Another recipe!

Can't wait for that scrumptrulescent Thanksgiving feast with pumpkin pie and all the trimmings? Why wait? Here's an easy and delicious recipe for Pumpkin Pie Cake that you can make ahead of time and start enjoying that wonderful holiday decadence.

Pumpkin Pie Cake
1 13-oz. can evaporated milk
3 beaten eggs
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice OR
1 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. ginger,
1/4 tsp. cloves, and 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 yellow cake mix
1 stick melted butter
1 1/2 - 3 cups chopped nuts

Combine the canned milk, eggs, pumpkin pie spice, salt, sugar, and pumpkin. Pour the liquid mixture into a 9x13" cake pan. Sprinkle the dry cake mix (don't prepare the mix first) over the liquid mixture. Lightly combine the melted butter with the cake mix. Spread the chopped nuts on top of everything else. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes. Serve warm topped with whipped cream, if desired.

Hey, we need some more blog participants! I think everyone ought to take just a few minutes each week to read the latest blogs and write a short comment or comment on someone else's comment.

Recipes continued

Here's a few more basic recipes that Mama Marva made frequently but didn't use a written recipe for. I figured that some of the grandchildren who are teenagers or in college might like to know how to make them. (Most of these recipes I just made up--if someone out there knows a better way to make them, please post corrections.) = )

Mashed Potatoes
Peel, cut into small pieces, and barely cover with salted water 1 1/2 to 2 potatoes for each person expected to come for dinner (MM always made lots). Boil for about 15-20 minutes, or until soft (you can test them with a fork). Drain the water (you can save the water to add nutrition to breads, cakes, etc.). Using the whipping attachment of an electric mixer, beat the potatoes with 1/4 to 1/2 cup butter (or more) and 1/2 to 1 cup heated milk or cream (or more-the amounts depend on the amount of potatoes you cooked). (It's good to heat the milk in the microwave before adding it so the potatoes will stay hot.) If you don't have an electric mixer, you can just use a manual potato masher and mash them with the butter and milk in your cooking pot. Pile up the whipped potatoes in a large serving bowl and garnish with a pat of butter and a little paprika or fresh parsley (optional). If you are a garlic fan like I am, you may wish to add some garlic to the potatoes while they are cooking. You can also make them richer by adding cream cheese to the potatoes when mashing them.

Meat Gravy
Use drippings from meat (beef or pork roast, chicken, or turkey). Skim off fat, returning 3-4 tablespoons fat or oil to pan. Stir in 1/4 cup four until well blended while cooking over low heat. Slowly stir in 2 cups liquid (drippings, plus milk for chicken gravy or water for beef gravy). Season with salt and pepper. Heat on medium heat stirring occasionally for 3-5 minutes, or until slightly thickened. Yields 2 cups.

Oven Pot Roast
(I don't really know how to make this as well as Mama Marva--I'm just guessing how she does it.)
Buy a good quality beef roast (like rump roast, I think--it should have some fat marbling in it to make it tender.) Wash it off and brown the outside of it in 1 Tbl. oil in a heavy skillet. Season the outside of it well with salt and pepper and one or two bay leaves. (You can also buy a Schilling or McCormick seasoning mix for pot roast that comes with a plastic roasting bag, which helps make it more tender. Or dry Lipton onion soup mix also makes a good seasoning.) Put roast in a large, covered oven pan (Mama Marva liked to use a clay roasting pan that she had) with seasonings and 3/4 c. water, and bake at 325 degrees for 40 minutes per pound for medium well done meat (or until meat thermometer shows that the internal termperature is 160 degrees). (Bake for a shorter or longer time, about 10 minutes per pound, for rare or well done meat.) Uncover the roast for the last half hour of roasting to ensure browning. You can add vegetable pieces, like onions, carrots and potatoes, and roast them along with the meat, so that they absorb some of the savory juice. Or you can make gravy from the drippings (see above).

Navy Beans and Ham
Soak 2 cups dry navy (white) beans overnight in 6 cups water. Add a 1-2 lb. piece of ham with the bone still in it (it can be mostly bone--leftover Sunday or Easter ham is good), one minced or whole onion (MM usually left it whole, and then we onion lovers got to fight over who got the onion), a few stalks celery, cut into small pieces, 2 Tbl. brown sugar, 2 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. pepper, and one more quart water. Simmer until beans are tender and soup starts to thicken. If desired, partially mash the beans. Sprinkle with fresh chopped or dried parsley, if desired, and serve with hot whole wheat bread or rolls. Delicious on a winter day!

Whole Wheat Bread
(Mama Marva used to make us a lot of delicious whole wheat bread. I don't think I have her recipe, but here is a recipe that might be somewhat similar that I found in a recipe book. If any of you have the recipe that she preferred, please pass it on.)
1. In large mixing bowl combine, stir, and let stand:
1 cup hot water
1 cup dark brown sugar or
1/2 cup molasses + 1/2 sugar
2. In small bowl sprinkle
2 Tbl. or 2 pkg. dry yeast over
1 cup warm water and
2 Tbl. honey or sugar
3. Add to the first mixture and beat well:
3 cups warm water
4 tsp. salt
6 cups white flour
yeast mixture (from Step 2)
4. Stir in, then knead on floured board:
6 cups whole wheat flour, approx.
1 cup cracked wheat (optional)
5. Cover. Let rise in a warm place until double in size (about 1 hour). Punch down. Shape into loaves, place in greased bread pans, and let rise until double again (about 30-40 min.).
6. Bake at 375 degrees for 45-50 minutes. Yield: 6 loaves

Grape Punch
Stir together 1 12-oz. can frozen grape juice, 1 6-oz. can frozen lemonade, 6 cups (or 4 juice cans) water, and 1 cup 7-Up or Sprite until frozen juice is dissolved. Add ice and serve. Tasty and refreshing!

Frosted Jello Salad
(This is one of those famous Mormon jello salads that I used to love when I was younger)
2 sm. (or 1 lg.) pkgs. lemon Jell-O
2 cups boiling water
2 cups 7-Up or Sprite
20-oz. can crushed pineapple
1 cup mini marshmallows
2 lg. bananas, sliced
Dissolve Jell-O in boiling water. Stir in 7-Up. Chill until partially set. Drain pineapple very well, saving 1 cup juice for topping. Fold pineapple, marshmallows, and bananas into Jell-O. Pour into 9x13" pan and chill until firm.
Whipped Cream Topping
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. flour
1 cup pineapple juice
1 egg, slightly beaten
2 Tbsp. butter
1 cup whipping cream, whipped
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Combine sugar and flour in a saucepan. Stir in juice and egg. Cook over low heat until thickened. Revove from heat; add butter. Let cool; chill. Fold into whipped cream. Frost Jell-O mixture and sprinkle with cheese just before serving.

Elephant Stew
(I got this out of Woodland 3rd Ward Relief Society recipe book compiled in 2001)
1 medium sized elephant
brown gravy (lots)
salt and pepper to taste
2 rabbits (optional)
Cut elephant into small bite-size pieces (this will take about 2 months). Reserve trunk; you will need something to store the pieces in. Add enough brown gravy to cover. Cook on kerosene stove for about 4 weeks at 465 degrees. This will serve about 3,800 people. If more are expected, the rabbits may be added. Do this only if necessary, as most people do not like hare in their stew!

Ha! Ha! ; ) I just wanted to see if anyone actually reads this.

More recipes

I'm going take advantage of a few spare minutes at school to write another blog. (I hope I don't get in trouble for using this library research computer to do this--it says no chatting or MySpace allowed!) I have thought of a few more of my favorite Mama Marva recipes, most of which I'm sure she doesn't have in her recipe file because she just knew them by heart. I'll share some of them here with you all.

Mama Marva used to make quite a few things with white sauce (I'm sure she learned this from Grandma Painter). Since these first three recipes involve white sauce (it's just basically a milk gravy), I'm putting the basic recipe for it first:

Medium White Sauce
Melt 1/4 c. butter over medium heat in a skittle. Add 1/4 c. flour, 1/2 tsp. salt, and 1/4 tsp. black or white pepper and stir to make a floury paste. Slowly add 2 cups milk while stirring constantly and continue to heat on medium (not high) heat. Continue stirring (to avoid lumpiness) while mixture thickens (about 5 to 10 minutes). Makes 2 cups. To make the white sauce thinner or thicker, add more or less milk.

Creamed Peas and Potatoes
(this was one of Grandma Painter's favorites)
Wash (but don't peel) and boil about 2 pounds new (little) red (russet) potatoes in salted water for about 10 minutes. (If the potatoes are larger in diameter than a quarter, cut them into smaller pieces. In another pan, boil 1-2 pounds fresh, shelled peas (if you don't have fresh, you can use frozen) for about 5 minutes. Drain the water off the peas and potatoes. (You can reserve the water to make homemade bread. It adds vitamins, flavor, and risability to the dough!) Add the peas and potatoes to 2 cups of thin to medium white sauce and heat through. Delicious!!

Creamed Tuna on Toast
(Mama Marva used to make this a lot when I was little, but she finally stopped making it when she found out after years of serving it to us that Papa Ken doesn't like it. I still like it, though.)
Make 1-2 cups of medium white sauce. Add 1 or 2 cans of drained tuna. Serve over hot toast or (even better) over hot baking powder biscuits (you can use Bisquick for this). This makes a quick and filling dinner.

Creamed Egg on Toast
Hard boil 1-2 dozen eggs. Triple or quadruple the White Sauce recipe. (Steve Adams also adds a couple of teaspoons of sugar to the white sauce.) Chop up and add the boiled eggs. Serve over buttered (or unbuttered) toast. It is the Adams' family tradition to have this every Easter and Christmas morning, and on some other special occasions as well (Pa A is the one who usually makes it).

Basic Potato Soup
Peel and cut about 6 good-sized potatoes into small pieces. Barely cover the potatoes with salted water (with about 1 tsp. salt) and boil for 10 to 15 minutes. In a separate skillet, sautee one chopped onion in 1/4 cup butter. Add the onion to the boiled potatoes (don't drain the potatoes!). Add about 2 cups milk or cream (this can be a combination of skim milk, powdered milk, whole milk, evaporated milk, or half and half--whatever you have on hand. Of course, the creamier, the tastier!) Cook on medium heat until slightly thickened (another 15-30 minutes). Season with salt, pepper, parsley, and/or dried dill weed. Good additions to this soup are celery (boil with the potatoes), corn or peas (canned or frozen), bacon (fried and crumbled), ham, and grated cheese. Serves about 6. Easy, economical, and yummy on a cold night!

Potato Chowder
(Here is a richer potato soup recipe I like from the Woodland 3rd Ward Relief Society recipe book)
4 cups (about 4 medium) potatoes, peeled and diced
2/3 cups celery, chopped
1/2 cup onion, chopped
2 1/4 cups water
1/2 cup butter, divided
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. dried dill weed
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 can (16 oz.) cream-style corn (you can also use frozen)
1 cup diced cooked hamor curmbled fried bacon
Combine potatoes, celery, onion, water, and 1/4 cup butter in a large soup kettle. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer for 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Remove from heat and set aside. Do not drain. In a large, heavy skillet, melt remaining butter. Stir in flour salt and pepper. Gradually add milk; stir until thickened and smooth. Add dill. Stir sauce into potato mixture. Add cheese and stir until melted. Stir in corn. Add the ham or bacon. Heat through. Serves 8.

Well, I gotta go. I'll put on a few more recipes later.