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!)

Festive Spiced Pears a divine idea for Thanksgiving side

Although today’s feature, Spiced Pears, resembles the recipe in Friday’s blog, it’s definitely not the same. This dish was so amazing and was such a great idea for a Thanksgiving side, I just had to include it even though it, at first glance, looks as though it might be a re-run of that marvelous Cranberry Orange Relish from last week.

Spiced Pears was included in my Taste of Home Thanksgiving recipe cards in which I’ve found all sorts of treasures. The description (by recipe contributor Ruby Williams) stated that this was a change of pace from the typical Thanksgiving sides and that it was easy to fix and looked festive on the table.

It consists of six pears, two oranges, and a can of whole berry cranberry sauce. I had a bag of fresh cranberries on hand, however, so I boiled them until they were soft and measured 14 ounces of them in a cup (same amount as in a can of cranberry sauce). So everything in my recipe was fresh.

The sliced, cooked pears taste absolutely wonderful aswirl in the cooked cranberries and oranges. Added spices give the mixture a nice perk-up. Hubby wouldn’t get near these Spiced Pears at first because he thought they contained strawberries, his nemesis, but when I assured him of the contents, he waded in for a bite . . . and then more and more. And our little grandmunchkin, while he was staying with us over the weekend, went nuts over this dish, so if you’re looking for a Thanksgiving dish that will appeal to the kiddos and all other ages as well at your table, look no further!

Spiced Pears

1 (14-ounce) can whole berry cranberry sauce (or fresh cranberries

cooked to measure 14 ounces)

1/3 cup sugar (or sugar substitute)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

6 medium pears, peeled and sliced

2 medium navel oranges, peeled and sectioned

In a large saucepan combine the cranberry sauce, sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, and ginger. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Stir in pears and oranges; simmer, uncovered, for 15-20 minutes or until pears are tender.

This simple, beautiful Cranberry-Orange Relish has star quality

My fall recipe binder contained this note alongside Cranberry-Orange Relish: “Star of the 2010 Thanksgiving table”. Now, when you think about it, that’s quite a compliment. Consider the competition: pecan pie, turkey, dressing, scrumptious casseroles. A small little dish of relish trumps these other glories of the holiday? Amazing.

However, Cranberry-Orange Relish is not just any relish. Fresh whole cranberries mixed with orange juice, orange sections (could be from fresh oranges such as the ones that grow in our son’s back yard or from canned Mandarin orange segments), and crystallized ginger make a tasty combination. Chilled to let the flavors co-mingle and then served in my mother’s pretty glass dish—I do remember it being a divine little number. Enough inspiration to make Cranberry-Orange Relish again for this year.

Clipped from the pages of a Family Circle magazine of bygone days (no date of publication remained on my well-worn clipping), this relish is crazy-easy and requires no tedious chopping. Let the cranberries, sugar, and orange juice boil on the stovetop for about 5 minutes, until the sauce thickens and most of the berries pop open. Stir in the orange segments and it’s ready to chill until serving time. Star quality!

Cranberry-Orange Relish

1 (12-ounce) bag fresh whole cranberries (can also use frozen)

1 cup sugar (or sugar substitute)

1/2 cup orange juice

2 tablespoons chopped crystallized ginger (buy this in the spice section of your grocery)

1 (15-ounce) can Mandarin oranges or 1 3/4 cups chopped fresh orange segments, drained

In a medium saucepan combine cranberries, orange juice, sugar, and ginger; mix well. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Boil, uncovered, 5 minutes, or until mixture has thickened and most berries have popped. Remove from heat; stir in oranges. Transfer to bowl. Place plastic wrap directly on surface of relish; refrigerate until chilled. Makes 3 cups (1/4 cup per serving).

Mint-to-Be Frothy Hot Cocoa a homemade, soothing ticket to dreamland

Hubby was insistent. Why hadn’t I blogged about the splendid hot cocoa mix that he brews each evening for our nighttime wind-down regimen? After all, it utilizes mint leaves as a key element for its flavor—and as we all know, the mint plant (irrepressibly) springs from the garden. Doesn’t this blog honor foods that are garden-fresh?

I bowed my head in shame. After all Hubby does to aid and abet this column—after-dark trips to the garden to bring in a homegrown item, emergency dashes to the grocery for a last-minute ingredient, hosts of kitchen clean-ups with all my dirty pots and pans scattered about—the least I could do was to blog about the homemade, stovetop cocoa mix that he has perfected through night after night of experimentation.

So here it is: Hubby’s Mint-to-Be Frothy Hot Cocoa, certainly the best from-scratch cocoa mix you’ll ever sip—so good, in fact, that it was a part of our nighttime routine all summer long, even on those broiling, ridiculous evenings when the thermometer still read 100-degrees at bedtime. On with the hot cocoa, regardless!

Of course now we are learning about chocolate’s health benefits—and that the natural flavanol antioxidants contained within cocoa contribute to cardiovascular health. A soothing cup of milk before bedtime also is said to be sleep-inducing, because it contains tryptophan, the same chemical found in turkey—just as with the after-Thanksgiving-dinner sleepiness that seems to descend. The calcium in milk is thought to have better chance of getting into the bones and muscles while you rest, so bedtime is prime time for ingesting it.

Besides those attributes, the sweet sip of hot cocoa (the mix recipe is adjusted with lighter options, as you’ll see) at the end of the day is just plain soothing and aids in our mellowing out to put the day’s cares aside. The mint from our garden spikes it with freshness—the same as peppermint candy does in those expensive, gourmet coffee-shop brews might but without the calories and sugar.

We are big believers in our nightly Mint-to-Be Frothy Hot Cocoa. Thanks to Hubby for reminding me to be evangelical about it and to spread the word in this blog so readers can have more replenishing z-z-z-z’s as well.

Hubby’s Mint-to-Be Frothy Hot Cocoa

1/2 cup sugar (we use sugar substitute)

1/3 cup cocoa

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

4 cups milk (we use skim)

4 teaspoons vanilla

20 mini-marshmallows

4 mint springs

(dash of sugar-free whipped topping, if desired)

In airtight container mix sugar, cocoa, and cinnamon. In small saucepan on stove heat milk over medium-high heat. Stir constantly. When milk is warm stir in cocoa mix. Stir until cocoa mix is dissolved and chocolate drink reaches desired temperature. Stir briskly with a wire whisk to make the liquid froth up a bit. In the bottom of each cup place 1 teaspoon vanilla, 5 mini-marshmallows, and 2 leaves from the mint sprig. Allow drink to steep for a few minutes until it cools a little and the mint leaves flavor the drink. Remove the mint leaves or let them remain, according to your preference. (This recipe makes enough for four cups of hot cocoa. Hubby and I make up the powdered drink and divide it in half so that it lasts for two nights. The second night, all we have to do is to warm up the milk and do the add-ins to the cups.)

The perfect taste combination for this season—Cranberry-Pecan Corn Muffins

I thought they looked so cute and Thanksgiving-y, I just had to whip up a batch. A combination of cranberries, pecans, and cornbread—who could beat that when looking for a little bite of Thanksgiving in one mini-muffin?

1. My recipe for Cranberry-Pecan Corn Muffins found in my Taste of Home book of Thanksgiving recipe cards actually called for making these in a regular-sized muffin tin, but I always like to have something mini among my Thanksgiving bread offerings, so I adjusted the cooking time accordingly. I followed the regular recipe, but my mini-version of the muffins tested done at about 12 minutes instead of the recommended 18-20 minutes for the regular size.

A wonderful tip accompanied this recipe, which calls for 1/4 cup honey. It suggests that when honey is needed to be measured for baking, first to oil the measuring cup, which then causes the measured honey to slide out easily without the gooey scraping that sometimes accompanies the process. This worked well for me. I was happy not to have to clean up the messy cup.

The recipe also states that Cranberry-Pecan Corn Muffins have the perfect taste combination for this time of year. I totally agree. Little bits of cranberry and tiny pecan morsels peek through the crown of the golden muffins. I can’t wait to serve these on the big holiday–now just a week and a day away!

Cranberry-Pecan Corn Muffins

1 3/4 cups yellow cornmeal

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt (or salt substitute)

1 1/2 cups (12 ounces) fat-free plain yogurt

1 egg (or 1/4 cup egg substitute)

1/4 cup canola oil

1/4 cup honey

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/4 cup chopped pecans

In a large bowl combine the cornmeal, flour, baking soda and salt. In another bowl combine the yogurt, egg, oil, and honey. Stir moist ingredients into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in cranberries and pecans. Coat muffin cups with cooking spray; fill three-fourths full with batter. Bake at 375 degrees for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center emerges clean. Cool for 5 minutes before you remove muffins from pans to wire racks. Serve warm. Makes about 1 dozen. (If trying the mini-muffin route, the recipe makes about 32 mini-muffins.)

"Tastes like Thanksgiving!" No better compliment for Chicken Squash Casserole

Back to that fabulous new cookbook from Calvary Baptist Church in Little Rock. Still prowling through it I encountered a squash casserole that was different than any I’d ever seen (and I’ve been around the block a few times where squash casseroles are concerned.)

As its basic elements, this casserole combined squash, cornbread stuffing, and cubed chicken (new to me in a squash casserole). I already had in my possession a box of cornbread stuffing and a container of the chicken. With a brief trip (I should say, with Hubby’s brief trip) to the grocery produce section for a little fresh squash, I was in business.

Other than the small amount of time necessary for slicing the squash and chopping the small onion, this was an amazingly easy prep. Stir-ins of cream of chicken soup, sour cream, and seasonings completed the assemblage. I couldn’t resist sprinkling a little Cheddar cheese on top. I mean, to me, a squash casserole just doesn’t look right if it isn’t crowned with a smattering of orange. Only about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of cheese was all I added, but the effect was achieved.

“This tastes like Thanksgiving!” Hubby gushed when I plunked some Chicken Squash Casserole on a plate and set it before him last night. Genius! That’s the general idea. After all, ’tis the season. Another winner from Calvary Culinary Creations (and from this recipe’s contributor, Adrian Self).

Chicken Squash Casserole

2 pounds yellow squash, sliced

1 box cornbread stuffing mix

1 (10.5-ounce) can cream of chicken soup

8 ounces sour cream (I used fat-free)

1 small onion, chopped

2 cups cooked and cubed chicken

salt (or salt substitute) and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large saucepan cover squash and onion with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium; cook until squash is tender. Drain. Stir in salt, pepper, soup, stuffing mix, chicken, and sour cream. Pour squash mixture into greased 2 1/2-quart casserole dish. Bake for 35 minutes. Serves 6.

One was not enough of this colorful Vegetable Pie

In an earlier blog I mentioned how very much I love to explore new cookbooks and to search out recipes that would be appropriate for The Newfangled Country Gardener. My friend Kay knew this and for my recent birthday generously sent along Calvary Culinary Creations, a collection of recipes by her church, Calvary Baptist Church in Little Rock, AR.

Now, as many people know, no greater source for good cookin’ exists than getting hold of a church cookbook. Some years back I cooked my way through a cookbook produced by Birchman Baptist Church in Fort Worth. I left almost no recipe untried in my quest to prepare each and every suggestion in that album.

In this recent one from the Little Rock church I’ve already been through and dog-eared (or put sticky notes beside) numerous suggestions, including some I intend to hop right onto for Thanksgiving week. Those that don’t get cooked for this holiday or Christmas for sure will go on a wish list for the new year.

The first that caught my eye was Vegetable Pie, made with baking mix and reminiscent of the baking-mix-underscored crustless pies that have been popular in the past. I liked this one because it gave me an opportunity to tuck in some veggies that have been lingering in the vegetable bin of my refrigerator. Besides the chopped fresh broccoli the recipe mentions, I also added about 1/2 cup chopped carrots and used chopped red pepper instead of green. (I steamed my veggies in the microwave instead of cooking them in boiling water as the recipe states.) These substitutions made for a very colorful end-product.

My subs didn’t end there. I didn’t have enough Cheddar cheese for one cup, so I added bits of shredded Mozzarella and Swiss to the Cheddar I did have on hand. In fact, Hubby recently asked me, “Isn’t the theme of your blog the fact that you don’t need to avoid cooking a recipe just because you don’t have all the ingredients on hand?” Well, sorta. I have become far more adventuresome where subbing what’s available is concerned. I don’t see that mixing the cheeses hurt this recipe one bit.

Long story short, we loved this version of Vegetable Pie (thanks to Calvary’s Jan Harrendorf, who submitted it). We dined on it all weekend and found it to be both nourishing and soothing. I’ve already made an extra pie and put it away in the freezer for meals during rat-race December. Making just one simply wasn’t enough.

Vegetable Pie

2 cups chopped broccoli, fresh or frozen

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped green pepper

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 1/2 cups milk (I used skim)

3/4 cup baking mix (I used lowfat Bisquick)

3 eggs (I used 3/4 cup egg substitute)

1 teaspoon salt (I used salt substitute)

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Grease 10-inch pie pan. (I found that using a large-enough pie pan was absolutely crucial so the mix won’t spill over into the oven and will stay contained in the pie pan.) Cook broccoli in boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain. Mix broccoli, cheese, onions, and pepper in pie plate. Beat remaining ingredients until smooth. Pour over vegetables. Bake 35 minutes until golden brown. Leftovers may be re-heated.