Friday, November 2, 2007

Recipes as requested...

Since everyone was asking about the dinner-in-a-pumpkin, I thought I'd send along some recipes from Halloween Day...the pumpkin meal, the glazed carrots and, honestly, the best Lemon Meringue pie ever (Ryan's family LOVES this dish and I've tweaked it and tweaked it and this one is good...and the pie crust I use for everything...totally fool-proof and delicious).


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(AND, LORENA, I DID NOT KNOW YOU WANTED THIS FOR YOURSELF, I THOUGHT YOU WANTED ME TO POST ABOUT IT...APOLOGIES.)
Dinner in a Pumpkin
(this meal is not amazingly delicious, but it's good enough for the tradition of it. It has kind of an Asian-y thing going on with the soy sauce and the sprouts, etc.)

1 medium-large pumpkin (make sure it will fit in your oven and take out all oven racks except bottom one)
½ onion, chopped
2 T. vegetable oil
1 ½ to 2 lbs. ground beef
2 T. soy sauce (or to taste)
2 T. brown sugar
1 (4-oz.) can sliced mushrooms, drained
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 ½ C. COOKED rice
1 C. bean sprouts
1 (8 oz.) can sliced water chestnuts, drained

Cut off top of pumpkin & clean out thoroughly. Paint face on with permanent marker. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In large skillet, sauté onions in oil till tender. Add meat & brown. Drain grease. Add soy sauce, brown sugar, mushrooms, and soup. Simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add rice, bean sprouts, and water chestnuts. Spoon mixture into pumpkin shell. Replace top & place on baking sheet. Bake 1 hour.






Glazed Carrots
1 pound carrots, cut into 2 inch pieces
2 tablespoons butter, diced
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 pinch salt
1 pinch ground black pepper
DIRECTIONS:
1. Place carrots in a pot of salted water. Bring water to a boil, reduce heat to a high simmer and cook about 20 to 30 minutes. Do not cook the carrots to a mushy stage!
2. Drain the carrots, reduce the heat to its lowest possible setting and return the carrots to the pan. Stir in butter, brown sugar, salt and pepper. Cook for about 3 to 5 minutes, until sugar is bubbly. Serve hot!

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Lemon Meringue Pie (see lovely picture in post below!)

Pie Crust:(this makes 3 crusts...so enough for one whole pie, plus a baked shell or cinnamon pie crust cookies, if you want to make your kids happy.)

3 c. flour

1t. salt

--Mix these together.


1 1/4 c. butter flavored Crisco
--cut this in with a pastry cutter or knives, till the chunks look like peas (maybe slightly bigger). I notice that if I cut it too finely that pie isn't flaky enough...it needs those chunks to turn into pockets as they bake and the shortening melts. Okay, moving on.

1 egg
1 T. vinegar (white or apple cider)
4 T. ice cold water
--Whisk these together. Pour into flour/shortening mixture and mix with a fork.


For the Lemon Meringue Pie, you need a baked crust, so roll out 1/3 of the dough. Place in pie plate and bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes.


Filling:

1 c. sugar

2 T. flour

4 T. cornstarch

1/4 t. salt

1 1/4 c. water

1/2 c. lemons (usually 3)

lemon zest...I usually zest 1-2 of the lemons before squeezing

4 egg yolks, beaten

2 T. butter


Meringue:


4 egg whites

6 T. white sugar

Directions:

(with this recipe, it goes really fast, so have all ingredients ready before you start!)In a saucepan, combine 1 c. sugar, flour, cornstarch, salt. Mix in water, juice and zest. Cook over medium high, stirring often, until is boils. Stir in butter. Place egg yolks in small bowl and gradually whisk in 1/2 c. hot sugar mixture. Whisk this mixture back into your saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly until thick. Pour filling into shell.

Then whip egg whites until very stiff (you cannot get a stiff egg white if any fats--like egg yolk--come into contact with the whites, so be very careful and rinse beater extremely well, if you've used it for anything else.). Add the 6 T. of sugar while you are beating the whites. Place on top of filling, sealing edges and making the meringue stand up in foamy waves (everyone is very impressed with this!). Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes, until the meringue begins to brown.



If you ever try these...let me know! (Okay, the meal in a pumpkin might take while, but I'll be waiting to here from you all next year!)

12 comments:

Linsey said...

Yum, yum, yum - thank you for the recipes. Quick quote issues aside, I just can't get enough of you and yours!

Hollyween said...

Oh goody. Me loves me some recipes. The pumpkin one looks especially delish. Too bad I don't like lemon meringue. Otherwise I'd defintely try it. I still may try the crust though.

zeeny said...

Thanks foe the new idea's...the soup looks great. Of course the pie looks the best but I don't think it would look the best on my body! All in moderation I guess!

Ilene said...

I am a collector of recipes. Hey! I just realized I have an answer to those lame questions like "What is your hobby? or Do you collect anything?"

Thanks for the enlightenment.

Oh, speaking of which I really DO want that soup recipe you made the other day.

Tiffany said...

Hey did you know I actually used your dinner-in-a-pumpkin recipe last year? I have the recipe on a note in your handwriting that you copied after you called your mom during our college days! Thanks for the other recipes -- I'll add those!

Paige said...

You are a superstar homemaker. I want to make the lemon meringue, but I'm afraid of the crust.

Jill said...

yummy nummy. I'll have to do some experimenting. I, like Holly, am not the biggest fan of lemon meringue either...but it sounds and looks so good it's worth a try! Thanks!

marcy said...

Ok Jessica Here I am making a comment- Thanks for the lemon pie, but I really want the peach pie, apple caramel pie and the pumpkin cake-dessert thing you did for the family dinner!!! We love you

Nortorious said...

I want to go over to Celia's when she's making this. Then we'll get to have Mexican food!

D-dawg said...

YUM! I love new recipes, thank you!

shauna said...

Looks yummy.

Jake said...

I love to bake...but pies always scare me. Will have to try because it looks soooooo good!