Buttermilk Pie - Oh My!

I saw a picture of a buttermilk pie over at Warm Pie, Happy Home. She promised to post the recipe in the next post but that was on Feb 1st and I couldn't wait any longer. I needed a worthy desert for Sunday dinner yesterday. Well after a little thought I KNEW that buttermilk pie had to happen. So I went off on a quest for a recipe. I searched blog land and food sites gathering information. I finally put together several recipes that I found and came up with a pie to try. One thing I noticed was that this is a Southern Pie. (the South does have good pie!) The recipes I found though fell into to lines. Northern versions of this pie called for lemon for flavor which would be lovely. The Southern versions called for only Vanilla. Well the South won out, A. because my husband is a Civil War buff, and B. because I don't have any lemons. :o) I gave the pie my own twist. I figured that anything with that much butter, buttermilk and eggs should be pretty good with nutmeg. I was right!
Another thing I noticed was that most recipes called for 2 cups of sugar, I used 1 cup and it was still rather sweet, even for my sugar fiend of a husband. So I will post it as I made it but will be trying less sugar next time.

Buttermilk Pie

3 large eggs
1 cup sugar (use more like 2/3 to 3/4 cup)
2 Tbsp flour
1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup buttermilk
2 tsp vanilla
1 unbaked 9" pie crust
Nutmeg

Beat the eggs in a mixer. Mix the flour and sugar together (this keeps the flour from lumping when you add it to the eggs). Add the mix to the eggs. Mix until creamy. Add melted butter and mix well. Add the buttermilk and vanilla extract.
Pour into your pie shell.
Bake at 325 deg F for at least 1 hour to 1 hour 15 min or until the custard sets. (don't know when that sets?? I'll tell you)
When a custard is set it will still jiggle, it is a custard after all. But when it is done the center shouldn't jiggle more than the outside edges. If the center is still a little sloshy, then give it a few more minutes. It all depends of how deep your pie dish is and things like that. I baked 2 pies and one needed 15 minutes longer than the other. Go figure.

I had to fight my whole family off while this pie cooled. It is wonderful warm but even better cool.

If you look at the bottom right of that slice of pie you will notice that is a little bit slippy and could have used another 5 or so minutes but NO ONE was going to wait for that. The second pie was firmer.

Roasted Brussel Sprouts

I have to admit that I have never been a brussel sprout eater. They always tasted to bitter to me. One year though my Dad grew some in the garden and convinced me to try them and they were so wonderful. Their flavor was so light and buttery. I tried them again from the store and they tasted nasty again.

Well we tried some at a restaurant a few weeks ago with the kids and they were fabulous. So on the way home Brayn had me get a huge bag of them from the grocery store. We tried them roasted (thank you Jill!) and they are fabulous. The bitterness of the sprouts goes away and kinda works for this dish.

I fixed them again yesterday for my mom for Sunday dinner and decided I getter post them here before I forget what I did. (it was so hard you know!) They are wonderfully buttery cabbagy inside, and toasty and tasty outside like french fries.

You take a bunch of brussel sprout. Wash them and trim them if needed.
Dry them with a towel.
Toss them with some olive oil, not much is needed, just a drizzle or 1-2 tablespoons.
Arrange them on a baking sheet and sprinkle them with salt and pepper to your taste.
Then Bake them at 400 deg F for about 30 to 40 minutes.
Enjoy!
They really are tasty. Many of you know that Bryan absolutely hates vegetables and he can't get enough of these. Most of my kids like them too. Kids have more taste buds than grown-ups and have more bitter receptors than we do and that is why they turn their nose up and things we seem to love. My littlest ones do taste them though and hopefully will develop a love of them. We will work on them with boiled cabbage and get them to love that flavor, or baked with butter. That is tasty too.

Apron Model

My niece Katie agreed to pose in the Mama Byrd Sweetheart apron for me. Some of you have wanted to see it on someone. So here you go.


Thanks Katie!

Quilt Guilt

Ok so it has been one month since I posted my shame. It is time for me to post again and see where I have improved.
I tried to do the 15 minute per day thing and didn't do the best but I did try and steps forward are what matter.
Here are the shots again.
Front Door View

Help there is a child in there!! Oh wait the floor is clear so the child is safe to play while I sew. Never mind.

Back Door View

Kinda clean floor. Who knew there was carpet in there. Wow. Now to work on getting new flooring. ..... Carpet and stray threads don't mix well.

Cutting Table/Desk

I can actually cut out on that table now and sit at my desk and dream up projects!

Sewing Table

My mom discarded her old sewing table that she got a few years ago and let me have it. She got a new custom build job that allows her to have her sewing and computer at the same place.

Closet O' Crap

Do you know what is in there. NO because you can SHUT THE DOOR now. I did get all the 2000 pounds of wheat out of there into the newly finished storage room/safe room. I was then able to clear the floor and get that stuff into tubs stacked nice and neat in there.

Fabric Storage Shelves

Next project to tackle is this shelf. We will see what 15 minutes per day concentrated on that shelf gets us in one month.


Well I did come a long way but am no where near the end of this project. I want a clean, photo worthy studio when I am done. I WILL GET THERE!
One thing that I found was about a whole shelf worth of projects that need to be finished that I owe people. One problem I have is not being able to say no to people. I love doing things for other people but then I don't get to do things for my children and that is sad.
I finished up 21 diapers for my great nephew. It felt so great to get that off my conscience. I see those kinds of projects and know I need to do them but have a stack of things due today to do and they just get farther and farther behind and I feel worse and worse. So I am going to try to work my way through those projects and see if I can't track them on the sidebar or something. It would be nice to have the shelf space back for things I want to do! There are so many dresses and aprons in my head just waiting for free time to spill out onto paper and fabric and dance off on a life of their own. :o) Maybe to your house.... Maybe..... We will have to see what I can get done.

Goals for February.

1. Keep up the 15 minutes of de-cluttering everyday.
2. Start in with about 15 minutes everyday working on Guilt projects.

Before and so far pictures (we aren't to the after sage yet)








Thank you for all the comments of encouragement and shared shame in January. I want to see what you are doing. Post and let me know what you have accomplished.
Next month I want to lose a couple of hundred pounds of unwanted fabric. Stay tuned. I might have to do some tutorials for getting rid of things in a fun, re-purposed way and maybe liberate some of the good stuff and send it off to new homes where it will be loved and USED!!!

I almost forgot about the name of this post. The unfinished projects on my shelf are mostly quilting projects and my husband calls them quilt guilt. I also am in a quilt guild I started a few years ago and often misspell the word guild to guilt. :o)