Merry Christmas!

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas! May peace, joy, and love fill your home this holiday season.

Pearl's Spudnuts

These little jewels are pillowy soft on the inside with a light crisp outside. The first time I ever tried these was when we were stationed out on Adak, 1400 miles waaaay out on the Aleutian chain of Alaska. A sweet round grandma named Pearl, who was an amazing baker, shared this with us in Relief Society. When I was Young Women President in our branch we went Christmas caroling and I brought the girls over to my home for hot cider and cocoa with doughnuts. A couple of weeks ago one of the young ladies came up to me and told me she would really love it if I would make doughnuts and hot cider for the girls so I did, between getting ready to decorate for a church dinner tonight and taking care of Family History stuff. These life "events" never come one at a time do they? This recipe is so yummy you will want to make it often.  I hope you enjoy this as much as we do.

Pearl's Spudnuts
1 1/2 c. warm water
1/2 c. oil
1 cup mashed potatoes
2 T. yeast
1 c. sugar
1 t. salt
1/2 t. vanilla
2 eggs
2 t. nutmeg
5 1/2 to 6 c. flour
Powdered sugar for glaze or cinnamon sugar


Combine warm water, yeast, and a little bit of the sugar in a mixing bowl. Let yeast start to bubble. Add the rest of the ingredients except for 3 cups of the flour and mix well. Start adding the rest of the flour while keeping the mixer set at stir. The dough will be very soft. Let sit and rise, then stir down, rise again and stir down. Flour a surface and take half the dough out. Flour your hands and pat down the dough to about 1/2 an inch. Cut with favorite doughnut cutter or glass. In a heavy cast iron skillet or deep fryer heat the oil to 350-375 degrees. Drop cut dough shapes into oil and let puff up until golden brown. Turn and do the same with the other side. Drain on paper towels and dredge in cinnamon sugar or glaze. For my glaze I put about 1 cup powdered sugar in a bowl and then added a touch of orange juice, just enough to have a thin but not watery glaze. This will make about 4-6 dozen depending on the size of your cutter. Bon Appetite!

Sheryl's Butterscotch Bars

Butterscotch deliciousness in a thick yummy bar. Created for my family as an alternative to chocolate, these bars are a variation on Almond Fudge Bars, a recipe that has been revamped from an old Bisquick recipe. Full of oats, brown sugar, and flavor, these are sure to be a family favorite at your home as well.

SHERYL'S BUTTERSCOTCH BARS

COOKIE DOUGH

1 c. butter

2 c. brown sugar

1 t. each vanilla and almond flavoring

2 eggs

1 t. baking soda

1 t. salt

2 1/2 c. flour

3 c. rolled oats

1/2 c. walnuts or pecans, chopped

FILLING

1- 10 oz.  bag Nestle's butterscotch chips. Fair warning, if you go cheap they won't come out the same..I'm just sayin'....

2 T. butter

1 c. sweetened condensed milk  (do not use the whole can unless you want to catch your oven on fire, okay, if you're single and the firemen are cute go ahead but I warned you....) 

1 pinch of salt

Cream together butter, brown sugar and eggs in mixing bowl. Add flavorings. Toss in baking soda, and salt and then while mixing add the flour slowly. Add the oats, one cup at a time until mixed well and add nuts. Take out 1/3 of the dough and set aside. Spread the rest in a 11 x 17 cookie sheet. You can use your fingers if you butter them first to help spread the dough. It will be rather thin.

In the top of a double boiler combine your filling ingredients and melt over slowly simmering water in the bottom pot. Once smooth spread over the top of the cookie dough. Now take the rest of the dough that was set aside and drop by small pieces onto the filling. If you like you can sprinkle more chopped nuts over this. My family doesn't like nuts but it makes these extra tasty in my opinion. Bake in a 350 degree oven on a rack set at one level above the center of the oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden on top. Let cool about 15 to 20 minutes before cutting. Yield 48

So you want to know about the fireman reference? One Christmas season when we lived in Sitka, AK as I was getting some baking done and of course hadn't showered yet, I put a batch of these in the oven. Yes, I used the whole can of sweetened condensed milk as I didn't want to see the rest go to waste. So about 15 minutes into the baking time I hear the smoke detector go off and run to the kitchen to see smoke billowing out of the oven. I opened the oven door and there were flames shooting up from the bottom of the oven and no amount of salt or baking soda would put them out. I had opened the doors and windows to let the smoke out and someone seeing this called the fire department. A whole crew of guys show up  and they got the fire out, but here I was, no make-up, hair a mess, and shabby sweats on. Needless to say, every time I passed one of them in the grocery store, or where ever, I was asked if I'd been baking lately....

As for the rest of the condensed milk here's a couple of ideas that might work for you, with your own variations added. 

Make a delicious sweet mustard spread by combining 3/4 cup of mayonnaise with 1/2 cup of Dijon mustard. Mix in 1/4 cup of sweetened condensed milk, 1 tbsp. lemon juice and 1 tbsp. of water. Combine ingredients completely and refrigerate. This is a tasty spread to use on sandwiches, in salads as a dressing, or as a sauce for ham and pork.

At wikipedia you can find these ideas : In parts of Asia and Europe, sweetened condensed milk is the preferred milk to be added to coffee or sweetened tea. Many countries in South East Asia use condensed milk to flavor their coffee. A popular treat in Asia and Brazil is to put condensed milk on toast and eat it in a similar way as jam and toast. In West Yorkshire, in the years after World War Two, condensed milk was an alternative to jam. Nestlé has even produced a squeeze bottle similar to Smucker's jam squeeze bottles for this very purpose. For those who drink coffee or tea and like to add milk, I would even consider adding flavorings to your leftover SCM and use it like a flavored creamer. 

I hope you like all of these ideas. Enjoy!

Christmas Cookies - Maple Melt-away Crisps

Tender, crisp and oh so buttery maple, these cookies are an adaptation of a recipe I found years ago. It was too crumbly and dry so I revamped it to come up with these. They are a family favorite. I hope you enjoy!

MAPLE MELT-AWAY CRISPS

1 c. butter

1/2 c. brown sugar

1 1/2 t. maple flavoring

1/2 t. salt

2 c. flour

1/2 c. ground walnuts or pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add flavoring and the dry ingredients, mixing well. Chill for about 1 hour. Form into 1" balls and roll in white sugar. Flatten on un-greased cookie sheet with the back of a glass. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Yield about 5 dozen.

Cran-Apple Dream Pie

 The other night we were having friends over for dinner. Hubby was fixing his delicious Chicken Curry with a lot of spice so I decided to create a creamy yet refreshing pie with a holiday flare. although there are several steps, this really is an easy peasy and so yummy pie, well worth the little bit of time put into making it. The cranberries can be rough chopped in the blender or food processor. Save yourself the headache of trying to chop each little cranberry or chasing them around the counter or floor. It's amazing the places you will find them later. ;-)
I used crumbs created from stale doughnuts that I cubed and lightly toasted before turning to crumbs as part of my crust ingredients but there are more possibilities such as crumbed short bread cookies, or the regular graham cracker crust. So I'm stating graham cracker crumbs in the recipe, but be creative! I never let anything go to waste, so if cookies are getting a bit dry or the same with cake, I just cube or crumble them up and dry them in the oven so I can use them for sweet crumb crusts later.
This pie has two main layers, one a creamy dreamy whipped cream cheese and whipped cream layer with a touch of grated orange peel. The other a fresh chopped cranberries and apples in jello. I used cherry jello as I didn't have raspberry, but try either and see which you like better. Cherry was very good, but I really want to try raspberry next time. Okay enough of this nonsense, on to the recipe!

CRAN-APPLE DREAM PIE

Serves 8

CRUST

1 1/2 c. sweet crumbs from graham crackers or shortbread cookies

1/4 c. sugar

1/4 c. butter, melted

In a 9" pie plate combine ingredients and press onto bottom and up the sides of the dish. In a pre-heated 350 degree oven bake for 5 minutes. Let cool on wire rack.

CREAM CHEESE LAYER

1- 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened

1/2 c. heavy whipping cream, whipped, buy a pint container of whipping cream so you have some for topping as well.

1/2 t. vanilla extract

1-2 t. greated orange rind

1/2 - 3/4 c. powdered sugar, to taste

In a mixing bowl beat cream cheese until soft and fluffy, add powdered sugar, vanilla, and orange rind, mix well. Gently fold in whipped cream until fully incorporated. Don't beat heavily as whipped cream will lose it's stiffness and the creamy filling will be too soft. Spread into the cooled crust and let set in the refrigerator while preparing jello layer. 

JELLO LAYER

1- 3 oz. box Cherry or Raspberry Jello

1 c. boiling water

3/4 c. cold water

1 c. each chopped apple and cranberries

1/2 c. sugar

In a medium size bowl combine jello, sugar and boiling water, stirring to dissolve. Add cold water and let soft set in refrigerator. Add fruit and stir gently. Carefully spoon over cream cheese layer in pie plate. Let set until firm, about 1-2 hours.

WHIPPED TOPPING
1 1/2 c. whipping cream
3-4 T. powdered sugar
1 t. vanilla extract
In a mixing bowl combine ingredients and whip until soft stiff peaks form. Add a dollup to each piece of pie when served.

Harvest Pumpkin Pie

Comfort food is always a winner when the weather turns cold and a blanket of snow is covering everything. Last night we had the missionaries over for dinner. I always like to ask if there's anything they can't or won't eat as well as something they would like to have. The request was for meatloaf, shrimp and pumpkin pie. Who would have thought that a missionary from Mexico City would ask for pumpkin pie, but he had tasted some last year and really wanted to try it again. Far be it from me to deny this industrious young man his wish.
I decided to try a "flaky" crust recipe and a twist on the old favorite. For the crust I started with 2 1/2 c. unsifted all purpose flour and whisked  in 2 T. sugar and 3/4 t. salt. With my pastry blender I cut in 10 T. cold butter and 3 T. lard, but you can use shortening if you prefer. I just happened to have the lard around for tortillas and never have shortening, so there you go. No, this isn't your health conscious recipe. What?! Hey, you don't have to eat the whole pie in one sitting just because it's totally delicious and creamy and wonderfully yummy.... ;-)

After the flour and fats were blended to a crumbly mixture I added 1 large egg, and then sprinkled on 1 T. white vinegar, and about 4 T. ice cold water. I took my trusty fork, and gently folded the wet into the dry. Be careful not to work it too much or your crust will be tough. When the dough sticks together nicely create to balls of dough and then flatten them into disks to wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Roll out your dough on a lightly floured board and use your pie pan, a 9" one will do for this pie. The other dough disk can be frozen or used for another pie. Invert your pie pan onto the dough and cut about 1 to 1 1/2" away from the edge, all the way around. Gently pick up the dough by one edge and fold it over to the other, lift this into your pie pan and lay open. DO NOT stretch the dough to get it to fit into the pan otherwise it will shrink away from the sides of the pie plate and you will have a much smaller crust than expected. Fold over and crimp the edges. See how pretty?

Next you lightly prick the bottom of the crust but try not to pierce through to the dish. Heat your oven to 425 degrees as you will be partially baking this crust empty. This helps insure that your crust is nicely cooked from top to bottom.  Now you need a square piece of foil, place that onto the crust, then add  some dry rice or beans to fill the foil about 3/4 of an inch. This keeps your crust from puffing up during the baking process. Bake for 12 minutes, then remove the foil and rice and bake for 3-5 more minutes until the crust is no longer translucent and is just beginning to look golden. Take out the crust and put a flat baking pan in the center oven rack.

Make a glaze with one egg white (save the yolk to use later)  and 1 T. water whisked together. Brush this over the bottom and sides of the crust to help seal it. Cool on a wire rack.

In a mixer bowl combine 2 cups of pureed pumpkin, with 2 eggs plus the saved yolk. Beat well.

I thought this was a cool shot so I added it for fun...

Add 1/2 c. sugar

1 cup cream or canned milk

Now, the yummy part! Add 1/2 cup real maple syrup, or if you must, maple flavored syrup. I used the real deal. To that add 2 t. pumpkin pie spice or a blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger, as well as 1/2 t. salt. For those of you who like to skip the salt, DON'T!!! Oh sorry, a flash back to my Mommy days.... Now then if you leave out the salt, your pie will not have the fullness of flavor a good pie should have. Just saying...... Okay cooperate blogger! Sheesh, I'm almost done and you have to get fussy! Alrighty then, I guess I will finish up here, above the photo, so into the oven your pie is carefully placed, onto the baking pan. Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes and then turn the oven down to 350 degrees and continue to bake the pie for another 45 minutes. To keep the edge of the crust from browning you will want to make a foil cover for the edges, or you can buy a nice metal crust protector at any fine cookware store. Take your pie out and let it cool on a rack before covering and chilling for at least 4 hours before serving. Serve with your favorite topping. Oh yeah, those cute little leaf cutouts I made and took a picture of that you see at the top of these photos never made it on top of the pie. It would have looked wonderful but, well I reached into the cupboard without looking and managed to dust them with seasoning salt instead of cinnamon sugar. They make great crackers, but somehow I don't think the blend of garlic and onions in the seasoning salt goes with pumpkin pie. Maybe I'm wrong....yeah, you're right, I'm not. :-) I hope you give this recipe a try. In the immortal words of the late and great Miss Julia....Bon Appetite!

To Catch a Mouse

 

Last night as I was sitting at my computer I heard a scratching sound. At first I thought it was the wind blowing something outside the apartment, but then I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. EEEEkkkk! A little furry nose stuck out from between my canned goods stacked against the wall. So I call my hubby who says there should be traps in the tool box. Nope, they weren't there but I did remember seeing them in the move. So I hunted around but couldn't find them. Rats! no pun intended...;-) 

I went back to my work, thinking I would run up to the store after work today. So then I hear something ripping! "Alright, that's it!" I said to myself as I peeked into the closet where the rest of our food storage is. I saw the new bag of chips we'd just picked up at Costco last weekend, sitting on some jars on the floor of the closet, I picked it up and yes, the little bugger had started to chew a hole at the base of the bag.

Here I'd been thinking how nice it was to be in a clean and easy to keep clean apartment, with no bugs or critters to worry about. No more roly poly bugs racing across my bathroom floor, or Satan spiders running at us while we were sitting there taking care of business. I thought I had done all I could to keep what ever vermin might be lurking, and yes apartment living is a joy? NOT!!!! Well I put in containers and buckets the rest of the food that a critter might be able to get to, and got ready for bed as it was late. I then remembered that the traps were with some of Kent's things up in our closet. So I got one out, set it and put a little cheese on the paddle. I guess you have to mash the cheese onto the paddle as it was gone this morning, but there was no mouse to be seen. So I re-set the trap, with cheese mashed in. We shall see what happened when I get home later. This may be an interesting venture, mouse against woman. Who will be the winner? I will of course as mice carry disease. There are those who believe we should just catch them and set them free in an animal friendly environment, but I don't know the virtue in that. For those who do believe this way, or just want to keep them from invading your space, here's a video link I found that might be what you want. For me, it's going to be traps since we can't have pets here. 
How to Get Rid of Mice???