Thanksgiving Notes

First, the bad news.  My dear computer that has served me well and long (long in the life of a laptop, anyway!) is truly dead.  This is terribly inconvenient timing, since I was planning on "adopting" Jason's laptop next summer when he leaves on his mission, not buying another laptop now.  I haven't shared a computer with my kids for a long time...I guess we'll see how it goes.

Now to the good stuff.  Thanksgiving was great!

I spent the whole day Wednesday cleaning and getting ready for Thanksgiving.  Including making 5 different pie crust recipes.  In the end, I decided that I'm just not a gourmet--they didn't taste that different to me.  Well the one that was only lard did--I wouldn't have used that one on any of my pies.

I don't know why I've never thought to use my food processor before for pie crusts, but I hope to never do it again by hand.  It was so easy!  I ended up having to roll out all of the crusts between sheets of waxed paper; they were too fragile to roll them out without. 

Wednesday night I was sorting through some recipes and found a recipe for Marie Callender's Banana Cream Pie.  I've always loved their pie crusts, so I made that recipe Thursday morning.  Not for a banana cream pie (more about that one in a minute) but to use with an Apple Cream Pie.  The crust was delicious and I will definitely use that recipe in the future.

Russ and the kids love banana cream pie, and I always try to make it from scratch for them.  For the last several years I've made two large pies, and they are always eaten quickly.  This year I had a new strategy.  Instead of making banana cream pies I made a banana cream casserole.  Yep, you read that right.  A casserole.  In a 9x13" casserole dish, with a graham cracker crust.  I regret that I didn't take a picture, because it was curious to behold.  They loved it, and were very happy that there was more of it to eat.

We had a moment of excitement Thursday afternoon when some of the pies were baking.  I'd overstuffed my apple pie (as recommended on the food network website) but didn't realize that if I overstuffed it I needed to put something beneath it to catch the drips.  Instead....

the oven caught on fire.  It was very exciting.

When the fire was out we had to clean the burned stuff out of the bottom of the oven before we could cook another pie--it kept catching on fire again!

Here are my favorite recipes from Thanksgiving this year:

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Apple Cream Pie

Unbaked pie shell

2/3 c. sugar

1 egg, slightly beaten

2 c. finely chopped apples

1/2 t. salt

2 T. flour

1 t. vanilla

Topping: 

1/3 c. flour

1/3 c. sugar

1 t. cinnamon

1/4 c. butter

Bake pie shell for 5 minutes @ 350 degrees.

Combine first 6 ingredients, pour into pie shell.  Combine topping ingredients, cut in butter and sprinkle over top.  Bake at 425 for 25 minutes.

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Marie Callender's Crust Recipe

1/4 c. butter

1/4 c. shortening

1 1/4 c. flour

1 T. sugar

1/4 t. salt

1 egg yolk

2 T. ice water

1/2 t. vinegar

Cut the cold butter and cold shortening into the dry ingredients until the mixture has a consistent texture.  Mix egg yolk, ice water, and vinegar into the dough, then form into a ball and refrigerate it for 1 hr so that it will be easier to work with.  

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Marie Callender's Banana Cream Pie

2/3 c. sugar

1/4 c. cornstarch

1/2 t. salt

2 3/4 c. whole milk

4 egg yolks, beaten

1 T. butter

1 t. vanilla

2 ripe bananas, sliced

[Since home-ec in 7th grade I've made my pudding by "tempering" the eggs--beating the eggs separately, then adding the hot milk a little at a time to keep from making the eggs taste cooked.  I was surprised to see that the Marie Callender directions didn't say to make it this way.  I made one batch my way, and one their way, and they both worked fine.  So--it's much less work to do it their way!  As always, I made mine in a big glass bowl in the microwave instead of in a pot on the stove.]

Mix together the sugar, cornstarch, and salt.  Blend the milk and eggs in a medium bowl, the add the mixture to the dry ingredients and whisk together.  Cook, stirring (every 2-3 minutes if you're using the microwave) constantly for 6-8 minutes or until mixture boils and thickens, then cook 1 minute more.

Remove the pudding from the heat and add butter and vanilla.  Put plastic wrap on the top of the pudding while it cools to room temperature.  (The plastic wrap prevents the top of the pudding from becoming hard.)  When pudding has cooled, slice bananas onto pie crust and spoon pudding on top.