Impossible Coconut Pie

I know this is not a new recipe. If you look in just about any church or community cookbook you'll find some variation of this recipe. I find that these recipes seem to run in cycles. It's been quite a few years since it was popular so the younger generation has probably never tried it. (I can't believe I used a term like "the younger generation". It makes me feel so old!) This recipe is so easy and uses ingredients I usually have on hand. I can mix all the ingredients in a food processor. It makes its own crust so there's no flour all over my counter and no rolling pins needed. There are so many good reasons to like this recipe...not the least of these is the fact that it tastes so good!

I'll show you how I made it.

 I gathered the ingredients: 4 eggs, 2 cups of milk, 3/4 cup of sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup softened butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 1 cup sweetened coconut.

I put all the ingredients except the coconut in my food processor and processed it continuously for 10 seconds. Then I put the coconut in and processed it again for 5 seconds.

This is what it looked like after it was processed.

 I poured it into a deep dish pie pan I had sprayed with PAM. Then I put it in the oven preheated to 350 degrees for 45 minutes. The center jiggled a little when the time was up, but it continued to set up after it came out of the oven.

 When I took it out of the oven it was kind of puffy and light golden brown. I set it on a cooling rack and tried to stay out of it until it was cool enough to cut. 

 As it cools it "falls" and condenses into what looks like a custard. At this point I'm still trying to stay out of it until it cools...

 ...FAIL...I wasn't successful...I cut into it before it was completely cool...but it was wonderful, even warm! This pie magically forms a bottom crust, a middle custard, and a coconut top...Impossible!

What was the taste tester's bottom line?
Well, I know I like it...I wonder if there is any left?...GoodMan liked it...he had two pieces...he wonders if there's any left...

The bottom line:  Don't make this if you don't have a few people to share it with. It goes down way too easy...you can polish off two pieces without a thought!

Lentils with Ham

Today (Wednesday for me) I looked through the refrigerator and decided whatever Easter leftovers we didn't use today would have to go. Back when my boys were little I would make "Musgo" dinners..."This must go, that must go". And once in a while I would make "garbage soup" ~ the name isn't appealing but, a name like "garbage soup" appealed to my boys. The soup incorporated all the bits and pieces of leftovers into a soup that was unique each time I made it.

In the refrigerator I found some ham, a leek, 3/4 carton of chicken broth, and some garlic cheese dip. I also had 1/2 of a package of lentils in the pantry. With all these bits and pieces I put together a dish I'll just call Lentils with Ham. I take great pleasure out of making a tasty dish out of the leftovers in my refrigerator. If you've ever watched the Food Network show "Chopped" you'll know the chefs are required to make a dish out of the items in a picnic basket. The items don't seem like they'd work together, but the chefs always make it work. My "items" are not quite as odd as the ones in the chef's baskets usually are, but I hope to make them work as a palatable dish for me and for GoodMan.

Recently I purchased a rice cooker. Not one of the models that cost a couple hundred dollars, just your average rice cooker. It works wonderfully for rice, and I've used it to make Cinnamon Quinoa for breakfast. I wondered if it would work for lentils.

This is my new rice cooker ~ I love it!

 I could have easily made this in a stock pot, but I wanted to play with my new rice cooker. I'll let you know how to make it without the rice cooker as we go along.

 This is what I gathered to make the Lentils with Ham. I found a leek in the vegetable bin, an open package of chicken broth (about 24 ounces), some leftover ham slices, some garlic, and 1/2 of a package of dry lentils (about 8 ounces).

 I washed the leek and sliced it in thin strips.

 I put about 2 tablespoons of olive oil in the bottom of my rice cooker's pot and sauteed the leek until it was somewhat wilted and started to brown. If I was using a stock pot I would do this step the same way.

 I chopped 2 cloves of garlic and added them to the leek in the rice cooker's pot.

 I rinsed and drained the lentils. I always pick through them looking for stones...I think I've found one little stone in all the years I've looked for them...but I still look every time...I don't want this time to be the time the stone decides to show up.

 I chopped up the ham and added it to the pot with the leeks and garlic.

 I added the lentils.

  Then I poured in the chicken broth to cover everything. I decided to add about 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1/4 teaspoon of cumin, 1/4 teaspoon allspice, and 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg. I love Mujadara, which is a dish with lentils and rice. It has those spices, so I figured I'd spice this like Mujadara.

At this point I closed my rice cooker and set it to cook on the "white rice" setting. If I was making this in a stock pot on the stove I would cover it and cook it on medium-low heat for about 40 minutes. I would give it a stir every 10 minutes or so. Since I used my rice cooker I didn't have to stir.

 This is how it looked when I opened the top of my rice cooker. It really smelled yummy. I've always loved lentils, ever since my grandma would make lentil soup for us. This looked and smelled maaahvelous!

 Normally I would think of putting tzatziki on top of this. Or Greek yogurt. Or even sour cream. But I had a garlic cheese dip leftover from the weekend. It consists of cream cheese, sour cream, shredded cheddar cheese and lots of garlic. I put a dollop of that on top and it worked out wonderfully. 

What was the taste tester's bottom line?
I really liked it! I went back for seconds (How bad can that be? Lentils are good for me!) 
GoodMan had a meeting that night I made this so he wasn't available to taste test. He's not a huge fan of ham, and legumes are not high on his list of favorites, but he had a dish of this when he got home from his meeting so it must have been okay even for him.

The bottom line:
My grandma was known for making delicious dishes out of leftovers. I hope I've inherited some of her "leftover genes". 

Cherry Fluff Salad

This cold sweet side dish looks like something my grandmother would make. It reminds me of an ambrosia-type dish my mother-in-law used to make. It is an old fashion cold-sweet-"salad". This one doesn't have any marshmallows...I really don't like marshmallows in salads...they get all mushy and yucky. But it does have coconut. Coconut is "iffy" for some people, but I think it makes it taste tropical and that reminds me of sunshine, and sunshine reminds me of spring...and I'm looking forward to spring!

If I had known I was going to write a food blog years ago I would have saved the names of the sources for all my recipes. But I didn't...So to whoever, or wherever I got this recipe, I'm sorry I haven't given you credit. Truthfully, I should make it clear on this blog ~ none of these recipes were invented by me. I like to "test-drive" other people's recipes and see what my taste-testers think. Sometimes I adapt recipes to suit my family's taste, but I can safely say I've never thought up a recipe all on my own.

This recipe has been a holiday favorite for my family. I won't try to fool you into thinking everyone likes it. It has coconut in it ~ that leaves out about a third of my taste testers. And I have a large contingent that prefers 7-layer jello as the cold sweet salad for our holiday gatherings. But the family members who like this side dish like it a lot!

Cherry Fluff Salad is a great side dish for a holiday meal. So often I have quite a few complex dishes to make for a holiday dinner. This dish is so easy to make, it's wonderful to have a recipe I can put together in just a few minutes!

I'll show you how it's done.

There are five main ingredients:
one can cherry pie filling
one can crushed pineapple in it's own juice
one can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup sweetened coconut
 8 ounces of Cool Whip

I also use some Maraschino cherries as garnish.

 I put the canned pie filling, pineapple, and sweetened condensed milk in a large bowl and stirred them until they were fully combined.

 I forgot to take a picture of it, but I stirred in the coconut. Then I gently folded in the Cool Whip.

 I put the fluff in a pretty bowl and garnish it with the Maraschino cherries ~ the kids used to fight over who got the cherry, so I started adding extra cherries so everyone could get one!

And that's it! See, I told you it was easy!! It really is nice to have at least one menu item that doesn't take an hour to peel, saute, boil or bake.

Does your family have a favorite holiday side dish? Is it an easy one, or a labor-intensive-labor-of-love?

Crock Pot Rustic Potatoes Au Gratin with Ham

Easter has come and gone and my refrigerator holds a bounty of leftovers. This is one of those times I need to plan my weekly menu on the abundance in my freezer, pantry, and refrigerator. After doing an inventory of what  leftovers I need to use up I contemplate recipes I can use. In the past I've used some websites that allow you to search recipes by ingredients on-hand, but today I have an old stand-by I use for leftover ham. 

This is a recipe I came across years ago in a crock pot cookbook. Unfortunately, I can't remember which one. I've adapted the recipe over the years, but I'm sure it's very close to many recipes in old church cookbooks. This is a great recipe because it is very adaptable. Sometimes I add more cheese. Sometimes I use different "cream-of" soups. Sometimes I add leftover (or fresh) vegetables. The point with this dish is to make it creamy, and to use up leftovers.

Since only GoodMan and I would be eating this I decided to make a very small batch. In the old days I would have at least doubled and probably tripled this recipe. This time I made enough for our dinner and enough for lunch the next day. I like to round out this meal with a green vegetable and a dinner roll. If we have other holiday leftovers like Cherry Fluff Salad, or 7-Layer Jello I try to incorporate them into the meal ~ it's all about cleaning out the refrigerator and not letting anything go to waste!

I'll show you how I made this batch:

I gathered the ingredients; potatoes (the picture shows 5, but I only used 4), onion, garlic, ham, 1/2 block of 1/3 less fat cream cheese, 3 ounces of extra sharp cheddar cheese, can of cream of mushroom soup, 1/2 cup of milk, 1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg and 1/8 teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper.

 In a microwave safe bowl, I combined the can of soup, cream cheese, 2 cloves of chopped garlic, and the milk.

I added the cheddar cheese and microwaved the mixture at 30 second intervals until the cheeses melted.

 I added the nutmeg and black pepper and gave it a stir.

 I scrubbed the potatoes and sliced them (with the skins on) about 1/4 inch thick. I also thinly sliced the onion.

 I put about a half of a cup of the soup mixture on the bottom of the crock pot.

 And then I started layering. I added about a third of the potatoes and a third of the onions.

 Then I added about half of the ham. Sometimes I tear the ham slices apart like I did this time, but if the slices are thicker I like to cut the ham into cubes. If I plan to add fresh or frozen vegetables like peas or green beans I add them at this point.

 I add the barest amount of the soup mixture. Then I do another layer of potatoes, onion, ham and soup. Then for a final layer I put potatoes and onion and top it with the remaining soup. I put the lid on the crock pot and turn it low to cook for about 6 hours.

This is how it looked when it was done. It was browned and crusty on the edges and creamy and yummy on the inside.

 And this was the end result. We had some leftover Cherry Fluff Salad and a dinner roll (all leftovers from our Easter dinner). This meal was satisfying on many levels!

What was the taste tester's bottom line?
Since this is a long-time favorite I didn't ask my tester (GoodMan) for a review. I noticed he cleaned his plate, so I think it's safe to say it was a "thumb's-up".

The Bottom Line: This stays in my recipe collection especially for using up leftover ham.