Another Christmas Doily & Pumpkin Recipe

On our long drive today to spend Christmas with our brothers I crocheted another Christmas Doily (pattern) in red, green and white.

It's snowing here in northeast Ohio, very windy and cold.   We just had a nice, hot meal out and are settled in for the night.  I'm sitting here crocheting another doily with green as the dominant color this time.

Source: pinerly.com via Charlotte on Pinterest

Changing the subject...I'm going to brag about a great pumpkin dessert for Christmas that feeds a large family and is so easy to make. For our Christmas BUNCO Wednesday night I made "Pumpkin Pie Dump Cake," a delicious recipe I found on Pinterest. I didn't think to take a photo of it but you can find the link on Pinterest to the blog (here) where you can find the detailed instructions and step-by-step photos.

It's hard to believe it's just a few more days until Christmas. Hope you all are ready for Christmas and are able to spend it with your loved ones.

Check Off Christmas Sugar Cookies!

Our Christmas Sugar Cookies are all frosted and in the freezer - all 163. 

Well, that is minus the four we ate.

Hubby was a real sweetheart and helped me frost them. 

 It took about three and one half hours to frost all the cookies.  

And about an hour to make the two bowls of frosting and set up the frosting station.

We finished in time for me to fix supper before the Halloween Trick or Treaters came.

So glad that chore is done. 

 We are still working on our Christmas cards but hope to have that almost finished soon. 

 My goal is to have them all ready to be mailed ~ except for updating & inserting our annual Christmas letter ~ when we return from Walt Disney World in December.

We're not doing too badly on our Christmas gifts either.

Who knows maybe we'll start a new tradition of preparing early for Christmas.

***************

Hope you all had a great Halloween. 

 It was a little colder than usual here but no rain and no wind. 

 We had fun handing out the treats to the kids.

This kid came as a big screen HD TV!

I got a kick out of these two kids!  

Laugh for the day: 

Thanks for visiting!

Baking...up a Storm

I've been busy here at Teacup Lane baking up a storm.

First, I whipped up a batch of Pap's Pizza Bread, a delicious snack and/or meal from my father-in-law. 

 I never forgot the first time my future in-laws served this to my Mom, sister-in-law and me at their house before our wedding. 

 I thought then this snack was from heaven and it still is over 38 years later.

Yesterday I made a double batch of Toll House chocolate chip cookies. 

 They are in the freezer now waiting until Christmas to divy up into cookie tins for the family.

I like the website Allrecipes.com - particularly the feature that lets you enter your serving portion and adjusts the ingredients as needed.

But the real treat of Christmas is sugar cookies made from my mother-in-law's vintage family recipe. This recipe makes a huge amount of cookies (and can be halved too).

As I age I find I have to spread mixing, baking and frosting the sugar cookies over three days. 

 So today I mixed up the dough. 

 Tomorrow is baking day and Tuesday is frosting day. 

 Probably the hardest step for me is frosting. 

 For some reason even with sitting as we frost and with Hubby helping me that is the most time consuming and fatiguing. 

 But it's all worth it in the end.

You can read all about my sugar cookies (here and here).

I'm trying to get as much Christmas stuff out of the way before our trip to Walt Disney World in November so I can just relax and not think about Christmas things to be done when we return home.  

Speaking of storms... the weather channel is all excited about Hurricane "Sandy" and is giving us here on the east coast 24/7 coverage of what to expect and how to prepare for the high winds and tons of rain coming to our area. 

 I don't remember ever having a hurricane named after me. 

 Hubby's been teasing me about it.

It's VERY dark here - completely overcast with rain and our beautiful Mountain Green maple is losing all its colorful leaves.

Well, it's time to get off the computer and relax...maybe watch a good movie.  

Hubby said he would get "take-out" for supper tonight.  

Yippee!

Yummy Dark Chocolate Fudge Just Like My Mom's

I have my Mom's old, tattered, stained, handwritten recipe entitled "Candy"! 

 It's actually a recipe for dark chocolate fudge.

I watched my mom make this fudge hundreds of times. 

 We loved it! 

 Even our childhood dog, Lady, loved it. 

I remember it had a sugary, "melt in your mouth", rich, dark chocolate flavor! 

 Nothing like most fudge out there now that people make or buy that is very creamy - rather my Mom's fudge melted in your mouth, just like candy, which is probably why my mom called her recipe "candy".

I tried several times when first married to make my Mom's recipe but it never turned out (one time it was so hard I couldn't get it out of the pan).

You can imagine my surprise when I found this recipe, Hershey's Old Fashioned Rich Cocoa Fudge, on Pinterest (here) that's almost a duplicate of my Mom's recipe. 

 And even better-- it had more detailed instructions then my Mom's recipe.  

 I found the same recipe on the Hershey website and I had to laugh where it  states to follow the instructions closely or the fudge won't turn out.. no fooling!)

This is what Hershey says: 

NOTE: For best results, do not double this recipe. This is one of our most requested recipes, but also one of our most difficult. The directions must be followed exactly. Beat too little and the fudge is too soft. Beat too long and it becomes hard and sugary. 

I decided to make the Hershey recipe today and quickly gathered together the simple ingredients.

You can find the recipe on Pinterest (here) and also on Hershey's website (including nutritional information).

I mixed up the dry ingredients.

Added skim milk.

Set aside the butter, vanilla and buttered dish.

I don't have a heavy duty saucepan so I used a double boiler.

Next time I will skip the double boiler because the mixture just wouldn't come to a boil. So I ended up placing the top pan directly on the burner. 

{{My Mom's old heavy duty saucepan was ideal for this job, but alas, my sister-in-law has it and she is 450 miles away.}}

It finally reached the soft ball stage and was ready for the last two ingredients.

The recipe said to let the cooked mixture sit several hours until the temperature was reduced to 110 F. before the last step (beating it) and pouring it into the buttered pan. 

 But I don't have ANY patience and anyways my Mom's recipe said to cool it in a pan of cold water so that's what I did.

It's been over 20 years since my Mom passed and at least that long since I had her fudge but I was very pleased with the results. 

This fudge tastes just like hers or at least my memory of hers.

Give it a try you may like it too. 

 {{Hubby tried it but he's more of a milk chocolate lover so he wasn't crazy about it - but I'm a dark chocolate lover so I'm in heaven.}}

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Light & Fluffy Cheesecake

Yesterday I made a cheesecake from scratch...for only the second time in my almost 38 years of married life.

When I found Mary Ahearn's recipe (here) on Pinterest for a LIGHT & FLUFFY cheesecake I had to make it.

I come from a family that loved the very light, melt in your mouth, fluffy cake-like textured cheesecake baked at our Cleveland area Hough Bakeries.

 My Dad, older brother and I absolutely loved their cheesecake.

 If any readers have the original Hough Bakeries cheesecake recipe I would love a copy ((please!)).

 The Internet states that Kraft General Foods purchased the company name and recipes after Hough Bakeries filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 1992.

Ever since the Hough Bakeries closed many years ago I have dreamed about their cheesecake and I am constantly hunting for a light and fluffy textured cheesecake.

 Most cheesecakes out there now are the New York Style which is a heavier, creamy type of cheesecake. I will eat it, of course, but it's not my favorite.

 As far as store-bought cheesecakes, I found the Wegmans Grocery Stores in our area makes a "sort of lighter texture" cheesecake that is delicious.

Mary's recipe calls for six egg whites whipped to stiff peaks to fill the mixture with air to make it lighter and fluffier.

It was easy to mix up with my Kitchen Aid mixer.

The only mistake I made was not baking it a little longer...after an hour in the 325 degree oven I thought the toothpick came out clean but it didn't. Of course I didn't realize it until after the cheesecake sat in the turned off oven for another hour.

Luckily it wasn't ruined...I put it back in the oven until the toothpick finally came clean. I won't make that mistake next time. LOL!

After chilling the cheesecake for a few hours I had a piece last night and it was very good. I loved the breadcrumb base. I think the only changes I would recommend...the next time I make it... is add some lemon zest and a little more sugar to make it a tiny bit sweeter.

You can find the original recipe (here) along with Mary's videos which were very helpful.

Maybe I have inspired you to try this delicious cheesecake recipe.

Note to self: Freeze it because Hubby isn't a cheesecake lover like I am and I have to watch those calories. I calculated calories for a 1/12 piece is 472.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Hershey Kiss Pies

Source: picky-palate.com via Teacup Lane on Pinterest

I had a burst of energy yesterday which doesn't happened too often at Teacup Lane!

I slept well and got up with nothing aching, hurting or sore.  

A miracle!

So, I decided to start putting away our Christmas decorations.  The Christmas tree is down in the living room and all the loose stuff has been gathered up and boxed away.  I still have the Christmas tree in the family room and the outside lights and decorations to do. 

After lunch rather than taking that nap and still feeling on a roll I decided to try this recipe I found on Pinterest (here) for KISS PIES.

I gathered together just a few simple ingredients.

Simple ingredients like ready made pie crust, egg white, sugar and Hershey Kisses.  

I used Hershey Hugs - chocolate kisses surrounded by white cream.

I wasn't going to use a knife to cut out the circles as suggested in the recipe.  

Sorry, I'm too lazy.

I used one of my biscuit cutters (purchased from Sonoma Williams) in the size recommended.

If you don't have a round biscuit or cookie cutter use a round glass to cut out the circles. 

Going into the oven.

I baked mine for 20 minutes on parchment paper.  

Love that parchment stuff!  

Easy clean up and no sticking.

Out of the oven.

All ready to eat.

My version of KISS PIES.

Yum, yum looking and delicious with a cup of hot tea.

Try it when you need (or must have) a quick and easy chocolate treat - makes 14 pieces.

My Mom's Chocolate Pie

Come along with me...

 I'm sharing our family recipe for Chocolate Pie!  

My Mom loved chocolate and her Chocolate Pie was our favorite dessert as kids and still is as adults. 

 Well, it's a favorite dessert for me, my brothers and my Mom.  

Believe it or not, my Dad didn't care for chocolate (?) so my Mom made him a mincemeat pie instead (ugh..we never touched it!)  

I always thought it was strange that my Dad didn't care for chocolate pie since this recipe was passed down from his Mom. 

Simple ingredients and easy as "pie" to make.

First step is to bake the pie crust according to the box directions.

  

One of these days I will make my own pie crust again but usually I'm lazy and just purchase a Pillsbury Ready Made Crust. 

Yea, I know this crust is sorry looking.  

I tried to not stretch the dough but I failed miserably and the sides collapsed while baking.  

No big deal though... because the filling and meringue will hide it and it will still taste good.  

The simple ingredients - eggs, sugar, Hershey's cocoa, flour, milk (I use skim) and vanilla.

I use a double boiler to mix and then cook the chocolate filling.

My Mom's Original Hand Written Recipe for Chocolate Pie
Top of Page
(bottom recipe is for Pinapple Upside Down Cake)

Take three eggs and save the whites from two of the eggs for the meringue...

Beat the eggs... 

Add sugar gradually...

Mix in the Hershey's cocoa...

Mix in the flour...

Mix in the milk...

in the double boiler heat the water until boiling and then turn down to medium and cook until mixture is thickened (usually 25 to 30 minutes)...

(I hate to stand so I grab a high chair - set it next to the stove - sit down and play games on my iPhone while stirring the filling once in awhile...)

Once filling is thickened remove the pan from the heat and cool the mixture and add the vanilla as the last step...

Pour mixture into the baked pie crust.

Now for the meringue!

I like lots of high meringue so I use more than three egg whites.

For this pie I used five egg whites.

My meringue recipe...

My Mom only used the two saved egg whites and she beat the egg whites by hand.  

Too much work for me.  

I use the mixer.

Egg whites, sugar and a dash of salt 

The ingredients...egg whites, sugar and a dash of salt...

Whip the egg whites on high until nice peaks then gradually beat in sugar...

Pile the meringue over the filling sealing the edges...

Bake until the top is evenly browned...

Mom's Chocolate Pie

It's rich but oh, so good!

My brother made one for us for dinner on Christmas Eve and I made this one for our New Year's Eve.

Only one piece left now....sob!

Hope you try it - you won't be disappointed!

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