Pie, Crusts, and Coconut

I love refrigerator pie crust.
It allows a pitiful, fumbling pie maker, like myself, to actually create a pretty respectable pie.
Before using refrigerator pie crust, the crust for my pies was like a tough, chewy, sole on the feet of my pies.
Cream pies have been my latest attempts. I made a coconut cream pie for my father-in-law...

A vanilla cream pie to take to my friend's for game night...

...and a beautiful White Christmas Pie (from my great grandmother's 1950 Betty Crocker Cookbook), which, if you can believe it, I forgot to take a picture of!

However, my husband pointed out that if you've seen one picture of a cream pie, you've seen them all.
His belief is that pies are for eating, not photographing.
I apologize for exposing you to his rustic beliefs.

Pioneer Macaroni and Cheese

I have mentioned my great-grandmother's 1950 Betty Crocker Cook Book in this blog before. One of the recipes from this wonderful book that my family always requests is Pioneer Macaroni and Cheese.
It is not a creamy mac and cheese (although the cook book does give a creamy variation of the recipe). It is more like a noodle custard that is absolutely yummy!
The ingredients are noodles, cheese, eggs, milk, butter and salt and pepper. What could be simpler than that?

Here are these simple ingredients ready to be combined and then baked. You can see this most useful of cook books in the background.
After being combined and baked for about 1 hour, here is what you get.

It is as scrumptious as it looks.
Here is the basic recipe.
Boil 12 oz. of pasta (your choice of type) I used bow-tie this time, but I have used ziti, elbow, whatever I have on hand. While pasta is boiling, cube up 2 cups of sharp cheddar cheese into 1 inch cubes. Combine 2 eggs, 3 cups of milk and salt and pepper to taste. Once the pasta is cooked and drained combine it with the cheese in a large baking dish. Pour the milk and egg mixture over all. Dot the top with about a tablespoon of butter. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes to an hour. It takes an hour in my oven.
Try this simple, wonderful, comfort food with a salad for dinner soon.

Christmas Cinnamon Rolls

Need I say more?
Alas, I cannot take credit for these beautiful, cinnamonny, sweet, food of the gods.
My beautiful, sweet, not so cinnamonny, daughter made them for our Christmas morning breakfast.
She made them using the cinnamon roll recipe from my absolute favorite cookbook.
The 1950 Betty Crocker Cookbook
More to come about this prize possession of mine in a later blog entry.
The dough was prepared and allowed to rise on Christmas Eve.
The next morning she got up bright and early to create the beautiful creation you see above.

The rolls were delicious and disappeared quickly. My father-in-law had four.
The most amazing thing is she baked these in an oven that is suffering from a temperature control problem. The oven temp had to be set on 410 degrees in order for them to bake correctly.
The oven will hopefully be repaired today.