Mincemeat Pie

This is Nana Conner's mincemeat pie recipe, and it is dang good. For those of you who aren't familiar with mincemeat, I will warn you it is an intense flavor, and as for making it, it takes quite a bit of chopping. If you have a blender though, you can do it without a grinder, which is what I did.

This is cut WAY down--enough to make one pie. It also makes it kind of hard to give exact amounts on some things, but here are approximations (without a grinder):

1 c. cooked beef (NOT ground beef; I used some steak cuts)

2 c. apples (about two good-sized braeburns)

1/3 c. suet (just ask for it at the butcher's), cut into slices and blended fine in blender

about 1/2 lb. raisins, blended in a blender (they don't need to be as fine as the meat)

Cut the beef into small strips and shred in a blender. Dice the apples fine. (These two steps take the longest, but after that it's pretty easy.) Mix together in a large mixing bowl with the suet and raisins.

Mix with:

about 1/3 c. vinegar

1 T. molasses

Sprinkle in:

cloves

nutmeg

allspice

ginger

cinnamon

1 c. sugar

salt

I just sprinkled and stirred, sprinkled and stirred until it smelled like mincemeat.

Cook all together in large, deep skillet until apples are tender but not mushy.

You can can it for months I guess, but since I just made enough for one pie, I put it into jars and let it sit in the fridge for about a week like Aunt Rinda said to. It came out great!

Corn Bread-Oyster Stuffing

I've used this recipe for quite a few years now and we love it!

1-1/2 cups butter
2 pkg (8 oz. size) corn bread stuffing mix
3 cans (7 oz. size) oysters
1/2 cup each chopped onion, green pepper, and celery
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. dried rosemary
1/4 tsp. pepper

1. In 6-qt pot, heat 1 cup water and 1 cup butter, to melt butter. Remove from heat, toss with stuffing mix.
2. Drain oysters; cut in half. In 1/2 cup butter in medium pan, saute oysters, onion, green pepper, and celery, 5 minutes. Add salt, rosemary, pepper. Add to stuffing; toss lightly to mix well.

Makes enough for a large (20-25 lb.) turkey.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

We love whoopie pies--who doesn't? Ever since Mal had a pumpkin whoopie pie when she worked in Bar Harbor, I've searched for a good recipe, but never found one until this. It's wonderful! This recipe is taken from http://www.familyfun.com/.

PUMPKIN CAKES:
2 eggs
2 cups light brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin
3 cups flour
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

FILLING/CREAM CHEESE FROSTING:
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 to 5 cups confectioners' sugar

Instructions:
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Beat the eggs, brown sugar, oil, and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl until smooth. Stir in the pumpkin. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, pumpkin spice, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture a half cup at a time, blending each time until smooth.
Drop a heaping tablespoon of batter onto an ungreased cookie sheet, using a moist finger or the back of a spoon to slightly flatten each mound. Bake the cookies for 12 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Meanwhile, make the frosting. Beat together the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla extract in a bowl until light and fluffy. Mix in the confectioners' sugar a half cup at a time, until the frosting is spreadable.
To assemble the pies, turn half of the cookies bottom side up and spread a generous amount of cream cheese frosting on each one. Top them with the remaining cookies (turned right side up). Makes 2 dozen whoopie pies.