Easy Pumpkin Pie

For every holiday gathering my grandma made pies. Lots and lots of pies. Thanksgiving called for pumpkin pie and apple pie. Other pies were sometimes requested. This year my mother made the pie as I took pictures. She doesn't completely understand the part where she pauses between steps to allow pictures to be taken, so there aren't many pictures. One day she will learn!

The recipe for apple pie was posted back in July, so here is the recipe for pumpkin pie. This is a recipe that is slightly modified from the back of a can of pumpkin. Doubling the recipe results in two pies (obviously). We made two pies, so the pictures will reflect that.

Pumpkin Pie (Printer-friendly PDF Version)
1 can (15 oz) pumpkin
1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk
3/4 C sugar
1/2 t salt
1 t cinnamon
2 t pumpkin spice
2 eggs (beaten)
1 9" pie crust (unbaked)

Mix together the pumpkin and the evaporated milk in a sauce pan. Start to warm over medium heat.

Add the sugar, salt, cinnamon, and pumpkin spice. Mix well. Add the eggs and mix well. Heat until warm.

Place the pie crust in a pie plate. Once the pumpkin goo is heated, pour it into the pie shell.

Bake the pie at 350 for 45 to 55 minutes. The pie is done when a knife can gently stab it and come out clean.

Apple Delight Cake

Apples are delicious. Cake is delicious. It seems rather clear that apples and cake combined would be delicious. I'm not sure how to bake a cake inside of an apple, so for now I'll have to settle with apples baked inside of a cake. The addition of ice cream, or even just a glass of milk, to the slice (or three) that you will eat would be acceptable.

This recipe produces an amazingly delicious cake with apples inside. The resulting cake is moist and cinnamon-y. The top and edges are a bit crusty and the inside is kind of gooey. The combination is perfect. I advise you bake this right away.

Apple Delight Cake (Printer-friendly PDF Version)
2 C flour
1 t soda
1 t salt
1 t cinnamon
3 eggs
1 3/4 c sugar
1 C vegetable oil
2 C thinly sliced apples
Optional: 1 C chopped nuts

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9 x 13 inch cake pan.

Sift the flour, soda, salt, and cinnamon together. Set aside.

Place the eggs, sugar, and vegetable oil in a mixing bowl. Beat together on medium power for 2 minutes.

Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and mix until combined.

Stir in the apples (and nuts if you are up to it). Spread the cake batter into the greased cake pan.

Bake the cake for 35 to 40 minutes. The cake is finished baking when a toothpick is stabbed into the cake and comes out clean.

Cool almost completely before cutting and eating. Enjoy!

Kolacky

These cookies seem to be a favorite for a lot of people. We usually make them filled with cherry, apricot, and poppy seed filling. The cookie dough created by this recipe is light and flaky, very much like pie crust but more moist. The recipe is also very easy to make!

Kolacky (Printer-friendly PDF Version)
4 C flour
1 pound butter (softened)
1 packet dry active yeast (or 1 cake yeast)
8 oz sour cream
3 egg yolks
2 jars of pie filling

Cut together the flour and butter as if you are making pie dough. If you aren't sure what that means, take a fork and cut through the butter and flour repeatedly until you feel your arm will fall off. The final form of the mixture will be crumbly.

Sprinkle the yeast over the flour mixture.Mix together the sour cream and the egg yolks.

Pour over the flour mixture. Mix together completely with hands. I'm told that you don't mix it at this point, but I usually do and it turns out great.

Cover with a towel and let set for 1 hour.

Mix again completely. If you forget to mix completely  here, no worries. It will still turn out fine.

Chill the dough completely (or overnight).

Roll out dough to desired thinness. This will vary depending on the cookie-to-filling ratio you prefer. Cut the dough into squares.

Place some filling in the middle of each square. Fold opposite edges over the filling and pinch together.

Bake at 375 for 15 to 20 minutes. This depends on the thickness of the dough, so keep an eye on them after 14 minutes.

Remove from pan and cool completely on cooling rack. Do let the cookies cool before eating one, the filling gets very hot.

Catnip Mouse Toy II

My cats loved the catnip heart toy that I made. I think the best part for them was that it was made from a wash cloth. My cats seem to love towels of any sort (even better when filled with catnip, I'm sure!).

Here is a catnip mouse toy made from the wash cloth. I did the sewing by hand. I couldn't find my pink felt, so no ears for this mouse!

Need:
paper
wash cloth
scissors
marker
needle and thread
pins
filling
catnip

Make a heart template or use this template for the catnip mouse toy (click to make larger).

I cut the washcloth into fourths. You can make the mouse any size.

Trace the template onto the washcloth with the marker. To save cutting time, I folded the template and the washcloth in half.

Cut out the heart and pin the edges together.

Sew the edges together, but leave about two inches open so you can flip the toy right-side out.

Flip the sewn together heart right-side out. Fill with a mixture of filling and catnip. Pin together the open edges. Sew the edges together.

Decorate the mouse. I used the thread to make a nose and used a fabric rope as a tail. You can also add ears and eyes. I wouldn't recommend adding too many details that can be ripped off. I doubt it would be good if your cat ate them!

Cinnamon Coffee Puffs

The fun thing about making food from recipes that are completely new to you is the chance of failure. This attempt resulted in failure. The failure ended up in the garbage. The recipe, if you follow it properly, should turn out fine. Just don't accidentally add too much flour or it won't rise.

When I get more yeast, I'll make these again and post a picture of the delicious outcome.

Cinnamon Coffee Puffs (Printer-friendly PDF Version of fixed recipe)
1 cake yeast (or packet dry active yeast)
1/4 C lukewarm water
1 C milk
2 T sugar
1/2 C butter
1 t salt
2 eggs
3 1/4 C flour
1/2 t vanilla
1/4 C sugar + 1/4 t cinnamon

Place the yeast in the warm water to soften.

Scald the milk over medium heat. Add the sugar, butter, and salt. Stir until dissolved. Cool to lukewarm.

Place the milk mixture in a mixing bowl. Add the flour, eggs, and yeast. Mix well. Add the vanilla and beat well. (You can see I forgot some of the flour at this point and added it. I actually added too much. Don't do that.)

Cover and let rise for an hour or so until it is light. Stir down and drop into greased muffin pans. Cover and let rise again. (By this point, nothing was rising. But I continued on and hoped for the best.)

Bake at 375 for 20 minutes.

I made cinnamon muffin bricks instead of cinnamon puffs. Can't be successful every time!