Pumpkin Cream Pie

Ahh, the week before Thanksgiving, some of us are scrambling to finish our menus and some of us had our menus done a month ago.  Darn you organized people!

This will be our first major holiday without my mom, so we are going to enjoy it, most of my family will be here and I plan to make a couple of dishes that my mom always made.  It is going to be fun, maybe a bit sad, definitely food filled and undoubtedly a day of memory making!

I had asked you the other day what kind of pies you would like to see in "MILE HIGH" form.  The usual suspects appeared, chocolate, coconut, etc.  I asked because I was dreaming about this mile high pumpkin cream pie.  While I admit, pumpkin pie is NOT my favorite thing about Thanksgiving, I do eat a piece.  It is practically unAmerican not to.  I put on twice as much whipped cream as their is pie and enjoy every bite.  I thought to myself, "self.....why can't you put the cream with the pumpkin, almost like the lime and the coconut and cut out the middle man"?  What makes MY mile high pies, mile high?  The filling, AND the slightly sweetened, hint of vanilla fresh whipped cream.  I don't care much for meringue on a pie, in fact, to be honest, I don't care for pie in general.  If a pie goes in the oven, I almost never would eat it.  If it has to be chilled, or contains the words, "French" and "Silk", I will wrestle small children to get a piece.  Pie has just never been my "thing".  I suppose I can blame it on the fact that I dislike fruit tremendously and almost all pies are fruit filled.  BINGO!

So while this may not technically be MILE HIGH, if you double the filling, it can be.  And I would be thrilled if you did that, or double the whipped cream, mount that stuff up so high you can lick the top while standing!  Go ahead, DO IT!!

With that said, get this made, put it in your freezer, and take it out Thanksgiving morning.  Done.  Ahead.  YES!

Crust:
40 Nilla Wafers
10 graham cracker squares
1 stick of butter (1/2 cup) melted
4 T white granulated sugar

Get our your food processor, toss in everything except your butter.  and pulverize!  You want almost a sand consistency.  Add in the butter and let it go until the mixture is that of wet sand and will stick together if you squeeze some in your hand.

Press into a deep(ish) 9 inch pie plate.  Using a measuring cup or a flat bottom drinking glass, press it into the bottom and side.  Refrigerate for 30 min to 1 hr.

FILLING:
1, 16oz (approx) can of PURE PUMPKIN (not Pumpkin Pie Filling)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 oz. softened cream cheese
2. 3.4 oz boxes of instant vanilla pudding
1 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

In your standing mixer add in pumpkin, cinnamon, powdered sugar, vanilla and softened cream cheese.  Mix until combined.  Add in instant vanilla pudding and heavy whipping cream and whip on high until it becomes thickened and creamy.  (It will set up more in the fridge, but whip it long enough please, probably a good 3-4 minutes at least)  Pour into your crust and refrigerate 2 hours before topping with fresh whipped cream!

Sweetened Whipping Cream:
2 cups heavy cream
3-4 T powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Whip all ingredients until stiff peaks form.  Spread or pipe on to the pie.  Refrigerate until time to serve or freeze for 1 hour, and wrap well to stay frozen until the morning before serving!

ENJOY!

Strawberries and Cream Crepe Cake

I have such a love/hate relationship with summer.  Do you?  I hate the heat, I love the heat.  I hate mosquitos, I hate bugs, but I love being outside.  I guess I'm a girl who can't be pleased or something.  One thing I DO love about summer most is fresh fruits and veggies.  Though I haven't ever grown strawberries, we have a few farms around here to go pick them at.  My sister did recently and I knew, when I tasted the jelly, it NEEDED to become part of a recipe.  And what is better in summer than anytime of the year?  Strawberry shortcake, of course!  Well, I figured most everyone knew how to make that, and I have been hungry for crepes, so here you go.  The marriage, as I see it, of the two delicious dishes!

This is a very easy dessert.  I think you could technically eat it for breakfast or brunch, maybe supper, oh let's be real, you will want it at midnight too!  You will probably use store bought jelly or jam and that is perfectly fine.  But please don't buy store bought crepes.  My heart won't be able to handle it.  You can go to my recipe for Nutella Cream Crepes and do a couple of things that I will list with the recipe.  Make those Nutella Cream Crepes while you are at it.  And roll that "R" for me baby.  HA! 

NOTE: My crepes appear a bit thick, they are.  I used my 6 inch nonstick skillet that I use only for crepes for this recipe.  Ideally, you will use an 8-9 inch pan for yours.  My cake served 4 very well, yours might serve a couple of more, or leave more for you to eat at midnight.

Here is what you are going to need to make the 3 different components that you will need to make this light, and delicious recipe.

You will need :
a double recipe of my crepe recipe and to this recipe, you will add 1 tsp. vanilla extract.  Make your crepes, and set aside to cool.

Vanilla Cream Filling
8 oz. cream cheese
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract or paste
1 individual cup of vanilla pudding or 1/3 cup if you are measuring it from regular size batch

Add all ingredients in a bowl and using your hand mixer, mix until well combined, then turn to high and beat for 1-2 minutes. 

Strawberry Filling
1/2-3/4 cup strawberry jelly
1-2 T. hot water

Mix together and microwave for 30 seconds, to loosen the jelly and make it a bit thinner. 

Now, here is how it goes...

First get your jelly/jam and vanilla cream together...

Then pull over your crepes...

Now, lay a crepe on a plate and top with a THIN layer of cream...

Top with another crepe and spread with strawberry jam...

Rinse and repeat until you have stacked all of your crepes.  I don't recall how many my double recipe made of the 6 inch but it will make a few less of the 8 or 9 inch.  No worries, your cake will still be perfect.

When you are done, refrigerate for 30 minutes to set.  If you are doing this with any other fillings I don't think it needa chilled, but with the jam it does.  Do not make this HOURS in advance. (You can make your crepes way in advance just not the whole cake)  You pretty much want to eat it as soon as it is chilled.  It ROCKS!

 

That is it.  Simple, isn't it?  I hope your enjoy it and make it soon!  Be creative with your fillings too!  Post your photos on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.  Use the hashtag #chefwannabesfood !

ENJOY!



Frog Eye Salad

Just as I was relaxing over the end of salad season, my mom strikes again.  We were chatting on the phone and she said, "I am so hungry for frog eye salad".   Oh man, it had been years since I thought about the infamous frog eye salad.  This salad has been a favorite of my siblings for many years.  I was never a huge fruit eater, but pineapple, I do love.  I pick out the oranges and the cherries and dig in.  Every holiday, EVERY holiday, my mom makes this. 

 

I think frog eye salad, originally is made with a cooked custard, but, my mom always did it this way.  I think it is the cheater way to be honest but, who messes with perfection?  Nobody with any sense!  Anyway, back to my phone conversation, she asked if I had ever posted it here and when I responded I had not she said, "OH you can come home and make it, and I can taste test it, and it will all be for the good of your website".  Yea, right ma.  When I ran this recipe by my husband he almost erped.  "Pasta in a sweet salad"?!?!  He agreed to give it a try but he was skeptical.  Now, he didn't actually SAY much, but the degree of devouring that went on over this sort of spoke for itself.  You know? 

Really he loved it and couldn't believe he had never heard of it.  So if you love it, have never had it, think it might be ridiculous, OR are brave.... give it a try!

1 1/2 cups acini de pepe (pasta, Uncooked)
2 cups mini marshmallows
2 - 4 serving size boxes of instant vanilla pudding
8 ounces cool whip
10 ounces maraschino cherries, halved and DRAINED
11 oz. can of mandarin oranges
20 oz. can of crushed pineapple
20 oz. can of chunk pineapple

Boil your pasta as per the package direction.  Drain well, and run some cold water of them.  In a very LARGE bowl, combine pudding and cool whip until well combined.  Add in oranges and both kinds of pineapple.  Make sure to DRAIN the cherries and add those as well.  Fold in the pasta and marshmallows and refrigerate for 1 hour.   This is a hit with our family as I said, and I am sure it will be a hit with yours too!

Enjoy!

PS.  If you don't prefer to use cool whip, please feel free to sweeten up some fresh heavy cream and substitute. 

Boston Cream Cupcakes

Hello, hello, we must KEEP meeting like this!  You stop in, I have sweet treats, we chat in the comments below, we discuss, and we do it again a couple of days later!  Let's never stop!

Speaking of sweet treats.  I asked you all on Facebook if you prefer regular cake or cupcakes.  You know I have a cupcake addictions so it is obvious what my choice is.   I like single servings and I like freezable.  I can make a batch of cupcakes, freeze half of them and have something quick for company, etc. 

I was telling my husband how I was hungry for Boston Cream Pie and he said, "make Boston Cream CUPCAKES"!   He explained how he would do them, and so that is what I did! They are so simple but SO good!  Thanks honey, you, as per usual, are the BOMB! As my friend Becca would say, " I puffy heart you "!

Enjoy these cupcakes as much as we did. 

1 yellow cake mix
1 3.4 ounce box of JELLO instant vanilla pudding
2 tsp. vanilla extract
6 ounces milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tbsp. butter

Mix up cake mix and preheat oven to whatever temperature the box cake mix suggests.  After you have mixed it up, per the box instructions add 2 tsps. vanilla and mix until combined.  Line cupcake pan with liners and divide cake batter among them.  It always says you will get 24, I get 21, every, single, stinkin, time.  When you are done, again, bake at the time suggested.  Mine took 20 minutes.

Let cool COMPLETELY.

Mix up your pudding.  Use 1/2 cup less than the package suggests for regular pudding.  I like my pudding filling to be a bit stiffer/sturdier then normal.  Refrigerate until ready to fill.

Using a tip with a piping bag, or a spoon to dig out the middle and fill, get those babies filled with pudding.  If you are using a rip and a piping bag, stick the tip almost to the bottom and squeeze slowly until you see it is filled.  If you are using a spoon, dig out a big of the middle, fill and replace cake you pulled out!  There are fancy tools for this, but I find them completely annoying. 

Next make your ganache.  Bring you heavy cream to barely a simmer, and pour it over your chocolate chips that you have put into a bowl.  DO NOT TOUCH IT.  Let the hot cream sit on the chocolate for 1 minutes.  Whisk until all chocolate is melted, drop in 1 T of butter and stir until melted.  Let your ganache sit for 5 minutes.  Then spoon over the tops of your cuppycakes!

You can let them sit for an hour at room temperature OR chill in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Cupcake heaven!

ENJOY!

Banana Poke Cake with Cream Cheese Brown Sugar Frosting

Once again, I apologize for this spotty, at best posting schedule.  My parents need raised, my grandchildren moved to town, and my sister from Cinci was here for a week, and, and, and....   I swear when September hits, I will be back on schedule.  I appreciate all of you who have stuck around and continue to support me here, and on social media!  Make sure to join me on those if you haven't!  I love your comments here on the website, please keep them coming!

So, back to the raising of my parents.  Pffftt.  My mother has the audacity, after raising 10 kids, and living 81 years, to have an OPINION!  Can you believe it?!?  I spent a week, a couple of weeks ago and needed to run for some groceries.  My mom needed her bananas, for her ritual cereal and banana breakfasts.  She sent me with a list and as I perused the produce section, which by the way in my hometown grocery store is like the size of your living room, I saw a bargain bin!  YES!  An entire bag of bananas for .69!  I nabbed them up, continued my shopping and headed for home.  When I walked in with my finds, my mom gives me this "look".  It was a look I have seen often, one of disappointment and, oh wait, let me clarify I never actually did anything to get that look in my younger days.  Do you believe me?  Anyway I got this, "Chhhrriisssss, those bananas are way over ripe".  Excuse me Marlene?  I can remember a day, she would have just cut out the dark spots, saved them and used them for banana bread and eaten or fed us the rest of the banana.  Kids are grown, and diva queen wants her bananas a little "green"?!?  (for anyone who at this point thinks I am serious, please know, in my family, we tease, we laugh and we joke, I adore my mother and she deserves whatever she wants!) 

So the point is, I took my bag O' bananas and I brought them home.  Hmmppfff.  This cake was born from them and I think you will agree, she can keep her GREEN bananas!  Overripe ones always turn into something amazing too!

Don't ask how I know this, but this cake freezes like a dream and I kind of liked eating a piece half frozen!

2 cups flour (all purpose)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup softened butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
3 very ripe bananas, mushed to perfection
1 box instant vanilla pudding

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray a 9x13 pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.  Combine all ingredients EXCEPT flour.  When all ingredients are well combined, add in flour just until mixed.  Pour into prepared cake pan and bake 40-50 minutes.  When a toothpick comes out clean it is done!  Let cool completely.  Using the round handle of a spoon or whatever else you can find with a round end, (I shutter at what people might use), poke holes all over the cake.   Prepare pudding per package directions and slowly pour over the cake.  Refrigerate for 15 minutes while you prepare the frosting!

Cream Cheese Brown Sugar Frosting
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cups brown sugar, packed
3 T butter, softened
1-2 T milk.

Combine, cream cheese, vanilla, brown sugar and butter.  Beat for 3-4 minutes, until creamy and smooth.  Add in milk according to how you like your frosting.  Less milk for stiffer, more for thinner.  Spread over cake and sprinkle with nuts of your choice, IF you choose!  Enjoy!