Merry Christmas!
I am disappointed in myself for not having blogged since November 11. Thankfully, I have been very busy supply teaching.
From December 24 until New Year’s Day, I am visiting my family in Windsor. I have not seen my sister Kathryn since December 2010!
My mother hosted a Christmas Eve dinner, a Christmas Day lunch, a Christmas Day dinner and a Boxing Day dinner for our family. Mom cooked a lot of vegetarian food for Kathryn and me.
Our Aunt Charmaine, our grandmother’s cousin, loves to bake and cook. She baked pumpkin pie for us for Christmas Day. I asked her for her special pie crust recipe, plus her favourite banana bread recipe. I figured that I would post them as a blog entry, so that I can remember them and share them with others. Christmas Vacation didn’t start until December 26, so thankfully all of us teachers and students have another entire blissful week of vacation! Next week, I plan on cooking and baking. Hopefully, I will bake Aunt Charmaine’s banana bread and a pie using her pie pastry and be able to post photos!
Aunt Charmaine’s Pie Pastry Recipe
Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 cup Crisco vegetable shortening
1 teaspoon salt
Directions:
Combine flour, vegetable shortening and salt, cutting the ingredients up in small pieces.
Add six tablespoons of cold water.
Blend altogether. (Aunt Charmaine uses her hands with flour on them.)
Divide into two balls.
Roll out with a rolling pin.
*This recipe makes two 9″ pie crusts.
Alternatively, place one pie shell on the bottom of the pie plate. Add the pie filling. Place the other pie crust on the top. Seal around the edges.
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Aunt Charmaine’s Banana Bread Recipe
Ingredients:
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
2 eggs (I don’t eat eggs, so I’ll be using either yogurt or ground flax seeds with water instead.)
1 cup mashed bananas
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Directions:
Cream the shortening, gradually adding the sugar into the mixture. Beat thoroughly.
Add the mashed banana.
In a separate bowl, thoroughly mix the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda and vanilla.
Blend in sifted dry ingredients into the wet mixture.
Fold in the chopped walnuts.
Pour into a greased baking pan.
Push batter into corners of pan, leaving the centre slightly lower.
Allow to stand 2o minutes before baking.
Bake in oven at 350 degrees for one hour.
Happy New Year! Joyful 2012!
-Jennie