Whatever He Says

(Country Living) 3/4 cup icing sugar 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter 3/4 cup granulated sugar 3 tbsp cornstarch 1 tbsp flour 1/8 tsp salt 3 large eggs 3 cups milk 1 tsp vanilla 1 deep 9 inch pie shell, baked 1/4 tsp cream of tartar   1) In a small bowl, with fingers or fork, combine icing sugar & peanut butter to make coarse crumbs. Set aside. 2) In a 2 quart saucepan, stir together 1/2 cup granulated sugar, the cornstarch, flour and salt. 3)Separate eggs, placing whites in medium sized bowl, and set aside to warm to room temperature. Add yolks to sugar mixture in saucepan, along with milk. With wire whisk, stir until very well combined. 4) Over medium heat, stirring constantly, heat milk mixture to boiling. Cook, stirring 2 minutes longer. Remove pudding from heat; stir in butter and vanilla. 5) Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Sprinkle 1/3 of the peanut butter mixture over bottom of pie shell. Spoon 1/2 of the pudding over crumbs. Sprinkle with another 1/3 of ...

By Belinda My oh my, another pie-- Reverend Roffey’s  raisin. It was after I conquered the making of raisin pie and acquired a dangerous taste for the flaky, sweet concoction that Brenda, who had commissioned it in the first place, told me that Reverend Roffey's dream raisin pie was made with sour cream and raisins (Reverend Roffey is the chaplain at the college where she works.) Since it had to be the pie he longed for, I needed to find a recipe for this fabulous pie. On a hunch I plucked a Mennonite cookbook off my shelf and searched the pie section, profusely populated with all sorts of pies. "Surely I will find it here," I thought, and I was right! On Saturday I made several pastry shells as well as apple pies (for Jamie, Sam and Caliene, a friend from work) and tonight was the night to actually venture into the uncharted complexities of a pie new to me. I simmered the raisins to plump and juicy perfection, drained them, measured back the right amount of liq...

By Belinda This weekend I said to my brother Rob, over the phone, "Do you remember the carrot cake I used to make?" (This would have been in the 1970s when Rob lived with us for 2 years.) "Remember it? Of COURSE I do," he said, leaving me in no doubt that his memories were fond. I told him I'd made one last week, but I couldn't find my recipe and the one I made didn't quite taste the same, even though it went down just fine with all of us. Well, I finally found the recipe. That's it, up there, on loose leaf, lined paper, with the splodges that must adorn all favourite recipes, handwritten by me, over thirty years ago! It really is a great recipe, although not calorie conscious I'm afraid, but I console myself with the fact that it does have fruit, nuts and vegetables in it. Right now my house is fragrant. The result of an evening baking session. 1 1/2 cups oil 2 cups sugar 4 eggs 2 cups all purpose flour 1/2 tsp baking powder 2 ...

I have an old Purity Cook Book circa 1974; the year I was 24 and took on being chief cook and bottle washer for a crew of 16 hungry mouths most days--except for when we had company when the count went up to 20. :) The cook book is well used and spattered but in recent years has sat on my cook book shelf, overshadowed by the newer books that I tend to use now, my current favourites being, for obvious reasons, the Light Hearted Cook Books and Health Cooking for the Rushed series. But now and again I like to make an old favourite recipe and lately I've been doing that more often. This isn't about an old favourite though, but a new favourite from the old book. I love carrots and cheese and had often thought that I would like to try the carrot quiche recipe. It only took me 36 years to get around to it (I happened to have some left over cooked carrots!) It was so delicious that I will be making up for lost time and making it often. The sweetness of the carrots with the tang of t...

For Dave, by special request, the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book recipe for the broccoli casserole that Marirose said everyone asks her for, once they try it. Broccoli and Onion Casserole 2 10 oz packages of frozen cut broccoli (Marirose uses fresh broccoli) 2 cups frozen small whole onions or 3 medium fresh onions, cut into wedges (Marirose uses the fresh ones) 2 tablespoons butter or margarine 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 cup milk 1 3-ounce  package cream cheese, cut up 1/2 cup shredded American cheese 2 tablespoons butter or margarine 1 cup soft breadcrumbs Oven 350 degrees Cook broccoli according to the package directions. Drain well, set aside. Cook frozen or fresh onions in boiling, salted water about 10 minutes or until tender. Drain; set aside. In the same saucepan, melt the 2 tablespoons butter. Stir in the flour, salt and dash pepper. Add milk. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir 1-2 minutes more. Add c...

By Belinda "Belinda, what do you put into your hot apple cider?" My coworker Marirose was at my house with the rest of the team to work on our budgets for the coming year and I had assembled coffee, cold drinks and hot apple cider as well as an array of snacks to encourage us in the task. The hot apple cider in the slow cooker made the house smell like Christmas. "I start with just apple juice," I said, and began to list off the ingredients, with my own small adaptation. I went to the bookshelf in the kitchen that holds my collection of cook books, and pulled off the   Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook to show her the recipe, in case she wanted to write it down. "I have that cook book!" said Marirose, "But my pages are all stained and the pages are falling off the ring binding." I smiled as I turned to the page with the recipe, lying loose in the book, spattered and stained. Marirose started flipping through the pages, s...

By Belinda Now...is fragrant with the scent of baking apple crisp; is gaudy in its colour palette of impossibly overdone mustard yellow; and red and green apple skins against creamy white, crisp flesh. God seems to be in creative overdrive right now. Our corner of the world looks as though a manic artist daubed splodges of ochre here and there, while saying, "Take that, and that, and how do you like THAT?!" And the riotous frenzy of fall colours has yet to get started. Our apple trees outdid themselves this year and are heavy with fruit, as were our pear and plum trees last month. And I am possessed of a sense of solemn duty to use what God gives and to waste as little as possible. And so, I left my briefcase self behind at the office this afternoon at 5.00 pm and became another person entirely this evening, up to my elbows in apple peel, flour and cinnamon, while I cooked to the classics. The recipe above is the best recipe ever for apple cr...

By Belinda Last week, in a post entitled, The Cupboard Was Bare , I wrote of our daughter-in-law Sue's fruitless search through our cupboards for junk food. In a comment on the post, my friend Dave, wrote, "Gosh you've got to teach Sue that where ever there is a bowl of sugar, a bottle of cinnamon and a slice of hot buttered toast, you have dessert. Skinny people have no imagination!" To Dave's astonishment, I wrote that I had never discovered the joy of cinnamon toast. I grew up in England where we ate Marmite instead. Yum! Dave was now on a mission. "Okay, Belinda, we have to fix this," he wrote, and sent me a recipe website for Cinnamon Toast . He said, "I've never done it under the broiler, I just make buttered toast and then sprinkle it on ... but hey there are a million ways to happiness. I'll bet if you did surprise your cell group with it. They'd all have a cinnamon toast story or memory. So I did! When Dave checked in o...

Brenda and I decided to spend one morning a month cooking together. Today we made Butter Chicken, from The Dinner Fix by Sandi Richard. I LOVE all of Sandi Richard's cookbooks and also have The Healthy Family and Dinner Survival. Many of the dishes I make for cell group are from her cook books and Butter Chicken is a recipe that people ask me for all the time! Brenda and I cooked to the sensuous and beautiful Indian classical music from a CD that was free in a box of mixed vegetable curry made by Kitchens of India. The results of our cooking this morning are mouth wateringly delicious. The fragrance of basmati rice hangs in the air along with the scent of garam masala and madras curry, cinnamon, chili and paprika! Tonight Brenda's boyfriend Kevin will enjoy !

By Belinda (You will understand when Wednesday's post publishes!) Cream: ¾ cup of shortening or vegetable oil 2 cups of sugar Add: 3 beaten eggs 2 teaspoons vanilla Sift and Add: 2 ½ cups flour ½ cup cocoa 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon cinnamon Stir in: 2 cups grated zucchini ½ cup chocolate chips ½ cup nuts Bake at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes. Makes two loaves. Enjoy!

This recipe came home from school with one of our children about 30 years ago photocopied on a green letter sized sheet of paper, which I saved for many years until I finally typed it out and saved it on my computer. Here it is for you to enjoy! Ingredients 2 cups of sugar 4 large eggs 1 ¼ cup vegetable oil 2 ½ cup cooked pumpkin (or canned works just as well!) 3 cups white all-purpose flour 3 tsp ground cinnamon 1 tsp table salt 1 tsp ground cloves 1 tsp ground allspice 2 tsp baking powder 2 tsp baking soda ¼ tsp ground nutmeg 1 cup golden seedless sultana raisins 1 cup chopped walnuts Instructions Beat eggs well. Add sugar and beat. Add oil and beat. Add pumpkin and beat. Stir some flour into raisins and nuts. Sift other dry ingredients together and stir into liquid. Add raisins and nuts. Put into greased and floured loaf pans (2 large or 3 small.) Bake at 350 degrees for one hour. Enjoy!

By Belinda Suz, one of our readers, asked me to share the recipe for Shepherd's Pie, so here it is. Thanks for asking Suz! To serve 4 1lb lean ground beef 2 tablespoons olive oil 1/2 cup of chopped onion 1/2 cup of chopped celery 2 tablespoons All Purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 tsp pepper 1 cup boiling water 1 beef boullion cube (or instead of the flour and boullion cube, use Bisto gravy powder) 3 cups mashed potatoes 2 cups grated cheddar cheese 2 sliced tomatoes Combine beef, oil, celery and onion in frying pan. Scramble fry until brown. Stir in flour, or Bisto gravy powder, salt and pepper Pour boiling water over boullion cube, or into the meat mixture if using Bisto. Stir into the meat until boiling and thickened. Spread in casserole. Cover with potatoes mashed with enough butter and milk to make them soft and fluffy. Sprinkle grated cheese over the potatoes, then cover with sliced tomatoes. Season tomatoes with fresh ground pepper and a sprinkle of salt. Add another sprin...