Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

This is really my last recipe from The All-American Dessert Book. I think I have about 8 posted on our blog--if you haven't realized by now that this is one of my favorite cookbooks ever, I'm going to be direct and just tell you: THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE COOKBOOKS EVER! But I feel a little overzealous having posted all these Nancy Baggett recipes (they're just so good I can't help it), so after today, if you want to try a traditional American delight, you'll have to go buy the book yourself. It's totally worth it.

There. Now that we've gotten that out of the way let me tell you about our recipe today. Whoopie pies are a traditional American treat that all Americans should try if only because 1) they're delicious; 2) they're a part of history! And I love history, especially east coast history; their roots come from New England/Pennsylvania. They're called "whoopie" pies because when the children would see momma laying out these sweet treats, they would shout "Whoopie! Pies!" Or so the story goes.

Creamy Coleslaw

This is a very basic, creamy coleslaw, nothing fancy here. But it is beautiful, with bright greens, purples, and orange. And it makes a great side to really almost anything, so it is a great go-to recipe.

And because this really is a basic recipe you can feel free to add other flavors to make it your own. This particular batch I added caraway seeds. You might try adding fresh ground pepper, dill or perhaps even some oregano. Oh yeah, one last thing, because this recipe is basically just fresh vegetables it is good for you!

Caramel Corn

Last night I just wanted an old-fashioned treat: caramel corn. Growing up we would make batches of caramel corn on occasion, but we always made the kind that you don't cook, that stays chewy and soft. I actually prefer that kind. However, last night I decided to go with something different; I made the caramel corn that you cook in the oven, so that it can last longer and doesn't pull out your fillings. A good choice I think as I now have some left on the counter that I can snack on this afternoon.

Chicken and Dumplings

Before I begin telling you about this delicious, easy, homey meal, I would like to announce the WINNER of our contest. Two Little Chefs reader M (very mysterious) is the lucky winner of a new, very sharp, kitchen knife. M, may all your chopping, cutting, and cooking improve drastically. And may you spread the joy of the delicious concoctions you will prepare whilst using this knife with many.

Thank you for all of you how entered our contest. And a BIG THANK YOU to those who continually comment on our posts. You are the ones that keep us motivated to keep cooking and sharing recipes with you. Please keep your comments coming and share our blog with anyone you know that needs a new recipe tonight!

Now, on to this Chicken and Dumpling goodness, and I do mean goodness. Last night as it was beginning to snow, I wanted some comfort food, but I didn't want to spend a lot of time making it, which I imagine is usually the case for most of our readers. So I decided to make one of the quintessential comfort foods, chicken and dumplings.

Fruit Slump

We're back, and yes, still alive. It seems that no matter how prepared you think you are or aren't, the start of a new semester never ceases to be a 2 week flurry of activity. I suppose you might say that this slump represents how we've been feeling lately. The kind of feeling that makes you want to fall into a warm pile of fresh laundry. And stay there.

So aside from a form of bad posture, what is a slump (prepare yourself for a brief lesson on American Food History): stewed fruit topped with a biscuit. It is thought that a slumps were an early attempt by English colonizers to recreate English steamed pudding without the proper cooking utensils to do so. I'm glad their attempts weren't successful because without them, we would be without the slump.

Nancy Baggett, author of The All-American Dessert Book, says "Slumps are the plain-Jane cousins of cobblers. Slumps differ from their better-known relatives because they are covered and usually cooked on the stove top, so the dough steams and becomes fluffy and dumpling-like, instead of browning and crisping as a cobbler crust does." Slumps may be so named because the dough slides, or slumps, down the side of the pot as the fruit softens. They are also known as grunts (HA!), possibly because of the noise the berries make as they stew...or because of the noise people make when they eat them? Now really, people.

Shepherd's Pie

This is a pretty straight-forward recipe for shepherds pie and comes to you courtesy of my mother and at the request of one of our readers. I recently discovered that while we were growing up, my youngest brother would take left-over shepherds pie to his friend because he enjoyed it so much. To be honest, I wasn't a fan of shepherds pie when I was younger, but when my mother recently made this, I remembered my brother's friend liking it so much, and it turned out I really liked it too. So here I share a recipe for a good ole' meat n' potatoes shepherd pie. (I hope you will appreciate this Ryan F.)

 

Strawberry-Rhubarb Betty

"Classified as a vegetable, but eaten mostly as a fruit, rhubarb is among the first plants to come up in the spring. Before fresh produce was available year-round, it was an eagerly awaited respite from winter's starchy fare. Rhubarb was so often used in pies that some nineteenth-century cooks referred to it as the 'pie plant.' -Nancy Bagget (author of The All American Dessert Book). I don't know about you, but even with access to loads of produce, I'm exceedingly happy to see rhubarb start to arrive.

This "betty" is a delightful alternative to rhubarb pie. It's an old-fashioned American dessert made with fruit and day old cubes of bread. Often it will resemble bread pudding, but because this betty is baked in a shallow dish, it comes out lightly crisp on top. And I don't mean to gush, but it's absolutely positively amazing.

Meat Loaf

Whoever came up with the name "meat loaf" was definitely not thinking. Because there is absolutely nothing about that word that sounds remotely appetizing. A loaf. Of meat. Ick. But then once you actually take a bite, you realize it's not so bad. It's actually quite delicious. Especially when it's this meat loaf, carefully crafted into the best-tasting ground beef concoction around. And it's not even really a loaf...it's more of a gently rounded oval shape. So it's really not as scary as your traditional, potluck-dinner-from-who-knows-where-meat loaf.

And besides, meat loaf is an American tradition. When people ask me what "traditional" American food is, I would never say hamburger and french fries. It's chili and cornbread and apple pie and grits and potatoes and meat loaf. So give it another try, even if it's only for the sake of your heritage.

Meat Loaf
Recipe by Kelly
Picture by Caroline

1 pound ground beef
1 egg
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
2/3 cup milk
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/3 cup quick oats
1/4 teaspoon sage
1/2 teaspoon thyme

1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
special sauce (optional topping)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine egg, milk, bread crumbs, and all spices. Add ground beef and mix well.
2. Shape loaf into a large ball. Place in an ungreased 8 x 8 inch pan. Press down until about 2-3 inches thick. Spread sauce on top.
   
3. Bake uncovered about 1 hour, or until beef is no longer pink in the center. Let stand 5 minutes and serve.
   

Special Sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon mustard
1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar

1. In a smal bowl, combine all ingredients. Mix well and spread over meat loaf.

*I love serving this with roasted potatoes with asparagus or roasted rosemary-onion potatoes.

Macaroni and Cheese

This is it folks, this is mine and Kelly's 200th post! Hooray for us! I want to personally thank all of you that use our website and an even bigger THANK YOU to those of you who comment on the recipes. We greatly encourage feedback to help keep us motivated...yes, that means you!

Okay with that said, today I am featuring some good ole' Mac n' Cheese. All day I have been craving comfort food - something simple, creamy, and delicious. More than that, I wanted some homemade Macaroni and Cheese. Truth be told, I have never had homemade Macaroni and Cheese, almost blasphemous I know. So I looked through, I don't know 20 different recipes and compared them to the one I choose, which I actually printed out about 4 months ago, but had yet to make. Long-story-short, I chose the one I already had on hand, this simpler recipe, one without scallions, expensive cheese, or complicated directions. And ta-da, I loved it!

Macaroni and Cheese
Recipe from Martha Stewart.com
Picture by Caroline

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, plus more for baking dish
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
3 cups elbow macaroni
2 (12-ounce) cans evaporated milk
1/3 cup skim milk
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
2 (8-ounce) packages extra-sharp cheddar cheese, grated
1 (8-ounce) package Monterey Jack cheese, grated
Paprika, for sprinkling
½ cup French’s French Fried Onions (this was my addition*)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Generously butter a 13-by-9-inch glass baking dish; set aside. Bring a large pot of water to a boil; add salt and macaroni. Cook until al dente according to package directions. Drain, and return to pot. Add butter, and toss until pasta is coated and butter has melted; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together evaporated milk, skim milk, and eggs. Add seasoned salt, garlic powder, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper; set aside.
2. In another medium bowl, combine cheeses; set aside.
3. Place 1/3 macaroni in an even layer in the bottom of prepared baking dish; cover evenly with 1/3 cheese. Repeat with remaining macaroni and cheese mixture. Pour milk mixture evenly over contents of baking dish. Sprinkle with paprika. Bake until top layer is lightly browned, 35 to 45 minutes. Let stand 10 to 15 minutes before serving.
4. *If you want to add the French Fried Onions to the top of your Macaroni and Cheese, sprinkle the top with the onions the last 5-7 minutes of the regular cooking time.

Apple Pandowdy

Pandowdy, pandwody, pandowdy. Just saying this word brings a smile to my face. But what exactly is it? Think cobbler meets pie; fruit on the bottom with a pastry on top. It's a traditional dish found mostly in New England. A pandowdy is like having the deliciousness of pie, but with only half the work (you only have to roll ONE pie crust that doesn't even have to be circular. Plus you get to cut it to fit the pan). And this pandowdy has a sour cream sauce mixed with in with the apples. Yum.


Here's an interesting tidbit about pandowdy: Nancy Baggett, author of The All-American Dessert Book says "despite the rather plain look of the [pan]dowdy, many culinary historians...believe that the odd name does not refer to the appearance of the dish, but to the fact that it is covered with a 'dow,' a varation on the word 'dough.'" Though if you prefer, you can continue to extol its dowdy virtues.

Apple Pandowdy
Recipe from The All-American Dessert Book
Pictures by Caroline

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar, divided
5 tablespoons all purpose flour, divided
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
9 cups peeled, cored, and thinly sliced tart apples
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 cups sour cream
1/8 teaspoon baking soda

Single crust pastry dough

1. *Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9 x 13 inch baking pan. In a small bowl, stir together the 3/4 cup brown sugar, 2 tablespoons of the flour, the cinnamon, and cloves.
   
2. In a large bowl, stir together the apples and lemon juice. Add the sugar mixture to the apples and stir until the are coated. Spread the aple mixture evenly in the baking dish.
   
3. In the bowl used for the apples, thoroughly stir together the sour cream, remaining two tablespoons sugar, remaining 3 tablespoons flour, and baking soda. Spread the mixture evenly over the apples.
4. Roll out the dough into a large rectangle, big enough to cover the 9 x 13 pan (this is much easier if you roll onto a piece of wax paper, then flip the dough over onto the apple mixture and peel the paper off). Trim the edges of the dough to make it even. Place the dough over the top of the apples. With a sharp knife, cut several steam vents in the top.
   
5. Bake 40-50 minutes, or until the pastry is browned all over and the filling is bubbly. Let cool about 30 minutes.
   

*Directions paraphrased from original

Sweet Country Cornbread

Sweet delicious cornbread. Yum. I once made a pan of this goodness and ate it all myself. It's sumptuous. Delectable. My husband suggests that Caroline and I may be a little too fond of cornbread ("going overboard" were his exact words), but I don't care. It's good and I'm going to rave about it and he'll just have to listen to my ramblings.


Try serving with our vegetarian black bean chili or the garden chicken soup. Or just make it because it tastes oh so good.

Sweet Country Cornbread
Recipe from www.bettycrocker.com
Picture by Caroline

1 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 egg
1 1/4 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease bottom and sides of 8 x 8 inch square pan.
   
2. Beat milk, butter and egg in a large bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients all at once, just until flour is moistened (batter will be lumpy). Pour batter into pan.
3. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Caramel Apples

With Halloween approaching, it seemed appropriate to post some caramel apples. Yes, you can just buy a tub of caramel from the store. But this caramel is naturally delicious (and by natural, I mean no corn syrup, no preservatives, no sugar. It's just cream, honey and salt. Simple), and if you have about 40 minutes to spare, you might decide not to go back to the pre-packaged stuff.

If you happen to have a candy thermometer, this will be a lot easier. If you don't, fill a glass with cold water, and periodically drop a small amount of caramel in the glass (you'll need to change the water each time you do). If the caramel turns into a ball when it hits the water, it's ready. If it swirls around in the cup, it's not ready. If it turns into a rock solid mass, you've probably cooked it too long...hurry and eat it before it solidifies!


And finally, I've always loved the combination of caramel and apples, but hated eating them on a stick. There's just no getting around the messiness factor. But slicing the apples and then dunking them in one at a time is not nearly as visually appealing. So my very wise friend Kate suggested dipping the entire apple in the caramel, letting it set a few minutes, and then, once you're ready to eat them, cut one large slice from each side of the apple, leaving the core behind, and you with a perfect coat of caramel. Yum.

Caramel Apples
Recipe from 101cookbooks.com
Pictures by Caroline

6 small apples, unwaxed*
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup honey

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (I actually used aluminum foil). If serving on a stick, push a lollipop or popsicle stick deep into each apple - in through the stem. Fill a large bowl 1/2 full with ice water and set aside.
2. In a medium, thick-bottomed saucepan heat the cream and salt until tiny bubbles start forming where the milk touches the pan - just before a simmer. Stir in the honey. Bring the mixture to a boil. Now reduce the heat to an active simmer and cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, for about 15-20 minutes minutes or until the mixture reaches about 255-260F degrees (just barely in the hard ball stage).
3. To stop the caramel from cooking, very, very carefully set the bottom of the saucepan in the bowl of cold water you prepared earlier. Stir until caramel begins to thicken up - you want the caramel to be thin enough that it will easily coat your apples, but not so thin that it will run right off. If the caramel thickens too much simply put the pot back over the burner for 10 seconds or so to heat it up a bit.
4. Tilt your sauce pan so all the caramel forms a pool on one side, and use your other hand to dunk and twirl each apple until it is thoroughly coated with caramel.
5. Place each apple on the parchment lined baking sheets and allow the caramel to cool and set.

*If you buy your apples at the grocery store, they will inevitably be waxed, which means the caramel will slip right off when you dip the apples in. If you buy your apples from a farmer's market or pick your own, you can avoid this.

Sunday Pot Roast

I would guess that most of our readers have a great pot roast recipe. However, I thought we should add one to our collection of recipes here at Two Little Chefs. Because let's face it, sometimes you just need to cook up a traditional Sunday Pot Roast with potatoes, onions, and carrots. So here is a simple pot roast recipe that is sure to please.

In our house we love carrots, so I add lots of carrots - basically as many as I can fit into the crock-pot. But if potatoes are your thing, or maybe even celery, go ahead and put as many in as you want. Just make sure that there is enough liquid to come up to about 1 1/2 to 2 inches below the rim to ensure that everything gets cooked.

Sunday Pot Roast
Recipe and pictures by Caroline
Makes 4 servings

2 or 3 large Russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch thick pieces (or your potato of choice)
2 cups baby carrots (or more)
1/2 large red onion, cut into wedges
2lb. beef pot roast, or chuck roast
2 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup white cooking wine
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons beef base, or beef bouillion
1 teaspoon dried basil

Directions:
1. Place half of the vegetables in bottom of crock-pot
2. Heat olive oil in a medium saucepan. Brown roast on each side, and then place on top of vegetables. Add the rest of the vegetables around the roast.
3. Combine water, wine, Worcestershire, beef base, and basil. Pour over meat and vegetables.
4. Cover. Cook on low heat 10-12 hours. Or on high heat 5-6 hours.

Grandma's Chocolate Cake

This cake will forever remind me of my grandma. Growing up a few miles down the road from her, we were almost guaranteed that there would be a nice thick slice of homemade chocolate cake waiting for us whenever we went to visit. It was the perfect afternoon snack for a bunch of chattering kids sitting around the table with milk in one hand and a fork in the other.

Her recipe is simple and delicious. It contains buttermilk and shortening, two things you don't always find in your typical cake, but the results are very tasty. Yes, you can whip up a chocolate cake from a box in less time than from scratch, but sometimes it just tasted better to make it yourself. My grandma always baked this cake in a 9 x 13 pan; I'm sure it would be fine as cupcakes or round cakes or a bundt cake, but I can't imagine it any other way.

I like to make my own frosting, but the canned Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines stuff would also be fine for this cake.

Grandma's Chocolate Cake
Recipe from Grandma K
Picture by Caroline

Cake
1 3/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk*
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 cup boiling water

1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Lightly grease a 9 x 13 inch pan.
2. In a large bowl, beat together the sugar, shortening and eggs. Beat until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and buttermilk.
3. In a separate bowl, combine flour, soda and salt. Add to sugar mixture and stir.
4. Add cocoa and boiling water at the same time, mixing until well blended.
5. Pour batter into greased pan. Bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
6. Cool before frosting.

*I never have buttermilk on hand. Instead, I use regular milk and replace between 1 and 2 tablespoons of milk with vinegar or lemon juice to "sour" the milk.

Fudge Frosting
from betttycrocker.com

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup shortening
3 oz unsweetened baking chocolate
2/3 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla

1. In 2 1/2-quart saucepan, mix all frosting ingredients except vanilla. Heat to rolling boil, stirring occasionally. Boil 1 minute without stirring.
2. Place saucepan in bowl of ice and water. Beat until frosting is smooth and spreadable; stir in vanilla. Frost rectangle or fill and frost layers with frosting.

Holiday Feast

Thanksgiving? Christmas?  Here are a few great recipes to help you make your feast perfect.

Cider-Brined and Glazed Turkey
from www.epicurious.com

Brine
4 quarts apple cider, divided
1 1/2 cups kosher salt
1/4 cup whole allspice
8 bay leaves
4 quarts cold water
1 20-pound turkey (neck and gizzard reserved)

1. Simmer 1 quart apple cider, salt, allspice, and bay leaves in 20-quart pot 5 minutes, stirring often. Cool completely. Add remaining 3 quarts cider and 4 quarts water. Place turkey in brine. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
2. Drain turkey and rinse. Arrange on several layers of paper towels in roasting pan. Refrigerate uncovered overnight.

Glaze
2 cups apple cider
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

1. Boil cider in saucepan until reduced to 1/4 cup, about 15 minutes. Whisk in butter. Cool completely.
2. Set rack at lowest position in oven; preheat to 350°F. Remove paper towels from roasting pan. Pat main and neck cavities of turkey dry; stuff loosely with stuffing. Place turkey in pan, tuck wings under, and tie legs together loosely.
3. Roast turkey 1 hour. Brush with some of glaze. Roast until beginning to brown, about 1 hour. Cover with foil. Roast until thermometer inserted into thickest part of thigh registers 175°F, brushing with glaze every 30 minutes and adding up to 1 cup water to pan if drippings begin to burn, about 3 hours longer. Transfer turkey to platter; tent with foil. Let stand 30 minutes.

Green beans, Roasted Fennel and Shallots
from www.epicurious.com
makes 6-8 servings

Nonstick vegetable oil spray
2 large fresh fennel bulbs, trimmed
3/4 pound shallots, peeled, halved through root ends
5 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 pound slender green beans, trimmed

1. Preheat oven to 450°F. Spray rimmed baking sheet with nonstick spray.
   
2. Cut fennel bulbs lengthwise in half. Cut halves lengthwise into 1/2-inch-wide wedges, with some core still attached to each.
   
3. Combine fennel and shallots in large bowl and add 3 tablespoons oil; stir to coat and arrange fennel and shallots in single layer on prepared sheet. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Roast until tender and golden, stirring every 10 minutes, about 35 minutes.
4. Cook the green beans in large saucepan of boiling salted water until crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Drain. Rinse with cold water and drain again. Pat dry.
   
5. Heat remaining 2 tablespoons oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add roasted vegetables and haricots verts; toss until heated through, about 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to bowl and serve.

Carmelized Onions
from Kathy Hill
makes 6-8 servings

5-6 medium sized yellow onions
1/4 cup butter
salt and pepper to taste

1. In a large saucepan, melt 1/8 cup butter.
   
2. Slice the onions into thin rings and place in pan with butter. Cook for about 30 minutes, or until the onions are tender, adding butter if the onions begin to look dry.
   
3. Season with salt and pepper and serve.
   

Cranberry Sauce
from www.epicurious.com

1 cup water
1 cup sugar
12-oz bag fresh or frozen cranberries (3 cups)
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated orange zest

1. Bring water and sugar to a boil, stirring until sugar is dissolved.
   
2. Add cranberries and simmer, stirring occasionally, until berries just pop, 15-20 minutes.
3. Stir in zest, then cool.

French Apple Pie
adapted from Betty Crocker Cookbook

Crust: 9-pie pie crust or a pre-made pie crust

Filling
8 cups thinly sliced peeled tart apples
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp cloves
a pinch of salt

1. Heat oven to 425.
   
2. Mix all ingredients together except apples. Stir in apples.
3. Roll out pastry and place in 8-9 in pie pan.
4. Pour in apples.
   

Topping
1 cup flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup firm butter

1. Mix flour all ingredients together and stir until crumbly.
   
2. Sprinkle over top of apples.
3. Cover during last 10 minutes of baking to prevent excessive browning.