Rubik's Cube Cake

My brother Jeff and his wife Ann host a fabulous Super Bowl party at their house every year. Lots of people come, and a grand time is had by all. It's a pot-luck party, and everybody brings great food. Usually, the actual Super Bowl ends up being anti-climactic, compared to all the fun and food!

Our cousin Steve's son Ryan loves Rubik's cubes. So this year, for the Super Bowl party, Jeff made a cake in the form of a Rubik's Cube. Here's a picture of the finished product. Isn't it amazing?

Here's how he made it.

Ingredients:
3 boxes of Betty Crocker cake mix.  Jeff used 2 boxes of Super Moist Milk Chocolate and 1 of French Vanilla, but said he got the best results from the French Vanilla
1 container Betty Crocker Milk Chocolate Icing
2 containers Betty Crocker Whipped Vanilla Icing
2 tubes black Cake Mate icing
1 tube each red, blue, green, yellow, orange, and white Cake Mate icing

First, Jeff baked the cakes.  He followed the instructions on the box, but to each mix added one extra egg, and used 1/2 cup less water than called for.  He baked each cake into two 8 x 8 layers.

He let the cakes cool, and, using a long serrated bread knife, cut the rounded tops off each layer where it had risen so that each layer was perfectly flat.  He also measured all the layers, to be sure that, when stacked on top of one another, it would form a cake that was roughly as high as it was square, so that it formed a cube. 

Now he stacked the layers together, adding a coating of frosting between the layers (milk chocolate frosting between the chocolate layers, whipped vanilla frosting between the vanilla layers).  At that point, he had a cake that was roughly in the shape of a cube.

Next he covered the entire outside of the cake with the whipped vanilla frosting.  Now, since the pans had sides that were slightly sloped, and since Jeff did not trim the edges (doing so would have made the cake too high), there were some pretty large gaps on the sides between the layers.  These gaps were filled in with frosting, so that the cake was a perfect cube.  (Jeff says that people who get end pieces will get as much icing as they will cake!)


Jeff refrigerated the cake overnight so that the frosting would solidify on the outside.  The next day, he used the two tubes of black Cake Mate icing to draw squares on each face of the cube.  Then, using a well-twisted Rubik's cube as a model, he filled in each square with one of the six tubes of colored frosting.

The colored frosting tubes came with plastic nozzles that made the application of the colored frosting easier.

Congratulations on a fabulous-looking cake, Jeff!  I just wish I could be there to see Ryan's face when he sees it.

Misnamed Pie

Here's a little secret that most good cooks already know: pumpkin pie is misnamed. The best pumpkin pies aren't made with pumpkin at all; they are generally made with a well-flavored squash like butternut, buttercup, or acorn, or they are made with sweet potatoes. But the iconic pumpkin, the great big orange orb that everyone uses for jack-o'lanterns, is the worst to use for pumpkin pie. It's watery and decidedly lacking in flavor. (Small versions of the big orange pumpkins are actually a different variety, and are very flavorful, so they are good to use.)

However, it's only the cooks who know this. People who are just consumers of pumpkin pie think that they're made of Hallowe'en pumpkins. What's more, these are people who often claim not to like squash. And that's where today's story begins.

Back in the late 80's and early 90's, there was a couple who went to our church named Don and Naomi, while Don was working on his doctorate in theology at McGill University. Don's a very nice guy, and he has strong opinions, which he doesn't hesitate to voice. One day, someone told me that Don had told Naomi in no uncertain terms that he loved pumpkin pie, and that no one would ever be able to pass squash pie off to HIM as pumpkin pie.

Well, for anyone who knows me, them's fightin' words. The challenge was on.

At our next church potluck, I made a squash pie, but of course I advertised it as pumpkin pie. I cleverly maneuvered things to make sure Don got a piece of my pie. I watched him eat every morsel. And then I went for the kill.

"Did you taste my pumpkin pie?" I asked Don innocently. "Yes, I did!" said Don, "It was delicious!"

"So Don," I said, "I believe you owe your wife an apology."

Don looked at me quizzically, and I could see in his expression an indication that it was beginning to dawn on him that he'd been had in some way or another. "Why?" he asked suspiciously.

"Because I heard that you told Naomi that if anyone ever tried to feed you squash pie, you'd KNOW!" I told him.

"No!" said Don, and then he laughed, as he realized just how wrong he'd been.

I don't know if Don ever apologized to Naomi, but I've chuckled about it many times in the years since.

By the way, I thought I'd let you know that Don has recently published a book, called Glimpses of Grace: Reflections of a Prison Chaplain.

So here's my Mom's recipe for "Pumpkin" pie. You can used canned pumpkin if you want, but I recommend just preparing your own. It isn't difficult. I usually put a small squash in the oven whole on a baking sheet, and bake it at 350° for 45 minutes to an hour (longer for a larger squash), until the whole squash feels limp and the skin can be easily pierced with a fork. Cut it open, let it cool a bit, scoop out the seeds, remove the skin (it comes off really easily), and mash the pulp. If you have more than you need, simply put the rest in a freezer bag for the next pie you want to make.

Another note about pumpkin pie - what gives it the iconic taste is really mostly the spices. In the U.S. you can buy a jar of "pumpkin pie spice", although I've never seen that in Canada. I always just use my own blend of spices - roughly equal amounts of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and allspice, with a tiny pinch of cloves.



Pumpkin Pie

1 cup squash puree (see above) or mashed sweet potatoes
4 T. flour
1 T. melted butter
1 egg (for watery pumpkin, 2 eggs)
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spices (1/2 tsp. each cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and allspice, with a tiny pinch of cloves)

Prepare a single shell for a 9-inch pie (half of this recipe).

Combine all ingredients, stir until smooth, pour into pie shell, and bake at 400° for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350° and bake an additional 30-40 minutes, until the custard has set.

Cool and serve as is, or with whipped cream or ice cream.

Warm up the New Year with Soup!

I didn't fully appreciate soup when I was growing up.  I think that was partly due to Mom's attitude toward it - she figured that making soup was as much work as making a regular meal, so if she was going to serve soup, it was going to be a soup that could be eaten as a meal.  If we had soup for supper, that was it.  So her homemade soups were very hearty, more like stews, really; but I always felt unsatisfied after a meal of nothing but soup.  That, and the fact that her version of the soup she served most often as a meal, bean soup, was not my favorite.  (However, she also always served piping hot cornbread with bean soup, which was delicious, so I always had this love-hate relationship with her bean soup.)

Mom would also give us canned soup for lunch sometimes - usually either chicken noodle or cream of tomato.  They were all right, but of course canned soup can never quite measure up to good homemade soup.

As I've gotten older, I've grown to love soup.  There is nothing like a steaming bowl of soup to take the chill off a winter's day.  So since New Year's Day has the unfortunate habit of coming in the middle of winter, I thought I'd post some soup recipes that'll warm your innards.

I've already posted recipes for Vegetarian Chili and Roasted Squash Soup.  So here are recipes for Garlic Potato Soup (adapted from Garlic Mashed Potatoes), Roasted Red Pepper Soup, Spicy Sausage-Lentil Stew, Cream of Root Vegetable Soup, Mushroom-Barley Soup, and Easy Tomato Soup.  Make some soup today, and chase winter away!

One of the best things about soups is that they are very forgiving of substitutions, and can be easily adapted to whatever you have on hand, and to how many people you have to feed.  Most soups are also really good - quite frankly, better - left over.


Garlic Potato Soup

2 heads garlic
2 1/2 lbs potatoes
4 T butter
4 T flour
2 cups milk
2 tsp. salt
10 or 12 small (about 1-inch diameter) new potatoes (optional)
chives for decoration

Peel and dice the potatoes.  Just cover with water, and add 2 tsp. salt.  Bring to the boil, and simmer gently until the potatoes are very soft.  Do not drain.

While the potatoes are cooking, separate the garlic into cloves, but do not peel.  Drop the garlic cloves into a small saucepan of boiling water, and boil for 2 minutes.  Drain, and run cool water over the garlic until it is cool enough to handle.  Peel the garlic cloves.

In a medium saucepan, cook the garlic cloves in the butter over very low heat for about 20 minutes, until they are very soft but not browned.  Add the flour, and let the flour bubble in the butter for two minutes, stirring constantly.  Bring the milk to a boil in a small saucepan, and add the boiling milk all at once to the garlic, butter and flour.  Stir and cook until the sauce thickens.  Put the sauce through a sieve or puree it in a blender.

Mash the potatoes with a potato masher or a hand-held blender in the water in which they have cooked until they are roughly pureed.  Add the garlic sauce to the potatoes.

If you can find small new potatoes, boil about a dozen of them just until they are tender.  Cut them in half, and drop them into the soup for texture.

Decorate with chopped chives, and serve piping hot.


Roasted Red Pepper Soup

Here in Quebec, red bell peppers are ridiculously expensive for eleven months out of the year.  Then, in September, when the local crop ripens, overflowing baskets of them appear in the markets, and they become dirt cheap for a few weeks.  That's when I make my roasted red pepper soup.  Here's the recipe:

8 large red bell peppers
3 jalapeno or other hot peppers (fresh)
3 or 4 ears corn
2 heads garlic
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp chili powder

The first step is to roast the peppers (you can roast the bell peppers and the jalapeno at the same time).  If you've never done it before, there are two ways you can do it: either in the oven under the broiler, or on a barbecue grill.  Arrange the peppers on a broiling pan or on the grill, and roast at a high temperature until the skin blisters and begins to blacken.  Turn the peppers 1/4 turn, and repeat until the peppers are blistered and blackened on all sides.  Remove the peppers from the heat, and let cool.

When the peppers have cooled enough to handle, remove the skins, stems, and seeds, and put the roasted peppers into a bowl.  Be sure to save any liquid that the peppers have thrown off.  (Be careful to wash your hands after handling the jalapenos - you don't want to touch your eyes with those peppers on your fingers!)

Meanwhile, cut the tops off the heads of garlic, and roast them at 350 until they are soft.  Squeeze the roasted garlic into the pepper mixture.

Put the roasted peppers and garlic into a food processor or blender and puree.  (I like a food processor better.  The blender makes it too smooth; the food processor leaves it slightly chunky.)

While the peppers are roasting, shuck the corn, and steam it in a Dutch oven in about 1/2 inch of water for 7 minutes.  Remove the corn to a colander to cool, but reserve the cooking liquid.

Add the pepper puree to the corn liquid.  Cut the corn from the cob, and add it to the soup.  Add salt and chili powder (more or less to taste), and return to the boil.  If the soup is too thick, you can add a bit more water.

You can use more jalapenos or fewer, depending on how spicy you like your soup.  A word of caution:  I once decided I wanted it to be really spicy, and used six jalapenos.  This was a mistake.  Also, you should be aware that jalapenos vary in their degree of hotness.  It's better to try adding one or two, and testing the soup, before adding more.

Serve as is, or with a dollop of sour cream.  (If you've used too many jalopenos, the sour cream will help cool your mouth down.)


Spicy Sausage-Lentil Stew

1 lb. sausage
1 large or 2 medium onions, diced
3 or 4 fresh chili peppers, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 or 4 carrots, diced
2 or 3 potatoes, diced
2 cups green lentils
1 tsp salt
3 cups tomato juice
1 T (or more) fresh herbs as desired (rosemary, marjoram, or thyme)

Break the sausage up into chunks, and brown in a large soup pot.  When some of the fat from the sausage has rendered, add the onions and chili peppers to the sausage.  (If using a low-fat sausage, you may need to add a bit of vegetable oil.)  Cook until the onions are translucent, and then add the garlic and carrots.  Cook until the garlic is soft, but do not let it burn.

Add the lentils and the salt, and stir to coat the lentils with the cooking fat.  Add the tomato juice along with an equal amount of water, and the fresh herbs.

Cook for about 20 minutes, until the lentils are beginning to soften.  Add the diced potatoes, and cook another 15 or 20 minutes, until the potatoes and lentils are tender.

Delicious on a cold winter's day!


Cream of Root Vegetable Soup

In Mastering the Art of French Cooking,  in talking about Potage Parmentier (French leek and potato soup), Julia Child says:

"..you can use your imagination to the full.  Many of the delicious soups you eat in French homes and little restaurants are made just this way, with a leek-and-potato base to which leftover vegetables and a few fresh items are added.  You can also experiment on your own combinations....You may find you have invented a marvelous concoction, which you can keep as a secret of the house."

Well, this is my marvelous concoction, but it's a secret no longer.

1 lb. each of potatoes, white onions, parsnips, and white turnips
1 T. salt
1/2 tsp. white pepper (optional)
2 cups table cream

Peel and dice the potatoes, onions, parsnips, and turnips.  Cover with water, add salt and white pepper, bring to a boil, and simmer until all the vegetables are uniformly soft, about 40 minutes.

Puree the soup in a blender or a food processor.  Return to the soup pot, and add the cream.

This soup can be served hot in the winter, or icy cold in the summer.  Your guests will never guess what's in it.  I have had people who are avowed haters of turnips who absolutely loved this soup.


Mushroom-Barley Soup

1/2 cup pearl barley
6 1/2 cups water
1/2 tsp. salt
3 T soy sauce
3 T dry sherry (optional)
3 T butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup chopped onions
1 lb. fresh mushrooms, sliced
freshly ground black pepper

Cook the barley and 1 1/2 cups water in the soup pot until tender.  Add the remaining water, soy sauce, and optional sherry.

Saute the onions and garlic in the butter until the onions are translucent.  Add the sliced mushrooms and the salt.  When the mushrooms are tender, add them to the barley.  Be sure to include any juices that the vegetables have expressed.

Give the soup a generous grinding of black pepper, and simmer very gently for about 20 minutes, covered.  Taste and correct for seasoning.

Delicious served with a good loaf of whole grain bread and some Swiss cheese.


Easy Tomato Soup

I have adapted this recipe from More with Less.  I'm almost embarrassed to include it, but there's a good story that goes along with it.  When my friend Anne-Marie was living, I was at her place one day, and she said she had nothing in the house to eat.  Well, I scrounged around the cupboards, and found a can of tomato juice, an onion, and a bit of flour.  Anne-Marie was so astonished that I was able to turn those simple ingredients into a delicious soup, in just a few minutes, that she was convinced I was a culinary genius, and sang my praises as a cook from that day forth.  Here's the recipe:

2 cups tomato juice
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 T. vegetable oil or butter
3 T. flour
1/2 tsp salt
fresh black pepper
1 T fresh herbs (basil, oregano, or thyme)

Saute the onion and garlic in the vegetable oil or butter until they are soft.  Blend in the flour, salt, pepper, and herbs, and let the flour bubble in the oil for about 2 minutes.

Gradually whisk in the tomato juice, while stirring constantly.  Bring to the boil, continuing to whisk, until soup thickens.  Boil 1 min.

Delicious as is, or if you'd like, you can add a cup or two of milk or cream to make cream of tomato soup.

Fleisch's Axiom

My friend Fleisch (who had a supporting role in another blog post) is not much of a cook.  Unlike me, she does not enjoy cooking (a character trait which she inherited from her mother), unless one considers making a sandwich to be cooking.  However, she is very enthusiastic about food prepared by others, and does not hesitate to make pronouncements about food.  I have dubbed one of these pronouncements "Fleisch's Axiom," and it states:

All foods can be divided into two categories:  Foods which are improved by adding garlic, and foods which are improved by adding whipped cream.

It is difficult to find exceptions to Fleisch's Axiom.

So today's blog post is a tribute to Fleisch's axiom, with three recipes.  There is one recipe, Garlic Mashed Potatoes (adapted from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1) which uses massive amounts of garlic.  The next, Chocolate Mousse with Rum (adapted from The 1997 Joy of Cooking) uses a lot of whipped cream.  And the third, Raw Vegetable Dip with Horseradish and Garlic, uses both.  (Of course, one thinks of raw vegetables as a healthy snack.  This dip completely negates the health aspect of the veggies, but it is very tasty!)

If you should happen to have any garlic mashed potatoes left over, they are delicious the next morning for breakfast.  Simply drop a serving of them into hot butter in a skillet, and cook over medium heat until they develop a golden crust.  Flip, and do the same thing on the other side.  Serve with scrambled eggs for a delightful breakfast.


Garlic Mashed Potatoes

5 lbs. potatoes (Idaho-type potatoes work best for this recipe)
4 heads of garlic (Yes, you read that correctly.  Do not attempt this recipe with any less than that.)
1/2 cup (1/4 lb.) butter
4 T flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 cups milk
A few tablespoons cream (optional)

Peel and dice the potatoes.  Cover with salted water, and boil until tender.

Separate the garlic into cloves (depending on the garlic, there will probably be 50 to 60 cloves).  Bring a small saucepan of water to the boil, and drop the cloves of garlic into the boiling water.  Boil for 2 minutes, and drain.  Rinse the garlic with cold water so they are easier to handle, and peel.

In a medium saucepan, melt 1/4 lb. butter.  Cook the garlic in the melted butter on very low heat for about 20 minutes, or until the garlic is very tender but not browned.

When the garlic is very soft, increase the heat slightly, and add the flour.  Let the flour froth in the butter for 2 minutes, but do not let it brown.

While the butter and flour are frothing, heat the 2 cups of milk to nearly boiling.  Off the heat, pour all the boiling milk into the butter, flour, and garlic at once, add the salt and pepper, and beat vigorously.  Return to the heat, and boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly.

Drain the potatoes, and return to the pot.  Add the garlic sauce, and whip with a hand mixer until the potatoes are smooth.  If necessary for a smooth consistency, you may add a few tablespoons of cream or milk to the potatoes.

Serve piping hot.  This recipe makes a lot of mashed potatoes, at least enough for 10-12 servings.  But people also tend to eat more of these than they do normal mashed potatoes.


Chocolate Mousse with Rum

1/4 cup sugar
4 T rum
1/4 lb. semisweet chocolate
500 ml (1 pint) whipping cream
2 egg whites

Cook the sugar and rum together over very low heat until dissolved, but do not let it brown.

In a double boiler, melt the chocolate.  When the chocolate has melted, beat in 3 T. of the whipping cream.  Add the syrup to the melted chocolate, and stir until smooth.  Set the chocolate mixture aside to cool.

Whip the egg whites until they form stiff peaks.  When the chocolate mixture has cooled (but not chilled), fold the egg whites into it.

Whip the rest of the cream until stiff.  Fold the chocolate and egg white mixture gently into the whipped cream.

Spoon the mousse into champagne flutes or sherbet glasses, and chill.  Makes 8-10 servings.




Raw Vegetable Dip with Horseradish and Garlic

1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup ketchup
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 or 2 cloves garlic
2 T prepared horseradish
500 ml (1 pint) whipping cream

Mince the garlic very finely, or put it through a garlic press.  Combine the mayonnaise, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, and horseradish.  Whip the cream (unsweetened, of course), and fold it into the mayonnaise and ketchup mixture.

Let chill until firm.  Serve with plates of raw vegetables.

Merry Christmas to all!

It's Christmas Eve, and I've had a busy day.

For the first time in many years, I am not going to be able to go to Maryland for Christmas.  So I decided to cook a little Christmas dinner for a few friends who also do not have much family in Montreal.  I've spent most of today cooking.  I've made rosemary-roasted nuts, cream of peanut soup, cornbread stuffing, apple pie, and cranberry sauce.  Tomorrow I have to roast the turkey, cook the stuffing, make garlic mashed potatoes, and roast the vegetables.  None of those tasks are very onerous, so tomorrow should be a great deal of fun.

Tonight we had our Christmas Eve service at church (with lots of lovely Christmas carols), and then we went to Kit's house for drinks and snacks afterward.  I made egg nog, and brought some of the rosemary-roasted nuts.

Let me tell you about how I came to make the rosemary-roasted nuts.

On Wednesday night, I was on may way home from work on the Metro.  The train had just left Charlevoix station and was on its way to Lasalle station, when suddenly, it lost power and came to an abrupt halt in the middle of the tunnel.  We could overhear the two drivers on the intercom, saying that there was a fire at Lasalle station.  Then we began to smell smoke, and there was an announcement that service on the Green Line was interrupted due to smoke in the tunnel.  Well, the smell of the smoke wasn't that strong, but they clearly weren't going to start the train again any time soon.  Eventually they came on the intercom and told us that we would have to evacuate the train, and walk back through the tunnel to Charlevoix station.  The walk was arduous, on a narrow ledge on the side of the tunnel above the track, with only a grimy handrail to hold onto.  By the time I got back to the station, I was exhausted.

Of course there were no buses at the station to pick up all the stranded commuters.  Fortunately, I used to live near Charlevoix station, and my friends Rebecca and John live near there.  So I phoned their house, and Rebecca answered.  "Rebecca, would you like to do a Good Samaritan deed for the day?" I asked.  I explained my predicament, and asked if she could drive me the rest of the way home.  "I'll be there in five minutes," Rebecca replied.

It took her slightly more than five minutes, but I didn't mind.  When I sat in the car, she handed me a parchment paper envelope filled with warm nuts.  "I was just making these when you called," she said, "and I took a little longer because I wanted to bring you some."

I tasted them.  They were wonderful.  They were sweet, salty, and spicy, all at the same time, and still slightly warm.  It made the whole ordeal seem not so bad.

Afterward, I decided that the nuts would make a marvelous accompaniment to my cranberry and gin punch that I plan on serving to my dinner guests when they arrive.  So I asked Rebecca for the recipe, and made some myself.

Thank you, Rebecca, for rescuing me, and for the gift of those delicious nuts!


Rosemary-roasted nuts

1 lb. unsalted mixed nuts
1/3 cup butter
2 T. fresh rosemary leaves, finely chopped
3 T. brown sugar
1 T. white sugar
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (a whole teaspoon if you enjoy things spicy)
a pinch freshly-ground black pepper
2 tsp. kosher salt or sea salt

Heat oven to 375°.

Spread the nuts onto a baking sheet, and roast them in a 375° oven for about ten minutes, or just until they begin to be fragrant and change color slightly.  Remove from oven.

In a saucepan large enough to accommodate all the nuts, melt the better, and add the chopped rosemary leaves, brown and white sugar, cayenne pepper, black pepper, and salt.  Bring to a boil, and cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly.  Add the nuts, and stir well to ensure all the nuts are evenly coated.

Spread coated nuts on the baking sheet again to cool.  They are wonderful if eaten warm, or if left to cool completely.


Cranberry and gin punch

1 liter cranberry juice cocktail
1 liter club soda
375 ml (about a cup and a half) dry gin
a little splash of Grand Marnier or other orange liqueur

Serve over ice.

Serendipity - Updated with Margaret's recipe

**Update** - Margaret got back into town, and she shared her recipe with me.  It turns out that my memory, as often happens, was faulty.  It was not Cayenne Zucchini Bread that she made, but Cayenne Pumpkin bread.  Jump ahead for the recipe.

Necessity is the mother of invention, the saying goes.  And dumb luck never hurts, either. Often a cook will have to substitute what's available for what's called for in the recipe, and discover that the substitution works better.   But sometimes the best cooking inventions come about totally by accident.  That's what I call serendipity.

Just today, as the gang from church was having a post-church brunch in the restaurant across the street, Pat (who starred in another one of my posts, with her name poorly disguised) was telling me about a baby shower she was hosting at her house.  She was baking a cake for the guests, and had poured the cake batter into a springform pan instead of a tube pan.  The time for the guests to arrive was swiftly approaching, but the cake was far from done.  While the edges were cooked, the center was still soft and gooey.  So she took the cake from the oven, scooped out the soft center, and returned it to the oven.  Meanwhile, she whipped some cream with a little sugar and some lemon zest.  She had already prepared some lemon custard with sweetened condensed milk.  Once the center batter had been scooped out, the rest of the cake was ready in short order.  Of course, it didn't look very pretty.  So Pat removed it from the springform pan, let it cool a bit, filled the center with the lemon custard, and slathered the whole thing with the whipped cream.  The dessert was a huge success, and Pat got lots of compliments.

I also remember some zucchini  pumpkin bread that my friend Margaret made one time.  She passed it around during a church meeting, but apologized for it in advance, saying she didn't know what it was going to taste like.  While making it, she had reached into her spice cabinet for what she thought was cinnamon - and dumped in a couple of teaspoons of cayenne pepper instead.  It was already stirred into the batter before she realized her mistake.  So she baked it anyway, and we all tried a piece.  It was delicious!  The cayenne pepper gave it just a bit of a bite, and stimulated the taste buds.  Now, Margaret makes her zucchini pumpkin bread that way on purpose!  (Unfortunately, she's out of town right now - as soon as she gets back, I'm going to get her recipe and publish it.  Keep checking this post for the recipe.)

But my favorite serendipitous cooking discovery belongs to my Grandma Sauder.  Grandma was a baker par excellence.  When she was a young woman, she and her sisters owned and operated a bake shop in Newport News, Virginia.  Grandma's specialty was pies.

Grandma's pie crusts were a thing of beauty.  They were invariably light and flaky, and always picture-perfect.  Once, when I was in my early twenties, I asked her to show me her technique, so I could learn it too.  Grandma's preferred shortening was pure lard, and she made pie crusts by feel.  Although she used rough measurements, she would always reserve a half cup of the flour when combining it with the lard, and add the rest of the flour only if it felt like it needed it.  She did not use a fork or a pastry blender; she always worked the lard in with her hands.  I remember she told me that the flour and lard had been properly combined when it felt like coarse cornmeal and small peas.  Grandma also said that pure lard took less flour than vegetable shortening.  Then, she would add ice cold water, a little at a time, just until the dough held together when pressed between the fingers.  She was able to roll her dough out in a way I've never managed.

Try as I might, I've never been able to duplicate Grandma's pie crusts.  (My Uncle Don, on the other hand, made pie crusts with her several times, and his are awfully good.)  So nowadays, I often just buy pie crust.  I'm just never quite satisfied with the ones I make - mostly because I'm comparing them to Grandma's perfection.

Grandma made all kinds of pies.  Grandpa was something of a scavenger - he would buy fruits that were about to go bad (or that were already half-bad) for next to nothing, and Grandma would turn them into pies.  They would also stop by the side of the road to pick wild fruit.  I remember Grandma's elderberry pies.  They were one of my favorites.  She also made other berry pies, peach pies, mincemeat pies, and shoo fly pies.  But Grandma's best pies were her apple pies.  They were wonderful.  And I'm about to share her secret with you.

Grandma said that she discovered the secret to apple pie because she had five children.  She would peel and slice her apples, combine them with the sugar, flour, and spices, and then set them aside while she went and attended to the children's needs.  When she got back around to baking the pies, she discovered that the apples, while sitting around, had become a bit soupy.  The sugar and the spices had penetrated the apples, and created a sauce.  When baked in Grandma's perfect pie crusts, they became the most marvelous apple pies in the world.

Grandma went on to her reward in 1989.  But her apple pies live on, as her serendipitous secret has been passed down to succeeding generations.  And now you know it, too!

Alice and J. Paul Sauder, 1964

Cayenne Zucchini Pumpkin Bread

1 3/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 1/3 cups sugar
1/3 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 cup pumpkin (cooked or canned)
1/3 cup water
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/3 cup dried cranberries or dried apricots (or a combination of both)

Preheat oven to 350°.

Combine the dry ingredients, along with the chopped pecans and dried fruit, in a mixing bowl.  In a separate bowl, beat the sugar and shortening together until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs and beat until smooth.  Add the pumpkin, and then the milk and the vanilla, and beat until smooth.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.  Stir just until all the dry ingredients have been moistened.  The batter will still be lumpy.

Pour batter into a greased loaf pan and bake about 1 hour or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cool, slice and serve. 

Pie crust (for a 2-crust 9-inch pie)

2 1/4 cups flour

2/3 cup pure lard

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup cold water

In a mixing bowl, combine the flour and salt (reserving 1/2 cup of the flour).  Cut lard into flour with a pastry blender or two knives.  (Grandma would have done it with her hands.)  Add reserved flour as necessary, but do not overmix; it should feel like a mixture of coarse cornmeal and small peas. 

Add water gradually, sprinkling 1 tablespoon of water at a time over the mixture.  Combine lightly with a fork until all particles of flour have been dampened.  Use only enough water to hold the pastry together when it is pressed between the fingers.  It should not feel wet.

Roll dough into a round ball, handling as little as possible.  Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.  Then divide into two balls.  Roll out on a lightly floured board.  Dough should be about 1/4 inch thick, and 1 inch larger than the diameter of the top of the pie plate.

The second (top) crust does not need to be quite so wide.

Grandma's Serendipitous Apple Pie (one 9-inch pie)

3 cups sliced apples

2/3 cup sugar

1 tablespoon flour

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon or nutmeg (or 1/4 tsp of each - I prefer nutmeg)

2 tablespoons milk or cream

2 tablespoons butter (optional)

1/4 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Pastry for two 9-inch crusts (see above)

Note - I have 10-inch deep-dish pie plates.  Although the amount of pie dough necessary is about the same (the above recipe will always leave you with leftovers), that extra inch means I need to double the amount of filling.

Combine apples, sugar, flour, spices, and milk or cream in a mixing bowl.  Mix together well, and cover with plastic wrap.  Set aside (unrefrigerated) for at least 45 minutes; 2 hours is better.  Apples will develop a liquid.

Roll out the pie dough, place it in the pie plate, and fill with the apples.  Add dots of butter over the top, if desired, and sprinkle on the optional nuts if you are using them.  (I don't remember Grandma putting nuts into her apple pies, but I like to do so if I have some on hand.)

Roll out the top crust and place it on the pie, and fasten the top and bottom crust together securely at the edges (dipping your fingers in water helps make this easier).  You can also make a lattice crust for the top, if you desire.

Bake in a 400° oven for 50 minutes.

Egg Nog Update

After my last post, my friend Betsy searched through her recipe files, and found her mother's original recipe (which was actually Mrs. Becker's mother-in-law's recipe), written in her own hand! 

(Click on the recipe to see a bigger version of it.)

It turns out that my recollection of the proportions and the technique were pretty accurate; the only thing that I had not remembered correctly was that her recipe called for either rum or brandy in addition to the bourbon.  However, I've always made it with just bourbon, and it is excellent that way, too.