Pecan Nougats

I was complaining to my mom that I really wanted some of Archway's pecan nougats, which unfortunately they no longer make (and haven't for quite some time). A few weeks later, she had this recipe for me. She also mentioned that in the comments on the recipe, someone said they now make cashew nougats! Unfortunately (according to the Archway site) they don't sell them anywhere in Washington, so I'm out of luck. Hopefully my brother can find them in Pennsylvania!

This recipe is great, although it just isn't what I remember Archway's nougats to be. Honestly, it seems very similar to another recipe I posted a while back, Russian Tea Cakes.

1 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups finely chopped pecans (or other nut of your choice)
Confectioners' sugar

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
• Cream butter, sugar, and vanilla until fluffy.
• Sift flour and salt together, add to creamed mixture and mix thoroughly.
• Add nuts and mix well.
• Shape in to 1-inch balls and place on baking sheet.
• Bake for 20 minutes, do not brown.
• Let cool, then roll in confectioners' sugar.

Triple Berry Pie with Granola Topping

I made this pie to go with Thanksgiving at our house. My husband LOVES berry pies, and "store-bought" is a dirty word in our house (unless it's a crust, haha), so I found this recipe on Food Network's website!

I decided to buy individual bags of berries to make up my own mixture of mixed berries rather than buying what the store had as their mixed berries selection. Also, the recipe doesn't say what kind of granola to use on the top, so I used a maple granola I found at Yoke's here in town. It went good with the maple whipped cream!

1 premade deep-dish frozen pie crust

3 - 12 oz bags of frozen mixed berries, thawed

1 lemon, zested and juiced

1 cup sugar

3 Tbsp instant tapioca

3/4 cup flour

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

4 Tbsp cold butter, cubed

1 cup granola

1 - 8 oz container whipped topping

2 Tbsp maple syrup

• Place a rack on the bottom third of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees.
• Put the pie shell on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
• In a large bowl, combine the berries with the lemon zest and juice and tapioca. Stir together to combine completely and set aside.
• In medium bowl, mix together flour and brown sugar. With a pastry cutter, cut in the butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbles. Mix in the granola.
• Pour berry mixture into the pie crust and top with granola topping.
• Bake until the inside of the pie is bubbling and top is golden brown (about 45 to 50 minutes). If top browns too quickly, cover with foil.
• Remove from the oven and let cool at least 1 hour on wire rack before serving.
• Combine whipped topping and maple syrup. Mix well until blended. Serve with pie.

Baked Asparagus

This is an incredibly easy recipe, in fact so easy we like to take it with us to prepare while we're camping. You can cook it in disposable aluminum pans, 9 x 13 pans, whatever you want so cleanup can even be a breeze.

Usually we have our typical vegetables at Thanksgiving (green bean bake, mashed potatoes, sweet potato pie) but I wanted a little more at our table since we were going to have a lot of meat and starches and not so many vegetables. This dish was perfect since I could prepare it ahead of time and just store it in the fridge until it is needed to be thrown in the oven.

3-4 bunches of asparagus

Garlic salt

1/2 cup butter

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Rinse asparagus and break off approx 1/2 inch of bottom.
• Lay out in pan 3-4 layers thick.
• Sprinkle with garlic salt, to taste.
• Slice butter and lay out on top of asparagus.
• Cover with aluminum foil.
• Bake for approx 30 minutes or until tender.
• Serve warm.