[donotprint] I vaguely remember the first time I made my first pumpkin pie. My father, a diabetic, commissioned me to bake him a sugar-free version so he wouldn’t be tempted by all the sugary desserts during Thanksgiving dinner. I was 11 years old without a mixer, pie plate, or a cookbook to guide me. What I decided to do was follow the pie recipe on the back of a Libby’s pumpkin can and use a frozen pre-made pie shell. I followed the instructions exactly as written and was excited when I saw there no were cracks on the baked custard surface and that my pumpkin pie actually looked just as I hoped it would. My excitement only lasted a brief moment and turned to disgust rather quickly. I took a bite and had to spit it out into a napkin. Pumpkin pie without any sweetener is so bland tasting I thought I was eating store-bought baby food in a jar -yuck!
Over the years I’ve experimented with different recipes and sweeteners in search of the perfect pumpkin pie. I know people have different qualifiers in what makes a good pie. For me, I like homemade pies to be dense with a tad bit more spices than the Costco pie variety. I also like my pumpkin pies not to be too sweet, otherwise I can only eat a sliver of a slice because the pie is so sweet it distracts the flavor of the spiced pumpkin custard. [click to continue…]
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I’ve been getting a few emails lately about the type of pie crusts I like to use. Truthfully it depends. Depending on the recipe and how much time I have (which isn’t very much) I will use 1 of 2 types of crusts.
My preferred pie crust is what I like to call “the cheater’s pie crust” because it involves no rolling and produces flaky, buttery, scratch-baking goodness only a homemade crust can deliver. When I’ve baked pies or quiches with this crust most people are surprised when I tell them I used a no-roll method. All of a sudden they become very interested in learning this method because several of them have avoided making scratch pie crust because they feel intimidated by having to roll the dough out. Fair enough.. I don’t fault them and I don’t blame them. Frankly, I don’t like having to roll pie crust out either. This is why I started making scratch pie crust using the no-roll method. [click to continue…]
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[donotprint]Spinach quiche is one of my favorite dishes to make for dinner. <-Yes, you heard me right.. dinner. I love quiche because its basically fool-proof to prepare, satisfying to eat, and I always have ingredients on hand to make one. By using store-bought pie-crust, preparing quiche is rather simple and quick. It takes me about 10 minutes to prepare, pretty slick.. huh?
Today I am going to share with you one of my favorite variations of quiche made with spinach and ricotta cheese. Most quiches call for Swiss cheese but I typically use whatever type of cheese I have on hand. With that said, this means my quiches are made with Cheddar as well. Although I do love homemade pie crust, I find the pre-made store bought kind pretty good to use, not to mention convenient. [click to continue…]
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A few years ago I started a tradition of making sweet potato pies instead of pumpkin for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. I can’t remember my reasoning behind the decision except for a deep desire to go against the “traditional” favorite. After all, my brother is the one usually assigned to bring a pie and its a well known fact this means “Costco”. And for the record… I think Costco pies are not bad – just over played.
This sweet potato pie taste very similar to pumpkin except the texture is slightly denser and the flavor richer. Because sweet potatoes are already naturally sweetened, this recipe uses less than a cup of brown sugar. As a result the pie filling is not overly sweet – instead I find the sweetness just perfect. [click to continue…]
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I am going to be real and raw with you tonight. I’m a desperate woman this evening. I am in dire need of a late night sweet thang (<-and no that is not a typo). If you are familiar with my blog at all, I ask for your forgiveness in advance. There will not be the usual food porn you are accustomed to seeing on my blog in this post. I replaced my original photo with this one because frankly I’ve come to my senses and food porn is only good porn when shot right. When I say food porn, I mean a term used by food bloggers describing drool worthy photos of food. Instead I am posting candid photos as it happened. But I have a feeling you’ll forgive me after making this special treat. Don’t you agree this is a much better photo? Doesn’t it make you want to eat it through the screen?
I didn’t intend to write a post on my sweet thang. But because I love sharing and you are my friend I will share my dirty late night secret with you as long as you promise to share it with others. [click to continue…]
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