Pumpkin Creme Pie

Pumpkin Creme Pie

3 eggs (If they are small, use 4)
2 cups cooked pumpkin
1 cup full fat coconut milk or 8 ounces softened cream cheese
1 cup honey, maple syrup, or sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon almond extract or vanilla

Use a 9 inch glass pie dish. You can use a nut crust, a flour crust or leave out the crust altogether for a gluten free option. See Pie Crust Options

1. You can put all of the filling ingredients in a mixing bowl at once.
2. Use a hand mixer or an immersion blender to thoroughly blend the mixture. Use a medium speed. This filling is good if it has a little air mixed into it.
3. Bake at 325º for about 1 hour. To keep your pie from scorching, set the pie plate on a cookie sheet filled with water. It cooks a little more slowly this way, which is good for an egg mixture. It keeps the bottom of the crust from scorching as well.
4. Chill and serve with whipped cream or whipped coconut milk fat or an ice cream of your choosing.

The cold, hard truth will fall on stony ground, whereas your trashy rumor will flourish like a weed.
Sue Grafton in Yesterday

Gourmet Potato Soup

Most of the time I cook with whatever I need to use up. Sometimes the result is so good that it would be worth gathering up those same ingredients intentionally! This soup was created because we harvested potatoes from our garden and were eager to use them.


1 can condensed milk OR 1 1/2 cups half and half OR 1 1/2 cups almond coconut milk

1 1/2 cups water mixed with 2 rounded tablespoons cornstarch

1 cup frozen artichoke hearts

1 cup frozen corn

1 - 2 cups cubed raw potato

1 cup cooked wild rice

2 rounded Tablespoons chicken bouillon powder

1 small finely chopped onion and 2 cloves minced garlic - sauteed

2 Tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper


Step 1 - Cook wild rice.
Step 2 - Saute onion and garlic in olive oil.
Step 3 - Cook frozen artichoke hearts, corn and potato in 1 cup water until potato is done.
Step 4 - Combine above ingredients and add milk, water with cornstarch, salt, pepper, and bouillon.

Cook on low heat until soup thickens. Serve with crackers or bread.

This is a small recipe because our potato harvest was small. It made about 4-6 servings. To make a larger batch, just double everything.

I don't know why we measure a person's wealth in terms of dollars when we all know the richest people are those with loyal friends. Philip Gulley

Macadamia Nut Pie

On our most recent trip to the Big Island of Hawaii, Mike and I visited the Pu’unaluhu Bakery in the village of Na’alehu. We had a piece of macadamia nut pie that was divine. It had what I thought was a hint of butterscotch and a dense and creamy pudding consistency. I came home determined to try and make this delicious pie. I did make a delicious macadamia nut pie – twice as of this moment – but it is not quite the same as the one we shared at the bakery. It is, however, quite marvelous.

1. Use a flour crust, a nut crust or no crust at all.

2. Rough chop enough macadamia nuts to make about 1 ½ cups. Put these into the bottom of the pan/crust.

3. Combine ½ cup butterscotch caramel, 3 large or 4 medium eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla, ½ cup raw honey, and 2 cups full fat coconut milk or whipping cream in a mixing bowl. Stir.

4. Pour filling mixture over nuts and mix gently, without marring the crust.

5. Bake at 325º for 45 - 50 minutes. Remove from oven when the center is slightly spongy to the touch.

It’s great served plain, but whipped cream or vanilla ice cream make it especially festive.

It is true that the happy effects of tolerance are sometimes long postponed.
William Comfort

Salmon Cakes

I have often agonized over what to do with leftover salmon, because I really do not like it the next day. This is a Perfect and Delicious Solution.

1 ½ cups cooked salmon
¼ cup tartar sauce
¼ cup mayonnaise
¼ cup melted butter
2 eggs
1 ½ cups chopped, cooked potato*
1 quarter sauteed onion
3 cloves sauteed garlic
1 tablespoon lemon or lime juice
Spices: ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon pepper, 1 teaspoon beau monde, 1 teaspoon crushed red chili peppers
1/3 cup bread crumbs (coconut or soy flour instead if you want to avoid wheat or gluten)
1/3 cup olive oil

* A mixture of mashed parsnips or turnips with mashed potatoes give this recipe even more flavor.

Chop the cooked salmon and the cooked potatoes. Melt the butter. Mix all ingredients except olive oil.

Put a generous 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a stoneware baking dish. Spoon 8 patties of salmon mixture into the pan. Sprinkle remaining bread crumbs over salmon patties.

Sauce: Mix equal parts of mayonnaise and Inglehoffer Sweet Hot Mustard with Honey. If you don’t have that, any spicy mustard or horseradish sauce will work. The idea is to create a creamy, spicy sauce.

Bake these for about ½ hour at 350 degrees.

Serving Suggestion

Sweet potatoes peeled, sliced and baked in olive oil make a great accompaniment to the salmon. Conveniently, they also bake in about ½ hour at 350 degrees:)

Without its daydreams, the self is apt to shrink down to the size and shape of the estimation of others. Michael Pollan, A Place of My Own

VEGETABLE CASSEROLE SUPREME

10 - 12 medium red and white potatoes
6 - 8 carrots
1 red bell pepper1 medium onion
4 cloves garlic
2 heads broccoli
3 medium tomatoes
1/2 pound cheddar cheese (optional)
olive oil

A stoneware casserole dish or an enamel roasting pan will work for this recipe

1. Peel and chop the onion and garlic and saute in olive oil for about 10 minutes or until they are soft.

2. Wash and cut 10 – 12 medium sized red and white potatoes into chunks about 1 x 2 inches. It's better not to peel the potatoes for this dish. Layer these in the bottom of the casserole.

3. Wash, peel and cut 6 – 8 carrots into chunks and layer over the potatoes.

4. Drizzle ¼ cup olive oil over the vegetables. Add parsley, basil, sauteed onion mix, salt, and black pepper. Mix so that oil and spices coat all of the vegetable pieces.

5. Bake covered for 40 minutes at 400 degrees.

6. While the potatoes and carrots are baking:
Wash and chop 2 stalks of broccoli, the tomatoes, and the red pepper.
Grate the cheddar cheese

After 40 minutes, remove potato and carrot mix from the oven, remove cover and layer the broccoli, pepper, and tomatoes on top of the potatoes and carrots. Drizzle a little more olive oil, and add a little more salt, pepper, parsley, basil, and black pepper.

Sprinkle the cheddar cheese over the top of the vegetables. (Leave off for a dairy free dish.)

Return to the oven uncovered and bake for 20 more minutes at 350 degrees.

Failure is simply an opportunity to begin again more intelligently. Henry Ford

Brandied Apricot Cobbler

Fruit layer:
1 dozen apricots pitted and cut in half – these can be canned, frozen or fresh
3 tablespoons brandy
1/3 cup brown sugar
½ cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Arrange apricots flat side down in the bottom of an 8 inch square or a 9 inch round baking dish. Drizzle the brandy over the fruit and then sprinkle with brown sugar and chopped nuts.

Cobbler Batter:
1 egg
1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups flour
½ cup brown sugar

Soften the butter and mix with brown sugar. Add other ingredients and drop spoonfuls of batter over the fruit; then smooth to cover most of the fruit.

Bake for about 30 – 35 minutes or until crust is brown and springs back to a light touch.

Serve with vanilla ice cream. This is sweet and rich.

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest. Ben Franklin

Coconut Custard Pie

With a crust, this is a cream pie; without crust, it is baked custard. Both can be served with whipped cream.

Toast 2 cups of sweetened coconut in a frying pan without oil over medium low heat. Stir frequently to keep from scorching. When coconut is lightly browned, set it aside to cool.

Mix in a large saucepan:
2 cans condensed milk
1 ½ cups sugar
four well beaten eggs
toasted coconut
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
½ teaspoon nutmeg

Heat slowly, stir frequently. When mixture is heated through and beginning to thicken, pour it into two 8 inch pie pans or one ten inch pie pan. It can be baked in a graham cracker crust or a in a pre-baked pie shell. If there is any mixture left over, pour it into glass custard cups and bake these along with the pie.

Bake for 35 – 45 minutes or until a knife comes out of the center cleanly. Cool and eat with whipped cream.

Do what you can with what you have where you are. Theodore Roosevelt