Fix-It and Forget-It

Thanksgiving is coming, and that means pumpkin pie for dessert. Here’s a recipe that gives you a preview of the big day, but without all the effort involved in a traditional pumpkin pie. Continue Reading...

So here’s my dilemma. Make a big pie or a little pie?

Merle’s all-time favorite is lemon sponge. I’m always asking him what he’s hungry for, because he remembers dishes I’ve forgotten about. I’m forever tearing recipes out of magazines and newspapers and marking up cookbooks, ready to try new things that sound irresistible. He goes along for all the rides, but he can also recall the really good ones.

He grew up eating lemon sponge pie. I had never heard of it. But when our neighbor brought one to a potluck picnic a long time ago, I saw Merle go into a delirium that had me trying a piece, too.

So when he told me last week that he could eat a lemon sponge pie again, I stocked up on lemons and watched for an unplanned hour.

Then started my internal debate. Make a 10” pie (with 8 generous slices) or an 8” (with 6 modest slices)? Hey, these pies have you creaming butter and sugar, zesting lemons, separating eggs, beating egg whites til stiff, and heating milk. This dessert is not a quickie, although I love making and eating it.

So if I’m going to take the time, why wouldn’t I make the big fella? It’s all the same steps, just with 1/3 more ingredients.

The reason I’m having trouble deciding? We’re trying to keep the calories under control.

I made the little pie. Same amount of work for less. I ate more slowly. I guess we each concentrated more when forkfuls went into our mouths.

What would you do? Quick, let me know. Our daughter’s birthday meal is coming up this week. Should I double the peach crumble recipe and serve everyone bigger, or go with the recipe as is and serve moderate-sized bowlfuls? I mean, what is a cook’s responsibility, here?!

This is a Lemon Bread recipe that you can make in your slow cooker—on these blazingly hot days—and save heating up your oven. Make the slices thin or thick!

Lemon Bread
from Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook, Revised and Updated, page 28

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 2-2¼ hours
Ideal slow-cooker size: 4-qt.

½ cup shortening
¾ cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 2/3 cups flour
1 2/3 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
½ cup milk
½ cup chopped nuts of your choice
grated peel from 1 lemon

Glaze:
¼ cup powdered sugar
juice of 1 lemon

1. Cream together shortening and sugar. Add eggs. Mix well.
2. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Add flour mixture and milk alternately to shortening mixture.
3. Stir in nuts and lemon peel.
4. Spoon batter into empty, well-greased, 2-pound coffee can or loaf pan and cover with well-greased tin foil. Place in cooker set on High for 2-2¼ hours, or until tester inserted into center comes out clean. Remove bread from coffee can.
5. Mix together powdered sugar and lemon juice. Pour over loaf.

Serving suggestion: Serve plain, with cream cheese, with whipped topping, or with frozen vanilla yogurt or ice cream.

So how do you decide which pie to make for the holidays? The one you’re now completely associated with, as in, “And of course we’ll ask Phyllis to bring her Chocolate Pecan Pie to our family get-together,” or the one whose recipe you just read and cannot wait to try? This is torture for a cook.

Long ago I happened upon a classic lasagna recipe that Merle thinks surpasses all others. Not realizing the depth of his devotion to this particular lasagna, I’ve made lasagna with sausage instead of hamburger, lasagna with roasted vegetables and no meat, lasagna with pumpkin and no sign of tomatoes or oregano. I love making and eating these variations, but no matter how enthused I am about the latest lasagna recipe I’ve just brought to the table, he looks at me like, “How could you betray our agreed-upon lasagna?”
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I love pumpkin pie. My mother’s recipe is the best (haven’t you heard that before?!). I love to make it partly because it has a scene-stealer ingredient—brown butter (which I’ll talk about another time).

But I’m always torn when I plan to make a pumpkin pie. Do I stick with that favorite—or do I try a new recipe? Pumpkin seems to be a happy partner with all kinds of special ingredients. And for some reason, I’m attracted to those recipes, always trying to imagine their outcome.

We have friends coming for dessert this next week, and I’m considering a recipe I found that tops the pumpkin pie with pecans. But then I found this recipe:

Maple Pumpkin Pie with Gingersnap Cookie Crust

Which to try?! Okay, both.
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They say you learn something new everyday. Well, today a lot of us here at the office learned that you can bake a pie in the slow cooker.

We wanted to make something comforting – something as comforting as baseball and apple pie. And then it hit us, why not make that apple pie in the slow cooker?

We felt brave and experimental and the Apple Caramel Pie turned out fabulous! The staff at The Good Cooking Store couldn’t stop raving about the light crust and soft taste of caramel in each bite. (Of course we all added big scoops of vanilla ice cream to top it off.)

So here’s to learning something new everyday and good ol’ apple pie.
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In my family, ever since I can remember, when it’s your birthday, you get to choose the entire menu for your birthday meal. No restrictions. Well, none beyond what you know the cook is capable of.

My first big attempt at carrying on this tradition turned into a bit of a flat tire when Merle requested a pie I had never heard of—Lemon Sponge.
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