Toaster Oven Food: Mandarin Orange Creamsicle Pie

Another shitty week in the books:

• Finished babysitting an incompetent charge.

• Got tattled on by some crybabis (adults).

• Let the boss raise his voice at me and not report him to the powers-that-be (yet).

• Watched my boy suck at the Russian Grand Prix.

• Consoled an even-more disengaged colleague.

I made a promise to myself that this week will be better.  It HAS to be.

After getting zuigui'd on Friday (to celebrate the wonderfully crappy work week), I decided my weekend was going to begin on the right foot.  What am I saying?  It began on the right foot from Friday afternoon!  My promise to have a good weekend continued on Saturday when I got my monster taco and curly fries for lunch!

After the monster taco, I was able to get some things done.  I had The Help take a bunch of pictures of my wips, and I decided to make a dessert, a dessert which can be made by people like OllieMama (and other only toaster oven-owning people).

BTW, I recently got a new toaster oven.  It replaced a toaster oven I had for nearly ten years.  Instead of just going to Costco and buying one, I did some research before deciding upon the Breville Smart Oven Pro.  It seems like I made a good choice, and the Breville Smart Oven Pro can even accommodate a 9 x 13" pan!  But no worries. . .my dessert this week is made in a square pan.  I suppose I could've doubled the recipe just to say I made it in a 9 x 13" pan, but I'd rather not end up eating the same dessert for the entire week (and most toaster ovens cannot hold a 9 x 13" pan).

This dessert reminds me of something I used to eat often as a kid. . .a creamsicle (frozen treat on a stick; orange sherbet surrounding a vanilla ice cream core).  I thought creamsicles were good (not as good as vanilla popsicle), and my grandparents must've thought so too because their freezer boasted an endless supply of creamsicle.  And on those rare occasions when they ran out of creamsicles, a quick run by UJohn to Murakami Store (on Manono Street)  solved that problem in no time. 

The creaminess (and calorie count) will depend on the milk you use.  I use what I have on hand (2%), but whipping cream would make it very decadent (and definitely more caloric).  And although I haven't tried it for myself, I think substituting melted vanilla ice cream for the milk would push it into the realm of decadence.

Now that I've had a moment to reflect, I thought of something I could do to make this work week much better than last.  I think I will stay home all week!  I must be dreaming.  There is no way I could stay out all week.  There would be just too much waiting for me when I return.  Maybe going to work doesn't sound so bad after all. 

Well, just in case I end up going to work, at least I'll have some of this dessert to come home to for the first half of the week.

 click on recipe title for printable recipe

Mandarin Orange Creamsicle Pie

Crust:  2 tbsp sugar
            1 c flour
            1/2 c butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Combine sugar and flour.  Cut butter into mixture until dough forms "pea" size bits.  Press into a 9" square pan.  Bake for 11 minutes.  Set aside to cool.

Filling:  2 tbsp cornstarch
              1/2 c sugar
              1 box (3 oz) orange jello
              3 cans (11 oz each) mandarin oranges
              3/4 c milk

Drain mandarin oranges, reserving 1 cup of juice.  In a medium saucepan, heat reserved juice, cornstarch and sugar.  Stir constantly until thick.  Remove from heat and immediately add orange jello and stir 3-5 minutes or until jello is dissolved.  Set aside to cool to nearly room temperature.  Stir in milk.  When completely combined, gently add in mandarin orange segments.  Pour carefully over cooled crust.  Chill until set.

Almost Mrs. Barry's: Coconut Shortbread Cookies

The new school year officially began for students on Wednesday.  For our school, it was a freshman-only day.  Since I don't teach freshmen, it was another work day for me, but I did go to the festivities at the pool to welcome the freshmen.  There were some really huge kids and some kinda small too.  I guess it's always this way with the freshmen class.  I was kinda surprised to see some of the girls.  I remember them from years ago in elementary school.  They had been small and skinny then but now, they got chunky.  I guess you can never tell how kids will turn out.

My classes this year seem okay, but I'm veteran enough to know that the first week or so is a honeymoon period.  We'll see how the coming weeks go...but I know there will be at least one kid who is a handful in every class. 

One happy moment was when a student asked me, "Do you know ___".  I said I did and he was one of my favorite students because he did quality work, was respectful and had great commitment to bettering himself.  To my surprise, the student told me, "this year, I'm gonna be your favorite.  I'm just like ___".  Right on!  I love enthusiastic kids.  In other classes, some kids couldn't shut up.  Others kept pushing buttons.  Just after my partner told students not to sit on the desks, one boy sat on the desk.  She told them not to put their feet up, and seconds later, some kid put his foot up.  I wanna know if he is hard of hearing or just insubordinate.

Now that I think about it, I didn't see much of my coworkers at all.  I guess I was too busy working to even notice most of them!

After busting my ass all week, I knew the weekend would be more of the same.  I invited the family over for lunch on Sunday, so even going into the weekend, I knew I had to get in a Costco run before Sunday.  I would've just asked The Help to go, but he made a choice...a choice to re-enlist in the work force...thus his days are rather busy.

So after work on Friday, The Help and I headed out to the west side.  Our plan was to go right after work, but there were some things we had to do first, so by the time we got to Costco, it was after 6 pm.  I was hoping to stop in at Mrs. Barry's Kona Cookies to buy a bag of coffee crunch cookies.  Unfortunately, we were too late.  They were closed.  Maybe we'll make it the next time.

It was always a treat to go to Kona and make a stop at Mrs. Barry's Kona Cookies.  Without a doubt, my favorite was the coconut shortbread cookies.  Don't get me wrong...the coconut shortbread cookies are one of my most favorite cookies of all time, but I no longer buy it from Mrs. Barry's since I can make my own.

My friend's mom shared with me a cookie (and the recipe), and I was blown away at how much it tasted like Mrs. Barry's coconut cookies.  The one difference was that her cookies were round instead of quadrilateral (Mrs. Barry's version used to be rectangular but now they are more square-ish).  I put on my thinking cap and came up with a sure-fire way to get quadrilateral cookies. . . use a spam musubi mold to shape the dough! 

click on recipe title for printable recipe

Coconut Shortbread Cookies

     3/4 c butter, softened

     3/4 c sugar

     2 c flour

     1 c sweetened flaked coconut

Cream butter and sugar til fluffy.  Stir in flour and coconut.  Shape into a log (I use a double Spam musubi acrylic mold), wrap in plastic, and chill 5 or more hours.  Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Slice thin (1/8"-1/4") and place close together on cookie sheet.  Bake for 30 minutes.  Cool completely on wire rack.

Ohelo Berry Bars

Cripes!  I am pooped!  Friday was the last day of work for the 2013-14 school year.  The last day for teachers is always frantic. . .trying to get all the signatures to check out, packing up valuables from the room, saying goodbye/thank you to those who made the year pleasant.

The school year actually went by quickly for me.  I can't remember when I've had such an awesome year.  The students were basically good, and, for the most part, most of the adults behaved themselves most of the time.  Before the school year ended, I made lemon bars for the people who went the extra mile for me and D1.  It took me nearly 3 hours to make and another 2 hours to package them!  I will not be making lemon bars for a while.  Now that I managed to get HQ in another content area, I need to start working on domestic things, i.e., another "go-to" dessert.  It's rather telling when one of the bosses calls from the supermarket on a weekend for recipe/instruction/tips on making lemon bars. . .I need to shed the "one-trick pony" moniker.  I can add it to the summer vacation "to do" list. 

Now that vacation is officially underway, between all the chaffeuring duties, I should have some time to do things I have been putting off or didn't get to last summer (sponge drops).  High (after I do the requisite house cleaning) on my list is picking ohelo berries.  Ohelo berries make terrific desserts and preserves.  What???  You've never heard of ohelo berries???  You must be kidding me!

Ohelo berries are pretty special, and if you grew up in East Hawaii, you likely have some kind of ohelo berry memory.  When I was growing up, I remember going to the Volcano Golf & Country Club with my dad.  While he worked on his handicap, I worked on checking out the ohelo berry bushes on the outskirts of the fairways.  I can remember going with my parents to pick ohelo berries for jam (not at the golf course!).

In my senior year of high school, my boyfriend took me to the now-closed Volcano House for prom dinner (there was no dinner attached to prom in those days).  I had ohelo berry pie for dessert and couldn't wait to tell everyone about it.  I don't remember the pie being extremely tasty (I remember it being very runny), but to NOT have ordered it would have been foolish and would not have afforded me the bragging rights of having ohelo. 

Over twenty years had passed since I went ohelo berry picking.  I think the last time I had gone was to pick the berries for jam.  I know I was still in elementary school at that time.   But I was shocked when The Help told me he had NEVER gone ohelo berry picking.  How can?  He grew up here!  Last year, we went hiking on the Kilauea Iki trail and had come across ohelo berry bushes scattered about.  The sight of them reminded me of the fun I had picking ohelo berries as a little kid.  I told The Help about my ohelo berry adventures, and he said he never went berry picking.  #amazing #shelteredprivateschoolkid So in an effort to educate him about how the other half lives, I took him ohelo berry picking off the Saddle (well, how could I not. . .he has a 4-wheel drive vehicle).

In an hour, we managed to pick nearly a quart of berries.  I was too tired to pick any more, and I had to use the bathroom.  I really wanted to make a proper topping for a cream cheese pie (wanted to correct what my former coworker made. . .this story will be shared in a future post), but refrigerator real estate helped me decide that I needed to make something which did not require refrigeration. 

At this very moment, my refrigerator is stuffed.  I just bought the gigantic tray of eggs from Costco, so if I don't use most of it (tea eggs, potato salad, Canlis salad, egg salad sandwiches, salty eggs) by the time I go berry picking, I will make these bars (instead of the cream cheese variety).  There really is no way to lose when you make a dessert with ohelo berries.

Unfortunately, the berry picking will need to wait at least another day.  Wouldn't you know. . .Mother Nature is not being cooperative.  The first day of summer vacation has turned out to be a wet, cloudy, cool day.  It is, in fact, so cool that The Help just put on his wool beanie!

click on recipe title for printable recipe

Ohelo Berry Bars

     1 c butter

     3 c flour

     2 1/4 c sugar, divided

     3-4 c ohelo berries

     1 tbsp cornstarch

     3 tbsp flour

     3 tbsp water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine butter, flour, and 3/4 c sugar.  Press 2/3 of mixture into a 9 x 13" pan and bake for 15 minutes.  Reserve remainder for topping.  While crust is baking, combine berries and remaining 1 1/2 c sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil.  Combine cornstarch, flour, and water.  When berries start releasing liquid, add some liquid to cornstarch mixture.  When berries have been boiling for 8 minutes, add cornstarch mixture and cook 2 minutes longer.  Spread on baked crust, sprinkle reserved topping evenly over fruit.  Bake for an additional hour.  Cool completely before cutting into bars.