Grandma Stone's Lemon Meringue Pie

Grandma Stone makes the best lemon meringue pie in the whole world. My mom finally got the recipe from her (I've been begging for it for 10 years!), so I figured I better put it somewhere permanent so it will never get lost.

Grandma Stone's Lemon Meringue Pie

Prepared, baked pie shell

Filling:
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup lemon juice
3 egg yolks
1-2 Tablespoons lemon zest

Meringue:
3 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
6 Tablespoons sugar      

1. Mix filling ingredients and pour into pie shell. 
2. Beat egg whites, vanilla, and cream of tartar until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar until glossy, stiff peaks form and sugar is dissolved.
3. Top filling with meringue.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F for 12-15 minutes, until meringue is golden brown 

Mom's Shepherd Pie

Mom's Shepherd Pie

1/2 lb hamburger
1 can green beans, drained
1 can diced tomatoes, drained 
4 servings potato flakes
3/4 - 1 cup grated cheddar cheese

Brown hamburger and prepare potato flakes as directed on package. Layer ingredients in above order in a microwave safe casserole or bowl. Microwave for 8 minutes, til cheese is melted.   

Lauren's Pizza Dough

I got this recipe from one of my great friends, Lauren (thus the name). She uses it for both pizza and calzones.

Lauren's Pizza Dough

2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast (1 pkg)
1 cup warm water
2 1/2 cups flour
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Stir in remaining ingredients and knead until smooth. Let rest 5 minutes. Ready to go! Bake 15-20 minutes at 475 degrees F (or longer at lower temperature, like 30-35 minutes at 375 degrees F).

*******My notes: I usually use instant yeast, so I skip the dissolving the yeast part. This recipe will almost fill a jelly roll pan. Sometimes I add some garlic powder and italian seasonings to the dough to make it extra yummy.     

Birdseed Bread

My family found a birdseed bread that we really love. The only problem is that it is over $5 a loaf at the local farmer's market. I'm all about supporting local small businesses, but I knew that I could probably make bread similar to this for a fraction of the price. Here is what I came up with. It isn't exactly the same as the farmer's market bread, but we are happy with it. We'll just say that we have never eaten homemade bread as fast as the first batch of this was eaten.

Birdseed Bread
Adapted from here and here

2 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup oil
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon powdered ginger
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
2 Tablespoons gluten flour (or vital wheat gluten)
2 Tablespoons instant yeast
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup unsalted raw sunflower seeds
2 Tablespoons poppy seeds
2 Tablespoons cornmeal
2 Tablespoons sesame seeds
2 Tablespoons millet
2 Tablespoons amaranth
2 Tablespoons flax seeds
5 1/2 - 6 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour

1. Combine water, honey, oil, lemon juice, salt, and ginger in bowl of stand mixer. Add ground flaxseed, gluten, yeast, and rolled oats.
2. Add 3 cups flour and mix vigorously with paddle attachment until you can see a little bit of stretch. Add sunflower seeds, poppy seeds, cornmeal, sesame seeds, millet, amaranth, and flax seeds and mix until well incorporated. 
3. Switch to dough hook and add 2 more cups of flour and mix again. Add more flour as needed until dough comes together and clears sides of bowl. Knead about 10 minutes.
4. Transfer to an oiled bowl and cover; let rise until double in size.
5. Punch down and shape into three loaves. Cover with a towel and let rise until double.
6. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake 30-35 minutes; gently remove from pans and let cool on racks.

*****My notes: I haven't needed to use more than 5 cups of flour in this recipe. I'm not sure why, but I think it might be all of the added seeds and grains. If you don't have all of the different seeds and grains, use what you do have. This just happens to be what I have on hand and what I like in my bread. The original recipe for the bread base says to cook the bread in three 8" pans, but only have 9" pans. They worked fine, but the bread was just a little short (we could fit two pieces side by side in one toaster slot).