Tag Archives: fruit

Old Timey Apple Pie

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applepie-1My husband has been reminicing about the homemade apple pies that I used to make. He talked enough to get me wanting an apple pie. I bought a bag of apples and got out my ‘Old Timey Apple Pie’ Recipe. I was particurilarly excited about making a pie because I finally figured out how to make the lattice pie crust and wanted to try it out. It wasn’t as hard to do as I once thought. I used to make the solid pie crust top.

We enjoyed the pie… However, if I ever make it again, I will have to adjust the recipe because it was way too sweet. That’s the thing about the old timey recipes, some are sugar-heavy, this recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups.

All-in-all, it was a pretty decent pie. We enjoyed it over the course of a few days. I enjoyed making the pie and plan to make another one someday with adjustments to the recipe, or maybe another recipe all together.

I hope you all have an enjoyable week.

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Tomato-less Pizza Sauce – Alfredo Spinach Dip Pizza Sauce

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IMG_1039We like to have homemade pizza night where we make our own individual pizzas. It’s quite fun to lay out the ingredients and let each person dress their own pizza. I particularly like dressing my own pizza because unlike most normal folks, I’m not a big fan of tomato pizza sauce and prefer a white sauce.

Recently, I decided to make a pizza topped with fruit cocktail, chopped pepperonis and shredded turkey lunch-meat along with the normal shredded mixed cheeses topping.  I used to make a white sauce with a blend of white cheeses and herbs. My recipe is quite good, but I decided to try something different for my sauce by using equal parts of store-bought Alfredo sauce and Spinach dip.IMG_10301

I’m happy to say, my pizza was delicious. My husband ate a slice of my pizza and was very impressed with it. Matters-a-fact, it was so good that a few days later we indulged on a second pizza night just so we could enjoy the new sauce mix. I didn’t have any fruit to put on it, but the pizza was still mighty tasty.

IMG_19261From now on, I plan to use the mix of Alfredo sauce and Spinach dip for my pizza sauce. It’s so easy to dip each out the store-bought jars and mix it in a bowl and then spread it on a pizza crust.
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Do you have a favorite sauce that’s differs from the traditional ones,
or do you like the traditional ones the best?

Happy cooking!chefspgrnbgln

The Pie of Disappointment

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0-IMG_6518Here’s A Quick overview so you can decide if you want to read my long rambling post or not:
I had this grand idea that a fruit cream pie would be a wonderful rare sweet treat.
The pie looked better than it turned out.
Tastewise it was a big disappointed.
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Read on to learn the rambling details:

I surfed the net and found a recipe that had lots of raves and seemed to be just the pie for me to make. It was a simple pie and best of all was totally made in a blender except for the fruit.

As I began to make the recipe the 2 cups of milk and 4 eggs gave me cause for pause as did the cup of sugar, I thought it way-to-much, but since I was already into the recipe I continued on. I was right, with the other ingredients it was too much liquid for one 10 inch pie plate, so I put some of the mix 2 ramekins… (imo even a deep-dish pie-plate would probably be filled to overflowing.) The mix was so thin, I didn’t see how it could possibly cook thoroughly…IMG_6497

I added some fruit and baked the pie at the recommended 45 minutes. It looked pretty good and so did the ramekins. The ramekin pies were done, but unfortunately the pie wasn’t done, it had to bake 20 minutes longer.IMG_6500

I set the ramekins aside and let them cool during the 20 extra minutes I baked the pie. I decided to give the a ramekin pie a taste, It tasted like scrambled eggs with a ton of sugar in them. Yuck! So I scrapped the pie from the ramekins and tossed it in the trash.

I had higher hopes for the pie as it had the fruit in it. The pie baked up beautifully. It sure looked tasty. Even my husband said it was looked really pretty.IMG_6511

I put it in the fridge to cool overnight. It wasn’t as pretty as it was fresh out of the oven, but I still had hope. It sliced easily and surprisingly came out of the pie-plate in good form. I took some photos and then grabbed a fork to taste it.IMG_6518

Oddly, if it wasn’t for the fruit it would have had no redeeming quality. The fruit was good but the filling around it was rubbery scrambled eggs and way too sugary. I didn’t even finish the slice. Into the trash it went.

All I can say is, I tried. I’m not happy about wasting all the ingredients. But I did learn to better pay attention to my cooking instincts.
Oh yes and also, even if a recipe has good reviews it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s worth trying,

Well, anyhow, at least the photos turn out pretty.
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Wishing you all a great rest of the week?
chef
spgrnbgln

Mystery Tree – Solved – Paulownia tomentosa

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The mystery is solved.
This tree is a Paulownia tomentosa
(common names empress tree, princess tree or foxglove tree)
It’s a deciduous tree in the family Paulowniaceae, native to
central and western China, but invasive in the USA.
Paulownia tomentosa is the fastest growing tree in the world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulownia_tomentosa
https://gobotany.newenglandwild.org/species/paulownia/tomentosa/

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Do you know what type of tree this is?
My husband and I saw it growing down in a gully, next to a waterway, by the side of a road. I’ve never seen one like it. It’s such a curiosity to us that I had to make some photos to help me search for what it is.
I haven’t been able to find a photo of a tree to match it on a search engine.
I wonder what type of fruit or nuts it produces and if it’s edible.

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Do you know what it is?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on it.

Have a lovely rest of the week.
I hope all your mysteries are pleasant ones.
🙂

spgrnbgln

8 inch Soda-Pop Cake

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IMG_8501I’ve been wanting to try to make a soda-pop cake. It’s not something that was on my to-do list, but something I thought about from time-to-time (especially every-time there’s a certain commercial on)
The recipe’s really simple, but it’s way to big for me and my husband, so I halved it and made an 8 inch cake

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IMG_84748 inch Soda-pop cake

Put frozen fruit in the bottom of an ungreased 8 inch cake pan
*(You can use fresh or thawed fruit too)
Spoon 2 cups dry cake mix on top of fruit
Pour 1 cup of soda-pop on the cake mix

Bake at 350° for 30 minutes to 1 hour or until nicely brown and done.

*The reason for the broad baking time is that I used frozen fruit and it took my cake an hour to bake. I suspect if I had of used fresh or thawed fruit that it may have taken less time… but I could be wrong.
If you make this cake with fresh or thawed fruit and it takes less baking time, come back and comment and let me know.

The only thing I would do different with this cake is that I would take a small spoon and dip up some of the soda-pop and dampen all the cake mix so it wouldn’t have dry mix in spots on top.

This recipe is that it tastes a lot better than it looks.
My husband says it’s delicious and I agree.

Also, if a person wanted a smaller cake all you’d half to do is half the measurements, bake it in a smaller pan and watch the baking time carefully until it’s fully cooked.

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My Bff says her son-in-law told her that he recently had some orange crush cake and it was one of the best tasting cakes he’s had.
So, I guess you know what my next cake will be. 😉
Stay tuned…

Have you ever made a soda-pop cake?
What fruit and flavors of soft drink and cake mix did you use?

Wishing you all a sweet rest of the week.
🙂

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graphic from picgifs.com

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