From the Better-Late-Than-Never Category: We won't discuss the condition of my recipe collection coming to the end of the canning season, but here's the Orange Pickled Beets recipe I promised long ago. I haven't made this for a long time, but it can be canned and served as pickled or thickened and served Harvard-Style. Orange Pickled Beets (by Florence Fabricant in the Garden-to-Table Cookbook) Makes 6 pints 8-9 pounds beets, without tops 12 narrow strips orange peel, an inch or so long 3 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar 3 cups sugar 1 cup orange juice, preferably freshly squeezed 1 tablespoon pickling or kosher salt 1. Wash beets, leaving an inch or so of stems. Place in a large kettle, cover with water and bring to a boil. Cover the kettle and simmer the beets until tender, about one hour depending on size. 2. While the beets are cooking, simmer the orange peel in water to cover for 15 minutes, then drain. 3. Combine vinegar, sugar, orange juice and the prepared orange peel in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and boil for 5 minutes. Set aside. 4. When the beets are tender, drain them and rinse in cold water. Slip off the skins and lsice the beets. 5. Fill clean, hot pint jars with hot beet slices, leaving headroom of 1/2 inch. Add 1/2 tsp. salt to each jar. 6. Return the orange syrup to a boil and fill each jar to within 1/2 inch of the top with boiling syrup. Include 2 strips of peel in each jar. 7. Adjust lids and process the jars in a boiling-water-bath for 30 minutes. Carol

Amy, There not hard cookie, but somewhat more dense than a regular cake. I would suggest having the 3 pans indicated, and an offset spatula, as it makes this process go much faster. Since there's a small amount of dough of each color & there very thin layers which needs to be spread evenly & the offsite spatulas make easier. Around my house it's not christmas w/o these little treasures. Hope they are what your looking for.

Ginger, it isn't that pastry cream, but I appreciate you sending me a link. Roselin32, the filling for the Bee Sting Cake might be the right one. I'm going to try a batch tomorrow. The coffee cake was more like a giant yeast danish rather than a cake. Thank you for suggesting I check the Bee Sting Cake. This afternoon my kid sister said she remembered the name of the bakery, Tom's Pastry, and I then I remembered that was the owner's name. Who would have thought a German with a thick accent named Tom. Anyway, she remembered the cream puffs had a cream filling that wasn't whipped cream, but not a custard or a pudding. She said she had a recipe similar at one time, but can't find it. Eeesh!

What is the ingredient list on the purchased box? (or is it a box). I'm not familiar with Marie. One odd thing i noticed is 5 dollops of whipped topping on the pie. Is that not hard to cut evenly? We don't have pie much and an inch slice is about our limit and only holiday time anywho...(can't cut across that first cut) It is standard practise with larger companies to use the actual product advertised and on the box photo...and in tv commercials. It is the law and any cheats would be so easily leaked by those working on the project. Styled food 'photos' do cheat sometimes in later touch-up but the original set-up is the actual food product. Hours with tweezers. I worked on so many years ago to fill in down time and then again during the writers strike for a short time. I'd rather stick pins in my eyes it is so boring. Smaller companies and most import products are not regulated at all. Why what you see on some package/can/jars is nothing like inside and why it is often impossible to re-create something after looking at the ingredient list with all the preservatives tweaks in a laboratory. One commercial for a checkerboard ice-cream that served up perfect slices had a half dozen chest freezers brought in with the actual boxes from the factory that one would buy in your local grocery. They sliced and sliced for three days to get the perfect one over and over. On a PizzaHut commercial they tractor trailered in the ovens used in their 'establishments', (fast food joints) lol. And large boxes of chilled bags of goop sauce with a dozen in-house cooks to prepare it just the way it is done by the food staff on site in your neighborhood. I think it was for their pasta offerings, not pizza. Besides all that, trying to re-create a good flavor combination at home with fresh ingredients is noble and i think important. Less processed and maybe not so pretty but much healthier. (really who cares with dessert) Actually with trial and error a pretty slice can happen...not likely in my house as some are often perfect and others are goopy but still taste good. A warm knife run under the sink then whipped dry helps with slicing cold pie. The entire history of food advertising and when the ball dropped is interesting. like GainsBurgers for dogs. Basically play-dough with zero food value and considered a real treat!