My Mother made this pie regularly for festive occasions. When my dad took seriously ill he was unable for about 4 months to eat any heavy solids. This pie was his delight and his delicacy during his bout with Cancer. This was in 1983. My mother’s nursing him at home and nourishing him with this "cool" pie made those last months pass more easily: having his favorite food every day.

NEW QUICK KEY LIME PIE

Ingredients:
1 can Eagle brand sweetened condensed milk
½ cup Key Lime juice
1 (8 oz.) lg. ctn. cool Whip

Instructions:
Blend milk and lime juice. Blend into Cool Whip; pile in a graham cracker crust and chill. It is recommended that ½ tablespoon of grated lime rind (zest) be added to enhance flavor.

Serves 8 people

Every Swedish kid grows up with the wonderful smells of fresh coffee bread setting out to rise or baking in the kitchen oven. Our home was no different, except that my mom and my grandmother - who lived with us after my grandfather was paralyzed in a freak accident - made the bread.

And though every Swedish occasion had coffee bread in some form - coffee rings, cruces, braids, bullars - topped with chopped nuts and sugar, dried fruits and sugar, cinnamon and sugar, sugar and sugar - I’ve yet to discover one that tastes quite so good as my mother’s. For a main course or appetizer, send me to Mexico, France or India. But for dessert and coffee, nothing beats my mother’s Swedish coffee bread.

Maybe too, the flavor captures the heart of our home. A pot of hot coffee was always on the stove, ready to be poured for breakfast, then morning coffee, then lunch, then afternoon coffee. Everyone stopped whatever they were doing to sit down and spend some time talking and laughing. I can still remember those times in every bite.

Like any good recipe, this one was never recorded until my younger sister tried to preserve it by working beside my mom a few years before she died. Use creatively! Then call me and I’ll taste it.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup milk scalded and cooled
1 cup sugar, 2 eggs beaten (save some for top)
1 teaspoon salt, 3/4 cup shortening - melted and cooled
1 dry yeast cake - softened in lukewarm water with 1 teaspoon sugar
6 cups flour, and 6-8 cardamom seeds - crushed.

Instructions:

Combine wet ingredients and mix with combined dry ingredients (sugar + salt + cardamom). Gradually add the flour and work until smooth and elastic. Cover and let rise to double its bulk. Roll out and cut and shape in bullar (small cord of dough wound in a spiral to form an individual roll), or make larger cords, weave into a braid and form into a coffee ring.

Brush with eggs and sprinkle with pearl sugar. Bake in oven @ 350-375 for 15-20 minutes (or longer for ring) until golden brown.