Pumpkin Cake Squares

Pumpkin Cake Squares

Besides church suppers, I think the next best place we southern gals get our quick and easy recipes is from our families--mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters, cousins, you name it.  You know how some people won't share their "special" recipe?  Not my family.  If one of us finds something yummy to make or eats something delicious, we share!  This recipe came about that way!  My aunt found it in her newspaper and tried it, then passed it along to my mom, who passed it along to me.

They both have "quick and easy" as their middle name in the kitchen, too!  A good, Southern tradition!

When I first heard of this, I thought it was like the pumpkin pie cake that I've posted on here several times before, but this one is totally different, but just as easy and just as good, if not better.

Ingredients:

• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 1/2 c + 2 T melted butter (separated)
• 3 eggs
• 1 15-oz can pumpkin
• 2/3 c evaporated milk
• 1/2 c + 2 T sugar (separated)
• 2 t + 1 t cinnamon
• whipped topping (optional)

Measure 1 cup cake mix, and set aside to use for the topping. 

Combine remaining cake mix with 1/2 c melted butter and 1 egg until crumbly. Press into a greased 9 x 13 inch baking pan.  Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Then turn the oven down to 350.

Meanwhile, mix pumpkin, 2 remaining eggs, 1/2 c sugar and 2 t cinnamon. Spoon mixture over the baked layer.

For topping: combine reserved 1 c of cake mix, 2 T melted butter, 2 T sugar, and remaining 1 t cinnamon in a small bowl.  Sprinkle the topping mix over the pumpkin mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes

Allow to cool (yeah, right!), cut into squares, and serve with whipped topping.  (I think vanilla or cinnamon ice cream would be really good, too!

Until next time, good cooking, and good eating...

This post is linked to:

Meatless Monday at My Sweet and Savory
Church Supper at Everyday Mom's Meals
Sweet and Savory Sunday at Cookin' for the Seven Dwarfs
See Ya in the Gumbo at Ms enPlace
Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farm
The Weekend Re-Treat at the Best Blog Recipes

Quick and Easy Ice Cream Cake

Here in the south, church dinners are a tried and true source of new recipes, and that's where I was first introduced to a version of this cold, creamy, and delicious semi-homemade ice cream cake.  This is one of those dishes that's made of such common-place ingredients, and is so easy to put together, it almost seems too good to be true.

But trust me, the result is so much greater than the sum of it's parts!




Ingredients: 

• 2 boxes vanilla ice cream sandwiches (the ones with chocolate cookie outsides, vanilla insides)
• 2 large or 3 small containers whipped topping
• 1 small package instant chocolate pudding
• 1 bottle chocolate fudge magic shell
• chopped nuts

Step 1--Remove papers from 10-11 ice cream sandwiches, and place in the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan (or slightly larger--I usually have to squish the sides a little to make it fit.  

Step 2--Mix together chocolate pudding powder and 1 large or 1 1/2 small container of thawed whipped topping. (This works easier if you put it in a larger bowl instead of just mixing it in the whipped topping container.) 

The whipped topping will "deflate" just a bit, and the mixture will thicken to the texture of a sort of whipped chocolate mousse.

 Step 3--Spread "chocolate mousse" mixture over the layer of ice cream sandwiches

Step 4--Add another layer of ice cream sandwiches

Step 5--Add a layer of plain whipped topping.

Step 6--Drizzle liberally with magic shell, and sprinkle with chopped nuts.

And here is the hard part--cover and put in the freezer until frozen firm--I'd say at least 4 hours, but I usually make this the night before and freeze overnight to be sure.

This is a "sliceable" or "scoopable" dessert but I usually cut it into squares and serve it that way so that you can see the layers. 

When I first tasted of one of these at a church supper, and told my mother about it, she didn't think it sounded that good, because she doesn't really care for ice cream sandwiches that much. Once she tasted it though, she became as big a fan as I am, and she's already put her request in for one of these for her birthday in August.  That's why I surprised her with one early, for Mother's Day.  (Hence the "fine china" in the pictures above--who wants to wash dishes on Mother's Day?)

Variations and tips:

I haven't tried it yet, but I think this would be delicious using butterscotch pudding and caramel magic shell.
You can use chocolate or caramel ice cream syrup if you don't have magic shell.
Once it's frozen hard, I have packed these in an ice chest and transported them to a family pot-luck.


What summer goodies have you been gearing up to make this year?

Until next time, good (un)cooking, and good eating...

This post is linked to:
Sweet and Savory Saturdays at Dessert Now, Dinner Later
Saturday Night Special at Funky Junk Interiors
Saturday Show and Tell and Cheerios and Lattes
The Weekend Re-Treat at The Best Blog Recipes
Meatless Monday at My Sweet and Savory
Church Supper at Everyday Mom's Meals
Sweet and Savory Sunday at Cookin' for the Seven Dwarfs
See Ya in the Gumbo at Ms enPlace
Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farm

No Cook Strawberry Freezer Jam

 

When I had the chance not long ago to buy a whole flat of these beautiful Louisiana strawberries, I had several things in mind, but the main two that I knew I wanted to make was the fresh strawberry pie that I shared last week, and as much strawberry freezer jam as I had berries to make.

I'm especially partial to freezer jam, in part I think because it's so easy to make, but also, since it isn't heat processed, when you thaw it and use it, it tastes just as fresh as the day you put it up.  When we were in Georgia, my husband picked buckets at a time of ripe blackberries that grew wild around his job site, and I made backberry freezer jam every year, as well as a couple of different kinds of blackberry pie.



My pectin product of choice is the Ball brand, for two reasons--one, it requires no cooking at all, and two, it uses more fruit and less sugar than some brands do for freezer jam.  You can buy it in envelopes or pouches, like I did when I made the blackberry jam, or in a little jar, like I used this time.

I had an especially hectic day the day I made this jam, and I had mixed results--mostly completely my fault, I'm convinced.  Here is the basic recipe, and I'll tell you what I did right, and what I did wrong.

Ingredients:

• 1 2/3 c mashed strawberries (not completely crushed, you want more fruit than juice so that the jam will have some body)
• 2/3 c sugar or Splenda
• 4 T Ball fruit pectin (or one small envelope)

Mix the sugar (or Splenda) and the pectin together in a bowl.  Add the fruit, and stir for about 3 minutes, or until the sugar and pectin are well dissolved.  Pour into jars or containers, and allow to set for 30 minutes.  Because this is not heat processed, you can use regular glass canning jars, specially made freezer jam jars, or even repurposed plastic or glass containers of your choice.  Once it's set, store in the fridge for immediate use, or freeze for use later.

I made one small low-sugar batch, using Splenda, which set with no problem.

Then I made a larger, slightly-more-than-doubled batch, which didn't set.  When I realized that this batch wasn't working, I went back over my math to be sure I figured everything right.  Then I dumped the jars all back into my bowl and added a little more sugar and pectin and stirred it all up. 

Still nothing. 

The directions do say not to try to make more than 6 jars at a time, or it may not "set", but I don't think that was the issue.  I think the problem was, instead of mashing the berries in small batches, say a cup at a time, I put the last batch in my big bowl and just went to town with a potato masher.  By this time I had made pies, jam, cleaned the kitchen several times, put away my freezer beef delivery, etc, and I was tired, and trying to hurry the process.  So I mashed and mashed, and I think I mashed too much, so that I had too much juice and not enough actual fruit in the last batch. 

So, my final tally, is 2 2/3 jars of low sugar strawberry jam, and 6 1/2 jars of sweetened mashed strawberries, that when, thawed, make a delicious strawberry syrup to pour over ice cream, or maybe even mix with pound cake and cool whip for a really juicy strawberry shortcake.  Or mix into cake and frosting to make a delcious strawberry cake.

At any rate, it will be eaten in some form or the other, and I have to say, it's not bad as peanut butter and jam, as long as you mix it into the peanut butter and not try to just spread it on the bread. 

I've had too much success with freezer jam to let this be a discouragement (although, I have to admit, I was pretty discouraged the day I made this!)

What success and failure have you had in the kitchen lately?

Until next time, good (no-cook) cooking, and good eating...

This post linked to:
Meatless Monday at My Sweet and Savory
Church Supper at Everyday Mom's Meals
Sweet and Savory Sunday at Cookin' for the Seven Dwarfs
Make, Bake, Create at Hope in Every Season
Back for Seconds

Fresh and Easy Strawberry Pie

When I first moved back home to Louisiana a few years ago, I really missed not having more noticiablly different seasons. In Louisiana, we have a short fall, 5 minutes of winter, and 9 months of summer. And in between winter and summer, we have spring. Strawberry weather.  

Yes, while most of you are still struggling with frost and cold and even snow this late spring, we have folks sitting on the side of the road selling beautiful flats of Louisiana strawberries.  Sometimes from Hammond, sometimes from Ponchitoula, sometimes one of the other little towns in the top of the toe; what's commonly known as the northlake area, that little stretch of strawberry heaven along Interstate 12 north of Lake Pontchartrain. I don't know what it is about that area of the state, whether it's the soil or the weather, or something completely different, but they grow the best strawberries. 

I like strawberries almost every way you can eat them.  I like them so much I'll even slice some up and eat them with milk and sugar, like a bowl of cereal.  Or cream instead of milk, if I have it.  Even what we in the south euphemistically call "canned cream", which is nothing more than evaporated milk, poured straight over a warm cobbler or a cool bowl or fruit.  Yum. 

But by far my favorite thing to do when I have really good strawberries is make a fresh strawberry pie. 

Years ago when I worked at one of our local banks, one of our customers always brought a truckload of strawberries back from southeast Louisiana and sold them to his friends and neighbors, and he generously gave every employee of our bank a whole flat of strawberries. (There are definite advantages to living in a small southern town.)  The first time I got strawberries-by-the-flat after I was married, my husband said "Oh, good, strawberry pie!" I had an immediate vision of a cooked, two-crust pie, like apple pie or cherry pie, and turned up my nose, but he had something else in mind.  "My favorite!" he said, and tried to describe it, so as a dutiful wife, I started looking for recipes in my cookbooks.(Remember those? Where we used to find recipes before the internet!). 

I found several versions, and narrowed them down by practical, everyday ingredients and ease of application, and this is my tried-and-true version that I've used for years. It uses a combination of a cooked glaze and strawberry gelatin, but it uses less gelatin than many recipes, making a softer setting, fresher tasting glaze than some versions of this pie that I've eaten.

Ingredients:

• 1 c sugar
• 1 c water
• 4 T flour
• 4 T strawberry gelatin (that's half of a small box--this is easily doubled, I usually make these two at a time, using 2 c sugar, 2 c water, 1/2 c flour and the whole box of gelatin
• 1 pint (approximately) strawberries
• single pie crust (or two crusts if making two)

Step 1: pre-bake your pie crust, and allow to cool

You can make your own if you have time, or use a frozen pie crust.  If I don't make my own (which, honestly, I hardly ever do, I prefer the refrigerated roll out crusts.)  Be sure to pinch the edges and prick the bottom and sides. I baked this one at 375 for about 10-12 minutes.

Step 2: While your crust is baking and/or cooling,wash and hull your strawberries

Step 3: Stir together sugar, flour, and water and cook over medium high heat, stirring constantly while the sugar and flour dissolve, then regularly until the mixture comes to a boil and begins to thicken.  Allow to cook for another minute or so, stirring constantly again.

Step 4: Remove from heat and stir in gelatin, stirring to dissolve

Step 5:  Allow glaze to cool

Step 6: Spread a small amount of cooled glaze on the bottom of the pie

Step 7: Slice strawberries and layer in the pie shell.  Be generous, but don't overfill, or the glaze won't cover all of the berries, and the pie, while it'll still taste good, will be ugly.  Don't ask me how I know this.

Step 8: Pour the remaining glaze over the top of the berries.  Refrigerate and allow to "set", at least 30 minutes.  If it's a little soft, oh well, that's the price you pay for cutting it too soon.  Don't ask me how I know this, either. 

Step 9: Add whipped topping, either the real thing or the fake stuff that most of us still use, although we feel really really guilty about that.

If I'm serving this at home to family, I usually leave the topping off and add a big dollop to the top of each piece of pie as it's served.  If I'm making this for an occasion, I add a big dollop to the middle, so that when I bring it out everyone will ohh and ahh over it, or I spread it out all over.  

I love this pie.  Really. 

Tip: You can use 3 T of cornstarch instead of 4 T flour if you want a clearer glaze. Flour makes it a bit more cloudy, but I first started making it with flour because in my newly-wed kitchen it was what I had. 

Until next time, good cooking, and good eating!

This post is linked to:

Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farm

Friday Favorites at Simply Sweet Home

Foodtastic Friday at Not Your Ordinary Recipes

Saturday Night Special at Funky Junk Interiors

Weekend Wrap-up Party at Tater Tots and Jello

Church Supper at Everyday Mom's Meals

Share Your Creativity at It's Overflowing

Sweet and Savory Sunday at Cooking for the Seven Dwarfs

Meatless Monday at My Sweet and Savory

Cooking From the Pantry--Roasted Root Vegetables

As a Southern girl, born and bred, and a bit of a country girl, to boot, I grew up with home grown vegetables.  Purple hull peas, sweet corn, summer squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, just to name a few.  But a parsnip was not among them.  Up until recently I had never even seen a parsnip to my knowledge, and if I ever did, I probably thought it was some kind weird albino carrot.

But I've been trying really hard lately to broaden our vegetable horizons--so much so, that my son has even taken to trying a vegetarian diet for a while.  We've been eating kale, brussels sprouts, and baby carrots and sweet potatoes, too.

So as I was browsing the produce section, I came upon a bag of parsnips, and since we've had so much luck trying other new-to-us veggies, I decided to try these as well.  And yes, they do look like albino carrots!

I decided to try them a part of a pan of roasted root vegetables.  I had four small yukon gold potatoes, and this ginormous carrot that the husband of a friend brought back from his rounds of truck farms in West Texas and New Mexico.  I ended up with two of them, one of which I used in a pot roast a while back, and then this last lone one. 

It's that time of year, when the winter root vegetables are playing out, and the early spring greens haven't started producing yet.  So what do you do when you have a little bit of this and little bit of that in your fridge and/or pantry?  You but them all together with the simplest of seasonings, and you make the most amazing vegetable medley ever!

Ingredients:

• potatoes
• carrots
• parsnips
• olive oil
• kosher salt or sea salt

Peel or scrape the carrots and parsnips, and cut into chunks, splitting the larger sections into half or quarters lengthwise. Cut the potatoes into halves and then quarter the halves.  Drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with coarse salt.

 

Bake 30-40 minutes at 350-375, until fork tender and they start to brown. (I baked these 20 minutes at 350, then bumped the oven temperature up to 375 and cooked them another 15 minutes)

I love the mixture of these three together--the parsnips get really sweet, the carrots not quite as sweet, and then the potatoes balance it all out. 

Now that I've made the acquaintance of parsnips, I hope to maintain the relationship--I'm looking forward to fall planting time so I can see if I can grow my own in our garden next winter.  Maybe this time next year it'll be my own home-grown version that I'm using up from the pantry!

Until next time, good cooking, and good eating!

This post is linked to:

Frugal Food Thursday at Frugal Follies

Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farm

Friday Favorites at Simply Sweet Home

Foodtastic Fridays at Not Your Ordinary Recipes

Meatless Monday at My Sweet and Savory

See Ya in the Gumbo from Ms enPlace

Cooking From the Pantry--Quick and Easy Taco Soup

Yesterday I worked on cleaning out my fridge and pantry as part of the 30-Day House Cleaning Challenge at Money Saving Mom. The fridge wasn't so bad, but the pantry, oh my! I found things I had forgotten I had, as well as realized some deficiencies I need to correct. Since I was working on the pantry anyway, I decided to see if I could come up with all of the ingredients I needed to make a good a dinner, and I decided on one of my favorite go-to meals, taco soup.

I love taco soup, because everything in it is something that I buy regularly anyway, I don't have to make a point to buy any exotic ingredients, it's usually all on hand in the pantry and freezer.  There are a variety of different ways you can make this, and trust me, I've made this dozens of times with all different combos of beans, tomatoes, etc.  This is the version I made yesterday

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground meat (I used the very lean home raised beef I get from my parents)
• 1 29-oz can of tomato sauce
• 1 15-oz can of black beans
• 1 1-oz can of red beans
• 1 12-oz pkg frozen corn
• 2 packets of taco seasoning
• about a tablespoon of dried onion flakes

Ordinarily I cook the meat first, draining it if I use commercial ground meat--luckily our homegrown meat is so lean we don't have to do that. But our son is eating vegetarian right now, so I cooked the ground meat in a skillet separately. Once I got the meat cooking, I put the corn in the microwave for 5 minutes.  Meanwhile, I opened the tomato sauce and beans, and dumped them in my soup pot, adding the taco seasoning and onion flakes, bringing it to a simmer.  When the corn was ready, I opened it and added it to the soup pot.  At this point, all it needs is some time.  Cover and simmer for at least 20 minutes to give everything time to meld together.  At this point, I scooped some out in a smaller saucepan for my son, and added the cooked ground meat to the rest.

Taking out some of it made the meat version a little thicker than I usually make it, and I normally would have added some additional tomato sauce, maybe even just a little water, and some additional seasoning, but I used up all of the taco seasoning I had (and I had borrowed one of those packets from my mother!)

I ate mine with a little grated "Fiesta blend" grated cheese and a little dollop of sour cream.

This is good a regular soup, with crackers, or with corn chips.  It's very hearty, no matter how you eat it. 

My son pronounced the vegetarian version good, as well.  "Almost like real taco soup". 

Last night turned out to be good night for it, although we've had very warm weather lately, we had a thunderstorm move through and cool things back down quite a bit. 

What's your "go-to" meal for cooking from your pantry?

Until next time, good cooking, and good eating...

This post is linked to:

Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farm

Friday Favorites at Simply Sweet Home

Foodtastic Friday and Friends at Not Your Ordinary Recipes

Clever Chicks Blog Hop at The Chicken Chick

Mealtime Monday at Couponing and Cooking

Slightly Indulgent Tuesday at Simply Sugar & Gluten Free

Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam

Kale "Chips"

For a southern girl, I have never been much of a vegetable eater.  I love purple hull peas and sweet corn, but honestly, a lot of other vegetables were in the eat-this-because-it's-good-for-you category.  Even salads are usually just so-so in my book.  (In a restaurant, given a choice between soup or salad for a starter, I always go for the soup.)  I've tried to make up for it by eating a lot of fruit, but even natural sugar can get to be too much if you over-do it. 

This year I've been really trying to cook (and eat) more vegetables, and to introduce some variety into our steady diet of  purple hull peas/corn/mixed vegetables.  I found out a couple of years ago that I love fresh asparagus, but it's a quite pricey around these parts.  Although I've read that asparagus is difficult to grow in the deep south, I'm still hoping to find a variety that will work here and put in an asparagus bed.   

Meanwhile, I tried brussels sprouts for the first time in my adult life, they've become a regular part of our veggie rotation.  That success has inspired me to try another new-to-me vegetable, kale, one I never thought I'd ever try, much less buy, and it's become another roaring success.

This is not so much a recipe as it is a technique, because nothing is really measured, but this is our favorite version so far.

Ingredients:

• Kale
• Kosher salt or sea salt
• olive oil
• crushed red pepper flakes

Spread a generous amount of washed, dried, and chopped kale on a baking sheet.  

I use pre-washed and chopped bags of kale from the produce section at Wal-mart. I try to pick through it and pull out the thick stem pieces as I go.  I'm hoping to raise some kale in my garden this year, if you have whole kale, cut the thick center rib out and chop the rest coarsely.  You need a lot, because this wilts down dramatically.

Drizzle with olive oil, probably a couple of tablespoons for this size pan (around 10 x 15, I think)

Sprinkle with coarse grained salt (not table salt--use Kosher salt or sea salt) and crushed red pepper flakes

Next-and I couldn't figure out how to take the picture while I did this--toss the kale until the olive oil and seasonings seem pretty well distributed throughout.  I take a handful of swirl and flip and toss for a minute or so, until it seems to be pretty well mixed up.

And now the tricky part--put in a 375 degree oven for 10-15 minutes. 

The tricky part is making sure the kale gets crispy and a little browned on the edges, but not not burnt.  If you take it out too soon, it's wilted and slightly chewy, but not really crispy and not very tasty, either.   

I set my timer on 10 minutes and go about my business.  When the time goes off, I pull out the tray and give it a shake, maybe touch a piece or two and even taste one.  Then I usually put it back in for another couple of minutes, but I stand beside the stove and watch it very carefully. 

The trays in the pictures above are actually just a little browner than I usually go, I had raised my oven rack for something else I was cooking and I forgot to lower to back to the middle, so it cooked just a little bit faster than usual, but even if you think you've over done it, once they get crispy, the brown doesn't seem to affect the taste--burnt to black, now, that might!

We have eaten these yummy bits of green as a crispy accompaniment to a sandwich...

...and as a traditional vegetable side dish with a meal. 

(In this picture they look "wet", but this is from a batch where I was particularly generous with the olive oil--they're just "shiny".)

Last night's batch was on the stove as I was making dinner, my son was standing there talking to me about his day at work, and between the two of us, we finished off the whole tray in a matter of a few minutes.  I never thought I'd see the day that I'd need to slap back fingers from pinching the kale!

Until next time--good cooking, and good eating!

This post is linked to:

Meatless Monday at My Sweet and Savory

Works for Me Wednesday at We are THAT Family

Meatless Monday at Littlest Sweet Pea

Wonderful Food Wednesday at Mom's Test Kitchen

Frugal Food Thursday at Frugal Follies