White Bread

This recipe uses a different method for activating the yeast, and makes it soooo much easier. The bread is ultra soft with a nice thin crispy crust.

4 c. flour
2 T. yeast
1/3 c. sugar
1 T. salt
3 c. hot tap water (as hot as the tap will let it get; it should be too hot for you to keep your finger under)
1/4 c. oil

1. Mix flour, yeast, sugar, and salt together with fork.
2. Add the hot water and oil to the dry ingredients. Mix with a fork until thoroughly blended.
3. Add more flour (about a 1/2 to 1 cup at a time) and stir just until dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl. It will still be quite sticky, so flour up your hands.
4. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Knead the dough, adding flour (this time by handfuls) until the dough is reasonably easy to handle. Knead for about 10 minutes. (Avoid adding more flour than is needed to keep the dough from being tough.)
5. Spray your mixing bowl down with a light coating of oil. Tuck the dough into a ball and set in the bowl. Cover with a cloth and allow dough to double in size.
6. Cut in half and form each half into loaves. Set in greased pans and let rise until loaves reach the tops of the pans.

7. Bake in 375-400 degree oven for 1/2-hour.
8. While cooling, grease tops of bread with butter.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

We ate over at a friend's house the other night and his new girlfriend made these cookies. They are so easy, and really good. We brought some vanilla ice cream which they go great with. The best part is, no matter how long you wait to eat them, they stay really moist.

1 box spice cake mix
1 can pumpkin
1/2 bag chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Blend cake mix and pumpkin together thoroughly. Add chocolate chips as desired. Bake 10-15 minutes. (Watch them closely for the last few minutes. They'll finish up nice and quick.)

That's it! Enjoy!

The Best Cherry Pie Ever

Can she bake a cherry pie? Yup! I'll warn you right now that if you use this recipe you'll never buy another can of cherry pie filling in your life!

1 1/2 cups sugar (use only 1 cup if you wish)
3 T cornstarch
2 [14.5 oz.] cans red tart pie cherries (fruit packed in water--NOT pie filling)
1/4 tsp. red food coloring (opt.)
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1 T butter
2 crusts for a 9" pie

Preheat oven to 400. Drain the cherries and reserve the juice from one can. In a saucepan, stir the cherry juice into the combined mixture of the cornstarch and half of the sugar. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened. Remove from heat. Gently stir in remaining sugar, cherries, extract, and food coloring. Pour filling into pastry lined pie pan. Dot with butter. Adjust top crust, seal and vent. Bake 45 minutes or until crust browns and filling begins to bubble through the vents in top crust. (This is important--if it isn't bubbling through the vents a little it won't be thickened up enough.) If necessary, you can cover the edges with foil during the last 15 minutes to prevent over-browning of the crust. Remove from oven and cool on wire rack before slicing.

Pecan Pie

Does anybody really like any other kind of pie, or do they just say other kinds to be different? Be truthful world! Pecan is King! Here's another label recipe this time from the Karo syrup bottle. I always look for the recipe that uses the most pecans. :)

3 eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup sugar
1 cup corn syrup--light or dark
2 T butter, melted
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/4 cups pecans
1 (9-inch) unbaked deep-dish pie crust

Preheat oven to 350. Mix sugar and eggs together. Add corn syrup, butter and vanilla, stirring until blended. Stir in pecans and pour into pie crust.
Bake 50 to 55 minutes or until knife inserted 1" from edge comes out clean. (This is the classic test for doneness in this type of pie, but when you see that it's puffed up all the way across, it's done.) Remove from oven and cool on wire rack.

The Jakey--A Sandwich Experience

This is an original creation by our son Jake.

Ingredients:
2 eggs, hard boiled, peeled, and chopped
mayonnaise (as desired)
salt and pepper to taste
pimento-stuffed green olives, chopped
sliced cheese

Directions:
Mix all ingredients except cheese together. With two slices of bread make a sandwich along with a slice or two of cheese (Provolone or Swiss is good). Butter the outsides of the bread and toast in a pan over medium heat until golden brown and cheese is melted. It's yummy!

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

My oldest daughter's favorite. We can't get fresh rhubarb where we live, but by this time of year it would be frozen anyway even if we could. Don't overdo it on the sugar--a little tartness is good!

3 cups rhubarb, cut up
2 cups strawberries, sliced
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/3 cup flour
1 egg
1 T butter
pastry for a 9" double crust pie

Mix sugar, flour, and egg together. Stir in rhubarb and strawberries until well coated. Turn out into pastry-lined pan and dot with a butter, then cover with other pastry. Make slits for steam to escape. Bake in a preheated oven at 450 for 15 minutes, then turn oven down to 350 and bake for an additional 30 minutes.

Pineapple Pie

My mother-in-law always made this pie and it's the easiest of the easy.

Ingredients:
2 eggs, beaten
3/4 c. sugar
2 T cornstarch
a dash of salt
1 20 oz. can of crushed pineapple, undrained
Pastry for a 9" two-crust pie

Directions:
Mix all of the ingredients together except pastry. Pour everything into an unbaked pie shell cover with the top crust. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. That's it!

ONE-PIE NEW ENGLAND PUMPKIN PIE

This is my favorite pumpkin pie recipe and it comes from the back of the One-Pie Pumpkin can. I've often thought I should put together a cookbook called "The Back of The Box Recipes"--they're some of the best!

Ingredients:

1 cup Sugar

1 tbsp. Cornstarch

1/2 tsp. Cinnamon

1/2 tsp. Ginger

1/2 tsp. Nutmeg

1/2 tsp. Salt (Scant)

1 can ONE-PIE Pumpkin (or any 16 oz. canned solid-pack pumpkin)

2 Eggs (beaten)

1/2 tbsp. Butter (Melted)

1/8 cup Moasses

1 1/2 cups Milk or 1-12 oz. can Evaporated Milk

Directions:
Sift Sugar, Cornstarch, Salt, Cinnamon, Ginger, & Nutmeg together. Mix this with contents of one can ONE-PIE Pumpkin. Add Eggs, beaten, Melted Butter, Molasses, & Milk. Add a dash of Lemon Juice (if desired--I do not). Line a 9-inch pie plate with pastry dough, pour in contents. Preheat oven & bake at 450 for 15 minutes. Then reduce temp. to 350 & continue to bake for 50 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely on wire rack.

Pie Crust with Butter

This pie crust comes out light and flaky. The key is to make sure the butter is very cold and the dough doesn't get over-kneaded.

2 1/2 c. flour
1/2 t. salt
1 t. sugar
1 c. diced butter (COLD)
1/2 c. icy water

1. Mix the flour, salt, and sugar together. Add the butter and mix until rough crumbles form. Add water and mix until dough doesn't quite hold together.
2. Turn contents out onto lightly floured surface. Knead until dough just holds a ball form. Wrap well, and put in fridge for 30 min.-1 hr.
3. Take dough out just before use. Roll out on large sheet of waxed paper to avoid excess flour in the dough, which will cause it to be tough.

Yield: 2 pie crusts