Creative Juices

Last month my sister and nephews were in town and we ate together at Perkins. My sister had a piece of pie that sounded delicious, but I didn’t try it. I typically order a pie that I will never make myself – like French Silk or Key Lime. This pie was a strawberry pie with a layer of custard in the bottom.

Today, I decided to try making a similar pie. I found a recipe for custard pie, cut the ingredients in half and baked it in a larger pie pan than the full recipe requested. I then took my normal strawberry pie and put that on top of the custard.

I do not see myself as a creative person. My biggest hindrance to creativity seems to be coming up with original ideas. Solomon tells us in Ecclesiastes 1:9 “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” Perhaps I don’t need original ideas, just less common ones.

Despite my lack of creativity, I enjoy doing creative things; crafts, writing, sewing. It gives me a glimpse into God’s creativity and makes me even more in awe of all that He has created. That itself is worth the effort.

Here is the recipe I created today by combining the two recipes.

Strawberry Custard Pie

2 eggs
5 ½ Tbls sugar
1 2/3 c milk
½ tsp vanilla
¼ tsp salt
1/8 tsp nutmeg

Preheat oven to 450. Beat egg slightly. Add remaining ingredients and stir. Put pie crust in pan and place in oven. Pour mixture into pie shell. Bake 20 minutes. Poke with toothpick halfway between center and edge. If comes out clean, take out pie, if not reduce heat to 350 and cook until toothpick comes out clean.

1-2 pints strawberries, enough to fill remaining of pie shell
1 c sugar
1 c hot water
3 Tbls cornstarch
3 Tbls strawberry gelatin

Cook the sugar, hot water and cornstarch until thickened. Add gelatin. Cool and pour over strawberries in pie shell. Top with whipped cream.

Blueberry Applesauce

When my oldest was a baby I babysat before and after school for a family with a kindergartner and a second grader. The kindergartner, Blair, went to school only in the morning and I would have him all afternoon.

At that point in his life, my son was still eating babyfood and his favorite fruit was the blueberry apples. Blair tried them and would have eaten a whole jar if I had let him. I decided that sometime I would make blueberry applesauce and see if the kids liked it as well as they did the blueberry apples baby food. Now whenever I ask the kids to get some applesauce out of the freezer, they usually choose the blueberry applesauce first.


Blueberry Applesauce

4 quarts apples, cored and peeled
8 oz fresh blueberries
3 c water
3 c brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp nutmeg

Heat apples, blueberries and water to boil. Reduce heat. Simmer uncovered, stirring occassionally to break up apples, until tender. (5-10 minutes). Stir in remaining ingredients. Heat to boil. Boil and stir 1 minute. Let sit until cool enough to put into 1 quart freezer bags. Makes approx. 3 quart.

Garlic Herb Bread

I have noticed when attending Pampered Chef parties, it is easy to tell who likes to cook with garlic and who does not. As the consultant passes around the garlic press after using it, most women will either smell the press with delight, or turn their nose and pass it quickly. I am one who smells the wonderful (IMO) aroma of the garlic press. My oldest son will stop at in the produce section of a grocery store to smell the garlic.

One of our favorite uses is in making garlic cheese bread. I have a wonderful recipe that I use that I adopted from a jar of Italian seasoning (I added garlic to the suggested recipe.) Since my kids really liked this garlic bread, I decided to try something new. I looked at and tried two different Italian bread recipes -- one for the bread machine and one for my KitchenAid mixer. I then took what I liked about both recipes and combined them and added the ingredients that I would normally put on top to make garlic cheese bread. Here is my recipe for Garlic Cheese Bread. You should be able to do this in the bread machine, but I prefer to use the dough only option and bake all my breads in the oven. Therefore, I choose to use write the directions for the KitchenAid.

Garlic Cheese Bread


10 oz warm water (105-115 degrees)
2 tsp yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbls olive oil
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 Tbls garlic
1/2 cup shredded cheese (I usually use Cheddar or Coby Jack)
4 c flour
1/4 c Parmesan Cheese

Dissolve yeast in water. Dust bread pan or cooking stone with cornmeal. Put all ingredients in KitchenAid mixer with dough hook. Mix until form into ball and sides of bowl are clean. Shape into pan or on stone. Let rise 1 hour. Bake at 425 until light brown (about 30-45 min).

Spread butter onoutide of loaf while still warm, if desired. Enjoy.