Keith

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

OK, so where is this great recipe? Inquiring minds want to know!

It's in the attached link to the thread "Home Grown Thanksgiving..."

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Keith's Pecan Pie Cake Recipe

Lord-A-Mercy-Me! A body can't miss just a few days of reading here and you all just go....crazy! I'm trying to catch up on the catalog reports and this too!

Maybe shoulda posted on the other thread what all we had from the garden for this Thanksgiving Day...but since I'm just now catching up here...and add to that I'm one of those idiots that shopped 'til I dropped on Black Friday with my daughters..I'm just too danged tired. Just know that we had the wonderful flavors of sweet potatoes, green beans and pumpkin pies...

This next week I'm off work...and doing some Christmas Goodies. Carol - I haven't forgotten my promise of Cinammon Candy without the red dye! And I'm making Zuchinni Bread that will probably feed most of Cleveland County. Keith - I'm also trying your recipe!

I'm so thankful for each and every one of you!!!

Paula

Paula, You are a sweetheart, but I only need a small amount. NEED, did you get that? LOL I may have to try Keith's cake also when I finally break down and go to WM for the cake mix. Right now, I am trying to stay away.

My experiment today was homemade English Muffins. They were sure good with butter and Apple Pie Jam.

I placed my Totally Tomato order tonight and ordered the things I needed (2 things), and also ordered the Goliath Collection which I didn't need, but wanted. Of course, I will have to buy onions and potatoes a little later. I really didn't need much, but that doesn't always stop me. LOL

Paula, You were brave to face those mobs of people. I sat right here and did my shopping online. This is the most non-gardening shopping I've ever done online...and I like it! Actually, I shopped a little on line all week long, and some items I ordered online on Monday evening were delivered by UPS on Wed. morning, and I didn't pay extra for super-quick shipping either.

Carol, You and I think so much alike it is scarey. I ordered a couple of things I "needed" from Totally Tomatoes yesterday and then added the Goliath Collection simply because I wanted it. I'm thinking I'm going to have to completely rework/rewrite my Tomato Grow List for 2011 because I've been buying a lot of tomato seeds since I made that list, and the list probably is not even close to what I'll really plant.

Will you share the recipe for homemade English Muffins? I think some of us who make jelly and jam might want to know how to those muffins!

Dawn

I would like that recipe, too, Carol! Sounds yummy.

Paula, have you ever made Sweet Potato Bread? Love it, love it, love it. I saw a recipe the other day for Sweet Potato burritos that sounded interesting. It may not sound too good, but I often end up loving things that don't begin with a particular love for the quirky "sound" of the recipe. Love Zucchini bread, too.

My problem? I am just not very picky about ANYTHING! I will try almost EVERYTHING. Well, except for sardines.....yuck!

Unfortunately, I don't grow anything to make jelly out of. Wah..... We used to have lots of plum and apricot jelly at our house that Mom made. We had plum trees bakc then. My dad was an apricot addict. But, we use to buy fruit from the local farmers by the bushel and can them whole and make jelly.

I sure wish I had saved more than a couple of pieces of Keith's cake when I sent it off with Jessi. Note to self for future reference.

Dawn, I've been doing all my shopping online, too! So much easier, and there are a lot of good deals right now, including free shipping on most things.

There was a really sad story on the national news yesterday about 2 ladies who camped outside of one of the stores to get their Black Friday bargains. They then proceeded to another store and someone smashed the windows in their vehicle and stole all of their gifts, including flat screen TVs, computers, etc. They had saved their money all year long just to go shopping on BF. I felt so sorry for them.

Susan

Susan, The English Muffins came from the Kitchen Table thread that I will attach below. After I read the recipe, I remembered that I had bread dough in my refrigerator that was very close to this recipe except it was made with half whole wheat flour. I had used part of the dough to make a large pan of rolls before Thanksgiving and had used the extra ones to make garlic croutons which I then used as part of my cornbread dressing for Thanksgiving.

As I looked at the recipe, I realized that the main difference in this recipe and a simple bread recipe was just in the way it was cooked. On that thread someone said they would love to make them but didn't like corn meal, and asked if there was anything else they could use. I probably have corn meal in my freezer, but I have corn meal mix in my canister, so I decided to experiment since I thought the idea was just to give it "ball bearings" to keep it from sticking and let you move it easily in case the grill had a hot spot. The corn meal doesn't go in the recipe and is just scattered on wax paper to get meal on the bottom and top so I flipped them to get more on the top, and pressed them down into it a little. I experimented with a farina type hot cereal (raw of course) and it worked just fine. I would probably use corn meal in the future, but for people that can't have corn, that worked just fine.

Dawn, We are indeed twins, but I am the lazy one. LOL

For those of you who may not know, Dawn and I were born in the same Texas town, and we both now live in Oklahoma. We both worked in a purchasing type job which involved the Dept of Defense. We are both happy to stay outside from morning until night in summer. We both had a major health issue which gave us a 'different' prospective on life. We each have a 'pet' charitible project that we assist with. Her husband is a cop and is the Fire Chief for a volunteer fire departement. My husband has been a volunteer Deputy Sheriff since 1991. He doesn't work the streets anymore, but still serves as the Sheriff's rep on a Drug Court Board. I think you get the picture here. LOL I am older and don't have half the energy that Dawn has, but our tastes are very much alike.

Dawn, I normally plant a lot more OP tomato seed, but I would like to get a nice mix of OP and Hybrid. I would like to find a few good hybrids that produce oodles of tomatoes for me, but I'm not willing to give up the good taste of the open pollinated ones. I also like to have all the different sizes, shapes, and colors that OPs provide. The Cluster Goliath plant, from seed Jay sent me, was a heavy, heavy producer of small tomatoes. I also wanted an early tomato, and there was an early in the collection. There was also a jalapeno which I hadn't grown, so it just kind of met my needs on all points.

In addition to the collection, I bought Ancho San Martin Hybrid Pepper, because the ones I planted this year were smaller than what I wanted. The plants were big, but the peppers were too small. I don't normally grow cauliflower but since I will be planting broccoli and the needs are about the same, I decided to try Cheddar Hybrid. Oh, I also bought an Eva Purple Ball Tomato from the sale page. So the total including shipping for 17 packs of seed was $44.20.

The wind is terrible today in my neck of the woods.

Here is a link that might be useful: KT Thread for English Muffins

Carol, I'm much older than Dawn, but I know young folks out there who don't have as much energy as Dawn does. LOL! I was not blessed with a high metabolism, so its grunt and push through for me to get things done. My son is like that, though. He can't sit still at all.

Those sound so good....the muffins. I don't have a big griddle like the one on the thread, but I do have a square iron skillet-type griddle that I have had since the beginning of time. It shiould be fine. I also have corn meal. I like the idea of a basic whole wheat bread recipe, because I just don't eat much white bread anymore at all. I used to bake my own bread, BBM (before Bread Machines), and the house always smells so good with fresh bread baking smells in the air. They should come up with a candle with the fragrance of baking bread.

I feel badly for folks with food allergies, especially like gluten, nuts, berries, etc. We can't even send peanut butter sandwiches to school with Kenna anymore because it's been banned. A good thing probably, because kids often share food without realizing the potential consequences. We have to check labels when it is snack day, too, to make sure there are no nut flavorings, oils, etc. baked into snacks. But we now have a low sugar rule, too. No candy, it must be healthy, like fresh fruits for example.

Since you're trying the Cheddar cauliflower, are you going to try the purple broccoli, Carol? They all look good to me. I need to grow a pepper for salsa. Of course, Jalapeno immediately comes to mind, but are there others you grow to add to your salsa, like the Ancho? I think Anaheim could also be used in Salsa. However, aren't the Ancho and Anaheim milder than Jalapeno? I usually like a medium heat to my Salsa. Not too hot, not too mild, with lots of Cilantro.

Susan

Susan, Pablana has a bit of a bite but not nearly as hot as jalapeno. I love them for cooking though and in salsa I use them as part of the sweet pepper mix.

Maybe not purple broccoli, but I would love to grow purple califlower. We will see how I do with the cheddar one this year then if I have a good experience maybe I will branch out. I don't have an unlimited garden space so if I fill it too full of spring things I have no room for the summer ones. I hava attached a pic of one grown by Jay Slick and it is gorgeous (scan down). He grew it in a high tunnel so we can probably expect some of these great things from the other Jay this year, when he gets that greenhouse finished.

Jay, is the greenhouse on the back burner while you are running to retrieve your aution finds?

Susan, I am pretty high energy but I couldn't keep up with Dawn.

Sorry Keith, we have sure taken your cake thread on a little trip here. It does look like it would be good.

Here is a link that might be useful: Purple Califlower

Oh my goodness, thanks for the link to the cake recipe. It sounds wonderful and I am going to give it a try! I made a pumpkin pie cake for turkey day and it is also very good, I like it better than pumpkin pie! Going to try the pecan pie cake for Christmas!

Oh, my gosh - now I must have the recipe for the Pumpkin Pie Cake, oh please, oh please..........

Carol, that Purple Cauliflower is beautiful! It almost jumps right off the page into your mouth - I wish! I'm about to take on veggies I've never grown before, broccoli, cauliflower, eggplant, being a few of them, so wish me luck! Wow, Jay Slick sure grows a lot of them! He sure has some nice looking children and vegetables. I looked down thru the page of his blog.

Susan

Yall, this thread is moving so fast I can't catch up!

Carol, You give me too much credit. I am naturally inclined towards laziness, but working outside is more like playing to me. When the weather is good, I'd rather be outside than inside any (and every) day of the week.

And, y'all, Carol does a lot of community work she doesn't mention. I know she is active in her church community and she also sews clothes for the underpriviledged!

Carol, The Goliaths I've grown have been among the best hybrids I've ever had in flavor. Beefmaster and Big Beef are two other hybrids we like a lot too. It is a delicate balancing act to have enough OPs and hybrids to keep us all happy here at our house. but I try.

Thanks for posting the thread with the muffin recipe.

The wind was terrible here today, but we didn't have any fires in our part of the county, and we were very relieved about that. There were some in other parts of the county. I was horrified when I saw the big huge columns of black smoke in the video of the three fires in the OKC-Harrah area.

Susan, You can use any pepper you wish in your salsa. I often use a blend of habaneros, jalapenos and serranos. Sometimes I use tiny bird peppers but they require special handling to ensure they are diced up into enough pieces to disperse the heat throughout the batch of salsa since they are tiny to start with. I usually liquify them in the blender with a small amount of juice from the tomatoes I'm using in the salsa and then blend that really well with the rest of the salsa ingredients. It only takes a couple of tiny bird peppers to spice up a batch of fresh salsa, and a few more for a cooked/canned batch of 6 to 8 pints.

Klo, Pumpkin Pie Cake is my favorite cake, although Texas Sheet Cake is a close second. I've adored Texas sheet cake since I "discovered" it in our school cafeteria in first grade. Pumpkin Pie Cake is a rather recent discovery. I've been making it since 2005 when "Cooking Light" magazine ran the made-over recipe in their Thanksgiving issue.

Susan, I'll link the recipe I use for Pumpkin Pie Cake and then, if Klo's is different, maybe she'll link it too and you'll have two recipes to try. Just looking at the photo on the recipe page makes me want to run right into the kitchen and make that cake right now.

Keith, I'm sorry we've completely hijacked your thread and have meandered all over the worlds of cooking, gardening and eating, among other things. These "meandering" threads often end up being my favorite threads though because it's like we're all sitting in a room today just gabbing away.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Cooking Light's Pumpkin Pie Cake

I think it is interesting how good pumpkin is in other baked goods. Pumpkin pie is one of my least favorite pies, but I LOVE Libby's Pumpkin Roll, and I like pumpkin bread with pecans and little chocolate chips, and the cake looks good also. In fact, I would have to put Pumpkin Roll, right up there with Brownies (and Blondies) and Chocolate Pudding Cake as some of my favorite baked goods.

I couldn't find a Duncan Hines Butter Cake Mix today, but I doubt that I can have it anyway. So many of the mixes say they have red dye in them. If someone has a box maybe they can check it for me. I sometimes wonder if it is only in the chocolate mixes and they just use generic ingredients lists on all boxes, but I have seen it listed on several yellow cakes as well.

Looked it up for you, Carol. Several mixes that do have it include:

Yellow
Butter Recipe Golden
Deluxe Red Velvet
Deluxe Fudge Marble

Those that don't:

Caramel
Spice
White
Swiss Chocolate
German Chocolate
Deluxe Butter Recipe Fudge
Deluxe Dark Chocolate Fudge
Deluxe Devil's Food

I bet the Caramel and Spice Cakes would be wonderful for Keith's recipe.

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Duncan Hines Cake Mixes

Thanks Susan. I tried to find ingredient lists on line when Keith mention the cake, but I couldn't find them. I have 'clipped' your post so I can find it again. I don't buy many cake mixes anyway, and I noticed that I only have Pillsbury German Chocolate right now. I was thinking that DH was the one that had Red 40 in the yellow cake mix. I have to limit sweets as it is, but I have to totally elimate anything with Red 40. I read a lot of labels. LOL

That German Chocolate might work really well, Carol! You know, I just don't think about folks with food allergies and the need to curb sugar intake much. I should, you'd think, because my dad was an insulin-dependent Type I brittle diabetic. But in my defense, he wasn't very careful with his diet. Despite that, he lived to be 77 years old. He did have to have his leg amputated when he was in his early 70's. But, all in all, he survived much longer without any amputations for a very long time, in light of the fact that he didn't watch his carbos at all. I miss him. He was such a funny guy.

I think all of the other baking websites, like Pillsbury and Betty Crocker, have ingredient lists, too. I don't always pay attention to the brand when I'm buying, which is very rarely, too. In fact, I came across several websites that focus on Red Dye 40 and list many foods that contain it other than cake mixes.

I'll try to be much more considerate now. I didn't realize at all the problems associated with Red Dye 40, but apparently there are a lot.

Susan

Keith, I'm sorry we've completely hijacked your thread and have meandered all over the worlds of cooking, gardening and eating, among other things. These "meandering" threads often end up being my favorite threads though because it's like we're all sitting in a room today just gabbing away.

Yall have no need to apologize about hijacking this thread, actually it isn't my thread at all, it's Susan's.

My favorite Great Uncle had a saying, "Have Fun cause that's what counts!"

Keith

This pecan pie cake sounds pretty delicious. Think it would be a good choice to take to work for a potluck?

That would be an affirmative, Ozlift! Please share your oohs and ahs with us after the potluck.

Susan

I have purposely avoided this thread until just now, when I couldn't take it any longer. Pecans are a special weakness of mine and I'm currently trying to lose the lard from this year's headfirst dive into crappy eating. In fact, I bought a 5-lb bag of pecans last month for a great price with the intention of making them into amaretto pecan pies and freezing the remainder so they'd be safe from my grubby little paws. The thing is, they're just cracked, not completely shelled, so I have to sit with them in front of me, shelling them, before I can do anything with them. Not a single, solitary one has made it into the freezer -- or any recipes.

*burp*

Since I now don't have enough pecans left to do anything with, the pecan pie cake recipe is safe for me to look at. :-p

Carol, I make my own cake mix. Of course, you're a smart cookie and I bet you do, too. I have no beef with dyes, I'm just a cheap SOB. LOL

As long as we're derailing this food thread with other talk, can I ask if any of you have a suitable substitue for lard in pie crust? Not shortening as I hate crusts made with it -- they're always gummy for me. What about butter? Would a pie crust made with 100% butter work? One of hubby's sisters and her family are Muslim and don't eat any pork, so no lard. I'd like to be able to make pies they can eat next year -- yet I don't want to have to test out several recipes because then I'll have to eat them all! Figured my butt would be much safer asking trusted sources like you folks. LOL

Diane

Diane - A word of warning on the pecans...they will not keep long if they are cracked unless you freeze them. Of course that may not be a problem, if you are eating them that fast. LOL The reason that I know this is that my niece gave me a bag of cracked ones one time and I left them in the bag for a little too long. One day I opened the door to the room where they were and I had about a thousand littles moths flying around. They had hatched out and been well fed in the bag of pecans.

Diane - You have come to the right place for the piecrust. I cannot even stand the thought of using lard and I think it would be way to much trouble if I had to do the frozen chipped butter thing, or the ice water thing that some people do. Warning: You are going to think this ingredient list looks funny, but give it a try. Make sure you have waxed paper.

2 cups flour (scant)
1 teaspon salt
1/2 cup cooking oil
1/4 cup buttermilk

You can stir this with a spoon and it should be a soft dough. It will be much softer to roll out than most pie crusts. The trick is in handling the crust, so read this part carefully.

Take out a little more than half for the bottom crust and place it between two sheets of waxed paper. Roll out with a rolling pen. After you have rolled it to the proper thickness, remove the top sheet of paper by carefully pulling it from one side. Lay it back down on the dough again. That was just to release it from the paper and make it release better later on.

With both sheets back in place, flip the entire thing over so the bottom piece of paper is now the top piece. Remove the paper that is now on top and set it aside.

Now here is the tricky part. Pick up the dough, still on the paper, by using both hands placed about 2/3 back on the crust and your pie pan in front of you. Let 2/3 hang toward you and let the 1/3 drop back over your hands. Starting with the 2/3 part, place it in your pan with the paper still attached. As you lay it down, the paper is now on top. Now slowly peel off the paper.

This sounds like it slow process, but it really isn't after you get the hang of handling the dough. If you have a problem, just patch it. Since you didn't add more flour in the rolling out process, you can throw the scraps back into the bowl and use them as part of the next crust.

I have quadrupled this recipe several times without any difficulty but I would suggest you make it as a single pie the first time so you know how the dough should feel. I predict you will never go back, once you have tried this one. Very little mess to clean up since the rolling pin never touched the crust, and there is no flour mess to contend with.

Soonergrandmom,
This is a great recipe. Have you ever tried prechilling the milk and oil? I chill those, along with my glass bowl and find it really adds to the flakiness.

Okay, that does look weird! But since you recommend it, it's gotta be good! I'll do a trial run for a Christmas pie. (Still have three pies in the freezer leftover from Thanksgiving!) Thanks!

And thanks, seedmama, for the chilling tip, too. I'd not have thought of that without my usual lard recipe.

Diane

seedmama - I don't chill anything although the milk comes straight from the refrigerator. Mine is always flaky and I think the acidity from the buttermilk helps with that. Some people add vinegar to their crust, but with butermilk it occurs naturally.

The lady that is given away the DVDs that I listed on another thread has a husband on a low salt diet so she cut the salt in half and replaced it with thyme and made a savory pie from it. I just use the same crust for everything but I don't have a health restriction for salt. I make a great 2 crust chicken pot pie with it. It's one of my favorite make ahead recipes because you can make ahead then just nuke a slice at a time. Works great for after Church on Sunday.

Diane - I failed to respond to one of your comments. I don't make my own cake mix, but I rarely make a cake. I have the German Chocolate mix because I sometimes make it and use half in trifle, then freeze the other half for a later one.

I make my own bisquit mix and use it just like I would the yellow box stuff. I keep that one all of the time.

I make a cookie mix, which you can use for cookies or brownies but I normally just make it up into cookie dough all at one time and freeze the rolls of cookie dough. So really for me it is just a big batch of cookies.

If I made the cake mix I would probably need to keep it frozen. We only like moist cakes, like Hummingbird Cake, Pineapple Upside-down Gingerbread, Fresh Apple Cake, etc.

OMG - all of this biscuit mix, cookie dough, trifles, and moist cake stuff is making me light-headed - or maybe that's because I find myself playing mind-twister after Carol's instructions on rolling out the pie dough. I feel so ADD.

But seriously, can I get the biscuit mix recipe? Do you store in the fridge/freezer? I really am a horrible baker. I made biscuits last week and thought I was doing so well. Even bought new, fresh baking powder. Well, they came out looking like I had given them a mastectomy, and mixed them with part cement. I could have used them to dry stack a fence next spring.

Speaking of lard, my momma used to make THE best chocolate cake with lard. BTW, don't they make beef tallow to use as a substitute for lard?

Susan

Susan, I've never heard of a beef sub for lard but, then again, I've never looked. The in-laws are Muslim and only eat Halal so the beef tallow would have to be Halal as well. I never realized how many things I use lard in until they came for Thanksgiving and could only eat one thing I'd made. LOL (They brought their own food so it was okay.)

I make my own mixes for biscuits, cornbread, etc, too, Carol. I can't say that I've ever bought box of pre-made stuff but I've had several given to me over the years. We don't generally like cakes but I do like to keep some cake mix on hand anyway to use in other recipes that call for it, such as pumpkin gooey butter cake.

Oh, and on the pecans: Nope, don't need to worry as there are barely any left and I'm sure they'll be gone by the end of the week. :-D I usually keep nuts in the freezer anyway, both to prevent rancidity (we try to keep a well-stocked pantry) and to keep us from munching them all away!

Speaking of cookies, I need to get to baking some Christmas ones but I'm afraid I'll eat them all. I'm thinking I'd better just mix up some dough to put in the freezer & fridge until RIGHT before I'm ready to bake -- and send them away. Oink! Funny thing since I'm not usually a cookie person but around the holidays, they seem to just force themselves into my mouth, the evil little things.

Diane

Here is my recipe for Pumpkin Pie Cake, it came from my mother so making it brings me a lot of memories!

Pumpkin Pie Cake

1 can pumpkin
1 cup milk
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 1/2 t. pumpkin pie spice or 1 t. cinnamon, 1 t. ginger,
and 1/2 t. ground cloves

I yellow cake mix
2 sticks butter
1 cup chopped nuts, we use pecans

Combine first 5 ingredients and pour into a greased and floured 9x13 pan. Sprinkle yellow cake mix on top; pour 1 cup (the 2 sticks) butter, melted over the dry cake mix. Sprinkle with the nuts.

Bake 1 hour at 350°

I am gaining weight just reading this thread, y'all! Now stop it!

We really should start a thread of our "Okie Recipes" that maybe could go into our FAQs. There are so many of you who are outstanding bakers, chefs, or "cookers" as my granddaughter says it! I hate to see all of these recipes go by the wayside, disappearing into the vast depths of the forum wasteland. What say you?

Is there anyone in charge of our FAQs?

Susan

Diane - I forgot about Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake. I love that one.

Susan, The mix is simple and I just made it up years ago and have shared it with many. It is two things: (1) a 5 pound bag of self-rising flour, (2) two cups of shortening. I recommend Crisco. Put it in a very large bowl and work it with a pastry blender until it is very well blended. That's it. No refrigeration required. I keep it in a tall gallon size plastic canister.

When I am ready to make bisquits, I put the dry mix in a bowl and sprinkle a little baking soda on the top and add buttermilk. Don't use the soda if you are using regular milk. I wish I could tell you the measurements but I can't, but it would be somewhere in the neighborhood of half as much buttermilk as bisquit mix.

With all the leavening and the shortening already in the mix, you can make one bisquit, or a huge pan full.

I sometimes add garlic powder to the dry mix in the bowl, then after mixing in the milk, I add grated cheddar cheese.

I make several other things with it, but one of my favorites is Impossible Bacon Pie. Are you cooking yet?