Pumpkin Juice

When I visited the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Universal Studios Hollywood last month, one of my favorite finds was the Pumpkin Juice and Pumpkin Fizz (a carbonated version of the juice).  It is apple juice  based but has the perfect blend of pumpkin spices to give it a nice pumpkin flavor without a weird texture.

There are several copy-cat recipes online.  I combined 2 to get the look and flavor I was going for: Food In Literature (a super great website btw) and Favorite Family Recipes.

I needed to fill a large drink dispenser so it was a go big or go home situation.

15 oz pumpkin puree
4 cups water
4 cups apple juice
1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice (can add more, to taste)
1/2 cup white sugar
2 tsp vanilla
Additional gallons of apple juice (as much as you need)


To make the "Pumpkin Juice" that mixes with the additional apple juice:

1. In a sauce pan mix pumpkin puree, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and vanilla.
2.  Add 2 cups of water and 2 cups of apple juice.
3.  Simmer for at least 30 minutes to infuse liquids with pumpkin flavor.
4.  Strain through metal mesh sieve.
5.  Return pumpkin to pan and add remaining juice/water.
6. Simmer for at least 30 minutes to infuse liquids with pumpkin flavor.
7.  Strain through metal mesh sieve.
8.  Allow pumpkin juice to cool completely, discard rest of pumpkin mush.

Mix pumpkin juice with additional apple juice and ice.  Stir occasionally.

Notes:  Since I was experimenting with this recipe, I simmered only a couple cups of liquid at a time because I wasn't sure how much "pumpkin Juice" I would want.  I also originally added 2-3 tsp of pumpkin pie spice, but ended up adding more in between each simmering time (I simmered 4 different times about 2 cups of liquid each).  I would imagine if you wanted to make Pumpkin Fizz you could just add club soda to the apple juice and pumpkin juice.

German Apple Pancakes

One of my favorite breakfasts is the Apple Pancake from the Original Pancake House.  It is sticky, sweet, cinnamon, apple goodness.

Right now those videos that show how something is made step-by-step in fast forward are super trendy.  When I saw the Tip Hero video for a German Apple Pancake I jumped at making it, and it sure was tasty.  Needs more sticky sweet syrup and apples to compete the the OPH dish, but a suitable substitute for at home, especially when served with apple cider syrup or buttermilk syrup.

See Tip Hero's recipe here. 

Holiday delights.

[I am currently missing my camera that I took my Thanksgiving pictures with so photos will be updated when camera is found for each pie]

I love holiday pies, regular pies, all American pies.  I love pie. This year I tried 3 new flavors, each was quite delicious.  I am also including a pie I made last year but never posted, and a delightful tart. The titles link to the original recipe.

Pioneer Woman's Caramel Apple Pie

I won my church pie baking contest with this recipe.

Pie crust of choice

Filling:

6 cups thinly sliced granny smith apples

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 cup flour

1/4 tsp salt

Topping:

3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks)

1/2 cup flour

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup oats

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup toasted pecan pieces or chopped sugared pecan

1/2 jar caramel ice cream topping or 1/2 bag of caramels, unwrapped and melted

1. Toss together apples, lemon juice, white sugar, flour, and salt.

2. Roll pie crust into pie pan.  (If using a deep pie pan, increase apples 1/2-1 cup).

3. In a separate bowl cut the butter into flour until crumbly, stir in brown sugar, oats, salt.

4.  Add apples to pie crust then top with crumb topping.

5.  Bake in a 375 degree oven for 1 hour.  I cover pie loosely with aluminum foil for first 30 minutes. 

6.  If toasting regular pecans, sprinkle on top of pie and bake 5 more minutes.  If using chopped sugared pecans sprinkle after removing from oven.

7.   Pour caramel over the top of pie and allow to cool.

 Rolo Pecan Pie

1 9in pie crust of choice

1 (8 oz) bag of Rolo minis or 40 unwrapped Rolos

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup milk

1/2 cup brown sugar

3 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup pecan halves

1.  In a saucepan over low heat, melt butter, rolos, and milk together until smooth.

2.  In a large bowl mix together brown sugar, 3 eggs, vanilla, and salt until frothy.

3.  Pour in melted rolo mixture and stir until combined. Add in pecans and stir together.

4.  Prepare pie crust in pan and preheat oven to 350 degrees.

5.  Pour chocolate pecan mixture into pie crust and bake for 45 minutes until top is golden but still able to wiggle when moved.  Allow to cool completely.

Beach Pie

recipe given to me by Cyrus

Crust:

1 1/2 sleeves saltine crackers (Only 1-1 1/4 sleeve for non-deep dish pie)

1 stick softened butter

3 Tbsp white sugar

Filling:

14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk

4 egg yolks

1/2 cup lime juice

Whipped cream

coarse sea salt

1. Crush saltine crackers in food processor or smash in ziplock with rolling pin.

2.  stir in sugar to saltine mixture and cut butter into mixture until a crumbly consistency.

3.  Press into pie pan. You don't need to reserve any of the mixture.

4.  Chill pie crust for 15 minutes in refrigerator.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Bake chilled crust for 15-20 minutes until crust is browned.

5.  Beat the egg yolks with the sweetened condensed milk.  Beat in juice until completely combined.

6. Pour mixture into pie crust.  Return to oven and bake for 15-18 minutes until pie has set.

7.  Cool to room temperature then place in refrigerator.

8.  Add whipping cream and refrigerate until ready to serve.  Sprinkle with coarse sea salt just prior to serving.

Cranberry Cream Pie

recipe given to me by Cyrus

3/4 cup white sugar
2 tsp cornstarch
1/4 cup cold water

2 cups whole fresh cranberries
       

1 9inch graham cracker crust

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup whipping cream, whipped or cool whip

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1.  In a saucepan combine white sugar, cornstarch, water until smooth then add in cranberries.

2.  Bring to a boil for 2 minutes. Cranberries may begin to pop. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat.

3.  In a mixing bowl blend together cream cheese, vanilla, and powdered sugar until creamy.  Fold in whipping cream already whipped or cool whip. 

4.  Spread cream cheese mixture into graham cracker crust.  Spoon cranberry mixture over top.

5.  Chill for 4 hours then serve. 

Options:  Grate small amount of orange peel into cream cheese mixture and add in 1 Tbsp orange juice to cranberries with 3 Tbsp water rather than 1/4 cup.

Make sugared cranberries and decorate the top with whipped cream and cranberries.

Another recipe I made this holiday season was Cranberry Apple Upside-Down cake.  The original recipe post has beautiful step by step pictures so I am going to just send you to Sally's Baking Addiction.

Homemade Peppermint Oreos

I love homemade oreos.  I love peppermint and chocolate.  When I saw the concept for these I just had to try it.

Original recipe for Chocolate Peppermint Bark Whoppie Pies at Mary Cooked A Little Lamb.



I made this recipe and had some issues with the cookies.  Not sure if the issues came from doubling the recipe or from the high altitude that I live in, I suspect it had a bit to do with both, but while I LOVED the filling, I won't be using the recipe for the cookie again, especially while I have a recipe I already love that works well.  I also didn't love the peppermint bark the pie/oreo was dipped in, while it looks fantastic, I felt it made the cookie too hard to eat.  Next time I am going to either add crushed peppermint candy canes to the filling, or overfill the center and roll the edges in the crushed candy cane.  So I have written some adaptations and think these will be superb.

Homemade Oreo:  (From my Aggie Oreos)

1 Devil’s Food Cake mixes
2 eggs
1/4 cup shortening

Mix all together until wet and sticky. Form into little balls and place on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 8 minutes. Cool 1 minute before removing from sheet.

Peppermint filling: (From Mary's original recipe)

1/2 cup butter, room temp

1 8-oz. pkg cream cheese, room temp

3 1/2 oz. marshmallow cream/fluff

1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract (I actually felt like it could use more peppermint, so I dashed a bit more)

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Pinch of salt

Beat together butter and cream cheese until creamy.  Add marshmallow (this is 1/2 of a regular jar), peppermint, and salt.  Mix until smooth.  After cookies are cool, fill with peppermint marshmallow filling.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

I have been waiting for years to do a Star Wars movie premier party, and the time finally arrived!!

Favors:  I had bought a really cute set of Star Wars cookie cutters from Hot Topic on black Friday and these were a lot of fun to make the classic Cinnamon Ornaments with.  I used the Imperial Sugar recipe and would recommend to  keep them thick and cook them longer as well as allow to airdry over night.

Activities: Since it is near Christmas, the activities were winter and Christmas oriented.

Build a Droid:  Instead of building gingerbread houses, we built droids using marshmallows and toothpicks and royal icing as the base and various candies (gum drops, licorice, etc) to decorate and personalize your droids. We had a contest and passed out Star Wars $1 merchandise prizes.

Star Wars Snowflakes:  Anthony Herrara Designs is the king of all cool geeky snowflake patterns and you can get them for FREE on his website.  I printed several options out and had a station with a large cutting mat, multiple pairs of scissors, and some exacto knives available.

White Elephant:  Over the past few months as $1-3 items have popped up in Target Dollar Spot, I have snagged them to have plenty of wrapped gift options for a "Left-Right" white elephant gift exchange game.  Unfortunately there are no Star Wars version of the story, although if you are creative you could write one about the Dark or Light side of the Force. 

Star Wars Trivia: I passed out this difficult trivia quiz I found via pinterest on See Mom Click.

Photos:  I always like to have a photo wall with some props.  It is a fun way to loosen people up, get a photo of everyone in attendance, and it is easy entertainment.  I was lazy and rather than make a cute starry night or other appropriate Star Wars background, I just used a Force Awakens table cloth.  I bought a lot of the masks on clearance after Halloween, and others I have found thrifting over the years.  I added a title overlay when I edited the pictures later and sent them to each guest. 

Party Food:

Drinks:  I had Yoda's Sodas representing the light side (Cream Soda) and the Dark side (Rootbeer) of the force and water.  I wanted to serve Hoth (hot) chocolate but never got around to it.

BB-8 Balls: Clementine's are plentiful this time of year and the new cute little droid BB-8 fits right in.

Jar Jar Links:  Just did the crockpot lil smokies and BBQ sauce. 

Taun-Taun Sliders: I have heard people rave about these ham and swiss sliders for years and since I was keeping the meal simple, this was a perfect time to use them.

Hawaiian Ham and Cheese Rolls

1 stick butter

2 Tbsp Dijon Mustard

2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce

1 Tbsp Brown Sugar

1 Tbsp Poppy seeds

1 Tbsp dried diced onion or 1/2 tsp onion powder

18-24 Hawaiian Rolls (must be the King Hawaiian brand)

1-2 (16oz) packages of sliced deli ham

8oz thin sliced Swiss Cheese

1.  Melt butter, mix in mustard, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, poppy seed, onion

2.  Slice roll and place 1 piece of ham in each.

3.  Cut Swiss cheese slices into quarters and top ham with a slice of cheese.

4.  Place sandwiches onto a baking sheet and preheat oven to 350 degrees.

5.  Brush rolls with butter and seasoning mixture liberally.

6.  Bake for 20 minutes.

Bantha Bites: For these I created meatball sliders. 

Meatball Sliders

24 frozen or homemade meatballs

24 oz jar of spaghetti sauce (I use Prego Fresh Mushroom)

12 oz of Mozerella (block to slice)

24 rolls

1.  Heat up sauce and meatballs in a saucepan (10-20 minutes)

2.  Slice Rolls and cheese. Lay out rolls on sheet pan.

3. Open rolls and place a slice of cheese on each.

4.  Spoon sauce and a meatball on each roll and top with other side of roll (may have to squish down to keep in place).

5.  Bake for 5 minutes at 350 degrees.

Endor Salad:  Any fresh green salad works for this.

Cloud City Cookies:  I made Mexican Wedding cookies for this.

Mexican Wedding Cookies

recipe from Kraft Foods.

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

1 cup finely chopped pecans

additional powdered sugar for rolling

1.  Beat together butter, sugar, and vanilla until fluffy. 

2.  Slowly mix in flour.

3.  Stir in pecans

4.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

5.  Roll cookies into 1 inch balls.

6.  Bake for 14 minutes, cool for 5 minutes.

7.  Roll into powdered sugar and allow to cool completely.

Wookie and Friends Gingerbread cookies:  I bought awesome gingerbread Star Wars cookie cutters from Think Geek.  I made chocolate gingerbread for fun.

Sausage and Gravy breakfast casserole

This is a delicious pinterest recipe.  Original recipe found on Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom.

1 Pillsbury  (14oz) home-style biscuits
1 package country gravy (makes 2 cups)
7 eggs
1 cup Colby jack or mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/2 cup milk
1/2 pound ground turkey sausage
salt and pepper

Brown sausage.
Grease a 9x13 pan.
Cut biscuits into 1 in pieces (about 7 pieces per biscuit) and spread evenly over the pan.
Sprinkle sausage and cheese over biscuits.
Mix up eggs, milk, salt and pepper and pour over biscuits.
Mix gravy according to directions.  Pour over egg and biscuit mixture.
Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes until edges are browned and eggs are cooked through.

Lunch Lady Peanut-Butter Bars

If you are a child of the 80's and 90's I hope you had the chance to eat these during school lunch.  I think they were served on fish stick days.  Nevertheless they are delicious and actually fairly simple to make.  Hooray for pinterest and people who know Lunch Ladies.  This is their recipe.  I doubled it to make 2 jelly roll pans (11x15). This was a great amount to serve a crowd and I hear they freeze well.  Here is my adapted recipe:

3 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 cups butter

1 1/2 cups white sugar

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

3 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter

4 eggs

3 cups quick rolled oats

 

In the mixer, cream together butter, sugars, peanut butter, eggs, and vanilla until fluffy.  Add in salt and baking soda.  Slowly incorporate flour.  Mix in oats.

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease jelly roll pans and dump half of the mixture onto each pan.  Dough is sticky so either spray grease your hand or a piece of wax paper and spread mixture towards edges.  Dough will fill in as it bakes.  Bake for approximately 15 minutes until browned. Allow to cool.

 

 

 

Frosting:

1 cup butter

6-7 cups  powdered sugar

4 Tbsp cocoa powder

1/2 cup milk

2 tsp vanilla

Melt the butter in a sauce pan. Add milk and cocoa and stir constantly over medium heat until it comes to a boil.  Remove from heat and add vanilla.  Stir in powdered sugar until desired thickness and taste.  Remember that as the butter cools the frosting will naturally thicken.  Spread over cooled bars.