Justina's banana bread

One of the nicest compliments I ever got from my dad was that a batch of banana bread I'd made was the closest I'd ever come to duplicating his grandmother's bread. This is hard to resist straight out of the oven.


1/2 cup shortening (this is about the only time I use margarine)
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla (I use more like a tablespoon of my favorite Mexican vanilla)
1/2 teaspoon salt (sometimes I use this and sometimes I don't)
2 cups sifted flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 tablespoons sour milk (add 1/4 teaspoon vinegar and let sour)
3 mashed bananas

Cream shortening and sugar. Add eggs, then vanilla, then milk. Sift dry ingredients together and beat in. Fold in mashed bananas. Bake at 350 for 50-55 minutes. Makes one large or 2-3 small pans.

Toots' Blueberry Pie

The pie I most strongly associate with my grandmother is her blueberry pie. It was the one she taught me how to make when I was about 5 and is still my favorite. I was lucky enough to find some really nice late winter berries and couldn't resist getting an early taste of summer. I think this is based on a recipe for double blueberry pie in a brochure from the Michigan blueberry council.

Start by baking a pie shell. Prick the bottom and sides of the crust or it will have air bubbles.

In a medium sauce pan, combine 3/4 cup sugar and 3T cornstarch (a little more if you want your pie a little firmer). Add 1/4 cup water (I usually start with a little less than that and add if necessary) and about 2 cups of blueberries.


Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil and is thickened.


The mixture should be clear and very thick.

Remove from heat and stir in 1T butter and 1T lemon juice. In a pinch you can use key lime juice in place of lemon - it gives a slightly softer flavor.

Place 2 cups of uncooked blueberries in the cooked pie crust.

Spread cooked berry mixture on top. Be sure to spread all the way across the top of the pie to seal the edges to the crust.

My grandfather always finished it off by adding our first name initial in whipped cream but I think it is just as good plain.

Toot's Bacardi Rum Cake

This was a favorite of mine as a kid - Grammy only made it for holidays and I loved it. It felt like a very grown up treat. Both kids loved it and I caught my 9 year old "trimming" a piece meant to go to my dad so she could get just a little more!





Cake:
1 cup chopped pecans
1 18 1/2 oz box yellow cake mix (do NOT get one that says pudding in the mix)
1 3 3/4 oz box instant vanilla pudding
4 eggs
1/2 cup cold water
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I use canola)
1/2 cup dark rum

Preheat oven to 325. Grease and flour a 10" tube or 12" bundt pan. I sprayed mine with nonstick spray and then coated with flour and the cake popped right out of the pan. Normally I would skip the flour but in this case it is worth the effort. Sprinkle the nuts on the bottom of the prepared pan. Mix all cake ingredients together and pour batter over the nuts. Bake one hour or until a toothpick inserted close to the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan. Invert the cake onto a serving plate. Prick the top with a fork or skewer. I also pricked a few spots on the sides.

Glaze:
1 stick butter
1/4 cup water
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark rum

Melt butter in a saucepan. Stir in water and sugar. Boil 5 minutes, stirring constantly so it doesn't burn. Remove from heat and stir in rum. Spoon and brush glaze evenly over top and sides. Allow cake to absorb glaze. Repeat until glaze is used up.

Tillie's Cherry Custard Pie

In honor of President's Day, I decided to make my first foray into the family recipe box be cherry custard pie. I have seen many custard pie recipes but have never found this one in print. It was a struggle to get the recipe out of my nearly 90 year old aunt 20 some years ago. I recently found several copies in Grammy's army green metal recipe box but since it is my dad's favorite pie I am glad I made the effort to get it from Sis. According to Grammy's notes, her mother won a flour company baking contest with this recipe.

Tillie's Cherry Custard Pie
Drain 1 can unsweetened pie cherries (you want to use red tart cherries packed in water) and put in a small saucepan. Add 2/3 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons cornstarch (or 5 tablespoons flour) and 1 tablespoon butter.

Cook over medium heat, stirring so the cherries don't burn.

The cherry mixture will become thick and clear. Remove from heat and cool slightly before spreading in an unbaked pie shell.

In a medium bowl, crack 2 large or 3 medium eggs. See those little white bits? I like to remove those so my custard doesn't wind up with chewy white spots. The easiest way to remove those (or little pieces of shell) is to use the eggshell itself. It cuts through the egg white and does the job much more effectively than a spoon.

Beat the eggs with a whisk, then add 1/3 cup of sugar and 1 3/4 cups of milk.

Finally, add vanilla. The recipe calls for 1 teaspoon but I always use a tablespoon. I also swear by this vanilla - it is the best by far and I am convinced it is why my Christmas sugar cookies are so popular. It is from Blue Cattle Truck Trading Co (available at www.mexicanvanilla.com) and has even been featured on the Martha Stewart show. Not cheap but worth every penny!

Pour the custard mixture over the cherries. The trick is to hold a spoon over the cherries and pour the custard onto the spoon so it will splatter gently over the cherries and remain on top.

The recipe says to bake at 350 for 45 minutes but that is never long enough in my experience. Sometimes I bake it for 60 minutes and sometimes I give it a 15 minute head start at 400 and then turn the oven down to 350. The pie is done when a knife inserted into the custard comes out clean. Sometimes a little cherry juice will bubble up onto the top of the pie but I think that just adds character.

This pie is delicious warm out of the oven but it is also cool and refreshing out of the fridge the next few days - if it lasts that long!