Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Baking backwards: coconut cream pie

My husband groaned with pleasure as he dipped his fork into a nut-crusted, coconut-toasted slice.

I didn't set out to make a pie. Yet that's what became of extra eggs and clearance frozen coconut.

I call it baking backwards, and it's a strategy that always saves me money.

Find out the limiting ingredient in your favorite recipes. In a rich pound cake, it's butter. When I've stocked up at $2/pound, my Bundt pan gets a lot more use.

Who's not cheerful about budget-stretching when dessert appears unnanounced?

17 comments:

Kelly said...

Extra bananas become One Egg Bananas Bread . I goggled this when I had a lot of very ripe bananas and one egg . Now, it's a family favorite . It tastes much better the next day after refrigeration . I serve it with a crushed pineapple mango "salsa."
I use goggle to search for recipes and ideas for limited ingredients . This helps me reduce waste and add some new family favorites to our menus .
But I also still read cookbooks and cooking articles . Our local paper ran an article on local catfish farms that included several recipes . The Vietnamese catfish in a clay pot , ( called Ca Kho To ) looks really yummy.

Julie @ Creating This Life said...

Yum, Meredith! I'm not sure if your baking or your photography is more delicious!

Anonymous said...

Your pie looks so good. Roxie

Anonymous said...

Dear Meredith,
I do have chickens in the garden, and my beloved is outside (in the rain) landscaping my English-inspired kitchen garden...
I frequently have extra eggs(some of which dh takes to work to sell for me)so pretty please share your coconut pie recipe! Gill :)

Bahama Shores Mama said...

Making a carrot cake today because we had a huge baby shower last weekend and I have so many carrots left from the Sams Club size bag.

Your pie looks yummy, as usual!

Anonymous said...

Oh, come now! You can't post such a delectable photo and not post your recipe! I bet there are a lot of wet keyboards out there right now. I know I'm drooling!

DealFinder said...

Oh, my, does that ever look good! You wouldn't want to share the recipe, would you?

Anonymous said...

Good golly that looks good!
Of course you need to post the recipe!

the momma said...

the recipe ~ is it coming??
please :-)

xoxo, Chloe said...

This looks so yummy!! I found your blog a few weeks ago and visit it everyday :)

Martha A. said...

Yummy!

Anonymous said...

Yum. That pie looks very, very good.

God bless.

Anonymous said...

You named a process that I didn't even realize I was really doing! But I have understood what it is when my husband has done the grocery shopping since our baby was born. He doesn't have a mental list of what's in our pantry and what kinds of desserts (or other recipes) use special ingredients that might be hiding on the clearance shelf or at the discount grocery.
Thanks for the label and for the delicious pictures.

Kelly said...

Oops ! I goggled my google. The pies look great ! Thanks for recipe !

Tubo Family said...

Good thinking! Similarly I made a pie with 1 can of vanilla pears from the discount grocer & the small bag of peaches that came in my csa box.

Anonymous said...

All your desserts look soooooooo yummy - NO FAIR, Meredith! (lip poked out and arms folded)...

I wish our technology could have us zap yummy things onto a plate instantaneously for sampling!

This is killing me... SOFTLY!
Girl, I'm glad we can't gain weight my simply LOOKING!
Be blessed! ha ha
WORKING MAMA IN THE NW

Anonymous said...

Wow! You've named what I've been doing and what my dh has trouble comprehending. Baking backwards...I do almost all of my cooking backwards! My dh wants a predictable menu...how can I do that AND save money?...he just has to be surprised. Btw, he compliments me constantly on my frugality, my creativity, my innovative ideas, and my way of culturing our kids with a variety of dishes.....all of those comments just b/c I need to save money!

I do what Kelly does: I use Internet sources such as allrecipes.com or foodnetwork.com so that I can at least get an idea of how to turn all my garden's eggplant and zucchini into something the family will enjoy.

Our chickens lay more than enough eggs every day, so I'm really interested in this recipe!