Creamy Oreo Pie

My aunt  was telling me about their Thanksgiving lunch and she mentioned about the Oreo Pie that they had for dessert. It was made by her daughter - my cousin, Aswathi ; making desserts being one of her many talents. This was the first time I was hearing about an Oreo pie, though I knew about using Oreos to make cheesecakes. On my request she shared the recipe with me - to be shared with all of you.  This is a no-bake recipe, so easy to put together. This can be easily made even by those budding cooks. And the final product is guaranteed to be delicious. 

This can also be made as a single big pie in a 9" pan, in which case the only change you may need to make is to double the ingredients.

Hope you will all enjoy this as we did.
Thank you my dear sis for sharing this wonderful recipe. Looking forward to more such delicious contributions from you.

Ingredients

4-ounce whipped cream/cool whip(about 1 cup)

1/2 package Oreo cookies (about 20 cookies)

1/2 a  package of cream cheese,4-ounce softened

1/6 cup sugar

1/8 cup butter (1/4 stick), melted

4 individual cups/bowls

Method:

Crush 12 Oreo cookies in your food processor. (You can also put them in a ziplock bag and smash them).

In a  bowl, mix the crushed Oreos with melted butter. This is the bottom layer (crust). Divide the crust evenly among your 4 cups. Press the cookie crumbs down firmly.

Crush 6 more cookies and set aside.

In your food processor, or with your mixer, combine softened cream cheese with sugar. Mix until light and fluffy.

By hand, mix in whipped cream or cool whip, and the 6 crushed cookies . When everything is mixed well, divide the mixture among the 4 cups.

Crush the remaining cookies, or cut them in half to garnish each cup.

Allow the Oreo Pie Cups to rest in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours before serving. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Pie

Thanksgiving celebration without a pie, especially a Pumpkin pie, is incomplete. If you want to get that taste of the home made pie, but is pressed for time with all the Thanksgiving dinner preparations going on, you may resort to a pre-made pie shell and make your own fillings. This will cut the time and effort for making a pie into half.  You can still enjoy a scrumptious semi-home made Pumpkin pie.
Happy Thanksgiving to all.
Ingredients:
Two 8-inch pie shells
3 eggs
2 3/4 cups pumpkin puree
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 1/4 cups milk
For serving:
Whipped cream
Method:
In a large mixing bowl, lightly beat eggs. Add pumpkin puree, sugar, salt, and spices and mix well. Add cream and milk and beat on low until combined.
Pour filling into pie shells. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Bake pies on middle rack for 15 minutes.
Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake for about 40 minutes longer, until filling is thickened, tops are lightly browned, and/or a knife inserted in the center comes out clean (or mostly clean). If you're making a bigger pie, or an especially deep pie, you will need to increase the baking time. Cool finished pies on a wire rack.
Serve cooled pie with whipped cream on top!
Store leftover pie in the refrigerator.

Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes 'N Vegetarian Gravy

Even though thanksgiving is a few days away, we had already had a few "advance" thanksgiving get-togethers from this weekend. Mashed potatoes with gravy is part and parcel of a typical thanksgiving meal. Whenever I gets invited to a traditional thanksgiving meal (even  the advance thanksgiving dinners), I typically offer to make the vegetarian gravy so that the hostess would have one less dish to take care of. For yesterday's get together, I made the mashed potatoes as well. One thing I noticed about this gravy  is that its equally loved by both vegetarians and non vegetarians,so I always make it a point to make enough to meet the demand.  It feels great that something you have made is in so much of demand. After all, the proof of the pudding is in eating!
Usually I make the plain mashed potatoes. But this time around, when I came across this recipe, I thought of trying this out as it sounded different and delicious. And it turned out to be such a crowd pleaser.
Recipe source:Foodnetwork and Food.com
Ingredients
3 1/2 pounds russet potatoes
2 tablespoons kosher salt
16 fluid ounces (2 cups) half-and-half
6 cloves garlic, crushed
6 ounces grated Parmesan
Method:
Peel and dice potatoes, making sure all are relatively the same size. Place in a large saucepan, add the salt, and cover with water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and then reduce heat to maintain a rolling boil. Cook until potatoes fall apart when poked with a fork.
Heat the half-and-half and the garlic in a medium saucepan over medium heat until simmering. Remove from heat and set aside.
Remove the potatoes from the heat and drain off the water. Mash and add the garlic-cream mixture and Parmesan; stir to combine. Let stand for 5 minutes so that mixture thickens and then serve.

Vegetarian Gravy

Ingredients:
2 tbsp butter
1 onion, diced
2 tbs flour
4 cloves of garlic
1 tsp to 2 tbs cornstarch( as required for your desired thickness)
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
2 tbsp soy sauce
Method:
Heat the butter over medium heat in a large skillet and saute the onion for 2 minutes along with the garlic. Add the flour  and saute for 5 more minutes.
Add the vegetable broth and cornstarch, stirring to mix the cornstarch well. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, stirring frequently to make sure no clumps are formed.
Add  soy sauce and reduce heat. Cook for one more minute, stirring.

Dinner Rolls

If you are on a search for a good dinner roll for this Thanksgiving, this would be a good one to try.
Recipe Source:Itsfordinner.com
Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cup slightly warm milk
3 tablespoons melted but not hot butter
1 beaten egg
2 tablespoons sugar
2 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
Method:
Combine wet ingredients plus the yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment
Add in flour a cup at a time, still using the paddle attachment
Once fully incorporated, switch the dough hook and knead until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl, approximately 10 minutes. The dough will remain quite sticky, this is normal.
Cover and let dough rest in mixing bowl for an hour
Punch down and turn dough out onto a board or countertop, it will still be somewhat sticky so use some bench flour to help keep everything together
Portion into 12 equal pieces and place onto a half sheet pan (use a SILPAT if you have one). We use a scale, which comes to 2.5oz portions, but if that's too Bill Nye for you just make three equal pieces, cut each of those into two and then each of those into two.
Cover and let rise for another hour, remembering to start pre-heating the oven to 350º halfway through
Bake until lightly browned, about 20 minutes.Once out of the oven cover with kitchen towel for 5 minutes.
(Brush with butter if desired)