Creative gift w…

Creative gift wrapping for baking is one of my personal passions.  If you spend time baking with love, then the end product should match that effort.  Today I met the ultimate challenge—wrapping a tray of cookies.

I used a disposable red tray and carefully used Press N Seal to cover cookies.  Then I took a yard of tulle set the tray in the middle of the tulle, pulled the tulle up around the tray and hobo tied it at the top with ribbon.  Next, I added  a poinsettia harvested from a clearance shelf of silk flowers and secured within the bow knot.  Finally I added another stream of ribbon that I let free flow over the sides and presto a wonderfully festive tray of home baked and home wrapped cookies!

Supplies:  Wire cutter (stolen from hubby’s garage), silk flowers, ribbon, one yard of tulle, disposable tray, PressNSeal wrap

 

Last Taste of Summer: Grilled Peaches with Frozen Vanilla Yogurt and Toasted Coconut

Grilled Peaches with Frozen Vanilla Yogurt and Toasted Coconut

This is the easiest recipe and so yummy that it is hard for me to resist having it one last time before the fall leaves are gone and the grill is shut down for the winter.  The best part of this recipe is that it only takes ten minutes on the grill and about 7 minutes of prep time–not bad for dessert.

First prepare fresh peaches by using vegetable peeler to remove peach skin.  Cut the peaches down the center and around pit, then twist the sides to release the halves and remove pit–very similar to the way you prepare avacodos.

use vegetable peeler to easily remove skins

Place peach halves into a foil tent and sprinkle with brown sugar, dot with butter and add a dash of salt.  Seal the tent so no juices escape.

Use a bowl under the foil to shape tent

Toast coconut on stove top at medium heat until slightly brown.  (This can be toasted in the oven, but I always forget it’s in there and I am less likely to burn it on the stove top where I can eyeball it while doing other things.)

Drunken Corned Beef and Cabbage Recipe

Okay, now that the St.Patrick’s Day festivities are over, it’s time to scoop up on the Mega Sale Corned Beef Brisket in the supermarkets.  Corned Beef and Cabbage is one of my favorite meals.  To me, the world comes down to two kinds of people; there are those who love cabbage and those who wish they did. This recipe is a shout out to those who love firm sour cabbage draped over the salty sensuous rush of corned beef … pssst:  The secret ingredients are one stick of butter and one bottle of dark beer.
Drunken Corned Beef and Cabbage Recipe:
1 white onion sliced
4 stalks of celery intact
1 (3-5lb) Corned Beef Brisket
2 Bottles of Sam Adams Lager or Dark Beer (one for you and one for the roast:)
8 small red potatoes
1 small bag of petite carrots
1 medium head of cabbage
1 stick of butter

Preheat Oven to 450 degrees Farenheit. Yep. That’s hot.
Begin with a dutch oven, place sliced onions and celery at bottom and spread out so corned beef brisket can sit on top of veggies fat side up.

bed of veggies for brisket

Empty seasoning packets and one bottle of dark beer into the dutch oven. Now, we are going to pressure cook this brisket. Place tin foil over roast and concave it down not touching beer or veggies, but close. Seal it around and place dutch oven lid on top. On my dutch oven it takes two sheets to cover the width.

Brisket fat side up

Allow the meat to cook at 450 degrees for 20-30 minutes depending on the size. Then lower the oven temperature to 250 degrees Farenheit for a total of 3 hours. In the last hour of cooking add potatoes and carrots with one stick of butter. Then in the last 30 minutes add salted and peppered cut up cabbage to top of brisket and veggies. (Cabbage will be crisp. If you desire softer cabbage add with other veggies at the final hour mark.)

I like to serve this with corn muffins.  The juices are rich with beer and butter.  The one thing I add to my corned beef is a horseradish sauce.  Don’t ask me exact measurements, but this is how I whip it up…

Sour Cream–about 1 cup—2-3 tsp of horseradish root—5 dashes of worsteshire suace, salt, pepper, a tsp of dijon mustard with a final dash of lemon juice.  I stir this up and refrigerate until dinner.  Sorry I forgot to take the money shot, but it smelled so good I was pleasantly distracted and very satisfied.  ’Tis a good day with Drunken Corned Beef and Cabbage.

Peppermint Twist Cupcakes; My New Favorite

Unique Christmas Treats

I discovered a delicious alternative to the usual holiday fare of fruit cake, cookies and almond dipped everything: Peppermint Twist Cupcakes.  The secret ingredient is Andes Creme De Menthe Baking Chips that are folded into fudge batter, which create cool pockets of tastiness within the chocolate cake.  The peppermint frosting on these cupcakes is so rich and minty, that husbands will do anything, but laundry to get these cupcakes.  Have fun and enjoy, but be warned:  You can’t eat just one….or two.

Cake Recipe

Triple Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix; Follow directions then add:

Add 1 1/2 teaspoon Peppermint Extract

Fold in 1 Cup of Andes Baking Chips into batter

Frosting Recipe

1/2 cup of butter (1 stick)

8oz cream cheese (1 brick)

1 teaspoon Peppermint Extract

3 Cups of Powdered Sugar

Use hand mixer to cream butter and cream cheese.  Add peppermint.  Slowly add powdered sugar until all is incorporated.  Scoop into ziplock bag and cut tip for easy frosting swirls.  Top with red sugar or crushed candy canes.

CSI: Cooking Scene Investigation: How To Recreate Lost Family Recipes

My sister is pregnant and oh, so particular about what she eats.  Use celery salt, and her gag reflex gets jittery.  Deviate from the gumbo recipe a fraction, and well, it’s not you, it’s her taste buds. ( Never mind the 30 minutes you spent nursing the roux.)  But nail the cranberry white chocolate scone recipe, and it’s like watching someone win the Publisher Clearing House Sweepstakes.  It’s just that much fun to watch her eat something she enjoys.  I guess that’s why I bother to continue to endure the grueling task of feeding her finicky cravings—that and I love her. 

Cindy is also a fan of crime dramas, True Television and Nancy Grace.  She and my mother watch an unhealthy diet of these shows.  Much to my amusement they have selected which psychic detective they would use in the tragic chance a family member or they themselves disappeared.  To which I answered, “How many psychic detectives are there?”  Apparently, plenty and I laughed to further discover that my mother was “uneasy about life insurance policies” for her daughters.

This conversation about sleuthing for missing persons came to mind when my sister gave me the news on Friday that my contribution to Sunday dinner would be Grandma Sewell’s Banana Pudding.  “Got that psychic detective handy because I have never made this recipe, nor has anyone written it down.”  It was an impossible assignment—not one a non-pregnant Cindy would have handed out so casually, but I took it like a woman and embraced the challenge.

Now, my grandmother is still alive at 87 years old.  She is practically deaf, blind in one eye, but very much with it.  However, Grandma Sewell cooks without measurements and cannot verbalize the tricks to getting biscuits to rise or why her meringue leaps up at the sky.  She’s been making these recipes for seventy years and its part of her. Asking would make her feel bad because she wouldn’t know how to explain something so simple and putting her into that position would be impolite and downright un-southern.

Once I agreed to the monumental task, I decided to take the approach of a CSI:  Cooking Scene Investigation detective.  First order of business was to interview the witnesses.  I called the usual suspects, both of my sisters  and a cousin to see what they remembered about the taste of the dish. 

Next, I turned to my mother for historical perspective and a few hard facts.  I ran a few recipes by her.  “No” my mother said, “Grandma serves her pudding warm, not cold.”   Yes… I remembered that, it was hot but isn’t pudding thick BECAUSE it goes into the refrigerator?  Hot/cold…what? How could it be confusing to replicate a dish I had eaten my whole life?  This crucial reminder got at the heart of the mystery and narrowed the search for the final recipe.  I eliminated all cold preparation recipes from the pool. 

Naturally, I decided to turn to another Southern cook, Paula Dean, but her recipe called for cold storage and whipped topping.   Next, I scoured the reference for cooking, my beat up stained copy of the “Joy of Cooking.” This recipe offered optional whipped topping or meringue, but it was thickened with cornstarch. 

Grandma did not come from cornstarch stock. We were buttermilk biscuit, sausage-gravy-eating-flour people.  That I knew for sure.  Out of desperation, I looked at the vanilla wafer box recipe and cringed when I saw instant pudding—maybe in polite company that would fly, but my pregnant sister wouldn’t stand for it. 

Finally, I went online and started to Google my way through the various recipes eliminating cold recipes, all cornstarch and anything else that felt European or called for a Yankee pudding pot.  At last, my sleuthing paid off and I stumbled upon a respectable Banana Pudding Recipe.  I tackled the recipe and it was a little more difficult than I anticipated, but the stakes were high and Sunday dinner was but hours away—which left little room for error.

 I hesitated to turn the burner too high for fear of scorching the milk, but was forced to go to medium to get it to boil and thicken.  Then the meringue got a little tempermental because it was a humid day—but adding more sugar made it peak and eventually lick at the ceiling.  Shew.  It looked right, but I forgot to add wafers to the top for garnish…oops.  I packaged the pudding into my carrier and nervously took it to my sister’s house.

Was this indeed the right recipe?  Did it explain the unexplainable?  Did it provide a logical step-by-step account of my grandmother’s actions?  Did it hold up in Cindy’s court of temperamental tastes?  Yes, the recipe was a hit.  Thanks to my CSI:  cooking scene investigation tactics, it is now safely returned to the family and it didn’t take a psychic to do it.

Tips for recreating a lost recipe:

1.  Ask other people what they remember about the look and taste of the dish—even better did they ever see the recipe being made?  Write notes and save for search.
2. Can you identify an era, region or ethnic origin of the dish?
3. Utilize this information to begin searching cookbooks and online. 
4. Search online by using ingredients as key words:  “banana pudding ‘meringue’ recipe” or “old-fashioned banana pudding” or regionally “southern banana pudding recipe.”  I often search for recipes by ingredients and it helps narrow the options quickly.
5. Try to ‘cook’ with the same utensils.  My grandmother never owned a double boiler or a non-stick pan.  She used a wooden spoon and a round deep cookware dish she got at a tag sale.
6. Keep trying recipes until you get it right and then write down and distribute to rest of family.

 

Warm Merignue Topped Banana Pudding

 

Grandma Sewell’s Southern Banana Pudding Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 cups vanilla wafers
• 3 bananas, sliced into 1/4 inch slices
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups milk
• 3 egg yolks
• 2 teaspoons butter
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 egg whites
• 1/4 cup white sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Line the bottom and sides of a 1.5 quart baking dish with a layer of alternating vanilla wafers and banana slices.
3. To Make Pudding: In a medium saucepan, combine 1 1/2 cups sugar with flour. Mix well, then stir in half the milk. Beat egg yolks and whisk into sugar mixture. Add remaining milk and butter or margarine.
4. Place mixture over low heat and cook until thickened, stirring frequently(may have to bump up the heat, but keep stirring and watch it like a hawk.) Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract. Pour half of pudding over vanilla wafer and banana layer while still hot.
5. Make another layer of alternating vanilla wafers and banana slices on top of pudding layer. Pour remaining pudding over second wafer and banana layer.
6. To Make Meringue: Allow eggs to come to room temperature (30 min.)In a large glass or metal bowl, beat egg whites until foamy. Make sure eggs are foamy before adding sugar.  Gradually add 1/4 cup sugar, continuing to beat until whites are stiff. If they don’t stiffen continue adding sugar—up to 1/4 cup per egg white.  Spread meringue over last layer, making sure to completely cover pudding layer.
7. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes, just until meringue is browned.

Ambience

Oh, but of course ambience is a French word.  It makes sense that the culture who taught us how to eat properly added a word to their lexicon to describe the intangible feeling a place gives you —especially while dining. 

I pawed at that word “ambience” this morning when my husband quietly rose to brew coffee and materialized with a tray of French toast, juice, coffee and a splash of peanut butter on the plate.  There we sat in the bed, passing the newspaper back and forth, approving of this and hating that with the dog inches from my plate– full puppy eyes pressed into her paws.

The cool spring unfolded outside and I glanced out the window that cradles the bed trying to catch a glimpse of Mr. Fox who took up residence this winter under our deck.  Yesterday he yawned and curled into a circle in the sun out in the yard and I couldn’t help but think of him under the deck enjoying our morning.  The ambience of breakfast in bed, our smug fox guest, the perfect company of a doting husband and a begging dog made me glad. 

Fox den view from the dog house

Cooking Fine Meals for the Dog

Annabelle Guards the Living Room

Two major events forced me to change my cooking habits last week.  My dog Annabelle was injured chasing deer in the house.   My brother-in-law was diagnosed with high cholesterol.  The vet and the doctor ordered changes in diet immediately.

First, you must understand that Annabelle, our 2-year-old Portuguese Waterdog, is mesmerized by the wall of glass that is the exterior of our living room.  This strategic view allows her to monitor and patrol the tree line every morning when the deer are feeding.  Later in the day, the bunnies pose a grave concern.  And when she is bored, the squirrels are an imminent threat to our freedom-loving way of life. 

That day, in an effort to alert the house, that some slow-chomping omnivores posed an imminent danger, she flew from a sound sleep and charged the glass.  This manuever led to the injury and nausea that landed her squarely in the vet’s office. Dr. Becky x-rayed her, cancelled walks for 10 days and ordered a new diet.  Diet?  Riet?  Off with the peanut butter toast snacks we share, cancel the bowl of kibble in the kitchen and no more steak bits to sneak at the dinner table.  Annabelle was ordered a bland diet of cottage cheese, chicken and rice.   We were both crushed.

Thus, began the week of cooking dinner for the humans at the same time I cooked dinner for our beloved canine.  Bu, oh my–who wants to cook two meals?  That is how I discovered the secret pleasures of ground chicken.  Have you ever seen it in the grocery store next to the tenders, breasts and thighs?  It’s there, but you have to really look for it. When I tasted Annabelle’s first meal, it felt like we humans were missing out…not bad…not bad at all…actually, mmmm very good. 

So, out of this experience came new recipes that were leaner and more in tune with the diet my brother-in-law had been ordered:  Less red meat and high cholesterol foods like butter.  Actually we don’t consume large portions of red meat, but as a family, we do consume about a pound of butter a week.  Shhhh.  That’s just between you and I.  Our secret.  I bake a lot and it’s evenly distributed among us all…not like one person is chowing down a stick of butter…okay, I’ll take it down to half a pound.

During this crisis, I made two meals that were particularly good:  Chicken Enchiladas and Chicken and Wild Rice Soup.  They were wonderful meals.  No one noticed they were healthy and that is how you know it’s good. 

I encourage you to change-up some of your cooking habits and routines by inserting a healthier substitute.  And for the record, I baked some peanut butter cookies last week with Crisco which reduced the cholesterol content by half.  They were good.  Baking without butter isn’t the evil I thought it might be afterall.  Actually, I can report that not one cookie was left behind because it was too kind on the arteries.  (Don’t tell Dr. Becky, but Annabelle agreed that Crisco cookies taste just as good as butter cookies.) 

This time of year do not forget the special loved ones who are on doctor or vet ordered special diets.  Save the really fattening stuff for holiday dinners.  You might even start to like the new cooking routines.  Annabelle wanders over the stove now at dinner and then over to her bowl where she paws at it, as if to say, ‘Where’s the good stuff?’

Make mine a tuna fish sandwich–with a side of attitude

Tuna Fish Sandwich with a Side of Attitude

I work from home.  This presents me with the amazing opportunity to do what I love:  cook.  In between phone calls, studio work and sales calls, I can bake a loaf of chocolate chip banana bread or throw some ribs into the oven to cook until the meat is fleeing the bone.  

This work-from-home situation also allows my husband and brother-in-law to come home for lunch.  Some days are better than others, but they know there is always good coffee and a “side of attitude” being served.  Before you think of me adopting a sassy wise-cracking diner-waitress-persona(and believe me there is plenty of that), I want to introduce and define the “side of attitude” which I consider to be a point of personal pride. 

 A “side of attitude,” is a creative, nourishing, tasty and unexpected side dish.  The first time my brother-in-law saw a prepared lunch of Tuna Fish Salad served with Cottage Cheese and a Grapefruit Half, he smiled and joked, “Excuse me, but I ordered the unhealthy lunch. ” My husband loved the way that lunch looked when they walked in the door.  “Wow.  Honey, this is great.”  It was very diner-like, but so inviting, so simple and if I say so myself, thoughtful. 

A good side dish is thoughtful because that food eventually becomes part of the person who is eating it.  Now, this may seem a bit Polyanna, but I have been accused of that and worse.  In fact, my brother-in-law refers to me as, “Someone who is happy about the world,” where puppies can do no wrong and “ordinary life occasions can become big events.”  A side dish fits into this last observation as something ordinary that can bring a little unexpected happiness to a meal. 

Lunch in particular can be a tricky time.  People seem to slip into a fog when it comes to choosing a companion for their sandwich.  It’s not their fault.  The American pysche has slipped into a dollar-menu mentality when it comes to companion foods.  I am here to tell of a different way of life.  It is a world of foods that are fresh and tasty, quick to prepare and dazzling to the eye.  I am here to proclaim a higher standard for side dishes capable of  nourishing bodies and  being  included in the quick lunches America is forced to consume.

Allow me to further clarify.  French fries are a counterfeit vegetable.  Potato chips are not a side dish.  Lettuce covered in dressing is a cruel mockery to authentic salads every where.  And the rice/baked potato song and dance bores me to tears.  It doesn’t have to be this way.  Take the challenge.  Use more creativity and take some pride in the long-forgotten side dish. 

Try these delicious lunch menus to get you started:  Turkey Sandwich with Mozzarella Cheese, Red Pepper and Pesto Spread with a side of Baked Zucchini Sticks; Grilled Cheese on Texas Toast with Tomato Soup and Seedless Black Grapes; Left over Spaghetti with Apple Slices and Peanut Butter.  It’s easy if you think fresh and fast.  Add a side of broccoli, cashews, carrot and celery sticks, an orange, yogurt and the list goes on…

This Week in the Kitchen Spa…

Creating and planning meals in my kitchen is a spa-like experience.  Last year, my husband modernized the tiny kitchen in our 1940s bungalow.  He and his brothers stained every piece of wood, pushed the dolly with the new fridge into place and installed the gigantic stainless steel farm sink I insisted upon (because it’s big enough to give the dog a bath.)  There is so much of my husband’s labor in the kitchen that I feel like I’m working within the space of a giant hug. 

The kitchen walls are painted a quiet yellow cream.  Tortoise brown tiles with shades of grey, hints of silver and rare bursts of blue shield the walls from spaghetti sauce and flying cake batter.  I have great lighting (my brother-in-law says, “enough to conduct alien autopsies”) and a view of the squirrels who scavenge in the front yard and make strange click-cluck sounds I recently took the time to notice.  A satellite radio is perched next to my gas range and always set for the 1940s channel.  The quiet upbeat croon of Sinatra or the Ink Spots matches the kitchen-spa mood and I love the WWII news updates rebroadcast in-between songs.  This is when I let the day go and focus only on creating food that will be a joy to share with my small family consisting of husband, bachelor brother-in-law, dog and often my sister’s family of four.  I just relax and unload my shopping bags or raid the cupboards for what is on hand. 

This week in the kitchen spa I rediscovered the Brown Betty when I made a last minute dessert to follow the shrimp, asparagus and lemon risotto meal I prepared.  Can you really make risotto without coffee and dessert to follow?  It’s like trying to listen to an orchestra without the string section–too vulgar to consider. 

I had little available for a  dessert in the cupboard.  However, I did have 4 pink lady apples sitting in my fruit bowl (intended for oatmeal addiction) and a new box of graham crackers (for making smores with the nephews.)  Without enough time to make a pie crust or enough apples for a crisp, there was one beautiful answer:  Apple Brown Betty. 

The Brown Betty is technically a baked pudding dessert made with spiced fruit and buttered crumbs.  Personally, I think the apple recipes are more like pies without crusts.  This dessert was first created by American Colonists who lacked the sophisticated cooking utensils to make the English pudding recipes they craved and missed.  Adapt, overcome, create and enjoy–now the Betty is truly a product of America.  And the great thing about the Brown Betty is that it can be made with apples, bananas or other commonly available fruits.  In fact, if the colonists can make the Brown Betty without electricity or running water, it’s a sure bet that you can whip up a fantastic unplanned dessert in no time (Apple Brown Betty Recipe found at bottom of text.)

Good cooks will tell you that the best recipes often begin with limited ingredients.  Happy cooks might also explain how the kitchen is not just a landscape of labor, but an environment ripe for creativity and fun. After all, isn’t anything worthwhile work?   I urge you to make your kitchen a spa experience by kicking everyone out, creating an atmosphere that is designed to accomodate you and focusing on both your literal and metaphorical tastes.  Paint the walls, play music, buy a new rug or add a soft chair for staring out the window and incorporate a little more of yourself into a room where you spend too much time to feel unsatisfied. 

 

Excellent table presentation

 

Apple Brown Betty:

4 pink lady apples (or other tart variety)

1 1/2 packages of graham crackers crushed into crumbs, approximately 2 cups, (or 2 cups unseasoned bread crumbs)

1 1/2 sticks of butter

1 1/4 cup packed brown sugar

cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves to taste; dash of salt

3 tablespoons of lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 F. Whisk sugar and spices together in a bowl.  In a separate bowl, mix graham crackers with melted butter.  Use a third of the cracker/butter mixture to spread on the bottom of a unbuttered 9-inch pie pan.  Arrange half of  the sliced apples around the pan and sprinkle with half of the sugar/spice mixture.  Then distribute half of the lemon juice over the sugar.  This is the first layer.  The second layer is a repeat of the first–spread 1/3 cracker/butter mixture, layer apples, sprinkle sugar/spice and distribute lemon over sugar.  Finally, sprinkle the last third of the cracker/butter mixture over the top and cover with foil.  Take foil off after 35 min and turn oven up to 400 F to brown for last 10 or 15 minutes.  Serve with vanilla yogurt or ice cream.

Apple Brown Betty with Frozen Vanilla Yogurt

Suffering and Raspberry Pie

“Raspberry pie.  Mmmmm. This is why we suffer.”  My husband smiled in agreement and offered no sound, but for the ping of a fork deliberately released, quiet chewing and the delicate sound of savoring as his tongue pressed the roof of his mouth and coaxed the tastes to linger a little longer.  Luscious berries, buttery crust and the crescendos of tart and sour are a symphony of textures and tastes beyond compare. 

Although I detest self-disclosure or public confessional, the contrast of suffering and a perfect raspberry pie speaks to the power of this simple and elegant dessert.  I live in Northern Minnesota, where snow is harvested by the feet, cold is measured below zero and times occur when warmth cannot be obtained, even indoors.  Summer comes in July and leaves at the beginning of September before giving way to a rainy cold fall.  This leaves just enough time to get everything repaired and secured for the next winter. ‘Why do we continue to live here?’  This is a conversation I’ve had countless times with perfect strangers huddled under four layers of clothing, teeth chattering. So began the list of ’Why we suffer.’

This part of the country offers some spectacular treats for those willing to endure the brutal extremes of the environment.  The Northern lights, deer and fawn grazing the back yard almost daily, bunnies too numerous to name, yesterday a black bear perched at the top of a tree and the occasional fiesty racoon are part of our urban family and on the list of  good reasons for ‘why we suffer.’    Nothing, but nothing beats the raspberries, blueberries, blackberries and rhubarb that grow in this region.  They are the unexpected gifts that gently persuade the people to inhabit this unconquered real estate. So out of this bountiful gift was born an elegant dessert– Raspberry Pie.

The simplicity of the ingredients calls out to the least experienced cook:  raspberries, brown sugar, corn starch, lemon peel–add crust.  Sigh.  The truth is that you don’t have to be a suffering Minnesotan to make such a culinary delight.  Thanks to the interstate trucking system and Pillsbury pie crust, you don’t even have to travel, learn to make grandma’s crust or become a food snob to enjoy.  This is the recipe: 

2 1/2 cups raspberries

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp cornstarch

lemon zest

 2 Tbs butter

1 egg white mixed with 1 tsp water

Toss berries, sugar, cornstarch, a dash of salt and lemon zest  in a bowl.  Prepare crust according to package directions or use grandma’s crust recipe.  When the bottom crust is in place, brush with egg white, then pour fruit mixture into the crust. Cut butter into small squares and place all over the top of the pie before adding the top crust.  I prefer a lattice pie design for my raspberry pies.  Tip: Begin the lattice design with a giant x in the middle and it goes much smoother.  Usually, I take a little extra pie crust and cut out a heart for the top of the pie.  After all, love is the secret ingredient.

As you are scrambling to take advantage of the last fresh fruits and vegetables of the season, don’t forget to include plans to bake a fresh Raspberry Pie.  There is no excuse–even if you are not a foodie.  For me, these last freshly baked raspberry pies are a necessity–my early reward for suffering yet another cold Minnesotan winter.