Tootie Pie Co. at the Ben E. Keith trade show.

Z’Tejas Southwestern Grill has announced that they will be opening a location in San Antonio this November.

On Facebook and Twitter, the company announced that the new store will be in the Shops at La Cantera.

The restaurant has three locations in Austin, including the original on 6th Street, and more in Arizona, California, Utah, and Washington.  Some of its signature dishes include Catfish Beignets, Wild Mushroom Enchiladas, and Diablo Chicken Pasta. It is also known for its  variety of margaritas.

(Update on Tootie Pie, March 31, 2010: The company issued a press release yesterday stating that plans for the Artisan’s Alley location have been canceled.)

In the space that formerly housed Apple Annie’s in Artisans Alley, Tootie Pie Co. is opening its third café.  The restaurant will specialize in coffee, bagels, baked goods, gourmet sandwiches, and other homey foods.  It will offer its famous pies whole or by the slice; flavors include Coconut Supreme, Heavenly Chocolate, Lemon Velvet, and the six-pound Original Apple.

From 3 until 5 p.m., the Tootie Pie Co. Gourmet Café will also serve high tea in the tea room atmosphere.

Tootie Pie Co. is headquartered in Boerne and based on the prize-winning pies originally made by Ruby Lorraine “Tootie” Feagan.  The other two café locations were acquired from Benny’s Bagels, 2339 E. Evans Road and 16615 Huebner Road.

Tootie Pie Co. Gourmet Café
555 W. Bitters Road (inside Artisans Alley)
Hours: Monday – Sunday, 7 a.m. – 7 p.m.
www.tootiepieco.com

Z’Tejas
www.ztejas.com

The Indiana legislature recently  named Sugar Cream Pie the state’s official pie, which tells you just how beloved this dessert is. But you don’t have to be a Hoosier to love this delectable confection made with cream and sprinkled with a touch of nutmeg. Wash your hands thoroughly before making this hands-on treat.

Sugar Cream Pie

1 (9-inch) pie crust, unbaked
3 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
Whole nutmeg

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Prepare pie pastry.

Place flour and sugar in the unbaked pie shell.  Add cream a little at a time and mix well using your fingers to mix slowly (very slowly) the dry and liquid ingredients (and to prevent the cream from whipping). You may want to let the cream warm up a little first, because it can get quite cold and the stirring does take a few minutes. Add vanilla extract and continue stirring with fingers. Sprinkle with freshly grated nutmeg.

Bake 10 minutes; reduce heat to 325 degrees. Continue baking for approximately 45 to 55 minutes. Center will appear soft and bubble a bit like lava, but the pie will set up as it cools. Remove from oven.

Although you may refrigerate the pie, it usually isn’t necessary to get it to set.

Makes 1 pie.

Adapted from www.whatscookingamerica.net.

Sweet Potato Pie

2 cups cooked sweet potatoes, drained
4 tablespoons margarine, melted
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
3/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 (9-inch) pie shell, baked
1/4 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Use a food processor or fork to mash sweet potatoes together with melted margarine. Blend in eggs, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add milk and vanilla. Pour mixture into baked pie shell. Bake for about 20 minutes. Sprinkle on pecans and bake 15-25 minutes or until it doesn’t jiggle.

Makes 8 servings.

Adapted from Sankofa

Honey and Spice Glazed Turkey / Butterball

Here are hotlines and websites for finding information on just about everything you need for Thanksgiving.

• Butterball Turkey Talk-Line: (800) 288-8372, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. live assistance, then automated; butterball.com.
• Crisco Pie Hotline: (877) 367-7438 offers a pie expert to talk to from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday throughout the holidays. The line is also available 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. now through Nov. 26 and Dec. 15-23. On Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, access videos with step-by-step visual instructions and guidelines for making pie crusts.
• Domino Sugar: dominosugar.com – look here for baking tips and recipes.
• Fleischmann’s Yeast Baker’s Help Line: (800) 777-4959: offers information for using yeast, storing it, determining if it is still useable. Consumer representatives are on hand 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday. Recipes, tips at breadworld.com.
• Food and wine pairing: www.foodandwinepairing.org offers tips on what wines to pair with turkey or your side sides.
• Foster Farms Turkey Helpline: 800-255-7227: answers questions about their products and how to prepare turkey, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday-Friday. Now through Thursday, representatives are available 24 hours a day. Or visit fosterfarms.com.
• King Arthur Flour Co.’s Bakers Hotline: 802-649-3717 for information on baking just about anything. Staffed 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday-Friday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday year-round. During the holidays, the hotline is available weekends from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Also, you can e-mail questions to bakers@kingarthurflour.com or join live chats at kingarthurflour.com when the hotline is available.
• Land O’Lakes Holiday Bake Line: (800)  782-9606; hotline available 8 a.m.-7 p.m. through Christmas Eve.
• Libby Consumer Hotline: (800) 854-0374. Get tips about canned pumpkin from 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Friday year-round.
• McCormick: mccormick.com provides  holiday recipes and instructions for craft projects that use spices.
• National Turkey Federation: eatturkey.com advocates for the turkey industry and has a Thanksgiving guide for turkey preparation as well as other holiday dishes.
• Nestlé Toll House Baking Information Line: (800) 637-8537 is available 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.  Monday-Friday. Also, their Web site, verybestbaking.com, offers baking tips and recipes.
• Ocean Spray consumer help line: (800) 662-3263 is available 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, including Thanksgiving Day. Or visit oceanspray.com for a  Thanksgiving planning section including expert advice, tried-and-true recipes, ideas for a beautiful table, crafts and hints for the host.
• Perdue Farms: (800) 473-7383. Find out about roasting, carving and leftovers at www.perdue.com.
• Reynolds Turkey Tips hotline: (800) 745-4000 for recorded turkey defrosting and roasting information; reynoldskitchen.com.
• Shady Brook Farms Turkey Line: (888) 723-4468 offers recorded information about turkeys from buying and prepping to roasting and carving. www.shadybrookfarms.com.
• USDA Meat & Poultry Hotline: (888) 674-6854 offers information on safe food handling and prevention of food-borne illnesses.

John Griffin and About.com contributed to this report.

What happened to the whipped cream?

Deciding what to serve for Thanksgiving dessert can be fraught with as many emotional landmines as preparing the menu for the rest of the meal.

Some people only want pumpkin pie or pecan pie. Others want anything but.

But most everyone agrees on one thing: Dessert is as important as the turkey and all the trimmings.

I always enjoy a slice of pumpkin pie or sweet potato pie with whipped cream on top (OK, I can enjoy almost anything with whipped cream on top, but that’s another story). I also enjoy trying something new, yet with respect to tradition. So, this year, I’m going to try an Apple-Brandy Tart from Plaza Club chef Dan Lewis’ cookbook, “Discover Ironstone Vineyards.” And I’ll hope that one of the other guests brings along the pumpkin pie.

Diana Barrios Treviño's Family Favorite Cheesecake

Many of the desserts you’ll find make great use of the season’s bounty: apples, pumpkin, pecans. But the format can be different, such as Pumpkin-Spice Layer Cake.

Or the dish can something you love year-round, such as cheesecake, which has become a tradition in Diana Barrios Treviño’s family.

Whatever you try, remember that dessert, though it comes at the end of the meal, can usually be made the day before. So, save yourself some time and make your favorite pie or a whole array of desserts the day before. You’ll be glad to have one less thing to worry about.

Pie from Mom is one of the treats we love most at Thanksgiving. So, here’s a recipe from my mom for her pumpkin pie, a favorite with my family for years. If your mom used a different spice blend, then modify the seasoning to your taste.

Pumpkin Pie

1 cup sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon ginger
½ teaspoon allspice
½ teaspoon ground cloves
2 eggs
1 ½ cups canned pumpkin or well-drained roasted pumpkin
1 2/3 cups evaporated milk
1 (9-inch) unbaked pie crust
Whipped cream

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Mix sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice and cloves. Stir in the eggs. Add pumpkin, then evaporated milk, stirring until thoroughly incorporated. Pour into unbaked pie crust. Bake for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 325 degrees. Bake for 35 minutes more. Remove from the oven and let cool. Top with whipped cream.

Makes 1 (9-inch) pie.

From Annaliese Griffin

Raspberry Pie

This pie went together very easily, especially because I used frozen raspberries, with a few stray strawberries and blackberries tossed into the mix, and pre-made pie crusts.

4-6 cups frozen raspberries, or a mix of raspberries, blackberries and strawberries
Sugar, to taste (I used about 3/4 – 1 cup), plus more for dusting
1/4 teaspoon salt
3-4 drops of almond extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 box store-bought pie crust for a two-crust pie

Pour frozen berries into a saucepan, add a little water, cover the pan and put it on low. As the berries thaw, check and stir them. They shouldn’t need any more liquid. Let them come to a simmer and add the sugar and salt. When the berries are cooked down and blended well together, put 1/3 cup warm water into a small bowl and whisk in the cornstarch until it’s dissolved. Add this slowly to the simmering berry mixture. You want the berries to thicken, but not get to the stage that the mixture is gluey. Add the almond flavoring and cinnamon, stir. Taste for seasoning and sweetness.  Take off the stove. Let cool about 20-30 minutes.

Heat the oven to whatever temperature the box calls for (I heated it to 350 degrees).

When the berry mixture is no longer hot, take the pie crust from the refrigerator. Lay one crust on the bottom of a pie pan, making sure to push the crust back toward the bottom of the inside of the plate. Pour the cooled raspberry mixture in. Top with the other crust. Fold the top crust down and around the edge of the bottom crust, then push the edges down to the rim of the pie plate with your thumbs, at intervals, to seal the crust.

Cut several 3-inch slices into the top of the crust for steam to escape. Dust the top with more sugar. Put the pie into the oven. After about 15-20 minutes, check to see if the crust is getting more brown than the rest of the pie. If it is, put foil around the outer circumference of the pie to protect just the crust.  The pie will take 35-40 minutes to bake — you want the top nicely browned.  Let cool before slicing.

Makes 1 (9-inch) pie.

From Bonnie Walker

This recipe is part of the series: WalkerSpeak: Shhh! Leftovers. But Who Can Tell?