Butterscotch Bread Pudding

I LOVE bread pudding, so I was pretty excited about this one. It didn't specify what kind of bread to use, so I figured I couldn't go wrong with challah. The recipe stated the bread needed to be stale, so I looked up how to make bread go stale quickly, and saw that I should cut it up and put it on to some kind of rack where air could hit it on all sides.


The next day, I got all the other ingredients together. This is what you need:

2 tablespoons margarine
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
2 cups milk
2 eggs
a pinch of salt
(and the stale bread cubes should be about 2 cups, and about a half inch)

I had no idea how you made butterscotch but I was pretty sure it would involve scotch, so I wondered if something was left out of the recipe.

You melt the margarine in a pan, add the sugar, and heat until well blended. Then dissolve the baking soda in the milk, and add this gradually to the sugar mixture. Stir until well blended, and then set aside to cool. In another bowl, beat the eggs lightly. Then add salt and the cooled milk and sugar mixture. Put the bread cubes into a greased baking dish and pour the custard over it. This is what it looked like:


Then you bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes. When it came out, it looked like this:


It was slightly burnt on the bottom, but I was hopeful that I didn't ruin it. I put some in a bowl with some whipped cream and tasted it.


Delicious! A little bread-y, I may have had more bread cubes than needed. But I didn't mind that. And it tasted like butterscotch. I took some to work the next day for my coworkers to sample.


Left to right - Corienne, Ruth, and Jeanette.

They seemed to like it too. And we looked up what's in butterscotch, and it turns out it's just butter and brown sugar. Mystery solved.


Yours truly.

Next week - cheesy buffalo chicken dip, for the Super Bowl (go Giants!).

Sausage and Apple Stuffed Squash

Baking has historically gone better for me than cooking. So when I attempted the first meal from my Grammy's recipes I was quite nervous.

This is what you will need for this meal:
2 medium acorn squashes
Salt
Water
1 pound of sausage meat (the recipe said pork, but I used turkey)
2 large tart apples, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup of fine dry bread crumbs
2 tablespoons of packed brown sugar
1/2 a teaspoon of salt
1/8 a teaspoon of pepper

First, halve the squashes lengthwise and scrape out the seeds and stringy pulp. In a deep large skillet bring 1/2 inch of lightly salted water to a boil and then add the squashes cut side down. Cover and steam for about 20 minutes or until almost tender. This was new to me - I had cooked acorn squash before in the oven with butter and brown sugar, but never prepared them first in the skillet. It worked great but the water actually evaporated before the 20 minutes was up and it started to smell like the squashes may have started to burn a little. Luckily that wasn't the case. I put them cut side up in the baking dish like the recipe said.


My apples and monkey peeler.

In the same skillet, over medium heat, cook the sausage and break it up with a spoon (I used a spatula, it seemed to work better) until brown. Drain off all but one tablespoon of fat, then stir in apples, bread crumbs, brown sugar, salt, pepper, and two tablespoons of water or enough to moisten the mixture slightly (I had to add about 4-5 tablespoons). Pack the mixture into the squash cavities (sounds gross).


The recipe says that some of the mixture will fall into the baking dish, which was a huge understatement. I think I had used slightly more sausage than it had called for, and so I probably had enough mixture for another entire squash. But I just ended up serving the extra filling with the stuffed squashes which was just fine.

Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 30 minutes or until apples and squashes are tender. After 30 minutes I tasted one of the apple pieces to see if it was soft, and I was a little concerned because I think I had a particularly salty piece and the taste was a little off. But good news - when we tasted the final product, it was absolutely delicious.


I had some guests over to share this dinner with me, and this was the aftermath:


Looks like everyone enjoyed it!

Next week - butterscotch bread pudding!

Peach Cobbler

I decided to start with what looked like a fairly easy one. The peach cobbler looked pretty straight forward.

Start by melting a stick of butter (yeah, that's right) in a baking dish (it didn't specify but I used a 7.6" x 7.6") in a 350 degree oven. Mix together 1 cup sugar, 3/4 cup of milk, 3/4 cup of flour, and 1 tsp of baking powder. Pour the batter over the melted butter and do not stir. Place 2 cups of fresh sliced peaches on top of the batter, and do not stir. It should look something like this:


Stick it in the oven and bake for 40-50 minutes.

I was pretty nervous - in the past, I have somehow always followed directions exactly and still whatever I was making didn't come out exactly right. And as I checked on the cobbler, it was looking more and more pie like and not as cobbler-y as I had imagined, and I thought for sure I had failed at my first attempt. But then my timer went off, and I pulled this out of my stove:


Looked pretty good! And the smell was unreal. I could really get used to my apartment smelling like this.

The recipe stated it should be served warm with vanilla ice cream, so I let it cool for a few minutes and then put some in a bowl with a couple scoops.


I am pleased to report that it was delicious (how could it not be with that much butter). Jeanette came over to sample it too, and I got the thumbs up.


Success! Grammy didn't let me down. More importantly, I didn't let her down.

Next week - sausage and apple stuffed squash!

Resolutions

My Grammy and I may have not talked on the phone very often, and seen each other only on holidays in recent years, but we loved each other very much. On New Years Day, I got the shocking news that she had died quite suddenly and unexpectedly. This was a woman who lived by herself, still drove, and was very healthy and active. She played bingo, was an avid bird watcher, and even shot squirrels from her porch (she lived in the middle of the woods, in a beautiful cabin that my Pop Pop had built himself).


Four generations - My Great-Grandmother and namesake Emily, my Mom, my Grammy, and me in 1982.

On top of all of this, she was also an amazing cook. Everything she made tasted absolutely delicious, even just a pizza or a ham sandwich. When we were going through her things last weekend, I noticed two big boxes full of her recipes. When I asked if I could have them, I was pleasantly surprised when I was told yes. I thought for sure I would have to fight for them.

I do like to cook but I've never been great at it. But looking through all the recipes, I felt inspired. This is how I could honor her memory and keep her spirit alive. And so I made probably the most meaningful New Years resolution I ever have - I am going to conquer one recipe each week and document it here. I hope to accompany them with stories I remember about my childhood and my Grammy. And I will of course post the recipes so you can try them yourself.

I am going to start this weekend with a peach cobbler. Wish me luck!