Random Kitchen Adventures with Robin

Peaches n’ Cream French Toast

2011-08-14T18:37:00.000-07:00

Peaches n’ Cream French Toast (2-3 servings)

This has been our summer to Snooze! Nope, I don’t mean sleeping in, I mean eating out! Family and friends have been comparing their most often ordered dishes from our new favorite breakfast joint, Snooze (several locations in the Denver area). If you haven’t been, you better go, because it’s delish’. And while you know we’ll return again ...occasionally we like to cook in on a Sunday morning, and so...we decided to attempt the recreation of one of our favorite dishes-Peaches n’ Cream French Toast.

While this might not be exactly the way the Pro’s at Snooze pull it off, I think you’ll love the results. Yes, there are a few steps, but no-it’s not hard! A little planning and perhaps a little help manning the griddle and you can pull this off before your second cup of coffee-really!

The basic idea here is two slices of French Toast, with mascarpone and peaches in between, topped with whipped cream and sprinkled with a sweet crumble topping. See? Not complicated...but with a few tweaks we’ll make it extra special!

Tips...before we start: We used basic Texas Toast (available by the loaf at King Soopers). Nothing fancy, just thicker than your usual white bread. Want to make it special? Use a loaf of Challa bread (pronounced ‘halla’) cut into thick slices. You may have to call around to find a bakery that makes it, but it’s soooo worth it!

Sweet Crumble Topping

Mix together in a small bowl 2 tablespoons each of:

uncooked oatmeal
flour
sugar
brown sugar

add ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, mix

add in 1 ½ tablespoons softened butter and mix it altogether with your fingers until it forms small pea-sized pieces.

Spread the mixture out on aluminum foil on a cookie sheet and broil for 4-5 minutes, until the butter is melting and the consistency is less lumpy--watch closely toward the end so it doesn’t start burning! Remove from the oven and Cool , then crumble and set aside in a small bowl.

Caramelized Peaches

Drop 2 ripe peaches into a bowl of very hot tap water.(TIP: hot water helps to separate the skin from the pulp, making peeling easier.) Let them set for about a minute. Pull out one at a time, peel with a knife, then cut off the fruit from the stone into appx. ¼ inch slices.

Melt in a pan:

2 tablespoons butter

Add:

Peach slices and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon sugar and 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

Cook until peaches start to brown on the sides (that’s caramelizing!) then set aside.

Before making the toast, we’ll prepare the mascarpone and whipped cream mixtures so you’ll be ready to put it all together quickly in the end...

Mascarpone Filling

Whip together:

½ cup softened Mascarpone
1 Tablespoon Powdered Sugar
Dash of Half and Half

Whip this JUST until it’s smooth and creamy-don’t over whip or it will start to separate...not that it isn’t still perfectly yummy...just not as pretty.

Whipped Cream Topping

Whip:

2/3 cup whipping cream until it just starts to get firm.

Add:

2 Tablespoons Powdered Sugar
1 Teaspoon vanilla

Continue whipping until it’s all incorporated and it gets the thickness of warm pudding-DON’T whip until it’s forming hard peaks-you want it runnier.

French Toast (2 slices per person)

Mix:

3 eggs
3 cups milk
2 tablespoons vanilla
1 teaspoons cinnamon (more if you like it cinnamony!)

Dip Texas Toast into mixture-don’t pull it right out, coat it completely and give it a few seconds (not too much but...) to absorb some liquid.

Cook: I cook my French Toast on a griddle set to about 350 to 375 degrees-up it to the higher amount if you feel it’s not getting crispy around the edges. Flip after a few minutes-brown the other side (don’t under cook because those crispy edges are part of what’s so good about French Toast!).

Plate:

Place one piece of French Toast on your plate. Top with a generous dollop of the mascarpone mixture (it WILL start melting-that’s okay), top that with several caramelized peaches, then place the second piece of French Toast on top, and top that with generous dollop (or two) of the whipped cream mixture and sprinkle liberally with the sweet crumble topping. That’s it-easier than you thought, huh? Even better once you taste it-yum! Pour that second cup of java and Enjoy!

Fettuccini Alfredo

2011-03-27T13:06:00.000-07:00

For years I made my own version of ‘Alfredo’ sauce based on a roux (flour based sauce) that my mother always used for her Chicken Tetrazzini dish. It is a wonderful dish and the kids love it...but we’ll go there another day. Today we’re in search of a classic Alfredo sauce.

Never completely satisfied with the results when I tried to translate that old recipe to a classic Alfredo dish, I finally gave in and did some research. Imagine my delight when I found out that the classic Alfredo sauce is surprisingly simple-I mean easy! But, sadly, it can also be VERY high in fat, and, well, frankly, kind of bland. But of course, I love a challenge!

My new version, gleaned from the bits and pieces of the many recipes I found, sticks to the simplicity of the original, but, as Emeril Lagasse would say, kicks it up a notch! So, BAM! Here you go!

Fettuccini Alfredo (serves 2)

Ingredients:

1/2 lb. Fettuccini

3 Tb. Butter

2 cups Half and Half (classic Alfredo uses heavy cream-don’t you feel thinner already?!)

1 1/2 Tsp. chopped Garlic

1/2 cup white wine (think Riesling or Pinot Grigio-avoid Chardonnay, I am no fan of the stuff and it generally leaves a bad aftertaste in cooked food. Yes, you can make this without the wine, and really, don’t you know the alcohol cooks off by now? But a complexity of flavor remains.)

1 1/2 cups shredded or shaved Parmesan (Use grated if that’s all you have. Fresher is better-the larger and fresher the pieces, the stronger the taste on your pasta. This is one place where the ‘good stuff’ really pays off!)

1/2 cup chopped Italian Parsley

Salt and Pepper to taste (go light on the salt until you HAVE tasted it-remember, once you go salty, there’s no going back! But if you like pepper, don’t be shy!)

Optional: 1/4 Tsp. crushed red pepper (this is for the folks who love all things spicy!)

Melt the butter in a 10 or 12 inch saucepan over medium low heat. Add cream and wine, stir and simmer for a few minutes to heat, then add the garlic, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil then simmer until the volume reduces down by about a third to half-it will be thicker, and easily coat a spoon (see picture). DON’T do this on high heat, stick to medium and stir regularly. It will take about 10 minutes. I know, we’re all taught to that we shouldn’t let milk come to a boil or it will curdle...no worries here, just stick with the easy simmer and don’t overdo it.

Meanwhile...once the sauce is bubbling, you can get your pasta cooking. Remember to salt your water, and follow package directions. In high altitude, you will need at least a couple extra minutes in the boiling water to get to the right amount of al dente-just keep tasting in the last 2-3 minutes and you’ll get the hang of it!

Once your sauce and pasta are ready, drain the pasta, pour the sauce over it and toss lightly, then divide the fettuccini into two pasta dishes. Sprinkle half of the parmesan on top of one dish and the rest on top of the other. Ditto the Italian Parsley. I like one last fresh grind of pepper as well-you may too!

Pour yourself of glass of that wine, accompany with some garlic bread and a salad. Enjoy!

Optionals....because this is the kind of recipe that begs to be messed with!

Want Chicken Alfredo? Pick up a Deli chicken at the store, tear off some white and dark meat (a mix is nice-about 2/3 to 1 cup total, depending on your tastes) and toss it in the sauce shortly before serving-just long enough to warm it up-not too long or it will start to separate and get mushy (technical cooking term there!). FYI you'll note I added chicken in this dish and you can see it added in in the photo with the coated spoon. Other mix-ins might include peas (toss in frozen peas to heat) or steamed sliced asparagus. Really, let your imagination and taste buds lead the way!

Let There Be Cake...and Frostings, Too!

2011-02-25T10:14:00.000-08:00

I know what you’re thinking. I’ve raised three boys and I’ve made a lot of cakes over the years, and I’m still using boxed cake mixes?! Yes, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. And yes, this is the first Tinker Bell cake I’ve ever made, but when your granddaughter turns three-it’s time for a serious ‘little girl’ kinda cake. And the little girl in me sure enjoyed making it!

Despite the challenge of living at altitude (6000ft), I have braved the ‘from scratch’ cakes, and I’m pow-wowing with the experts in the hopes of bringing you a somewhat reliable version in the near future; chocolate, of course. Scratch cakes come with a wonderful density and more complex flavor than anything in a box can promise. But those boxes can be counted on to bring you consistent enough results, the kind you need to give you a smooth, flat surface for decorating with fairies, dump trucks, gummy worms...whatever your little one’s heart desires!

Still, I draw the line at the cake. There’s no excuse to ever buy a Can-o-Frosting again! Frostings (aka Icing) are so simple to make and so much more delicious to eat. So back away from that can, here are a couple of great do-it-yourself frostings and some ideas for putting them to good use!

If you’ve ever watched Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee (http://www.semihomemade.com ), you get the idea. We take the easy part-the box-and then we do a little something ourselves to create a cake that makes you forget about that New Year’s resolution and spring for a second slice.

The Tinker Bell cake started with a boxed Strawberry Cake mix. If you live at altitude, follow the high altitude directions. If you can’t find Strawberry Cake, or you’re feeling lucky, here’s a quick do-it-yourself version which is probably even better:

Alternate Strawberry Cake: Using one box of White Cake mix, reduce the liquid by 1/3 cup, add all other ingredients called for, PLUS 1 cup strawberry preserves and 1/8 tsp. red food coloring. I would recommend also making some altitude adjustments per the box, if that’s necessary, as this one can be tricky. Just remember, when the center of a cake falls a bit, that’s what icing is for!

Okay, now let’s make it really special with homemade frostings. These two versions will serve you for many purposes. The Cream Cheese is awesome on Carrot Cake as well, and the Chocolate is standard practice for topping all my brownies. It’s also good between graham crackers, in a pinch.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

Mix the following ingredients all together in a bowl until smooth and soft:

8 oz. cream cheese, softened (leave it out of the fridge for about 30 minutes)

6 Tb. butter (unsalted is great, but not necessary)

4 cups powdered sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. lemon juice (cut a wedge and give it a good squeeze into the bowl-that should do it-watch for seeds!)

1-2 Tb. milk-Optional. Add this only if you feel your frosting is a little too thick to spread smoothly.

Creamy Chocolate Frosting: (this comes to us from Anne Byrn’s cookbook, Chocolate From theCake Mix Doctor. (http://www.cakemixdoctor.com/) Byrn has literally written the book-or books on tweaking boxed cake mixes to make wonderful creations that exceed any box’s expectations!) This is enough for brownies, but for a cake, I’d double it.

Mix the first 4 ingredients-start slow, or you’ll have cocoa powder flying everywhere!

3 Tb. butter (room temperature)

3 Tb. unsweetened cocoa powder

1 Tb. light corn syrup

1 tsp. vanilla

After you’ve mixed these together (it will be kinda thick) add and mix until smooth and spreadable:

1 cup powdered sugar

2 Tb. milk

Tinker Bell Cake:

For the Tinker Bell cake, I used the chocolate frosting for the center (use it all-you want a thick layer), and then frosted the rest of the cake with the cream cheese frosting. I reserved about 1/2 cup of the cream cheese for decorating. I added green and yellow food coloring to the reserved frosting and then piped those little vines here and there. If you don’t have piping equipment, put it in a small baggie and snip off one bottom corner-instant piping tool!

I used pre-made store bought candy flowers at the end of each vine, and a colorful silk flower for Tink to sit upon. I cut the stem down to about 2 inches and slipped it into a cut off piece of a straw before sticking it into the cake. Tink’s small friends easily sat in the frosting, but Tink was a bit tippy...a problem that was solved by a drop of hot glue on her little behind before she sat down on the flower. (Yes, it peels off later and no fairies were hurt in the making of this cake!)

That’s it! We served the cake with Chocolate Chip Ice Cream-Yummm! Now go, make cake! J

Aunt Kay’s Dutch Baby Pancake (YF)

2011-02-14T15:33:00.000-08:00

This recipe came from my Aunt Kay who lives in Hawaii. She recommends that these be preceded by 'well iced Bloody Mary's' and served with 'chilled champagne'! One of the many reasons why I love 'Mama Kay'!

When I was little we used to go to a Swedish restaurant that made something like these for Sunday breakfast. They filled the middle with apples, which is fine. But I'm a purest and love the simplicity of powdered sugar and lemon. The Original Pancake House makes a Dutch Baby that's very much the same, and comes with an accompaniment of whipped butter, lemon and powdered sugar: http://www.originalpancakehouse.com/phm_specialties2.html Makes me wonder if they were spying on my Aunt all those years ago...hmm. However, if you are hooked on those pancakes but don't have an hour to wait for a table on Sunday morning, this is the recipe for you!

I've been making this recipe for a very long time-long enough to do in a couple of favorite pans! The ideal pan is a 12 inch stainless steel--no non-stick coatings or plastic handles. All-Clad makes the pan of my dreams: http://www.all-clad.com/collections/Stainless-Steel/frypans.htm?index= ...but until my ship comes in, I'm making due with a non-stick coated 12 incher that's safe in the oven. Any wide, slope sided pan will do.

This is the kind of thing that’s infinitely simple but can vary from day to day. Weather affects it. Occasionally it will rise less up the sides and be thicker in the middle. That's cool, just different. But the ideal pancake is thin, rises high on the sides and gets golden and crunchy on the edges. Once done, you slide it onto a large platter-it will deflate a bit-and slice like a pizza. Hmmm...just thinking about it makes me think I might have to go make one for lunch...

Tip 1: Get your oven mitts out and keep them in an obvious spot-if you have to set the pan down between steps, lay the mitt near or even across the handle-you really, really don’t want to accidentally forget that that pan is hot!!! Take my word on this one!

Tip 2: Home alone? Yes, you can make this for one, just divide recipe in half and use an 8 inch pan. That is, if you don’t think you can eat the 12 incher all by yourself...

Mama Kay's Dutch Baby Pancake

Ingredients:

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup milk

2 eggs

Pinch of nutmeg (I grate it fresh-the flavor’s a bit stronger that way)

4 Tb. butter (or a good butter substitute, like I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter)

1/4 cup powdered sugar

Half a lemon, cut in 3 wedges

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Add all the butter to your 12” slope sided skillet (don’t use the straight sided kind, you need that slope!) and put the pan in the oven to melt the butter.

While the butter melts (watch that it doesn’t burn!) combine all the flour, milk, eggs and nutmeg together in a bowl and mix well. You can do this by hand with a whisk, No need to get the mixer out.

By the time you’re done mixing, the butter should be melted and bubbly. If you had to take it out early, pop the pan back into the oven just long enough to get the butter bubbly around the edges. You don’t want to burn it-so keep an eye on it, but you want it very hot. It really does make a difference how well the pancake rises.

Pour your batter into the pan with the butter-just pour it in, don’t mix or swirl, it will spread on its own. Put pan in the oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Once it rises and begins to turn golden brown, pull it out of the oven and set on a heat proof surface for the next step. (I lay a towel beside my sink and hang the pan half over the sink--it’s neater, and this is a messy step).

Squeeze lemons all over the pancake(pick out any seeds that drop in)-be sure to get it up on the tops of the edges-you can even rub the squeezed lemon on the edges. Then sprinkle liberally with powdered sugar. If you like sweet, use the whole 1/4 cup, if not, maybe a bit less. I like sweet, but you knew that, right?

Put the pan back in the oven (USE YOUR MITTS!!) for 5 more minutes. This will cook your sugar and syrup into patches of crunchy crystallized sugar bits along with a syrupy lemon sugar. Remove from oven and slide onto a large platter. You may need to slip a spatula under it to release any parts that stick. Cut like a pizza, serve (with fruit is nice) and enjoy. Don’t forget the champagne!

Zippy Cornbread in a ‘Jiffy’!

2011-02-05T16:15:00.000-08:00

Cornbread is one of those things that I’ve never bothered to figure out how to make because it’s just so darned easy to make from a box-and it tastes great every time. I figured I couldn’t improve on that. Well, as you will see with this recipe, I stand corrected, but I get to keep my box!

I spotted Giada De Laurentiis whipping up a speedy batch on her show last week and noticed she was using the same mix I use, but naturally, being a professional, she didn’t stop there. She added scallions, mozzarella and stuffed green olives to the mix. It looked great, and if it sounds like your kind of cornbread, here’s the link to follow Giada’s directions:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/scallion-and-mozzarella-cornbread-recipe/index.html

I, however, thought I’d rather use a stronger flavored cheese, and maybe green olives ought to stay where they belong, in martinis. So naturally, I had to tweak this recipe and the result went great with the Crockpot chili I made from Alison’s recipe on her blog. Don’t have that? Here’s the link:

http://crockpotcookery.blogspot.com/

Okay, back to this recipe, and feel free to mix it up a bit on your own, this is one recipe that’s fun to play with and hard to screw up.

Zippy Cornbread in a ‘Jiffy’

Ingredients

1 box cornbread mix (think ‘Jiffy’)

1/4 cup buttermilk (if you don’t have butter milk, use 1/4 cup milk, with a dash of vinegar added. Pour it into a small oven proof container and put it in the oven until you see it’s starting to curdle-presto! buttermilk...or a good substitute.)

1 1/2 Tb. unsalted butter, melted

1 large egg

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

1/4 cup chopped green onions

1/ 2 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

Mix together the cornbread mix, buttermilk , eggs and melted butter in a large bowl. Use a fork so you won’t be tempted to over mix. Once that’s done, add the cilantro, green onions and cheddar cheese.

I like to make muffins, so at this point, I’d spoon into muffin cups. If you like your cornbread in a pan, then do your own thing! I’d grease the pan first, though. This dough is clumpy and lumpy...that’s okay, it sorts itself out once it starts cooking.

Cook muffins in a 400 degree oven for appx. 15 minutes, or until golden brown on the top. Ditto if you are making it in a pan, though you might need a few extra minutes there.

That’s it! You are gonna be amazed at how easy that was, and I’ll bet you are already thinking of other things you could put in these bad boys. Great job!

Tales From the Dark Side...of My Kitchen!

2011-01-29T10:51:00.000-08:00

It’s no secret I love to cook, but I’m the last one to say that I’m a perfect cook!In fact, I probably make more than my share of boo-boo’s in the kitchen, sometimes really ugly, extremely distasteful ones too!

In part, this may be because I’m allergic to following a recipe...exactly. I like to think of recipes as ‘suggestions’, and the more I respect the cook who wrote them, the more closely I may follow them. I am comforted by the knowledge that even those folks have screwed up royally more than once. Ina Garten, aka The Barefoot Contessa, is one of my favorites. She knows her way around a recipe and generally, I have good fortune following her guidelines. But Ina is on the record that she never serves a new recipe to unsuspecting diners until she’s made it at least three or four times herself.

Now, Ina lives in the Hamptons, so I’m assuming she can afford that luxury, but me, well, I can’t buy four or five times the necessary ingredients just so I can perfect the dish first, not to mention practicing for three days to make one meal! I’ve got other stuff to do...like pay my utility bills! So you might say I make my mistakes ‘in real time’.

Therefore, if I’m going to offer up my recipe tips, I feel it’s only fair I come clean about a few of the lessons I’ve learned the hard way, so I’m going to include the occasional tale from the dark side of my kitchen.

I can cover a lot of ground just by telling you that for years I couldn’t make cookies without burning at least one sheet of them. This is nobody’s fault but my own. The recipes pretty clear on not overcooking, and common sense tells me I can’t leave cookies in the oven forever without dire consequences...usually involving the smoke alarm.

But truly, the reason this happened over and over is because I had a tendency to wander. Maybe I’ve got a bit of ADHD. The last sheet was in the oven, mixing bowl was washed, cookies tucked into a baggie or jar (not to mention some I might have consumed...) and well, the garden needed weeding or a column needed writing or work was calling. I’d only be a minute, just gonna get this little thing done--BEEP! Smoke alarm and burned cookies. It took years, and I still fail occasionally, but I learned the hard way that you aren’t done till you’re done. I still wander, but usually not as far.

I’ve learned that you can save yourself a lot of grief by reading ahead in a recipe. Case in point, an apple torte that appeared lovely on the cover of Bon Appetite but was a test to make and tasted even worse (Honestly, I hold a particular ingredient in the recipe, 'dry white wine', in this case chardonnay, responsible for what ended up being a hideous aftertaste, so really, do you blame me for messing with recipes?).

Anyway, piece of cake!...or torte, I thought. Until I got to the point where I’d peeled the stuffing out of the inside of two large loaves of French bread yielding over 8 cups of moist bread crumbs. I dumped them on a cookie sheet and stuffed them into the oven to dry out , ground up some hazelnuts, peeled the 2 pounds of apples called for in the recipe (well, really three, you know, I like more apples in a tart) and then came up short when I read the crust directions.

They called for THREE cups of breadcrumbs.What that-- Didn’t I just disgorge EIGHT cups from two loaves of French bread? Nowhere did it call for the remaining five cups. Why on earth did they have me do that? I reread the recipe; no clue. I checked the recipe online; no different. I was so frustrated (and frankly, the rest of the recipe wasn’t going too well either) that I wrote a pointed letter to the recipe editor at Bon Appetite asking what was up with this recipe. Geez!

Finally, I returned to the kitchen where I took at closer look at my drying bread crumbs. Funny, they didn’t look the same. They looked like...less. Duh! Drying breadcrumbs shrink. I had about three and a half cups, just over what the recipe called for. Darned if those professionals didn’t know what they were talking about. Of course, it would have been nice if they’d given a girl a clue, but I guess they figured that would be insulting my culinary intelligence, such as it was. Probably why they also never answered my letter.

Spaghetti Bolognese

2011-01-18T14:41:00.000-08:00

There’s nothing like spaghetti with Bolognese sauce on a chilly winter night...or a pleasant summer evening, for that matter. Particularly this recipe, which is so scrumptious I like to make double batches so I’ll have some to freeze. Okay, first, in case you are clueless (we all are at least once about everything, right?) it’s pronounced bow-la-naze...or close enough. It’s basically a meat sauce but really, it’s so much more. The combination of ingredients creates a wonderfully complex mélange of flavors...ahhh...it tastes really, really good!

This recipe started out on Emeril Lagasse’s website and has trickled down to my Yellow Folder (favorite recipes) relatively intact! Naturally, I had to tweak a thing or two. My husband says I’ve never met a recipe I could follow....he’s so funny, but he’s probably also right!

So, a few TIPS before we begin, or course:

**Food Processor: Yes, you can chop and dice you’re way by hand through all these veges if you like-I have, but not everyone finds that sort of activity as therapeutic as I do. Strangely, some find it tedious. All these veges are ready in seconds(or thereabouts) with a food processor. And yes, you can also use that Slap Chop if you sprung for one of those.

**I love Barilla Spaghetti with this-not the Thin Spaghetti, the regular spaghetti is thin enough. It’s perfect, really.

**I make this in a very large frying pan with deep sides. If you don’t have that, a Dutch Oven/stock pot works fine.

Okay, if you want to compare to Emeril’s original recipe, here’s the link:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/linguine-bolognese-recipe/index.html

Spaghetti Bolognese

Ingredients (all this stuff is going into the same pan..except the spaghetti and parmesan):

6 slices of bacon (Emeril likes pancetta too, but really, who has that sitting around?)

1 1/2 cups chopped white onion (yes, you can use yellow or even red, but it will be completely different! Okay, no, not really... it won’t make much difference, I just like the white onions here. )

1 1/4 cups finely chopped carrots (if you’re trying to keep the kids from knowing there are veges in here, make it super fine, but otherwise it’s nice if you can still tell there are carrots!)

3/4 cups finely chopped celery (ditto the above!)

Salt and Pepper to taste...start with a half teaspoon each and add more later if you like-pace yourself, there’s plenty of salt in the other ingredients and you don’t want to end up with too much, because there’s not going back , baby!

1 lb. lean ground beef (think 90/10)

1 lb. ground pork

1/2 cup Riesling or Pinot Grigio (I’d avoid Chardonnay; it has a bitter taste that I find does not play nice in recipes. Emeril prefers white wine vinegar, but this is so much better!)

1 1/2 Tb. minced garlic

1 and a half small 3 oz. cans of tomato paste

1 Tb. sugar (just a bit of sugar cuts the acidity and brings out the tomato taste.)

3 cups beef broth (if you make this yourself with bouillon, rather than buying it ready-made, be sure not to make it too strong or you’ll risk overdoing it on the salt.)

Combine:

3/4 cup milk and 3/4 half and half and set aside

Spaghetti

Parmesan

Once you have all these ingredients chopped, measured and ready to go, it’s just a matter of going through the steps to a really wonderful meal!

Okay, Let’s Cook!

Cook the bacon in your large pan until crisp. Set the bacon aside on a paper towel to dry and meanwhile, add the onion, carrots and celery to the grease, along with the salt and pepper and cook on medium until the veges are tender and beginning to brown in spots. Don’t overdo it!

Scoop the cooked veges into a dish and set aside, then add the ground beef and pork, and crumble up the bacon and add to the pan. Stir to break it up as fine as you can and brown it evenly.

Add to the meat: wine, garlic, and tomato paste and cook for 2-3 minutes. Then add the veges back in with the meat and cook a couple minutes more.

Add the beef broth and bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer 15 minutes. Now add about a third of your milk mixture and simmer 15 more minutes. Repeat this process until you’ve added all the milk. The sauce will get thicker and creamier with every addition.

Meanwhile....heat the water for the pasta. During that last 15 minute interval you can set out your dishes, prepare the pasta, grab the parmesan-and a nice baguette with some butter would be good too. Add pasta to suit to you dish, scoop a generous amount of sauce on top and sprinkle with parmesan. That’s it, no need to add a salad unless you want to. I assure you, this is a meal all on its own--Enjoy!

Caramel Corn

2010-12-16T21:31:00.000-08:00

Do you love caramel corn but always thought it was too tricky to make? Are you one of those folks who buys gigantic tins of multi-flavored corns just to get your caramel corn fix? Or do you stress over what to bring the host/hostess at holiday parties? Well, even if none of these apply so much as that fact that you just plain love caramel corn...then I’ve got the recipe for you!

This takes about 1 1/2 hours to make, most of it is baking time, and it’s a pretty basic, but delicious process! Long ago, a good friend gave me this recipe and I have changed it very little from the original, and believe me, that doesn’t happen often. It’s great as a hostess gift, works well in a college care-package (it’s practically a packing material!), and during the holidays you can fill a bowl with caramel corn and pretty much count on having an empty bowl by the end of the day. Yes, it’s that good!

Tips:

*You really need a Hot Air Popper for this recipe. You don’t want popcorn that’s already been through a process that adds oil or salt. If you don’t have one, many grocery stores sell ‘healthy’ popcorn that is unsalted and air popped. Buy enough to equal the 8 cups required for the recipe and you should be okay.

*You can use light or dark brown sugar, but I’m on the record that, given a choice, I always use dark. Still...if you have the light stuff, go for it!

* This recipe calls for ‘butter’. Can you use butter substitutes? Well, I can’t speak for all options, but I can tell you it’s just as yummy with ‘I Can’t Believe it’s Not Butter’, as with the real stuff straight from the cow/churn. Oh, but if you use salted butter, don’t go so heavy on the salt.

Okay, that’s about it, and I really had to think to come up with tips important enough to include. Really, it’s that simple, so let’s go!

Caramel Corn (YF)

Ingredients:

1 bag un-popped White Popcorn

1 cup Butter

2 cups Brown Sugar

1/2 cup White Karo Syrup

1/2 tsp. Salt

1/2 tsp. Soda

Equipment: Heavy 4-5 qt. pan. Two large pans for baking (minimum 9X13 but if you have larger, that’s better. The roaster you cook your turkey in is good for this, and a 9X15 is great!). Two large bowls for mixing (a Dutch Oven, or very large mixing bowl is the size we’re looking for. Punch bowls work too! These don’t go in the oven, so Tupperware type stuff is okay). Oven Mitts and a couple of spatulas.

Pop the popcorn in a hot air popper until you have 8 quarts. Divide the popped corn between two large bowls.

Set out the two large baking pans so they will be there when you need them.

Melt in the pan: butter, brown sugar, White Karo Syrup, salt. Heat on medium until the mixture comes to a boil, then turn the heat down a little so you won’t burn it and boil for 5 minutes. Start counting the time when the syrup mixture boils fast. You can scrape down the side while it’s melting and heating up, but once it’s boiling, just stir the bottom gently with a spatula now and then, you know, to be sure you aren’t burning it, but really, it’s not likely to burn so don’t stress out.

While this is cooking, heat the oven to 250 degrees.

Remove the syrup mixture from the heat, add the soda and stir. The mixture will foam up a bit, but that’s what it should do. No worries, you’re ready to mix now.

CAUTION: This stuff is HOT! Be sure to use your spatula and mitts and don’t be tempted to use your fingers just yet.

Pour half the mixture into one of the bowls of popcorn, then mix it around. Don’t worry, it’s not gonna spread evenly; just do the best you can. Then pour the remainder in the second bowl and stir it up, too.

Tip: If this is taking you a while to do the stirring in the first bowl, you can set the pan back on the turned-off burner. It’s still warm enough to keep the mixture thin, which makes it easy to pour, but not so hot as to make it come even close to boiling.

Pour the coated popcorn into the two large baking pans (you can mix popcorn from each bowl, it doesn’t matter, it’s all going to end up together eventually!)

Bake both pans in the oven for 15 minutes, then pull the pans out and mix up the popcorn to spread the coating some more, and put the pans back in. You can do this one pan at a time, and you might want to set out a towel on your counter or set it on the stove. You WILL end up with the occasional popcorn escapee falling out. Nibbling, after cool, it permissible!

Repeat this process of baking for 15 minutes and stirring 3 more times, so that you cook the caramel corn for a total of 1 hour.

While baking, wash out your bowls, you are going to need them! Once you are done baking, pour the popcorn into the dried bowls and allow it to cool; you’ll be surprised how quickly it does! Once cooled, you can put it in tins, Tupperware, plastic bags, or directly into bowls for munching! Your Caramel Corn will last about a week...if it makes it that long! Congrats, you did it!

Chicken Noodle Soup

2010-12-03T13:02:00.000-08:00

If you’ve never flown solo without a net (or recipe)in the kitchen, soup is the place to start. For a clear soup, start with water, some bouillon, veges and chicken, if you like. Clean out the crisper in the frig, add last night’s leftover carrots or mashed potatoes, throw in some cheese, chopped Italian parsley, maybe a cup of milk or cream...the possibilities are endless, really.

Give it time to simmer, of course, and let it cook down a bit to really boost the flavors. If you like noodles, add those in the last 15 to 20 minutes, but be sure you have liquid to spare, as they will suck up their share! Put in what you like, and odds are you’ll like what you end up with! Soup is one of those hands-on, organic concoctions that let your culinary creativity take flight.

Still not quite ready? Well, that’s okay, I’ll walk you through a basic recipe and, by the time we’re done, I think you’ll be amazed not only at how easy it is, but impressed with your own culinary skills!

First, though, a few tips to make life easier!

Chicken: white or dark, whole or chopped, frozen or thawed, bone in or out? Yes! In other words, all options can get you to the same goal. If you despise dark meat, don’t use it, or if all you have is chicken breasts, that fine. Do you have half a deli chicken leftover? Great, just toss the leftover meat-and the carcass for that matter- into the water to stew for an hour.

Forgot to thaw something? Haven’t we all! Throw in a couple frozen chicken breasts and a thigh too, if you have one (my preference is a mix of dark and white, since dark meat adds more flavor). Bone in or out? Eventually they are coming out, so don’t sweat it. Either is fine. Basically, for this recipe’s purposes, you are going to want about 3 cups of diced chicken when all is said and done.

Broth/Bouillon: If you are starting with uncooked chicken, the cooking process is going to make most of your broth, but if your chicken is already cooked, you might want to replace half the water with broth. I’d still add a little bouillon mix too, to punch up the flavor, but I’ll cover that when the time comes.

Chopping: Obviously, you are going to have to chop/dice chicken by hand, but we’re adding onion, celery and carrots and you most certainly can do those with a food processor if you have one. If not, don’t worry, chopping veges can be a Zen kind of moment, so put on some mellow music, grab your sharpest knife and get in the zone!

Noodles: alphabet, penne, fusilli, rigatoni?! Sure! Remember, however, that thicker noodles suck up more broth. My preference is fettucini. It’s just thick enough to be noticed, but if you break it into 2-3 inch long pieces before adding to the broth it will be bite size.

Chopped vs. diced: I think diced denotes a finer version of chopped. For this recipe I’d err on the side of chopped-that way you really feel like you are eating the veges and chicken along with the broth.

Okay, we’ve covered the basics, now let’s get cooking.

Chicken Noodle Soup

This takes about 3 hours, so plan ahead. And yes, the leftovers freeze well.

Add to a large pot (6-8 quart) on your stove:

4 quarts water (if you chicken is already cooked, make a 50/50 mix of half chicken broth and half water)

2 chicken breasts and one thigh (if you chicken is already cooked and diced, use the broth mix above and wait to add your chicken in the next step-I’ll remind you!)

3 tsp. chicken boullion mix (if you have done the 50/50 broth and water mix, add this to taste. Start with one tsp and later, after we’ve reduced this down, you can always add another teaspoon if you think it’s needed for flavor.)

½ medium white onion, chopped

1 cup chopped celery

2/3 cup carrots, chopped

1 Tb. diced garlic (yes, by all means use the stuff in the jar-life is short!)

1/4 cup chopped Italian Parsley

2 ½ tsp. garlic salt

2 tsp. pepper

1/2 cup white wine-optional (not too dry, a Riesling works nicely. And of course, don’t worry about the alcohol, that will be long gone by the time you serve your soup. But the white wine will add a complexity to the overall flavor-trust me here!)

Heat to a boil, then turn down and simmer lightly, uncovered, for about 2 hours. Then it’s time to taste. Does it still taste a little ‘thin’? As in, not so flavorful yet? If your liquid has reduced to at least half, you may need to add a dash more salt, or a bit more boullion mix. Don’t be heavy handed, but don’t be a coward.

If, however, it’s pretty tasty already, you are getting somewhere! Once you get to this point, pull out the chicken, remove all bones and then chop the chicken up into bite sized pieces. If your chicken was already chopped and you were waiting to add it, now is the time. Return all chopped chicken to the pot and boil another ½ hour. If it tasted good already, put the lid on, if not, make your additions and keep the lid off so the liquid will reduce a bit more. After half an hour taste again.

By now, your soup should be pretty flavorful, and still have enough liquid left to handle the addition of noodles without reducing down too much more.

Add noodles!

Here you want to err on the side of ‘less is more’. If you add too few noodles, you just end up with more broth and everything else, and that’s okay. But if you add too many noodles, you lose a lot of broth. My rule of thumb is that if you have to measure it out, like alphabet noodles, add 1/2 a cup. I like to break up longer noodles, so my rule is to grasp a clump of linguini or fettuccini that is about 3/4 of an inch across. Then, depending how long you like your noodles, break the pasta into 3 or 4 pieces per noodle and drop into the pot to simmer.

Simmer your pasta 15 to 20 minutes and you are done!

I like to serve this with blueberry muffins, or corn bread. You can add a salad too, if you like.

That’s it, you made soup! Now that you have the basics, be brave and mix it up next time. You can do it!

Homemade Hot Cocoa Mix

2010-11-21T12:00:00.000-08:00

I don’t know about you, but when it gets nippy outside I like to mix up things with my hot beverage selections by making Hot Cocoa. I feel kind of guilty drinking this luscious chocolaty treat during warmer months, but there’s something about chilly nights that make me feel that all those calories will be eaten away by the shivers they help to eliminate.

I’ve been making my own Cocoa mix for years-and the kids start asking for it about now. However, I’ve never been altogether happy with it-it had a lot of extras, like Instant Milk (which seems like it should be cheap-but it’s not!), powdered creamer and powdered sugar. While it was creamy, the chocolate taste got a little lost. So, heads-up kids! Momma’s got a NEW Hot Cocoa mix. Grab the mini-marshmallows and let’s whip some up!

This recipe was inspired by a Giada De Laurentiis offering in a recent edition of USA Weekend Magazine. If you’d like to take a peek at it, follow this link, then scroll to page 3 to see Giada’s Spiced Cocoa recipe: http://www.usaweekend.com/article/20101112/FOOD04/11140317/Gifts-from-the-kitchen

Now, I’m a big fan of Giada, but I wasn’t crazy about the recipe. To begin with, we’d rather not have cayenne in our cocoa. I know it’s a trendy thing, but out here in the flyover states, we like our spicy foods with margaritas not chocolate.

Also, it wasn’t sweet enough. (Sorry, Giada, just calling it like I see it!) Not that we want cloying sweetness, but unsweetened cocoa powder needs sugar. Giada used brown sugar, but I’ve added some white sugar too-just enough to make a difference. If you are into the whole pepper thing with chocolate, add a pinch of whatever lights your fire, but otherwise, this ought to be indulgence enough of any wintery night!

FYI: Give it as a Gift! One batch of this, in a jar, with a little baggie of mini-marshmallows attached would make a nice housewarming gift for the holidays. Or, if you are so inclined, accompany it with something that has a little more kick; think cinnamon schnapps or Baileys!

Homemade Hot Cocoa

Mix the following three ingredients altogether in a bowl:

1 cup dark brown sugar (Giada didn’t say if you should use dark or light, but my philosophy is always that, if you’re not using dark, why are you using brown sugar to begin with? You want the deep brown sugar taste and dark is the way to go!)

1 cup Cocoa (Giada says Dutch-processed, which would be great but can be pricey. I used Hershey’s and it’s plenty tasty by me!)

1/3 cup white sugar (adds just enough extra “Yum factor”, aside from bringing out the chocolate taste.)

Heat :

1 cup milk in a small pitcher or bowl on the beverage setting of your microwave (warning, if you use 1% it will taste ‘thin’. I mixed 2/3 cup 2% milk with 1/3 cup half-and-half....but it’s totally between you and your cholesterol count!)

Add

2 Tb. Cocoa Mix and stir well (a small whisk is great here).

Pour into a cup and, if you are so inclined, top with mini-marshmallows, whipping cream, perhaps a sprinkle of cinnamon or add a splash of a favorite liquor-whatever brings back happy cocoa memories-and enjoy!

Okay, kids, this is the recipe I’m sending in the next care package, along with cookies for dipping, of course!

Mom's Apple Pie (YF-of course!)

2010-11-12T12:50:00.000-08:00

Wait! Were you thinking of buying an apple pie for the holidays? Come on...I’ll walk you through it, and I promise, you’re gonna love this pie! We can do this!

My father loved apple pie. When I was little the understanding was that, if Dad would peel and slice the apples, mom would make the pie. It was still work, but I thought it was worth it-of course, my job was to eat it! Since then I’ve done my time making apple pies, but along the way I’ve learned a few tricks that make them not only easier...but better. So, let’s make pie!

Dad is no longer with us, but I like to think he’s gone to a place where you can have your pie and not have to peel your own apples. Meanwhile, back here on earth, the dirty work still needs to be done. But there’s great news and it’s called an Apple Corer/Peeler! ($28 at Williams Sonoma, even less at Bed Bath and Beyond-I got mine through Pampered Chef) This little invention takes a bit of setting up, but it’s worth every effort and then some. Plus, it comes with the added feature of entertaining the kiddos (should you have a few handy) long enough to let you finish the pie. Now that’s money well spent!

Yes, it looks like something your Grandma had, which only goes to show you that they haven’t come up with anything better that they can plug in and charge you more for. Here’s how it works. Once you set this contraption up you push the end of your apple onto the prongs, then you crank it up and, presto, your apple is pushed along a little doohickey that magically peels the apple while another thingamabob cores it and finally, a whachamacallit slices it. Don’t be thrown by the technical jargon-it works!

How simple is that?! By the way, don’t do this first or they will have to sit around for a while--I’ll tell you when!

FYI...Extra Recipe Tip: Apple Spaghetti! You will notice when the apples are peeled that you get what my kids called ‘apple spaghetti’; long strings of apple peel. Now, you could throw these in the back pasture for the deer...if you have a back pasture and deer, or you could plop some in a bowl and drizzle with caramel sauce or maple syrup and let the kids discover a yummy treat! This spaghetti is great straight up, too, but it really doesn’t keep, so plan your ‘spaghetti dinner’ ahead of time. Maybe you could make meatballs out of chunks of banana-get creative!

Next, let’s talk...apples. Picking the right kind of apple for your pie is the first step, and believe me, no matter how well you do all the rest, blowing this step can make for a less than stellar pie! To begin with, stay away from Delicious-those babies sweet! Can you say cloying? Gag! Trust me.

Granny Smith is the traditional favorite, and I love ‘em, but on their own, they might be too tart, and you don’t really want to douse the apple flavor with extra sugar, do you? Nope. So try a 50/50 mix of Granny Smith and another apple that’s mid-way between tart and sweet. Think Gala, Braeburn, even Fuji. For a standard pie, use three of each-more, if the apples are on the small size.

One last thought before starting: pie pans. I use stoneware or Pyrex. Either one is readily available. I would avoid metal pans unless they are relatively heavy so as to avoid burn spots and spread your heat evenly. Putting a cookie sheet under the pie while it cooks could help if that’s your only option.

Now let’s get serious, but don’t be afraid. Good apple pie takes a bit of effort; set aside a couple hours so you won’t be rushed. Honestly, it’s really not hard, and boy is it worth it. After all, how many desserts can you eat, guilt-free, for breakfast! It’s a win/win.

Okay, let’s roll!

Mom’s (and I do me mine!) Apple Pie (YF...of course!)

(AS WITH ALL RECIPES, READ IT THROUGH ALL THE WAY BEFORE STARTING!)

FIRST...if you haven’t already, make your pie crust. You need two-a top and bottom. Need help? Follow the directions for Practically Perfect Pie Crust on my blog. Get your pastry made, then wrap it in plastic wrap and keep it in the frig until we’re ready.

Set your oven to 450 degrees.

Mix in a bowl and set aside:

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup dark brown sugar (light brown is okay...but really, why use brown sugar if you’re not going all the way?)

2 Tb. flour

1/4 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/8 tsp. grated lemon rind (use a grater, but next Christmas, put a microplane on your list for Santa-you won’t regret it, and you can even grate fresh whole nutmeg, too! Exciting I know...but stay calm.)

2 tsp. fresh lemon juice (don’t use bottled-buy a lemon, it’s cheaper, and tastes better!) Set this juice aside to sprinkle over your apples right after they are cut.

NOW you can Peel/Core/Slice your apples, then sprinkle with the juice above and toss to mix. Add the sugar and spice mix, stir well, cover with plastic wrap and set aside (NOT in the frig...the counter will do).

Okay, now comes one of the secrets of a Great Apple Pie:

(I confess, this is an improvement on Mom’s recipe, but she still talks to me, so it must be alright.) After the apples have set for at least 30 minutes but no more than an hour, set a strainer over a large bowl and pour the apples and all the juices into the strainer. If there is undissolved sugar, scrape that out into the bottom bowl. Let the apples sit for about 5 minutes so all the juice will drip off of them.

Dump the apples back into their original bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set them in the frig.

Kitchen Science Alert! Ever had a great apple pie with a soggy bottom crust? Not so appealing, eh? This is gonna solve that problem and make you feel like a genius. Isn’t science wonderful?! Now, pour all those juices and sugars into a small saucepan and cook on medium on the stove. Stir occasionally. In theory, you are cooking the juice down to syrup. Let it come to an easy boil (vs. boiling like crazy) and watch it. You don’t want it turning a darker color and getting too thick or the next thing you know, you’ll be making caramels, instead of sauce. (Yep, that’s how they do!) It will reduce in volume as the moisture evaporates. Stir occasionally until it thickens, then pull if off the heat and cool for about 10 minutes.

BURN ALERT! This stuff is hot, no tasting or touching until it cools.

While it’s cooking and cooling, roll out bottom crust, put it in the pie pan leaving about an inch hanging over the side. Roll out your top crust and by then, you are ready for the next step. Lay a piece of plastic wrap over the crusts to keep them moist until you put it all together.

Mix the sauce and sliced apples together (mix well to spread it throughout the apples) and dump it all in the pastry lined pie dish.

Cut 2 Tb. of unsalted butter into little chunks and dot them around evenly on top of the apples.

Top with the prepared crust leaving at least an inch hanging of the sides. With your fingers, work your way around the edge of your pie, crimping the two crusts together where they overlap. Push down so that your thumb, on top, goes between your pointer and middle fingers below. Aren’t you fancy? Now trim the excess-use scissors, it’s easier. (Use those trimmings to make Pie Crackers-find that recipe on my blog!)

In a cup, mix:

1 egg

2 Tb. water

Brush this over the top of your pie, sprinkle lightly with sugar (don’t get carried away here or things are gonna get burned),then cut 5 or 6 slits in the top crust with a sharp knife. Yes...you can make an ‘A’ for Apple. Just use several small slits, not a few big ones.

Line a cookie sheet with foil and put it in the oven on the middle wrap. Place your pie on the foil and cook for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 and bake for 35 to 45 more minutes.

Keep an eye on it at about the half hour point. The foil will catch any juices that may spill-but that doesn’t happen much since you’ve reduced your juices to syrup-isn’t that great?! The top may start to brown sooner than the pie is really ready. If it looks like that’s happening, lay a sheet of aluminum foil across the top. If the crust is browning much faster, fold the foil in quarters and cut a half circle. Open this up and you’ll have a nice circle in the middle so the middle of your pie crust can continue browning. Nifty, eh?

At about the 1 to 1 1/4 hour mark your pie will be nicely browned and ready to pull out of the oven. Set it on a rack and let it cool to the touch before slicing (I know, you want pie! be patient just a bit more). Serve with ice cream if you like...but honestly, this pie can stand on its own. Enjoy-you deserve it!!

Pie Crackers (Pie Crust Trilogy Part II) (YF)

2010-11-02T11:14:00.000-07:00

Time for part two of what I am calling our Pie Crust Trilogy! So, you’ve mastered last week’s pie crust? Or maybe you are just thinking about giving it a try (be brave!), but aren’t sure what to actually do with it once it’s made. Well, I’ve got a scrumptious apple pie recipe coming up soon, but first, here’s something VERY easy, fun and yummy to do with your crust.

Pie Crackers are a sweet cookie-like treat made with the dough that’s left over after you put a pie together. This is a family recipe, handed down from Grandma to Mom to me, so I can't pick on the creator of this recipe without getting into trouble! Your family may have something similar-it’s not Rocket Science! I’ve been known to make them all on their own, too. They are super easy, kids can help (just in case you have some that may stray into the kitchen while you're baking), and everyone loves to eat them-they never seem to last long.

We’ll start with the dough, all made and ready to go!

Pie Crackers (YF)

If you made the pie crust for TWO crusts, use only half. If you have made a pie, squash your leftover dough back into a ball.

First, set your oven for 450 degrees and your rack in the center of the oven.

Roll your dough out on a floured surface as you would for a pie crust. The nice thing here is you don’t have to worry about making a nice circle to go into your pie pan. Square, rectangle, circles-whatever you come up with is fine. Aim for a uniformly thin sheet of dough. For pie crusts you want approximately 1/8 inch thick. Think the same here, however, if you tend to like crispier cookies, you can go a bit thinner (caution-they cook faster!). Once you’ve baked a sheet of these, you’ll have a good idea what you like best!

Cut the dough into squares (ragged edges are good-sometimes very good once cooked!) and again, no rules on shapes here. You could use cookie cutters, but this is thin dough, so save some patience for transferring the pieces to the baking sheet.

Tip: You may want to do a test run with only 2-3 pieces on the baking sheet the first time, if you are at all anxious about how quickly they brown up. This will give you some added confidence, too. Always a good thing!

Speaking of which...transfer the pieces to the baking sheet! You can spray your baking sheets with non-stick spray (i.e. Pam) or line them with foil if you like, but I like to line my baking sheets with parchment paper, rather than place cookies directly on them. This may seem like a pain-and an added expense. But honestly, once you start doing this, you’ll love it! Cookies cook up better-brown better on the bottom, never stick, and you don’t have to wash the sheet! If you are neat and tidy (which really, these particular goodies aren’t!) you can even use the paper 2 or 3 times!

Brush each cracker with a small amount of milk-just enough to wet the whole surface. (FYI...you should have a pastry brush that you ONLY USE for sweet things. Don’t let anyone put BBQ sauce on the chicken legs with your pastry brush or your pastries might eventually start to have a little savory, garlic scent-yuck!)

Sprinkle each piece with sugar, about a teaspoon per cracker--use your fingers! It will look like a lot, but it isn’t. Ultimately, this is one of those things you will tweak over time, depending on how sweet you like your Pie Crackers, but this is a good place to start. (During the holidays, you can mix colored sugars 50/50 with regular sugar.)

Next, sprinkle each piece with cinnamon. Don’t get too heavy handed, but don’t be shy either. You’ll get the hang of it. 2-3 shakes per cracker.

Bake in the oven for 5 minutes, after that, bake at 1-2 minute intervals but WATCH THEM! Don’t leave them unattended toward the end. There’s a lot of sugar on those babies, and sugar is just waiting to reach the appropriate temperature so it can burn! When you see them browning with a slight carmelization on the thinner edges, it’s time to pull them! If you have some pieces that are thinner than others, they will brown up faster. Those you may want to remove and put on a rack to cool, while putting the sheet back into the oven a little bit longer for the rest.

Altogether, depending on how hot your oven is (yes, don’t let that official temperature fool you, some ovens run hotter than others) you are probably looking at 7-8 minutes total.

Cool on a rack--careful, don’t taste yet-that hot sugar can burn your tongue!

Once cooled, these are great after school with milk, or in the morning with coffee or well...anytime really.

You’ve done it! I’m so proud. :)

Practically Perfect Pie Crust (Pie Crust Trilogy Part I)

2010-10-29T11:55:00.000-07:00

Wait! If the mere mention of this topic makes you nervous, bringing up anxious memories of what your family now refers to in hushed tones as, ‘the pie crust incident’, causing you to reach for the chardonnay every time someone suggests making a pie... or even if you’re just a newbie and it never occurred to you that crust came in something other than a box(who knew?!)-please read on! I can help.

Pie crust is one of those things that can make a good cook cry; it is both science and art. But you don’t have to be a Rocket Scientist to do this. Just remember, practically is the key word in the title. There’s no pressure here, and certainly no need to self-medicate while baking!

Okay, first, if you are easily intimidated, DO NOT purchase The Pie and Pastry Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. I am going to walk you through the easy version of her Basic Flakey Pie Crust recipe on page 22. But unless you are a total baking freak you do not want to know all the steps and details that get you to page 22...and beyond... in this book.

Rose knows her crust, but she can take a simple recipe and beat it to a pulp with minute details that, while possibly resulting in a truly perfect crust (temperature and humidity of the day depending) will absolutely make the average person swear never to make their own crusts again!

So let’s back up a bit before we tackle this puppy, go over a few tips and come to a better understanding of the kitchen science at work here.

There are all kinds of things that can affect how your crust turns out, many of which we are just not going to consider-life is too short and we are trying to keep this simple! We won’t worry about mixing your flours to achieve the optimal protein levels (yes, Rose does that!). We absolutely will not be weighing anything, either. (Do you have a food scale? I know I don’t) But there are some things you can do to give yourself a ‘leg up’ on crust.

Kitchen Science/Pastry tips:

*Okay, I fibbed a bit about the flour, because I AM going to tell you that if you are really into this recipe, you can look for actual Pastry Flour (King Arthur makes a great version and it can be ordered online if you can’t find it in a store...which you probably can’t.) However, that said, I make the majority of my crusts with good old Pillsbury or Gold Medal All Purpose Flour. They may not be perfect for the task, but they are more than good enough.

*Two Words: Food Processor. I’ll get you through this without it, but really you would never regret this purchase for so many reasons besides pastry!

*Big Secret #1: COLD. Cold butter (even frozen), cold water, cold dough; up until you put it in the oven, the colder the better! Rose will keep you running back and forth between freezer and workstation for half the day to create one simple crust, if she could, but we’re not going to let her. For our purposes, we start with cold ingredients and then we just keep moving along. No time to stop and re-chill. I have other things to do today besides make pie crust, and I bet you do, too.

* Big Secret #2: Vinegar! Really. Vinegar will add acidity which weakens the gluten in the flour and makes the dough easier to roll, and, ultimately, flakier.

*Finally, keep those bits of butter chunky until you add the liquid. Recipes always say ‘pea size’, but, as with so many things, bigger is better (like brownies-what were YOU thinking of?), so just think lumpy. It bulks up the gluten which means a more tender crust. (Tender and Flakey are two different things in the crust world).

Okay, let’s get baking!

Basic Flakey Pie Crust (YF) (this is Rose’s recipe, as mentioned above, tweaked and commented upon by yours truly.)

This is a great pie crust, and pie cracker crust. Not familiar with pie crackers? We’ll tackle that in in a future blog, but let the kids know, something yummy is coming--and they can help!

FYI...read through this whole recipe before you DO anything! (this is a good rule of thumb for ALL recipes!) DON’T be intimidated by the length (I’m chatty, sorry). It’s really basic and simple.

Pastry for Two-Crust 9 inch pie: (if you only need one, make two and freeze the other one-you won’t regret it.)

*14 Tb. unsalted butter, COLD! (What did I tell you about the cold thing?!) You will seldom see a pastry recipe that calls for salted butter, by the way. These guys like to control the addition of salt themselves. You can use salted butter if it’s all you have--heaven knows I have!!... but it’s not preferred. Just don’t add any more salt! And yes, you can use something like ‘I Can’t Believe it’s Not Butter’, but different products react differently, so I’d go with butter until you feel more confident.

*2 1/4 cups flour (she measures this with the ‘dip and sweep’ method-just what it sounds like)

*Salt 1/8 to 1/4 tsp. (think of it as a pinch-like I said, if you used salted butter above, don’t add salt).

*1/4 tsp. baking powder (Rose makes this optional, I’m telling you, put it in. According to Rose it, “helps to counteract the dough’s tendency to shrink...helps to lift, aerate, and tenderize it...” Why would you not want that?)

*5-7 Tb. Ice Water (put some ice cubes in a large cup, fill with water and set aside until needed-do this now!)

*1 Tb. cider vinegar (regular vinegar is fine if that’s what you have. BUT...1Tb. is a lot and can leave a lingering vinegar scent which Rose is not entirely opposed to, but I am. I’d go with 1 1/2 tsp.)

Food processor: (Plastic Baggie-i.e. Ziploc-directions below if you have no processor), mix the flour, salt and baking soda. Cut your COLD butter (right out of the freezer is okay) into 3/4 inch cubes and add to the flour mixer. Process in pulses until the butter is about the size of peas. Err on the side of larger, not smaller.

Baggie: mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl or in the baggie. If you start with a bowl, use a pastry cutter (usually available in any kitchen department) or your hands to ‘cut/rub’ the butter into the flour mixture until you get those little peas mentioned above. You can do this in the large gallon size Baggie too, just squeeze out the air first and zip it.

Both: Mix your vinegar in a small bowl with the first 3 Tb. of cold water and pour that into you flour mixture.

Food processor: pulse until mixed and add additional water up to 7Tb. maximum until the dough begins to come together and holds together when pinched. You don’t want it too wet, so don’t overdo the water.

Baggie: If you started in the bowl, pour it in the Baggie now, add the water/vinegar mix, plus additional water up to 7Tb. maximum. Squeeze the air out, zip the bag and squeeze and knead the bag to mix. (Kids like to help with this part!) When you are done you will pull it out in clumps and mush it together on your rolling surface. This actually works really well. Honest!

FYI...Somewhere between 5-7Tb. water will be just right, so add it in stages just to avoid getting your dough too wet and sticky-but if you do...add a bit more flour when rolling it out and you’ll survive!

Divide your dough in half-remember, this recipe makes TWO crusts! If you only need one, wrap the other in plastic wrap and put it in a baggie and freeze. It will be easy to roll out after a short thawing period some other day....

Rolling: Lightly flour a smooth, dry surface. Pat your dough into a ball and mush the ball into a thick and even pancake-about 5 inches across. Dust with flour and begin rolling evenly. Add a little flour if it gets sticky (check underneath-it gets sticky there sooner than on top!) You are aiming for about an 8^th of an inch thick. Try to keep it uniform...but let’s be realistic; this is part of the Practically Perfect feature of this recipe!

Congratulations! You have made a crust-now what? For now, if you’ve actually DONE this...you can lay the rolled out crust on waxed paper or foil on a baking sheet and wrap it in plastic wrap and put it flat in the freezer. Yes, it will keep!

But I won’t leaving you hanging...I’ve got a couple great recipes coming up next (pie crackers and apple pie) to help you put that crust to good use! Check back soon! J

Chocolate Pudding (YF)

2010-10-22T21:14:00.000-07:00

The day I cracked open my handy Joy of Cooking in search of satisfaction for a late night chocolate pudding craving was the day I had an epiphany about pudding in general!

WHY do we make bland, often artificially flavored pudding from cardboard boxes when we can make the real thing from real ingredients and, in the end, wind up with a pudding cup brimming with something silky smooth, full of flavor and literally oozing over the tongue with every mouthful? I mean--it’s SO EASY!!

Honest. Homemade pudding is beyond simple. The steps involve a minor bit of kitchen science, but you’ll master it easily and feel like a genius when you are done. You DO have the ingredients in your kitchen-unless it’s been forever since you saddled up the llamas and sherpa’d out for supplies.

Basic pudding is all made the same. A milk product, a thickener, a sweetener and flavoring. I’m going with chocolate this time out, but you might prefer vanilla, butterscotch, whatever. Once you master the basics, you could create some wacky and incredible flavors of your own. I’ll come back to vanilla pudding in the future-I promise! Because homemade vanilla pudding is a heavenly creamy custard creation you WILL want to make again and again!

For now, however, let’s make it chocolate.

This recipe comes from the 1997 edition of The Joy of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer, etc. If you have this one, find it on page 1019. It may be in other additions as well (there’s a bunch!) but I can’t check them all-when would I cook?!

Some tips before you start measuring and stirring....

*It calls for ALL half and half, but really, you can mix it up. Use all 2%, or 50/50 or whatever you want. Just remember, all skim milk is NOT gonna be as rich as all half and half...and since I’ve never made the fat free version I can’t tell you exactly HOW less yummy it might be, but...it’s still chocolate, so I bet it’s not bad!

*If you use the full dose of darkest chocolates called for I guarantee it will be luscious and I also guarantee you won’t be able to sleep for a few hours, so be careful how much you imbibe prior to bedtime!

*Could you use milk chocolate? A mix of dark and milk? I can’t see why not. Give it a try and let me know how you liked it.

*That IS a lot of chocolate, you say? Yeah, I get that! Leave out the second addition of ‘semisweet or bittersweet’, I doubt you’ll really miss it. Still too much for you? You should be able to safely cut back a bit on the cocoa too without messing with the magic that IS chocolate pudding.

*I use Hershey Cocoa Powder (better than Nestle and cheaper than others) but I prefer Ghirardelli chocolate chips (I’ll never go back to Toll House-too sweet, not enough chocolate taste and terrible if you need to melt them for something!) The semisweet are great here, but if you are looking to crank up the experience, use the 60% cocoa (delicious anytime on their own, as well!) The addition of the 60% is guaranteed to help you stay up late if you need to finish a good book, or a term paper!

Okay, here’s the recipe. Enjoy... and let me know how it turned out! J

Chocolate Pudding 4 or 5 servings

Once you taste this rich, smooth, deeply chocolate pudding, you will never go back to a mix. (Didn’t I tell you that?!)

Have ready a 3 cup bowl or mold or four or five 5-6 ounce cups or ramekins. (aka pudding cups) If unmolding the pudding, oil the mold(s). (if you do this-you gotta tell me how that worked out for you!)

Mix together thoroughly in a heavy saucepan:

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup plus 1 Tb. unsweetened cocoa

1/8 tsp. salt

Gradually stir in, making a smooth, runny paste:

1/3 cup warm water

Stirring constantly, bring to a boil over medium heat, then remove from the heat. For an especially thick and chocolaty pudding (and a BIG chocolate high!), add and stir briskly until melted:

1 ounce semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (this is optional, and if you are like me you are clueless exactly how much 1 ounce of chocolate chips is...1/4 cup is more than generous.)

Stir in:

1 3/4 cups half and half

Place in a bowl (kitchen science alert!!this is how it gets thick!) :

3 Tb. cornstarch

Very gradually add, making a smooth paste:

1/4 cup half and half

Thoroughly stir the cornstarch paste into the chocolate mixture. Cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat until the mixture begins to thicken. Reduce the heat to low; stirring briskly, bring to a simmer and cook for 1 minute. Remove from the heat, then stir in:

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Pour the pudding into the bowl or cups. If you do not want a skin to form (although some of us like that...) immediately press plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the pudding. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 2 days. (OKAY...this is a good place to point out that NOW is the best time to eat this-while it’s warm. After all, didn’t you make it because you are craving chocolate?!Wrap some, but eat some now, you simply will NOT regret the decision...unless you need to go to sleep soon!)

Serve with :

Whipped Cream (OMG...this clearly was written by someone who didn’t care about cholesterol! But it does sound yummy...)

If you wish, sprinkle with:

1 ounce semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, grated. (my chocolate pudding never hangs around long enough to get sprinkled with anything! J )

(Yum.....need I say more?)