Episode 15: Blackberry Pie (camping style)

What you need:
1 Pie Crust
4 Cups Fresh Blackberries
1 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Flour

What to do:
Combine sugar and flour. Add blackberries and stir gently.

If you're at home, using an oven: Top with crust and cook for about an hour in a 350 degree oven. Cover with foil if crust starts to get too dark.

If you're camping, using a fire or charcoal: Pour mixture into a cast iron dutch oven. Cover with pie crust and cook over coals for about an hour. After an hour add extra coals to the top of your oven to get a golden crust.

Sorry, I don't have exact charcoal numbers. A good rule is to make sure the coals aren't actually touching the bottom of your oven. So if your oven doesn't have legs then hang it over the fire pit. Check your pie occasionally. If it's good an bubbly then you know it's cooking hot enough.

Cooking a pie at the campsite is such a treat. It doesn't really matter how perfect your crust looks or how juicy your pie is. When we made blackberry pie at our campsite the first night we were so full we even skipped s'mores! That means it was really, really, REALLY yummy!

My Chocolate Flower Cake

I'm entering my first cake decorating contest Friday with this flower pot cake. The rules are that an adult can help with the baking, but I have to do all the decorating myself. My mom has been digging up cake pictures for days now. She shows me pictures on the Internet and in cookbooks and EVERYTHING looks good. Then last week she came across a picture of this flower pot cake from and old newspaper article my Gram had sent her. Perfect! The recipe was for little flower pots with real flowers. We changed it up and used a big pot and fake flowers. I covered the cake with thick chocolate icing and then crumbled chocolate cookies all over the top. I "planted" the flowers and here's the finished product. It was really fun to make and really easy to decorate.

Episode 14: Baked apples

My mom bought two giant containers of apples this week at Costco and the very best thing about that is that we have had baked apples for dessert THREE nights in a row! The first night we halved them, filled them with brown sugar, cinnamon, raisins and butter and then baked them until the whole house smelled good enough to eat. The second night we did pretty much the same thing, except we used dried apricot pieces instead of raisins. Tonight we went nuts and filled the whole apple, loosely following a recipe from one of our Martha Stewart magazines. Delicious! That sauce that gets drizzled on in the end is sooo yummy ... I could eat that all day!

Here's my recipe for Baked apples with dried cherries and pecans:

Ingredients:
4 Gala apples
1/3 cup dried cherries
1/3 cup pecan pieces
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons sour cream
3 tablespoons crushed gingersnaps

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Core apples with a knife and use a melon baller to scoop out some of the flesh, making about a 3/4-inch-wide cavity. Peel top inch of apples; fill with cherries and pecans and sprinkle with cinnamon. Arrange in an 8-inch square baking dish.
Drizzle maple syrup over apples; top each with 1/2 tablespoon butter. Bake, brushing occasionally with accumulated juices, until apples are tender, 45 to 60 minutes.
Transfer apples to a plate. Pour liquid from dish into a bowl; whisk in sour cream. Drizzle over apples; sprinkle with gingersnaps.

EAT THEM UP!

Episode 13: Marzipan Pumpkins

(This episode is dedicated to show-and-tell time and my super hero teacher and classmates.)

This is a special holiday episode of my show. Marzipan pumpkins are not only great for Halloween candy and decorating, but they are also great for other fall decorating, including Thanksgiving. These pumpkins will look so cute on your table. They are fun to make and really yummy to eat.

Marzipan is a paste made from almonds and sugar. You can buy it at the grocery store. It' a little hard to knead in the food coloring but the rest is easy. You can use any fruit stem as your pumpkin "stem" or you can make your own out of marzipan.

Enjoy the show!

Episode 12: Play dough

We've had a lot of rainy days lately, and we have a lot left to come. And making play dough is a really fun thing to do on a day you're stuck in the house. I know it's easy and cheap to get at the store, but for some reason making it yourself makes it more fun to play with. The recipe I listed calls for adding 1 teaspoon of oil, but I left it out when I made my batch. I understand that the oil is supposed to keep it from drying out too quickly but after a week my oil-free play dough is as fresh as when I first made it. So it's up to you if you want to use it.

1 cup flour
1 cup warm water
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon oil
1/4 cup salt
food coloring

Mix all ingredients, add the food coloring last if you plan to make your play dough all one color. (Otherwise wait and knead in the colors after your play dough is cooked.) Stir over medium heat until smooth. Remove from pan and knead until blended smooth. Place in plastic bag or airtight container when cooled. Will last for a long time.

Episode 11: Chicken Potpie

Chicken potpie is one of my favorite things to have for dinner. It's so yummy and it's full of veggies so it's good for you too! Did I mention how easy it is to put together? You can used leftover chicken or turkey or you can tear apart a rotisserie chicken. For this show my mom cooked a couple of chicken breasts and then cubed them. You can make your potpie in a glass casserole dish, in a pie pan or in a cast iron skillet. It's also up to you if you want to use two crusts or one. In my house we usually only put one crust over the top of our potpie. The benefit of cooking in a skillet and then topping it with a crust before sliding it into the oven is that you have less dishes to clean when you're done. Hurray!

Here's what you need:
1 pie crust (Use a homemade one.)
1 10-ounce package of mixed frozen veggies
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried sage
1 bay leaf
A couple shakes of pepper
2 cups of chicken broth
3/4 cup milk
3 cups of cubed chicken
1/4 cup snipped parsley

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.

In a skillet melt your butter and then add the onions and cook until tender. Stir in flour, salt, pepper, spices and bay leaf. Add chicken broth and milk. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Stir in the mixed vegetables, the chicken and the parsley. Take your skillet off the heat and carefully top it with your homemade pie crust. Slide it into the oven and bake it for 15 minutes or until the crust is golden. If it looks full be sure to put a cookie sheet under your skillet so it doesn't get all over the bottom of your oven. Dish it out and eat it piping hot. If you're lucky, you'll get the bay leaf! Enjoy ... and thanks for watching The Retta Show!

Episode 10: Mexican Ice Cream Sundaes

Ingredients
Serves 6
3/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut
2/3 cup heavy cream
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, broken into pieces
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch salt
1 1/2 pints dulce de leche ice cream
1/4 cup redskin or unsalted peanuts

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread coconut on a rimmed baking sheet; toast, tossing occasionally, until brown and fragrant, about 10 minutes.
In a medium saucepan over medium-high, bring cream to a boil; remove from heat. Add chocolate, cinnamon, and salt. Let stand 1 to 2 minutes. Whisk until chocolate is melted and mixture is shiny.
Remove ice cream from freezer 15 minutes before serving. Scoop into bowls; top with warm sauce, peanuts, and coconut.