Showing posts with label special. Show all posts
Showing posts with label special. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Frog Eye Salad

Frog Eye Salad

1 cup Acini de Pepe pasta                    1 20 oz can crushed pineapple, drained reserving juice
3/4 cup sugar                                        1 20 oz can pineapple tidbits, drained reserving juice
2/3 cup pineapple juice (reserved)       2 11 oz cans mandarin oranges, drained
1 Tbsp flour                                          1 cup whipped cream or topping
1 tsp salt                                                1 cup mini-marshmallows (colored)
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp lemon juice


Boil Acini de Pepe in 1 quart of water, 5 to 10 minutes, or until soft.  Meanwhile, in separate pan, combine sugar, flour, and salt.  Add egg and mix together well.  Stir in 2/3 cup pineapple juice.  Heat over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened and bubbly.  Remove from heat, and lemon juice and leave to cool.  Drain and rinse pasta in cool water.  Let stand.  Once pasta is cool, add fruit and stir together.  Stir in cooled sauce and refrigerate.  Just before serving, add whipped topping and mini-marshmallows.  Mix well.  Makes a large batch.  (I have used mini star pasta also, in case you can't find Acini de Pepe.)  Enjoy!

From the Files of Mie Oliphant

Pumpkin Pie

I am personally not a fan of pumpkin pie, but many of the children and my husband are.  So we made pumpkin pie.  I started out using the recipe in my trusty Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook, but eventually switched to the recipe on the Libby's pumpkin can.  Someone said they liked it better.

Ingredients:


Instructions:
MIX sugar, cinnamon, salt, ginger and cloves in small bowl. Beat eggs in large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture. Gradually stir in evaporated milk.

POUR into pie shell.

BAKE in preheated 425° F oven for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350° F; bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 2 hours. Serve immediately or refrigerate. Top with whipped cream before serving.

Note:  I generally used 1.5 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice, instead of the cinnamon, ginger, and cloves.

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Rainbow Cookies

Rainbow Cookies

48 Servings    Prep: 50 min. + chilling Bake: 10 min. + cooling

Ingredients

    1 can (8 ounces) almond paste
    1 cup butter, softened
    1 cup sugar
    4 eggs, separated
    2 cups all-purpose flour
    6 to 8 drops red food coloring
    6 to 8 drops green food coloring
    1/4 cup seedless red raspberry jam
    1/4 cup apricot preserves
    1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1.    Grease the bottoms of three matching 13-in. x 9-in. baking pans (or  reuse one pan). Line the pans with waxed paper; grease the paper.  Place almond paste in a large bowl; break up with a fork. Cream with butter, sugar and egg yolks until light and fluffy. Stir in flour.
2.    In another bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Fold into dough, mixing until  thoroughly blended.  Divide dough into three portions (about 1-1/3 cups each). Color one portion with red food coloring and one with green; leave the remaining portion uncolored. Spread each portion into the prepared  pans. Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes or until edges are light golden brown.
3.    Invert onto wire racks; remove waxed paper. Place another wire rack on top and turn over. Cool completely.  Place green layer on a large piece of plastic wrap. Spread evenly with raspberry jam. Top with uncolored layer and spread with apricot jam. Top with pink layer. Bring plastic wrap over layers. Slide onto a baking sheet and set a cutting board or heavy, flat pan on top to compress layers. Refrigerate overnight.
4.    The next day, melt chocolate in a microwave; stir until smooth. Spread over top layer; allow to harden. With a sharp knife, trim edges. Cut into 1/2-in. strips across the width; then cut each strip into 4-5 pieces. Store in airtight containers.

Yield: about 8 dozen.


A little more work than your average cookie, but VERY tasty.  Not too sweet, and not fruity.  I liked them very much.  And they do look festive.   I did not put chocolate on the top.

From Taste of Home 

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Alecia Cake

Vanilla Cake with Strawberry Cream Frosting
                (Makes 12 servings)

Ingredients:
Frosting:
2 8-oz packages of cream cheese, room temperature
1 c (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
4 c powdered sugar
1/2 c seedless strawberry jam
3/4 c chilled heavy whipping cream

Cake:
3 c cake flour
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 c sugar
1 c (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
7 large eggs
2 T vanilla extract
1 c sour cream
6 T plus 1/3 c seedless strawberry jam
2 1/4 lbs strawberries, hulled, sliced (about 6 cups), divided

Directions:
For the frosting, beat cream cheese and butter in a large bowl until smooth. You'll probably want to use an electric mixer for this so you don't end up with lumps. Stop every now and then to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Beat in sugar, then jam. Beat cream in a separate, chilled, bowl until peaks form. Fold whipped cream into frosting. Cover; chill for a couple of hours until it's firm enough to spread.

For the cake, preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter and flour two 9-inch cake pans with 2-inch high sides. (I use 10 inch springform pans.) In a medium bowl whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Add sour cream, and beat for 30 seconds. Add flour mixture in three additions, beating to blend after each addition. Divide batter into prepared pans.
Bake cake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 50-60 minutes. Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes. Run a sharp knife around the edges of the pans, then turn cakes out onto a rack to cool completely. (You may even want to refrigerate them for a couple of hours to make this next step easier.)

Using a serrated knife, divide each layer in half horizontally. Place one half, cake side down, on a cake plate. Spread 2 T of strawberry jam over the cake, then spread 3/4 c of the frosting over the jam. Arrange 3/4 c of the sliced strawberries on top of the frosting in a single layer. Repeat two more times with cake layer, jam, frosting, and strawberries. Top with remaining cake layer, cut side down. Spread two cups of frosting over the top and sides of the cake in a thin layer, then frost with remaining frosting. Stir remaining jam to loosen, then spoon teaspoonfuls onto the top and sides of the cake. Use the back of a spoon to swirl jam decoratively into the frosting.

Nat's Notes:
1. As you can see, I used a 9x13 cake pan and did three layers instead of four. This makes a LOT of cake. (Which seems to justify the pound of butter (between the cake and the frosting) and 7 eggs, no?) It fed well over 20 people at Sophie's party. It does take longer to bake that way. I think I baked it for an hour and 5 minutes or so. Begin the toothpick tests at around 55 minutes, though.
2. Because I decorated her cake, I didn't swirl jam into the frosting.