Sandra over at Diary of a SAHM is having a slow cooking thursday recipe exchange. I like these because you get alot of different recipes..Run on over there and check it out and leave your personal favorite! Here is my submission…

Red, white and blue cobbler
serves 6-8

1 c flour
1 c sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
2 eggs beaten
2 Tbs milk
2 tbs unsalted butter
2 c fresh blueberries
2 c fresh straxberries, cut in quarters
3/4 c water
1 tsp grated lemon peel
3/4 c sugar

vanilla ice cream

1.combine flour, 1 c sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices.
2.combine eggs, milk, and butter.
3.stir into dry ingredients until moistened
4.spread batter over bottom of greased 5 qt slow cooker
5.in saucepan combine berries, lemon peel and 3/4 c sugar
6.bring to boil, remove from heat immediately and pour over batter.
7. cover and cook on high for 2-3 hours or until toothpick inserted in batter comes out clean.
8.turn off cooker. uncover and let stand 30 minutes before serving with a scoop of vanilla ice cream

When I got married back in the dark ages it was a well kept secret (by me) that I could not cook. I could make bread, brownies, and spagetti. My mom was of the school that felt the less time I spent in the kitchen the less mess she had to deal with. My 6′6″ husband came with no operating instructions but a HUGE appetite. I was amazed at the amount of food he could put down…He ate more in a meal than I ate in several days and I am not exaggerating. As you can see this was not a promising combination. I would wait for him to go to the base (we were military) and I would begin supper. Sometimes I had to cook a recipe several times (and throw out the result) before the finished product was edible and I became adept at turning a failure into something edible by calling it something else. It turns out that this was one of the best cooking lessons I would ever learn. I put it to good use the other day when I made an angel food cake and got distracted (who me? ) as I was folding the flour into the beaten egg whites. The angelfood cake was edible but a little tough and not at all like what I wanted. I tore it into pieces and sprinkled them with left over coffee while I quickly created an almond custard in my microwave. I poured the custard over the cake and then with a flash of inspiration made a praline sauce to swirl on top. I finished it by sprinkling with almonds. Voila! Angel food Pudding. You can substitute a bought angel food cake for the homemade but since the texture of hte cake doesn’t matter much in this why not use this as an excuse to practice making the perfect angel food cake?

Basic Angel Food Cake

1 c sifted cake flour
1 1/4 c sugar
1 c egg whites
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp mexican vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1. sift the flour and 1/4 c of the sugar together.
2. beat the egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt until frothy.
3. Add remaining sugar a little at a time until stiff peaks are formed but the egg white is not dry.
4.Add flavorings
5. Sift 1/4 of the flour at a time over the mixture and fold in gently.
6 Pour in a large ungreased tube pan and bake at 350 45-60 minuntes.
7 invert pan and let cake hang until cool (if cake rises over the top you can invert the pan over a glass bottle.

When cake is cool, cut or tear into bite sized pieces and sprinkle with 1 c coffee.or enough to moisten cake. set aside

Custard:
2 egg yolks
1/4 c flour
1 c sugar
3 c milk, half and half or cream
pinch salt
1/4 c unsalted butter
1 tsp mexican vanilla
1 tsp almond extract
1. whisk together until frothy
2.microwave for 6-8 minutes, or until thickened, whisking smooth every minute.
3.remove from microwave and add butter and extracts.
4. stir until butter melts and is incorporated into custard
5. Pour over cake pieces.

Praline Sauce
1/4 c unsalted butter
1/4 c dark brown sugar
melt together in nonstick sauce pan over medium heat, whisking until there is no more graininess. Pour in a swirl over the custard. Top with 1/2 cup almonds. Chill. Serves 8..

I snagged this off of the blog of a foodie friend from Grouprecipes.com. In looking at her recipes, I was impressed with her ability to come up with unusual combinations. You can find more of her fabulous ideas at

Dancing Like Nobody’s Watching

Paula used this curry frosting with a chocolate cake but I think that I am going to try it with an apple spice cake. The combination of curry buttercream and moist apple spice cake seems to me to be exactly the kind of thing I like, comfort food with a unique twist.
Curry powders vary wildly so experiment to find one you like. We have a natural foods store near by that has spices and herbs in bulk and you buy as little or as much as you like. I prefer this since I can always have very fresh spices at a very small cost.

Curry Frosting
1 1/2 sticks salted butter
3 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp vanilla
2 tsp curry powder (use your favorite)
4-6 Tbsp milk*
Combine the butter and sugar. Add vanilla and curry, blend. Start with about 4 of the tablespoons of milk. Add more to get the consistancy you need. I needed quite a bit.

*note from Marye, personally I would probably use heavy cream here…I usually have quite a bit of it around since we have our own small dairy goats.

Key limes are tiny little limes that grow on Key West , Florida.  The juice is really nothing like a lime..it is more tart somehow, but with a uniqueness that you can’t explain. Key Lime Pie is a classic. Almost everyone loves it and it is so easy to make that it is great for a last minute dessert.

You can’t often find key limes in the produce section but the juice is available. It is usually right by the lemon juice on the shelves.  If not, I did check Amazon and they have several brands of key lime juice available. Do not substitute lime juice here, it just won’t work.

Key Lime Pie

• 1 baked crust or,
• 1 graham cracker crust or, my favorite,
• 1 gingersnap crumb crust
• 2 cans eagle brand sweetened condensed milk
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 c key lime juice
• Zest of 2 Key limes if available
• 1 pint heavy cream, whipped and sweetened. Add a little vanilla if desired

1. Whisk the egg yolks and condensed milk together until smooth.

2.Add lime juice and  whisk until thickened

3 Pour into desired crust and bake at 350F 10 minutes

4.Chill for about 2 hours

5. Top with whipped cream

Serves 8

With the size of our family, and the fact that it includes 2 teenage boys at the moment, buying pizza is just not an option very often.  And honestly, local Texas pizza is just not what I grew up with up on the east coast. The only thing to do was to learn to make good pizza in large quantity.

  You can actually freeze this dough up to a month, just thaw it in the fridge during over night and make your pizza as usual. If you are making small crusts you can bake your crusts and freeze them prebaked and go from there.  There is nothing like homemade pizza, and it isn’t as difficult to make the crust as it seems.  I have even learned to toss it, much to the delight of my youngest children and grandchildren. The older ones just roll their eyes. Maybe if I could just get that New York Italian accent down…..

  The longer the sponge sets the more flavorful it will be. I like to start mine in the morning and finish the dough in the afternoon. Oh! And do try new things…cheese filled crust is easily accomplished by rolling the edge over grated cheese which you have spread around the edge in a 1″ wide  line.  For thick crust roll out a little thicker, rub with olive oil and let rise 30 minutes before baking at 375 for 20-30 minutes , for thin crust roll out thinner and bake at 425 without the sauce or toppings until nearly done (about 10 minutes) and then add the sauce and toppings.  We like a mixture of provelone, mozzerella and parmesan for our cheese..experiment to see what your family likes best.

Pizza Crust

2 Tbs active dry yeast

2 Tbs sugar or honey

3 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

3 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons olive oil

3  cups all-purpose flour

3 c whole wheat flour

1. In mixer dissolve the yeast and  sugar in the water, and let sit for 10 minutes.
2.  Mix in 3 cups of the flour, 1 1/2 c of each.
3. Let sit for 30 minutes to 4 hours
4. Stir down and mix in salt, oil, and the rest of the flour. Knead until smooth and very elastic..about 15 minutes.  Seperate into 3 or more balls.  3 will make 3 very large pizzas.(May be frozen at this point)
5. Let rest 10 minutes so that it can relax and lose some of the elasticity
6. Roll out on cornmeal covered surface, to desired thickness.
7. Place in pans, rub with olive oil,  place toppings on for thicker crust pizza  and let rise. For thin crust bake immediately…or for something in between  put toppings on and let rise a little!
8. Bake as described above.