Judy's Chocolate Cream Pie

This is the chocolate cream pie that Steve grew up on, and he absolutely LOVES chocolate cream pie. He'll take that over a birthday cake any day. I don't have a picture for it yet, but hopefully I will after this evening...

Filling:
3/4 cup sugar
6 Tbsp cornstarch
3 Tbsp cocoa powder
3 cups milk
3 egg yolks
1 tsp almond extract

Mix together dry ingredients in a medium sauce pan and whisk in milk and egg yolks. Cook over medium heat stirring frequently until it thickens. Remove from heat and add almond extract. Pour into cooked and cooled pie shell.

Merengue:
3 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp vanilla
6 Tbsp sugar

Beat the whites until they are frothy and then add the other ingredients. Continue beating until stiff snowy peaks form. Top pie with merengue and then, if desired, lightly toast the peaks of the merengue under a broiler (or a kitchen blow-torch, if you're that fancy :) for just a few seconds. Refrigerate pie until ready to use, but keep in mind that merengue will begin 'weeping' within about 24 hours.

Cinnamon Pull-Aparts

This one is DEFINITELY part of the Hall of Traditions!! It is a concrete part of Christmas, to say the least, and we do it periodically at other points during the year as well. This is something that comes from Steve's family, and is much-anticipated thing for our kids now. I will be posting this in two parts: the original recipe from Steve's mom and our modifications.

Judy's recipe:
1 bag of Rhode's frozen rolls
1-2 cubes butter, melted
2 cups sugar mixed with cinnamon to taste
While still frozen, coat rolls in melted butter and then in cinnamon-sugar mixture. Place in a buttered bunt pan or angel food cake pan that doesn't have the removable bottom. Layer the rolls up inside the pan until it's about half full. Allow to sit until doubled in size; usually overnight, because of the rolls being frozen. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. After letting sit for several minutes, turn contents of pan out onto a large plate (hold plate on top of pan and flip quickly and carefully); serve immediately while still hot!
My recipe: (uses a feather roll recipe out of one of Mom's cookbooks, the name of which I have forgotten)
9-10 cups flour
2-3 Tbsp yeast
3 cups warm water
2/3 cup oil
1/2 cup honey or sugar
1/2 cup powedered milk (optional)
4 large eggs
4 tsp salt
Dipping and Rolling:
1-2 cubes butter, melted
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
cinnamon to taste
Mix 5 cups of the flour with the dry milk and the yeast. Mix in the water, oil, and honey; let sit for 10 minutes. Mix in the eggs and the salt. Add the flour one cup at a time until the dough cleans the sides of the bowl and then knead for 5-6 minutes.
This is a highly versatile dough and can be used for everything from pizza crusts, to dinner rolls, to cinnamon rolls; you name it. For the purposes of this recipe, we will be shaping 1" balls out of the dough. Mix the brown and white sugars with the cinnamon. Dip the balls of dough in the butter and then roll in the cinnamon-sugar mixture before placing in the pan, as stated above. Layer the rolls up inside the pan until it's about half full. Allow to sit until doubled in size. Bake at 350 degrees for about 25-30 minutes. After letting sit for several minutes, turn contents of pan out onto a large plate (hold plate on top of pan and flip quickly and carefully); serve immediately while still hot!
Note: the cooking times are different on the two recipes for a reason. Steve's family prefers a slightly doughy center on their pull-aparts, while I prefer my rolls cooked all the way through. Obviously, you can do the Rhode's rolls with a longer cooking time to get an easy pull-apart with fully cooked rolls; I just separated them that way because that's the way the two different households make them :)

Peanut Butter Balls

Steve's mom makes these for him at Christmas time every year, and he would be quite thrilled if I made them a few times through the year. They are a prime example of the fact that he enjoys almost anything that combines peanut butter and chocolate. For most things I will go cheap on quite a few ingredients, but I wouldn't reccomend it on this one since the quality of the peanut butter and the Rice Krispies actually make a difference in how well the recipe works; I've tried. Also be aware that room temperature is bad for this recipe, since a room temperature dough will lend moisture to your Rice Krispies, depriving them of their crisp.

1 cube margarine, softened
1 cup peanut butter, Jif
2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup Rice Krispies
1 - 12 oz pkg chocolate chips
1-2 tbsp parafin (you will find it in the canning area of your grocery store)
toothpicks (square is better than round)

Cream margarine and peanut butter. Add powdered sugar and carefully mix in Rice Krispies. Chill immediately in the fridge for 4 hours. Roll into 1/2 - 1" balls, but be careful not to crush the Rice Krispies. Freeze overnight. This is the part where the kids can have fun helping now, so melt your chocolate and paraffin together in a double boiler (or in a metal bowl set on top of a pan of water), being careful not to burn your chocolate. Stab frozen peanut butter balls with toothpicks and dip in melted chocolate. Place on waxed paper on a baking sheet. We usually use 4-6 toothpicks and rotate them as the chocolate cools, since they don't pull cleanly right away and we don't want to use the entire box :) As soon as all the balls have been dipped, place entire baking sheet in the freezer and leave over night. Yeah! You're done. We store ours in a ziploc bag, and they will keep for months.

Taco Dip

Meet another member of the Hall of Traditions. We only make this about once or twice a year, usually at Christmas, but it is one of Steve's absolute favorite appetizers. It makes enough to fill a crock pot so we typically end up snacking on it for several days afterwards. And they don't come much easier than this :)

2 lbs hamburger
2 cans green chiles
2 cans pinto or kidney beans
1 jar salsa
1 large can olives, sliced

Brown and drain hamburger. Combine all ingredients in the crock pot and cook on low for 4 hours. Ladle into small bowls and serve with a side of your favorite tortilla chips for dipping.

Ginger Crinkles

This recipe is from Steve's grandmother. I remember that the very first time I met Gray she had a bag of Ginger Crinkles ready in the freezer that she had made just for him in anticipation of our visit so that he would have some to take home with him. We have modified the recipe slightly because Steve actually prefers his cookies soft and her recipe was for a crispy cookie; if you like your cookies to crunch then you can leave them in the oven longer. As good as these cookies are on their own, I prefer mine with a mug of hot cocoa :)

2/3 cup oil

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup molasses

2 cups flour

2 tsp soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

1/4 cup sugar for dipping

Stir together oil and sugar. Add egg and molasses; beat well. Mix dry ingredients in a small bowl and add to previous mixture, combining thoroughly. Roll into 1" balls and place on ungreased cookies sheet about 1" apart. Flatten slightly (about halfway down) with a glass dipped in sugar. Bake at 350 for 10 min.

Note: as convenient as a Kitchen Aid or Bosch mixer might be, this recipe actually mixes better by hand with a spoon; you will end up with a less sticky dough.

Gingerbread Houses

This recipe is a member of our Hall of Traditions. This is the same recipe that my mom used while I was growing up and the gingerbread houses are one of Kellen's favorite Christmas traditions.

5 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp ginger

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cloves

1 cup shortening

1 cup sugar

1 1/4 molasses

2 eggs, beaten

Blend dry ingredients; set aside. Melt shortening in a heavy pan; remove from heat and add sugar, molasses, and eggs, mixing well. Allow to cool slightly and then add dry ingredients; mix well again, and chill for in a covered bowl for 1-2 hours. Take 2 large cookie sheets, turn them over, and oil the back of the cookie sheets. Roll out dough on the backs of the cookies sheets to a thickness of 1/8" - 1/4", using a light dusting of flour on the surface of the dough to help prevent sticking to the rolling pin; do not try to turn dough over while rolling out. Place house pattern pieces on the dough and cut with a sharp knife. Remove excess dough and bake at 350. The length of time will vary, depending on the size of the piece, so watch them carefully (anywhere from 7 - 14 minutes) and make sure to bake pieces of a similar size together so that they will bake evenly. After removing the cookie sheet from the oven, while the pieces are still hot, place the pattern back on and re-cut the edges, since they will have 'grown' a bit. Then carefully remove the pieces to a cooling rack and leave them to cool and dry for about 24 hours. This recipe will make two medium-sized houses with some dough left over. The most common way of assembling gingerbread houses is with frosting, but we typically choose to use carmelized sugar, since it cools and hardens almost immediately. If you choose this method, though, only melt a few tablespoons of sugar at a time; a little bit goes a long way :) Then we use a royal frosting for placing all of our candies on the houses.

One of Kellen's favorite parts of this tradition is that he gets to munch on all the 'trimmings' as they come off of the freshly baked pieces.