Lemon Pie

This one's for you Dad...

My Dad loved lemon pie. Those of you that knew him, know he was not much of a cook or baker. On occasion, he'd make a lemon pie from scratch though. Sometimes it didn't turn out quite right, but usually it was pretty good.

The day he went in the hospital, I made him this lemon pie. We snuck a piece in for him that night. Yum. I made us another one today for Thanksgiving.

My go to lemon pie recipe comes from this cookbook:



My Mom had this book for as long as I remember and it was our 'go to' book for several things.

Lemon Meringue Pie
1-1/2 cups sugar
3 tbs cornstarch
3 tbs flour
dash salt
1-1/2 cups hot water
3 slightly beaten egg yolks
2 tbs butter
1/3 cup lemon juice
pie shell
merringue


Mix sugar, cornstarch, flour, and salt. Gradually add hot water, stirring constantly. Cook and stir over med high heat until thick and boiling. Stir and boil 2 minutes.

Remove from heat.

Add a bit of hot mixture to egg yolks. Gradually return to hot mixture. Bring to boiling and cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add butter and slowly add lemon juice, mixing well. Pour into pie shell.

meringue: beat egg whites until stiff, add sugar. Spread over pie and bake at 350 degrees until lightly browned.

Cool before serving.

Back to the 80s

Sorry for the lack of posts... anyone who follows my regular blog knows that life was put on hold for a bit. My Dad became very ill and passed away on October 22, 2011. I haven't been baking much of anything lately aside from the occasional snack for the kids....

Last weekend I had a big cupcake project for an 80s birthday party at the skating rink. One-hundred neon cupcakes to be exact! And a Pacman and Ms. Pacman cake on the side.

Not perfect, but still cute enough. There were NO cupcakes left at all!! So I guess that would mean everyone liked them.

Mom's Bread Pudding

Like many things, Mom didn't really have a set recipe for bread pudding. It was just a little of this and a little of that. She knew just about how much of everything needed and that was that. This is sort of a guestimate she gave me once when I asked her how to make bread pudding.

2 cups of milk

1/2 cup sugar

3 tbsp butter

2 eggs

vanilla

7-9 slices stale bread

Heat milk, sugar, and butter until hot. I usually heat it until it is just about to boil. Remove from heat. Separate eggs, slightly beat yolks, set whites aside. Add a small amount of hot milk to the egg yolks so it won't curdle, then add to the milk mixture. Add vanilla - as much as you like. (1-2 tbsp)

Tear slices of stale bread to fill a medium sized baking dish. French bread or dinner rolls work great also. If you like raisins, stir them in. Pour milk over bread and let it sit for a few minutes. Place baking dish in another pan and fill that pan with water about half way up the side of the dish. This keeps the bread pudding from drying out. Bake at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean.

Beat the egg whites until stiff. Add a little sugar, spread on top bread pudding. Bake another 10 minutes until browned.

Sometimes it comes out perfect, sometimes not. Mom's was always great of course.

Cookies n cream cupcakes

I made these a few weeks ago for the kids. And Wow...these were SO good!! Very sweet, but simply awesome. I'll be making them again! Cookies n cream icing is the best also and would make a good cake filling. hmmm!

The original recipe called for a cake from scratch. I cheated and used a chocolate cake mix because I had one. Here's the original recipe:

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

Cupcakes:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup natural unsweetened cocoa
1 1/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup hot water
24 Oreos, plus more for crumbs

Frosting:
1 cup shortening
1 lb. powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3-6 Tablespoons milk
2 or more teaspoons Oreo cookie crumbs

For the cupcakes:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Line tray with 12 baking cups.
• Place one whole cookie in each cup or break apart at least 12 cookies and place the broken pieces into each cup.
• Mix the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl using a wire whisk.
• Add the eggs, oil, vanilla and milk and mix well until thoroughly combined. Add the hot water and mix until combined.
• Transfer the batter (it will be very liquid) to a large measuring cup and then pour batter into each baking cup so it’s about three quarters full. You should have a little left over.
• Bake for 16-18 minutes.

Makes at least 12 cupcakes

For the frosting:

• Beat the shortening in a mixer until smooth.
• Add vanilla and mix until combined.
• Add the powdered sugar in three additions, scraping down the sides after each addition.
• Add a Tablespoon of milk at a time and mix together until you achieve the consistency you like.
• Add the cookie crumbs and mix until completely combined. You can add more if you like, but I just wanted a light speckling to show off the white frosting.
• Place frosting in a decorator bag with a 1M tip and swirl on top of each cupcake.
• Insert a cookie on top of each cupcake.
• You can also apply frosting on each cupcake in a mounded shape. Turn upside down and roll the top around in a small bowl of cookie crumbs to coat.

Firecracker cake

A friend of mine sent me this recipe and I had to try it out for the 4th of July! SO easy and very festive. I had an issue with the cake sticking to the pan... it actually broke in half! But I pieced it back together....

1 Box of white cake mix. Yellow would work too.

Red and blue food coloring

Icing and sprinkles

Prepare cake mix as directed. Tint one cup of the batter red and one cup blue. Pour red into a well greased tube pan or a bunt pan. Pour regular batter on top, then the blue last. Bake as directed.

Once cake is cooled and flipped out of the pan, drizzle with red, white, and blue icing. Add sprinkles.

Flourless peanut butter & chocolate chip cookies

If you like peanut butter and chocolate, you will like these!! Yes... these cookies have NO flour and NO butter. They only call for six ingredients. And they were quite good. No, make that "Oh my these were very good!" My kids devoured a plate of them in no time.

Flourless Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup peanut butter (smooth or chunky) I used Skippy Natural Creamy Peanut Butter.
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix first five ingredients in a medium bowl. Mix in chocolate chips. Using moistened hands, form generous one tablespoon of dough for each cookie into a ball. Arrange on a baking sheet, spacing cookies two inches apart. Bake cookies until puffed, golden brown on bottom & still soft to the touch in the center -- about 12 minutes. Cool on baking sheets for about five minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Cupcakes... from scratch!

Today I decided to forego the usual mix and make cupcakes from scratch. This is by far the easiest scratch cake to make. It's not too sweet and it doesn't make a gazillion cupcakes, so it's perfect for a quick treat. It made exactly 12 cupcakes. I pulled a small container of vanilla icing out the freezer, added some cocoa, and topped them with homemade chocolate icing.

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x9 inch pan or line a muffin pan with paper liners.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven. For cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch.