The PENZEYS Week Kick-Off: No Crust Cranberry Pie

Welcome to Mystery Lover's Kitchen's special Penzeys week! At this time of year, it seems like dishes call for spices and herbs even more than usual. The Mystery Lover's Kitchen bloggers are friends and discovered that we all use Penzeys spices. Each of us has our favorites, of course, so we thought we would dedicate a special week to our favorite spice store. For those of you who haven't heard of them, Penzeys has stores all over the country, as well as a lovely catalog and an online ordering site.

All cooks have their favorite spices and for Ella Mae LeFaye, nothing beats the fresh, pure tastes of Penzeys spices. This is the time of year to she loves to fill her Charmed Pis Shoppe kitchen with the scents of vanilla, orange, cloves, rosemary, thyme, and more.

Today, Ella Mae wanted to share a very simple no crust pie with you. That's right, you don't have to mess with a crust and with cake-like nature of this pie, you won't miss it! Tart cranberries blend with crunchy pecans and are flavored with Penzeys spices.

This is the pie for folks who don't normally like pie. Enjoy!

    Charmed No Crust Cranberry Pecan Tart

   Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour     1 cup white sugar     2 cups fresh cranberries     1/2 cup chopped pecans     1/2 cup butter, melted     2 large eggs     Directions:

¼ teaspoon PENZEYS pure almond extract ¾ teaspoon PENZEYS pure vanilla extract ½ teaspoon PENZEYS ground cinnamon ¼ teaspoon PENZEYS ground cloves

	Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease one 9-inch pie pan.
	Combine the flour, sugar, and salt. Stir in the cranberries and the pecans, and toss to coat. Stir in the butter, beaten eggs, vanilla and almond extracts. Add cinnamon and cloves. Spread the batter into the prepared pan. It will look more like cake batter than pie filling.
	Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted near the center comes out clean. Serve warm. A scoop of vanilla ice cream or real whipped cream tastes great on this pie.
	Do you have a favorite spice? The one you love to uncap and sniff before sprinkling it over your food?

Cowboy Burgers with Blue Cheese or Cheddar

Congratulations to 

Cleo Coyle with a new Coffeehouse Mystery 

MURDER BY MOCHA

& 

Sheila Connolly with a new Orchard Mystery

BITTER HARVEST. 

Both with new books out this week! 

What a great month to dive into a new cozy!!! 

Tasty and fun.

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Do you love to barbecue? You all know I do. Have I gone on  and on and on about them this summer. I find such solace outdoors, listening to the wind, to the birds. Drinking in the aroma of the barbecue. Ahhh.

Earlier in the summer, I shared a steak with blue cheese. But what about a burger? With blue or cheddar.  I adore a good burger. Juicy. With or without a bun. A crisp salad. A hearty red wine like a Sin Zin Zinfandel, with upfront flavors of black cherries, blueberries, vanilla and spice. Fabulous!

Now, you probably know which cheddar you prefer, but not every blue is the same, so here are a couple to choose from...depending on your palate.

  

From the heart of Emmentaler cheese territory in Switzerland comes Blause Wunder Blue cheese.

I read about this cheese in Culture Magazine and had to try it. It was totally different from typical blue cheeses. The exterior rind of the cheese is powdery blue in color. Inside the semi-soft meat of the cheese is a bone white/gray interior, shot through with fine blue vein lines. The magazine said the cheese offered flavors spice imparted and an underlying sweetness. I thought it was a mild blue cheese, lovely for eating with appetizers. Mild for a cowboy burger.

 Another choice is Bayley Hazen Blue. This comes from Cowlgirl Creamery in California. It iis a buttery, natural-rind blue cheese made with raw Ayrshire cow’s milk. These cows graze from late spring to early fall. Though it is drier than many blue cheese, and the flavors are spectacular, offering all the hints of the grasses that the cows feed on and a hint of anise. It’s a strong enough cheese to hold its own against a fat juicy burger.

COWBOY BURGER WITH BLUE CHEESE (OR CHEDDAR)

Ingredients:

(4 burgers)

2 pounds hamburger (15-20% lean)

1 sweet yellow onion

¾ cup (6-8 ounces) crumbled blue cheese  or shredded Cheddar (plus more to adorn burger) 

4 tablespoons Penzey's Bouquet Garni (mixed herbs *)

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon white pepper

Directions:

Heat oven to broil or prepare barbecue to a medium high heat

Peel and chop onion small bits. 

Shred 6-8 ounces of cheddar cheese.

I used Penzey's Bouquet Garni herbs. If you can't find Penzey's at your store, you can mix together your favorite herbs. [*Suggestion: 1 tablespoon dried basil, 1 tablespoon thyme, 1 tablespoon rosemary, 1 tablespoon dried parsley.] Add salt and pepper.

In medium bowl, mix hamburger, onion, cheese and spices.  Mold the mixture into four thick patties.  [Keep them thick in order to keep them rare to medium rare.  If you desire medium to well-done, make the patties flatter.]  [By the way, I saw Ina Garten making burgers, on a rerun, and she was adamant that you not pat the burgers too hard or they won't stay juicy. So be gentle.]

In an oven or on the barbecue, cook the burgers approximately 4-5 minutes on each side.  Pressing on the burger with the back of a spatula will give you an idea of “doneness.”

Adorn burgers with extra cheese. 


Enjoy!!!

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