Mer and I travel to spend time with family on the holidays, so its difficult to have traditions of our own. Our Yule/Christmas tradition (which sometimes happens on Yule, but almost never on Christmas) involves a screening of A Solstice Carol and anything we want for dinner. In past years, this has included cereal (I’m a huge fan of Marshmallow Mateys, and in fact prefer them to their brand-name counterpart), donuts, and bagels with lox and capers. This year, we were inspired by our local winter farmer’s market. The sweet potato came from Two Gander Farm in Oley, PA, the cheese was Alpine from Birchrun Hills, and the fresh eggs were from Turning Roots.

Holiday Quiche

Ingredients:

• Two unbaked pie crusts (pre-bought or use your favorite recipe)
• One large (2/3 lb) sweet potato
• 6 ounces prosciutto
• 6 ounces nutty cheese (Emmentaler or a strong Swiss will do nicely)
• 6 whole eggs
• 1 cup whole milk
• Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350° F. Place pie pans on a cookie sheet and line with pie crusts.

Peel the potato and grate it using the largest hole of a box grater. Sprinkle grated potato in the bottom of the pie shells, dividing evenly. Grate the cheese and sprinkle on top of the potato. Slice the prosciutto finely and add to pies. Beat eggs well and add milk, salt, and pepper. Carefully and slowly pour egg mixture into pies, pressing ingredients as needed to eliminate bubbles.

Bake for 45 minutes, or until quiche is just firm to the touch. Serve hot with a dollop of sour cream or crème fraiche.

This traditional Penna. Dutch cake within a pie shell is dense, chocolatey, and oh-so-yummy. (I’ve yet to find anything funny about it, though.) Without fail, this cake always overflows its shell during the baking process every time I make it – you might want to stick a sheet pan on the bottom rack just in case you have the same luck.

Funny Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 9″ pie shell (store-bought or your favorite recipe)
• 7 tablespoons plus 1/4 cup unsalted butter, divided
• 1 -1/4 cups sugar
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 3 tablespoons hot water
• 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla, divided
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 pinches salt
• 1/2 cup whole milk or light cream
• 1 egg, beaten

Melt 7 tablespoons butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir in cocoa, 1/2 cup sugar, and a pinch of salt and cook, stirring often, until mixture comes to a gentle boil. Whisk in water. Continue to cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Set aside and preheat oven to 350° F.

Combine flour, baking powder, and remaining sugar and salt in a large bowl. Whisk to combine thoroughly. Cut in remaining butter with fingers. Stir in milk and vanilla. Stir with wooden spoon or electric mixer for 2 minutes. Add egg and continue to beat for 45-60 seconds. Pour into pie shell. Gently reheat fudge sauce if necessary and pour evenly over batter.

Bake for 40-50 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean and cake is springy to the touch. Serve warm or room-temperature.

If you’re looking for a quick, easy, and bite-sized appetizer recipe, look no further. These mini-tarts are deliciously simple to make and eat – if you’re in a real hurry, use store-bought pie crust dough and leftover baked chicken to speed things up.

Miniature Chicken Tarts

Ingredients:

• 2 pie crusts (use your favorite recipe or a pre-bought crust)
• 1 boneless skinless chicken breast, poached and cooled
• 8 oz. whole fresh mushrooms, cleaned
• 2 teaspoons butter
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 4 oz. shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

Line mini-muffin cups with pie crust. Dock the bases of the cups with a fork and blind-bake. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken, mushrooms, and garlic, and sauté until chicken is lightly browned and all liquid from mushrooms has evaporated. Season. Deglaze pan with vinegar; continue to cook until pan is almost dry. Cool slightly.

Pulse cooled mixture in food processor with milk until a smooth, fluffy paste has formed. Spoon into prepared crusts and top with Parmesan cheese. Bake 15-20 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Makes 48 tarts.

Autumn. The leaves are falling (and clogging my gutters), the weather is changing (finally), and I start craving flavored coffee, pumpkin pie, eggnog, and amaretto – not necessarily in that order. This recipe combines two of those cravings into one sinfully delicious dessert.

Amaretto Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients:

• 1 cup amaretti cookies, crushed fine
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 2 cups pumpkin puree, unsweetened if canned
• 1 cup half and half
• 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon corn starch
• 3 tablespoons amaretto
• 2 pinches salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Toss cookie crumbs and butter in a small bowl until well-combined. Press into the bottom and up the sides of a 9″ pie pan. Cover edges with tin foil and bake for 10 minutes. Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, combine remaining ingredients and whisk until smooth. Pour into prepared and cooled pie shell. Bake for 45 minutes or until skewer inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely before cutting; serve with freshly whipped ginger cream (1 cup heavy cream whipped with 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger) and garnish with slivered almonds, if desired.

Image by JamesJyu.

Image by MrJoro.

In keeping with the “drunk food” theme of this week’s Carnival of the Recipes, this week’s CTS recipes will all include (or feature) alcohol – yum.

Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie

Ingredients:

• 1 pie crust, blind-baked and cooled
• 3 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 cup dark corn syrup
• 1/2 cup bourbon
• 2/3 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup whole pecans
• Chocolate syrup for garnish

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Whisk together eggs, sugar, butter, syrup, and bourbon. Stir in pecans and chips until ingredients are thoroughly distributed. Bake 40-45 minutes; rest for 1 hour before serving. Garnish with chocolate sauce.

Serves 6-8.

I enjoy collecting old cookbooks, and pick them up at yard sales and flea markets whenever I can. Each Saturday, I post excerpts from my collection. Today’s post comes from the Sergeantsville Methodist Episcopal Church 1922 Cook Book.

Butter Scotch Pie

One egg, one cupful brown sugar, one cupful milk, three tablespoonsful flour, two tablespoons butter, one baked crust, one teaspoonful vanilla, three tablespoonsful water, 1/4 teaspoonful salt, one tablespoonful powdered sugar. Put yolk of egg into saucepan, add sugar, flour, milk, water, butter, salt and vanilla. Stir over fire until it thickens. Pour into baked crust. Beat up egg white, then beat sugar into it. Spread on top, brown in oven.

Image by Paul Goyette

Everyone needs a good pie crust in their recipe box, and this is mine. It bears the name of the former co-worker that gave it to me, although I’ve made my own modification by substituting lard for Crisco.

Mary’s Pie Crust

Ingredients:

• 2 2/3 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup lard (or butter-flavored Crisco)
• 2/3 cup cold water

Sift together 2 1/3 cups flour and salt, cut in lard until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Add water by teaspoons until mixture comes together into a ball.  Divide dough in half, wrap each half in plastic, and refrigerate for one hour before rolling.

Makes two 10″ crusts.