Pistachio Dessert Bites

Pistachio dessert bites for Saint Patrick's day any one?  Yes, Please!

Theses creamy, light, crunchy, bite size treats are easy to make and are prefect for Saint Patrick's Day.  

You'll need; Pistachio instant pudding, Siljans Croustades Crispy Shells, 1/4 cup of chopped Wonderful Lightly Salted Pistachio nuts, Whipped Cream (canned works), and 1 1/2 cups cold milk. 

Tools your need;  Mixer, Icing or sandwich bag (Optional) 1/4 cookie sheet, 

Follow the directions on the Instant pudding but for these sized cups I used 

1 1/2 cups of cold milk.

While your pudding is whipping in the mixer, open you crispy cups. I placed the cup trays on a 1/4 size cookie sheet for support. 

It thickens up just right for these cups. 

Take your icing bag and fill it with your pudding.  

Once the bag is filled, cut a hole just big enough for any nuts in the pudding to squeeze through and start filling your cups.

Once filled, chill for an hour in the refrigerator.  

I had about a half a cup of pudding mixture left and so made a dessert cup. 

Chop your Pistachio nuts if you haven't yet and set aside.

 

Once set, top with whipped cream and chopped Pistachio nut or two. 

Keep refrigerated.

Side Note:  Fill these crispy cups just before serving, otherwise they will soften on you.  

I would love to know if you try these, comment below. 

Vintage Lime Meringue Pie

I have been blessed to have in my possession both of my grandmothers and mother's recipe books. These vintage books are family and country history. They tell a story of the time they were printed, shared, and handed down. I love to find the hand written notes of my loved ones and yes, even the food-stained pages.  I feel their love in the kitchen with me. Join me on my vintage recipe journey. 

This recipe I found in my grandmother's Betty Crocker's  and Gold Metal flour Pie Parade on page 27. 

This vintage book is dated 1957. 

I picked the Lime Meringue pie in honor of 

St Patrick's day. 

I pulled out and measured all the ingredients and read the recipe over before starting.  This recipe had a few stages and I laid out those ingredients accordingly. 

First, you need to bake a pie shell.  Now, I'm out of practice on making dough, and my shells kept shrinking.  So, I cheated and purchased a pre-made shell to bake.  It shrank a little so I don't feel so bad.  Yes, I did use my pie weights with both my homemade pastry and store bought. 

 Below, I zested the fresh Limes and then juiced them and set aside. 

I left out the green food color drops for this step also.

Next, was the water, sugar, egg yolks, corn starch, saving the whites for the meringue, storing them in the refrigerator to keep cold. These four ingredients were then combined in stages over heat. 

I followed the recipe and after it came to a boil for the required time I poured it into the cooled pie shell and I went to work on the meringue. 

Once done, I added the meringue and back in the oven to get these golden tips. 

Not bad since it's been some time since I made any meringue pie.

While it cooled I tried my hand at candying the lime peels for garnish, which is my special touch. 

The candy shell of the peel was hard, and slightly tacky.  But that worked well with the lime zest sugar I tossed them into before garnishing the pie.

 Though I should have boiled the peels a little longer, I found the peels themselves once the candy coating was gone were chewy. But we are never too old to learn or relearn a cooking skill.

This vintage Lime Meringue pie was tart, sweet and with a little help, green, with fluffy light meringue.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Have a loved vintage recipe from your mother or grandmother? Leave me a note in the comments!

Maggie

 

Irish Pasties Corn Beef Hand pies

What to do with your left over Corn Beef and vegetables?

Why, make Irish Pasties hand pies of course. 

Here is a quick and easy way to deal with those left over bits to enjoy on the go.

First cut your leftovers into bite size pieces to fit into each pie.  

You want to be sure your leftovers are cool.

Next get you pie crusts I used Pillsbury, super easy and no mess.

I made 6" rounds and mini round pies.

For the 6" rounds I cut round circles from a box of Pillsbury pie crusts. 

Rerolling the dough to get as much pies out of it as I could.  

For the mini pies I used my pizza cutter to sperate the not so round pie crust.  

 

Filling the pies and sealing them with egg white, crimping the crust closed.

Then pierced the tops with a fork. 

Brushing the tops with more of the egg white wash for that golden shiny finish.

I baked the 6" pies for 15 to 20 minutes until gold at 350 degrees.  

Less for the mini pies depending on your oven until you have a golden crust. 

Keep in mind your filling is fully cooked and its the crust your baking.

 

Happy St. Patrick's day!

 

St. Patrick's Day in a slow cooker

There is nothing like coming home to a slow cooker St. Patrick's day dinner. After slow cooking all day the corn beef is fork tender melt in your mouth good.  

I start off carnalizing the Angel Hair Slaw in an iron skillet, while that's happening I drain and rinse my sauerkraut and drain again.  

Once the slaw is carnalized, I mix both slaw and sauerkraut in the bottom of the slow cooker. 

Then layer the potatoes on top.

Add my corn beef and seasoning. 

Add my wedges of cabbage and onions, put the lid on and I started it on high for the first hour. Then leave it on low for 7 to 8 hours. 

When I get home all I need is some sides to add color to my plate. 

I steam Carrots and Asparagus and yes, butter!

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

St. Patrick's Day Blarney Stones

For St. Patrick's Day and to keep my mind off what's going on in the world today, I pulled out my grandmother's 1950's Betty Crocker's  Cook book. 

 It's been a well loved and used cook book in our family.  As you can see we've had to tap the binding after three generations. 

I wanted to do a recipe that I've not seen too over done. I went searching in her cook book for a St. Patrick's day recipe other than Corned beef and I found Blarney Stones!  

What are Blarney Stones you ask?  Yeah, so did I.  They are a Sponge Cake cut into 2" long and 1" wide cakes, then frosted lightly in butter cream and covered in salted peanuts.

I used the "Inexpensive Sponge Cake" found on page 139 and I used the small cake recipe which worked well in a 1/4 size cookie sheet.  It made 26, 2" by 1" size cakes.

I moved to page 165 to finish the Blarney Stone recipe. I made two substitution, one was when it called for an egg yoke.  I used meringue powder in its place since I was not comfortable with a raw egg in my butter cream.   The second change I switched to lightly salted peanuts.  

These little cakes were surprisingly very tasty.  They give you that salty-sweet taste and their little size is just right.  

So if you are stuck in doors during this time, why not pull out one of your treasured family cook books.  Look up a vintage recipe and have some quality time with your loved ones.