Happy New Year!

I just wanted to extend a heartfelt HELLO! to everyone! May you have joy in your hearts and may peace surround you all in the new year. Happy 2012! This will be a new year of recipes, stories of family, sharing of art and music from Millie's Cafe. Cheers!

Millie's Rhubarb Custard Pie

This recipe is the kind of recipe that is so perfect, I'll never want to alter it in any way! My grandmother made this for me when I was little and I can still see her pouring the filling into the pie shell. So when I made this pie again recently, and that same image came back as I poured my filling into the shell, I knew I had captured the recipe perfectly. My Mother and I researched a few years back to make sure this was the exact recipe my Grandmother would make, and sure enough, it is! For all you rhubarb fans, here is a keeper of a recipe! And someday when I have my own Millie's Cafe, this will be my signature pie on the menu dedicated to my Grandmother. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

4 cups chopped rhubarb (the size of your thumb nail)
3 eggs (slightly beaten)
2 cups sugar
2&2/3 Tbsp. milk (almost 3 Tbsp.)
4 Tbsp. flour
3/4 tsp. nutmeg

Line your deep dish pie pan with your pie crust (see pie crust recipe in archives). Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
In a large bowl beat 3 eggs slightly. Add sugar, milk, flour and nutmeg and stir well. Add rhubarb to mixture and stir again to incorporate everything together. Pour into your pie shell. Brush your pie crust with either egg wash or milk and sprinkle with a little sugar. Bake for 45 minutes at 400 degrees then reduce oven to 350 degrees and bake for another 45 minutes, low and slow. Every oven is different, it may take less/more time. Check the center to make sure the custard is cooked fully. Let cool for 10 minutes before serving. You may want to cover the sides of your crust with tinfoil or a manufactured pie crust cover during the second half of the cooking so your crust doesn't burn. Enjoy!

Blueberry Pancakes

This pancake recipe yields 6 large or 8-10 small thick golden crusty pancakes that will knock your socks off! This is another Millie's original.

Ingredients:

1 egg
1 cup flour
1 cup milk
1 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil or melted butter
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup blueberries
1 Tbsp. flour
1 Tbsp. butter for cooking pancakes

Put blueberries, 1 Tbsp. flour and cinnamon in small bowl and gently stir together so the berries are coated. In another bowl mix all other ingredients and mix until blended. Fold in blueberries carefully. Heat a griddle or pan on medium high heat. Once heated, back down the heat to medium low, and add 1 Tbsp. butter and melt. Drop 1/4 cup +/- of pancake mix on hot griddle spaced 2" apart. Once you start to see bubbles popping in the batter (about 3 minutes), flip them over. Cook the other side for about 3 minutes and flip again. Do this for 2 more minutes. You want the butter to create a nice crust on each side of the pancake. Serve with warmed real maple syrup and sprinkle with sifted confectionary sugar.

Gingerbread for Two

Here is a Millie's original. It's the perfect little moist gingerbread to have around for the family. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup melted butter
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
dash salt
1/2 cup boiling water (put in last)

Mix all ingredients in a bowl ending with the boiling water. Mix well. Bake in a greased 8 x 8 pan at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Mmm mmm mmm!

White Pizza

I like to balance my pizza intake with one pizza with red sauce and one without. Here is my favorite one without.

Ingredients:

1/8 cup olive oil
4 cloves garlic sliced thinly
1 yellow pepper sliced thinly
1/2 roasted red pepper sliced in small bits
1/4 cup mozzarella
1/4 cup goat cheese
chopped fresh basil
fresh s&p to taste

Coat your pizza pan by brushing on a little olive oil. Line pan with your pizza crust. Brush liberally with olive oil onto the crust. Add sliced garlic, yellow pepper, roasted red pepper, mozzarella cheese, goat cheese, basil and top with a little s&p. Drizzle the top with the rest of your olive oil. Bake at 450 degree oven for 15-20 minutes depending on the thickness of your crust and the heat of your oven. Crust should be a light golden brown on the bottom and edge when done.

Pizza Crust

Think of making this recipe as an improvisational piece of music. You know the ingredients and the order of things, but in the end, you put in just the right amount of flour, no more no less, according to how it comes together on that day. You'll get to know the feeling of what it should look like and it'll come out great every time!

Ingredients:

3/4 cup milk
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. honey
1/8 tsp. salt
3/4 boiling water
flour (about 4 cups give or take 1/4 cup)

In a bowl add all ingredients EXCEPT the flour, stir. Add flour to bowl one cup at a time, stirring until mixed with every cup added. In the end the dough should be a round ball that is a little sticky but manageable. Roll on a floured board with a rolling pin until about 12" in diameter OR cut the dough in half and make two smaller pizzas. This crust is better as a thin to medium thin style pizza, so my family and I tend to make two pizzas that are on the thinner side and add fresh ingredients for pizza toppings.

Denver Chocolate Pudding

This is a recipe that has been named many things. I stumbled upon it shortly after moving to Denver. It's a recipe in my Fannie Farmer cookbook, the very one that my grandmother Mildred gave to me, and the same cookbook that my mother Arolyn gave to her. Anyway, that's another story. This recipe caught my eye because of it's name. Naturally I had to try it. IT WAS EXCELLENT! My family and I devoured this delicious fudge like cake dessert in one evening. Tonight as I'm looking in my cookbook to make this again, I open up my Marjorie Standish cookbook this time, only Marjorie calls it Easy Fudge Cake. I've heard some people call it Lava Cake too. So there you go! My twist on it is simple. I use all organic ingredients, and add a smidge of nutmeg and cinnamon. Viola! Denver Chocolate Pudding!

Ingredients:

Batter:
1 cup organic flour
3/4 cup organic white sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
3 Tbsp. cocoa
2 Tbsp. butter
1/2 cup organic milk
1 tsp. vanilla
smidge of freshly ground nutmeg
smidge of cinnamon

Topping:
1/2 cup organic white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 Tbsp. cocoa
1 1/2 cups coffee OR water (psssttt "use the coffee")

On low heat melt the butter and cocoa in small pan until melted. Set aside. In a bowl sift together flour, white sugar, baking powder and salt. Add melted chocolate, milk, vanilla, nutmeg and cinnamon together into the sifted ingredients and stir. This batter will be very thick, don't be alarmed. Place batter in a 8 x 8 buttered pyrex pan spreading evenly. Sprinkle all four topping ingredients over the top of the batter, one topping at a time, in no particular order. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 40 minutes. You won't believe how beautiful the chemistry of this bubbling chocolate delight works. It's outstanding! Enjoy!