Pumpkin Pie

I owe a lot of my cooking ability to my Mother-in-law, my Mom, and my Grandma.  Because half of the battle is starting with a good recipe.  I was never a fan of pumpkin pie until I tried this one.  Thank you Sue!

Pumpkin Pie
1 unbaked pie shell
3/4 cups granulated sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
2 eggs
1 12 oz can evaporated (Not condensed) milk
1 15 oz can solid pumpkin pack (Not Pumpkin Pie Mix)

Prepare your pie crust in a 9" pie pan, shaping and pricking the sides and bottom.  

Combine the sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves in a bowl.  Beat eggs lightly in a large bowl (I use my Kitchen Aid).  Stir in the pumpkin and sugar spice mixture.  Gradually stir in evaporated milk  (I use my whisk attachment and pour in a slow continuous stream) until evenly incorporated.  

Carefully pour into pie shell.  Bake in a preheated 425 F oven for 15 minutes, then reduce temperature to 350 F and bake with a pie ring or covering the crust with foil for 50-60 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean.  

Cool on a wire rack for 2 hours.

Pumpkin Pie

1 unbaked pie shell
3/4 cups granulated sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
2 eggs
1 12 oz can evaporated (Not condensed) milk
1 15 oz can solid pumpkin pack (Not Pumpkin Pie Mix)

Prepare your pie crust in a 9" pie pan, shaping and pricking the sides and bottom.  Combine the sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves in a bowl.  Beat eggs lightly in a large bowl (I use my Kitchen Aid).  Stir in the pumpkin and sugar spice mixture.  Gradually stir in evaporated milk  (I use my whisk attachment and pour in a slow continuous stream) until evenly incorporated.  Carefully pour into pie shell.  Bake in a preheated 425 F oven for 15 minutes, then reduce temperature to 350 F and bake for 50-60 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean.  Cool on a wire rack for 2 hours.

Chunky Clam Chowder

I love Fall and Winter.  The air is cool and crisp and there is nothing better than homemade bread and a nice bowl of soup.  This is my Mother-in-law's recipe.  It is simple and wonderful.  With big chunks of fresh vegetables so there is no guessing what is going in your mouth.

Clam Chowder
1/2 cup butter or margarine
2 cans chopped clams
1 cup diced onion
1 cup chopped celery
1 large carrot peeled, cut in half, and sliced (optional)
2 cups chopped potatoes (I use russets because they are nice and starchy and will help thicken the soup)
1/2 cup flour
4 cups milk (I use 2 cups half and half, 2 cups milk)
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
fresh ground pepper to taste

Drain the clams reserving the juice.  Cut the vegetables adding to a pan.  Add in the clam juice with the vegetables and enough water to completely cover by 1/4 inch.  (Don't add too much water or else the soup will be runny)  Bring to a boil and cook the vegetables.  Rinse the clams well to remove any grit.

Meanwhile in a heavy stock pot.  Melt the butter and add the flour stirring for a minute or so to get rid of the raw flour taste.  Stir and add the milk and cook until thick and bubbly.  Add the clams to the milk and then dump in the vegetables water and all.  Stir and mix until it is all incorporated evenly.  Bring to a boil again and then let rest until serving temperature.

Allow to cool completely before covering and placing in the refrigerator.  This soup tastes even better the next day!

Baby Girl Purple Stripe Ruffle Crib Quilt

Baby Girl Purple Stripe Ruffle Crib Quilt

I used 4" width of Fabric Strips to make the quilt top

A: Dark purple, 6 strips

B: Light purple, 4 strips

C: Butterflies, 3 strips

D: Flannel purple flowers, 2 strips

Cut out the strips.  Then I laid them out on the floor in the order I wanted to sew them together.  Using a 1/4 inch seam I sewed all the strips together in order making sure to have the right side face up.  Instead of using the normal setting on my machine for the straight stitch I kept the width the normal setting and used the longest setting available on my machine it was a 4.

I flipped to top upside down and then holding on to one of the strings pulled and bunched up the fabric.  It will take awhile to bunch and slide the fabric down the length of all the strips.  After I bunched them all I made a rectangle keeping both short sides the same and the long sides the same.  Mine ended up being 36" by 42".

After I had the size of the rectangle I cut the piece of Dark Purple for the back in the 36 1/4"x 42 1/4" size giving myself some wiggle room.  Then I pinned on my binding with the raw edges lining up with the raw edges on the side of the top, so the folded edge faced in.  On the corners I made two folds, turning it and pining it in place so it would make a ruffly corner when I sewed it.  Where the edges met, I opened up the binding placed a pin where they would meet and sewed a straight stitch so the excess would be on the inside afterward.  Then I pinned that part of the strip down so it was all one long piece of binding.

Then I assembled my quilt sandwich.  This time a little different than normal.  Batting first.  Then Quilt top and Binding facing up, then on top of that place the backing right side facing down (so when you turn it inside out the right side will face out.  Then pin in place.

Sew around the edges leaving a 6" or so opening along the side so that you can flip your quilt right side out.

Once you have it turned the right way, pin your hole closed making sure that your binding is in the middle, and I quilted in the ditch along each of the stripes.  After I did that I used a zig zag stitch to go around the entire perimeter of the quilt to give it a finished look, some stability, and seal the hole left from turning it right side out.

There you go, a fun textured, little girl ruffle quilt.

Shimp Sweet and Sour Stir Fry

We are trying to incorporate more lean proteins in our diet and my boys love shrimp, so this was dinner for the day!

Shrimp Sweet and Sour Stir Fry

• 1 bag medium (41-60 piece) frozen shrimp because that is what I had on hand, definitely use fresh if you have it, thawed
• Cooked Rice (Or cook while you are preparing)
• 1 zucchini, cut in half and sliced
• 1 summer squash, cut in half and sliced
• 1/2 onion, peeled, cut in half and sliced
• 1/2-1 green or red pepper, seeded and sliced
• 3 or 4 mushrooms, I remove the stems and slice
• 1 large carrot, peeled and sliced
• ginger
• garlic
• salt and pepper
• lemon juice
• 1 recipe Thai Sweet and Sour Sauce

Prepare the vegetables and the sauce.  Bring a wok to heat drizzle with a little oil add onion and peppers, garlic and ginger and stir for a few minutes.  Add the remaining vegetables salt and pepper to taste and stir fry until the vegetables until crisp tender.  Remove to a serving dish.  

Add a little more oil to the wok add the shrimp. Season with a little salt and pepper and drizzle with lemon juice.  They are already cooked so you just need to heat them up it should only take about 3 minutes or so.  You can add the sauce to the shrimp now to glaze really quick before removing to a bowl or serve on the side.

Plate with rice, the vegetables and shrimp drizzled with the sauce all over.

Thai Sweet and Sour Sauce

I love a good sweet and sour sauce but it seems like they are always so heavy.  I adapted this from a recipe I found on All Recipes a while back and I don't have the name of the person who posted it I'm sorry, but it is a keeper!

Thai Sweet and Sour Sauce

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1/2 cup sugar (or to taste)
1 tsp fresh ginger (1/4 tsp ground ginger)
1 clove garlic pressed
1 tsp hot pepper flakes (this is pretty spicy if you like it mild start with 1/4 tsp and work your way up)
1 tsp ketchup
1 tsp corn starch

Reserve 1 Tbsp of cold water and mix in the corn starch to make a slurry.

Pour the water and vinegar in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil.  Add the sugar, ginger, garlic, pepper flakes, and ketchup.  Simmer 5 minutes.  Stir in cornstarch heat for another minute or so then remove from the heat.

Store leftovers in the refrigerator.

Baby Boy Crib Rag Blanket

For my project I wanted to do something fairly quick but something I hadn't done before so I thought I would make a strip rag quilt.  I've seen them and they look super cute and I figured they couldn't be too difficult.  This is the one I did.

To start I washed, dried, and cut my fabric into 4 inch strips that were the width of the fabric because I was lazy and didn't want to cut them all to be exactly the same width, you can definitely do that :).  I had 13 strips in all. 5 of pattern A, 4 of pattern B, and 4 of pattern C.

I set my machine to sew on the left hand side of the presser foot and then followed a 1/2 inch seam so I would have plenty of fabric to cut.  Instead of having the excess fabric be on the back side of the quilt you want it on the quilt top, so when you line up your fabric align it so that the fabric will be on the top and that any patterned fabric is going in the same direction.  Sew your strips together, alternating fabrics A, B, and C.

You can pin your fabric together, I was being lazy and it was straight lines so I just held it with my fingers and watched to make sure that it stayed where I wanted it while I sewed.

 

Once your top is together make your quilt sandwich.  Backing if there is a pattern make sure it is facing down, batting, then the top facing up. Then smooth out any wrinkles and pin in place.

I was lazy so I used straight pins but safety pins are better so you don't stab your self while you roll and quilt your blanket.

I stitched in the ditch on my seam lines for this quilt making a striped pattern on the back.  Then I did sewed around the 4 sides of the quilt to hold everything in place.  I was originally going to make a rag border but then decided I wanted a nicer finished edge.  So if you were planning ahead you could pin and sew your binding now instead of having to do it later.

Then I trimmed up the edges using a rotary cutter and mat, and using a pair of really sharp scissors snipped little tags in the excess seam fabric making sure not to go all the way to the thread.

When I realized I didn't want the rag border I thought about how my little ones loved different textures so I thought something silky would be great.  I chose a satin binding I found at JoAnn's it was the perfect size for this quilt.

I pined one side leaving about 4-5 inches free before sewing and then sewed along mitering the corners then pined and sewed the next side. 

I left about a 4 inch portion unsewed where the two pieces would join.  Then I folded each piece over and placed a pin where the two met.  I used a simple straight stitch and sewed where the pin was and trimmed off the excess binding.  then when I sewed along that part of the border it was a single piece.

I trimmed off the excess fabric  (again if you planned ahead you wouldn't need to trim twice, I just changed my mind half way through...) so that when I pulled the satin up and over it lined up the same distance from the edge as the other side.  I changed to a blue matching thread and used a zig zag stitch to attach the border to the front side of the quilt.

Voila.  Completed fun baby boy crib quilt.

Aebleskiver's

I was first introduced to these delightful little Danish Balls when I lived in Spokane.  There was a great little European Breakfast place that we loved which had these on the menu.  A few years ago I stumbled across the pan for them at a Lodge Outlet in North Carolina and have tried a few recipes.  This is my husbands favorite one.  I think they are supposed to be a dessert, but they are a fabulous breakfast.

These are a little tricky to get right the first time, but after a few batches it gets easier!

Aebleskiver Pan

Print Recipe

Aebleskiver's

2 egg whites
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 Tbsp white sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 egg yolks
4 Tbsp butter, melted
2 cups buttermilk
1 cup vegetable oil (I use nonstick cooking spray) for frying

1. In a clean glass or metal bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until they can hold a stiff peak.  Set aside. Preheat your pan over medium heat on a large burner.  (Depending on how your stove cooks you may need to increase to medium high)

2. Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, sugar, egg yolks, melted butter, and buttermilk at one time and mix until smooth.  Gently fold in the egg whites last.

3.  If using oil put about a Tbsp in the bottom of each aebleskiver pan cup or spray with non-stick spray.  Pour in a heaping 2 Tbsp of the batter in each cup.  It should be almost to the very top of the cup if it is too low they won't be nice pretty balls.  When they start to bubble around the edges use a fork, toothpick, or wooden skewer to turn about a quarter turn.  Place the skewer right down the side of the cup and pull upward turning the ball and allowing the batter to run down into the pan forming the next part of the ball.  Your skewer will get gooey.  Continue cooking, turning the ball to keep it from burning until done.  Spray each cup again before starting another batch.

We like to cut up apples or pears into very small dices and add to the batter.  It takes a little longer to cook, but the addition is fantastic!  You could add cinnamon or other spices to your taste.  The runnier the fruit the longer it will take to cook.

These are wonderful sprinkled with powdered sugar.  My boys love to dip them in syrup, and my husband likes them with jam.

The original recipe comes from Allrecipes.com:
Aebleskiver by Lisa G.