Frosty Pear Drink

One of my favorite possessions isn’t really mine. It’s a pear tree that was born from an offshoot of my Gran’s pear tree. I grew up eating these hard pears. She was such a wonderful Gran. She would peel these pears and feed them to me as I sat on a stool at her feet.

This year the pear tree didn’t bloom at all. There are no pears. My father says the tree is just old. My heart is broken. At least I can still get the taste with smoothies like this one.

Frosty Pear Drink

2 pear halves, coarsely chopped
1 ½ cups milk
1 cup lemon or pineapple sherbet
4 ice cubes, cracked

Place pears, milk, sherbet and ice in blender. Process until smooth.

Makes about 1 quart.

REESE'S Chewy Chocolate Pan Cookies

Chocolate and peanut butter make for a must-have treat.

REESE’S Chewy Chocolate Pan Cookies

1 ¼ cups butter or margarine, softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup HERSHEY’S Cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups (12-oz.) REESE’S Peanut Butter Chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 15 ½ x 10 ½ x 1-inch jelly-roll pan.

In large mixer bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Gradually blend into creamed mixture. Stir in chips. Spread batter into prepared pan.

Bake 20 minutes or until set. Cook completely. Cut into bars.

Makes about 4 dozen bars.

Lemon Curd Pound Cake

I love lemon-flavored desserts and I’m always searching for new recipes. This recipe came from Southern Living magazine last year. Don’t worry if you missed it. Southern Living publishes annual cookbooks that include all the recipes from the previous year’s monthly magazines. Yeah. You guessed it. I have quite a collection of their cookbooks.

Lemon Curd Pound Cake

1 cup butter, softened
½ cup shortening
3 cups sugar
6 large eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon extract
Lemon Curd Glaze

Garnishes: candied lemon slides, sugared cranberries, fresh thyme sprigs

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Beat butter and shortening at medium speed with a heavy-duty stand mixer until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until yellow disappears.

Sift (or whisk) together flour, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition.

Stir in lemon zest, vanilla extract and lemon extract.

Pour into a greased and floured 10-inch (16-cup) tube pan.

Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes to 1 hour and 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool cake in pan on wire rack for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare Lemon Curd Glaze. Remove cake from pan to wire rack. Gently brush warm glaze over top and sides of cake. Cool completely on wire rack (about 1 hour). Garnish if desired.

Lime Curd Pound Cake

Omit lemon extract. Substitute lime zest for lemon zest and Lime Curd Glaze for Lemon Curd Glaze. Proceed with recipe as directed.

Lemon Curd Glaze

2/3 cup sugar
1 ½ tablespoons butter, melted
2 teaspoon lemon zest
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 large egg, lightly beaten

Stir together sugar, butter, lemon zest and lemon juice in a small, heavy saucepan. Add egg and stir until blended.

Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, 10 to 12 minutes or until mixture thickens slightly and begins to bubble around the edges. (Cooked mixture will have a thickness similar to heavy cream.) Use immediately.

Lime Curd Glaze

Substitute lime zest for lemon zest and lime juice for lemon juice.

Buttery Baking Powder Biscuits

My Grandmother made the most amazing biscuits. I would love to be able to taste them one more time. Alas, she never could teach anyone how to make them. She just sort of threw everything into a flour bowl (a metal bowl that always had flour in it) and baked them. She didn’t know how to teach anyone because she never thought about how she did it. Sadly, she eventually lost the ability to make them. She went home a long time ago.

And she left behind a granddaughter who is forever searching for a wonderful biscuit recipe. I’ve got many, many recipes. I don’t know where this one came from. And it’s not like my Grandmother’s biscuits. But, hey, none of them are.

Buttery Baking Powder Biscuits

2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup cold butter or margarine
¾ cup half-and-half
Additional melted butter (about 2 tablespoons) for brushing

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt. Cut the cold butter into flour mixture until coarse crumbs form, using a pastry blender or two knives. Add half-and-half, all at once, mixing gently just until a soft dough forms.

Gather dough together with your hands and transfer it to a floured board or pastry cloth. Knead gently, just enough to form dough into a uniform ball; turn to coat lightly with flour. Roll or pat dough out to about ½-inch thickness. Using a 2 ½-inch round cutter, cut dough into biscuits.

Place biscuits about 1-inch apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Brush tops lightly with melted butter. Bake until biscuits are golden brown, about 15 to 20 minutes.

Serve hot.

Makes 1 dozen.

Hershey's Snow White Mousse Pie

This recipe comes from the folks at Hershey’s. It looks delicious, sort of like an easy, no-bake cheesecake.

I do want to caution you about melting chips in the microwave. I do this all the time but check it in 30 second increments, stirring each time. Sometimes the chips look barely melted but when you stir them, they are almost completely melted.

Hershey’s Snow White Mousse Pie

2 cups chilled whipping cream, divided
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
1 cup HERSHEY’S Vanilla Milk Chips
2 egg whites, at room temperature
2 tablespoons sugar
8-inch (6-oz) packaged chocolate flavored crumb crust
1 can ( 21-oz) cherry pie filling, chilled

In large microwave-safe bowl place 1 cup whipping cream; stir in gelatin. Allow to soften at least 5 minutes. Stir in vanilla milk chips. Microwave on HIGH 1 to 1 ½ minutes or until chips are melted and mixture is smooth when stirred.

Chill 15 minutes or just until mixture is lukewarm.

In small mixture bowl, beat remaining 1 cup chilled whipping cream until stiff peaks form. Fold into vanilla mixture.

Pour into crust. Cover; chill until firm.

Just before serving, cover top of pie with chilled cherry pie filling.

Crackling Bread

I admit it. I love cookbooks. Always have. I have a huge assortment and I use them when I can. So no one was surprised when I went to an antique mall’s big sales day and bought -- you guessed it -- another cookbook.

This one is a small staple-bound book from 1964. It’s titled Southern Appalachian Mountain Cookbook by Ferne Shelton. As I flipped through the pages, I knew I HAD to take it home. It’s filled with those old-time recipes that you just don’t find in modern cookbooks.

My Gran always made Crackling Bread and now my Mother does too. I don’t eat it. Not really. I like the bread but I pick out the cracklings. Seems kind of silly, even to me. My Mother, who doesn’t drink milk, crumbles the bread into a glass of buttermilk and seems to love it. I’ll trust her on that because I don’t plan to try it that way.

For those who don’t know -- and the cookbook does explain it -- “cracklings are the browned pieces of meat remaining after pure lard has been rendered from fat pork.”

Crackling Bread

2 cups cornmeal
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup cracklings

Mix the cornmeal, salt and baking soda. Add buttermilk and cracklings. Form into cakes and place in greased baking pan. Bake at 450 degrees for 30 minutes.

Different Version: My Mother fries her bread. She uses a cast iron griddle, pours the thick mixture onto the greased surface and cooks it until it is browned. Then she flips it and browns the other side.

Cauliflower Mac 'N Cheese

I found this recipe in the September issue of Good Housekeeping magazine. It looks wonderful! Also check out the interview with Katie Couric and the short story. Hooray for fiction back in Good Housekeeping!

Cauliflower Mac ‘N Cheese

1 medium head cauliflower (1 ½ lbs), core discarded, florets cut into 2-inch pieces
4 medium carrots (10 oz.), thinly sliced
1 cup unsalted vegetable broth
¼ cup reduced-face cream cheese
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Pinch cayenne (ground red) pepper
¾ cup shredded Gruyere cheese
Salt
Pepper
12 oz. elbow macaroni
8 oz. small broccoli florets (3 cups)
2 medium plum tomatoes, cored, seeded, and chopped
¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat 8-quart saucepot of salted water to boiling on high.

Add cauliflower and carrots to boiling water. Cook 15 minutes or until very tender.

Meanwhile, in blender, combine broth, cream cheese, mustard, cayenne, ½ cup Gruyere, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon black pepper. With slotted spoon, transfer vegetables to blender. Puree until very smooth.

Add pasta to same saucepot of boiling water. Cook half the time the label directs; adding broccoli during last minute of cooking. Drain; return to pot. Stir in cauliflower sauce and half of tomatoes. Spread in 2 ½-quart shallow baking dish. Top with remaining cheeses and tomatoes.

Bake 35 minutes or until golden brown on top and heated through.

Makes 6 main-dish servings at about 345 calories per serving.