Coconut Cream Pie

            I am supposed to be putting the finishing touches on my “graduation” speech so that I can begin practicing it to give the day before my twentieth birthday, but since my mind needed a break I decided to stop over here and put up a post. Now would be a good time to share one of my favorite desserts that I’ve had for my past few birthdays – Coconut Cream Pie! If you don’t like coconut you probably won’t like this pie. But if you like coconut as much as I do (which is a LOT!) then this is a must try!

Coconut Cream Pie

1 9-inch pie crust (see recipe below)

¾ cup + 2 Tbsp sugar

¼ cup cornstarch (or arrowroot powder)

¼ tsp salt

2 ¼ cup milk

4 egg yolks

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 Tbsp butter

2/3 cup coconut

Bake pie shell and set aside to cool. Combine sugar, cornstarch, and salt in saucepan. Add milk, whisking until smooth. Cook over medium heat, while stirring, until bubbly. Decrease heat. Cook and stir for 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Gradually stir about 1 cup of the hot filling into yolks. Return all to saucepan. Bring to a gentle boil. Cook and stir for 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat. Add vanilla extract, butter, and coconut to mixture and whisk until smooth. Pour filling into baked pie shell. Chill at least 4 hours before serving. Optional: sprinkle coconut on top of filling before chilling.

Pie Crust

We never had much success with whole wheat pie crusts until we came across this recipe!

1 cup flour

¾ tsp salt

½ cup butter, cold

1 Tbsp egg, beaten

½ tsp vinegar

1½–2 Tbsp water, cold

Combine flour and salt. Cut butter into ½-Tbsp-size pieces and add to dry ingredients. Cut into flour with pastry blender until butter is the size of peas. Combine liquid ingredients and add to flour/butter mixture. Mix just until dough pulls together. (At this point you can proceed with however you like to do pie crusts. Some people like to chill them at this point before the next step. Following is how I do it.) Form dough into a ball and put between two sheets of waxed paper. Roll out into a circle that fills a pie plate and extends about ½ of an inch beyond the edges. Transfer to pie pan (you may need to chill just a bit before you can do this step if the dough is very limp.) Fold under extra dough along the edges. Crimp edge.

For prebaked pie shell, preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line pastry with aluminum foil and fill with dry beans (this is to prevent sides from collapsing, so make sure that the beans are concentrated against the edges). Bake for 15-20 minutes or until dough is dry. Remove foil and beans. Continue baking for 7-12 minutes or until desired doneness is reached.

Guacamole

4 ripe avacados (they are easy to peel when ripe)

1 medium tomato

1-2 tablespoons lemon juice (preferably fresh!)

1 clove garlic (or less, depending on how much you like garlic)

Blend all ingredients in a blender or food processor until smooth and creamy. Enjoy with tortilla chips for a snack or as a topping on almost any dish!

Little Sisters and Popsicles

Isn’t it interesting what little sisters can get big sisters to do sometimes?! A few days ago it got so cold here that we started a fire in our fireplace (our furnace isn’t working!). We were all huddling in sweaters and enjoying warm cups of tea. Then, my youngest sister, who is six years old, asked me to help her make homemade fruit popsicles! I agreed to. Why? Well, because she’s my little sister. And . . . maybe also because she has chickenpox. :)

Want to make your own healthy popsicles? This would have made a better summertime post, but you can tuck these ideas away for later. Our favorite way to make popsicles is by simply throwing any fruit we have on hand into little dixie cups, adding some fruit juice or mashed up fruit to hold it together, and sticking a craft stick in. After they freeze, you can just peel the cup off and enjoy! But if you are a bit more adventurous, here are some more ideas:

36 Popsicle Ideas

Watermelon Whole Fruit Popsicles 

Homemade Fruit Pops 

Homemade Ice Pops 

Home and Kitchen

I’ve added a new page to my blog: Home and Kitchen. This page contains links to the recipes I have posted on my blog, as well as some household tips and time/money savers that my family has learned over the years. I’ll update it from time to time, and I hope you’ll find something useful on there!

Getting Organized

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I have been wanting to organize our family recipe notebook for quite a while now and was finally motivated to actually do so by a blogging friend this past week! So one evening when all was quiet I took the note book out and pulled everything out of the front and back pockets and all the plastic sleeves.


The next thing I did was organize everything into four piles - yeast breads, muffins/quickbreads, main dishes, and desserts.

Then came the big job of putting everything back in. I tried to organize it by the things we used the most in front, etc.

In doing this I found several recipes that we had been given and never tried, so I picked one out to make that evening. It quickly became a family favorite, so I thought I would share it here.

No Bake Granola Bars

Put 1 cup honey and 1 cup peanut butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Let melt and then cook until slightly bubbly. Remove from heat and stir in: 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1 1/2 cups quick oats, 1 1/2 cups rice cereal, 1/2 cup sunflower seeds, 1/2 cup coconut, and 2 teaspoons sesame seeds. Flatten into pan and let cool before serving.

(This type of recipe does pretty well with variations, and I made some myself! Because we are running low on honey, I used half a cup of honey and half a cup molasses. Next time I am going to try it with all molasses. The friend we got this recipe from used Kashi for the rice cereal, but I used Crispy Rice cereal, which gave it a nice crunch. Try your own variations, and let me know how it goes!:)

Recipe for Squash Pickles

This recipe is from the Ball Blue Book: Guide to Preserving.

Squash Pickles
2 pounds (about 4 medium) summer squash
2 cups water
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 cup vinegar
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 1/3 cup sliced onion (about one small)

Slice squash into 1/8 inch slices (a food processor works nicely here). Combine water, sugar, vinegar, turmeric, ginger, salt and dry mustard in a large sauce pot. Bring mixture to a boil. Add squash and onions; boil 10 minutes. Pack hot into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space. Adjust caps. Process 10 minutes in boiling water bath. Yield: about 2 pints.

You can make your own variations, too, such as:
We sometimes add zucchini for color and if we need to use it up :)
We sometimes add a clove or two of garlic to each jar (you would put it in with the squash and onion)
You could probably omit the onion, or any other things you think would work!

Family Favorite

I made this recipe for the first time a few days ago, and since it quickly became a family favorite, I thought I would share it with you! Note: When I made the recipe, I doubled it (in a family my size I almost never do a single batch :) but I only had one can of sweetened condensed milk, so that is all I put in. I did not put in anything to substitute. I also did not have milk chocolate chips so I used only semisweet for both kinds. I don't know how the real recipe tastes, but my family says to make it the way I did again, because it is good that way! So if you don't have something (besides some kind of chocolate and mint which are necessary), just experiment! You can even make your own other variations. By the way, these are very sweet!

Bavarian Mint Fudge (Not the best picture)

Bavarian Mint Fudge

1-1/2 teaspoons plus 1 tablespoon butter, divided
2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
1 package (11-1/2 ounces) milk chocolate chips
1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Line an 11-in. x 7-in. pan with foil and grease the foil with 1-1/2 teaspoons butter; set aside. In a heavy saucepan (I found that using a double-boiler to melt the butter and chocolate worked better than just melting it in a saucepan), melt the chocolate chips and remaining butter over low heat; stir until smooth. Remove from heat; stir in the milk and extracts until well blended. Spread into the prepared pan (I found that it is much easier to do this step if the chocolate is fairly runny, which you can do by heating it up again, but you can also just spread it with a rubber spatula). Refrigerate until set. Using the foil, lift fudge out of the pan. Discard the foil; cut fudge into 1-inch squares. Store in the refrigerator. Yield: About 2-1/2 pounds.