Recipes Discovered

All In One Holiday Cake Recipe

The holidays are all about sharing and giving, and a lot of people have been asking me for my Thanksgiving recipes. On the menu this year, besides the normal roasted turkey with stuffing, and the not so normal deep fried turkey, was macaroni and cheese, sweet potato casserole, candied yams, green bean casserole, creamed corn, and cranberry jello salad. To keep everyone happy (and quiet) until dinner was served, I made a bacon ranch cheese ball and a pumpkin cream cheese dip, which was really great with pretzels. For dessert, there was pumpkin pie, all in one holiday cake (pumpkin, cranberry, apple, and pecans), and brownies. Of course, with all the food we had, Seth and I have a refrigerator full of leftovers. I’ve come up with some interesting uses for them though, including potato pancakes, turkey cranberry sandwiches, sweet potato and black bean chili, shepherds pie, and a macaroni and cheese concoction that I don’t even know what to name. Thanksgiving was a lot of fun and hopefully there are a lot more recipes to come during the holidays.

Pumpkin Pie Recipe

Never Fail Pie Crust Recipe

My mom, whether she admits to it or not, is an expert pie maker. She makes every type of pie imaginable, but on Thanksgiving, she always makes a pumpkin pie. Since I was making other desserts, I told her I would try my hand at making the pumpkin pie this year.

First was the pie crust. She uses a recipe titled Never Fail Pie Crust for all of her pie crust, which I hoped to be true because I have never been very good at rolling dough out. To make the crust, I combined flour and salt in a bowl and then worked in shortening with my fingers until it looked like coarse crumbs. After that, I added enough cold water to get the dough to hold together. Since I cut the recipe in half, I added 3 tablespoons of water. >> Read more

Peach Pie Recipe

Seth’s favorite cookie may be these Chocolate Surprise Cookies, but I know his favorite pie is definitely a fresh peach pie. This pie can only be made with fresh, ripe peaches, so there are only a few weeks in the summer that it can be made, but it is a delicious treat.
The pie is fairly simple and the hardest part is actually getting the peaches ready. I peeled, pitted, and sliced five large peaches to make a 9-inch pie. An easy trick to peeling peaches is to pour boiling water over whole peaches for a couple seconds and then run cold water over them. The skin should peel right off. I usually sprinkle the peaches with a little fruit fresh to keep them from discoloring. >> Read more

Pecan Pie Recipe

Shoo Fly Pie Recipe

My dad loved desserts, so for Father’s Day, I wanted to make him a pie. He couldn’t decide what his favorite pie was though, so I ended up making both a Pecan Pie and a Shoo Fly Pie. I had never made either of these pies before, which probably should have concerned me, but I wanted to make something impressive for my Dad. Impressive is one way to describe it.

I’ll start with the pecan pie, since that was the less adventurous of the two. I love pecan pie and it’s actually a fairly simple pie to make. I just mixed corn syrup, sugar, eggs, butter, salt, and vanilla together and poured it over an unbaked pie shell lined with pecans. The recipe said it should bake 45 to 50 minutes, but mine took well over an hour - probably close to an hour and 15 minutes. It turned out beautifully though. The pecans rose to the top and were nice and golden, and beneath was a gooey layer of carmely goodness. It was luscious and sweet, the essence of what Pecan Pie is supposed to be. >> Read more

Key Lime Pie Recipe

Marshmallow Icing Recipe

Seth and I recently ate at a restaurant that served Key Lime Pie for dessert. This is no surprise, considering we are in Key West, but this Key Lime Pie had a marshmallow topping. I’ve had a lot of Key Lime Pie with everything from meringue to chocolate to raspberries on top, but never marshmallow. Seth said it was the best Key Lime Pie ever and insisted I figure out how to imitate the marshmallow topping. This was a bit tricky, but I think I finally found a pretty good solution.

First the Key Lime Pie, which I think has to be the easiest pie ever, except maybe a pudding pie. Beat together sweetened condensed milk, egg yolks, and Key Lime juice until it’s smooth and pour into a graham cracker crust. I also added the zest of one lime to give it a fresh taste. Bake the pie for 15 minutes and then chill in the refrigerator for a couple hours. >> Read more