Pumpkin pie with oat crust

I've been debating even posting this recipe because it just wasn't my favorite, but it has grown on me over the 3 days it has been here, and I finished off the entire last piece for breakfast, so it earned postability with that.  The recipe comes from my King Arthur flour book, and since it is a whole grain book, you can bet it uses some whole grain in the crust.  It has barely any wheat, mostly oats, so I really thought it would be very tasty, but I didn't care for it day 1.  Not sure why.  I wasn't a fan of the oaty or wheaty taste in the crust.  I also wasn't a fan of the pumpkiny flavor of the pie.  I know, I know, it is pumpkin pie for Pete's sake what am I saying it was too pumpkiny.  I think that it tasted more like I was eating a squash and less like I was eating a pie, but I can't say it was because it wasn't sweet enough, because it was actually a bit too sweet that first day.  All I can say is that it improved with age, so I would say if making this again, definitely make it the day before, or 2 days before Thanksgiving.  It was definitely much better day 2, and even better today - lost the oaty or wheaty flavor, and somehow the pumpkin blended better with the other ingredients and didn't stick out as badly day 2 or 3, plus the spices and sweetness were better.   Day 1 I would have rated it about 2 or 2.5, Day 2 3-3.5, and today 4 stars.
Other Warnings - the crust was to be refrigerated overnight - didn't plan for that.  After refrigeration, it needs to come warm up for 15 minutes - didn't plan on that either.  (I ought to learn to read ahead better.)  Also, the recipe called for too much milk in the crust, but I have amended that in my version.  I also think I may try it with less ginger and nutmeg and a bit more cinnamon next time (although that was a dislike of the first day and not so much the second or third day, so if made early, the current spice blend may be just fine.)  Final warning is that this took longer to cook than it said.  DH took it out thinking it was done, but it was a bit too soft for me.  I put it back in for another 10 minutes and covered it with foil.  That did the trick.  It still wasn't super set, that happened as it cooled.

The crust
Ingredients

• 2/3 cup (2 1/4 oz.) rolled oats, ground for 30 seconds in a food processor (I actually did this, this time, last time I just made and used that amount of oat flour by weight.  I would probably use oat flour for a crust in the future.  It is smoother and I think better for a crust.)
• 1/3 cup (1 1/4 oz.) whole wheat flour
• 1/3 cup (1 3/8 oz.) unbleached all purpose flour
• 2 Tablespoons (1 oz.) packed brown sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon 
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 Tablespoons cold unsalted butter
• 1 to 3 Tablespoons cold milk or half and half.  (we started with 3 - minimum recommendation in the book - it was way too much.  I was wiping milk off and adding flour.)

Directions

1. Whisk oats, flours, sugar, cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl.  Cut the butter into cubes and work into dry ingredients using fingers or a pastry blender until evenly crumbly.  Gradually add the milk until the dough is cohesive.  (holds together and doesn't seem dry and crumbly.)
2. Shape dough into a disk 1 inch thick.  Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or for up to 3 days.
3. About 30 minutes before ready to assemble the pie, take the dough out of the refrigerator.  Allow it to warm until flexible (15-30 minutes.)
4. Preheat oven to 425
5. On a floured surface, roll dough into a 12 inch circle.  Transfer to a 9" pie plate that is at least 1 1/4 inch deep (but not deep dish.)  Place crust in fridge while preparing filling.

The filling

Ingredients

• 1 can (15 oz.) canned pumpkin 
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup half-and half
• 3/4 cup honey (I actually used 1/2 cup honey and 1/4 cup agave but just because I was using some very dark honey.)
• 1 Tablespoon butter, melted 
• 1 teaspoon cinnamin
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions.

1. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl until smooth.
2. Pour into prepared crust.  Cover with a crust shield (1st time I got to use mine - loved it.) or foil  Place pie on the bottom rack of oven and bake for 15 minutes (I was lazy and didn't do this - I didn't want to have to move it later - maybe that is why it wasn't ready at the time it was supposed to be.)  
3. After the 15 minutes, reduce oven temperature to 350 and move the pie to the middle rack.  Bake until the temperature at the center is at least 170 (mine was when I thought it was too runny.)  and a knif inserted 1 inch from the edge comes our moist but clean (it didn't pass this test at 170.)  35 minutes.  (I had to leave mine longer, but because it came out and back in, I can't give an accurate time for me.  Just expect it to take a bit longer.)
4. Remove pie and cool to room temperature before serving.

Apple pie

I spent much time debating pies this thanksgiving and finally ended up going very traditional.  I also debated a lot which pie crust and which apple pie recipe to use.  My debate was between this on which I found on recipe shoebox and another which I found on everyday food storage.  I still want to try the one on everyday foodstorage, but not for a couple of days.  I need a cooking break for a bit.  :)  Not to mention a couple of days to clean up and blog.  And then there is Christmas to decorate for.

Soo, pies.  I was actually a bit disappointed in the pies.  This apple was definitely my favorite of the 2.  It did have a good flavor, and the crust was decent.  It was flaky.  It was also probably one of the prettiest pies I've ever made,  but it was super juicy on the inside to the point of juicy puddles.  I let it cool like the directions said and we ate it the next day.  It was better when I reheated it.  Definitely suggest that (of course, DH never reheated his and liked it just fine.)  The second half of the pie didn't seem to have the juicy puddle problem either, so go figure on that one.  Maybe it was sitting yet another day.  I love this second picture.  Shows the flaky crust, the cinnamon all stuck to the top, and the pool of juice I was talking about.
If making this pie again, I would definitely mix the sugar, spice and apples together then put them all in the pie.  I didn't like tossing all of the cinnamon/spice on top.  It seemed to just stick to the apples on top.  I did forget to add the butter.  I realized it after I had the top on and crimped.  So not worth trying to get it in there.  It was only 1 Tablespoon.  Anyway, I don't think that would have had any difference in the cinnamon and spices dispersing through the pie.

The crust (according the recipe shoebox it is the Maryland State Fair winner from 1979.)
Ingredients

• 1 cup crisco (I used butter flavored)
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg + enough ice water to make 1/2 cup liquid

Directions:

1. Cut shortening into flour and salt until pea size.  
2. Put egg in 1/2 cup measuring cup and add ice water to the top.  Make a slight well in the flour/salt/shortening mixture.  Add the egg/ice and stir with a fork until barely clinging together.  Knead with hands for 15-20 seconds just until it sticks together. 
3. Divide dough in 1/2.  Roll out half of the dough on a well floured surface (preferably some type of pie mat or plastic wrap to make it easy to transfer to the pan.  Flip over the pie mat or plastic wrap and center the crust over  the bottom of the pie tin.  Press in place.   Roll out the other 1/2 of the dough and set aside.

Apple pie

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups sugar, divided
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• salt
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 6-7 Granny Smith apples, peeled and chopped.  
• 1 Tablespoon butter

Directions

1. Combine 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 cup flour, and a pinch of salt in a small bowl.  Sprinkle over the bottom of the uncooked pie crust.  
2. Fill crust with 1/2 of the apples.  Sprinkle on another 1/2 cup sugar, then add the rest of the applse so they mound an inch and a half over the edge.  Combine remaining sugar (1/2 cup) with a pinch of salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger in a small bowl.  Pour evenly over the top of the apples. Cut butter up into small cubes and place evenly over the top of the apples and spices.  (Next time I'd just combine this whole step - mix all of the apples with all the rest of the sugar (1 cup) and spices and pour it all in the pie.  I'd still put the flour mix on the bottom though.)
3. Place the top crust over the apples.  Pinch top and bottom layers together, trim, and crimp or form as desired.  (She did this cute thing where she cut out left overs of the crust and put them on top to be decorative.  I was actually very proud of myself for making a leaf - I had no fall cookie cutters so I took a round metal biscuit cutter and squished it to a leaf shape.  Worked perfectly.)
4. Brush crust lightly with milk.  Sprinkle with 1 Tablespoon of sugar. Poke or cut holes for the steam to escape.  
5. Bake at 425 for 10 minutes then reduce heat to 375 and bake for 45 minutes more.  Watch pie carefully the last 20 minutes and tent with foil if necessary to avoid over browning.  Remove and let cool completely.

Cheddar mashed potatoes

I saw this in my Taste of home healthy cooking magazine a month or month and a half ago and have been waiting to try it.  It seemed very interesting to me because it used a bunch of regular potatoes and 1 sweet potato, and also looked like it had some tasty spices.  It did not disappoint.  Really we were lucky this year.  Everything turned out so well.  Very good food for all of Thanksgiving. I made a couple of changes - I'll mention them in the recipe though.  I thought I had taken a picture of the potatoes, but I guess not.  This is the best I could do.  A picture them on the plate with the rest of the Thanksgiving dinner.

Ingredients

• 3 3/4 lbs. Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cubed (I just used russet.  It is what I had.)
• 1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed
• 6 garlic cloves, halved
• 1 cup (8 oz.) reduced-fat sour cream 
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided

Directions

1. Place potatoes and garlic in a large saucepan and cover with water.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat; cover and cook for 10-15 minutes or until potatoes are tender.  Drain.
2. In a large bowl (I threw them in my mixer) mash potatoes.  Stir in the sour cream, thyme, salt, pepper and 1 cup cheese.  Transfer to a 9 X 13 pan coated with cooking spray.  
3. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.  Bake, uncovered at 350 for 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Apple sausage stuffing {slow cooker}

Finished eating round 1 of Thanksgiving so I guess I need to start blogging the recipes or I'll be sure to get plenty behind.  Some of the things we made were tried and true.  I made some green beans (although I didn't steam them quite long enough and I thought I'd be lazy and melt the butter in the microwave and add the beans and stir - they didn't get coated nearly as well.  Not such a good idea.)  I also made my mom's rolls.  Sooo good. My kids call them Grandma's rolls.  Yum!  Made a double batch last night and made 1/2 into cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  1/2 for rolls for lunch.
This is the first recipe I clicked on, so it gets to be the first one blogged about.  I found this at crockpot 365.  It was surprisingly good.  We made it a bit more time consuming than necessary because we made bread for it yesterday, then homemade sausage today, but normally it wouldn't take quite that much time.  Definitely worth the effort, and not as time consuming as another stuffing recipe I have.  I like that it used regular bread. I also loved the flavor of the sausage and the apple.  They really complimented each other well.  I worried it would be soggy because Brandon decided to broil the bread rather than follow directions and he didn't turn them, but it turned out just fine.

Ingredients

• 12 cups  bread cubes (I used homemade wheat bread this recipe today)
• 8 oz. ground pork sausage (we used a homemade breakfast sausage recipe)
• 3 Tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 1/2 cups chopped Granny smith apples
• 1 1/2 cups chopped onion
• 1 1/2 cups chopped celery
• 1 1/2 teaspoons rubbed sage
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 cup chicken stock, plus and additional 1/4 cup if desired (we did not use the extra 1/4 cup.  Those wanting more liquid added gravy.)

Directions

1. Use a 6 quart slow cooker (or larger if you have one - this barely fit in my 6 quart.)  Cut the bread into 1/2 inch cubes and bake it at 350 for 20 minutes, flipping once, or until bread is golden brown and toasted.  (Alternately DH Broiled it on high for 10 minutes and didn't flip it.  But he did have it on a middle rack.)
2. While bread is toasting, brown the sausage and drain.  Toss the bread cubes and sausage together in the slow cooker and pour in melted butter.
3. Add apples, vegetables and seasonings.  Stir to mix well.  Pour in 1/2 cup chicken stock and stir gently to coat bread and veggies with broth.  
4. Cover and cook on high for 2 to 3 hours.  Done when bread is browned on the top and edges, and the vegetables are tender.
5. Stir well and keep on warm until ready to serve.  Add additional 1/4 cup chicken stock before serving and stir again if desired.

So, this post gets my Thanksgiving timing rundown for the year.  Just in case I'm wondering what I did next year.  Was going to add a recipe, but this post is getting very long, so I have decided not to.

Wednesday -

• Made 4 loaves of bread -for stuffing and just to have. (do this Monday or Tuesday next year) 
• Made 2 batches of rolls - one for cinnamon rolls and 1 for rolls
• I froze the rolls - they rose in 2.5-3 hours not 4-6 from frozen.
• I refrigerated the cinnamon rolls hoping they'd do a slow enough rise in the fridge to be ready in the morning.  They still needed to rise for about 45 min - 1 hour this morning.
• Made Cranberry salad - started in afternoon - Use the 10 or 12 oz - whatever the smaller bag is of marshmallows.  I used the 16 oz. this time, and it wasn't as juicy. 
• Made Apple pie
• Made pumpkin pie crust - wanted to do the whole pie but didn't read ahead to see that I needed to refrigerate the crust.
• Made the brine for the turkey and got it in the brine - also didn't read ahead to see that I should have done that a lot earlier and put it in the fridge (although I'm not sure where I would have stored it any earlier.)  I ended up making the brine - way too late, then adding a bit of ice to cool it, then  putting it in 2 containers in the freezer to get it very cool.  Then adding ice to make 2 gallons of liquid.  It worked fine, but I definitely should have started that earlier in the day.  Didn't get to bed until 12:30 last night.
• Boiled eggs for Deviled eggs
• Diced onions for various dishes tomorrow
• combined sausage spices

Thanksgiving day

• Baked the cinnamon rolls
• Baked the turkey
• Made the stuffing - 
• made the sausage - spices were put together last night, but pork was ground and combined this morning.
• cut and toasted the bread
• Stuffing into the slow cooker
• Baked the rolls
• Made the pumpkin pie
• Made the mashed potatoes
• Made the green beans
• Made the gravy
• Made the deviled eggs
• Will still put together a veggie tray.

The menu

Breakfast

• cinnamon rolls
• milk

Lunch

• Turkey
• Gravy
• Mashed potatoes
• Stuffing
• Cranberry Salad
• Green beans
• Rolls

Dinner

• Chips with sour cream and onion dip
• Deviled eggs
• Veggie tray
• baby carrots
• celery
• olives
• Pies - Apple and Pumpkin 
• Left over lunch for anyone desiring more turkey, stuffing, potatoes etc.

Sausage, apple and cranberry stuffing

This is the stuffing we made for thanksgiving. I got the recipe from allrecipes.com. We omitted the liver. We also didn't cook it in a bird because we had our bird on Friday and Ham on Thanksgiving so it ended up a little bit dry. It was actually better the second day. It was delicious. If we make this again though, I would add a bit more liquid to make up for not cooking it in the bird.


Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups cubed whole wheat bread
• 3 3/4 cups cubed white bread
• 1 pound ground turkey sausage
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 3/4 cup chopped celery
• 2 1/2 teaspoons dried sage
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried rosemary
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 Golden Delicious apple, cored and chopped
• 3/4 cup dried cranberries
• 1/3 cup minced fresh parsley
• 3/4 cup turkey stock
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degree F (175 degree C). Spread the white and whole wheat bread cubes in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Bake for 5 to 7 minutes in the preheated oven, or until evenly toasted. Transfer toasted bread cubes to a large bowl.
2. In a large skillet, cook the sausage and onions over medium heat, stirring and breaking up the lumps until evenly browned. Add the celery, sage, rosemary, and thyme; cook, stirring, for 2 minutes to blend flavors.
3. Pour sausage mixture over bread in bowl. Mix in chopped apples, dried cranberries, and parsley. Drizzle with turkey stock and melted butter, and mix lightly. Spoon into turkey to loosely fill. (We baked it at 350 in a 9X13 pan)
   

Sweet potato pie

First time I've ever made sweet potato pie and it was really good. Makes me want to make it again. You can see in my picture that I didn't take the foil off my pie before putting on the marshmallows (in fact I didn't even write it in the instructions.) My crust was already starting to brown too much. I think for next time I would cover the crust for the first 30 minutes, then take off the cover when adding the marshmallows to avoid the sticking problem I had.  This is from my whole grain cooking book - hence the barley and wheat flour crust.  Feel free to use your own recipe crust, but this was good.



Crust ingredients:

• 2/3 cup (2 3/4 oz) whole barley flour
• 1/3 cup (1 1/4 oz) whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 Tablespoon buttermilk powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 Tablespoons cold unsalted butter
• 4 to 5 Tablespoons cold orange juice. (3 were actually too many for me.)

Filling ingredients:

• 2 medium sweet potatoes or yams (1 lb) peeled and cut into chunks.
• 1/4 cup cranberry or apple juice
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup half and half
  
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
  
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 1/2 cup dried sweetened pineapple chunks
• 1/2 cup crystallized ginger

Topping

• 2 cups miniature marshmallows

Garnish

• 1 cup pecan halves
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• scant 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Crust
Whisk together the flours, buttermilk powder, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Cut butter into small cubes and work into dry ingredients. Sprinkle in orange juice a tablespoon at a time continuing to mix until dough is cohesive. (I started with 3 Tablespoons and it was too much. I had to add more flour.)
Shape dough into a disk. Roll on its edge along a floured work surface to smooth the edges out. Pat the disk till it's about 1 inch thick, wrap in plastic and refgrigerate overnight or for up to 3 days.
30 min before assembling the pie, remove the dough from the fridge. Allow it to warm a bit and get flexible, 15 to 20 min.
Flour your work surface and roll the dough into a 12 inch circle. Transfer the dough to a 9 inch pie pan that is at least 1 1/4 inches deep. Trim and crimp the edges making a tall crimp. Place the crust in teh fridge to chill while preparing the filling.
Preheat oven to 425
Filling:
Cook the sweet potatoes by placing them in a microwave safe dish. Drizzle with juice, cover and cook 12 to 14 minutes - till soft. Mash the sweet potatoes. You should have 1 1/4 cups (11 oz) I think I had a bit more than that. I put them in the food processor then added the sugar, half and half, vanilla, cinnamon, salt and allspice. Then I added the eggs.

Chop the dried pineapple and crystallized ginger into fine pieces; spread on the bottom of the cruet then pour filling over it. (I couldn't find crystallized ginger. I tried to chop the dried pineapple in the food processor, but it made a sticky mess. did sprinkle a bit of ginger on the pineapple. It wouldn't chop. I ended up rolling it out with my rolling pin - which was still sticky, but that at least made a sheet which I put on the bottom of my pie crust. Not sure flavor wise if it was worth the effort or not. It didn't take away from the pie, but I'm not sure it added enough to make it worth the effort.

Bake the pie for 15 minutes, reduce the oven temp to 350, cover the edge of the crust with a pie shield or foil and bake for another 15 minutes. Remove pie, sprinkle with marshmellows. Return pie to oven and bake until a knife inserted 1 inch from teh edge comes out clean, 20 minutes or more. Remove from oven and place on a rack.

While pie is cooking, make garnish.

Garnish
Place the pecan halves, sugar and salt in a large frying pan. Cook mix over medium heat stirring frequently, until sugar melts and caramelizes the pecans. Once the sugar melts and turns golden brown, remove from heat, continue to stir until the nuts are thoroughly coated with the sugar. (should take 6 to 8 minutes) Transfer the nuts to a piece of parchment or foil to cool. (This didn't work super well for me either. The sugar seemed to stick to the nuts in crystals rather than making a syrup. I've done this before, but can't remember what I did. I think I would probably start the sugar out alone in the pan and then add the nuts later. My other thought was that maybe my frying pan was too big.)

Arrange caramelized pecans on pie. The pie is best served 30 minutes to 1 hour after baking, but believe me, it was still good the next day. I didn't taste the wheat in the crust the first day. The second time I ate it I thought it tasted a bit wheaty, but the third time it tasted fine.

Cherry pie

My 2 thanksgiving pies came from the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking book. It is a book I checked out of the library, tried a few recipes from, and liked so I bought it. It uses different whole grains. I chose my pies because they used barley - I really wanted to try a barley pie crust and the other one used oats. Both turned out pretty well. I have had trouble in the past with pie crust, but these 2 were both good. They also both rolled out nicely.
Here is the recipe for the cherry pie. It used oat flour. I weighted out the amount I needed in oat groats and ground that in my mill rather than grinding the oats in a food processor.



Crust Ingredients

• 2/3 cup (2 1/4 oz.) rolled oats
• 3/4 cup (3 1/8 oz.) unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon buttermilk powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/2 cup cold unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon white or cider vinegar
• 4 to 6 Tablespoons ice water -I only used 3 and it was too much.

Filling Ingredients

• 5 to 6 cups pitted sour cherries -I only had black cherries mine were frozen
  
• 3/4 cups sugar (I should have reduced this with the sweeter cherries)
  
• 1/4 quick cooking tapioca
• 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter

Topping Ingredients

• 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour (I didn't want to regrind finer flour, and I didn't feel like making the topping whole wheat, so I used 1/4 cup wheat and 1/2 cups unbleached AP flour.
• 2/3 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/2 cup cold unsalted butter cut into small cubes

Toss the frozen cherries with the sugar in a large bowl. Allow to thaw at room temperature; this takes several hours, so start early. Stir occasionally.

Crust: Grind the oats in a food processor for about 30 seconds. In a medium bowl whisk the oats, flour, buttermilk powder, baking powder, and salt. Add the almond extract. Cut the butter into small cubes and work into the dry ingredients. I like to use my fingers for this. Sprinkle in the vinegar -ONLY a TEASPOON (I mistakenly put in a Tablespoon to the first batch and had to throw it away.) Then add the water a tablespoon at a time, continuing to mix until the dough is cohesive. (I suggest actually doing it a Tablespoon at a time. I added 3 Tablespoons thinking if I stayed under the recommended amount I'd be fine. It was way too watery and I had to add extra flour.)
Shape the dough into a disk. Roll on its edge along a floured work surface to smooth the edges out. Pat the disk till it's about 1 inch thick, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 3 days.
About 30 min before you're ready to make the pie, take the dough out of the fridge. Allow it to warm a bit and become flexible, 15 to 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 425

Flour your work surface and roll the dough into a 12 inch circle. (I have a nifty little tupperware rolling sheet that has circle sizes printed on it - so nice. Transfer the dough to a 9 inch pie pan that's at least 1 1/4 inches deep. Trim and crimp the edges. place the crust in the frige to chill while preparing the filling.

Cherries: By the time they thaw, there should be between 1/2 and 2/3 cup juice in the bottom of the bowl. Do not drain. Add water if necessary to total between 1/2 and 2/3 cup.
Combine the tapioca and the cinnamon. Sir into cherries until everything is evenly combined. Stir in the almond extract and salt. Reserve the butter. Set the filling aside for 20 minutes giving the tapioca time to start working.

While waiting, prepare the topping by stirring together the flour, oats, brown sugar, baking powder and salt. Add almond extract. Work the cubed butter into the dry ingredients until crumbly.

Spoon the filling into the piecrust, and dot with the reserved 2 Tablespoons butter. Spread the topping over the filling.

Bake 40 to 45 minutes -until crust and topping are golden brown and fruit is bubbling. Add a crust shield (buying one of these. foil is so annoying) or pieces of foil around edges of the crust after 20 minutes if it appears to be browning too quickly. Remove pie from oven and cool for at least 1 hour before slicing so the filling can set up.

This was delicious. It was a little on the sweet side becasue I didn't use sour cherries, but it was still plenty tasty. You just had to eat a smaller slice. The crust turned out great.

Cranberry Salad

This recipe today is the reason I started this blog the other day. I knew I had it because I turned it in for a RS cookbook they are doing for our meeting tonight. Then I was supposed to make it for the meeting today. Do you think I could find the recipe? Of course not. Who knows what I did with it after I typed it up. I know it is my mom's recipe. It is one of the few things we make each holiday season using the same recipe. Most of the other things we make change each year because we like to try lots of stuff out at our house.


You must START EARLY on this recipe. The night before is ideal, but at the latest in the morning.

Ingredients

• 1 20 oz. can of crushed pineapple and juice
• 1 bag miniature marshmallows
• 1 1 lb bag cranberries
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 16 oz. container of cool whip

Directions

Combine the pineapple and the marshmallows in a large bowl. Grind the cranberries in food processor and add the sugar. Put in another container. Cover and refrigerate both mixes overnight or at least 4 hours.

Combine pineapple mixture and cranberry mixture. Fold in cool whip. (You can use less cool whip if you want it more tart or so says my mom's recipe. I've never had it like that.)

Top with chopped pecans if desired. Cover and freeze.

Take out about 30 minutes before serving to allow to partially defrost.

11/20/2017 - still making this each Thanksgiving but I'm way more health conscious than I used to be and I can't bring myself to buy cool whip.  Have you read those ingredients?  I do try to feed my family real food.  This is still loaded with sugar to be sure, but now we use actual whipping cream in place of the cool whip.  Just whip to stiff peaks with a bit of sugar and fold in like cool whip.