What Dessert Are You Most Like?

You Are Tiramisu

Light and lovely, you pack a punch. You never overwhelm... but you always leave a lasting impression.

What Dessert Are You Most Like?

Just for fun... Apparently, I'm tiramisu (excellent, since I love tiramisu)! Got this quiz on Jerrie's site.

Pretty Sweet...

I'll admit that I'm usually fairly snobbish about buy-and-bake cookie dough. Much of it is not worth the money, and tastes fake and chemically (one exception is Tom's Cookie Dough—really good). I'm loving Pillsbury's Sugar Cookie Dough Sheets for Halloween. They are great (I found them in the fridge section by the eggs at QFC). We did some with Aura and Miki on Friday and more today with Grammy and Ukki. No rolling, no mixing, easy with kids, very tasty, and they come with good white and orange icing (in bags that you just snip the corners off of to pipe!). Two sheets to a package—about $3.50 for two (or more) dozen depending on the size of cookie you make. "Scraps" from cut-out cookies can be rolled into balls to bake. You'll have way more time and energy to get into decorating if you don't have to make dough or do the clean up!

Genetic

So, maybe my propensity for "cooking by feel" is genetic. My mom is constantly altering recipes, making them amazingly better, and then having to recall what she changed. And I catch myself doing the same thing all the time. Sometimes because I don't have the "proper" ingredients for a recipe (or more likely, just can't find them in my pantry) and sometimes just because I feel like it. There's a scone recipe in The Cast Iron Skillet Cookbook that I have never made exactly according to the recipe... and they're always great. Anyway, Great Gramma Sartor's "recipe" for corn bread reminded me of this particular trait I share with mom...

Corn Bread

Dehlia Sartor

I don't have a regular recipe for cornbread just do it from scratch. This is what I do. Beat 1 egg, add tsp salt & 1 cup milk then sift 1 1/2 cups cornmeal and 1/4 cup white flour and mix all together. I melt about 1/2 cup margarine and bacon fryings in the pan I take it in and pour that in your cornbread mixture. Mix well & bake between 1/2 & 3/4 hr. in a 350 oven. Wish you were close so I could show you don't know if I make it plain in writing. Good Luck. Mom

Pumpkin-licious

Mom brought "Pooh bear's Pumpkin Cookies" up yesterday, and the group devoured them—kids (including Erik) and adults alike. She's getting me the recipe, but in the meantime I found this recipe on Allrecipes (I changed a bit), and gave it a go. It's a keeper! As M says, "These are dee-licous cookies Mama!"


Iced Pumpkin Cookies

2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons Penzey's Vietnamese Cassia cinnamon
1 teaspoon Penzey's Pumpkin Pie Spice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 t. cinnamon
grated fresh nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and salt; set aside.

In Kitchenaid, cream together the 1/2 cup of butter and white sugar. Add pumpkin, egg, and 1 teaspoon vanilla to butter mixture, and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Scoop onto cookie sheets with 1 T. scoop.

Bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool cookies, then drizzle glaze onto cookies.

To Make Glaze: Combine confectioners' sugar, milk, 1 tablespoon melted butter, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add milk as needed, to achieve drizzling consistency.

Grammy's "Pooh's Pumpkin Cookies"

Soft, delicious, and not too sweet. Kids love them AND they are low in sugar and jam-packed with vitamin A and beta-carotene!

Pooh's Pumpkin Cookies

1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. sugar
1 egg
1/2 c. pumpkin
1/2 t. vanilla
1 c. flour
1 t. pumpkin pie spice

1/2 t. cinnamon

1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
and, cinnamon sugar to sprinkle on top before baking

Preheat oven to 350-degrees F and grease cookie sheets or use parchment or Silpat. Cream butter and sugar, than add pumpkin, egg and vanilla. Add remaining dry ingredients and mix into pumpkin mixture. Drop by 1-Tablespoon scoopfuls onto cookie sheets, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, and bake 10-15 mins. or until lightly browned.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese

This is a tasty spread that tastes a lot like pumpkin cheesecake, with a lot less fat, calories and carbs! Easy to make too.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese

1 8-ounce tub light whipped cream cheese

1/2 c. pumpkin

1/2 t. vanilla

1/4 c. sugar

1 t. pumpkin pie spice

Mix the sugar into the pumpkin and vanilla first so the sugar dissolves. Then, beat all ingredients in Kitchenaid mixer on medium until blended. Cover and refrigerate.

Susan House's Smokey Oven Barbecue Ribs

This recipe is from the Point.com Cooks! cookbook that our company created as a fundraiser. Susan House is a kindred spirit who loves good food and good company. This is one of the many great recipes I got from her recipe box (although as a short cut you can use an equal amount of bottled barbecue sauce to cook the ribs in):

Smokey BBQ Ribs

3 lbs. boneless ribs
2 T. Liquid Smoke
1 c. ketchup

1/4 c. Worcesterhire sauce
1/4 c. lemon juice
1 t. salt
1 t. chili powder (Penzey's chipotle is excellent)
1 c. water
1 t. celery salt



Place ribs in shallow pan, brush both sides with Liquid Smoke, and roast in a very hot even (450-degrees F) for 30 mins (turning once). Combine remaining ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer while ribs are roasting. Pour sauce over ribs, reduce overn to 350-degrees F and bake for about 1-hour, basting occasionally (every 20-30 mins).

Easy Peasy...

When you've got excellent ingredients, it's "easy peasy" (as Jamie Oliver would say) to throw together gorgeous food in a hurry. We've got beautiful red leaf lettuce, tomatoes and cukes from our new organic box.

Throw that together with leftovers (salmon from dinner Tuesday and rice from Indian takeout), dressed with Wishbone Asian Silk Salad Spritzers. Easy, fast, and delicious. Oh, yeah, and wicked healthy too.

Bourbolicious

This recipe is from Rochelle's cousins, who were visiting from Kentucky when we made it at a dinner party years ago... and we dubbed it "Bourbolicious" because it wasn't as Bourbon Slush-y as it was supposed to be when dinner was ready (but still delicious).

Actually, when I make this, I usually double the batch because it disappears so quickly at a party—even people who usually don't like bourbon or mixed drinks still love this particular concoction.

Bourbolicious
(or Bourbon Slush x Two - this recipe is for a DOUBLE BATCH!!)
2 12-oz. cans lemonade
1 12-oz. can orange juice
2 c. sugar
3 c. bourbon (go ahead, use the Knob Creek)
4 1/2 c. brewed black tea (add sugar to it while it's hot to melt sugar)
12 c water

Mix together and freeze in plastic container(s). Best to freeze overnight. You can mix in a little ginger ale if serving in a punch bowl.

Dressing Up

This week I have a recipe from one of the Sartor womens' men—my grampa, Arthur Freed. The story he told was that he got this recipe from a drunk guy in the lounge of the Benjamin Franklin Hotel in Seattle (built in 1928, became the Westin in 1948 and was demolished in 1992). Grampa used to make it and keep it in a corked Old Grandad bottle in the fridge. He liked it so well, he figured that he could've sold it to Nalley's...

Art's Salad Dressing

1/2 c. oil
1/2 c. ketchup
1/4 c. vinegar
1 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
1/2 t. dry mustard powder
1 t. grated onion
1 clove crushed garlic

Mix it all up and dress up your favorite green salad!

Images— L: Vintage postcard from the Benjamin Franklin HotelR: Arthur & Doris Freed on their wedding day, July 13, 1940

Grammy's Red Devil's Food

This was the standard birthday cake for the Freed kids (there were five)—so a recipe that Grammy baked often—always frosted with Seven-Minute Frosting. My mom says

Red Devil's Food Cake

1/2 c shortening or margarine
2 c sugar
2 eggs
1 c sour milk or buttermilk
1 heaping t. baking soda dissolved in 2 T. hot water
2/3 c cocoa powder in 1/2 c boiling water
2 1/3 c flour
1/2 t baking powder
1 t vanilla
dash salt

Mix in the order given. Grammy notes that this is actually one of her mom's recipes. Bake at 350-degrees F until done.

Seven-Minute Frosting (a great one from Good Housekeeping, since I don't have her recipe)

1 egg white

3/4 c sugar

1/4 c water

1 1/2 t. light corn syrup

pinch salt

1/2 t. vanilla

Beat everything but vanilla in medium stainless steel bowl on low speed to blend. Place bowl over medium saucepan with 1-inch simmering water (don't let bowl touch water). Beat mixture on high speed for 7-minutes or until mixture stands in soft peaks and temp reaches 160-degrees F on candy thermometer.

Remove bowl from pan and beat mixture 3-5 mins longer or until cooled slightly and stiff, glossy peaks form. Beat in vanilla until blended.

Candy Sushi

This recipe is originally from Rachael Ray, although I (of course) modified it. The green and red rolls are her recipe, which uses green fruit roll-ups and cherry Twizzlers. I also tried real dried cherries and melted dark chocolate, and orange/cherry/lime Sunkist fruit gel centers with dark chocolate "nori". They are all fun to make, fun to eat and great when you can't eat real (or at least raw) sushi. I made three batches tonight for Jamie... now I just need to figure out how to get them over to her before she heads home!

Candy Sushi

4 large marshmallows
1 T. butter
1/2 c. Rice Krispies cereal
2 green Fruit Roll-ups
1 cherry Twizzler, cut in 1/2

Melt marshmallows and butter in micro or in saucepan until smooth, then stir in cereal. Let cool slightly, divide in 1/2 and spread out on Fruit Roll-ups. Put a Twizzler in the center of each roll and cut to fit. Roll up. Chill slightly, then slice.

If using chocolate for the candy "nori" divide Krispie mixture and spread out on the Fruit Roll-ups paper (makes perfect template). Put dried cherries or other candy of choice in center and roll. Then, roll in melted dark chocolate, transfer to plate and chill slightly in fridge before slicing.

From The Sartor Women...

So, this weekend Erika told me that I "...make baking look so easy," because we had two pies in the oven before the guys knew what happened. My Mom says that people used to say about my Great Gramma Sartor—"She can make a pie while other people are just talking about it." She made amazing pies, and took joy in baking although I'm betting that two of her greatest joys are the girls in these photos—her daughters: Alma and Doris (or Dode). They were both accomplished bakers as well.

Doris was the younger of the two and was my grammy. Just thinking about her makes me smile. She was an amazing woman who raised four boys and one girl (my mom)... and perhaps her biggest challenge—my Grampa (who was quite a handful in his earlier years...). I could go on for quite awhile about all the Sartor women, but this post is to introduce a couple of their recipes. Each week I'll post another (Alma's divinity, Grammy's red devil's food cake with 7-minute frosting, etc.)

This week, we'll begin at the beginning with "Mom" Sartor's pie...

Mom Sartor's Banana Cream Pie

1/3 c flour
2/3 c sugar
1/4 t. salt
2 c milk
3 slightly beaten egg yolks
2 T. butter
1/2 t. vanilla

Whisk in saucepan and cook until thickened.

Top custard with meringue. For meringue whip to stiff peaks:
3 egg whites
6 T. sugar

Bake your pie shell, slice 2 bananas into the bottom, top with cooked custard, then meringue and brown in oven.

And, the much coveted recipe for her pie crust...fairly straightforward, but she baked with love which always adds a little something.

Dehlia Sartor's Pie Dough

Again I do it from scratch. For 1 pie

1 cup flour
3/4 cup Crisco or shortening whatever you have I like Crisco best.
1 tsp salt and just enough cold water to make it stick together. Mix shortening & flour & salt together first then add water and roll out.

Lemon Jello Cake

This cake always reminds me of summer, and of being at my great-gramma's house in Port Orchard wandering through the garden eating a slice right out of my hand... Coincidentally, my friend Janelle made this cake for Miki and my "double" baby shower!

1 package yellow cake mix
1 (3 ounce) package lemon Jello
3/4 c vegetable oil
4 eggs
3/4 c water
1/4 t. lemon extract or zest of one lemon
1 c powdered sugar
4 T. fresh lemon juice

Combine gelatin mix and cake mix. Mix well. Add next 4 ingredients—oil, eggs, water and lemon extract or zest and combine. Bake according to instructions on back of cake box in a bundt or a 9x13 pan.

To ice, combine powdered sugar and lemon juice. Pour over hot cake after you remove it from the oven.

Homemade Sweet Cream

This recipe is both creamy and light. No cook and no raw eggs! Absolutely delicious and great with summer pie!

1 quart half-and-half

1 quart 1% milk
1 pint heavy cream
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1T. vanilla extract

2 t. Vietnamese Cassia Cinnamon
1 pinch salt

Combine half-and-half, cream, sugar, vanilla and spices in freezer container of ice cream maker. Freeze according to manufacturer's instructions.