Welcome Bethany Blake with Pantry Magic Recipe + Prize Package #Giveaway

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Please join me in welcoming a terrific author back to the Kitchen with a clever "pantry magic" recipe and a generous giveaway, including two books from her charming Lucky Paws Petsitting Mysteries, plus a secret bonus prize, and the very first book in her brand new series: A Brushstroke with Death. 

Take it away, Bethany Blake! 

~ Cleo Coyle 

There are good surprises. And then there’s the call you get from your kid’s school, sharing bad news about a classmate’s cough.

The upshot? My whole family is under quarantine for two weeks.

Happily, everyone’s health is holding up and the classmate is doing great. But, as supplies dwindle, we’re getting pretty creative with pantry items.

If I was Willow Bellamy, the artistic witch in my book A Brushstroke with Death, maybe I’d try to harness one of the spells in her family’s old, misfiring spell book to conjure up some groceries. (Not that it would probably work for Willow, either.)

Instead, lacking powers (and living in a place with no grocery delivery), I’m going to try to do some magic with ingredients in my pantry. And what better place to start than the most mysterious cabinet, where the terrors of baking lurk?

Here’s what I spied when I tentatively opened the door to this scary realm. (Can you tell I don’t bake much?)

It looks grim. No one should have so many marshmallows! It’s just wrong!

But upon closer inspection… there’s some stuff to work with here. Including the ingredients to make chocolate pudding from a box and vanilla pudding from scratch. Believe it or not, I’ve never made pudding that didn’t come in a packet. So, you are all basically along on this parfait adventure with me.

This is happening in real time, people. None of us will know the outcome until the final photo, which won’t be some perfectly staged plate. It will be The. Real. Deal.

Let’s get started!!

Here are the assembled ingredients. The sourdough pretzels were a gift from a friend, who just left them on the porch. They are only here to sustain me.

Step 1 – Whisk together 2¼ cups milk, 3 Tbs of corn starch, two egg yolks and 1/3 cup sugar. Heat over medium heat, whisking occasionally, until it starts to get bubbly and thick in about 6 minutes.

Step 2 – I suffer a moment of panic as I check a text and come back to a bubbling cauldron! I grab it off the stove and whisk in 2 tsp of vanilla and 1 Tbs of butter. It smells fantastic!

Step 3 – Make chocolate pudding according to box mix instructions. I’ve totally got this!! (I added a few bittersweet chocolate chips, just to jazz things up. Also, 2 percent milk in pudding? I think not.) 

Step 4 – Now I’m toasting some almonds. I mean… why wouldn’t I?

Step 5 – Assembly. Lacking any fancy “trifle dishes” – which may or may not be a thing – I grab some Mason jars, wine glasses and a glass… thingy. Then I crumble some graham crackers in the bottom, add vanilla pudding, then more graham crackers. I think we can already see that this is not what anyone imagined.

Step 6 – Next comes a layer of cherry pie filling, then chocolate pudding and whipped topping I found in the freezer, followed by the toasted almonds. Here’s the final product, which I placed in front of a small Leaning Tower of Pisa, in hopes of making my parfaits look “elegantly European.” I think we can all agree that wasn’t a good idea.

What happened to the layers?? Shouldn’t someone water those poor plants??

The good news is, these things are DELICIOUS. I would totally make them again, but probably hide the layers in a baking dish.

In the meantime, which presentation do you find the least offensive?

Wine glass?  * Mason jar? * Glass…thingy?

Vote now in the comments! 

Bethany Blake is the author of the Owl & Crescent Mysteries and the Lucky Paws Petsitting Mystery Series. She lives in a small, quaint town in rural Pennsylvania with her husband, three daughters, a fearsome feline, an attack cardinal, a blind goldfish and a soulful dog with a discerning palate. Please visit Bethany online at BethanyBlakeAuthor.com.

*Keep in touch with Bethany!

Visit her website: bethanyblakeauthor.com

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Bethany's Prize Package Giveaway:

🎨 A Brushstroke with Death

🐾 A Midwinter’s Tail

🐾 Pawprints & Predicaments

🔍 Super surprise secret bonus item!

👇

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Halloween Pudding Parfaits

I have taken some good natured teasing about some of my Halloween dishes. The mere picture of my Chicken Scary-aki, for instance, is rumored to have sent grown men screaming from the room. I don't think my vampire cupcake sent anyone into a panic, but you never know.




So for Halloween this year, I tried to come up with something a little less gruesome. It seemed to me that Halloween was always a very busy late afternoon and evening at our house when I was growing up. Preparing the candy ready for the trick-or-treaters, feeding everyone, getting costumes on. There was the inevitable argument about not wearing a coat or hat that would spoil the costume and then friends usually joined us for the big house-to-house event, so guests added a whole other dimension to Halloween night.

The point is, that unless you're fabulously organized, Halloween might be a bit of a rush in your household, too. So I tried to come up with something that can be made rather quickly, and the result is a Halloween Pudding Parfait. I really love the colors. I think they're pretty enough to offer to adults at a Halloween dinner party, and who doesn't love pudding?

If you're not inclined to make your own pudding, I think you could accomplish this with ready made pudding, food coloring and whipped cream. It shouldn't take long to assemble them. They look best in a V-shaped glass, like these parfaits, but really, you can use any shape glass. I do recommend using one with a rather wide mouth, though. A tulip champagne glass, for instance, would be very pretty, but you would have to pipe everything into the glasses, which would eat up time. As it is, I piped the whipped cream into the bottoms because they were too narrow for a spoon. But I spooned the rest in.

Use your finger to mash each layer down a little bit. I have air holes in my first ones. They don't matter of course, but they're prettier without them. I'm including my favorite chocolate and vanilla pudding recipes, but feel free to use your favorites, whether they are homemade or from a mix.

You could easily substitute an orange layer for the gold layer that I have, or skip the chocolate (did I hear gasps?) and go with traditional orange, yellow and white like candy corn.

I loved the pictures of Tonka and the Maffini princesses in their costumes, pained expressions and all. I figured it was time a feline showed up in costume. I don't think Mochie minded the mouse hat so much but he thought it was undignified for a cat to pretend to be a mouse. Felines!

 

Chocolate Pudding

(modified from Have Your Cake and Eat It Too, by Susan G. Purdy

2 cups nonfat milk

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup plus two tablespoons unsweetened powdered cocoa

1/4 cup cornstarch

pinch of salt

1/4 cup dark corn syrup

1 egg

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 - 2 tablespoons butter

1. Pour the milk into a Pyrex measuring cup.

2. Combine the sugar, cocoa, cornstarch, and salt in the pot. Whisk together and get rid of any lumps. Use the whisk like a spoon, it’s just more efficient in breaking up the lumps.

3. Pour the cold milk into the pot and whisk until blended.

(Note that you still haven't turned on the stove!)

4. Measure the corn syrup in the same Pyrex cup. Add to the pot and whisk in.

5. Turn the burner to medium high and bring to a gentle boil, using the whisk as a spoon and stirring. You may need to turn down the heat when it begins to bubble. Cook so it gently bubbles, stirring with the whisk for one minute. It will thicken.

6. Remove from heat temporarily.

7. Break the egg into the same Pyrex cup and whisk with a small whisk (or a fork).

Drop a tiny amount of the hot milk mixture into the egg and whisk immediately to temper it. Add a little bit more and whisk. (This is so the egg won’t seize up and cook when it’s added to the warm liquid.)

8. Add the egg to the milk mixture and whisk in.

9. Bring to a gentle boil again and let cook for one minute, stirring the whole time.

10. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla and the butter.

1234 Vanilla Pudding

1 egg

2 cups of skim or non-fat milk

1/3 cup sugar (if you're watching sugar, you can take out a teaspoon or two)

1/4 cup corn starch

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon vanilla

dash of salt

turmeric (roughly 3/4 teaspoon) or food coloring

Place the corn starch, sugar, and dash of salt in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.  Using a whisk, mix the dry ingredients. Pour the cold milk over the dry ingredients and, still using the whisk, blend them.  (You're not using the whisk to whisk, just to blend and stir.)  Crack the egg into the empty milk measuring cup and whisk (if you don't have a tiny whisk, use a fork) thoroughly.  

Turn on the burner to medium high.  Stir the milk mixture with the whisk to be sure the mixture doesn't burn.  You may need to turn the heat back a bit when it begins to bubble.  Stirring the whole time, let bubble softly for one minute.  Remove from heat.  

Drop a few drops of the hot mixture into the egg and whisk.  Add a few more drops and whisk again to temper the egg.  Add the egg to the milk mixture and whisk to blend.  Stirring continuously, add the turmeric until it's the shade you want, bring it back to a gentle boil and cook for one minute.

Remove from heat.  Add vanilla and butter and stir to mix.

Whipped Cream

1/2 cup heavy cream

3 tablespoons confectioner's sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Beat the cream. When it begins to take shape, add the sugar and the vanilla. Beat until it holds a shape.

Assembly

candy corn

Pipe or spoon whipped cream into the bottom of each glass. 

 

Spoon vanilla pudding in, pressing down gently to mash out air holes Spoon chocolate pudding on top. Garnish with candy corn if desired.