers in Grandma & Grandpa's old meat grinder. I cooked everything except the tomato paste in the crock pot (it was barely half full, but those were huge tins of tomato paste) over night. I added the tomato paste the next day, mixed it all up and put it into jars, not quite filling them to leave room to freeze. 

It smelled and tasted wonderful, mainly because of the herbs and garlic! That said, the tinned tomatoes weren't as big as my homegrown ones (and nothing ever compares to home grown tomatoes, right?) so the paste is a bit acidic. I may try adding a bit of baking soda, not being a huge fan of sugar. When I make it again - and I expect I will - I'll probably double up on the tinned tomatoes. Also, I'll probably try cutting back on the oil, maybe by a third to begin with. We're not on a low fat diet by any means, but it's not unusual for us to find processed foods too oily and a lot of older-fashioned recipes are too rich for our taste.

All that aside, I was well pleased with the outcome and will look for other sauces to make in batches to freeze. 

Do you use a crock pot much?

Joanne's Pineapple (or Chocolate) Pie

Today my friend Joanne would have been 70. She passed away three years ago just after beginning treatment for breast cancer. Her mother had survived breast cancer and I think she expected she would, too.  Her sudden death was a surprise to us all. I still think of her often.

Flowers in a window. Dyrham Park, South Gloucestershire

Back in 2009 she sent me several pie recipes. I published her strawberry recipe last year. Here is her Pineapple Pie recipe.

Pineapple Pie

8 oz. cream cheese (room temperature)
8 oz. sour cream
1/3 c. sugar
1/2 t. vanilla
8 oz. crushed pineapple, drained
Reserve 1 tablespoon pineapple
1 small container of Cool Whip
Graham cracker crust pie shell

Mix all together. Place in pie shell. Refrigerate overnight. (Can freeze for use later).  Variations: Eliminate pineapple. Put mixture in chocolate crust. Add mini-chocolate chips and sprinkles.

I'm not sure what you are supposed to do with the tablespoon of pineapple but I'd guess it was to garnish the top of the Cool Whip.  It might be good to give people a bit of a warning that they're about to taste pineapple!

Cooking Demonstration at the WI

April's WI meeting was a cooking demonstration by a lady named Christine Rogers. She does it all right in front of us - no TV tricks involved  - and makes it all look easy. She did all this in one hour and fed us dinner. Actually, most cooking is fairly easy with a bit of planning and organisation. We've all just been brain-washed into thinking it is really hard so we'll buy more convenience products; mind, she uses convenience foods in the demonstrations which is partly how she managed to do so much in so short a time.  I would probably only attempt one or two of these at one time and would do more from scratch to save money.

Anyhow, she doesn't always provide recipes, so I took notes. I'll share them here in case they inspire you.  (I hope I got this all right - if anything looks really crazy to you, please let me know).

Curry Pasta Salad: 
- saute a diced red onion in some oil
- cook some pasta spirals (shapes hold the sauce better than spaghetti) - I think she cooked about 500 g (a whole packet as they are sold here)
 -add a dessert spoon (between a teaspoon and a tablespoon) of madras or rogan josh flavoured paste from a jar to the saute'd onion (Indian food shops sell this)
 - 2 tablespoons of apricot jam also goes in with the onion
- coat the cooked pasta with a little mayonnaise, then add the onion mix and some raisins
- garnish with tomato slices and serve warm

Cold Chicken Salad
- start with nuggets of cooked chicken (apparently one can buy bags of this at the supermarket); she used two bags; cooked turkey or ham would also work in this recipe
- chop up some spring onions
- halve a cucumber and scrape out the seeds with a spoon (they are too watery for this dish) and then chop the cucumber 
- slice a mango length-wise, one cut on either side of the stone; on each half make a grid of cuts (slice vertically & horizontally) and then parallel with the skin to add diced mango to the salad (might work well with peaches or pineapple if mango is not available)
- add handful of coriander leaves
- add juice of 2 or 3 limes (depending upon how juicy)
- drizzle with vegetable oil
- can make the day before and chill overnight






Bean Salad
This is best the next day, after the flavours have had time to marinate.
- diced red onion
- a selection of tinned beans (she used kidney, garbanzo and something else...)
- diced red and green bell pepper or you could use a tin of corn or some peas
- dress with honey mustard dressing from the supermarket

Fruit Salad
- 2 large oranges, sliced
- 3 small tomatoes, sliced
- sprinkle with chopped spring onions

Orange Torte with Almonds
She did bake the cake ahead of time. She told us how:
- 3 eggs
- 8 oz of caster sugar (I've yet to get my head around the different types of sugar, I'd probably go with just regular sugar, but this might not be right)
- 9 oz of ground almonds 
- 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
- whisk the egg and sugar
- boil a whole orange (!) for one hour and then blend it to a pulp; add to eggs and sugar, add ground almonds and baking powder
- cook for 50 minutes in the oven (she didn't say what temp - I'd look up other similar cakes and experiment)
- serve with blueberries and vanilla yogurt
- lasts in the fridge 2-3 days (not in our house it wouldn't!)

She's always full of tips and ideas, eg buy salmon fillets from Lidl, wrap in parma ham slices and bake for 8-9 minutes. Doesn't that sound delicious?

Jack's Fish Paste a Success!

I was telling the ladies at the WI craft group the other night about my fish pate meal.  It was confusing because of them had brought a delicious pate made with crab and salmon to the Christmas party. What I meant to tell about was fish paste, which Brits seem to think is altogether a different kettle of fish (sorry, couldn't resist).  The thing is, I'm not sure what is the difference between pate and paste, other than the fact that the latter is incredibly cheap (£4.27/kg or $1.94 a lb.) and made up of a half dozen or so types of fish. Well mine was; you can buy species-specific pastes, too. In fact, Wikipedia defines pate as a 'spreadable paste', so I'm going to stick my neck out and say they are the same.

Except that when you call it 'pate' (even better with the accent mark if you can bother), it sounds posh. When I told Bill we were having 'fish paste' for dinner, his face fell.  It seems that 'back in the day' working class men found this stuff made into sandwiches on Thursdays, that being the day before payday and the cupboard being bare of all else.  When Bill protested, I explained he wasn't getting a sandwich, but pasta with a creamy sauce that tasted of fish, at least that's how I thought it would turn out.

And it did.




And we both liked it. 

Jack's recipe is here. I cheated and used a whole onion, a small sprinkle of chili powder and a squirt of oil.  Her 'elusive' search bar is at the bottom of each post. If you put your ingredients in there you might be amazed at what she comes up with.

Have you tried anything new in the kitchen lately?

Cornbread Dressing - Part of My Heritage!

This is for Julia, my lovely neighbour who actually reads this blog - I'm so honoured!  We had our Thanksgiving party last night and it all seemed to go reasonably well.  Twenty-one of us devoured the usual food and drink and there is the usual enormous amount of leftovers to go into the freezer.  As I sit nursing my second coffee, Bill is in the kitchen working his way through the stacks of dirty dishes.  I'm leaving him to it, bless him, and Sarah is helping him out. 

Thanks to cousin Sandra for sharing this on Facebook!

Jules said she'd dreamed of my dressing since last year and wanted the recipe.  This is the dressing I grew up eating at Grandmother's house and then at Mom's.  I was sure I'd published it somewhere on this blog, but apparently not.  So here it is:

First you make corn bread.  This is from my first ever cookbook (Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book, published 1976), a wedding present from my Grandmother:

Perfect Corn Bread
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/4 cup shortening

Sift flour with sugar, baking powder, and salt; stir in cornmeal.  Add eggs, milk, and shortening. Beat with rotary or electric beater till just smooth (Do not overbeat).  Pour into greased 9x9x2-inch pan. Bake at 425 degrees F (220 C) for 20-25 minutes.

Some small adjustments:
When it lives here in Britain, cornmeal is called polenta.  I buy it in bulk at the Asian shop in Brighton Grove, Newcastle; you could just come over and 'borrow' some of mine.

I have substituted a heaping tablespoon of soya flour and a tablespoon of water for the eggs, as suggested in The Tightwad Gazette - it works!

You can use oil instead, it's easier; or, melt the shortening in the microwave before adding, another thing that makes it easier.

I don't bother dirtying a mixer - I just stir it with a fork, which is do-able if you use oil or melted shortening.  I've poured this into cake pans, the recommended square pan, into muffin tins or whatever loaf pan was handy.  As long as it isn't too deep it cooks just fine.  Even over cooked a bit it's still tasty.  I recommend eating hot with butter on it.  But this is for the dressing...

This is where it's a bit hap-hazard, as I have always made dressing in quantities of 20+ cups. The ingredients are:

Cornbread
Stale bread 
Onion
Celery
Butter
Oil
Chicken stock cubes
Hot water
Salt, Parsley, Thyme, Rosemary (I don't like sage, but if you do, you can add it as well).

You'll need to buy some cheap bread (I like whole meal) and pull it apart into bite-sized pieces. Most recipes seem to call for 'stale' bread, but I can't tell much difference.  Crumble the cornbread into similar sized or smaller pieces.  

Dice equal amounts of onion and celery and cook in some oil with butter added (butter burns easily so keep an eye on it).

Boil the kettle and make a cup or two of chicken stock and add a slice of butter.

In a large bowl, add equal amounts of the bread pieces, the cornbread, and the sauted fried vegetables. Gradually add the buttery chicken stock, mashing and mixing with a fork until the bread and cornbread are blended and mushed. You want it moist but not sloppy wet.  I tend to shake out each of the herbs into my palm - maybe a tablespoon of each? - at this point and add.  Salt to taste.  Mix it all up again.

My equal amounts are two-cup measures and then I start again adding more in these proportions until the bowl is full. I transfer this to an oven-proof dish and bake for about 20-30 minutes at about 180 C. It doesn't need cooking - all the ingredients are already cooked, but I like a crunchy top on my dressing.  It's a lot of work for one dish, but I think it's worth the effort once a year.

Health warning:  By my rough estimates using www.nutritiondata.com, a half-cup serving of this dressing might have as many as 500 calories!

Joanne's Strawberry Pie

Today is my friend Joanne's birthday.  She would have been 69 years old.  I still think of Joanne sometimes when I'm sewing or blogging about something I wish I could share with her. I last saw her in June 2011, a few months before she died; I didn't know she was ill.  I'm not exactly sure of the chronology, but it's possible she didn't know either.

Anyhow, she fed us lunch at her house and there was this incredibly wonderful pie.  I asked for the recipe and she sent it, along with some others.  I've not pursued making any of these because (a) I'm not much on sweets.  We tend to have sliced fruit for dessert; (b) this is full of American brands not available here in Britain.  I think I know most of the substitutes, but it's not a sure thing.

Strawberry Pie

Graham cracker crust Pie shell (Digestive biscuits are the closest thing I've found to Graham crackers here in Britain)
4 cup sliced strawberries
4 oz Jello Cook and Serve Vanilla pudding (I think the closest thing to this is called Angel Delight)
4oz strawberry Jello (and this would just be called jelly?  I believe it comes already partially constituted so you just add boiling water)
2 cups water

Clean and slice strawberries. Arrange in pie crust.  Cook pudding with WATER (it is generally made with milk). When it comes to a rolling boil, add strawberry Jello to dissolve.  Allow to cool some, then pour over strawberries. Place in refrigerator overnight, all day or at least 4 hours.  Can be served with whipping cream or Cool Whip.  (I think the substitute is Dream Whip, but it comes in powdered form and has to be made up to serve).

So maybe I should add (c) it's more trouble here in Britain...then again, it was delicious.  

Lentils for Terri

In one of Terri's comments on a post I'd published while in Australia she asked what I did with lentils as she was running out of ideas.  I had to admit I didn't have a particularly large repertoire myself.  We have two recipes we like a lot.

One is from Food for Sport, by Judy Ridgway.  I'm a major fan of this book, full of inexpensive and healthy recipes.

Spiced Lentils
Ingredients
Serves 6; 205 calories per serving; suitable for vegetarians; freezes well
2 large onions, peeled and finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp ground cumin seeds
1/2 tsp ground allspice
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 TBS vegetable oil
225g/8oz red or yellow split lentils
2 TBS tomato puree
2 tsp yeast extract
1.75 litres/ 2 1/2 pints water

1.  Fry onions, garlic & spices in the oil for 3-4 minutes to soften the vegetables. 
2.  Add remaining ingredients.  Stir and bring to the boil.
3.  Reduce heat and simmer for about 40-45 minutes until the lentils are well cooked and the mixture is fairly thick.
4.  Serve with boiled rice.

I've no idea what 'yeast extract' refers to.  I never have freshly ground anything around and can't remember the last time I had allspice on hand, but we like the lesser version just fine - with mashed potatoes as well as with rice.

I don't remember the source for the next recipe.  Excuse my lazy shorthand method for writing on index cards:

Lentil Burgers
Makes 8-10 patties
Ingredients
(a) 1 cup rinsed lentils, 2 1/2 cups water, 1/2 tsp salt
(b) 1 TBS olive oil, 1/2 medium onion minced, 1 medium carrot diced, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1 tsp soy sauce (optional)
(c) 3/4 cup each bread crumbs and finely ground oatmeal

1.  Simmer (a) 45 minutes until almost dry
2.  Saute (b) and mix all but, then add (c)
3.  Make patties and either keep in fridge, freeze or cook
4.  May be fried for 1-2 minutes or baked on greased cookie sheet at 400 F. for about 15 minutes.

I use whatever oatmeal I have on hand and sometimes add a bit more if the mix seems wet.  Sometimes adding an egg or two helps things stick together.  We plan to play with spices included in this to see if we can make Indian burgers, Italian burgers, etc.

I have also been too lazy to mess with burgers and have just patted the mixture into a greased square pan to bake.  That worked fine as well, though if I recall it didn't come out quite as crunchy and Bill likes the burgers crunchy.

Nothing to do with lentils, I know, but I did snap the photo in Sydney...

Since I was sitting around in Sydney when I got Terri's comment, I looked through Jane's cookbooks and found:

The Vegetarian Book, by Charmaine Solomon

Puree of Red Lentils
Serves 6; 261 calories per serving
Ingredients
300g (11 oz) red lentils
3 TBS ghee or oil
2 large onions, finely sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tsp finely grated fresh ginger
1 tsp ground tumeric
2 tsp salt or to taste
1 tsp Garam Masala

Pick over lentils to remove grit.  Wash in bowl of cold water and drain well in colander.  Heat ghee and fry onions over moderate heat until golden brown.  Stir in garlic, ginger and tumeric, fry until garlic and ginger are golden.  Add lentils and fry for 2 minutes, stirring.  Add 1.5 litres (60 fl oz) hot water, bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer covered for 15 minutes.  Stir in salt and Garam Masala and continue cooking until lentils are soft and liquid absorbed.  Serve with rice or Indian bread (naan).

We tried this when we got home and it was very nice, but I think it makes more than 6 servings. 

 
Then, by one of those strokes of luck, Wise Bread published this article on something like 25 ways to fix lentils.  The list includes recipes from Russia, France, Equador....  I can't wait to try some of them!

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As an aside, I've recently had a couple of comments left by Anonymous expressing appreciation for some of my older posts on frugality.  I'm thrilled to bits to have a 'frugal fan'.  Sharing those ideas was one of my main motivations for starting this blog, so I'm really pleased that you like them.  Thanks for your lovely comments.

Bake and Run!

This is a recipe from The Tightwad Gazette for blueberry cake I've looked at many times over the past 20 years, but never made, cake not really being part of my usual diet.  However, I thought it worth trying and being as how I didn't have blueberries, I had blackberries, I made blackberry cake.  I'm going to try it with apples and maybe even tinned peaches; I'll be dead amazed if this wasn't another Universal Recipe.

Blueberry Cake

2 cups white flour
1/2 cups sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup cooking oil
1 cup milk
2 eggs

Mix the above in a bowl.  Put in a prepared (I took this to mean greased; might even be better if floured, but I haven't tried that part yet)  9 x 13 pan, top with following mixture:

3 cups blueberries
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Bake at 350 F (180 C) degrees for 30 to 40 minutes.

This is not a terribly sweet cake and Bill said that it really mostly tasted of blackberries.  The cake seems quite light, almost but not quite a sponge cake.   I'd recommend giving it a go.

I had three reasons for baking this cake. 

1)  I have a shed-load (well, actually freezer-load) of blackberries to use up;

2)  I needed something to blog about and this seemed a natural choice given my commitment to review ideas from The Tightwad Gazette.

3)  Trent Hamm over at The Simple Dollar, included this video on a list of things that inspired him.  I wouldn't say it was the best TED talk I've watched, but it was fairly amusing - but not very, either.  According to this speaker, one of the characteristics of a happy marriage is that the woman is thinner and more attractive than the man.  You've seen photos of Bill; what chance have I got? 

The only strategies that come to my mind are to get out there and run some more miles (and miles), and bake a lot more pies and cakes! 

Do you know any really fattening recipes I could try?

Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On

I haven't seen Vivien for most of January, as her Mom was visiting from Birmingham.  So, when we finally did meet up Monday we had a great time catching up.  We had lunch at Subway, where she'd never been, and then just wandered around Newcastle chatting as we went.  I had decided as another of my 'good intentions' to reduce my salt intake.  I love salty foods and sour.  I put salt on things like pickles and lemon slices, apples, oranges, loads of weird things.  I told Vivien I practically put salt on my salt.  Even though Bill and I eat very little processed foods and so there aren't many other sources of salt in my diet, I did feel that this was pretty silly.  I've done reasonably well at ignoring the salt shaker up until the last week when I caved a couple of times.  So, another plan needed to be put into place.

In The Frugal Gourmet, Jeff Smith proposed an alternative to salt:

Herb Blend:

1 tsp fresh-cracked pepper
3 bay leaves
1/2 tsp whole oregano
1/4 tsp marjoram, whole leaves, dried, work best
1/4 tsp savory, whole leaves, dried, work best
1/4 tsp basil,whole leaves, dried, work best
1/4 tsp thyme, whole leaves, dried, work best
1/4 tsp rosemary, whole leaves, dried, work

Crush all the ingredients together with your fingers, and store in a tightly capped jar.  No need to refrigerate.  Use in any way you like for a little extra flavor in your cooking.


I decided that my first job was to find a dispenser.  I had in mind the large shakers that used to hold red chili flakes at Pizza Hut.  When we didn't find them I described this to Vivien and she said I was looking for a 'flour shaker'.  We turned up a 'sugar shaker' with a Cath Kidston sort of design at Fenwick's for £6 so I had a bench line to beat or a fall back if we didn't find anything else. 

Vivien suggested Lakeland's in Eldon Gardens shopping mall.  We had a blast looking at all the gadgets!  And lo and behold, I found a 'multi-purpose' shaker on sale, down from £4-something to I thought £2.99 but at the check out counter it was all of £1.49.  Big score!

 It is one of those fun gadgets you didn't know you needed.  Press the rubber top and it springs open to reveal the rather general holes.  Press it back down and it keeps the contents dry and air-tight.  Brilliant design.

Now, in no way does my kitchen stores normally include half of the fancy ingredients listed above, but I figured I'd use what I had and add the other to the grocery list, not that I expect to find dried whole leaves anywhere.  I put in 1 tsp each:  black pepper, marjoram, oregano, celery seed, tarragon and 1/2 tsp of Cajun spice.  I may regret that last on top of the black pepper, but we'll see.  I may add the bay leaves and I could have put in cumin or coriander, but I didn't.  Maybe next time!

Do you love salt or do you manage to resist?

Turkey Pie

A couple of weeks ago Bill made turkey pie for dinner and I can't begin to tell you how delicious it was.   Neither of us tends to use recipes as a rule, though he did consult his Mom's cookbook to make the pastry - and excellent pastry it was, far better than mine.  In fact, it was up there with the lightest, flakiest pastry I can ever remember eating.  I asked him about his methods ostensibly to write this post, but really because I wanted to know his secret!

For the filling he just threw some cubed cooked turkey and sliced mushrooms into some white sauce and filled the pie shell with this.  He consulted instructions for a sausage pie (yum!) and baked his for 10-15 minutes at 400 F, then at 350 F for another 30 minutes.



I have much to learn about photographing food, but you might be able to use your imagination to help me out.

Shortcrust Pastry
4 oz plain flour
pinch of salt
1 oz lard
1 oz margarine
4 tsps water (approx.)

Mix flour and salt together.  Cut the fat into small knobs and add it.  Using both hands, rub the fat into the flour between finger and thumb tips.  After 2-3 minutes there will be no lumps of fat left and the mxiture will look like fresh breadcrumbs.  Add the water a little at a time, stirring with a round-bladed knife until the mixture begins to stick together.  With one hand, collect it together and knead lightly for a few seconds, to give a firm, smooth dough.  The pastry can be used straight  away, but it's better allowed to 'rest' for 15 minutes.  It can also be wrapped in polythene and kept in the refrigerator for a day or two.  When the pastry is required, sprinkle a very little flour on a board or table and roll out the dough evenly turning it occasionally.  The usual thickness is about 1/8 inch; don't pull or stretch it.  Use as required.  The usual oven temperature is hot (425 F).

We ate half of the pie with loads of steamed veg on the side and we're just pulling the other half out of the freezer to finish it off.  I'm really looking forward to dinner tonight!

Do you ever have savoury pies at your house?

Coincidences

I seem to stumble on to ideas over and over these days.  I don’t know if it is because I’m paying more attention to the details or if it’s just the way of things and I make too much of it.  I’d add that the media are awash with the latest trends, but these aren’t current thoughts at all.  

For example, I was reading a Dick Francis book, Slayride, in which one of the characters was reading The Golden Notebook.  I’d never heard of the latter, but then ran across the name again when reading about Maya Angelou.  It’s a book by Doris Lessing and I’ve added it to my library reading list.

Frugal Scholar quoted Shakespeare one day, using the phrase ‘Sweet and 20’, which I realised was the title of one of my inter-war books I’ve yet to find. 

I picked up a Readers Digest to read one book, and discovered a new author from this very area where I live.

At the Sewing Group, one of the Joan’s had been away to Tenerife and brought back coconut macaroons.  These reminded Brenda of a recipe she’d heard about whilst visiting Canada last year, Impossible Pie.  I picked up one of Bill’s Phryne books, Dead Man's Chest, and it gave the recipe for the very same Impossible Pie.

Since you’ve been so good as to read this far, I’ll share that recipe with you:

Impossible Pie

1/2 cup plain flour

1 cup caster sugar

3/4 cup desiccated coconut

4 eggs

vanilla

125 g butter, melted

1/2 cup flaked almonds

1 cup milk

Grease a deep pie dish and preheat the oven to 180 degrees.  Put all ingredients except half the almonds and the milk into a bowl and mix well.  Then add the milk slowly and beat until you get a cake batter.  Pour into the pie dish, top with remaining almonds, bake for about 35 minutes.  It transforms itself into a spongy layered coconut cake which Ms Greenwood recommends be served with stewed fruit and cream.  

Universal Pesto Sauce

I learned the idea of 'universal' recipes from The Tightwad Gazette and I'm certain that it's saved me a fortune (well, more or less).  From the time I read the idea that I didn't have to run out and buy celery, but could substitute another green crunchy substance, such as bell pepper for example, I've never again been very challenged by a recipe.  My favourite example of a 'universal' recipe is 'rice dish', but she also devised a universal seafood casserole, a bread recipe, and several others.

It has never honestly occurred to me to make pesto sauce at home, mainly because tomato or white sauce seemed sufficient for flavouring pasta, but since I've incorporated nuts into my cooking schedule, pesto has looked more and more attractive.

I don't know if it was An Oregon Cottage or The Simple Dollar that first awakened me to the possibility that pesto doesn't have to mean pine nuts and basil, but if I had any further doubts, Wikipedia convinced me and I've never looked back since!

It turns out that 'pesto' is anything made by pounding (ie with a 'pestle' in a mortar)  or in these modern times more likely with a blender.  We enjoyed sunflower seeds and fresh parsley one night.  Personally, I think anything with garlic and olive oil is going to turn out well; I may or may not add the Parmesan cheese.  I used the blender stick that I now don't know how we ever lived without to zap the parsley, but the seeds successfully evaded the blades.  No matter, it was just crunchy sauce and very nice all the same.  I've not mastered a specific recipe, but generally look at another pesto recipe to get a rough idea of proportions.   I've tended to cut the amounts right back, but hope next time to freeze the extra as recommended.

Consider that the vegetable/herb portion might be one or a combination of arugula, coriander, bell pepper, basil, parsley, tomato, mint, spinach, mushrooms or several other substitutions (maybe even home grown!); also that the nuts could be almonds, cashews, walnuts, pine nuts, or (the most frugal unless you have your own tree) sunflower seeds.  

I always feel rather confined by ordinary recipes whereas universal recipes really make me feel free to create!  Jami, over at An Oregon Cottage, also talks about adding pesto to a creamy white sauce, to further dilute the herbage flavour, which is another thing I'm looking forward to trying!

Cullen Skink

We stopped for lunch at Deacon Brodie's Tavern in Edinburgh.  Simon and Sarah joined us.  Bill likes to tease me about disgusting food sometimes and he kept telling everyone I was going to have the Cullen Skink.  He commented that Cousin Frank had ordered this when we all met for dinner -- seems very long ago now.  Just out of spite, when the waitress took our orders, I did go for the Cullen Skink, even though the name made me think of smelly skunk.  It was amazingly good -- 'poor folks' food' often is.

Bill was rather envious, actually.  I did find it a bit rich, made with cream and all.  I let him finish the last little bit, so he got to have an adventure as well.

Should you decide to make it, here is a recipe.

Enjoy!

White Chilli

I’m sure I’ve often written about my 2 week schedule for proteins at dinner.  (Beans, poultry, fish, beans, cheese, fish, meat, vegetarian, fish, eggs, beans, combination, fish, vegetarian)  Sounds rather insane, I know, but it for me it makes menu planning much simpler and helps ensure we eat reasonably healthily.  The woman who sits next to me at the sewing group insists that she can’t put anything from the freezer out to defrost for her dinner in the evening because she doesn’t know exactly what she will want and she can’t eat unless it is just what she wants at that moment.  You needn’t worry that she’ll starve; I’ve been watching her steadily expand over the past two years.  Anyhow, we eat what’s on the schedule.

I’ve been working on emptying the ‘protein’ drawer of the freezer which was stuff to the gills (so to speak) when I started.  We're now down to a couple of chicken breasts, the last bit of grated cheese, some turkey broth, ancient cabbage rolls, plain yoghurt, lamb's liver and something unidentified.  I used allrecipes for cheese and chicken and it came up with something called ‘white chilli’.  I liked the idea, but didn’t get around to printing the actual recipe, so that evening I ended up free-wheeling, which I always find rather fun.  This is how it ended up (plus what I would do differently).  Bill declared it his favourite new dish:

Saute a diced onion in 1-2 TBS oil, add a diced chicken breast and brown.  Open a tin of white beans, rinse off the sauce and add.  Put in 1 cup of uncooked rice and 2 cups of chicken broth.  Split open and de-seed 2-3 small chili peppers, mince and add (or omit if you don’t like spicy food).  Bring to the boil and simmer for 20-30 minutes.  When the rice is cooked, sprinkle grated cheese over the top and let it melt (even low-fat cheese tasted pretty good this way, though I normally don’t buy it).  Serve with steamed veg (eg broccoli and carrots) on the side; alternatively, add 2 cups of any veg to the chicken and rice (which makes this a variation of my usual rice dish).

Crisp or Crumble?

It's rhubarb season here in England. I know, because Dorothy from the sewing group keeps bringing in large bags full of it and, unable to resist 'free food', I usually grab a handfull. In keeping with my resolution to do more baking and with a need to finish off the rest of the blackberries in the freezer before the next picking season, I started scanning cookbooks for recipes.

I was was very pleased to find a 'universal' recipe in Ella's cookbook (The Best of Good Housekeeping, 1973), in that it made suggestions for fruit to use, but whatever you have on hand could be used, barring maybe melon or something.  Universal recipes are, to my mind, one of the more frugal approaches to cooking, ie use what you already have, don't go out and buy specific ingredients.

Fruit Crumble

1 1/2 lb raw fruit (apples, plums)

3 oz. margarine

6 oz. plain flour

3 oz. caster sugar (regular granulated sugar, far as I know) 

Oven temperature:  fairly hot (400 degrees F., mark 6)

Prepared the fruit as for stewing and put it in an oven-proof dish.  Rub the fat into the flour until the mixture is the texture of fine crumbs; stir in the sugar.  Springle the mixture on top of the prepared fruit and bake in the centre of the oven for 30-40 minutes.  Alternatively, stew the fruit before putting it in the dish and bake for 20-30 minutes.  Serve with custard or cream.

Variations

1.  Add 1 level tsp. powdered cinnamon, mixed spice or ginger to the flour before rubbing in the fat.

2.  Add 2 oz. chopped crystallised ginger to the crumb mixture before sprinkling it over the prapred fruit.

3.  Add the gratted rind of an orange or lemon to the crumb mixture, etc.

I made this a while back with rhubarb and blackberries and it was nice, but a bit tart for me.  Bill like this cold.  I prefer it hot and I pour skimmed milk over it, not cream (though I do love custard...).

My Betty Crocker's Cookbook (1987) has a recipe for 

Apple Crisp

 4 cups sliced tart apples (about 4 medium)

2/3 to 3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup oats

1/3 cup margarine or butter, softened

3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

3/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

Heat oven to 375 F.  Arrange apples in greased square pan, 8x8x2 inches.  Mix remaining ingredients; sprinkle over apples.  

Bake until topping is golden brown and apples are tender, about 30 minutes.  Serve warm and, if desired, with cream or ice cream.  6 servings; 295 calories per serving.

There are variations for apricots, cherries, peaches or pineapple.  I made this the other day with 1/2 Bramley (cooking) apples and half blackberries.

Crumble-r

The next time I went to use up the blackberries, I discovered they were all gone and I tried an experiment (I love experiments in the kitchen!).  I used the rest of an apple from the last batch, a peelled and chopped orange and filled in the rest of the fruit allocation with rhubarb.  Then I doubled the amounts for the fat, flour and sugar for the fruit crumble.  That turned out very well, though I probably don't want to know the calorie count!  I doubt I'll be making these every week, but it's great to have another 'universal' recipe on hand!

Omelette in a Bag

Norma gave us a special treat on our last morning there. We had great fun with it. I'll let her tell you how it's done:-

Omelettes in a bag. The way I do it is to use heavy plastic sandwich bags (not the really thin type), write the person's name on the bag with a black marker pen, break two eggs into the


bag and hand it to the person to add whatever they like to the bag i.e. bacon, ham, peppers,


onion, tomatoes, cheese (whatever else you like in an omelette). They then seal the bag tight and knead it in their hands until it is alll mixed. Once mixed it goes into a pot of boiling water for 13 minutes. The omelette will slide out perfectly onto a plate when it's done. Glad you enjoyed that bit of fun.


Note: Sorry, I didn't take after pictures of the omelette; was too busy eating!

I told you about the Taco salads in a bag too, didn't I? Spike's band parents make these for band concerts as money raisers. They use an individual size packet of corn chips, cut it open and put taco seasoned fried hamburger into it. The customer then adds tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, sour cream and salsa sauce to the bag - whatever they like. They are given a plastic fork to eat the salad right out of the bag. Delicious!!! I love it!

Ella's Date Slice

I looked in the cookbook from Ella's house that had the most clippings and recipe cards stuck in it (The Best of Goodhousekeeping, 1973) and sure enough her recipe was there. It's not from that book, she'd written on to a blank bit of page.

Date Slice

1/2 lb stoned date chopped
1/4 pt water - boil til soft, then cool
4 oz SR [self-rising?] flour
4 oz quick cooking oats
4 oz sugar
4 oz marg
1 level teasp. bi-carb
7" x 11" tin greased. Half mixture, cover with date then level off remainder. Gas mark 4 , [180 degrees C / 350 degrees F] 20-30 minutes. Cut and leave in tin till cold.