St. Jude Impossible Pie

The patron saint of impossible causes - St. Jude. What could be better than an "impossible pie" to remind us of St. Jude's intercession for us with impossible causes. This is a pie that does the impossible by making its own crust while it bakes. It was marketed as versatile and crowd-pleasing, as well as quick and easy which is ironically the opposite of impossible.  Impossible Pie is one of the most successful corporate recipe projects in the U.S. food-marketing history.  Americans took to the easy recipe that is adaptable for making both sweet dessert pies and savory meat, vegetable and cheese pies. There were recipes for crustless coconut custard pies that appeared in cookbooks in the south in the mid-century but it first became widely known as Impossible Pie when it was printed on Bisquick baking mix boxes in the 1970s and then adapted for a multitude of variations.  You can find many varieties of pie recipes - from sweet to savory - in this Bisquick booklet from 1982.

The impossible pie is impossibly easy. You don’t need to make a crust for it. Instead, you just mix up all the ingredients together — the ingredients for the filling and the crust — and while it cooks the pie forms its own crust. I have found that the "crust" is more pronounced in the original custard recipe than some of the variations with add ins. But it is defineitly firmer along the bottom and sides and sets up nicely when cooled to form an easily made, but substantial pie. Give it a try in honor of St. Jude today (or St. Rita on her feast, as her patronage includes the impossible, too!)

Since St. Jude's feast falls in October, I went with one of Impossible Pumpkin Pie recipes to fit the season.

Impossible Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients

1 cup canned pumpkin
½ cup baking mix
½ cup sugar
1 cup evaporated milk
1 tablespoon butter or margarine, softened
1 ½ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease 9 inch pie plate. Put all ingredients in a mixer and blend until smooth. Pour into pie plate. Bake until knife inserted into centre comes out clean (35-40 min).

Garnish with whipped cream.

One nice aspect of Impossible Pie is that the basic ingredients are probably readily available in most kitchens - just add the extra for the variation of choice. You don't even have to have a baking mix as that is very easy to make at home.

Homemade Baking Mix

1 cup flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter or shortening

Combine dry ingredients. Add butter and cut with pastry blender until evenly combined. 

St. Jude Thaddeus, Pray for us!

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For Those Sailing Related Saints - Taco Boats

I recently saw this new product from Old El Paso - Mini Soft Tortilla Taco Boats - and immediately thought of the uses for all the saints and feast days associated with boats and sailing (and there are many!).

Today's feast of Our Lady of the Pillar is connected to Christopher Columbus, the holiday also recognized today in the United States.  Under King Ferdinand of Aragon and his wife Queen Isabella, devotion to Nuestra Senora del Pilar (Our Lady of the Pillar) took on national importance in Spain. When Columbus embarked on his journey to find a sailing route to India, he placed the three ships under Mary's patronage. As the weeks dragged on and no land in sight, the sailors grew restless. Columbus' journal indicates he invoked Our Lady under this title, declared that if they did not see land by her feast day they would turn back. On October 12, 1492 the navigators spotted indications of approaching land - one of the islands of the Bahamas - which was named San Salvador when they landed.  Our Lady had interceded.

Today, in commemoration of Our Lady of the Pillar, and of the three ships - the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria - we enjoyed a dinner of taco ships.  These edible little boats can be filled with a variety of different fillings, made to your liking and specifications. Here they are filled with spiced ground beef, cheese, salsa and sour cream with a tortilla chip sail. Thought a "New World" Hispanic inspired meal with spices (Columbus' travels were intended to make it easy to reach the spices of far east.) would be fun. Made with or without a sail, can be a quick and ready made boat for a variety of saints and feast days.

Some ideas to consider:

• St. Brendan (May 16)- Called Brendan the Navigator, patron of mariners; it is said he sailed across the Atlantic in 6th century
• St. Nicholas (December 6) - patron of sailors and ships
• St. Elmo (Erasmus) (June 2) - patron of sailors, especially against sudden storms and lightening
• St. Raymond of Pennafort (January 7)- miraculous story of him sailing on cloak across the Balearic Sea after being barred from boarding a ship
• St. Catherine of Siena (April 29) - often pictured holding a ship (represents the Church)
• St. Anthony of Padua (June 13) - ended up in Italy because a storm forced a ship he was on in opposite direction and so he did not return to Portugal
• St. Jude Thaddeus [& Simon] (October 28) - often pictured holding a ship (represents the Church)
• St. Peter Gonzales (April 15) - sometimes also called St. Elmo, patron of Spanish and Portuguese sailors
• St. Francis Xavier (December 4) - known for his missionary travels to Asia, often pictured with ship
• St. Peter (June 29) - the title "Barque (ship) of St. Peter" often used for Catholic Church
• St. Paul (June 29, February 10) - known for his missionary travels by ship to spread the Gospel, shipwrecked
• Our Lady of the Rosary (October 7) - Naval battle of Lepanto: Christians victorious against great odds, feast of OL of the Rosary instituted after her intercession
• St. Frances Cabrini (November 13) - Immigrated to US on ship, story of her dropping violets in paper boats as a child who wished to be a missionary

Past posts with sailing themes: Deviled Egg Boats, Victory Vessel Potatoes, Sts. Peter and Paul Sailing Cupcakes, St. Paul Apple & Cheese Ships


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