Fiesta of Friendship Recipes

Fresh Blueberry Pie


3/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2/3 cup water
5 cups fresh blueberries, divided use
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons butter (not margarine)
2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest (yellow only, not white part)
9-inch pie crust, blind baked and cooled, or use the recipe for a pecan pie crust at the bottom of the recipe

In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch, salt and cinnamon. Blend in water and 1 1/2 cups blueberries. Bring to a boil, stirring and smashing half the berries deliberately (use a potato masher a few swipes if you like). Boil, stirring constantly, until mixture is very thick, a minute or so. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract, butter, lemon juice and lemon zest. Cool. (See note below.)

Fold in 2 1/2 cups blueberries, coating them well. Scoop into cooled baked pie shell. Arrange remaining cup of fresh berries over top. Cover with plastic wrap and chill at least 2 hours, or overnight if needed.

Serve plain, or with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt. To serve, remove pie from refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature.

Serves 8.

Note on cooling the filling:

A quick way to cool the filling before adding the rest of the blueberries is to fill a large salad-type bowl with ice and water. Partially submerge the pan with the cooked blueberries in this cold bath, stirring every once in awhile, and in 5 or so minutes it will be sufficiently cooled to continue with your recipe. You can also just set the pan on an unused burner while it cools off, but the cold water bath is much faster and lets you get your pie in the refrigerator more quickly if time is important.

Texas Pecan Pie Crust

1/2 C cold Butter
1 C flour
1/2 C chopped pecans

Place all of the ingredients in a food processer and pulse a few times until it looks like the right consistency. Add a few Tablespoons of cold water until the dough clumps into pie crust dough.  Put the dough in the freezer for a few minutes until it is chilled.  Roll the dough out using extra flour.  Put the pie crust into 9 inch pie plate. Bake at 400 for about 20 minutes until browned.  You may need to cover the rim with a foil while baking to prevent excess browning.  Allow the crust to cool completely before putting in your filling.

Better Than Cool Whip Pie Topping


4 oz cream cheese- softened
3 T sugar
½ t vanilla
Mix these together on a medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth.

Gradually add one cup of heavy cream to the cream cheese/sugar, mixing at a higher speed until thick. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Black Beans


2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained (about 32 oz)
1 C tomato juice
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. fresh chopped cilantro

In a nonstick skillet, cook garlic and cumin in olive oil over medium heat until you can smell the garlic. Add beans, tomato juice, and salt. Continually stir until heated through. Just before serving stir in the cilantro. You can keep this warm in a slow cooker.



Brisket Taco Meat


One or two days before you want to serve brisket tacos cook up a brisket. This is how I do it. I buy a whole untrimmed brisket, about 10-12 pounds. I generously salt and pepper the brisket with kosher salt and coarsely ground black pepper. I coat the entire brisket with a generous amount of chili powder. I usually do this step in the sink to minimize the mess. The chili powder actually holds in the moisture from the beef so you don’t need to put in in a bag or cover it with foil. I put the brisket on a rack over a baking pan or a roasting pan, then into a 400 degree oven for about an hour. I turn the heat down to 200 and cook it for about 8 more hours. After this come out of the oven it needs to cool for at least one hour. Put the drippings from the meat into a fat separator. Throw out the grease but save the dark brown juice.

The day you are ready to serve brisket tacos slice the meat up into taco sized pieces and put into a large pan or crock pot. To the beef add the reserved brown juice, 16 oz jar of salsa verde, 14-16 oz can of tomato sauce, 1 T Cumin, 1 chopped onion, and 6 Cloves of Garlic, minced. Mix the sauce up with the meat. Cover and heat for a couple of hours at 350.

This make enough taco meat for about 20 hungry people.

Serve this on corn tortillas with queso fresco, salsa or pico de gallo, and guacamole.

This recipe is easily adapted to using leftover brisket



Sweet Tamale Corn Casserole

• 1 (15 1/4-ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
• 1 (14 3/4-ounce) can cream-style corn
• 1 (8-ounce) package corn muffin mix (recommended: Jiffy)
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, stir together the 2 cans of corn, corn muffin mix, sour cream, and melted butter. Pour into a greased 9 by 13-inch casserole dish. Bake for 45 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven.. Let stand for at least 5 minutes and then serve warm.

You can melt ½ cup of cheese on this during the last 3 minutes of baking. Serve with sour cream and pico de gallo.