white beans with spinach and sausage AND banana cream pie

This is the cream cheese brownie pie from the post before this one.  
Note: As you see, I made the brownie cheesecake pie.  I am not a great chocolate lover, so this was way too much chocolate for me and I did not ever add the hot fudge sauce to the top.  I will not make it again, but if you love chocolate, go to it.  I would double the cheesecake addition, however.  That little bit is over powered by the taste of chocolate.

White Beans with Spinach and sausage

I hear it is national pie week.  I have been craving pie, so it must be true.  Yesterday I made a very big chicken pot pie and today, not a trace is left.
Nate is in Hawaii, so this pie is in his honor:

Island-style banana cream pie

Ingredients

Crust:

1 Pillsbury refrigerated pie crust, softened as directed on box

Filling:  

1/2 cup shredded coconut

1 package, 8 ounces, cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sour cream

1  1/2 cups cold milk

2 boxes (4 servings size each, vanilla instant pudding and pie filling mix

4 medium bananas, cut 1/4 inch slices

Directions:

Heat oven to 450. Bake pie crust as directed on box. Reduce oven to 350. Cool pie crust completely.

Meanwhile, spread coconut in ungreased shallow pan.  Bake uncovered at 350 for 5-7 minutes, stir occasionally until it is golden brown.

In large bowl with electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sour cream on medium speed until smooth and fluffy.  Gradually add milk, 1/2 cup at a time, beating until smooth.  Add pudding mixes; beat until well blended.

Spread 1/3 of the pudding mix in cooled pie cru7st. Top with half of the sliced bananas. Spread another 1/3 of the pudding mixture over the bananas, covering completely.

 Sprinkle with 1/3 of the toasted coconut.  Top with remaining bananas. Spread remaining pudding mixture over bananas. Sprinkle with another 1/3 of the toasted coconut.

Top with frozen whipped topping  

Bake Off #39 recipe

Note:

Note: As you see, I made the brownie cheesecake pie.  I am not a great chocolate lover, so this was way too much chocolate for me and I did not ever add the hot fudge sauce to the top.  I will not make it again, but if you love chocolate, go to it.  I would double the cheesecake addition, however.  That little bit is over powered by the taste of chocolate.

Bake-Off contest 39 caught my eye today and I am asking Andy to go to the store to pick up a few items in order to tempt him with this brownie pie.  This would be a favorite of Alyssa's if she were here to indulge.  She adores brownies.

Ingredients
Crust
1 box Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts, softened as directed on box

Cream cheese layer

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg

Brownie layer

1 box Pillsbury double chocolate brownie mix
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon water
2 eggs
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Topping
reserved chocolate syrup from packet in the brownie mix
3 tablespoons hot fudge topping

To do:
Heat oven to 350
Place crust in 9-inch pie plate as directed on box for one-crust filled pie
In medium bowl, beat cream cheese layer ingredients until smooth
Spread 1/2 cup brownie mixture in bottom of crust-lined pie plate.  Spoon and carefully spread cream cheese mixture over brownie layer. Top with small spoonfuls of remaining brownie mixture; spread evenly. Sprinkle on pecans. ( Cover crust edge with 2-3 inch wide strips of foil to prevent excessive browning. Remove foil during last 15 minutes of bake time.)

Bake 40-50 minutes or until center is puffed and crust is golden brown, Pie may have cracks on surface

In small bowl, mix chocolate syrup from packet and hot fudge topping. Place mixture in small resealable bag, cut off a corner of bag, and drizzle topping over pie.  Cool completely, about 3 hours before serving.  Cover and refrigerate if any pie remains.

Pillsbury Bake Off booklets (collection)

The Pillsbury Grand National Recipe and Baking contest was first held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York City, in December 13, 1949, well before I was even married.  So collecting these little cookbooks has been a challenge.  Here you see the first ones, with #2 missing.  I have not found that one. I finally found #1 and paid a hefty price for it at an antiques show.  I have collected through 36 with these still missing: 9, 10, 11, 12, 35, and 2 as mentioned.  I bought many titled classics and I don't know how that figures into the bake off realm and then they started speciality ones and it got so confusing I ended up with many I did not want.  You can see from the stack how many I have, yet not all that I want to finish a collection through 36.  I am not sure that they are still doing these wonderful little booklets, but 36 is my limit.

Water Rising Twists won the very first prize of $50,000 captured by Mrs. R. Smithfield.  I have to say, they don't look that great and she had them raise in a towel with 75 degree water poured over the towel/dough to let rise.  You let it stand until the dough rises to the top of the water in about 30 to 45 minutes. (They would have to give me $50,000 to work out this recipe.)  

                                                                           
Inside the first winner's booklet (1949) was a wedding punch recipe from an old newspaper that I thought I might try.  About thirty-five years ago I used to serve a champagne punch at parties and it was so delicious and very sneaky.  Before you knew it, you were having a really good time.  I lost that recipe, but this one seems a bit  like the lost one, yet a little more complex considering the fruit steps. If it is just for Easter, you might want to cut this recipe in half...but with our family coming, it might just be enough. LOL


Gala Wedding Punch called Hacienda Wedding Punch

6 oranges
6 lemons
4 cups sugar
2 cups water
1/2 cup white corn syrup
1/4 tsp. salt
2 quarts pineapple or orange juice or just mix the two, half of one, half of the other
2 cups lemon juice
2 bottles white dinner wine
2 bottles champagne
2 bottles sparkling water
Peel oranges and lemons.  Cut peel in thin strips, add sugar, water, syrup and salt.  Bring to boil, stirring to dissolve sugar.(This is just the making of a simple syrup as we know it now.)  Lower heat, simmer 15 minutes. Cover and cool. Remove peel.  Add cold flavored syrup to fruit juices and the white wine. Pour over ice in a large punch bowl. Let stand about 1/2 hour stirring once or twice.  Just before guest arrive add well-chilled champagne and sparkling water.  80 servings.

This one is missing from my collection.  

In the Second Pillsbury Baking contest (not yet referred to as a “Bake-Off) was also held in New York City. (In 1957 the competition left New York for the first time and headed for Los Angeles. Since then, Bake-Off contests have been held in Washington, D.C. Florida, Texas and California.) The 1st Prize Winner in that Second Grand National Contest was Mrs. Peter Wuebel of Redwood City, California for her Orange-Kiss-Me Cake. Her first prize was $25,000.

Hello March

What a lovely non winter we have had.  We were gone during the worst of it in January and came home in February to spring.  Next week it will be in the seventies and we are opening the pool, not because there will be swimmers but because it looks nicer for Easter guests. Matt, our grandson, suggested it and said he would do the first cleaning of the pool for us this year. The sooner you open the pool the less murky and dirty it will look, so we are getting a really early start this year.  Matt will also drag out and power wash all of the furniture that seems to have just gotten settled in storage.  Time rushes by and it is not just the older people saying this, things are moving faster for everyone.

Yesterday I was in the mood to view cakes and their recipes, and today in Cook's Corner the bundt pan was featured because Nordic bundt pans were lauded since they are turning 70 years old. I bought several new bundt pans from Nordic and the first cake in each pan slid out with ease.  After that they became stubborn and I could not get the cake to release.  I am going to have to figure out what causes this because it is a waste of money, time, and nerves.  I've greased them by hand, I've sprayed them, I cannot think what else I can do to get them to behave.  If you have any ideas, I would like to hear from you at dorislechler@aol. com.

 The bundt pan was about to go down the tube until a lady presented the tunnel of fudge cake recipe during a Pillsbury baking contest.  She saved the company with that recipe and her recipe will be fifty years old this year. I must confess here and now that I have never tried to make a tunnel of fudge cake. But reading the recipe with Lisa Abraham's note makes me want to try . "Don't leave out the nuts, which are essential to the structural success of the cake."  You know I have made tube cakes before which rise beautifully only to have them sit down as though they are tired when turned out from the pan.  Does that mean that nuts are essential to the structural success of all tube pan cakes? Well, good luck and here is an example of the Pillsbury tunnel of fudge cake recipe that saved Nordic except the original recipe called for Double Dutch butter cream frosting which is no longer made. I hope the company gave the winner more than a new bundt pan as thanks.

Tunnel of fudge cake (recipe from Cook's Corner)

makes 16 servings
1 3/4 cup sugar
1 3/4 cups butter or margarine softened
6 eggs
2 cups powdered sugar
2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 cups  chopped walnuts

Glaze:
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
4-6 teaspoons milk

Oven 350

Grease and flour 12-cup fluted tube cake pan or 10-inch tube pan. In large bowl, combiner sugar and butter; beat until light and fluffy.  Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.  Gradually add 2 cups powdered sugar; blend well.
By hand, stir in flour and remaining cake ingredients until well blended. Spoon batter into greased and floured pan and spread evenly.
Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes or until top is set and edges are beginning to pull away from the pan.
Cool up right in pan on wire rack for 1 1/2 hours.  Invert onto serving plate and let finish cooling for 2 hours.
Glaze:
 In a small bowl, combine all glaze ingredients, adding enough milk for desired drizzle consistency.  Spoon over top of cake, allowing some to run down sides. Store tightly covered.

Good luck.  LOL

Nordic ware offers 50 pan designs and to mark their anniversary they will release three new ones--release (that's the key word here.)

 second prize, Ella's

recipe, was featured on
the recipe book that year.

Original recipe:

Tunnel of Fudge Cake
1 1/2 cups soft Land O' Lakes Butter
6 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups Pillsbury's Best Flour (Regular, Instant Blending or Self Rising*)
1 package Pillsbury Double Dutch Fudge Buttercream Frosting Mix
2 cups chopped Diamond Walnuts

Oven 350° [ed. 350 F / 175 C]
10-inch tube cake

Cream butter in large mixer bowl at high speed of mixer. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Gradually add sugar, continue creaming at high speed until light and fluffy. By hand, stir in flour, frosting mix, and walnuts until well blended. Pour batter into greased Bundt pan or 10-inch Angel Food tube pan. Bake at 350° for 60 to 65 minutes. Cool 2 hours, remove from pan. Cool completely before serving.

Note: Walnuts, Double Dutch Fudge Frosting Mix and butter are key to the success of this unusual recipe. Since cake has a soft fudgy interior, test for doneness after 60 minutes by observing dry, shiny brownie-type crust.

*For use with Pillsbury's Best Self-Rising Flour, decrease butter to 1 cup. Cream butter in large mixer bowl at high speed of mixer. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each. At low speed, gradually add flour, then sugar, mixing until well blended. By hand, stir in frosting mix and walnuts. Blend well. Pour batter into greased Bundt pan or 10-inch Angel Food tube pan. Bake at 350° for 65 to 70 minutes. Cool 2 hours. Remove from pan. Cool completely before serving

Good ideas to try

End of February (the 28th) and we had Sunday lunch outside.  Unreal.  This is Ohio. We had comfort food today: meatloaf, mashed potatoes, peas and chili.

Good Ideas day:

Spaghetti pie: Google the recipes there are tons of them.  I've made it several ways and you can't go wrong. Spaghetti wants to be a pie being served in slices. David Lebovitz's blog has a good recipe and pictures.





Note:  The family agrees this is the best banana bread that they have eaten.  One loaf gone already. Waiting for the bananas to ripen for the next batch.

From Kitchen Daily...banana bread quick and delicious

3 really, really ripe bananas (the kind that lay there with an accusing expression daring you to throw them away)
1 egg
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1  1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup melted butter (I used one stick of butter.)
No mixer necessary.  Mash bananas in a bowl.  All all ingredients except flour. Blend well then add flour. Melt butter in loaf pan.  Grease pan with melted butter then pour balance of butter into batter and mix.  Pour batter into loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 50 minutes. Perfect.  I drizzled a butter cream icing over the top after baking, but she just sprinkled sugar on top before baking for a crisp coating. This is the easiest banana bread I have ever tried.


From The English Kitchen

Egg in a hole but this time in a bagel hole instead of a slice of bread. 

Double cranberry orange bread

It's Wednesday and Cook's Corner arrived with several good looking recipes.  I want to make this bread recipe for Easter because I have plans to have a really big platter of different slices of cakes and breads.  I have three already in the Easter section of the freezer.  This one looks scrumptious.  This recipe came from a new book: Everyday Baker which is new on the market for $40.  I don't know how they keep on printing cookbooks with the Internet having every recipe one could possible think of at a finger's touch.  But they do, so here is one from Everyday Baker, which is supposed to make you get right up and start baking...





Double cranberr
Prepare the loaf pan with spray or butter and flour (I use loaf pan papers which are easy and reliable.)
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
2 large eggs at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 cup fresh cranberries, coarsely chopped (I keep these in the freezer all winter to have on hand.)
1 tablespoon grated orange zest
 1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup sliced almonds
Oven: center rack 350 preheat

Prepare you pan 8 1/2x 1/2x2 3/4 inch loaf pan
Put the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in medium bowl and whisk until until well blended.  Put in the buttermilk, eggs and vanilla in a small bowl or measure the buttermilk in a 2-cup glass measure and add the eggs and vanilla that way) and whisk until blended.  Pour the liquid over the dry ingredients along with the melted butter, fresh and dried cranberries and zest. Gently fold (NO stirring) until blended. Even it out and scatter the almonds on top. bake 55-60 minutes depending on your oven.  Let cool 15 minutes and release it from the pan.

More reading from the blue chair~

I read cookbooks like novels but not in great gulps.  I leave the current read by my blue kitchen chair (that goes outside in the summer) and at a few times during the day I sit down there with the current new cookbook or an old dog-eared friend and read. I slip a paper between the pages of the recipe I want to try from that book yet sometimes I am so inspired I get up and produce something.  At times it is the very recipe and other times it is a hybrid inspired by a recipe that I have just read. I finished Ruth Reichl's My Kitchen Year and was pleased to leave her happy at the end.  She had quite a journey in the year after Gourmet, but she seemed 'fixed' by the year she spent in her kitchen cooking away and getting back in touch.  Honey & Company is now on the blue chair read.  I can stand maybe eight to ten pages at a time reading a cookbook, but then I have to 'do something'. Honey & Company is London based and I am eager to read on. (But I am also into Lisa Gardner's new book, Find Her, which is a psychological thriller and she is really good at what she does.)

Honey & Company, London.

Reading, not cooking

After several weeks of no-read, I am suddenly at it again on Kindle Cloud.  I started and finished a book yesterday and am into page 147 of this book I have to tell you to find and read: THE PRESIDENT KILLED HIS WIFE.  I am afraid my family will starve because I can't stop to cook. If you like Lee Child's books or Stuart Wood's books, you will find this book very satisfying and compelling.  I went from the good little book called The Little Bookshop on the Seine which I liked and finished in a day to this one and I can tell you reading on line or on Kindle paperwhite is the way to go.  My house is loaded with books and I give them away but they multiply on their own, so Kindle is my new best friend. The sun is shining and there things to do, but I am off to read.  Catch you later.
Note:  I finished the book and am breathless.
I am now on chapter three of his next book, Counterblow. Also received Find Her by Lisa Gardner today and The City of Falling Angels  by John Berendt.  (Beth and the Cincy Lechler ladies are going to Italy in June and her aunt said she should read this before going.)  It is by the same author as Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. No cooking today.  Looks like Chinese take out.

Corn on the cob~

• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 2 tbsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. dry mustard
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups grated old cheddar cheese (the stronger the cheese the more flavour in the biscuit), you may use a combination of Jalapeno or other strong flavoured cheeses, mix it up a bit.
• 1-14 oz. can creamed corn
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 tbsp. milk to brush on top

1. Combine all dry ingredients. 
2. Cut in butter, stir in cheese, corn and eggs.
3. Knead 10-12 times.
4. Roll out to 1" thick on a lightly floured counter.
5. Cut into desired shape.
6. Brush tops with milk.
7. Bake @ 400 for 20 minutes or until golden brown (each oven varies, so keep a close eye on them.)
8. These are very quick and easy to mix up and fresh hot out of the oven is always best!

Picture and recipe from Mennonite Girls Can Cook (blog)

The Spook House

I remember the times when our boys were small and Andy's co-worker had fields of corn.  Andy would meet him in the field and load up our yellow station wagon brimmed full with the luscious offering of summer.  A final gift of summer. I would call my mother and give her the warning that we were on our way to the Spook House.  When we arrived big pots of boiling water were burbling away under the outdoor fire station.  Tables were covered with oil cloth, knives were sharpened and containers and bags were at the ready, but first we would have our fill of buttered corn.  Everyone we knew wanted to be with us that week end to enjoy the harvest.  First the corn was boiled, then stations of strippers cut the corn from the ears and filled bags for freezing while relaying how the bags would come in handy when snow was flying. Secured in ice chests, the corn stayed cool for the trip home.  I loved that time as well as the cherry picking time at the Spook House. Our
children have a lot of good memories. Our
boys and their cousins had a wonderful childhood.  They were lucky. This biscuit recipe would have been put to good use had we had it then.

Pursuit of happiness three

Otterbein sorority formal 1958 (Andy was in the background.)
Otterbein University

This is what has made me happiest~
Andy and I will be married 57 years April 4th.

     

Beth, Mike, Nate and Alyssa

Doris Lechler's childhood home in water color.

Glenda, Andy, David and Johnna, Melbourn Beach, Fla.

Doris Lechler

January 15 at 4:23pm · 

Today on the beach after a big stor

January 15 at 4:23pm 

Johnna, JD, David and Glenda and Joe

Doris Lechler

January 15 at 3:11pm · 

They're here. Florida, New England Eatery

·

Things that make me smile:

Family in St Augustine, Florida

Doris, Andy, Michael and David

Add caption

Back row: Mike, Beth, Alyssa, David; front row Jack (a friend), Brooks and JD.                      





Beth and her mother

                                         

David, JD, Johnna

Adam on top of the world. That makes me happy.

2016 Matt and Andy at the beach in January.


                        Making stock    

Entertaining makes me smile...

                   
                       

                                                                        

part 2 pursuit of happiness

     Everyone's hungry at Many Branches                                                                          

This is part two of the things that make me happy although not in any particular order of preciousness.

Winter cooking makes me happy and it follows the first of the series which was the home.             Cooking for loved ones in Hilton Head one Thanksgiving at the beach.

            

                                             
Easter roast (I want this now, please.)

he beginning of the set up~he beginning of the set up

                    Love beef stew,  perfect for this kind of weather.

Worth showing twice...beef stew

Be prepared for a crowd, always.

Afternoon tea

                                   From Andy's garden...it will come again soon. Sigh.

                                             

                                                     

                   

Using my 30 year old cake pans which I will keep on using since Nordic pans STICK.



I once loved my series of Nordic pans, now...not so much, they stick!


As you can see, I love to cook and I love the people who eat my cooking.

                                                  

WANT TO MAKE LIZZIE D's RED VELVET CHEESECAKE BROWNIES



                             
Skillet lasagna with noodles you don't have to boil and then bake.

Honey bun cake. I've made this a dozen times at least.