My Mama Mia is Here for Christmas - The Kitchen is in Overdrive!

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My parents have been here at the acreage for about 2 days now and my mother and I have already made a pot of Italian soup so dog gone large that I don't have enough space to store the stuff in the frig/freezers.
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After the soup, Mama started on her Italian meatloaf, full of garlic! We bake about 15 meatloaves and freeze 'em and pull them out of the freezer whenever we get home from work and don't have anything planned for dinner. They are a life saver!
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Tomorrow Mama is going to make an army's batch of spaghetti sauce (Bolognese style with meat).
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I don't know what she's got up her sleeve to cook after that . . . maybe we'll get around to Christmas baking. Who knows? I just know that this elderly woman wears me completely out!
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I hope that you are all enjoying this wonderful Christmas season.

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In the Christmas Spirit!

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Fall semester of teaching at my university is finally over and I was able to put up my Christmas tree this weekend! For the first time this year, I played some lovely retro Christmas music from the classics sung by Andy Williams, Bing Crosby, Johnny Mathis, and more! I refuse, simply and absolutely refuse to listen to Christmas songs on the radio until it is truly time for Christmas. The first day of December is my absolute first day to listen to some Christmas tunes. Enough of this secularization and commercialization of our Lord's birth, already people! Enough, I say! Turn the commercialization off and/or turn the dial of your radio or satellite TV radio stations!

So this weekend, with all my students' grades posted, with Christmas carols playing, and eggnog with rum or "whatever on hand", I am SO-o-o-o-o-o in the spirit of Christmas now! Our family nativity scene has been centrally placed next to the Christmas tree, the stockings have all been hung on the fireplace mantel with care (you know the words, don't ya?), and all that jazz that is considered to be traditional has been done today! Oh how fabulous! I am just so jazzed guys!



How about each of you? What are some of the ways that you begin to celebrate this season of love and goodwill and recognition of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ's birth?



Today, for you foodies out there in foodie blogland, I also ordered from one of the most recognized top bakers in the U.S., a fantastic, very Southern traditional red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting to be picked up FRESH on December 23rd (it's best if it sits for at least one day to marry the flavors together!). This woman in our tiny little, nowhere of a town in South Carolina, has been awarded one of the most coveted awards in cake baking and decorating and is now considered to be one of the seven masters of cake baking and decorating after the last 2008 competition at the Las Vegas Bake-Off Competition. She was featured in the news and truthfully is one of seven that has won this honor in the entire U.S.!



What a fluke that this talent should live in this middle-of-nowhere land where we reside in the countryside of the South! We were so fortunate to have this unpretentious little lady bake the wedding cakes for our daughter and son-in-law several years ago for their wedding . . . . a red velvet cake of course!  I'll post a photo of her outrageous cake for you in a few weeks when I pick it up.
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Favorite Holiday Cherry Pie

How many of you enjoy a pie for your holidays? My family loves them! And since I don't like pumpkin pie, and I LOVE cherry pie, my mother started a holiday tradition when I was a little girl in which we always have a cherry pie for every holiday now. Now it is expected that this cherry pie make an appearance at every holiday. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my family does!

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Cherry Pie with Fool Proof Pie Crust

Pie Crust

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Dry ingredients:

4 cups flour

6 Tbsp. sugar

2 tsp. salt

1 3/4 cup shortening

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Wet ingredients:

1 jumbo egg

1 Tbsp. vinegar

1/2 cup water

Cherry Pie Filling:

Combine in another large mixing bowl:

5 - 6 cans of thick cherry pie filling, drained of the juice (set aside for another use)

1 cup sugar

2 tsp. almond extract

Procedure:

Combine all of the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.
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Using a pastry cutter/blender, mix all the dry ingredients well.

The mixture will look lumpy as you continue to blend the dry ingredients together.
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Add the wet ingredients together in a smaller bowl.
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Blend the wet ingredients well with a fork or whisk.

Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients thoroughly....add just a little bit of flour if necessary, but NOT TOO MUCH or the pie dough will be too dry!

Form the pie dough into a nice shaped ball and refrigerate for a minimum of 15 minutes.
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After chilling, cut the ball of dough in half. Technically, this is enough to make 2 double-crusted pies......BUT, for us it is enough to make one double-crusted pie and one single-crusted pie (so 3 crusts). It all depends on how thin or thick that you like your pie crusts......which we like ours on the thicker side.

Roll out the pie dough on a lightly floured surface (we use a large wooden cutting board).

Carefully lift and place the bottom layer of pie dough into a well-greased pie pan. Pour in the cherry mixture.

Cover the cherries with the top layer of dough. Crimp and decorate the way you prefer. Brush the top of the pie with melted butter (about 1-1/2 Tbsp. )

Sprinkle a nice layer of sugar on top of the buttered pie dough.

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Bake for 30 - 45 minutes in a 350 degree oven......constantly keeping an eye on the pie so that the edges of the crust do not burn.....about half way through the baking, I crimp aluminum foil around the egdes to prevent burning.

Enjoy with a wonderful heaping of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream if you prefer!
Mangia!

Beautiful sliced piece of yummy cherry pie!

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