Heddy's frozen pumpkin pie

Delicious! The best tasting (and simplest to throw together) frozen pumpkin pie!

For 1 (* or maybe two) pie(s):

1/2 gallon New York vanilla ice cream
1 can pumpkin (normal size can)
1/2 cup brown sugar (to give that molasses-y flavor)
2 Tablespoons pumpkin pie seasoning
1 purchased graham cracker crust in a foil pan for one mountainous pie (*or divide this recipe between two graham cracker crusts for two prairie-style pies!)

First, take ice cream out of package and soften in a bowl until it can be stirred.

Stir in the canned pumpkin, pumpkin seasoning, and brown sugar.

Mix with a large spoon to the best of your ability without melting the ice cream entirely.

Put mixture in graham cracker crust.

Cover and freeze.

Enjoy!

surprise pie

Last summer we put up lots and lots of gallons of sliced, fresh peaches from our peach tree.
Lots.

Today, I pulled the first gallon bag of frozen, sliced peaches from the freezer.
Surprise Pie was in my mind.

First, I peeled off the plastic bag and threw it out. (Microwaving plastic can release harmful chemicals into food, I understand.)

Then, I washed out the largest Pyrex bowl and placed the block of frozen sliced peaches in it.














Next I microwaved the peaches. For several minutes. Then several more minutes. Hmmmmmmm. Still frozen solid.

So I improvised an ice pick with a table knife and drove it with a wooden rolling pin as a mallet. Drove the table knife into the frozen fruit, . . . sort of, not really.

Kelly came to the rescue with a blow dryer.














After about ten minutes of serious blow drying, I could finally break the gallon of frozen peaches into smaller chunks. That was good enough to pile into pie tins lined with frozen pie crust.











After cooking about 14 minutes in the oven, the pie tins looked like they were about to overflow with excess pie liquid.

So we got out a large glass baking dish and turned the Surprise Pies upside down into it.

We made lunch, ate lunch, and cleaned up afterward while waiting for the Surprise Pie to finish cooking. About the time everyone else had forgotten about it, I remembered to glance in the oven. Looks good!











Baked at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour 40 minutes (or until the crust is brown and juice thickened.)

***

Review:

5 forks -- All the fun is in making the pie (actually, a peach cobbler in the end). Tastes good, too.

no crust pumpkin pie

Fresh pumpkin pie makes a great autumnal side dish . . .

One small fresh pie pumpkin makes about four cups of mashed pumpkin.

Each pie (with or without a crust) requires 1 cup of mashed pumpkin.

***

First, cook the pie pumpkin:

Prick the skin of one pie pumpkin in several places.

Cook whole pie pumpkin in 350 degree F oven for about an hour.

Remove pumpkin from oven and cool.

When pie pumpkin is about room temperature, cut into halves. Scoop seeds from pumpkin.

Scoop pumpkin flesh from the shell. Mash with a hand-held potato masher.

I small pie pumpkin makes about 4 cups mashed pumpkin. (I reserved three cups of mashed pumpkin to make "real" pumpkin pies with crusts.)


I used the Old Fashioned Pumpkin Pie recipe from Esther H Shanks' Mennonite Country-Style Recipes as the basis for no crust pumpkin pie.

Mix:
1 cup fresh, mashed pie pumpkin
1 egg
1/2 cup brown sugar
dash of salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 tsp. vanilla
1 and 1/2 cups milk

Pour into greased baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees F for an hour, or until center of pie is firm. (Table knife comes out clean.)

Serve as delicious side dish for winter menu.

***

Review:

3 forks
My diners were merely tolerant of the whim to use pumpkin pie as a side dish. It was enjoyed with scepticism.

taco pie

This pumpkin face is happy because today's surprise entree came out great!
It is another of the,
"Oh my gosh, I thought we had all the ingredients (when we didn't)" successes.

My intent was to make soft-shell tacos. Bought the ground beef, onion, diced tomates, taco seasoning, cheddar cheese. (We had flour tortillas in the refrigerator.)

Recipe:
4 Servings:

Taco filling

• Heat 2 Tablespoons sunflower seed oil (or your favorite vegetable oil) in a large skillet.


• Add 1 pound low-fat ground beef and 1/2 diced white onion.


• Cook until meat completely browned.


• Add 1 can diced tomatoes.


• Add 1 package Taco Seasoning and 2/3 cup water.


• Simmer.
  
  

(Now would have been the time to pull out the flour tortillas and get ready to assemble soft-shell tacos. As it turned out, I had only 2 tortillas in my refrigerator, not enough to feed our hungry crew. And I didn't have the patience to wait for pasta or rice to cook.

So I reverted to plan B:

Grits --

• Boil 3 cups water in a saucepan.


• Add 3/4 cup grits, stirring constantly.


• Cook grits about 5 minutes, or until thickened.


• Pour grits into 4 bowls.


• Top each bowl of grits with several ladles of the simmering taco filling.


• Melt slices of cheddar cheese on top of the taco filling.
  
  Tastes great with lemonade!
  

***

Review

4 forks -- Everyone wanted seconds

Small unsweetened fruit pies

Fruit pie in the summer is always a big hit around here. Last night's pies were cooked in pot pie foil pans, making individual servings.

First:
I used a boxed pie crust, adding water to the dry ingredients and mixing in a bowl, per the box instructions.

• 
  

Then I rolled out two small pie crusts for each pie -- enough to make five little two-crust pies. It turned out that I had enough pie crust mix for one extra round for a crust. That round became our only turnover. (Eleven pie crusts rounds total.)

Meanwhile, Guy sliced:
2 apples
1 peach
15 seedless red grapes (approximately)

He mixed them in a bowl with:
2 or 3 tablespoons tapioca
powdered cinnamon to taste
powdered allspice to taste
a splash of lemon juice

Then he divided the fruit mixture evenly amongst

the 6 small pie pans lined with a bottom crust.

I put on the top crusts, trimming off the excess crust overhanging the edge of the pie pans, and cut two slashes in the top of each pie for steam to escape.

• 

The sixth pie, with only one crust ,was treated like a turnover. After the fruit was added to the single crust lining the pan,I folded the excess crust back over the top of the filling -- sort of wrapping it up.

We cooked the pies on a cookie sheet in a 350 degree F oven.

When they start smelling great and turning brown, the pies are done -- about 20 -30 minutes, I guess.


Review:

5 forks for delicious taste and creating demand for more fruit pies!