"Cooking with [Winnie the] Pooh - Yummy Tummy Cookie Cutter Treats" - Piglet's No-Haycorn Pizzas - for my Aunt Mary's 96th birthday

Date I made this recipe:  October 10, 2017 – my Aunt Mary's 96^th birthday!

Cooking with Pooh – Yummy Tummy Cookie Cutter Treats by Marlene Brown

Published by Disney Enterprises, Inc.

© 1995

Purchased at:  BPCA (Bloomington Crime Prevention Association) Annual Sale

Recipe:  Piglet's No-Haycorn Pizzas ('Haycorn' is Piglet's word for acorns)

"I'm planting a haycorn, Pooh, so that it can grow....up into an oak tree, and have lots of haycorns just outside the front door instead of having to walk miles and miles, do you see Pooh?"

I love Winnie the Pooh and his friends and his stories and his adventures.  I always have, always will. 

These characters, brought to life by A. A. Milne, informed my childhood as I read and re-read many a Pooh story.  I remember being particularly confused and scared about the "heffalumps" until I got old enough to realize that is what Pooh called "elephants."  Ah.  Makes a difference, it does!

The main character (besides Pooh), and the subject of an upcoming movie, "Goodbye Christopher Robin," was Christopher Robin, Winnie the Pooh's young owner. Christopher Robin was the real-life son of A.A. Milne, Pooh's creator and the movie preview looks great.

In fiction and in real life, Christopher Robin and his bear, Winnie the Pooh had many adventures and were the very best of friends.  When I was a kid, there was a song about Christopher Robin called "They're Changing Guards at Buckingham Palace," that played on Captain Kangaroo.  The main refrain is "They're changing guards at Buckingham Palace, Chris-to-pher Robin went down with Alice..." and even though I heard it as a young child, that song always stuck with me. I loved the Captain, loved the show, loved the song – loved

So speaking of "love," just before Andy and I got married, we bought a greeting card for someone with a quote from Pooh and Christopher Robin.  We loved it so much that we tracked down a second card, found the full quote, and decided to have it be one of our wedding readings. I asked my Aunt Mary to do the honors and  I believe I've written in a pervious blog that she got up in front of everyone, said very solemnly "This is a reading from Winnie the Pooh," and then cracked up laughing.  We did too!

Twenty six years later, my aunt is still with us and in fact, just turned 96 which is a major accomplishment.  We were always close (my birthday is the day before hers) and ever since the wedding, we have grown even closer over our love of Pooh.  Thanks to Hallmark, I am able to find a Winnie the Pooh (original illustration) for about every occasion including this year's birthday card.

The Winnie the Pooh characters in this cookbook/booklet are the more contemporary ones from Disney Enterprises. I have vague recollections of a Winnie the Pooh TV show from my earlier years and these more contemporary renderings were the one in that show.  I must confess though, that I have a fondness for the "original" characters are drawn by E. H. Shepard, and I hope I'm not the only one who found it amusing that both the author and the illustrator went by initials instead of full names.

Unlike the mega-paged The Playboy Gourmet cookbook that I used last week, this booklet contains 10 and only 10 recipes, all of which are intended to be made by kids with adult supervision. Each recipe has the name of a Pooh character and of course, all of Pooh's recipes contained honey, or "hunny" as he liked to spell it.

Since there are only 10 recipes, here's the list:

• Pooh's Honey Cookies on a Stick
• Eeyore's Rainy Day Cinnamon Crisps
• Christopher Robin's Gingerbread Friends
• Pooh's Best Lunch-Wiches
• Piglet's No-Haycorn Pizzas
• Rabbit's Double-Double Chocolate Cookies
• Tigger's Bouncing Rainbow Animals
• Pooh's Holiday Ornament Cookies
• Kanga's Animal Biscuit Surprises
• Roo's Painted Cookie Friends

As good as all these recipes sounded, I tend to favor savory over sweet and so made "Piglet's No-Haycorn Pizzas." Piglet calls acorns "haycorns," and I wish I could elaborate further on why it's important that this is a no "haycorn" recipe but I can't so I won't!

The pizza recipe is simple and delicious although I did not do two things called for in the recipe:  I did not use "grown-up" help to turn on my oven, and I did not cut out little pizzas with cookie cutters.  I also added an ingredient that wasn't called for in the recipe – Cipollini Onion that were marinated in balsamic vinegar – yum!  They were in the same olive bar from which I got my "ripe olive slices" and figured why not?  I cut them up in small pieces and they were a tasty addition.

Okay, true confession #4:  I did not roll out the dough as directed.  I tried it and it kept sticking to my non-stick rolling pin (How did that happen?) and still got stuck when I tried flouring first the rolling pin and then the dough.  I finally gave up and just pulled the dough into the rectangle desired and then added my toppings.  I'm just going to say again that I do not enjoy rolling out pie or pizza dough but my husband does which is why he is known as the "Pie Guy" and I am not!

I have always wished that my aunt lived closer as we have so much fun when we are together ("You're the best Pooh reader, ever, Auntie Mare!") but I'm pretty sure she would have enjoyed her Piglet Pizza as well as this charming Winnie the Pooh children's cookbook.

Piglet's No-Haycorn Pizzas – makes 12 to 14 mini pizzas or 1 large cookie sheet

1 8-ounce can refrigerated crescent roll dough

A few tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/3 cup pizza sauce

12 top 14 pepperoni slices, cut in half

12 to 14 ripe olive slices

½ cup pre-shredded cheddar or mozzarella cheese

With grown-up help, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. 

Sprinkle flour on the countertop or a large cutting board.  Remove the dough carefully from the can in two sections.  Unroll one section of the dough on the board; unroll the second section of dough next to it to make a square.  With your fingers press the edges together to make one large piece of dough.  Ann's Note:  The tricky part will be pressing the edges of each crescent roll triangle and then keeping them pressed together.

Put some flour on the rolling pin.  Roll the dough carefully to make an 11x10-inch rectangle.  Dip your cookie cutters in some flour, then cut out shapes from dough.  Ann's Note:  I skipped this part but for those of you who want to use cookie cutters, follow the next steps below.

With a metal spatula, put your pizza cut-outs on the cookie sheet.  Shape the dough scraps into a ball.  Roll it out and cut more pizzas.  Put them on the cookie sheet.

With a small spoon spread some pizza sauce on each pizza.  Put two half-slices of pepperoni on top.  Put one slice of olive on each pizza.  Sprinkle each pizza with some cheese.  Try not to get any cheese on the cookie sheet.

With grown-up help, bake your pizzas for 12 to 14 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown and the cheese is melted.  With help, take them out of the oven.  Cool them for 2 minutes.  With the metal spatula, take the pizzas off the cookie sheet to serve to your friends.

"France and its Cuisine" & "The Pooh Cookbook" (as in Winnie-the-Pooh) - Coq au Vin and Chocolate Honey Pie for our anniversary

Date I made these recipes:  May 19, 2013

France and its Cuisine (author unknown)

Published by:  Mallard Press

ISBN:  0-792-45227-5; © 1991 (and what do you know, that’s the year we got married!)

Recipe:  Coq au Vin (Chicken with Wine) – p. 86

The Pooh Cook Book (Winnie-the-Pooh) by Virginia H. Ellison; Illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard

Published by: Dell Publishing (a Yearling Special)

© 1969

Recipe:  Honey Chocolate Pie – p. 82

Yesterday, May 18^th, was my 22^nd wedding anniversary.  My husband, Andy, spent it in Wisconsin participating in a 100 mile bike ride called, somewhat appropriately, Arcadia’s Brute.  I, on the other hand, went to Art-A-Whirl in Northeast Minneapolis to look at art and buy yet another set of earrings.  I can’t help myself.

Yes, we’re talking romantic folks!  If there’s anything I’d say about a marriage lasting this long is that flexibility is key.  Sure, we spent the first couple anniversaries joined together at the hip but after that our independent spirits took over (we married when we were in our 30’s) and we decided that we didn’t need to be together on that exact day in order to have a meaningful celebration of our marriage.

The day after our anniversary, I cooked dinner but not until Andy got home from a model car show he went to earlier in the day and I came home from brunch with a friend.  Priorities, priorities!

Now you may be wondering what on earth a French dish was doing paired with a recipe from a Winnie-the-Pooh cookbook and so I’ll tell you that it all connects to our wedding and honeymoon.  At our wedding, my father-in-law read from Anne Morrow Lindberg’s Gift from the Sea.  The late, great Webster Martin had a wonderful reading voice and gave a thoughtful delivery of the section we chose.

And then my Aunt Mary, “Auntie Mare,” got up and with the straightest of faces intoned “This is a reading from Winnie-the-Pooh,” and then cracked up laughing.  I cannot recall exactly what the section of Winnie-the-Pooh was that we selected but I do recall we saw it on a greeting card and thought it made for a fun and different wedding reading.  I loved reading Winnie-the-Pooh as a kid although I was always afraid of the “heffalumps” until I was older and realized they were elephants. And so what the heck, you like something, you add it to your wedding reading list.

As to the honeymoon, Andy and I managed to score incredibly inexpensive airline tickets to Paris (much cheaper than any domestic flights) and so in another “what the heck moment,” we booked a flight to Paris, then took a train trip to northern Italy (Venice and Florence), another train trip through the Italian and French Riviera with a stop in Provence to visit a friend and then back up to Paris.  It was exhausting and crazy fun all rolled into one although sadly, we haven’t been back since.  And so we bien mange (eat well) at home instead.

Many of the recipes in the French cookbook sounded oh-so-tasty and I vacillated between a recipe for Chicken Stew Nicoise, a recipe with tomatoes, olives and white wine and the one I made, Coq au Vin, a heartier dish with mushrooms, pearl onions and red wine before deciding that red wine wins.  Plus, the weather was on the stormy side (a complete understatement for the deluge and flash flood I got caught in) and the heartier dish felt cozier than the other.  Plus I like red wine and hey, if you have to add three cups of wine to a dish, it should be something you like to drink, n’cest pas? (Isn’t it so?)

As to dessert, finding something to make from the Pooh cookbook wasn’t hard at all as this recipe combines my favorites – chocolate and honey (or, as Pooh would say “hunny”) with whipped cream thrown in for good measure.  The author cautions us that this is a very sweet pie but you know what, it didn’t taste that way at all.  We pronounced it a grand success.  And in keeping with our French theme, the French word for honeymoon is “lune de miel,” “miel” being the French word for honey (and “lune” is moon).  Go ahead and say it with me:  “Awwwww…..” 

Both of these dishes were very good (c’est tres bon) but I do have a major change I suggest making to the chicken dish and that is after baking it or simmering it for the required time (45-60 minutes), remove the chicken and simmer the remaining wine/mushroom/onion mixture for a good half hour to hour to reduce the sauce.  Our initial reaction to the dish, eaten straight out of the oven, was that it was okay but not grand as the wine sauce was too watery.  But then I reduced the sauce and it was much, much better. 

So that’s my anniversary dinner for me and my honey (“hunney”).  As Pooh always said “It’s so much more friendly with two.”

Coq au Vin (Chicken in red wine) – serves 4

¼ lb bacon, cut into cubes

2 T butter

3 lbs chicken pieces

12 small white onions, peeled and left whole

2 cups mushrooms, sliced

2 bay leaves

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 bouquet garni (this is typically a mix of thyme, bay leaves, and parsley, tied together, usually in cheesecloth that you then submerge into the liquid.)

3 cups full-bodied red wine

3 T buerre manie (1 tbsp all-purpose flour blended with 2 T softened butter)

Salt and black pepper

Fried bread croutons (garnish)

Parsley (for bouquet garni and garnish)

Fry the bacon until it has browned and rendered its fat and, with a slotted spoon, remove from the pan.  Next add the butter to the fat and melt over a gentle heat.  When the foam subsides, add the chicken joints and fry until golden on both sides.  Remove them to a large flameproof casserole.  Fry the onions until a little brown and then lightly fry the mushrooms.

Add the onions and mushrooms to the casserole together with the bacon, garlic, bay leaves and bouquet garni.  Pour over the red wine and season with black pepper and a little salt.  Bring to a steady simmer over gentle heat.  Add pieces of the beurre manie until the sauce thickens, cover the casserole and continue cooking over a low heat OR place in moderate oven, 350F until chicken is tender – about 45-60 minutes.

Remove bay leaves and bouquet garni and garnish with fried bread croutons and chopped parsley.

Ann’s Note:  The sauce did not thicken like I wanted it to so after cooking for 45-60 minutes, remove the chicken, put the remaining wine/mushroom/onion mixture on the stove and simmer for an additional 30-60 minutes until the sauce is reduced.

Honey Chocolate Pie – makes a 10” pie

1 9-inch pie shell, uncooked

4 ounces semisweet chocolate

¼ cup butter (2 ounces)

1 14 ½-ounce can evaporated milk (Ann’s Note:  can sizes these days are 12 ounces)

½ cup honey

1 cup sugar

3 T cornstarch

¼ teaspoon salt

2 large eggs, beaten

½ cup whipping cream

Buy a ready-made pie shell or make your own from any standard recipe or any of the piecrust mixes.  If making your own, line the pie pan with the pastry before starting the honey-chocolate mixture.

Melt the chocolate and butter in the top of a double boiler.  When melted, remove from the heat and blend in the evaporated milk, stirring all the time.

In a mixing bowl blend together the honey, sugar, cornstarch and salt.  Beat in the eggs.  Add this mixture to the chocolate mixture slowly, beating all the time.  Pour this filling into the waiting pie shell.  If you used a smaller pie shell like I did, pour the remaining mixture into ramekins.

Bake the pie uncovered for 40 minutes then cover it lightly with aluminum foil and bake it 20 minutes more until the top is puffed.  Cracks sometimes show in the center.

Cool for an hour then refrigerate.

Serve cold with whipped cream piled on it.