I've Got Nothin'

Damn.

The sun needs to shine.

My camera needs batteries.

I need a trip to the grocery.

The blog needs an update.

More soon. So very soon!

Awww, Pumpkin!

It's not just my nickname [thanks, mom] - it's the sweetest ingredient of the season.

I celebrated the cozy temp drop and baked a pie yesterday.

Pumpkin pecan.I can't credit any retro recipe. And the crust wasn't made by my loving hand. But any pie baked in your own oven is a throwback to the days when a woman's place was in the kitchen, and an apron was more than an accessory.

So pull yours on.

Pecan-topped Pumpkin Pie

• 2 deep-dish pie crusts
• 1-1/4 cups coarsely chopped pecans
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 15-ounce can pumpkin
• 1 12-ounce can evaporated milk
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3 eggs, slightly beaten
• 1-1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Prepare Deep-Dish Pie Pastry. Mix pecans and brown sugar in small bowl; place 3/4 cup pecan mixture in bottom of pie shell. Reserve remaining pecan mixture for topping. Combine pumpkin, half-and-half, granulated sugar, eggs, pumpkin pie spice, and salt in large bowl; mix well. Pour into prepared pie shell.

Bake for 50 minutes or until just set in center. Add butter to remaining pecan mixture; stir until moistened. Sprinkle pie filling with pecan mixture; bake for 10 minutes more or until topping bubbles around edges. Cool on wire rack.

Now, prove your love and share it with your fam.

My Friend Amy is Sharp

Get a load of this beauty. She's long, she's lean...A real food-chopping machine.
Amy, I dig my new-to-me chopper. I absolutely can not wait to cut its teeth on a recipe.

Your thrift is a gift!
...and so is nellielovesvintage.com

Maybe Later...

The only thing that's more fun than paging through a vintage cookbook of crazy, savory eats is finding hidden treasures stuck in the cracks.

Whoever held this Better Homes and Gardens Lunches and Brunches before me was keeping one eye on the 'book and one eye on their latest McCall's magazine. I found a few fun recipes and tips torn from its pages with jello molds, barbecue hosting and the perfect pie crust in mind.

Unfortunately, no drips, dribbles or drops have stained the articles. So I can't quite be convinced that they're as good as their word. Looks like this cook had the same "maybe later" attitude I do when I rip into my monthly mags - dog-earing this dish and that for a dinner that may [or may never] be.

But I'm motivated to try one of these [or one of my own] tear-outs.

Maybe later.

B L To-may-to/To-mah-to

Introducing the Cobb Salad's sixties stepsister...
Bacon 'n Tomato Salad
This popular flavor combination of a bacon-lettuce-and-tomato sandwich has been captured in this delicious salad. [Betty Crocker's Dinner in a Dish circa 1965]

Just what makes it so damn delicious, you ask?

• 1 head lettuce, torn into bite-sized pieces [why don't they do that at the salad bar?!?]
• 2 cups cubed cooked chicken
• 8-10 slices bacon, crisply fried [let's not go there - my carbon-dated bacon experiment hit the garbage at approx 11am and was replaced by it's grocery bacon-by-the-pound bits around 5p]
• 2 large tomatoes cut into eighths [godbless that fraction chapter in 2nd grade]
• 1 hard cooked egg, sliced [I opted for 3, my fam's cholestrol levels don't require a lipitor 'script - yet]
• Barbecue dressing [below]

Have lettuce and chicken well chilled. Combine in a bowl. Break bacon into large pieces and lightly toss [watch out for cigarette ash whilst tossing] with lettuce mixture. Top with chilled tomatoes and hard-cooked egg. Serve with [you guessed it] chilled Barbecue Dressing.

Wow. Never seen a recipe so dependent on the fridge chill factor, all molded salads aside.

Barbecue Dressing

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise or salad dressing [mmmm...mayo!]
  
• 1/4 c bottled barbecue sauce
• 1 tbsp instant minced onion
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper

Admittedly, I had never made my own salad dressing until this sassy, saucy suggestion came along. Glad I whisked it together, because this BLT-for-bunnies would have been missing some zip. Let's just say there's a reason someone from California crafted the Cobb soonafter. What I would have done for some avocado, 'n bleu cheese, 'n spouts, 'n ham. In short, I give you creative license to toss more - and more flavorful - 'ngredients into the Bacon 'n Tomato Salad.

Burn, Baby, Burn.

I burned the bacon.Kinda reminds you of the National Geographic Kids' "guess what the picture is" close-up, huh?

Here lies evidence of said bacon-burning event. It doesn't make the same statement that say, a bra-burning or book-burning would. All it does is give the dog something to lick when I let him out later.
But the salad will survive! Back to the grocery.

Light & Leafy

Salad was on sale this weekend at the grocery. Yep. I left off the word -store intentionally. Humor my retro-speak. As a result, I'm going to head [ooh, lettuce jokes] to the salad section of Betty Crocker's Dinner in a Dish cookbook circa '65 [thanks to Mandy's mom]. But I don't know what recipe to adDRESS [more salad humor].

Help.
Vote.
For:

• Bacon 'n Tomato Salad
• Tuna on a Shoestring
• Fruited Chicken Salad
• All-In-One Salad [which, oddly enough, includes both canned green beans AND sweet pickle relish]

The sooner you vote, the sooner my fam can tear [again, har - although maybe it's not so funny since I feel like I have to practically footnote each limp lettuce joke] into a salad this week!

Have a swell Sunday eve -

h