Sweet Sugar Cream Pie

While thumbing through my latest Country Home Magazine I came across this recipe for Hoosier Sugar Cream Pie. (from Nick's Kitchen),

This Pie makes me weak in the knees

Sweet and oh so creamy

Anytime you feel sad and lonely

forget a good work out at the gym

screw the run it off program

follow these simple directions

I promise you will feel better,

at least for today

Sweet Cream Pie


2 cups heavy cream

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar,plus 3 tbs for sprinkling

1/2 cup whole milk 1 tsp vanilla

1 (9-inch) store -bought pie crust

1 tbs unsalted butter

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1.) preheat oven to 350

filling in a medium bowl combine heavy cream,flour,brown sugar, milk and vanilla,


2.) fit crust in 9-inch pie pan and dot bottom with butter. Pour filling into crust. Combine cinnamon and remaining 3tbs of sugar and sprinkle on top. Bake pie until set and center is firm to touch about 1 hour. cool on wire rack.

Coffee Crazy: New Frugal Feasts Column Today Exclusively in The Concord Monitor

Photo by Ken Williams for The Concord Monitor

Check out our column and the new Concord Monitor Website.

We do love coffee. Even in our pork chops...

Photo by Ken Williams for The Concord Monitor

And we love this commercial too...

Chicken Noodle Soup, Because it is Snowing in New Hampshire

Oh bloody hell.

Here it is, less than a week until May, and we have disgusting fluffy white garbage falling from the sky less than an hour north of here.

What else to do but make chicken noodle soup?
And drink.

Quick Chicken Noodle Soup

Makes four servings, two if you are really depressed

32 ounces chicken stock--Progresso makes a good one that comes in a giant juice box
3 carrots, sliced
2 stalks celery, sliced
1/2 small onion, diced
1/2 bag wide egg noodles, cooked according to package directions.
3 splashes Tabasco, more or less to taste
2 cooked chicken breasts, shredded
Fresh ground pepper to taste

Bring the stock to a simmer and toss in the carrots, celery and onion. Cover and let simmer for 5 minutes. Add the chicken, Tabasco and fresh ground pepper and let return to a simmer. Serve in shallow wide bowls over the egg noodles while thinking about spring.

Sweet Treat: Man Distracting Chocolate Pudding

Why do we think we've got it all figured out? We are equal partners with our husbands, and what does it get us? Increased rates of heart disease, nights spent sleepless worrying about paying the bills and early death.

This woman is a fricken genius. While her husband was at work, she went shopping with the girls, bought herself a little something something and instead of ripping off the tags and stuffing her new coat into the back of the closet, she makes Man Distracting Pudding. also cake but why quibble.

What a brilliant plan. And if she had made the pudding from scratch, she wouldn't even have to be stark naked under that fur....

Homemade Chocolate Pudding

Adapted from Mark Bittman, The New York Times, February 21, 2007

Time: 20 minutes, plus chilling
2 1/2 cups half-and-half
2/3 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
1 vanilla bean or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, shaved or ground up in the food processor

1. Put 2 cups of half-and-half or milk, sugar and salt in a small or medium saucepan over medium-low heat. If using a vanilla bean, split in half lengthwise and scrape seeds into milk or half-and-half using small sharp knife, then add pod. Cook just until mixture begins to steam.
2. Combine cornstarch and remaining milk or half-and-half in a bowl and blend; there should be no lumps. Fish pod from pot and discard. Add cornstarch mixture; cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture starts to thicken and barely reaches a boil, about 5 minutes. Immediately reduce heat to very low and stir for 5 minutes or so until thick. Stir in butter and vanilla extract, if using.
3. Pour mixture into a 1-quart dish or 4 to 6 small ramekins or bowls. Put plastic wrap directly on the pudding to prevent formation of a skin, or do not cover if you like skin.
Refrigerate until chilled, and serve within a day, with whipped cream if you like.
Whisk to remove lumps if needed.

Yield: 4 servings.

Spicy Hummus

This is a good one for when you know you'll be drinking your dinner, but need a little something to sop up some of the chardonnay.

Spicy Hummus

1/2 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, smashed with the flat side of a knife
2 15.5 ounce cans chickpeas, drained; liquid reserved
4 tablespoons sesame tahini
juice and grated zest of 2 lemons
1 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste
1/2 chipotle pepper, plus a little sauce, from a small can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
fresh ground pepper

Warm the olive oil and the smashed garlic in a small saucepan over low heat just until garlic is fragrant.

Dump the drained chickpeas in a food processor with 1/2 of the warm oil and blitz until very smooth and creamy, at least 2-3 minutes; sometimes more.
Add the tahini, lemon, salt, and hot and black pepper and blitz again until all is smoothly combined.

Add more of the oil, or the reserved can liquid, and keep processing until the hummus is smooth enough.

Garnish with scallions, and a drizzle of the garlic oil.
Serve with chips and vegetables, if only because they look pretty on the plate.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Off To Work I Go!

I bet you get it!

Someone actually hired me.

I have a job, a real job!

After 25 years spent at home serving my children, I will now be serving other people's children in a school near you.

Not too sure about this.....but we do what we have to do.

Hi Ho!

The best part is I am a LunchLady: school hours, school breaks and summers off...this, my friends, is a good thing.

Hi Ho!

My children are HORRIFIED (to say the least), but bless their little rotten hearts, once I told them it was not their school, they were so fine, so fine......

Hi Ho!

We dig dig dig dig dig dig dig in a mine the whole day through

To dig dig dig dig dig dig dig is what we like to do

It ain't no trick

To get rich quick

Hi ho! Hi ho! Hi ho! Hi ho! Hi ho! Hi ho,

Hi ho! It's home from work we go

(whistles)

Hi ho, Hi ho, Hi ho, Hi ho, Hi ho It's home from work we go

(whistles)

Good Cheap Eats

Well, if Suzanne is posting beautiful looking Shrimp Risotto that the kids don't like; I owe it to the rest of us to show a good and simple sausage and rice dish, photographed with a cheap no-good camera that the kids inhaled over here at the Broadbent Ranch.

Two bites max!
I personally would rather be at Suzanne's with the pretty food but whatever.

Rice and Sausage it is.....

This frugal little gem is adapted from Peg Bracken's I Hate to Cook Book: I took our her ground pork and added my good old pork sausages--



Just add rice and a few choice ingredients...

Let it simmer for an hour and...

Dinner is served!


Dr. Martin's Mix
serves 4-5

Cut 1 1/2 pounds of pork sausage into 1-inch pieces.
You will find that cutting the sausages is much easier if they are slightly frozen (so stick them in the freezer for an hour if time permits. If it doesn't, you better have a sharp knife!
Brown them in a large, lidded pot over medium heat for about 15 minutes until no pink remains.
Pour off the excess fat and then add:
1 chopped green pepper
2 chopped green scallions
2 or 3 chopped celery stalks
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup raw rice
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp salt

Put a lid on the skillet, turn the burner down as low as it will go, and let the whole thing simmer for about an hour, until the rice is done and all the liquid is absorbed.

Good Cheap Eats!

Shrimp Risotto

There was a time when risotto was in heavy rotation at our house. I made it with mushrooms, and seafood, and lobster, and spring vegetables, and it was always delicious.

But when my children issued the No Food Shall Be Combined With Any Other Food Nor Even Shall One Food Touch Another On The Plate Edict of 1995, risotto kind of fell off my radar screen.

I've finally smartened up. Since there is no pleasing the little tyrants who populate my dinner table anyway, I am going to start cooking things that I like to eat, and that Peter likes to eat, and if anyone has a problem with that, they know where they can find a cup of Market Basket brand yogurt and a spoon.


I had forgotten how creamy, and filling and sustaining rice can be when cooked with a huge hunk of butter and a grating of real Parmesan that cost as much as the last pair of shoes I got at Marshalls.

Make this soon! You'll be so happy you did. Your kids? Maybe not so much.


Shrimp Risotto

Serves 6

12 ounces arborio rice
6 tablespoons butter, divided
1/4 cup onion, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup dry white wine
6 cups chicken stock, brought to a simmer in a small saucepan
1 pound small raw shrimp, peeled
3 scallions, sliced thinly
1/4 cup best quality Parmesan Cheese
Fresh ground black pepper, to taste

Melt half the butter in a large heavy dutch oven over medium heat. Add the minced onion and garlic and saute for 2-3 minutes until the onion has softened. Do not brown. Add the rice and stir with a wooden spoon to coat well with the butter mixture.
Add the white wine and stir until the wine is mostly absorbed.
Ladle about a cup of the simmering chicken stock into the rice and cook and stir until the stock is absorbed.
Keep ladling in chicken stock, a cup at a time, and stirring, until the rice is creamy and just about cooked through. The center of the grains of rice should just have a little bit of resistance to it when you bite through.
Add the shrimp and the scallions and cook for a minute or so, just until the shrimp turn pink and start to curl.
Add the rest of the butter, the Parmesan and the fresh ground pepper, and stir once more.

Serve in small portions, garnished with additional scallions and Parmesan.

Sweet Treats: Just a Bite

How many times have all y'all gone to some luncheon or dinner and all you want is one delicious bite of dessert?

Sure, if you're with your DH it is no problem to just stab your fork into his carrot cake and snag a taste; but if you're dining with a group of women you usually wind up doing without.

Last weekend I went down to Philadelphia for a facebook-facilitated reunion of a bunch of flaming Chi Os from Gettysburg College. Everyone who went to the luncheon graduated in a turbulent period between about 1978 and 1984 -- when there was a lot of drinking, a fair amount of hazing and an unstoppable party circuit that started on Thursday at 5 with Sigma Chi's rum and coke happy hour and didn't end until brunch in the dining hall on Sunday morning where all the dirt was dished, denied and dissected.

Collectively known as the Time Before Gettysburg Sucked (if you were a student participant in the mayhem), or The Dark Years (if you were one of the unfortunate administrators charged with keeping 2,000 students safe, or at least alive) it was an era that I'll never forget.

A lot has changed in the past um, 15 years since I graduated, but one thing holds true: the people who were cool in college are still cool. The leaders still lead, the followers still follow, and someone is always fat.

So of course it was one of the cool ones, Hope, who told the restaurant to chop up the beautiful desserts into bite sized pieces and stuff the bits into clear glass votives and artfully arrange them on a tiered tray.

So no recipe this week, unless you count a recipe to feed your soul: find some old friends on facebook, get together for some tiny girly bites of dessert, and laugh like your only care you have in the world is not getting caught leaving a fraternity at 8am in your formal dress.




Mmmm Mmmmm GOOD!

Three C Stir Fry

Hey look!

Suzanne actually cooked something fresh and green.

And so marks the end of the cold cereal era at Chez Ellinwood.

I really should call those Guinness people.

There is no way the Ellinwoods have not broken the record for consecutive dinners spooned out of a bowl filled with yellow moons, pink hearts and green clovers.

And shouldn't I get something out of the grueling double shifts at the brewery? Well, other than additional gray hairs?

Anyway, about this stir fry?

Excellent -- easily improvised and no finicky sauce to be made at the last minute with chicken broth and corn starch so yay for that.

Chicken, Cabbage and Corn Stir Fry

Serves 6ish

8 ounces whole wheat soba noodles cooked according to package directions or use rice

3 tablespoons neutral vegetable oil
1/4 head of green cabbage, sliced into thin ribbons
1 small package sliced mushrooms
2 cups frozen shoe peg corn, rinsed to thaw and drained
3 scallions sliced thinly
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and sliced thinly into strips
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil, or to taste

Heat the oil in a large wok or non-stick skillet over medium heat. When the oil starts to shimmer, add the cabbage and the mushrooms and quickly saute. Keep moving the vegetables around the pan until the cabbage is bright green and some edges are brown, and the mushrooms look pretty well cooked. Add the remaining ingredients and toss until everything is warmed through.

Serve over the noodles garnished with extra scallions, and pass extra soy and sesame oil at the table.

I Need Me Some Poise

Remember when this was what you thought about when you heard the word poise?

These gals are the picture of poise. Calm, cool and collected while sporting a seriously fugly bathing suit that not only cuts into their upper thighs at their widest and most jiggly point, but also (bonus!) makes them sort of look like they've got dicks to hide.

Here they are, geared up to prance around in heels in front of a bunch of lecherous men who will then judge them on the relative amounts of cottage cheese they've got on their behinds -- with warm smiles and lovely waves.

These bitches are Poise Personified.

How sad then, that for me, as of today, THIS is what I'll be thinking about when I hear the word poise...




Yes my friends, today is the day that a sneeze became more than a sneeze.

Apparently I'll be riding the cotton pony until the day I die.

Giddyup!

Frugal Feasts: New Column Exclusively in The Concord Monitor

photo by Ken Williams for The Concord Monitor

The new column is in the paper today, and we think it's pretty good. Don't believe us? Check it out your own damn self: The Concord Monitor

Easter: Better Late Than Never!

Maybe the Easter Bunny was not good to darling Number Seven...

Or to Number Eight?

Poor little children.

The baskets look good to me...

And the cookies could not be better...

Well, at least Numbers Three, Four, Five and Six (plus Dad and Marisa) were happy
and oh so handsome in their Easter attire!

It was good day for most of them.

The sun was shining, everyone was clean, and the only way Easter could have been better was if Number One and Number Two (and their better halves) were with us!!

It might seem a teeny bit late to do The Easter Post, but after cleaning up all the grass, and the tiny pieces of tinfoil droppings peeled from all the candy, and gathering up all the baskets (strewn from one end of the house to the other), and finding and putting away all the shirts, ties and jackets, a week had gone right by.

The job was then getting the photos from the camera to the computer, and so on and so on..
you know the drill: Time Flies!
BUT when the majority of my children are clean and conforming in the wardrobe department
I want to share it--no matter how much time has gone by.

It's a mom thing!

Workplace Flexibility

Say what you want about Obama being a gifted speaker, I think Michelle more than holds her own:





I've got workplace flexibility: There are not enough hours in the day to do a good job at the brewery, and I'm doing a pretty poor job at home, too.

The Bra

Your f uture is right in front of you :) or beside you... This conversation sums up my crazy life...
(viewer discretion advised)

I am working on my computer, the children are in bed, it is late on a Saturday night.

My 68 year old mother comes trudging into my room,with a confused expression on her face. "Robin, can you help me figure this out?" She asks.

"What is it mom?" I reply, a bit nervous.

"Well, I've never had a bra that fit me quite right." She says, "But, I found this cute little chart to help me fit a bra properly, and I need help."

Oh S&^$#.

She hands me a little piece of paper with a diagram showing how to measure for the best bra fit. Next to the instructions are her numbers, 32+4 36-4 2, 7 a, b. Ohhhhh, this should be fun.

She begins explaining: "First, it says to measure below the bra band." I look at the number placed next to this instruction. I ask her where she measured and she lifts up the three layers of clothing to show me her waist.

"Mom! What the heck are you measuring there for? " I ask...

"Well, that's where my bra band goes...."

Seriously?!?... But, I let it go.

She continues, "Now, measure around the breast at the fullest point ." She then proceeds to show me over all of her layers of flannel, where she measured... . " I need to add 2 inches" she says.

I look at the diagram, then up at her, confused. "That makes no sense. Besides, I don't see anything here that says add 2 inches."

She quickly replies "Well, I add 2 inches because of gravity! I have to push things up, and when I do it makes for a bigger cup."

Oh... My... God.

My sweet Mother has been purchasing bras that where 2 sizes to big... because of gravity. You can't make this stuff up.

"What are you crazy? A 38C!? That's insane!" I say this in the nicest possible way. "According to these measurements you measure for a 32A."

She looks at me startled, "Well I've always worn that size."

"No Mom, you have never worn that size..."

After another ten minutes of debate, she decides to go with the 34 B...

We are moving to a new and different place, me and my mom. Although it is hard at times, having my Mom live with me (or as I always say, I live with my Mom. The truth of the matter being, if you live in the same house with your mom, you live with her). Some days I think, it would be easier for us to go visit her, and have her tell stories of my childhood, of her life, of all the things she has done, instead of living it everyday with my children seeing the past, present and future... always.

But then again each day I am reminded that this is my future as well. And it's sometimes ("sometimes" being the key word) a good thing to learn the lesson "reaping what we sow" firsthand, instead of hoping to teach it to your children later. I often have to remind myself, when I am busy and not wanting to interrupt my work, of all the times that it was me who said "Mom can you help me figure this out," and she dropped everything.

I am sure over the years the conversations will get nuttier, the level of nonsense will increase, the lines that separate us will get fuzzier, mother daughter, daughter, mother and I will continue to remind myself as I remind my children everyday-As You Sow So Shall You Reap. (until I can't remember that line anymore)

We are both reaping and sowing everyday. Mom has a bra that will fit (maybe) and I learned about compensating for gravity... and your loved ones.

Even when they do very, very silly things.

Bankrupt in Barbados

How gross is this?

48, broke and somehow I wound up in a two piece bathing suit on the beach in Barbados.
As Robin always says, IT IS WHAT IT IS...

So when really great friends
(and when I say great I mean wealthy)
invite you to spend the weekend with them in their house,
and all you've got to do is buy a couple of plane tickets, you go and you say Thank you.

And when they text you saying
"one piece bathing suits are like burkas here"
you go out and buy the first two piece bathing suit you've worn
since you started pushing out boys in 1991.

Here is a photo I took from my lounge chair on Rockley beach exactly a week ago today:

Note my knees at the bottom of the picture.
I was so relaxed I could barely sit up to snap a photo.

The local people were charming and normal, the scenery was spectacular
and the food was,
well,
better than it needed to be for sopping up the never ending rounds of rum punch.

I've got a post coming about Macaroni Pie
which is sort of like a sophisticated mac and cheese dish.

Some of the beaches made you work to get to them....


Try this after 3 rum punches, a beer and a sensible glass of chardonnay..

It was a little hairy getting across those little pods of concrete,

But here is what was waiting on the other side:

Heaven!

And to restore my last good nerve?
Bar Bar Crock Bar.
I never got drunk enough to understand the name but
The beers were frosty, delicious and a buck.

Money comes and money goes,
but friends
(if you choose wisely)
will pull you through some tough spots.

We might never repay Steve and Susan,
but hopefully some day we can pay it forward.

Sweet Treat: Coconut Macaroons for Passover

Our favorite contributing baker sends this recipe along. It's the perfect Passover treat, and since it took us so long to post this, we should mention it would also look pretty cute in an Easter basket....

Marianne's Coconut Macaroons

2 egg whites
pinch salt
14 oz sweetened condensed milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 - 14 oz bags of shredded, sweetened coconut

Whisk together egg whites & salt until frothy (about 1-2 min) Stir condensed milk & vanilla into egg whites. Fold in coconut with a rubber spatula until all is combined.

Form balls with a small ice cream scoop (really pack the batter in
there!) and place on parchment lined baking sheet. Bake at 300 until golden brown, about 20 minutes.

makes 4 dozen.

Clams and Linguine

Who would have thought that I could make a fancy-looking, great tasting version of Clams and Linguine that was not from a can. Well, OK, the clams can be from a can, but the sauce is homemade....

I surely didn't, the thought never crossed my mind.

I have always reached for the can of Clam sauce, it was an easy, quick treat, although not very attractive, all gray and watery. But it worked until now.

A big thank you goes out to my future son-in-law Dan, for this wonderful recipe.

Dan, being a good Italian boy, was shocked that this little ditty was not on my top ten list.
Well now that I have tried this recipe, the can of clam sauce is dead to me....Dead. To. Me.

Simple, Inexpensive, Yummy,

I followed the recipe below,

The crowd went wild

That, my friends, is exactly what I want:

Rave reviews from the grumbling masses.

It makes my job a tiny bit easier if they like what I slaved all day in the kitchen
(the children of course do not read the blog so they are unaware of my quick meal requirements Hehehe

Clams and Linguine
1 pound linguine
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ cup finely chopped yellow onions
3 tablespoons thinly sliced garlic
2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano (or 1 teaspoondried)
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 pounds little neck clams, scrubbed and purged in water
or 2 cans clams
¾ cup dry white wine
½ cup clam juice (I used from the can)
½ cup light cream
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
(you can use whatever you have depending on your expert palette)
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
½ cup finely grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:
Cook linguine as directed on box, drain pasta and reserve ½ cup of liquid. Return pasta to pot and toss with cooking liquid. Cover and set aside

In a large heavy saute pan or medium pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring until soft, 3 minutes; add the garlic and oregano, salt and red pepper flakes, and cook, stirring for 1 minute. Add the wine and clam, juice and cook for 1 minute. Add the clams, cover and shaking occasionally, cook until the clams open about 5 minutes. Add the cream and lemon juice, stir well, and simmer for 1 minute. Add the cooked pasta and toss to coat. Add the extra virgin olive oil and parsley, and toss to coat. Divide among serving bowls and top each portion with cheese. Serve immediately,
Serves 10