Dessert Recipe: Snickerdoodle Pie

I made two of these yesterday...one for Tyler's cakewalk at the kid's Harvest Festival and the other for us to try, because you can't send a new recipe anywhere without trying it first, right? ;) It was soooo good and the aroma coming out of my kitchen yesterday was amazing! The recipe is a little involved, but so worth it. It's a cross between a cake and a snickerdoodle cookie all rolled into one and baked in a pie. Healthy it's not, but everything in moderation! I forgot to take a picture of it before we cut ours and Tyler took his to school, so here's a picture from the Better Homes and Garden's website, where I found the recipe. Enjoy!

Snickerdoodle Pie

Prep time: 40 min.

Baking time: ~44 min. (depending on your oven, see note at the bottom)

Cooling time: 30 min.

Stand time: 30 min.

Ingredients:

1 recipe Single-Crust Pie Pastry, or 1 rolled refridgerated unbaked pie crust (1/2 of a 15 oz. package)--I actually used a frozen 9-inch deep dish pie crust in pan, thawed, and it turned out fine

1 Tbsp. raw or course sugar

1/2 + 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon, divided

2 tsp. butter, melted

1/2 c. packed brown sugar

1/4 c. butter

3 Tbsp. water

2 Tbsp. light colored corn syrup

1/2 + 1 tsp. vanilla extract, divided

1/4 c. butter, softened

1/2 c. granulated sugar

1/4 c. powdered sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

1 egg

1/2 c. milk

1 1/4 c. flour

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. For the crust: Prepare pastry and line a 9-inch pie plate with crust. In a small bowl, combine raw or course sugar with 1/2 tsp. cinnamon. Brush melted butter over unbaked pie crust and sprinkle with 1 tsp. of the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Set aside.

For the syrup: combine brown sugar, 1/4 c. butter, water, corn syrup, and 1/4 tsp. cinnamon in a saucepan. Heat to boiling over medium heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Boil gently for two minutes. Remove from heat and stir in 1/2 tsp. vanilla. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat the 1/4 c. of softened butter with a mixer on medium speed for 30 secondes. Beat in granular sugar, powdered sugar, baking powder, salt, and cream of tartar until well blended. Beat in egg and 1 tsp. vanilla extract. Gradually beat in milk until combined. Beat in flour. Spread evenly in unbaked crust.

Very slowly, pour syrup over pie filling in crust. Sprinkle remaining cinnamon-sugar mixture over the pie. Cover crust edges with foil.

Bake at 350 degrees F. for 25 minutes*(see note at bottom), then carefully remove foil and bake for 20 more, or until top is puffed and golden brown, and a toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool for 30 minutes on rack. Serve warm. Makes 10 servings.

Nutritional Information:

Calories 385, Total Fat (g) 17, Saturated Fat (g) 8, Cholesterol (mg) 49, Sodium (mg) 289, Carbohydrate (g) 53, Fiber (g) 1, Protein (g) 4, Vitamin C (DV%) 0, Calcium (DV%) 4, Iron (DV%) 9, Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet

*By the way, I had to add an extra 10 minutes to each the 25 and the 20 minute baking times, thus making the total baking time to be an hour and 5 minutes. Please adjust the baking times to your ovens at home.

Noooo!

I am devistated! In my hunger haze, I found myself checking out the Zippys online menu to salivate over the pictures, and then clicked over to the online ordering site...

Are you kidding?! Is this a bad joke? How could you do this to us mainland people? Now where will I order my dobash and haupia cakes? Luckily, there's an Asian grocery market here that has frozen Zippys chili, hamburger curry, and napples, as well as other Hawaii favorites. That's not the point, though! :( I am truly sad. (sigh) I can't take this...I need a nap!

Fasting...Ugh!

Later this afternoon, I have to go and get some blood work done at the doctor's office, so I'm fasting today and hating it. :( I haven't eaten since 8:30 last night! Hello?! I'm from Hawaii and Hawaii people were not made to fast. It's just not in our DNA. It's only supposed to be a 12 hour fast, but I wanted to wait until Alex could take me and that won't be until this afternoon. Ugh, I have a hunger headache! I'm also diabetic...is this even healthy for me? I thought they said that I couldn't skip meals? AND WHY ARE THERE SO MANY FOOD COMMERCIALS ON TV?! I'm sorry. I promised that I wouldn't complain in my blogs so much. Today's just not a good day.

I'm constantly running a mental list in my head today, of things that I want to eat after my blood tests. So far everything is Filipino food such as dinuguan, bangus, pinakbet, puto, kusinta, rice, beef sinigang, beef caldereta, etc. I'd go for Zippys too if they had that here--zip pack, chili frank, beef curry, zip min, oxtail soup, fried noodles, wun tun min, katsu, surf pack, broasted chicken (do they still have that? Or is it just fried now?), hamburger steak, teriyaki... Ooh, Korean food sounds so ono as well! Korea House! I'll take the dinner combination #1 with the bbq chicken, beef and pork, with a side of mundoo, some bi bim bap and soju. Don't forget my sides--kim chi, pickled turnip, seaweed, etc., and extra cucumber kim chi please! I see a comfort food pattern developing. By the way, does anyone know a recipe for those triangular Chinese rice cakes that the manapua man sells? I miss those. I tried to make it once but it was a bad recipe and it came out to be more of a weird looking mochi than a rice cake. E-mail me if you have a recipe. :) Ok, I have to stop talking about food because all I have is my trusty Evian bottle for the day. Hmph!

On a serious note, this makes me thankful that my family and I have a good place to live, and we're not out on the streets wondering where our next meal is coming from. Thank you God for providing a good life for us, and giving us the blessings that you do each day.

Spam Wha?

Spam hot dogs? Are you kidding me? These were spotted at Costco in Hawaii, of course! Hawaii people love Spam! Spam musubis, fried spam with eggs and rice, teriyaki spam, grilled spam at the beach, spam spam spam! I remember going grocery shopping with my mom when I was little and we would stock up on a case or two of spam when it was on sale. In our house, it was like toilet paper. If there was a good sale and the store had a limit, my mom, my sister and myself would have to stand in line so that we could stock up without being limited. At one time, we had 9 people in the house, so imagine how much food Mom and Dad had to buy!

Spam hot dogs though? I think I'm a little scared to try this. I don't even do the spam burger recipe on the back of the regular spam can. It's uncharted territory...unsailed waters venturing into the Burmuda Triangle! It could ruin my love of spam! Sorry, I had a melodromatic moment. Inhale. Exhale. Balance. I wonder if we'll get this here on the mainland?

Has anyone tried this? E-mail or comment and give me a review!

Just Do It

Whatever your political affiliation and whomever you choose, please register to vote. If you don't vote, you have no right to complain about what's going on in the country. We can all agree that a change needs to be made. Make a difference and make your vote count! Deadline is October 20, 2008.

And for those that are registered...although the options may not be ideal, please vote anyway, even if you feel like abstaining from this election. Try and find the best person that you feel could turn our country around. A no vote may be a vote that we could regret later. We all need to help bring back the excitement of voting again!

Thank you for listening to my public service announcement! :)

Just Thinkin' and Bloggin'

I love my husband! I mean I really REALLY love my husband! :) I was so blessed with the greatest husband in the world. He's done so much for the family, not to mention so much for me. I don't know anyone that has been so active in their children's lives since even before the kids were born. To this very day, he's never missed a doctor's appointment. He got up in the middle of the night for the babies feedings. He changed diapers as much as I did. He's bathed and fed them. He chaperones field trips, helps out with homework, attends awards assemblies, gets them up, breakfast and to school. He's never missed any sporting events. He cooks, cleans, and does dishes. He shops for groceries. He does the laundry. He's so awesome, and I've only begun to scratch the surface.

I can't count the endless times that he's taken care of me because of my back and other health problems. He's taken days off to take care of me and often has to take on all of the responsibilities here because I am unable to. He's also taken days off just for "our time". He telecommuted from the mall while he stood in line for 6+ hours at the Apple store so I could have my iPhone, while Tyler and I stayed home. Most recently, he took this past Wednesday off just so we could spend some time together. Oh, and remember a few posts ago, and how I called him the "warden of the womb"? Well, he's still not ready, but we haven't been NOT trying either...just for me. ;) How lucky am I, right? I don't know how I deserved him, but I'm glad that we are together forever.

Thank you Alex, for being you, for being ours, and for being mine. :)

$700 billion is still less than $810 billion right?

The Senate has passed another bailout package, this time at $810 billion instead of $700 billion. This time the bill is "laden with pork", including:

• $223M for Alaskan fisherman
• $192M for rum producers in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands
• $128M for auto racing
• $33M for companies operating in American Samoa
• $10M for film & TV production
• $6M for producers of wooden arrows

Rum producers?! Wooden arrow manufacturers?! Are you kidding me? That entire list is ridiculous and unbelievable! This is where our money is going...money that could benefit someone that actually needs it? I am dumbfounded! How many of these bills that have been previously passed has crap like this in it? And wasn't one of the reasons why they voted against the previously proposed bill was because $700 billion was just too much money? I don't get it. We'll see if this one is passed...

I'm off to sit in the backyard and whittle arrows out of pencils so I can qualify for part of that $6 million!