- Nov 21, 2017
Loving Tradition
This is a relatively easy recipe but once my kitchen starts to smell like pumpkin pie, I’m transported back to holidays when my mother and grandmother were the ones doing the cooking and I was the official “taster.” The spices in the pie are balanced delicately so that the flavors aren’t camouflaged under a blanket of cinnamon.. My grandmother would never have considered any crust but homemade, but any refrigerated pre-made crust works for me!
Grandma's Pumpkin Pie
Ingredients:
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon allspice
2 large eggs
One (15 oz.) can unseasoned pumpkin
One (12 oz.) can evaporated milk
One unbaked 9 inch (4-cup volume) deep dish pie shell
Whipped cream (optional); I use homemade and go light on the sugar and heavy on the vanilla.
Directions:
Combine sugar, spices and salt in small bowl.
Beat eggs in large bowl.
Stir in pumpkin and sugar spice mixture.
Gradually stir in evaporated milk.
Pour into pie shell.
Preheat oven two 425° F, bake in 425° F oven for 15 minutes.
Reduce temperature to 350° F; bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean.
Cool on wire rack for two hours.
Serve immediately or refrigerate. My favorite, is warm!
Top with whipped cream before serving.
- Nov 19, 2017
With the clarity that only comes from hindsight I see the small acts of rebellion that I undertook – even if they went undetected by my husband – to somehow still feel connected to myself and my history. In the actual day to day I didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about it, I was a busy mother to 3 young children. I didn’t examine my situation all that carefully, I adapted and adjusted as one by one I was isolated from any of my family and friends that my husband deemed negative or not up to his high standards. It didn’t happen overnight, it was over almost 10 years and by the end I bore almost no resemblance to the person I had been. I had contorted myself into the person I thought my husband wanted me to be. A person who didn’t have room in her life for close friends, for her own family, or for her own needs.
Making the perfect "Pumpkin Pie" isn’t something that many people think about. It is a dessert that many people skip on their Thanksgiving feast. Having been cut off from my family for many years, and as my grandmother had recently passed away, I decided to spend this year carefully recreating her favorite holiday dessert. My grandmother was an amazing cook but not a big fan of writing down her recipes. I consider myself fortunate that I spent many years asking her to write down my childhood favorites. My goal was to make a pumpkin pie that grandma would have loved and to keep it as true to her recipe as I could – seasoning from memory. After several trials I did it. I had never managed her skill with homemade crust so I settled for the Pillsbury ready-made kind and baked my pies. Every year I would make pies for my closest friends; I would even make them for my in-laws. As they got older, I would encourage my kids to help with the baking; in this way I felt that they were somehow sharing some part of my family traditions.
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- Nov 17, 2017
New tradition??? The best part about this is that you can easily prep and cook it while working on your other Thanksgiving dishes or you can make it a few days ahead of time. Letting it settle in the fridge for a few days actually helps the flavors blend. This also makes it a great potluck side dish.
Cranberry Orange Sauce
Ingredients:
2 cups water
1 cup sugar
1-1b package of fresh cranberries
½ cup of other fruit or berry (for this recipe we used clementine tangerines)
Directions:
Bring water to a low boil, add sugar stirring constantly until dissolved. Add fruit and reduce heat to simmer, cover and cook for 20 more minutes. Keep an eye on the pot and adjust heat as needed. Remove from heat and let cool. Once mixture has cooled, pour into a food processor and pulse until mixture is smooth. Strain further according to taste. (I like getting little bits of berry in mine so I don’t!) Chill for at least 2 hours and then serve. Enjoy!
