whoopie pies and shoo-pie flies

In the spirit of Lancaster County... I'd like to feature two favorite desserts coming from this area of the world:

Simply, it is a molasses pie.  It got its name because of the flies that need to be constantly shooed away.
So Kelly and I tried our hand at making a Shoo-fly pie.

But first...
No-Fail Pie Crust recipe that my mom uses:
Mix together:
5 c. flour
2 t. salt
1 t. baking powder
2 c. shortening


Pour into a liquid measuring cup:
1 egg
1/4 c. vinegar
Then add water until these three ingredients reach the "1 cup" line, then add this to the other ingredients.

This will make 5 pie crusts, which can be refrigerated or frozen to use later.

Roll out the dough as thin as possible, or as thick as you love it! Be sure to put a little flour down, and on your rolling pin so the dough won't stick.  I don't have a rolling pin but a glass jar, vase, bottle works well too.  

Next, fold the dough in half twice to make it easier to move from the counter to the pie dish, and then unfold it. Trim the edges or make something fancy with your fingers or a fork!

Our pie smelled wonderful while it was baking... but tasted awful! It was so rich and incredibly runny.  I'll have to try again soon... I love a good shoo-fly pie!


While I may be a temporary failure at making shoo-fly pie, there's always Whoopie Pies!! Recently there's been debate over where the Whoopie Pie originated, but it's a fact that it can be found right here in the Lanc.  Jill invited me over to make them for the square dance coming up.  I had never made them before, but I sure have eaten my share!

Lucky for me I broke a few, so those ones had to get eaten instead of wrapped!

Cheating without chemicals or fake light

Grandma Garber has been growing saffron for years.  This summer, she gave me a brown paper bag full of the bulbs, with clear instructions to plant them at the end of July or beginning of August.  Mental note to self:  August...  
I kept them in the sunroom for awhile and soon moved the bag to a shelf next to some books, and a bunch of dried herbs, teas, and seeds for next year.

Today is the 19th of November. I pulled out the bag, looking for a sweet jar to store my mint and realized that I had a bag full of beautiful purple flowers!! Tangled throughout their stems I found a piece of paper with Grandma's instructions.  Ooops!

each flower has 3 red stamens that get taken off and dried

the bag of bulbs, after I cut all the flowers off:

You can see why saffron is so expensive - it is a tedious process that produces a very small yield!

Aubergine Parmesean

Anthony pointed out one day that it seems a little ridiculous that an eggplant isn't the name for the plant, but the fruit.  It does seem a little redundant to say "Look how big that eggplant plant is growing" or "I need to plant the eggplant plant I just bought at Hostetter's".

Lucky for him, there is a word that already exists for the fruit that is now trending in the USA, thanks to Abby and myself... We have an activity in the classroom I work that we call the "Shopping Activity".  The student gets a grocery list, and he has to find the things on it and put them in his shopping cart.  The first list my kid got included aubergines (and "tinned tuna")!

Recently Anthony showed me how to make eggplant parmesean.  Considering we didn't have bread crumbs (we tried raisin brain) or parmesean cheese (substituted cheddar), this was the perfect opportunity to try out the phrase Aubergine Parmesan. Delicious, even with substitutions!

Here, Kelly and I tried making Aubergine Parmesean with real bread crumbs and parmesean cheese...

First we cut the eggplant in 1" slices (the peel can stay on or come off).

Next, we dipped each slice in an egg-milk mixture and then into breadcrumbs.

Then we cooked them in a skillet until they were brown

Finally, we added tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese and ate!

Salsa

When I went to pick up apples with Mom the other day, I also bought a half bushel of tomatoes for $4.50.    The only logical thing for a single person to do with that many tomatoes is....

MAKE SALSA!

I looked online for the first recipe, and found a good looking one at food.com.

Ingredients:

14 cups chopped roma tomatoes 

3 cups onions, chopped

1/2 cup jalapeno pepper 

1 cup green pepper, chopped

1/2 cup vinegar

1/2 cup tomato sauce

3 tablespoons salt

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 1/2 teaspoons cumin

5 tablespoons Clear Jel, that will not break down in high heat during processing. don't substitute 

5 garlic buds minced 

Directions:  Chop all vegetables and place them into a saucepan.  Add remaining ingredients, mixing clear jell with water before adding slowly to veggies. Bring to a boil. Cold pack for 10 minutes.

Read the full recipe here.


Clearly disobeying, I did not use the Clear Jel. 


For the next batch of salsa, I used the same basic recipe, but cut out the cumin and chili powder and instead added habenero hot sauce. I was slightly disappointed each time when all I ended up with was two large cans of salsa (and a little left over to eat right away).


Both batches turned out very different and so delicious!!