Bev’s Golden Pecan Pie,

By Beverly Hicks Burch

One tradition we have for the holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas) is Pecan Pie. Call in a Southern thing, but it’s a gotta have thing around here…

The first Christmas Tall & Handsome and I celebrated together I made my Pecan Pie. He was totally amazed because he had never had a home-made pecan pie…poor baby. I think he thought he’d married Julia Child…or maybe Paula Deen when he got a home-made pecan pie…

This recipe is really easy and not overly rich like some recipes and it’s a “golden” pecan pie…not dark. I’ve been making it for over 20+ years so I can’t recall the origins and I’ve “Bev-ized” it a time or two to make sure it’s just right.

Hope you enjoy Bev’s Golden Pecan Pie…

Bev’s Golden Pecan Pie

1 deep dish pie shell

3 eggs, beaten (I use extra large)

1 cup sugar

¾ cup white sugar

1 heaping tablespoon all purpose flour

2 tablespoon butter, softened

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup chopped pecans

In a large bowl mix together first the dry ingredients. Then add the rest of the ingredients except the pecans.

Mix well with an electric mixer making sure all ingredients are combined well. (The butter may be melted, but make sure it’s at least very soft before adding it to the mixture.)

Gently stir in chopped pecans. Pour into the pie shell.

Bake at 350° for about 55 minutes or until the center is set. (This time may vary depending on your oven. You may have to cook the pie a little less or a little more. Just be sure not to overcook!)

© 2009 Beverly Hicks Burch All Rights Reserved.

Curry Coconut Lentil Stew

By Beverly Hicks Burch

When I was a little girl on numerous occasions I heard the story about a young man who gave up his birthright, or his inheritance so to speak, for a bowl of beans. (Gen. 25:29-34)

The lad was a hunter and had been out hunting all day. He came home to discover his (sneaky) brother had cooked up a pot of stew or beans (and a plan). As most young people tend to do, the older brother rather dramatically decided and declared he was famished from working so hard and would surely die if he couldn’t have some beans…and, he would be willing to give up his birthright to have a bowl of that bean stew. His younger brother took him up on his offer…his plan to usurp the older brother’s birthright had worked…maybe giving root to the old adage “the way to a man’s heart (or head) is through his stomach”…

That famished young lad was named Esau and that rather priceless bowl of beans was actually lentils.

I don’t remember when I first personally had lentils. All I know I is that over the years I have grown to appreciate this little legume. In addition to being tasty, lentils are packed with protein and fiber. Combine that with a side dish like rice and you have the perfect super meal. As a result, over the years I have been questing for the perfect lentil recipe.

I found a recipe a few years ago that I have wanted to try. It reminded me of curried Indian lentils that I enjoy so much. There was a little tweaking I wanted to do to the recipe, but this Sunday seemed like the right time to try it. So I grabbed some ingredients and threw them into the crock pot and before long we had a pot of yummy lentils.

Curry Coconut Lentil Stew

2 cups low sodium chicken broth

1 can lite coconut milk

1 15 ounce can garbanzo (chickpeas) beans, drained

1 cup frozen sweet corn

1 cup frozen baby lima beans

1 cup dried lentils

1 thinly sliced shallot

1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

1 teaspoon curry powder

½ teaspoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon brown sugar

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

Combine all the ingredients in a crock pot. (I line mine with a crock pot liner for easy clean up! You can find these at the grocery store.)

Cover and cook on high about 3 to 4 hours until lentils are tender or on low 5 to 6 hours.

When done serve over rice. (If there are any leftovers combine the rice and lentils and store in the fridge. The extra moisture may be absorbed but it will be delicious!)

If you have some also serve with warm pita or flatbread. YUM!

Enjoy!!

Curry Coconut Lentil Stew

© 2009 Beverly Hicks Burch All Rights Reserved.

Momma’s Fruitcake

By Beverly Hicks Burch

This is the season for the dreaded fruitcake. Most of conjure up images of Aunt Maude’s stale, hard-as-a-brick monstrosity with bits of bitter citron or we might have images of a fruitcake swimming in an alcohol haze so heady the flies would get a buzz just flying over it.

Ok…purge those images out of your head because do I have a fruitcake recipe for you! My little Momma knew how her family felt about fruitcake…we’d met a lot we didn’t like and somehow, somewhere years ago she came upon this recipe. Over the years it’s become a family favorite for fruitcake…there’s just none other in our eyes. We don’t see it every year, but when we do it’s a real treat.

Momma’s Never Fail Fruitcake

1 pound candied cherries, chopped

1 pound candied pineapple, chopped

1 pound pitted dates, chopped

1 pound pecans, chopped

15 ounces coconut (2 cans)

3 tablespoons flour

2 cans sweetened condensed milk

Mix fruit and nuts in a large mixing bowl. Add coconut and mix well (you can use your hands).

Add flour and mix; next add sweetened condensed milk and mix well.

Pack lightly into a 10 inch tube pan that has been waxed and lined with waxed paper.

Decorate the top of the cake with candied cherry halves and candied pineapples.

Bake 1 ½ hours at 300°. (You might have to bake this longer for it to set. I baked mine an additional 45 minutes.)

Remove from oven and run a knife around the edges of the pan and the cake. When barley warm remove from the pan.

This fruitcake will keep forever in the refrigerator.

Momma’s Never Fail Fruitcake

© 2009 Beverly Hicks Burch All Rights Reserved.

Burch’s Original New Mexico Green Chile Stew

By Beverly Hicks Burch

One thing I learned when Tall & Handsome and I married was how to use green chilies and I needed to learn how to do it as often as relevantly possible for a Southwestern and Southern union…and I needed to learn how to do it well. You see, those New Mexicans take their chilies seriously.

They even have an official state phrase…”Red or green?” Which mean do you want red chilies or green with your meal? Or you can just have Christmas on the side which means you take `em both!

I draw the line at putting green chilies on my burgers and pizza (and sometimes ice cream) which T & H assures me is the norm and not the occasional deviation in New Mexico. I say, “Nuh uh!” You just have to say “No” somewhere…

But, I do admit to acquiring a fondness for those little green jewels and now those little 4 ounce can are a staple in my cabinet. We panic if we get below two cans…

When the weather starts to cool down or if it’s cold and rainy I can’t wait to make a big ol’ pot of Posole. T & H and I also have a fondness for Green Chili Stew. Usually we make our stew from a mix from a company called Desert Garden, but since we didn’t have any on hand we decided to resort to the next best thing…make it from scratch!

After a little research, discussion, decision and trial and error we concocted a big pot just in time keeps us warm against the rain outside.

All we can say is “Yum…and pass the tortillas!” My native New Mexican said it was pretty darn good…

© 2009 Beverly Hicks Burch

Burch’s Original New Mexico Green Chili Stew

5 – 6 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 large onion, chopped

3 cloves of minced garlic

¾ teaspoon cumin

½ teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon oregano

1 – 1 ½ boneless pork loin, cut into bite size pieces

1 cup all purpose flour

2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

½ teaspoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon pepper

1 – 2 large potatoes, cut into chunks

3 – 4 oz. can chopped green chilies

1- 15 0z. can hominy, drained and rinsed

6 – 8 cups low sodium chicken broth

1. Sautee onion and garlic in 3 tablespoon of olive oil until they begin to soften in a Dutch oven or stock pot. Add cumin, ½ teaspoon black pepper and oregano and cook on low for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside

2. Combine flour, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and ½ teaspoon black pepper.

3. Coat the pork in the flour mixture and brown the pork in 2 – 3 tablespoons hot olive oil in a skillet.

4. Add the browned pork to the onion/garlic mixture in the stock pot.

5. Next add the potatoes, hominy, green chilies and chicken broth.

6. Bring to a boil and cook about 45 minutes to 1 hour or until the meat is done and the potatoes are tender.

Serve with warm buttered tortillas. Garnish with grated cheese.

Enjoy!!

Green Chili Stew with warm tortillas

© 2009 Beverly Hicks Burch All Rights Reserved.

Panini Pursuit

By Beverly Hicks Burch

Last month while we were visiting Tall & Handsome’s family up North, his sister gave us a Panini maker she wanted to get off her hands. She’d used it once, set it up in the cabinet and never used it again.

Well, you know T & H and I haven’t met too many cooking techniques we don’t like or don’t want to try at least once. And, since both of us have enjoyed a good Panini at one time or the other, we thought it might be neat to try some homemade ones.

Before setting of on our Panini adventure we did a little research on Panini recipes. We found several we want to try…but we also thought we’d play around and see what we could come up on our own.

We had made some Chicken and Wild Rice soup over the weekend using a rotisserie chicken. We had a little chicken left we wanted to use, so we decided to make Paninis for super this evening. This is what we came up with and they were pretty darn good!

Chicken, Ham and Pear Panini

For each Panini you will need:

2 sliced of Italian bread

Sliced cooked chicken

Sliced ham

Provolone cheese

Fresh pear slices

Honey mustard

Hand slice the Italian bread with a diagonal cut to create more surface on the bread. Spread honey mustard on one side of each slice.

Hand slice Italian bread…

Next layer or build you Panini by placing the chicken, the ham, the cheese and the pear slices on one slice of bread. Top with the other bread slice.

Add chicken…

Add ham…

Add cheese…

Add pears..

Lightly spread the outer sides of the bread with butter (we use Land O’Lakes Light spreadable butter in a tub).

Spread lightly with butter…

Place in a Panini maker or pan and apply a Panini press to flatten the sandwich as it cooks.

Grill 2 – 4 minutes or until golden brown.

Enjoy!

© 2009 Beverly Hicks Burch All Rights Reserved.

Easy Peasy Yummy Brownie

By Beverly Hicks Burch

When you’re in the middle of a move and you’ve set your weary bones down in front of the telly, it’s funny what the mind can do to you. Like play minds games concerning food…causing you to crave “comfort” food you know good and well you just don’t have on hand and DO NOT have the energy to make. That happened to me over this past weekend when Tall & Handsome and I were working around the house.

Now, just interject your own personal energy draining and exhausting activity and…well, never fear…do I ever have the recipe for you! It’s a brownie recipe that is so yummy and so easy to make it ought to be against the law…

T & H deemed them quite good and scarfed down two warm ones right away. I think they would be extra yummy with a little bit of vanilla ice cream on the side. (My favorite is Byers Light and Creamy Vanilla.)

Hope you enjoy Easy, Peasy, Yummy Brownie!

© 2009 Beverly Hicks Burch All Rights Reserved.

Easy, Peasy, Yummy Brownies

½ cup unsalted butter, melted (you could use salted, too)

1 cup sugar

2 eggs, beaten

½ cup self-rising flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

¼ teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon pure vanilla flavoring

½ cup chopped nuts (my go to nuts are pecans and walnuts. I happened to use walnuts the other night.)

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Prepare an 8 inch or 9 inch baking pan.

2. In a mixing bowl mix together the sugar and the melted butter. Add the eggs, one at a time and mix well.

3. Combine the dry ingredients together and then stir them into the sugar mixture.

4. Add the vanilla. Stir in the nuts.

5. Spread evenly into the prepared pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until the edges are firm. A toothpick inserted in the middle will come out clean. Cut into squares.

Enjoy!!

© 2009 Beverly Hicks Burch All Rights Reserved.

Quesadilla Casserole

By Beverly Hicks Burch

Well, cool fall weather is beginning to really grace us with its wonderful temperatures and colors and blue skies like none other. I’m also particularly fond of cloudy, rainy and even foggy days, especially up on the mountain when I can snuggle in with some good reading or good movie watching.

But, nothing says fall weather better than certain foods! Comfort foods for one…soups, stews, mac and cheese…I could go on. Ever notice how fall and winter foods just seem to be heartier and more filling…and piping hot?

In the October 2009 issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray there was a recipe that when I saw it I heard the siren song almost immediately. It was to be…and soon. Only…as usual I also saw immediately a couple of thing I would do differently especially now that I am a gal trained to cook for and by a green chili eating Tall & Handsome native New Mexican. He ran out to the store this afternoon to pick up what we didn’t have on hand and we pulled this little dish together for supper tonight for my folks. It will be seen on the table around here again judging from the reaction of everyone this evening.

Bev’s Quesadilla Casserole

Inspired by a recipe in the Oct. 2009 issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray

3 tablespoons olive oil

¾ chopped onion

One 29 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 ½ cups frozen sweet corn, thawed

½ cup flat leaf parsley, chopped

Five 10 in. flour tortillas

2 ½ cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese or 4 cheese Mexican blend

2 small cans or 1 large can green enchilada sauce, divided

1. Preheat oven to 400°. In a skillet heat the oil over medium heat then add onions and cook for 5 minutes.

2. Stir in 1 ½ cups black beans and mash the beans into a chunky paste. Stir in ½ cup green enchilada sauce.

3. Grease a heavy oven proof skillet or casserole dish.

4. In a separate bowl combine the corn, remaining black beans and parsley.

5. Place one tortilla in the bottom of the baking dish. Spread the tortilla with 1/3 cup mashed black bean mixture. Then spread on 2/3 cup corn-bean mixture. Next evenly spread ½ cup of cheese over the vegetables. Drizzle a few spoons of green enchilada sauce over the layer.

6. Add another tortilla and press down to compress the layers. Repeat the layering process with the mashed black bean mixture, corn-bean mixture, cheese and drizzling of green enchilada sauce until all five tortillas are used and covered.

7. Bake for 30 minutes at 400°. Then broil on high for one minute. Serve with extra green enchilada sauce and lite sour cream.

Enjoy!!

© 2009 Beverly Hicks Burch All Rights Reserved.

Chili-Lime Butter

By Beverly Hicks Burch

This is a great spread to use on grilled corn! We recently made this for my folks when Tall & Handsome grill during the Mother of all Storms on a very wet September evening. Just don’t say “wet dog” around him…

Chili-Lime Butter

1 stick butter, softened

Zest of one lime

1 teaspoon chili powder

Cream butter.

Add lime zest and chili powder and mix well.

Spread on corn and grill. YUMM!!

Store leftovers butter in refrigerator.

© 2009 Beverly Hicks Burch All Rights Reserved.

Mixed Vegetable Casserole

By Beverly Hicks Burch

If you’re looking for the perfect vegetable side dish to serve with a meal this is the one for you…and I mean one. Typically when we think of a well rounded meal we think of a protein (meat, poultry, fish, etc.) and two vegetable side dishes. Well, this little casserole is easy to make, yummy and combines a variety of veggies. It’s also one of Momma’s signature dishes.

So, for your enjoyment…Mixed Vegetable Casserole…

Mixed Vegetable Casserole

1 – 2lb. bag frozen mixed vegetables

1 – 8oz. can water chestnuts, drained and minced

3 stalks of celery, minced

1 small sweet onion

1 cup light sour cream

½ cup light mayonnaise

1 ½ cups grated Cheddar cheese

Pepperidge Farms Cornbread Dressing crumbs

1. Preheat oven to 375°.

2. Cook frozen vegetable according to directions and drain. (We like to use chicken broth for extra flavor.)

3. Combine cooked vegetables and all the other ingredients except the dressing crumbs.

4. Pour into a 13 x 9 inch baking pan. Cover the top of the casserole with a desired amount of dressing crumbs.

5. Bake at 375° for 20 minutes.

Enjoy!!

Mixed Vegetable Casserole

© 2009 Beverly Hicks Burch All Rights Reserved.

Butterscotch Spiders

By Beverly Hicks Burch

This super easy recipe has been in my family for years…yes, I mean years…maybe even decades. It’s easy to associate it with autumn or as I like to think, a fun food for Halloween or Fall Harvest festivities.

This recipe is so easy the kids can help make it. I don’t really know how you’d want to categorize it…as a cookie or as candy, but either way it’s pretty darn good.

So, here is Butterscotch Spiders…

Butterscotch Spiders

1 large package butterscotch chips

1 large can chow mien noodles

1 cup dry roasted peanuts

Over low heat melt 1 large package of butterscotch chips until all chips are melted. This can also be done in a double boiler or in a microwave. If using the microwave melt in short intervals stirring in between to prevent scorching.

Mix in remaining ingredients.

Drop in small clusters on wax paper.

Enjoy!!

© 2009 Beverly Hicks Burch All Rights Reserved.