Kay Wheeler Moore

Welcome to my blog

Hello. . .

The Newfangled Country Gardener is for anyone who has a garden, would like to have a garden, or who simply enjoys eating the garden-fresh way. I don't claim to be an expert; in this blog I'm simply sharing some of the experiences my husband and I have in preparing food that is home-grown.

About the author

Kay Wheeler Moore is the author of a new cookbook, Way Back in the Country Garden, that features six generations of recipes that call for ingredients that are fresh from the garden. With home gardening surging in popularity as frugal people become more resourceful, this recipe collection and the stories that accompany it ideally will inspire others to cook the garden-fresh way and to preserve their own family food stories as well. The stories in this book center around the Three Red-Haired Miller Girls (Kay's mother and aunts) who grew up in Delta County, TX, with their own backyard garden so lavish that they felt as though they were royalty after their Mama wielded her kitchen magic on all that was homegrown. Introduced in Kay's previous book, Way Back in the Country, the lively Miller Girls again draw readers into their growing-up world, in which a stringent economic era--not unlike today's tight times--saw people turn to the earth to put food on the table for their loved ones. The rollicking yarns (all with recipes attached) have love, family, and faith as common denominators and show how food evocatively bonds us to our life experiences.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

A goal accomplished; a Pumpkin Pie baked in tribute

365—the number of days in a year . . . also, the number of today’s blog post. At the outset of my writing The Newfangled Country Gardener, I set a personal goal—to write a year’s worth of blogs. A year doesn’t seem as though it would be too arduous of a commitment, I reasoned. Most anyone could purpose to keep a promise to one’s self for a year.

At that time I didn’t actually reckon that I was talking about blog-post days, not calendar days. To hatch up 365 separate blogs really has taken more than 18 months, since I haven’t posted on weekends. I began my blog on May 16, 2010, in conjunction with the release of my second cookbook, Way Back in the Country Garden, to help me promote the book’s premise—that cooking the garden-fresh way is best. I have thoroughly enjoyed trying scads of new recipes—some from my cookbook and many others from a variety of reliable sources—and reporting on them as I heartily recommended them to readers.

With today’s blog numbering 365, I am pleased to report that I have accomplished what I set out to do—even if the time frame has been slightly more elongated than I figured at first. With today’s post I no longer will be making daily entries five days a week—although I’ll never cease my yen for cooking healthy, fresh foods and trying out new recipes. After today I’ll post again frequently but without the necessity of the daily component attached. Hubby no will longer have to rise before each weekday dawn to read my blog drafts to catch potential typos, nor will he have to make daily, last-minute dashes to the grocery to fill in some missing ingredient for me.

I plan to compile all my blog posts into a book—with a recipe for each day of the year. In the near future be on the lookout for this. Please tell your non-blog-reading friends about it, too.

In thinking of the best recipe for blog number #365, I decided on a dish that would pay tribute to Hubby and his tremendous support role in making this daily blog possible. Pumpkin Pie is his all-time favorite food. He lives not for Thanksgiving Day but the day after, in which he can dine on a leftover slice of Pumpkin Pie for breakfast. I felt sure that no one would do Pumpkin Pie better than the queen of domesticity, Martha Stewart, so here is her recipe from www.marthastewart.com. My hero and the hero of this blog—Hubby himself—is shown holding the just-prepared prize in his hands—and dreaming of the Morning-After!

Pumpkin Pie

2 large eggs (or 1/2 cup egg substitute)
3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt (or salt substitute)
2 teaspoons pumpkin-pie spice
1 (15-ounce) can solid-pack pumpkin, or 1 3/4 cups pumpkin puree
1 cup half-and-half
1 basic pie crust (I used Easy Pie Crust from my first cookbook, Way Back in the Country)

In a large bowl whisk together eggs, brown sugar, vanilla, salt, pumpkin-pie spice, and pumpkin. Whisk in half-and-half. Prepare pie crust according to your favorite recipe. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line dough with aluminum foil. Fold foil over rim of pie pan. Fill foil-covered crust (on top of the foil) with dried beans or pie weights; bake until crust is firm, about 20 minutes. Carefully remove foil and beans. Cool crust completely before you fill. Pour mixture into cooled pie crust. Bake until set, about 1 hour. Cool on rack at room temperature for about 1 hour; then refrigerate to cool completely. Serves 8. (A tip from Martha: When refrigerating pie, cover the surface first with a paper towel and then plastic wrap. The towel absorbs moisture and keeps the surface free of droplets. It tried this; it works!)


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