Patriotic Pie

This pie is kind of a challenge to make, but it is so cute that it is worth the effort once a year.

Patriotic Pie

Crust for double crust pie
1 large can cherry pie filling
1 small can blueberry pie filling
milk
sanding sugar
plastic sheet from a bacon package

Cut plastic tray so it can be folded into a wedge shape. Taper edges to fit against the side of the pie pan.
Place bottom crust in pie pan. Place plastic in pie pan so that it separates the upper left fourth of the pie from the rest. Fill the upper left corner with blueberry pie filling.Fill the rest of the pie shell with cherry pie filling. Gently remove the plastic piece.

Roll out top crust, cut into ½ inch strips and about 7 1 inch stars. Arrange the strips to be stripes over the cherry filling. Trim and flute edges. Place the stars on the blueberry filling. Brush stripes and stars with milk and sprinkle sanding sugar on top.

Bake for 10 minutes at 425º then reduce heat to 350º and continue to bake for about 30-35 minutes or until light golden brown.

Meat Pies

 For the first couple of years of our marriage we didn’t have a washing machine. We did our laundry every Saturday at Allan's mother's house. I would go to my mom's house on Wednesday's to wash diapers in her wringer washing machine (but that's a different story). We would usually eat dinner with Allan's family on Saturday evening. His mom almost always served Morrison Meat Pies. Allan grew up eating them. I had never heard of them before I met Allan. When Allan's dad was growing up, the Morrison Meat Pies factory was across the street from his school, Lincoln Junior High on State Street.  He would quite often stop there on his way home from school to get a meat pie, for a nickel, for a snack. So, Morrison Meat Pies were a long standing Strong family tradition. We always eat them covered with  Campbell's vegetable soup. Some people serve them with chile or with gravy. A few years ago, the Morrison Meat Pies factory company went out of business. Allan was very disappointed and went on a quest for the perfect meat pie recipe. After much trial and error, this is what we came up with.

Scotch Meat Pies

Crust

2 cups flour

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup water

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg yolk (for egg wash)

Filling

1 small onion (chopped)

1 teaspoon butter

1 pound lean ground beef

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

4 saltine crackers crumbled

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 4 4” ramekins or spring form pans with cooking spray.

Put Flour in a mixing bowl, form a small well in the middle.

Place water, butter and salt in a pan and bring to a boil.

Carefully pour water mixture into flour. Stir until flour is wet.

When cool enough to handle, knead flour mixture just long enough to mix completely.

Set aside 1/4 of the dough. Form the rest into four balls. Place in fridge until the meat mixture is done.

Sauté onions in butter. 

Mix with raw hamburger, salt, pepper and cracker crumbs in a bowl and set aside.

Remove dough from refrigerator and roll each small dough ball in to a circle large enough to cover the bottom sides of the ramekins.

Roll the larger ball of dough into a larger circle. Use a ramekin or four inch cutter to cut into four circles. Set aside.

Add 1/4 of the meat mixture to each dough lined  ramekin, making sure meat is pressed into the corners.

Top with the pastry rounds. Pinch sides and top together to seal.

Brush top with egg wash and cut a small vent hole in the center.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until it reaches a temperature of 160 degrees.

Serve with vegetable soup, chile or gravy.

Grandma Fern Miller Strong's Banana Cream Pie

 This is Allan's grandmother Strong's recipe for banana cream pie. It includes instructions for coconut and pineapple variations.note that the amounts of some of the ingredients in the pineapple pie are different.

 GRANDMA FERN MILLER STRONG’S BANANA CREAM PIE

2 Eggs

1 Cup Sugar

1/8 tsp Salt

2 Tbsp Flour, Heaping

2 Cups Milk

1 tsp Vanilla

1 Prepared Pie Crust, Cooked  

 In a heavy saucepan, beat the eggs. Mix in the Flour, Sugar, and Salt. Stir in the milk gradually. Cook until it comes to a boil, is thick, and smooth. Start at medium heat and gradually turn it up to medium high, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and add the Vanilla. Pour at once into a prepared pie crust. Let it cool on the counter top and refrigerate before serving. Top with whipped cream.

For Coconut Cream  add 2 1⁄2 Tbsp of Coconut. 

For Pineapple Cream use 1 small can of crushed Pineapple, 1 cup Water, 1 cup Milk, 1 Tbsp Cornstarch, and 1 tsp Lemon extract.

Grandma Fern Miller Strong's Butterscotch Pie

 Grandma Diane Strong made pie for dessert almost every Sunday. I believe it was a tradition started by Allan's grandmother, Fern Miller Strong. When Grandma (Diane) Strong got older she started making cake instead of pie most weeks. She used Fern Strong's recipes when she made pies.

GRANDMA FERN MILLER STRONG’S BUTTERSCOTCH PIE

1⁄4 Cup Butter

1 Cup Brown Sugar 1 Cup Water

1 Cup Milk

2 Eggs

3 Tbsp Flour

1 1⁄2 Tbsp Cornstarch

1 tsp Vanilla

1 Prepared Pie Crust, Cooked

In a heavy saucepan, melt the Butter over medium heat. Add the Brown Sugar and Water. While that is cooking mix together the Milk, Eggs, Flour, and Cornstarch. Stir it into the Butter mixture and cook on medium high until it comes to a boil, is smooth, and thick. Stir constantly. Remove it from the heat and add the Vanilla.

Pour it into the pie crust and let it cool on the counter top. Refrigerate it overnight or 2-3 hours before serving. Top with Whipped cream.

Boiled Raisin Cake

 Allan's mother made this every year for Thanksgiving when Allan was young. She stopped making it when she quit hosting Thanksgiving dinner. We started hosting Thanksgiving when she stopped and for several years she didn’t make it. One year Allan mentioned that it had been one of his favorite memories of Thanksgiving. She brought it every year after that. It made in loaf pans and is really more of a bread than a cake.

Boiled Raisins Cake

1 lb. Raisins

2 cups sugar

3 cups water

Bring to a boil. Boil 3 minutes and add rest of ingredients.

1 cup shortening

4 cups flour

1 tsp. Cinnamon

1 tsp. Soda

1 tsp. Cloves

1 tsp. Nutmeg

1 cup nuts

Grease and flour 3 small loaf pans. Pour batter into pans

Bake at 375 60 minutes.

Cool and top with chocolate frosting.

Marshmallow Cream Sauce

 This tastes exactly like marshmallow cream only stickier and runnier.  It will separate when it is stored for a while, but you just need to warm it up in the microwave for a minute and stir it up and it is just fine

Marshmallow Sauce

• 1 cup ( 8floz/225ml) water divided
• 1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
• 1 1/2 cups (12oz/340g) sugar
• 1 cup (10oz/283g) light corn syrup ( there is no substitute for corn syrup)
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
  
• Place half of the water in the bowl of a stand mixer. Sprinkle over the teaspoon of unflavored gelatin, set aside.
  
• Put the remaining water, sugar, corn syrup, and salt in a small saucepan. Allow the sugar to dissolve over medium-low heat. You can gently swirl the pan to help the sugar dissolve but do not stir as this can cause the syrup to crack. Once the sugar has dissolved simmer undisturbed over medium heat until the syrup reaches soft ball stage or 240°F (115°C) when read on a candy thermometer. 
  
• Next, pour the hot mixture into the bowl with the bloomed gelatin mixture. Whip on a low speed for two minutes to cool down the mixture. Once cool and slightly frothy add vanilla, and whip on high speed for 10-12 minutes, until the mixture is thick, white, and fluffy. 
  
• Store Marshmallow Sauce in an airtight container in the fridge for 8 weeks. 

Toasted Coconut Syrup

 Almost everyone likes this syrup. A couple of people in my family are allergic to coconut, so they don’t like it. But it is some of my kid’s favorite.

Coconut Cream Syrup

• 14 oz coconut milk
• 1 1/2 C butter
• 3 C granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 Tbsp light corn syrup
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 cup Toasted coconut

        Combine the coconut milk, butter, sugar and syrup in a LARGE sauce pan.

• Bring the mixture to a boil on medium heat and boil for 5 mins, stirring constantly.
  
• Remove it from the heat and continue stirring and add the vanilla and baking soda (the mixture will get HUGE when you add the soda, just keep stirring and it will go back down).
  
• Serve when warm, pour on pancakes. (keep excess refrigerated)

Lemon Syrup

 Lemon Syrup is delicious on waffles with fresh berries. 

INGREDIENTS

• 10 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 cup granulated sugar 
• ½ cup heavy cream
• Zest of 2 lemons
• ¾ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt or kosher salt
• ½ teaspoon baking soda

INSTRUCTIONS

• In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, combine all ingredients except the baking soda, bring to a low boil and cook just until sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat and add the baking soda, stirring constantly. Place over low heat and stir for one more minute. Remove from the heat and let cool slightly.
• Serve over Blueberry Pancakes. 
• !Enjoy!

Buttermilk syrup

Buttermilk Syrup is the overwhelming favorite syrup in my family. Most of us like real maple syrup. Some of the kids like imitation maple syrup. But everybody loves buttermilk syrup. 

Buttermilk syrup

Ingredients

• ¾ cup buttermilk
• 1 cup sugar
• ½ cup unsalted butter
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

• In a medium sauce pan, combine butter, sugar, and buttermilk and bring to a boil.
  
• Once it's at a complete boil, let it boil for 1 minute.
  
• Take off heat and whisk in baking soda and vanilla.
  
• It will foam up during the boiling, and especially when other ingredients are added.
  
• Serve with your favorite pancakes or waffles. Best served warm.

Praline Syrup

 My family’s favorite thing to have for breakfast when we are at the cabin is waffles. I make a variety of flavors of syrup and keep them in shaker bottles in the fridge. Most get pretty thick in the fridge and sometimes separate. They taste better warm, too. So we put them in the microwave for a minute and shake or stir them and they are ready to enjoy.

Praline Syrup

Ingredients:

MELT:

8 Tbsp. unsalted butter

1 cup packed brown sugar or pure maple syrup

WHISK IN: 

½ cup heavy cream

½ tsp. ground allspice

½ tsp. table salt

STIR IN:

¾ cup chopped pecans, toasted

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Instructions:

Melt butter with brown sugar in a saucepan over medium heat, whisking constantly until smooth, about ⏰ 2 minutes.

Whisk in cream, allspice, and salt; bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until sauce thickens, about ⏰ 3  minutes.

Stir in pecans, and vanilla.

Orange Cranberry Bread

This year has been a very long, strange year.  It started out with the Corona Virus Pandemic. Because of the pandemic, everyone has been advised to stay home as much as possible. We all wear masks when we have to go out, hoping to reduce the spread of this disease.  For several months, Allan worked from home. He had a lot of Zoom meetings and functioned quite well. He returned to the office in September. Church was canceled and we were told that we could hold our own meetings at home. Later in the year, they started having meetings again, allowing  only groups of under 100 to gather. Others are allowed to join the meetings through Zoom.  In June, I was diagnosed with Endometrial Cancer and had a Hysterectomy. I didn't require any further treatment, but my doctor said I have a compromised immune system, so we are opting to attend Church through Zoom. Having Allan working from home was a huge blessing when I had my surgery. In November, there was a huge spike in cases and deaths from the pandemic, and government leaders suggested that all holiday celebrations be limited to only household members. We have tried to comply with those recommendations, however, we did visit with each of our local kids' families for Christmas and deliver gifts to them. It was a welcome change to visit with each of them.

Normally, sometime during the holidays, we have a big breakfast, with whatever family can come. We serve quiche, hash browns, various types of bread (including orange rolls, poppyseed bread, banana bread, and cinnamon rolls). This year I found this recipe for Orange Cranberry Bread. It is moist and delicious. Allan says it reminds him of Orange Rolls, but it is more dense and crumbly. Because of the pandemic, we didn’t have it this year. It will definitely be added to any future holiday breakfast menu.

ORANGE CRANBERRY BREAD

Ingredients 

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking powder

1 cup sugar

zest of 3 large oranges

3/4 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup oil

2 eggs

1 Tbsp. orange juice fresh

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup fresh cranberries chopped or halved

Flour to coat cranberries (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a loaf pan with parchment or grease it well.
2. Combine flour, salt, baking powder and sugar in a bowl. Set aside.
   In a large bowl, whisk together orange zest, buttermilk, oil, eggs, orange juice and vanilla. 
3. Lightly shake cranberries in 2 tablespoons of flour. This is optional. But cranberries will naturally float to the top of the bread batter. Dredging them in flour will help keep them evenly dispersed throughout the bread.
4. Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet and gently fold together. Just before it's combined, add in cranberries and stir JUST until combined. 
5. Pour into prepared pan and bake for about an hour, or until an inserted knife comes out clean. 
   

Orange Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

1-2 Tbsp. fresh orange juice

 

-Slowly add in orange juice to powdered sugar and whisk.  Only add as much juice as needed to get a thick but pourable consistency. 

-Let glaze dry before wrapping the bread.

Carrot Cake

For as long as I can remember, Carrot Cake has been my favorite. I wanted to have it for our wedding cake, but we had Kaye's mom make our cake and she didn't make carrot cake.This is the best Carrot Cake recipe I have found.

DR. FREDERICK'S CARROT CAKE:

4 eggs

1 1/4 c. vegetable oil (or 3/4 oil and 1/2 c. applesauce)

1 c. granulated sugar

1 c. brown sugar

3 tsp. pure vanilla extract

2 c. all-purpose flour

2 t. baking soda

2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. salt

3 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 t. ground nutmeg (fresh ground is best)

3 c. grated carrots - (coarse grate, not fine grate)

1 c. chopped pecans

8 oz. drained crushed pineapple (I drained the pineapple and measured 8 oz. - or 1 c.)

FROSTING:

1/2 c. butter, softened

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

3 1/2 c. powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 c. chopped pecans

heavy whipping cream

pinch of salt  

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour a 9 x 13" pan or two round cake pans.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. 

In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, applesauce (optional), sugars, and vanilla.  Mix in flour mixture.  Slowly stir in carrots, pineapple, and nuts.

Bake in preheated oven for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.  (baking times may vary)  Let cake cool in pan for a few minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.  

For the frosting:

Beat everything together except the nuts until it's smooth and creamy.  Only add a splash of the whipping cream at a time until the frosting is creamy but stiff.  You don't want it too thin.  Fold in pecans.  Make sure your cake is completely cooled before you frost it.

Mr. Potato Head

Cuyler decided that he wanted Mr. Potato Head for dinner on his birthday this year. Not just a baked potato bar. No, that wasn't good enough. He wanted everyone to make their own Mr. Potato Head and then eat him. We had all the fixings for a baked potato bar. The only catch was that you had to put it on the outside of the baked potato. I put a lot of the condiments out, whole, so people could make them the shapes they wanted. It ended up being a lot of fun. We decorated the house with my 18 real Mr. Potato Heads. Charis even made a Mr. Potato Head cake.

Mr. Potato Head Potato Bar 

Baked Potatoes 

Grated Cheese

Sour Cream 

Chili

Green onions

Boiled Eggs 

Avocados

Chives

Green Peppers

Red Peppers

Sunflower Seeds

Olives

Cherry Tomatoes 

Whole Mushrooms

Pretzel Sticks

Artichokes 

Green Peas

Asparagus 

Radishes 

Ham Slices

String Cheese

Bacon

Broccoli 

Mini Carrots 

Curried Honey Mustard Chicken

When Allan was the bishop we had a dinner for all the bishopric and clerks. We served this chicken. Everyone loved it. It is delicious and easy to make.

When I was taking it over to the church for the dinner, I spilled some of the sauce in the car. Curry powder, along with the butter and mustard really stain. I worked really hard to get the stain and the smell out of our brand new car, but failed. At least our car smelled delicious for week or two. I ended up having to have the car detailed to get the aroma out.

 Curried Honey Mustard Chicken

⅓ cup butter, melted 

⅓ cup honey

¼ cup Dijon-style prepared mustard

4 teaspoons curry powder

1 pinch ground cayenne pepper

4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

Diced mango

Cilantro sprigs

Lime wedges

Rice

Step 1 In a medium bowl combine the melted butter/margarine, honey, mustard, curry powder and cayenne powder. Mix well. Place chicken breasts in a 9x13 inch baking dish and pour honey/mustard mixture over chicken. Cover and place in refrigerator. Marinate for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Step 2 Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
Step 3 Remove dish from refrigerator and bake, covered, in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. Remove cover and bake about 10 minutes more, or until done and juices run clear (baking time will depend a little on how thick your chicken breasts are).

Step 4. Serve overcooked rice. Garnish with mangos and cilantro with lime wedges on the side.