Sweet Potato Casserole

My favorite Mom makes this recipe every Thanksgiving and it's very, very yummy. It's almost like desert. Please make this for Thanksgiving this year. It's one of those dishes that makes my food loving husband, a very happy man.

Ingredients:

3 large yams, peeled and cut (You can substitute 2 large cans of yams and make life easier. But fresh yams are best.)

1 cup of sugar

1 stick of butter, softened (Did you hear me? ONE WHOLE stick of butter!)

1 egg

1 tsp of vanilla

1 tsp allspice

Topping ingredients:

3/4 cup of flour

3/4 cup of brown sugar

1 cup of softened butter

3/4 cup of chopped pecans

1. Boil yams on medium high heat until softened. Then smash them.

2. While yams are boiling, make the topping. Mix flour, brown sugar, and pecans. Cut in butter. (Mom says to mix it with your fingers.) Set aside.

3. Mix the smashed yams, butter, sugar. Mix well, then add egg, vanilla and allspice.

4. Pour into casserole dish. Spread it our evenly. Then spread topping over the top.

5. Bake for 30 minutes or so in a 350 degree oven.

Roasted Pumpkin seeds

I sauteed one clove of garlic in a little bit of olive oil. On medium heat.

Then I added two big chunks of butter. I think it was like 4 TBLS. I'm sorry I didn't measure. I'm an eyeballer.

Then I added 3 big spoonfuls of brown sugar. Stir.

Add 1/4 tsp of allspice (I would of used cinnamon, but Addy is allergic to it.) Stir.

My house smells very, very good right now.

Add the clean and dry pumpkin seeds to the mixture in the pan. Stir.

Pour onto a greased baking sheet(I sprayed mine with cooking spray). Sprinkle a handful of salt over the top. And put into a pre-heated oven of 250 degrees.

Roast for about 30-40 minutes.

Yummy. I'm using mine for a topping on pumpkin soup tonight. Happy Halloween!

Banana Pudding

One of my favorite desserts is banana pudding or banana cream pie.  I decided to make my own easy version of this recipe.  I made this for Kayla when she was here.  So here we go.....

One box of VANILLA pudding.  (You will need milk to make the pudding.)

Two very ripened bananas.  These here are perfect!

Mini Nilla wafers were perfectly sized.

Follow the directions on the back of the pudding box to make the pudding.

Mash up the very ripe bananas.

Once you are done making the pudding and while the pudding is still warm, mix in the mashed bananas.

Pour into serving dishes and put them into the fridge until chilled.  It says you can serve it warm, but I don't care for it warm.

Once chilled, add mini vanilla wafers.  

I made homemade whipped cream but you can use the already made version if you'd like.

Enjoy!  Wasn't that super easy?

Mini Blackberry Cobblers

Personal blackberry cobblers.  My husband and I love to have dessert.  Like every night.  It's like date night, but better.  We don't have to find a sitter, we can stay in our jammies, and we can take turns taking pictures of our dessert.  I don't make dessert every night.  Sometimes we have Oreo's, or Rudy's banana pudding.  But when I do make dessert, I've learned to make them in smaller portions.  Three reasons why: One, if I make a whole pie or cobbler, my husband will only eat it one time.  Maybe twice, but will never finish the pie. Reason two:  I will eat the leftover pie.  Like all of it.  Three:  I will wake up to the yahoo's feeding themselves pie.  This is so easy to make.  

Ingredients:

I big container of blackberries or two small ones (You could use Raspberries and I've also made mini peach cobblers this same way)

lemon juice 

Sugar  

Flour

One pre-made pie crust ( from the frozen section at the grocery store)

One egg for the egg wash

 

Add  some lemon juice from  a lemon or the little lemon bottle.  I have no idea how much I use exactly.  Just enough to cover all the berries and then have a little pool of lemon juice at the bottom of the bowl.

Then cover with sugar.  Again, the point is just to cover all the berries. 

It should look something like this.  Then cover with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge.  I would say, leave it in there for about an hour.  The point is to let the sugar and lemon make the berries soft and some berry juice to accumulate at the bottom of the bowl.

Then take it out of the fridge and add some flour.  This is gonna make the berry juice thicker.  I add enough to cover all the berries and then toss them around to coat with a spoon.  Just like the picture above.

I use these cute ramekins to make my mini cobblers.  Then I just cut out a circle of frozen pie crust, a little bit bigger than the ramekin. ( I took the frozen pic crust out to thaw like an hour before I started making the berry mixture.)

 

And then place it inside the ramekin, like so.  Pictures make recipes so much easier. Don't you think?

Then add the berry mixture.

Cut a piece of pie crust to just cover the top.  Squish the sides down, like pictured above.  I just don't want pie crust hanging over the edge.  And cut little slits on the top so steam can escape will baking.

 Right here I am putting a little bit of egg wash on the top.  Egg wash is just one egg, with a little bit of water added and then beaten.  Just moisten the whole top.

Sprinkle some sugar on top of that.

Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees for about 30-40 minutes.  You will know it's done when the tops are golden brown and the juices are bubbling out.  Like so.

I have made these before using sugar cookie dough as the crust.  I don't put it inside the ramekin.  I just put it on the top.  The crust is then thicker and sweeter.  I  buy already made dough, like in a tube.  You know which ones I'm talking about?   Just cut off a piece and squish it to fit over the top.  Mmmm