Sweet Potato Pie

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 2/3 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Pinch of salt
1 cup mashed sweet potatoes
2 large eggs
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup evaporated milk
1 (9-inch) unbaked pastry shell

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a small bowl, combine the flour, sugar, nutmeg, and salt.
In a large bowl, beat the potatoes, eggs, corn syrup, butter and sugar mixture. Gradually stir in milk. Pour into pastry shell.
Bake for 55-60 minutes.
Cool on a wire rack for 1 hour.
Refrigerate for at least 3 hours before serving.
Refrigerate leftovers.

Source: Recipe Goldmine

Monster Meatloaf for Halloween

Halloween 2016

This has quickly become our Halloween dinner tradition. You can use any meatloaf recipe you wish, but make it slightly more soft to make it easier to sculpt. You can do this by adding a bit more liquid in the form of an extra egg or additional ketchup or barbecue sauce or even milk. I used this recipe this year, from Fabulessly Frugal but the kids thought the texture was too soft, so I will add a bit less barbecue sauce or egg next year.

Basic BBQ Meatloaf Recipe

3/4 cup BBQ Sauce
1 pound of ground Beef/Turkey
1/2 cup Italian flavored bread crumbs
1 Egg
Salt & Pepper

Or, maybe I will try this recipe from The Food Network (which I slightly modified): 

Brown Sugar Ketchup Glaze

1/4 cup ketchup or chili sauce
2 tablespoons light or dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons cider or white vinegar

Mix all ingredients in a small bowl; set aside.

Meatloaf

• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black paper
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 2 teaspoons Worchestershire sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon hot red pepper sauce
• 1/2 up milk, buttermilk or low-fat plain yogurt
• 2 pounds meat-loaf mix (2 parts ground chuck, 1 part ground veal, 1 part ground pork)
• 2/3 cups crushed saltine crackers (about 16) or quick oatmeal or 1 1/3 cups fresh bread crumbs
• 1/3 cup minced parsley
• 6 ounces bacon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Heat oil in a medium skillet. Add onion and garlic, saute until softened, about 5 minutes; set aside to cool.

Mix eggs with thyme, salt, pepper, mustard, Worchestershire, pepper sauce, and milk or yogurt. Add egg mixture to meat in a large bowl, along with crackers, oatmeal or bread crumbs, parsley and cook onions and garlic; mix with a fork until evenly blended and meat mixture does not stick to bowl. (If mixture does stick, add additional milk, a couple tablespoons at a time, and continue stirring until mixture stops sticking.)

Turn meat mixture onto a work surface. With wet hands, pat mixture into desired shaped meatloaf. Brush loaf with all of glaze, then arrange bacon slices around the meatloaf, crosswise, over loaf, overlapping them slightly and tucking them under to prevent curling.

Bake loaf until bacon is crisp and loaf registers 160 degrees, about 1 hour. Cool for at least 20 minutes. Slice and serve

Halloween 2017

The general instructions for making your meatloaf into a monster meatloaf is to sculpt the meatloaf into a skull shape. Cut an onion into vaguely tooth shaped pieces and place in the mouth area of your monster meatloaf. If you wish to make your eyes like the meatloaf above, you will need a hard-boiled egg. Cut it in half and place into the eye socket that you have made into the meatloaf flat side down. Carefully carve out a round hole in the center of each eye egg so that it will fit a green olive, which you place so that the pimiento can form the pupil. Wrap bacon around the exposed areas of the meatloaf. Bake as your meatloaf recipe says, or until the bacon crisps.

It goes fast!

Recipes for October

Pumpkin Pancakes with Black Cinnamon Syrup for Halloween

This recipe comes from Not Martha and they are SO good. The cinnamon syrup is good too and goes so well with the pancakes. My kids love drawing with the syrup. I couldn't make them fast enough.

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
1-3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup butter, melted (1 stick)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
orange food coloring gel

In a large bowl, flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger.
In a medium bowl, lightly beat egg yolk with a fork. Add egg, milk, pumpkin puree and vanilla; mix well. Add melted butter. If the butter is hot, add it slowly or you will cook your egg yolk. Add a bit of the orange food coloring to the wet mixture at this point. Add more until it's about as orange as you can stand. Stir this mixture into dry ingredients, just until combined.
Heat a griddle or large skillet over medium heat and grease lightly with vegetable oil. For each pancake, spoon about 1/4 cup batter onto the hot griddle. Cook until bubbles appear on the surface and the edges look dry. Turn over and cook until golden brown. The pancakes are delicate so stick to making small or medium sized pancakes.

Black Cinnamon Syrup

1/2 cup granulated white sugar
1/2 brown sugar
2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup water
black food coloring gel

In a saucepan combine white sugar, brown sugar, all-purpose flour and cinnamon. Stir dry ingredients together. Add vanilla extract and water. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Be really careful while boiling sugar, keep a bowl of ice water nearby just in case. As it heats squirt in a little of the black food coloring and mix in, add more until it's as dark as can be. It doesn't take much. Allow to boil for a few moments until the mixture has noticeably thickened. Remove from heat and allow to cool enough to put into a squirt bottle (of the ketchup style). You can make it the night before and warm it by dipping the squeeze bottle in a bowl of warm water. You might also have your pancake eaters create their own designs.
Decorate the pancakes with the syrup. Spiders, spider webs and bats work out well. You might also have your pancake eaters create their own designs.

Easy Witch Hat Treats

These easy treats are made from Keebler Fudge stripe cookies (turned upside down), Hershey Kisses attached with orange icing.

Idea from Explore, Dream, Discover.

Spider Web Snacks

pret­zel sticks
white chocolate/bark candy coating
choco­late (baker’s, candy coat­ing, or chips would prob­a­bly all work)
raisins
bag­gie or pas­try bag
wax paper

Lay out your pret­zels on the wax paper in “star­burst” arrange­ments of 6-8 pret­zels. After melt­ing your white chocolate bark coat­ing, pastry bag (or place in a bag­gie and cut the cor­ner off). Start pip­ing your white choco­late in the mid­dle of the pret­zel arrange­ment, mak­ing sure to coat all the pretzels.

Con­tinue pip­ing out­ward around the pret­zels...

until you have a web.

Coat raisins with melted reg­u­lar choco­late. Place in web on a stable place such as in the middle. Sprinkle with candy sprinkles, if you wish.  Let harden or place in the fridge for a few min­utes until the choco­late is hard.

Then, gen­tly peel back the wax paper.…and eat!

Spider Web Cupcakes

This idea comes from Mom Endeavors.

Some plastic spiders would be perfect with these!

Cupcakes

White Frosting

Decorating gel (I used Wilton's Sparkle Gel in black)

Toothpick

Frost your cupcakes with the icing.

Using your decorating gel, draw three or four concentric circles on the top of your cupcake. They do not have to be perfect.

Drag the end of a toothpick from the center to the edge of the cupcake, about six times around the circle. This will create a web effect.

Olive Bat Open-Faced Sandwiches

photo from Fowl Single File

Make any sandwich you would like.

Cut a crescent out of a piece of cheddar cheese.

OR

Use a small cup to cut a circle out of a piece of cheddar cheese.

Cut sliced olives in half for the bats.

Arrange on top of sandwich and serve.

This idea comes from Fowl Single File and Little Nummies. 

Jack O' Lantern Quesadillas

Just a sharp knife to cut out the jack o' lantern shapes turns a regular quesadilla into a Halloween lunch or snack. This idea comes from Monster Mama.

Soul Cakes for All Soul's Day

During the Middle Ages in England, on the night before All Saints Day, or Hallowmas, peasants and children called "soulers" would go about town singing and praying for the souls of the dead. They would stop at homes and beg for a "soul cake" and promise in return to pray for the household's deceased family members to be released from purgatory. If homeowners did not give out cakes it was believed their home would be cursed. And this my friends is thought to be the origination of trick or treating. There are many recipes for soul cakes from a small round cake to a doughnut shaped treat.

Soul, Soul, a soul cake!

I pray thee, good missus, a soul cake!

One for Peter, two for Paul,

three for Him what made us all!

Soul Cake, soul cake, please good missus, a soul cake.

An apple, a pear, a plum, or a cherry, any good thing to make us all merry.

One for Peter, two for Paul, and three for Him who made us all.

1 cup butter
3 3/4 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon allspice
2 eggs
2 teaspoons cider vinegar
6 tablespoons milk
powdered sugar, to sprinkle on top

Using a pastry blender cut 1 c. of butter into 3 3/4 cups of flour. Blend the sugar, nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon and allspice into the flour-butter mixture. In a separate bowl beat eggs, vinegar and milk together.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix. Kneed thoroughly to form a stiff dough. You really have to work this dough, I thought there was no way it was moist enough, but once I mashed it all up it was just right. Roll out to a 1/4 inch thickness and cut out 3 inch circles with a cookie cutter or glass. Place on a baking sheet and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Sprinkle with powdered sugar while still warm. I added sugar skulls to them.
This recipe is from Catholic Cuisine.

Jack 'O Lantern Snacks

These cute Jack-o-Lantern Toasts are fun and easy to make. The first step is to take a piece of bread and using a cookie cutter cut out a pumpkin shape.

You can just cut it out with a knife, but a cookie cutter is a lot easier.
Take your pumpkin-shaped bread and toast it.

Meanwhile color cream cheese orange with some food coloring.
Spread the cream cheese on the toast to cover.

We used candy corn, chocolate chips and raisins to make faces on our Jack-o-lanterns.
You could use other candies instead.

Indian Corn Rice Crispy Treats

Follow the directions on the back of the Rice Krispie box. Once you get to the point that the Rice Krispies are well coated, stir in about 2 cups of candy corn. Use wax paper to press down evenly into a 9x13 pan. This idea comes from my kind of crafts.

This recipe is from Cooking with My Kid and is a very tasty variation of the typical roasted pumpkin seeds.

Caramelized Pumpkin Seeds

1 1/2 to 2 cups fresh pumpkin seeds (cleaned and patted dry)
2 to 3 tablespoons brown sugar
pinch of kosher salt
olive oil cooking spray

Place pumpkin seeds in a dry non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Toast them in the pan, constantly shifting them around so that they roast evenly and don’t stick to the pan. When they start to pop and peel, take one out and taste it. Be careful...make sure it’s cool enough first. If it’s crunchy it’s done. Turn the heat down to low and spray the seeds with olive oil cooking spray and then spoon sugar into pan and stir seeds up as sugar melts and sticks to the seeds. Turn heat off and sprinkle with salt. Let cool and serve!

Fall Cupcakes or My Adventures in the Kitchen

from Bake It In a Cake

I saw these Fall Cupcakes and thought of my daughter who loves apples and cinnamon and all that is fall. I realized that I am always making the boys treats, but I never make my sweet daughter treats because she is a better cook than I am. She is capable of making her own recipe magic in the kitchen and enjoys doing so. So I figure whenever she wants something, she can just whip it up. But I realized that I was somewhat missing the point. Everyone wants to be thought of. Everyone wants someone to surprise them. Everyone wants a treat just for them every once in a while.

So, back to the Fall cupcake that was just perfect for Katie. I was so excited with the idea, I was like a kid at Christmastime...I couldn't wait to say, "I have a little surprise treat coming up just for YOU." This, of course, thrilled her. I was happy with our shared anticipation.

I had a gluten-free Betty Crocker yellow cake mix, some gluten and casein free icing, and some glazed pecans, so all I needed was some apple butter!

Last week Katie did the grocery shopping, so I added apple butter to the shopping list without telling her what I wanted it for. Wouldn't you know that this item was the ONLY thing she forgot to pick up...just missed it on the list?

So, the surprise had to wait for another week. Another week on anticipation for the both of us.

Finally, I purchased some this week. Now I was ready.

I got the cupcake tins ready with the wrappers and went to the cabinet for the cake mix...where is that cake mix? Twenty minutes later, and after searching the entire kitchen, I realized that I was mistaken and I didn't have a cake mix. Katie, being the good cook that she is, often cooks gluten and casein free without mixes, but I find it so difficult and tedious that I don't do it much anymore.

But I wanted to complete this surprise.

So, I did an Internet search and found a list of recipes, but they all called for something or the other that we didn't have. Then I came across the gluten-free Bisquick mix. No cake recipe on the package, save a shortcake biscuit...not exactly what I was looking for. Scanning the ingredients, it looked like a similar list to the recipe....who knew the proportions...but I was determined I was going to do this today, so I subbed the flour and the list of unusual ingredients (xanthan gum and the like) and used the Bisquick.

Now, back to the recipe...

Cream butter and sugar.

Okay, use Buttery Sticks instead of butter....hmmm....WHAT! No sugar??? After another thorough search all I could find was a tiny bit of sugar, some brown sugar and powdered sugar.

Well, perhaps I would change the cake part to a slightly brown spicy "yellow" cake instead?

I used the brown sugar, and added a teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice mix.

I mixed it all up and added a bit to each cupcake cup, dabbed in some apple butter and added another heaping spoonful of cake batter on top.

The recipe I was working from was a cake recipe, not a cupcake recipe, so I had to keep my eye on the cupcakes and cooked it for a different length of time.

But they came out looking pretty good, all things considered.

Frosted them with white icing, topped it with the sugared pecans and sprinkled on some cinnamon...and presented it to my precious daughter for a taste test.

She pronounced them delicious and hugged my dearly.

It was all so worth it.

I then told her my story and we laughed and hugged and she felt very loved.

Which she is, of course.

And in case you wanted the final recipe...

Gluten and Casein-free Fall Cupcakes

1/2 cup Earth Balance buttery sticks

1/2 cup sugar
1cup brown sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. Pumpkin Pie spice
2 1/4 c. gluten-free Bisquick mix
1 cup  Dairy-free or other casein-free milk
white icing
apple butter
glazed pecan pieces
cinnamon

Put cupcake liners in cupcake tins. With a mixer, cream together the buttery sticks and sugars. Add the eggs, vanilla and pumpkin pie spice and mix well. Alternate adding Bisquick and the Dairy-free, a little at a time. Fill each cupcake liner with a little less than half. Put about a tablespoon of apple butter on top. Top with more batter, until the apple butter is covered with batter. Bake at 350 degrees about 20 minutes. Let the cupcakes cool before icing. Frost with white icing. Sprinkle on a few glazed pecan pieces and a sprinkle of cinnamon.
recipe adapted from the recipe at The Gluten-Free Homemaker

Taste of Fall Pumpkin Cranberry Cornbread

This recipe comes from The Motherload and is one of my all-time favorite recipes. People are always surprise at just how good it is. It is a must at Thanksgiving, but I usually can't wait that long to make some.

1 1/4 cups flour

3/4 cup cornmeal
2/3 cup light brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup canned pumpkin puree
3/4 cup buttermilk (I substituted with regular milk and a teaspoon of vinegar to sour)
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 eggs, room
2 tablespoons honey
1 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 8″ x 8″ baking pan or a 9-inch pie pan. In a bowl, toss together flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. In another mixing bowl, mix with a wooden spoon, the pumpkin puree, sour cream or buttermilk , butter, eggs and honey, until well combined. Add the pumpkin mixture to the flour mixture just until combined. Mix in the cranberries. Transfer to a prepared baking dish. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until edges just begin to color. Cool to room temperature.

Capt. Berk's Oyster Stew

I know this is not the season for oysters, but in honor of Father's Day, I wanted to post a recipe that was handed down to me from my father. My father was a waterman and tonged oysters from the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay each winter. He was even once featured in Diner's Club magazine. Here is his simple but wonderfully delicious Oyster Stew recipe.

1 pint oysters

1 stalk celery, chopped

1 can of Evaporated Milk

2 Tab. butter

In a heavy bottomed saucepan saute celery in the butter until the celery starts to become clear. Add oysters, with their liquor, and simmer until the edges of the oysters begin to curl. Add milk and simmer 15 minutes. Serve hot with crackers.