Lemon Meringue Pie

This is perhaps the all-time favorite of the whole family. The buttery, salty crust with the tart lemony filling and the sweet billowy meringue: perfect. Prospective children-in-law must love it too in order to qualify.

Mom says: "I make it like the Joy, except I don't." Here is how she makes it.

Lemon Meringue Pie

Bake a nine inch pie shell.

Sift into a 2 or 3 quart saucepan:

1 1 /2 c sugar

6 T cornstarch

1/4 t salt

Gradually blend in:

1/2 c cold water

1/2 c fresh lemon juice

When smooth add, blending thoroughly:

3 well-beaten egg yolks

2 T butter

Add:

1 1/2 c milk

Bring mixture to a full boil, stirring gently. As it begins to thicken, reduce the heat and allow to simmer slowly 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in 1 t lemon zest or about 1/4 t lemon oil. Preheat oven to 325 or 350. Pour it into the pie shell and cover with meringue:

2 egg whites, whipped till frothy

add: 1/4 t cream of tarter

Whip till stiff but not dry; peaks should lean over slightly. Beat in 1 T at a time:

3 T sugar or 4 T powdered sugar and 1/2 t vanilla.

Pie should bake for 10-15 minutes.

Eat it that same day.

Banana Cream Pie

Basically a vanilla pudding, perhaps stiffer. Mommy "probably from the Joy."

Then just layer it in a blind-baked pie crust with bananas, one or two, depending on your taste. Put whipped cream on it and serve it.

Mom's Grandma Atkin made this, and she served it when the pudding was a little bit warm and the whipped cream was cold.

Maple Cream Pie

This year, everyone at home got jurisdiction over two pies. Mine were maple cream and coconut cream, so I was pretty happy.

Maple Cream Pie

1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell

1 1/2 c cream

4 eggs, well-beaten

1/2 c maple syrup

dash salt

Topping:

1 c heavy cream

1/4 c maple sugar

Scald cream. Combine eggs and maple syrup and VERY slowly pour cream into egg mixture, stirring vigorously. Add salt and pour into an unbaked crust. Bake at 450 for 10 minutes and 350 for 30 minutes. After it is cooled, top with whipped cream mixed with the maple sugar.

Mashed Potatoes

Mommy dictation:

Select your potatoes according to the number of eaters-- one potato per eater. Peel, wash, and cut them in quarter (or smaller) pieces. Cover them with salted water. Boil them for 25 minutes. Adjust the time depending on your altitude. While they boil put in a bowl (here's where you can get creative): salt, pepper, powdered milk, butter, and a little paprika for color. Pour the water off, saving a little in a cup. Put them in the bowl. Beat them up with the beaters and add a little extra water if you need to.

Turkey

Reb says, "Now teach me how to cook a turkey."

Mom says:

That's the easiest thing in the whole wide world!

Thaw him in the fridge. Then take him from his packaging and rinse him all over and dry him and salt his cavities. Then heat up the oven to 325. Get out your roasting pan. Now salt him on his top side and his bottom side. Start him with his breast side down for half the time. Then turn him over and finish baking him.

Stuffing

This is pretty much quoting Mom's oral dictation:

First you have to cut up in cubes some corn bread and some rye bread and some whole wheat bread and some white bread, and how much you cut up depends on how much you want to make. For the quantity [Mom] usually makes, half a loaf of each will do. Dry it in the oven at about 200. Put all the bread cubes in a big bowl. Saute onion and celery in butter; maybe half an onion and 1-2 sticks of celery. Stir that in. Sprinkle in rubbed sage to taste. Lightly moisten with chicken broth-- don't make it mushy. Add it a little at a time so the bread can absorb it. Beat up an egg and stir it in. Season it to taste. Put it in a buttered 9x13 pan (or two 8x8's). After you have removed from your turkey drippings sufficient to make your gravy, baste the dressing with the rest of it. Or you can stir it in before you put it in the pans. Bake at 350 until crusty and hot, perhaps a half hour.

Dixie Salad

Invented in Utah's Dixie for the use of pomegranates. I decided this year in a poorly quantified comparison study that, in fact, the small, beige, sort-of-ugly pomegranates that Grandma sends (straight fromUtah's Dixie) are in fact sweeter than the kernels that come from the plump red supermarket fruit. Hmm.

Dixie Salad

cube some yummy eating apples

shell some pomegranates

chop some pecans

stir them all up with whipped cream

Daddy Dixie Salad

don't put in pecans.

put in pistachios

or almonds

or cashews

but don't put in yucky old cockroach pecans.

Sannali Dixie Salad

Play around with the matrix-- she claims yogurt works.

Reija Dixie Salad

Chop up a Snickers bar and put it in.

Oh, and that reminds me of a joke. What do you call a ticking cow?

Abominable.

Yellow Turkey Casserole

A great favorite of ours for leftover turkey. If I post this on the blog, perhaps no one will have to ask for it again. Maybe if I get the courage I will ask Mom for the recipe for the other yellow turkey casserole. The other yellow turkey casserole? Yes. It has a creamy sauce, and I like it too. But this is the one with the little noodles and the rice.

Yellow Turkey Casserole

Butter a 9X13 glass dish.

Cover the bottom of the dish evenly with 2 c. raw rice.
Sprinkle evenly across the rice 1 t. salt and 1 t. curry powder. You may use more curry powder if you like.
Chop or dice 3 c. of leftover turkey or chicken meat.
Spread the turkey evenly across the rice.
Mince 1/2 to 1 onion, 2 stalks celery and saute in butter until soft. Spread the vegetables evenly across the turkey.
Make according to package directions one packet of the dry chicken noodle soup which wants 4 c. of water, with this change: use 5 c. water. You may substitute part or all of the water with chicken broth.
Ladle the hot soup over the stuff in the dish. Be careful so that you disturb things as little as possible. Save the noodles until last so that you can distribute them evenly over the surface of the dish.
Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees F for one hour.
Uncover and serve.

Thanksgiving Cranberry Jell-O

I only trust Jell-O when mom makes it. I can't even touch it if a non-nuclear-family member makes it. But for all that, I do love the handful of things Mom does with Jell-O, especially this Thanksgiving standard.

6 oz raspberry Jell-O
2 c water
1 cans whole cranberry sauce
1 c sour cream
1 c chopped pecans

Swirl in sour cream when the rest is partially set.