Cherry Turnovers

Flaky, sugary crust with a tart cherry filling. Delicious hot, or serve cold as finger food for New Year's Eve. Makes 8 large turnovers.

14oz can or tart pie cherries in juice
1/2 cup sugar
3 T corn starch
1 tsp vanilla
1 recipe double pie crust (your favorite)
1 egg, blended

Mix the sugar, corn starch, and the juice from the pie cherries in the bottom of a small sauce pan until smooth. Place over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Cook until thick. Remove from heat and add vanilla and cherries, stirring carefully (so cherries don't break apart).

Roll pie crust into two large circles. Cut each circle into fourths. paint the edges of each triangle with egg, place about 1/4 cup cherry filling in each and seal the edges. Place on a greased cookie sheet, paint with more egg and sprinkle liberally with white sugar. Bake at 350ºF for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Pumpkin Loaf with Rum Butter Sauce

This cake loaf is delicious sliced with nothing on top. It's dense and fabulous as it is. But who can say no to rum butter sauce?

Loaves:

3 cups granulated sugar
1 cup canola oil
3 eggs
2 cups pumpkin puree
3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 tsp cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Oven 350ºF
Blend together sugar, oil and eggs. Add remaining ingredients and blend until smooth. Spread in two greased 9x5x3" loaf pans. Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean. Tear into pieces, place in individual serving dishes and top with rum butter sauce.

Rum Butter Sauce:

2 cups brown sugar
4 Tbsp cornstarch
dash of salt
2 cups water
4 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup rum (or to taste)

Mix together sugar and cornstarch and salt in a medium sauce pan. Stir in water and place over medium-high heat until it comes to a boil. Remove from heat and add butter and rum. Stir until butter is melted.

Shortbread

No food sensation in this world is better than the combination of good shortbread and hot tea. At least that's how I feel about life. I like to sit down and relax in the afternoon around 3:30 with a hot cup of tea. I buy loose leaf tea from the British Tea Store and my favorite blends are Angel's Dream, Buckingham Palace Tea Party, and the French Blend. Dave's favorite tea is Yorkshire Gold. Good commercial shortbread can be pretty expensive. Walkers is my favorite. But shortbread is actually really simple and easy to make at home. There are only three ingredients and it just takes minutes to put together.

3/4 cup butter (I use half salted and half unsalted)
1 1/2 cups unbleached flour
1/3 cup sugar

Blend together until smooth. Press into a square 9" x 9" baking pan. Bake at 350ºF until starting to brown around the edges (my oven took about 30 minutes, but it's a slow oven, so watch closely). Cool completely and slice.

For the shortbread in the photo, I scored the dough into squares as soon as I pulled it from the oven and used and pricked each square with a fork. Then I waited until it was cooled completely before removing it from the pan.

This recipe is found in many places on the internet and the credit can't be traced to one source. So I'll just call it a "traditional" recipe.