Cindy-Campbell.com

Golden brown on top.
Then a spongy cakey layer.
Then a gooey lemony layer.
And crust too.

This pie is definitely a family favorite, and the recipe has been passed down for several generations (on my mom’s side).

Here is the original recipe, as written in my Grandma’s Cookbook:

Line a pie pan with crust. Take butter the size of a walnut, cream with 1 cup sugar and 1 tablespoon flour. Separate 2 eggs. Beat yolks and add to dry ingredients. Add 1 cup sweet milk and stir up well. Grate the rind of a lemon, add juice of 1 lemon, stir into liquid. Lightly fold in beaten egg whites. Pour into crust and bake in a moderate oven. Bake until nicely brown on top and fluffed up.

Needless to say, this pie never comes out quite the same. Each time I make it, I try to figure out what I did right or what I did wrong, hoping it will come out better the next time.

Once I used too moderate of an oven, or maybe just didn’t let it cook long enough. I brought it to my friend Jenn becuase I know she likes lemon treats… and sadly when we cut through the cake layer, the rest of the pie oozed all over the place. It was still totally edible, we just needed spoons instead of forks Now I know, “moderate” is your basic 350 degree oven.

The part of the recipe my family always jokes about it the butter measurement: the size of a walnut. Not that it is an exact science… but what kind of walnut are we talking about?! Surely walnuts 100 years ago were smaller than the walnuts of today. We’ve come to the agreement that a tablespoon is about the right amount of butter

And what to do with the egg whites? Beat them of course, but how long? I like beating them by hand with my big balloon wisk (my arms could use the exercise, and this pie has been made long before the electric mixers were an option anyway, so it can be done!). It’s probably easier to eyeball how stiff the whites are getting when you do it by hand too, I let them get to a stiff peak stage. It’s the folding in part that always makes me nervous. They make it look so easy on TV… I try my best to fold and not stir, and have accepted the fact the filling will look a bit lumpy.

This time, the pie did get “nicely brown,” hooray! Seems the pie needs about 45 minutes in the moderate oven. It is puffy looking when it comes out of the oven… and then un-puffs a little as it cools. Sometimes is pulls away from the side crust as it unpuffs, which makes me sad. But mom says that happened to Grandma when she cooked it too.

Whenever we get lemons from the neighbors, it’s almost a given that a Lemon Cake Pie is in the near future. So bright, delicious and, once you navigate through the recipe, comes together pretty easily (especially if you cheat and use a store bought crust… shhhh).

I definitely encourage you to try this recipe. If you do, let me know how it turns out!

Ok, I have slept a few nights and am less disgruntled about the County Fair. So Part 2 is focusing on the happier side of the experience.

I entered my family’s homemade toffee into the Home Economics Show, Dessert Division, Candy from Scratch Section. It didn’t win a Dessert Division award, but it did receive THE ONLY BLUE RIBBON in the Candy from Scratch Section AND there was another English Toffee entered in the section. Nice.

Here is my favorite entry in the whole Dessert Category: a beautiful Alice in Wonderland Cake created by Laura Landrum. It was top in the Decorated Cakes section, but got 2nd place in the dessert division. 1st place went to a freakin’ pecan pie with an unappetizing looking crust. But I digress. I know in the hearts of everyone that saw this cake, it was the REAL overall winner.

Look at all the little details! So beautiful… and the young woman than made it has only been decorating cakes for a year! She said the entire cake took her 3 days to make. Bravo!

Ok, here is the most incredible, non edible thing I saw. From past experience, I know how difficult and time consuming basket-weaving is. I tried it once in Girl Scouts, and a couple girls got a hang of it right away… the rest of us were on the verge of swearing/slamming our completed baskets against a wall it was so freakin frustrating. Ugh. So when I saw this basket, I was very impressed. It was beautiful and skillfully woven. And then I read the attached description. You WILL NOT believe what this is made out of…

Go ahead, take a closer look. Can you guess

This gorgeous basket is made out of NEWSPAPER! That’s right, Margarita Tierranegra tightly rolled pieces of newspaper into long tubes and wove the basket (I assume there was glue/modge podge involved for the newspaper to be malleable). Then the whole thing was varnished to give it the dark brown color. I didn’t dare touch it so I am not sure how sturdy it was. But it was just so beautiful! The basket won 3rd place in the Handicraft Division.

So despite the random judging, it was great to see other talented people entering their creations in the show. I wish I had written down their names so I can give their pieces of art credit But they have inspired me to attempt some new projects… in marzipan and newspaper

So I’m a bit of a competitive person. I like entering competitions, going head to head with other people, challenging myself… and I don’t mind losing when it’s a fair fight. But I should know by now that competitions are not always fair… MUN in high school proved that time and time again I entered into the Montgomery County Fair thinking it would be a serious, structured competition… and I left a bit disheartened.

First, lets talk quilts. I entered my first adult sized quilt I have ever done. It was sewn completely on a home sewing machine… and fitting a 6’+ quilt through that thing is no small task. I knew my stitches were a bit uneven and not all of the 1000+ corners matched up perfectly… but hey, this was an armature competition. Sadly, the competition was not divided into sensible categories… hand quilting, home machine quilting, and professional machine quilting were all lumped into one. For those who don’t know, there are such things as “long arm” quilting machines. Technically, you don’t have to be a professional to use one. BUT they cost on average about $5000-$8,000 and are about the size of a twin bed…quite and investment for someone who doesn’t quilt professionally. They can be programmed to quilt perfect stitches in beautiful designs. You can tell by looking at a quilt that it has been made with a long arm because they look, well, flawless. How could my modest home-sewn quilt possibly compete. Needless to say, this wasnt a Remember the Titans/Blind Side/Rudy/underdog triumphs over all situation. I got a Red Ribbon-”Good” rating.

I knew as soon as I turned in my quilt not to get my hopes up. But the part that stung the most was reading my comment card after the judging was through… I got knocked down on the “properly finished” section, and there was only a single comment: binding. Binding?! Seriously? My quilt was bound, in bias tape I made myself out of the penguin fabric. I didn’t use the store-bought pre-made kind that perhaps they were looking for. I can take constructive criticism, when it makes sense. Ugh

Even before I got to the Fair, I realized this was my 1st major quilt, and that with a few more years of practice and maybe some classes under my belt, I could something better. BUT I also thought I’d be blown away the work of my competitors. I thought I’d see more than just a nicely pieced top quilted by a long-arm machine. I definitely thought there would be more entries too. And they were all random sizes… baby quilts to wall hangings to queen sized bed covers. So everything was just lumped into one category. Maybe next-time I’ll make a place mat sized piece and hand quilt the snot of it. Oh wait, there wont be a next time. At least not at this Fair, I need a competition that is taken more seriously with rules and structure and more recognition to the victorious (yes, the awards ceremony was a bit hard to watch, maybe those judges had never made a presentation in front of a group of people before).

Ironically, I was just talking to a friend the other day about machines used as tools vs machines dominating a craft. Technology is blurring the lines between hand-made and manufactured… handmade items should have imperfections, it gives them character and shows they were made with love by a human being. And that is what makes a quilt more than just a blanket with seams. You can buy those kind of things at Pottery Barn.

The best thing I got out of this quilt competition was the deadline. I finished my quilt (says the girl who is notorious for starting big projects and leaving them 3/4 done…). I love it, it’s exactly what I wanted, and now I can start using it

Oh… there’s MORE unexplainable nonsensical-ness to the Adult Show… coming soon in Part 2…

NY Times No Knead Bread. Oh my goodness, it’s a long process. Pretty simple, but you can’t really speed it along. By the time it was done, you almost aren’t in the mood for bread anymore… almost. The end result looks like a great, high quality loaf of Artisan bread. But it just tasted ok. Not bad, but nothing so spectacular either. And the crust was too tough to eat… so we just threw chunks of crust to the dog, and she was very happy :p

Here are some photos from my bread making journey. (see Part I for recipe and actual instructions).

Mix the 3 ingredients together. I used a scale to measure the flour.
It’s supposed to look like a wet blob.

Let it sit for about 20 hours!
It will grow and you’ll see little air bubbles.

Dump blob on well floured work area.

Fold blob into thirds (envelope style).

Pick up (an interesting task) and fold edges under so it creates a dome/bubble structure of a blob. Place on a well floured tea towel (I used a cloth napkin) and cover with another cloth.

Let it sit for a couple more hours. It gets bigger!

Place/dump blob smooth side down into a Dutch oven.
Clean up the flour that flew all over the kitchen during the dumping process.

Put the lid on and stick it in the oven.
Isn’t my Le Creuset dutch oven the cutest thing ever! Love it

Take off the lid, bake it some more.

Remove from oven. Admire.

Remove from Le Creuset dutch oven. Yay bread!

And so concludes my bread making adventure, for now. Considering the ingredients cost less than $1, I just might try it again… maybe in a smaller pot next time around so the loaf will be taller.

If you try this recipe, let me know! If you have any tips to make it slightly more edible the next time around, let me know too

Don’t you want to be friends with someone who’ll make you some honey-chipotle glazed wings from scratch

This is the second batch, which came out better that the 1st… unfortunately my family filled up on the OK-first-batch so this one is now in the fridge.

I used a recipe from the new Food Network Show “Mexican Made Easy.” She made the process looks so easy, and her cookie sheet came out so pretty and yummy looking… I just had to try it.

Not that I am mad, per say, but that show LIES. Her pan came out of the oven looking fine, just fine… as in, no blackened chared glaze cemented to the bottom (luckily I lined the pan with foil). Also, the tv version came out looking dark and glazey… even with the basting 1/2 way through, the sauce didn’t really stick to the wings. Also, the skin didnt get nearly as crispy as she lead us to believe it would.

Overall, this was a decent meal. The sauce was pretty good, and I learned in the 2nd batch tossing in wings in reamining pan sauces makes a world of difference (something not suggested on the show). Another thing I’d do next time around: divide the sauce into separate containers. I probably used only 1/2 of the pan of sauce to baste the wings, but since the brush hit the raw chicken, I couldn’t save the rest Next time, after making the sauce, I’ll be sure to pour 1/2 into another dish to be saved for later use.

Or I could just bypass the whole sauce-on-raw-chicken step all together. My family is big on the standard (fried) type wing, and missed that crunch we’re used to. Frying is also superior because you can cook a lot in a little amount of time. I could only fit about 15 wings on a pan at a time, and cooking took 35-40 minutes (hence no one was interested in the 2nd batch by the time it came out of the oven). So now we know: Make sauce, fry wings, toss in sauce, devour wings

Sweet and Spicy Drumettes
Recipe courtesy Marcela Valladolid, 2009

Ingredients
Marinade:

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 cup honey
• 2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 2 tablespoons ground ancho chile* (or chipotle powder)
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 pounds chicken drumettes

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a small saucepan, add the butter and melt over medium-low heat. Stir in the honey, and cook until the mixture bubbles, about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat, and stir in the vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, pecans, ground ancho and garlic powder. Season the marinade, to taste, with salt and pepper.

Arrange the drumettes on a baking sheet, and brush each with the marinade. Bake until the chicken is cooked through, about 25 minutes. Baste once, halfway through baking time. Transfer to a serving platter and serve hot.

Recipe courtesy Marcela Valladolid, 2009
Show: Mexican Made Easy Episode: Great Game Day Grabs