Plum Pie

So, Laura Flowers, of TheCookingPhotographer.com, has written several blogs extolling the wonders of Oregon brand canned fruit. I'd never bought it before, and wasn't even sure if grocery stores carried it down here in Texas. So I looked on their website to see which grocery stores sold their brand. Super Target was listed, so I made a special trip to the nearest Super Target to look for these Oregon Whole Purple Plums that are apparently THAT GOOD. But they didn't seem to have any Oregon products at all. A few days later guess what I spotted at the Albertsons just a block over from our apartments. That's right. I bought four cans, and I was sooo excited to make this plum pie.

Of course it was Thanksgiving morning, and I had other things already going in the kitchen. So rather than look up the recipe again, I made it from memory. Meaning, the recipe isn't EXACTLY the same as the one posted on the website. But it felt great to be baking a pie sans recipe while we watched the Macys Parade on an overcast and chilly Thanksgiving morning. So homemaker-y.

----
2 (15 ounce) cans Oregon Whole Purple Plums in Heavy Syrup
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup flour
Pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
Butter for dotting pie
1 box Pillsbury Pie Crusts
Place the oven rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Set out a 9 inch pie plate.

Strain the juice from the plums into a large saucepan. Cut the plums in half, then half again pitting as you go. Set plums aside.

Pour the sugar into the saucepan with the plum juice. Cook the mixture over medium heat stirring often at first, and constantly as the mixture heats. Cook and stir scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoons until the mixture thickens and sugar is completely dissolved. Turn off the heat from under the sauce pan. Add the ground ginger.

Mix the sliced plums with flour and salt until coated.

Place the dough into the pie dish. Place the plums onto the dough. Next, pour the hot filling into the pie dish arranging the plums around if needed. *Don't overfill the pie. Leave out a little of the juice if it gets too full.* Dot with butter and top with the top crust. Flute and cut vents into the dough.

Place a pie shield over the crust and bake pie for 30 minutes. Then remove the pie shield and bake for about 10 more minutes, or until golden brown and done on the bottom. Cool for several hours or overnight.

Broccoli Cheese Soup

From Let Me Plan Dinner! This turned out sooo good. Of course Bill added more cheese when I asked him to dish it out. We ate it with toasty garlic bread. Yum! We thought it would also taste good with cubed ham or even...bacon! But it was surprisingly good on its own.

1 large potato, diced small
1 c cauliflower florets
2 c broccoli florets
3 T butter
1/4 c flour
1 can chicken broth
2 c milk
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 t pepper
2 t minced onion
4-8 oz grated cheddar cheese

In a small saucepan, steam potato, cauliflower, and broccoli (with potato on the bottom and broccoli on the top) until tender.

Meanwhile, in a large pot, melt the butter on low heat. Stir in the flour.

Turn the heat up to high and whisk in the chicken broth, milk, salt, pepper, and minced onion. Bring to a rolling boil for a minute, stirring constantly, or until mixture begins to thicken enough to coat the back of a spoon. Turn the heat to medium-low. Cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are tender.

Stir in the cooked potato, broccoli, and cauliflower. Remove from heat and stir in 4 oz cheese until melted.

Serve with fresh cracked pepper and additional grated cheese.

Shepherd's Pie

The last time I attempted Shepherd's Pie, it was a dismal failure lost in a sea of Campbells cream of mushroom soup. Bland. Colorless. Awful.

So I found a recipe on Allrecipes.com that didn't use cream of anything at all.

Problem: I didn't print it out. I just wrote down the ingredients to pick up at the grocery store. Then when I came home, I couldn't remember which recipe I'd been looking at. (If you look at the original, you'll see it's "Shepherds Pie VI.") So, I kinda did it from memory. I did alright, but I was skimpy with the beef broth and it came out a tad too dry for my husband's taste. But I liked it. I love that there's a whole layer of bright orange carrots!

Also, I used potato flakes instead of real potatoes! We bought a big ol' box of them at Costco and...I use them when I can, because I'm not huge fan of potatoes. Unless they're sweet potatoes. Or french fries.

----

1 lb carrots, chopped

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1 pound lean ground beef

1 cup frozen peas

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon ketchup

3/4 cup beef broth

1 packet Idaho potato flakes

1/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C.)

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add carrots and cook until tender but still firm, about 15 minutes. Drain, mash and set aside.

Heat oil in a large frying pan. Add onion and cook until clear. Add ground beef and cook until well browned. Pour off excess fat, then stir in flour and cook 1 minute. Add ketchup, beef broth and frozen peas. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Spread the ground beef in an even layer on the bottom of a 2 quart casserole dish. Next, spread a layer of mashed carrots. Top with the mashed potato mixture and sprinkle with shredded cheese.

Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Apple Dumplings

A recipe that I've carried around for years, given to me by my pre-mission roommate, Jenn, at BYU. It will always remind me of her because the syrup turns a fabulous shade of PINK.

Pie Crust:
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup Crisco
1/4 cup water

Mix flour and salt. Mix 1/4 cup of mixture with the 1/4 cup water. Cut Crisco into the rest of the flour mixture, then mix in the water mixture.

Roll out dough and cut into 6 squares.

Filling:
4 sm. apples, peeled and chunked
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
butter
Red Hots

Place filling in each square with a dollop of butter and one or two Red Hots. Fold up corners, and seal into "dumplings." Place in 9x13 baking dish, sealed-side down.

Syrup:
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup Red Hots
1/4 cup butter

In saucepan, combine sugar, water, spices and Red Hots. Boil 5 min. Remove from heat and stir in butter. Pour syrup over dumplings in the baking dish.

Bake at 375 for 45 min.

Chicken Piccata

This is another find from Allrecipes.com. It tastes just like the Chicken Piccata that you order in your local strip-mall Italian restaurant. Maybe even better. Especially since I added the capers. Yum!

----
4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1 egg
1 (small) lemon, halved and ready to juice
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon paprika
1/4 cup butter
2 teaspoons chicken bouillon powder
1/2 cup boiling water
2 tbsp capers

In a small bowl, beat the egg together with about 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice. Set aside.

In a shallow bowl or dish mix together the flour, garlic powder and paprika.

Dip the chicken in the egg/lemon mixture, then in the seasoned flour. In a large skillet, melt butter/margarine and brown the coated chicken pieces.

Dissolve the bouillon in the boiling water, then add the remaining lemon juice.

Pour liquid into skillet. Sprinkle with capers. Cover and let simmer for 20 minutes, turning chicken pieces after 10 minutes, until chicken is tender.

4 servings.