Blackberry Pie

I love pies. I think I learned to love them so much because of my grandpa. I can remember that he always had pie for his birthday instead of cake. One time, we were all over at his house celebrating his birthday and my grandma was serving pie. She set a piece down between me and my grandpa and I started eating away. After I was about half way done with the piece, my grandma tried to hand me my piece of pie... I had accidentally taken the slice that was meant for my grandpa. I was so embarrassed. But I think it was the start of a beautiful love affair I have with pies.

Since I have been married, I have always tried to find great little pie shops so I can indulge my cravings every now and then. Since we have lived in Indiana, I have not been able to find a great pie shop. So after many months of not having great pies to eat, I decided that it was high time I learned how to make my own pies.

This past week I have been making pies like crazy. The first pie I made was a lemon meringue pie. Of course I would try to tackle one of the harder pies first. Needless to say, it didn't come out as wonderfully as my second pie attempt. Watch for a post on my lemon meringue fiascoes later on. The second pie I made was blackberry pie. I was able to get some perfectly sweet blackberries at the farmers market and I knew I wanted to try to make a pie with them. I had once long ago made a blackberry pie because I was assigned a pie for a potluck I was invited to. The flavor of it was good, but it was extremely runny. I didn't attempt a berry pie again until now. That was about 10 years ago!

When I made this pie I decided to use the same recipe I used 10 years ago, but I added some extra corn starch to help thicken it up. Here is the recipe for a 9" deep dish pie.

What you will need:

1 recipe for pie crust (recipe to follow)

1 1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp. salt
4 cups blackberries
2 tlbs. cornstarch

What you do:

Make crust according to directions below. Put one crust in the bottom of a deep dish pie plate. Combine the sugar, flour, salt and cornstarch. Pour over blackberries. Toss gently to coat. Place remaining crust over top cutting slits to vent. Bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes with foil covering the outer crust to prevent it from getting to dark. Remove foil and cook another 25-30 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.

I sliced into the pie before it was all the way cool and found that the sauce was slightly runny still, but not nearly as runny as the first time I made it. Once all the way cool, the sauce wasn't runny at all.

Pie Crust (Double Crust Recipe)

I just used the recipe found in my better homes and gardens cookbook. I know that there are fabulous pie crust recipes out there. I am sure that once I get the hang of making pie crust I will want to venture out and try all sorts of new amazing crust recipes. Until then, this one was pretty darn good.

What you will need:

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp. salt

2/3 cup shortening

6 to 7 tablespoons ice water

What you do:

Measure the shortening and then place it in the freezer to firm up as much as possible. Stir together the flour and salt with a whisk. Add the cold shortening to the flour using a pastry blender until the shortening pieces are pea sized. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of ice cold water over the mixture and toss with a fork. Move the moistened dough over to the side of the bowl. Repeat with more water until all the dough is moist. Try to use as little water as possible. You only want enough to just keep the dough to stick together in a ball. Don't let the dough get soggy.

Put the dough wrapped in plastic wrap in the fridge for about 20 minutes to let the flour hydrate and to keep the shortening cold. Keeping all the ingredients as cold as possible is the secret to a light flaky crust.

After refrigeration, divide dough in half and roll out to a 12" circle. Place on bottom of pie plate by folding dough in half over rolling pin and laying it gently on pie plate. Be careful not to stretch the dough. Fill pie dish with filling. Roll out remaining dough, cut slits, place on top of pie filling. Tuck edges under and crimp to make a decorative edge. Bake according to pie directions.

Chocolate Bundt Cake

This is one of the most moist, gooey chocolate cakes I have ever had. I can't begin to tell you how yummy it is. I found this recipe on one of my favorite food blogs My Kitchen Cafe and instantly had to try it. I am sorry the picture isn't the greatest. Maybe someday I will buy one of those fancy cake dishes, but until then I just use a Tupperware bowl and put the cake on the lid and the bowl over the top to keep it from drying out. That is the lovely green bottom you see in the picture. I know I will be making this cake again so, I will try to get a more fabulous picture up soon. Until then, make this recipe for yourself and see how happy you will be when you are done, and how much more you will weigh... but we won't think about that part now will we?

What you will need:

1 devils food cake mix
1 4-serving instant chocolate pudding mix
4 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

What you do:

Place all ingredients except chocolate chips in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer for 1 minute. Stir down sides. Continue to mix on medium speed for 2-3 minutes. Stir in chocolate chips. Pour batter into a greased and floured bundt pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes. Cool 20 minutes and then invert onto a cooling rack. Dust with powdered sugar after completely cooled. Store in an airtight container.

Grandma Thorn's Cinnamon Rolls

Growing up I ate lots of yummy baked goods made by my Grandma Thorn. I always took them for granted because I had never had yucky baked goods. Now that my grandma has passed and I don't live by my aunt who inherited the great baking gene from her mom, I miss the yummy goodness that I grew up with. After trying multiple recipes for cinnamon rolls and hating all of them, I had almost given up making cinnamon rolls thinking that I just didn't have the knack for it. Then, last week I was making my grandma's bread recipe and was really getting caught up in nostalgia and remembered that my grandma made great cinnamon rolls. Then I remembered that my aunt made those same great cinnamon rolls, so I called her for the recipe. It ended up being easier than I thought it would be and they turned out so good. Next time I will cook them a little less time because my husband said he liked his a little gooier. One thing I learned when talking to my aunt is that there are two basic kinds of cinnamon roll recipes out there. One is with a regular bread dough and one is with a sweet bread dough. I realized that all the recipes that I had tried and they just didn't taste sweet enough for me were made with regular bread dough and my grandma's is with a sweet bread dough. So, without further adieu here is the recipe.

What you will need:

1/4 cup warm water

2 tsp. yeast

1 cup milk

1/4 cup shortening

2 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp. salt

enough flour to make a soft dough

Here is what you do:

Mix the warm water and yeast in a small bowl and set aside. Scald the milk and shortening in a saucepan. In the main bowl you will mix in, mix the eggs, sugar and salt. Add the milk, then add about 2 cups of flour. Add the yeast, water mixture. Continue to add flour until a soft dough forms.

Let the dough raise in a lightly coverd bowl until double in size. Roll the dough into a rectangle. Add melted butter to cover the entire rectangle of dough. Next sprinkle cinnamon over the dough and also sugar. I used brown sugar for extra goodness. I also put a thin coating of butter on the bottome of my 9x13 pan.

Roll the dough width wise making sure to keep the dough tightly rolled. Slice the dough into slices as thick as you would like. I got 12 rolls out of this recipe and they were big rolls!

Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. Glaze with your favorite icing. I tried a cream cheese icing and my family gave it two thumbs down. Next time I will use just the standard powdered sugar icing.

Warm Lemon Cake

If you are not signed up to get the free Kraft recipe book that gets mailed out each quarter, I highly recommend that you do. All you need to do is go to the kraft food website and sign up to get the free Food & Family recipe book. This recipe comes from that book, the winter 2007 edition.

What you will need:

1 pkg. yellow cake mix
2 cups cold milk
1 1/4 cups water
2 pkg. lemon flavor instant pudding
1/3 cup sugar
2 tbsp. powdered sugar
2 tbsp. lemon juice, optional (I used it and added to the pudding)

What you do:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare cake batter as directed on package. Pour into greased 9x13 baking dish; set aside.

Pour milk and water into large bowl. Add dry pudding mixes and granulated sugar. Beat with wire whisk 2 min. or until well blended. Pour over batter. (this can be tricky as the pudding wants to sink, try dropping spoonfuls randomly all over the batter if pouring doesn't work.) Place baking dish on baking sheet to catch any sauce that might bubble over side of dish as dessert bakes.

Bake 55 min. to 1 hour or until wooden toothpick inserted in center of cake commes out clean. The pudding magically goes to the bottom during cooking time! Cool 20 min. (Sauce will thicken slightly as it cools) Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Spoon into serving dishes to serve warm. Store leftovers in refrigerator.

*I made this for my daughter, Becca's birthday. It was a huge hit. If you love warm pudding and love lemon, this is a must have recipe!! The thing I love about it is, no frosting! (I am not a frosting fan :P )*

Peanut Butter Rice Krispy Treats

This is not your typical rice krispy treat recipe. Most people call this by a different name, but this is the rice krispy treat recipe that I grew up with.

What you do

Bring to a boil:
1 cup Karo syrup
1 cup sugar

Remove from heat and add:
1 cup peanut butter

Stir until well mixed and add:
6 cups Rice Krispys
Stir until coated. Press into a bar pan.

Frosting:
1 cup butterscotch chips
1 cup milk chocolate chips

Melt together and spread on rice krispys.

Applesauce Cookies

This is the cookie recipe that my mom made when I was growing up. So yummy!!

What you will need to do

Mix and set aside:

2 cups applesauce
2 tsp baking soda

Cream:

1 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
3 eggs

Add:

4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
Applesauce and soda mixture
1 tsp each cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg

Mix and add:

1 cup rolled oats (I usually add a little more)
1 bag chocolate chips
OR
Raisens or nuts

Drop by spoonful on cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I got this recipe from my sister-in-law, KayLynn. At the time she gave it to me, I had no clue that it was the best chocolate chip cookie recipe in the world!! Hope you enjoy.

What you will need:

2/3 cup shortening
2/3 cup margarine
2 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
3 1/2 cups flour
2 cups chocolate chips

Mix margarine, shortening and sugar in a mixer until creamy. Add eggs and mix well. Add salt, baking soda and vanilla until incorporated. Add flour, one cup at a time until well mixed. Add chocolate chips. Spoon onto cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Remove from oven just before center is set. Let finish cooking on cookie sheet for 2-3 minutes before moving to a cooling rack.

Yogurt Salad

Here is what you will need:

1 large container of your favorite flavor yogurt (we use raspberry)
1 container of cool whip
1 bag frozen raspberries slightly thawed (or fruit to match yogurt flavor)

Mix full container of cool whip and enough yogurt to your liking (I usually use 3/4 to full container) Add raspberries and stir to let the dark red juice leave streaks in yogurt mix.

*Some people put this in a graham cracker crust and freeze it to make a pie.
**If you are on a budget, omit the frozen raspberries... we do all the time and it is still yummy