Friday, November 04, 2005, 07:17
Cream Cheese Mincemeat Pie
I made my first batch of green tomato mincemeat today. It took three hours to cook down the batch. I stirred it every 5 to 10 minutes.
For my taste, the mincemeat turned out rather strong. The recipe called for 2 pounds of brown sugar, 1 pound of raisins, 1/2 cup lard (I used a stick of butter), 1/2 cup of vinegar, 1 tablespoon of salt, 1 tablespoon of nutmeg, 1 teaspoon of cloves and 16 cups of chopped green tomatoes.
When I make the next batch, I'm going to try 1.5 pounds of brown sugar, 1 pound of raisins, 1/4 to 1/2 cup of butter, 1/4 cup vinegar, 1 to 2 teaspoons of salt, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon cloves.
After I finished the cooking the mincemeat, I measured out enough for two pies. I had just enough mincemeat left over to fill one quart jar. I made two cream cheese mincemeat pies this afternoon. One for Randy and I, and one to take to church tonight because we had a church council meeting (I'm the council secretary). The pastor ate two pieces. Either he really liked it -- or he was just being polite.
Here's the recipe for the pie.
Cream Cheese Mincemeat Pie
• bottom pie crust for a 9 or 10 inch pie plate
• 3 cups mincemeat
• 8 ounces of cream cheese (softened)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg
Make the pie crust and line the pie plate with the crust (I know this seems obvious, but one time when I happened to listen to Oprah -- I have listened to the show about 3 times in my life -- there was a chef who was talking about cooking something in one of those plastic cooking bags. "When you take it out of the oven, cut open the bag and throw it away," Oprah said. "You have to say that because there are people out there who will eat the bag if you don't tell them to throw it away.")
Put the mincemeat on top of the pie crust. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 to 25 minutes.
Using an electric mixer, whip the softened cream cheese, sugar and the egg until smooth. Pour on top of the mincemeat and bake for another 25 to 30 minutes.
A Close Call -- Sophie had a close call today. Or maybe it was me who had the close call. Anyway, I was cutting out some bookmarks when Sophie decided to investigate what I was doing. She loves to play with the shreds of paper that come out of the paper cutter. Just as I was about to bring the blade down again, she stuck her paw under it. I was expecting her to do that, and fortunately, was able to stop the paper cutter blade before it cut off her paw.
After this, whenever I am doing something with paper cutter, Sophie will have to go explore the basement some more. When I'm doing something that I don't want Sophie to get into, I say, "Would Sophie like to play to in the basement for a while?" I open the door, and Sophie happily trots down the steps to see what she can find.
LeAnn R. Ralph
Thursday, November 03, 2005, 07:05
Step 1. . .
I now have the first step completed for the first batch of green tomato mincemeat. Wednesday evening I chopped the green tomatoes, cooked them and then drained them.
The next step will be to add the raisins, brown sugar and so forth and cook it until it's thick. When it's finished, I will put some in jars and I will save some to make the cream cheese mincemeat pie. When I was in the grocery store the other day, cream cheese was on sale. (My lucky day!)
From the looks of it, I will maybe get 5 batches of mincemeat out of the 10 gallons of green tomatoes I picked on Tuesday. I guess I'd better plan to buy more raisins and brown sugar, too, if I want to finish the batches of tomatoes.
Sophie helped me chop the tomatoes. Well, what she actually did was sit on the counter by the sink, keeping an eye on my every move. Okay -- not my *every* move. She was also busy dipping her paw into the sink to bat at the green tomatoes floating in the water. I would scrub a couple of tomatoes and chop them and then scrub a few more. I must say -- for a little kitten, Sophie sure is one big BUSYBODY.
LeAnn R. Ralph