Luby’s Pecan Pie

This is the pie my Grandmother bakes for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and any other family gathering.  It is my favorite.

Ingredients

1 cup sugar
1 cup Karo corn syrup
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 extra-large eggs, well beaten
1 cup pecans
1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell

Directions

  1. In heavy pot, bring sugar, corn syrup, butter and vanilla to boil.  Remove and cool.
  2. When mixture has cooled completely, mix in well beaten eggs.
  3. Mix thoroughly — the sugar mixture will be quite thick and sticky.
  4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  5. Arrange pecans in unbaked pastry shell.
  6. Pour mixture over pecans.
  7. Bake on middle rack of oven 50-60 minutes, or just until filling is puffed and set and nicely browned. Like custard pies, the filling will completely set upon cooling.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 50-60 minutes

Yields: 1 beautiful pecan pie

Description

This pie is rich, sweet, and quite frankly the ultimate pie.  It is great as is, or served with whipped cream or Blue Bell Home Made Vanilla ice cream.

This recipe came from Luby’s Cafeterias which at one time were found all over Texas with many in the San Antonio area.

Big Red Ice Cream

There’s nothing better in the summer than a good bowl of home made Big
Red ice cream.  This is my favorite.  I can eat bowl after bowl of it.

Ingredients
1 quart whipping cream
2 cans sweetened condensed milk
1 ten-ounce package of frozen strawberries (optional)
3 cans of Big Red (36 fluid ounces)
Whole milk

Directions

  1. Mix whipping cream, sweetened condensed milk, strawberries (optional) and Big Red in a large bowl.
  2. Stir well.
  3. Pour into an ice cream freezer.
  4. Continue to fill freezer with whole milk to fill line (about 2/3 of freezer if not marked.)
  5. Follow the directions for your ice cream freezer
  6. (optional) For more solid ice cream, pour the ice cream into a container and place in your freezer overnight.

 

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Yields: 1 to 1.5 gallons

Description
The Big Red website is at http://www.bigredltd.com

Pinto Beans and Dumplings

This is a great dish to make in the winter when cooking warms the whole kitchen.

Ingredients

Beans:

  • 2 cups dry pinto beans (about 16 oz)
  • 1 teaspoon of garlic powder or 2 garlic cloves slightly crushed (optional)
  • 1 small chunk white onion (optional)
  • 1 tsp Black Pepper (optional)
  • ¼ lb. ham chunks, ham fat, deli ham, ham bone, salt pork, or bacon
  • 6 to 8 cups hot water

Dumplings:

  • 6 eggs
  • 2 cups flour, divided
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking powder

Directions

Beans:

1. Rinse and sort beans in cold water once or twice until water runs clear.
2a. (Traditional Soak) Cover beans with hot water and soak overnight.
2b (Quick Soak) Cover with 2 inches of hot water. Bring to boil for 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Cover and let stand for 1 hour.
3. Add the other ingredients to the soaked and rinsed beans in a 6-quart pot with 6 cups of hot water. The water should cover beans.
4. Bring to a boil and lower heat to medium, keeping it at a simmer. Simmer gently with lid tilted until beans are tender, about 1.5 to 2 hours. Warning: If more water is needed, always add hot or boiling water, a cup or so at a time.

DO NOT ADD COLD WATER TO HOT BEANS — IT WILL CAUSE THE BEANS TO SPLIT.

Dumplings:
5. When beans are almost done, begin to make the dumplings.
6. Beat the eggs
7. Add 1 cup of flour, salt, and baking powder and mix well.
8. Continue to add the remaining flour until mixture is a very thick dough. A good rule of thumb is that it is not thick enough until your arm hurts trying to mix the dough.
9. Add HOT water to beans until there is about 2” to 3” of water over the beans. Allow the beans to resume simmering.

DO NOT ADD COLD WATER TO HOT BEANS — IT WILL CAUSE THE BEANS TO SPLIT.

10. Use a large spoon to transfer the dumpling dough into the bean broth. Before each dumpling, dip large spoon into bean broth (this helps keep the dough from sticking to the spoon.) Then dip one spoonful of dough into bean broth. The dumpling should separate from the spoon. Repeat until all dough is used.

11. Cook 10 minutes, stirring dumplings occasionally.

Prep Time: 1 hour and 15 minutes

Cook Time: 2 hours and 15 minutes

Description

This is a old family favorite that both Daddy and Grandma Voigt would make for our family. We could make several meals from one pot of beans. In that one pot you have beans, the bean broth – which is like a soup, and the dumplings. The dumplings were a favorite. These are not your typical fluffy dumplings. These are hearty dumplings that will put meat on your bones and fill you up. My sister and I would fight over who would get the last one. If we still had beans left, Daddy would sometimes make a second batch of dumplings.

Easy German Texas Chili

There’s nothing like a good bowl of Chili…

Ingredients

1 lb ground beef
1 cup chopped onion (optional)
1 clove garlic, minced (optional)
1 tbsp Gebhardt Chili Powder
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt
1 (32 oz) jar Picante Sauce (pick your heat – Mild, Medium, Hot)
3 tbsp masa harina or flour (optional)
¼ cup water (optional)

Directions

1. In a skillet, brown ground beef, chopped onion (optional), and minced garlic (optional).
2. Combine ground beef mixture, Chili Powder, ground cumin, salt and Picante Sauce in a slow cooker.
3. Set on low and cook for 8 hours, stirring occasionally.
4. For thicker chili (optional), combine masa and water.
4a. Pour mixture evenly over the chili and mix.
4b. Cook for an additional 15 minutes.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 8 hours and 15 minutes

Description

So what’s so “German” about Chili?

Chili power was invented by a German Immigrant by the name of William Gebhardt. He developed his mixture of ground chili and spices in a small restaurant in New Braunfels, Texas. Since chiles were only available after the summer harvest, chili was only a seasonal food during that era. Gebhardt solved the problem by importing Mexican ancho chiles, grinding the peppers through a small home meat grinder three times, and then dried the ground pepper into a powder. The resulting mixture could be used to serve Chili year-round. Gebhardt moved to San Antonio in 1890 and registered Eagle Brand Chili Powder in 1896. The Gebhardt brand of chili powder is today regarded by many chili cooks as a premium chili powder and specified by name in their recipes.

This recipe won the 2004 IBM Austin Linux Technology Center chili cook-off.