Moraga Pear Pie

When Eric and I were visiting my family the weekend after Thanksgiving, my dad realized that he had forgotten to make one of the desserts he’d been most looking forward to (I know where my absent mindedness comes from…hi Dad!). We ended up whipping this together in no time flat and it came out of the oven just as we were getting ready to leave. It was torture having this in the car with us on the way home and not being able to eat it! Pears aren’t in season right now but this came out delicious anyways. I wouldn’t recommend making it with canned pears as they are too mushy.

According to the original cookbook, this recipe was created by an 82-year old woman who won Moraga, California’s pear recipe contest. The town of Moraga was developed on Bartlett orchards, and they celebrate their heritage by hosting an annual pear festival.

Moraga Pear Pie from The Great Book of Pears by Barbara Jeanne Flores

What You’ll Need:

• 1 unbaked, premade pie shell (or 2 shells for a covered pie)
• 5 to 6 Bartlett pears, peeled, cored and sliced
• 1 cup sugar
• ¼ cup butter, melted and cooled
• 4 tbsp flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

What To Do:

Preheat your oven to 375°F.

After preparing the pears (pre-pear-ing?), lay them in a regular pattern in the pie shell. I started out by fanning them in a tight spiral, but eventually you will have to just fit them in wherever you can. Also, be aware that the pears will decrease in size while baking, so you want the pie to be liberally mounded over the edge of the pie shell.

[I would insert a picture of this step here, except I forgot to take one. Use your imagination.]

In a mixing bowl, beat together the sugar, flour, eggs, and vanilla. Pour this mixture over the pears. I recommend doing this with the pie on a foil-lined baking sheet as it will likely splatter all over the place.

Bake the pie for 15 minutes. After that, reduce the oven temp to 350°F and continue baking for 30 minutes. After the 30 minutes, cover the pie loosely with foil to prevent overbrowning. Bake for an additional 30 minutes (i.e. your total bake time is 75 minutes.)

I guarantee that this is unlike any pie you’ve ever had. The consistency is completely different due to the liquid mixture that is poured over the fruits – it is almost like a pear custard. Normally I am not a huge fan of pears (gotta be honest – the gritty texture kinda freaks me out) but I will gladly eat them this way any time! You can easily switch the pears for any other fruit you’d prefer, including apples, peaches, or plums (I plan on trying this in the spring.)  Have fun experimenting, and enjoy!

Pumpkin Crunch Bars

You totally doubted me, didn’t you? You all thought I’d renege on my promise to post again so quickly!

As an inspiration for my recent pumpkin fixation, I have to show you this video. Although it’s intended for Halloween, it’s still fitting for Thanksgiving, and holy hell it is HILARIOUS. We get to slicey dice, to makea da poompkin gooch!

Bork bork bork! Can you tell how excited I am to go see the Muppets movie? SO. FREAKING. EXCITED.

This is going to be a quick post because I’ve got lots to do to get ready for the holiday, as I’m sure everyone reading this does. This is a super quick, super easy, and super delicious last-minute addition to any meal, Thanksgiving or not.

Pumpkin Pie Crunch Bars (adapted from Duncan Hines)

What You’ll Need

• 1 pkg yellow cake mix
• 1 16 oz can solid pack pumpkin
• 1 12 oz can fat free evaporated milk
• 2 large eggs
• 1 ½ cups Splenda (or sugar)
• ½ cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, melted
• 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
• 4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• ½ tsp salt

Preheat your oven to 350°F, and grease a 9x12 pan with cooking spray. In a large mixing bowl, combine the pumpkin, milk, eggs, Splenda, pumpkin pie spice, and salt.

Blend well with a fork or whisk until the mixture is smooth, then transfer into the baking pan.

Cover the surface of the pumpkin mixture with the yellow cake mix so that no pumpkin is visible and the cake mix is in an even layer. Next, scatter the chopped nuts over the cake mix.

Drizzle the melted butter over the surface of the cake mix.

Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until the surface is golden brown and the cake mix has slightly puffed.

Let this cool until it is just warm, and serve plain or with whipped cream.

This is, essentially, a delicious, non-fruity version of a dump cake. This is almost an upside-down pumpkin pie, and I love the way the nuts add a nice bit of crunch to the overall soft texture. As much as I love pumpkin pie, I love that this takes only 10 minutes to put together but ends up tasting just as great!

And with that, I’m signing off until after the holiday. On Thursday, while in the midst of your food comas, please remember that Thanksgiving is truly about how lucky we all are to have friends, family and loved ones by our side, and a bounty of food to share and enjoy. Now go eat your hearts out!

Gobbles!

No, that is not the gobbler that I will be happily feasting on all weekend. This big guy, along with two of his other buddies, resides on the grounds where I work. Since we are approaching our national Annual Turkey Massacre, these 3 plucky fowls have decided it is high time to assert their presence and remind me of their cuteness by stalking around the parking lot, flapping their wings, and looking generally disgruntled. Guilt. It’s what’s for dinner.

^{Gobbles? (This picture, and this post’s title, will make no sense until you watch this piece of genius from South Park.)}

So! Thanksgiving is in 4 days and I CAN’T WAIT. I looooove Thanksgiving. What’s not to love about a whole day celebrating mashed potatoes (heavenly), butternut squash (highly underrated), stuffing (aka thigh padding), and PIE?! Yes, I am thankful for all of the many blessings in my life. But without fail, every single year, I am especially thankful that I have free rein to eat pumpkin pie for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

I am not kidding.

No, this is not a recipe for pumpkin pie. Everyone has a family recipe that they follow, or a version of the one on the cans of pumpkin, and they are all equally delicious. Like butternut squash, though, I think pumpkin is an underrated vegetable that should be utilized in more dishes.

Since I had a craving for pumpkin-related foods, I decided to make a soup and a non-pie dessert (I am saving myself for my beloved). This soup is incredibly easy, and whether or not you choose to include it in your holiday dinner, it would go great with those leftover turkey sandwiches everyone looks forward to the day after Thanksgiving.

Curried Pumpkin Soup (recipe adapted from Panera)

• 2 large carrots, chopped
• ½ white onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 15 oz. cans of 100% pumpkin puree
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 2 cups (or 1 15 oz. can) light coconut milk
• 1 tbsp butter or margarine
• 1 tbsp canola oil
• 1 ½ tsp curry powder
• 1 tsp ground (or 2 tsp minced fresh) ginger
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp sugar

Peel then roughly chop your carrots, onion, and garlic (evenness in size/shape doesn’t matter, since you’ll be blending it later). Heat the butter and oil on medium heat until they get hot, then add the veggies, ginger, and curry powder. Mix well so the spices evenly coat the veggies, and cook for about 8 minutes or until the carrots start to soften.

After the carrots soften, add the vegetable broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer while covered for about 10 minutes.

At this point the broth will have cooked down a bit, and the color will have richened from the veggies breaking down into the liquid.

Next, add the pumpkin, coconut milk, salt, and sugar.

Mix well, then continue cooking on medium-low heat for about 3-4 minutes, or until the contents are thoroughly hot.

At this point, you can either transfer your soup to a blender or food processor, or puree it using an immersion blender. I used my immersion blender and the soup reached an even, rich thickness after blending it for about 1 minute.

Heat this for another minute or two, then serve immediately with fresh, crusty bread.

If you want to get all fancy, you can top this with some crème fraÎche, roasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds), or minced red bell peppers. Personally, I was barely able to restrain myself from shoving my face in the bowl, so the foo-fah was unnecessary.

Eric proclaimed this to be the best soup I’ve ever made. With the exception of my tomato basil bisque, it was also the easiest. Without using too many snooty foodie terms, this soup has an amazing depth of flavor. The first taste has mild pumpkin overtones, but each successive bite has layers of vegetables and spices that meld into one un-frickin’-believable meal. We both had large bowls of this for lunch and our plates were literally wiped clean by the time we finished 2.3 minutes later. I cannot recommend this enough – it’s by far my favorite recipe that I’ve made in many months!

Stay tuned…tomorrow (or, knowing me, possibly a day or two later in the week) I’ll post a simple recipe for Pumpkin Crunch Bars that will knock your socks off!

Indian Lentil Pilaf

OH HAI! Remember me?! Yeah, it’s been awhile. I left my job of 5+ years, moved, and started a new job. All within 3 weeks! Cue mental breakdown (not really, but oh so close!).

I’m still settling in, still searching through boxes for all those scraps of recipes that I stashed wherever I had space while I was frantically packing. In the midst of the 3 days I had in between leaving my old job and moving day, I decided a really spectacular use of my free time would be to cut out all the recipes I wanted from the STACKS of food magazines I had accumulated over the years. I made this Indian salad from one of those recipes, and it comes from Vegetarian Times.

Indian Lentil Pilaf

What You’ll Need

• 1 cup lentils (I used greenish brown)
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 large carrots, diced
• 1 cup basmati rice
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 14.5 oz can fire-roasted diced tomatoes
• 1 cup low-sodium vegetable broth
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 ½ tsp garam masala
• 1 tbsp minced fresh ginger (or 1 tsp dried ground ginger)

What To Do

The name of my game when making this recipe was to explicitly NOT follow the directions.

The first thing the magazine tells you to do is rinse and sort the lentils. I summarily ignored this, and instead dumped them straight from the bag into 4 cups of water. Bring this to a boil, then turn the heat down to low and simmer for about 15 minutes. The recipe doesn’t say whether or not they should be covered while simmering. I left them uncovered and it was fine, so take your pick.

After 15 minutes of simmering, you’re supposed to drain the lentils and reserve ¾ cup of the cooking water, which is brown and looks like…well, use your imagination. I realized this mid-draining, so I only saved about ½ cup. The lentils then get stored in a bowl until you’re ready for them later.

While the lentils cook, dice your veggies and garlic. Add the oil and onion to your newly emptied pan and cook on medium for about 4 minutes.

I’m fairly sure the recipe intends for you to use a white/yellow onion because it mentions cooking until the onion turns translucent. I only had a mangy red onion, so that’s what I used, and it was fine.

After the onions cooked for 4 minutes longer than I intended because the damn carrots took longer to cut than I expected, I added the carrots and rice to the pot. My carrots were roughly hacked, not diced. Also, I didn’t have Basmati rice, so I used jasmine rice. TAKE THAT, RECIPE.

I stirred these around for about 3 or 4 minutes until the rice was nice and golden brown and toasted, and then I added the garam masala, ginger, and garlic. For those of you not familiar with it, garam masala is a spice blend comprised of coriander, clove, peppercorns, cumin, cardamom, nutmeg, and other spices, and commonly used in Indian cooking. It isn’t spicy, but its got a strong, distinctive flavor that, if you’ve ever eaten Indian food, you will recognize by taste. You can make your own based on the recipe here, or, like me, you may be able to find it in the international section of your grocery store (I scored mine at ShopRite, so it’s not that uncommon). Can you guess what I fudged at this step? Did you guess ginger? Bingo! I never buy fresh because the rest of the wonky looking tuber gets old and dried out in my fridge, so I guesstimated and subbed the 1 tbsp fresh ginger for 1 tsp ground ginger. That’s the benefit of making new things – you’ll never know how badly you screwed up the original if it tastes good at the end!

Once the spices had coated the contents of the pan, I dumped in the lentils, tomatoes, reserved poo water lentil cooking water, and veggie broth. I didn’t have veggie broth, so I used chicken broth. TAKE THAT, VEGETARIANS! And it wasn’t even the low-sodium version! TAKE THAT PART INFINITY, RECIPE! At this point, cover the pot, turn the heat way down to low, and simmer for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally.

 

After about 20 minutes, the rice will be nice and fluffy and most of the cooking liquid will be absorbed.

While it may appear as if there is a ghostly specter hovering over my lentils, it is only the copious amounts of steam that were pouring off of this bowl. In my opinion, this dish benefits greatly from a healthy dose of pepper and a little bit of salt, especially if you follow the recipe (HAHAHAHA) and use the low-sodium broth. Once seasoned, this is scrumptious. I served this when my mother-in-law came for lunch, and I was a little worried she wouldn’t like it because of the Indian flavors (not everyone shares my love of ethnic foods) but she devoured it. In fact, I think this could even use more spices than it calls for. Garam masala has an intense flavor profile but it’s slightly muted by veggies and other components of this dish, so I might use 2 or 2 ¼ tsp the next time around. Even though I served this as a side dish, you could also easily add some grilled tofu, chicken, shrimp, or fish to make this a main course. The recipe says this serves 6, and that’s being conservative. Like most salads, the more you let the flavors settle and meld the better, so you’ll enjoy any leftovers even more!

What’s Black and White and Yummy All Over?

This is one of those recipes that I originally made a reallly long time ago, but was definitely worth the wait before it made its starring appearance here on the blog. I brought these to a birthday party at work and they were a big hit.

Black Bottom Cupcakes (adapted from here)

What You’ll Need

White Filling

• 1 (8 oz.) package fat free cream cheese
• 1 egg (or ¼ cup egg substitute)
• ⅓ cup sugar
• ⅛ tsp salt
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Black Filling

• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• ¼ cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 cup water
• ⅓ cup vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp distilled white vinegar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

What To Do

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease a muffin tin with Pam or butter, or, alternately, line with paper cups.

In a large mixing bowl, beat together the ingredients for the white filling (cream cheese, egg, sugar, and salt.) Fold in the chocolate chips afterwards.

In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients for the black filling (flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.)

Gradually add the wet ingredients (water, vinegar, oil, vanilla) to the dry mix. Mix well; the batter will be thin.

Fill the muffin cups ⅓ full with the chocolate batter. Top with one large spoonful of the white filling.

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

You’ll know these are done when the white portion of the cupcakes starts to turn a slight golden brown.

Although it may be sacrilege to say this, I’m not a huge cheesecake fan. I find its richness to be overwhelming, and I can usually only get through a bite or two of the pure, unadulterated versions. I do, however, love the flavor when there’s something else to cut through the creaminess of cheesecake, and these were a perfect example. The strong but not overpowering chocolate portion is a great counterpart to the cheesecake portion, and the chocolate chips provide enough texture to keep these from getting too mushy of a texture.

On top of the great taste, they look pretty darned impressive when you’re eating them. Everyone you share them with will be sure to think you spent much longer slaving away in the kitchen than you actually did – don’t spill the beans that these are a cinch to cook!

Corn Spoon Bread

Growing up, we always spent Christmas Day at my Uncle Mike and Aunt Linda’s house. Aunt Linda, aka The Kitchen Nazi, always made a delicious spread for the holiday, but one dish has always stuck out in my mind. Her corn pudding always disappeared quickly because it was rich, comforting, slightly sweet but oh so savory. I don’t know why I never thought to make this before now, but I’m so glad I finally did! The version I made isn’t exactly the same as the one from my childhood, but it sure brings back all those delectable memories.

Corn Spoon Bread (adapted from here)

What You’ll Need:

• 1 8 oz. package of fat free cream cheese, softened
• ⅓ cup sugar
• 1 cup skim milk
• ½ cup egg substitute
• 1 16 oz. bag of frozen corn, thawed
• 1 14.75 oz. can cream style corn
• 1 8.5 oz. package corn bread/muffin mix (I used Jiffy)
• 2 tablespoons margarine, melted
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• Dash pepper

What To Do:

Preheat your oven to 325°F. In a large bowl, mix together the cream cheese and the sugar until it is smooth and uniform.

Slowly drizzle in the milk and beat until smooth.

Add the Egg Beaters, margarine, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Continue to beat until smooth.

Add the frozen corn and creamed corn; mix well.

Add the cornbread mix and stir until moistened and no clumps remain, but do not over-mix. Pour into a greased (or sprayed with Pam) casserole dish.

Bake for about 90 minutes, or until a toothpick/knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

Let stand for about 5 minutes before serving.

This was everything I remembered and was hoping for. It was creamy, gooey, slightly sweet and slightly salty, and just a perfect custardy consistency. I served this with my spicy pork chops and escarole and beans, and it complimented both foods beautifully. You can also cook this spoon bread in a slow cooker – just grease the slow cooker bowl and cook on high for 3-4 hours, or low for about 6-8. I will definitely be making this year round since it is so simple to make and is so flat out yummy!

Pork ‘n Beans

My labmate, Danielle, and I are really good at wasting time by talking about completely random crap. One of our favorite topics, by far, is food. Like me, she will eat the hell out of anything involving cheese, which is undoubtedly the world’s most magical food. Now that we’re both trying to eat healthy(er) – or at least most of the time – cheese is a little less prevalent in our conversations. The other day she was telling me about a delicious dish that I just HAD to try – escarole and white beans. Since her recipe only instructed me to use “a shit-ton of garlic”, some kind of wilty green vegetable, and white beans, I made my own variation. I served this with a grilled, bone-in pork chop and sweet potato fries dusted with chipotle powder (not homemade) for one helluva meal.

What You’ll Need:

Wilty Green Vegetable and White Beans

• 1 bag or 1 large bunch of fresh escarole or spinach – traditionally this is made with escarole, but I’m contrary and I like spinach better
• 1 can cannellini (white) beans, NOT drained
• A shit-ton of garlic (about 12 cloves), peeled and roughly chopped
• Copious amounts of black  pepper
• Pinch of kosher salt
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Grilled Pork Chop

• 2 large, bone-in pork chops (appx. 5 oz. each)
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Kosher salt
• A pinch of the following spices:
  • Chipotle powder
  • Cayenne pepper
  • Smoked paprika
  • Garlic powder

What To Do:

Heat your grill until is is nice and smoking hot.

While it’s preheating, lightly dust both sides of your pork chop with the chipotle powder, paprika, cayenne, and garlic powder. Generously cover both sides with salt and pepper. Grill the pork chop for about 5 minutes per side. Don’t make the mistake of repeatedly flipping it – you want to get a nice sear on both sides!

After flipping your pork chops to cook on the second side, heat a large sauté pan and the olive oil on medium heat until the oil gets hot. Add your shit-ton of garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes, or until the garlic starts to turn golden brown. My shit-ton of garlic was approximately this much, and in this case “roughly chopped” meant hacked into large hunks:

While the garlic is simmering away, thoroughly rinse and drain your spinach, escarole, kale, collard greens, or whatever wilty vegetable you have chosen. After shaking off most of the water, dump the contents into the pan and cover.

After a minute or two, stir the vegetables so that the already wilted leaves get moved to the top of the pan.

By now, the pork chops should be cooked. Remove them from the grill when they are just barely pink on the inside, and let them rest while the veggies finish cooking. This will ensure they are fully cooked by the time you sit down to eat, but will remain most and avoid that dried cardboard texture poorly cooked pork chops can have.

Once most of the leaves are wilted, dump in the entire can of cannellini beans, goo and all. Cook for another 2-3 minutes, or until the beans get hot. By this point, all of the veggies will be cooked down and the bean goo will have condensed into a nice thick sauce that coats the leaves.

Liberally douse the entire pan with freshly ground black pepper; mix, then repeat the step. It may seem like a lot of pepper, but it helps jazz up what could otherwise be fairly bland.

Side Note: At this point, the pork chops have rested for a few minutes and are perfectly cooked. Even though the USDA just changed their guidelines on how to properly cook pork, I still prefer my pig to be a uniform white color without any hints of pink (blame it on my many, many hours spent working with foodborne pathogenic bacteria).

Like I said earlier, this is one helluva meal. The sweet potato fries with chipotle seasoning are from the Alexia brand, which I think are the best prepackaged french fry option out there, both in terms of healthfulness and flavor. As for the home cooked items, the pork literally exploded with flavor. I know a lot of people think pork can be boring and tasteless, but this was tender, juicy, and absolutely delicious. The cayenne and chipotle blended well for a punch of heat that was by no means overpowering, but was definitely addictive. I kept wishing there was more meat left for me to eat. The veggies were, in a word, amazeballs. Even though they are so incredibly simple to make, I couldn’t get enough of them. The addition of the white beans plus the ridiculously huge amount of garlic is enough to make any spinach hater happy, but I thought they only helped to make the spinach shine. I seriously could have eaten the entire batch of veggies alone for my meal and been perfectly happy, but then again, I am the kid who announced to her sixth grade class that my favorite food was broccoli. (Yes, that was met with the jeers and derision you would expect.) I can’t recommend this entire meal highly enough – it’s fast, super easy, and it tastes like you put so much more effort into it than you really did! And just to top it all off – it will get you pretty darned close to what the new “healthy meal” is supposed to look like. Enjoy!