Oakrest

Thanks Aunt Nettie for hosting a FUN weekend at Oakrest! It was the ultimate hootenanny and a good time was had by all! Here are some of the pictures from the fun weekend!

Strawberry Lemonade Recipe

Several asked for the recipe after Jen's shower Tuesday night. This is the original recipe and I panicked a little that I didn't make enough so I ended up adding one package of Strawberry Kool-Aid, I just made it up per the directions and added it to a double batch of the strawberry lemonade below. The strawberry lemonade is good on it's own as well.

Strawberry Lemonade
1 ½ cup sugar
4 cups water
2 cups fresh strawberries, hulled
1 tbsp. finely shredded lemon peel
1 cup lemon juice (4-5 lemons)

1. In a small saucepan combine 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of the water; cook and stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Set aside to cool.
2. In a blender combine 3 cups of the water, ½ cup sugar and the strawberries; process until smooth. Transfer to a 2-quart pitcher. Add cooled syrup, lemon peel and lemon juice. Stir to combine. Fill pitcher with crushed ice and serve.

Make-ahead tip: Prepare lemonade but do not add ice. Cover and chill up to 8 hours. Add ice and serve.

Southern Pound Cake

Just posting a couple of Oxborrow family favorites (both of which I made recently for Graham's birthday!).

2 cups sugar

1/2 lb. butter

6 eggs (let sit at room temperature for at least 20 minutes)

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. lemon extract or lemon zest

2 cups plain flour

Cream sugar and butter together until lemony colored. Add eggs one at a time, beat on highest speed for 100 strokes or about one minute for each egg. Add vanilla and lemon extract. Add flour a little at a time until blended well. Pour batter in a greased and floured bundt pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes and then turn down to 325 degrees for about 40 minutes more or until done. Let cool for 5-10 minutes and then turn pan over. Serve with fruit and whip cream or ice cream.

Texas Sheet Cake

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1/2 cup shortening

1 cup water

1/4 cup cocoa

1/2 cup buttermilk

2 eggs

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. vanilla

Frosting:

1/2 cup butter or margarine

2 tbls. cocoa

1/4 cup milk

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1. In large bowl, combine flour and sugar.

2. In heavy saucepan, combine butter, shortening, water and cocoa. Stir and heat to boiling.

3. Pour boiling mixture over flour and sugar in the bowl. Add buttermilk, eggs, baking soda and vanilla.

4. Mix well using a wooden spoon or high speed on electric mixer.

5. Pour into well-buttered 17 1/2 x 1 inch jelly roll pan.

6. Bat at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or till brownies test done in the center.

7. While brownies bake, prepare frosting. In a saucepan combine butter, cocoa and milk. Heat to boiling, stirring.

8. Mix in the powdered sugar and vanilla until frosting is smooth.

9. Pour warm frosting over brownies as soon as out of oven.

Raspberry pie filling

Here's the recipe for the raspberry pie filling. It's from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook.

5 cups of raspberries, fresh or frozen
3/4 to 1 cup sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons finely shredded lemon peel or 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (we used the lemon peel)

In large bowl, combine sugar and flour. Stir in berries and and lemon peel. Gently toss berries until coated. (If using frozen fruit, let mixture stand for 45 minutes or until fruit is partially thawed but still icy.)

Toasted Coconut Cream Pie

2 small pkgs. vanilla instant pudding

2 cups milk

1 small container Cool Whip

1 tsp. vanilla

about 2 1/2 cups coconut

Mix milk and pudding together, set aside for a few minutes. Toast coconut in the oven - spread on a lightly greased cookie sheet and bake until light brown (I did 350 degrees and just watched it carefully), let cool. Add Cool Whip and vanilla to pudding mixture while coconut is toasting. Add coconut to mixture - be sure to leave some to sprinkle on the top of the pie. Spread mixture into a baked pastry shell and top with coconut.

Makes enough filling for 2 pies.

Never Fail Pie Crust

This is my mom's recipe she uses for all her pies. (see examples below)

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup shortening

1 egg

1 Tbls. vinegar

1/4 cup cold water

Blend together flour, salt and shortening until formation of big crumbs. In a separate bowl, beat together egg, vinegar and water. Add to crumb mixture and mix together.

This makes 3 pie shells (for cream pies or other) or 2 two crust pies (any berry, apple, etc.) Cut dough in amount of crusts you are making and roll out to make pastry shell.

Bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

Notes:

1. When making a two crust pie put a little milk on the top crust with your finger to make the crust golden brown.

2. Just because this claims to be "Never Fail" I actually failed on Saturday with one. We think it was because when doing a shell for a cream pie I didn't poke the holes through the crust good enough. Make sure the holes go all the way through.

3. My mom once told me not to knead the dough too much, that makes it less flaky and not as good. So when mixing the dough do it just enough so everything is blended/mixed well.

UPDATE (05.19.10): My mom said I should clarify a couple of things. You only poke holes in the crust when doing a single crust for a cream pie. When doing a two crust pie you cut slits in the top crust, see the raspberry and blueberry pies in the post below.

Also a two crust pie needs to be baked for 30-35 minutes.

Sorry for the confusion!