Contest from Sub-Zero and Wolf brand and BlogHer.com

I have been following Natasha's Kitchen for a while now and have found her recipes to be intriguing and fun to make, I still have not tried making the Russian Pelmeni, but I will one day.
She has a recipe up now that is just in time for Thanksgiving for Juicy Roast Turkey that looks great. I have in the past placed a butter mixture under the skin of chicken, but have yet to try this with turkey.
As a part of her post there is a contest to win a gift certificate from a sponsor of hers Sub-Zero and Wolf brand, I am getting an entry into the contest for mentioning it here and you could, too.
I know that Sub-Zero and Wolf are very good appliances as we used to equip the yachts that worked on with them.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Rolling a Pie Video

The way you roll the dough is not critical, but I enjoy the method in the video. It was copied from Christopher Kimball of America’s Test Kitchen fame. You may end up with holes in your dough or a shape that is not very round, do not get discouraged it is perfectly fine to patch holes with scraps and it gives your pie a distinctive hominess, be sure to wet the edge of the patch with a little cold water to help it bond to the crust.

Pulled Chicken Sandwiches

Well I was supposed to put chicken breasts and thighs in the slow cooker for Shredded Chicken Sandwiches Thursday morning and that just did not happen. They were out of thighs at the grocery and so I thought it would be simple to get leg quarters, cut the thighs off and save the legs for another meal. I would have to do the "butchering" the night before, well that did not happen Wednesday night and the dish did not get made Thursday morning - no worries, we will just have Friday dinner on Thursday; Pan-fried beef steak, baked potato, and steamed veggies. The Wife O’ My Life decided that she did not want the potato and so I did not bake them. I sliced the medium-well steak fairly thin and put it on a bed of corn steamed with onions and peppers and topped it with pico de gallo for Sweet Wife. I had the corn also, but did not want any of the salsa, so I fried up a bunch of mushrooms to go with my very rare steak. It was excellent.

So this all means that I need to get the chicken in the slow cooker on Friday morning, again it did not happen. I looked for a recipe I had made before where I took leg quarters and placed them standing up in the rack that came with my roasting pan and cooked them on the BBQ, I know it came from America’s Test Kitchen (ATC), but I thought before I tear into my ATC cookbooks I would do a quick search on the Web. I was so glad I did; I found a recipe from Rachel Ray for Pulled Chicken that was so simple and the ingredients are all fairly healthy, OK the BBQ sauce is a bit out of the healthy box, but not too far. Best thing was it was ready in less than an hour.

The ingredient list is short and all right there in my pantry (I do not keep chicken in my pantry, but you know what I mean, right?):

2 lbs. boneless chicken breasts, about 4 halves, seasoned with salt and pepper
1 onion and 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 1/3 cup BBQ sauce (most of an 18oz bottle)
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
Hot pepper sauce

Toss the chicken, onion, and garlic in a Dutch oven or other large pan and then pour about 1 1/2 cups water in, just to cover the chicken. Add the BBQ sauce, when I do not make my own I use Bulls Eye brand because it tastes best to me and if that is not enough ATK says it is their go-to brand in a hurry, also add the vinegar and a few drops of hot sauce, I know I do not even deserve to be called a cook because I was out of Tabasco Sauce (who does not have Tabasco Sauce) so I used some chili sauce called Tuong Ot Sriracha it has a rooster on the front so it is rooster sauce to me. Bring this all to a boil and then reduce to a quick simmer for about fifteen minutes. When the chicken is done take it out and set it on a platter or cutting board to cool a little and set the timer for fifteen minutes, again. While the sauce simmers and reduces to about half of its former self you can shred the chicken. Rachel Ray wanted me to use two forks to shred the chicken, but I like to hold the chicken with one hand and shred it with a fork in the other hand…I am writing this with a cartoon bandage on the index finger of the holding hand, so you decide if you need one or two forks – do you need two fully functioning hands? Not always. Anyway the only thing left to do is to put the shredded chicken, and any liquid it has accumulated, back into the sauce and if need be heat it back up a bit. We served it on soft dinner rolls with a slice of pepper jack cheese. It was very good.

Alton Brown's Chicken Dinner

I discovered Alton Brown from The Food Network, OK I suppose you all have heard of him and some may even follow him, but I do not get the Food Network and had never heard of him. He made a series of YouTube videos answering questions about Thanksgiving feast planning and preparation. Funny guy with lots of good sense, one thing he pointed out was that raw does not necessarily mean fresh when it comes to turkey frozen can mean fresher and they usually have a less traumatic – temperature wise – trip to market. Maybe that is why I think he is so clever, I have been using frozen birds for years for the same reason. The cleverest people in the world are the ones that agree with us!

I watched an episode of show that airs on The Food Network called Best Thing I Ever Made and he made what looked like a tasty dish called Smoked Paprika Chicken Thighs with Potato and Onion. If you go to BTIEM - Chicken Dinner (Alton Brown) on YouTube you will find it. The show was interesting and the chicken dinner looked fabulous, so I thought I would try it out on my family.

Smoked Paprika Chicken Thighs with Potato and Onion

Alton Brown Food Network

Prep time: 40 minutes – Cook time: 60 minutes – Level: Easy – Serves 6-8

Ingredients

6oz	pimento stuffed green olives, chopped
2 t	lemon zest
2 cloves	garlic, grated
3 T	smoked paprika
1 t	olive oil
1 1/2 t	kosher salt
1/4 t	black pepper, freshly ground
8 each	bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
2 pounds	Yukon gold potatoes, unpeeled
1 medium	yellow onion, frenched (see the video)

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Combine the olives, lemon zest and garlic in a small bowl. Set aside.

Mix the smoked paprika, olive oil, 3/4 teaspoon of the salt and pepper into a paste in a large bowl.

Lay the chicken thighs skin-side down. Using a pair of kitchen shears, make a cut down the length of the bone to expose it, then cut the meat away from the bone. Discard the bone. Add the boned chicken thighs to the paste and massage to coat.

Thinly slice the potatoes on a mandolin, about 1/4-inch thick. Arrange the potato slices and onion pieces in an even layer on a foil-lined half sheet pan and sprinkle with the remaining 3/4 teaspoon salt.

Stuff about 2 tablespoons of the olive mixture under the skin of each chicken thigh. Arrange the chicken thighs, skin-side up, on a cooling rack and set the rack over the potatoes and onion in the half sheet pan. Bake until the skin is crispy and the potatoes are tender, 55 to 60 minutes. If you prefer the potatoes crispy, remove the rack with the chicken and return to the oven for an additional 5 to 10 minutes. Serve immediately.

Long Time Gone

I just noticed that it has been almost two years since I wrote in my blog and the last blog I posted said I was going to start writing more often...ha! That did not happen, now did it?
I am trying to figure out how I can incorporate my new found healthy eating habits into a blog that might interest some folks to read. I have been doing well in controlling my diabetes the last six months or so and I have always balked at watching my salt intake, but it seems my blood pressure was rising to above normal so my diabetic counselor, Tara, talked me into trying to restrict my sodium intake. For a month and a half I brought my sodium intake to about 1,200 mg per day and dropped my BP by about ten points - I am sold on that. It is a bit trickier than restricting carbs because almost anything you break out of a package already done and delicious for you, is probably loaded with sodium.
Example:
1 cup Buitoni Three Cheese Tortellini = 460 mg
1/2 cup Buitoni Marinara Sauce = 540 mg
1 slice Texas Toast = 209 mg
Total 1,209 mg sodium and then, God forbid you should have seconds...or breakfast and lunch.
I found some ways to make a lot of the recipes I use for family dinners and personal lunches and breakfasts a lot healthier, so that is what I hope to blog about. I will bring recipe make-overs and tips and tricks I learn along the way.

The above dinner, for me, has changed to:
1 cup Barilla Tortellini = 243mg (not reviewed as highly  in America's Test Kitchen, but still a good pasta)
1/2 cup Newman's Own Marinara Sauce = 51mg
1 Plain Bread Stick = 66mg
I improved the dinner to the tune of 360mg for dinner, I could even keep the Texas Toast and still come out with room for lunch and breakfast.

Eating healthy is more expensive and it takes considerable effort, but the rewards are manifold.

New Direction

Well, I failed the original mission of this blog which was to record the baking experience of creating all the pies in Irma Rombauer's Joy of Cooking; All About Pies and Tarts cookbook. I have ignored my blog for a long time.

I have decided that I will renew my blog and the goal will be simply to record my adventures in cooking for my family and friends and, of course, I will continue baking and will share that also.

I still have a goal to finish Irma's book and I will! It may take a while, but I will finish it!

L'Chaim

After the Linzertorte “bust” I decided to back to some basic Americana pie. What could be more American than peanut butter (yeah, yeah, I know you were going to say apple pie, but this is my blog) and chocolate?

Irma says in the book that this is a simple pie and sounds like kid stuff, but has a complexity and subtle flavor that will surprise.

We were invited over for dinner to the home of some of my favorite people ever. I first met Edwin and Patty when they were young and fresh married leaving for deep dark Africa as missionaries. In fact I met them at their going away potluck celebration as a guest of my best friend in the whole world Kevin. I remember a little envy at the things they were going to experience and accomplish. Between then and now the sun has risen and set quite a few times. Their twin daughters, Jessica and Bethany are both in their first year of high-school and the youngest; Tabitha is, well, I do not know how old she is…probably 6 or 8. Anyway we were invited to have supper with them and Patty tells me they are planning curry chicken. I tell her that curry wrecks havoc on my wife’s digestive system, so we had Mexican instead. Thanks, Patty.

I thought my daughter, Rachel would come with us and she was dragging her feet, not wanting to go and my son, Dave pops up with, “Hey, I want to go.” Then Rachel decides it might not be so terrible with Dave there. As it turned out we all have a really fun time and even Rachel, although she would not admit it, was glad she decided to go along.

I decided to bake and bring the Peanut Butter Pie. It has a crumb crust which can be made with graham crackers, but I thought it would be better made with chocolate wafer cookies. The filling itself is almost like a mousse, very light and the subtle flavor of peanut butter and cream cheese with the chocolate crust was very good by itself, but there was more. The pie is topped with a thin hard chocolate glaze and I made whipped cream for a garnish. There were nine of us and a pie that goes into eight servings so Patty and I cut it into ten slices. As it turned out we could have cut it into twelve servings because it was so rich.

Dinner was very good.

The company was great.

The game was goofy (fun).

And I think the pie turned out to be pretty good, too!

Thanks to our American-African friends for having us over.

Linzertorte

Funny how things go sometimes. My oldest daughter, Keri and my two sweet grandchildren, Erik who is two and Eliana who is eight months old, just left Sunday after staying for two weeks. They did not seem to demand much of my time, but I got pretty much nothing done while they were here.

I finally got around to making the Linzertorte for the family in our congregation that is, well, very European. I thought they would enjoy it more than my family due to the crust which is made from nuts and The Wife ‘O My Life does not like nuts in baked goods…not even brownies. When I gave it to them it was the oldest boy’s birthday, but he said he does not enjoy nuts that much either so it was “ok.” The king of the castle said he really liked it. The queen said it was pretty, but lacked the depth and complexity of flavor that she is used to in a Linzertorte. So all in all I feel it was not a great effort, but I ticked one more pie/tart off the list.

Chess Pie

I set out to make two pies. I was going to make the Chess Pie and the Lemon Chess Pie.
The Lemon Chess Pie for the Wife O' My Life and the Chess Pie for the gal who has a desk right next to Wife at work. It seems that one day I called for Sues and she, Antoinette, answered the phone and I was perturbed with her because she was not Sues. I do not remember the exchange at all, but if she says I was rude I want to beg forgiveness and what better way than to bake her a pie. Chess Pie has nuts in it and Lemon Chess does not. The Wife O' My Life does not like nuts in pie, or most anything else. So the Chess Pie was for Antoinette. I prepared everything for the pie and prepped all I could to make a smooth time baking, I love to have everything laid out and ready just like a TV cooking show. It called for an unusual method for making the filling. I had to combine the eggs, sugars and some evaporated milk in a heat-proof bowl and simmer an inch of water in a skillet and place the bowl in the water until the filling was shiny and warm to the touch. I was a little distracted by the strangeness of the recipe and forgot the six tablespoons of butter I cut into small pieces that were to be scattered on top as the mixture heated. I did not realize my mistake until I was done putting the meringue on the pie. I went to get a drink from the refrigerator and oops there was the saucer with little uniform cubes of butter.
I did not toss the pie, I eat my mistakes. I started over and made the Chess Pie the way it should be and did not make the Lemon Chess Pie. Oh, well. Another day I will make it.
We ate the pie that I screwed up and I thought it was quite good despite the omission of the butter in the filling. My family also enjoyed it. The meringue was very stable and delicious even after two days in the refrigerator.
I did not get pictures of either pie.
Antoinette said that the pie was very good, but very rich and she was eating only small pieces at a time.

Rhubarb brings me back home...

We got some rhubarb from the market table at church and I was going to make a pie. No strawberries, though. Just rhubarb. The Wife O' My Life has a pal at work who is the pharmacy manager and she has to put up with a lot of grief from people who want more than their insurance will allow and some times she comes to Wife almost in tears. So, she asked me to bake her pie to cheer her up. One of the coolest parts of the whole story is that she told Wife that rhubarb was her favorite pie!

I did not get to taste the pie, again, but it bubbled up and I did get to taste the filling and it was tart and delicious. Irma said that the best rhubarb for pies is the early spring rhubarb that is as big around as your finger. Says it is sweeter and more flavorful. This rhubarb was about an inch or slightly more across the widest part so it was not early by any means, but I hope she enjoyed the pie. I did use the greater amout of sugar suggested and I added the optional grated zest of one orange.

I tasted some of the raw rhubarb and it made me remember when I was a kid going with Mom, my brother, Dan and my sister, Cookie and finding wild rhubarb or at least feral rhubarb. She made a really tasty cake with it. It is the simplest recipe. You make a yellow or white cake mix according to the directions and put half the batter in a 9x13 and top it with two cups sliced rhubarb then the rest of the batter, bake a little longer than the box says and it is delicious.

The Bake Sale Trio

The preschool that is in our church building had an Easter egg hunt and a bake sale. The hunt was just for fun and a few of our teens and even fewer of our adults filled plastic eggs with toys and candy. I do not know how many eggs were there, but it was a LOT! We came in Saturday about noon and hid them for the hunt which started at one o’clock. For the little ones it is more scattering than hiding, but they have a good time and so did we.

In connection with the hunt they wanted to have a bake sale to help toward the purchase of a copier. I contacted the gal in charge and asked how I could help. She said she wanted to have small $1 packages for people to purchase and a few larger items for a few dollars more. I told her I could bake two or three pies for her and she appreciated that and could I put a price on them. Gee, how do you put a price on a pie? I had no idea how to price them. Oh, well. Worry about that later like Scarlet O’Hara.

I took The Book with me and went to the grocery store. They have not had peaches since I started this adventure up until this week and they came out great in the Fruit Crostata so I thought I would make peach. I selected my fruit with great care. I am sure the produce guy thinks I am very picky, the Wife ‘O My Life would say anal-retentive, but I think that goes too far. After I had taken all of five minutes to pick the six best peaches in the lot I remembered that I had told my sweet little girl, Rachel that when I make the Peach Pie it would be for her and it did not seem right to make her buy it from the bake sale. I put the peaches back and picked out three perfect pears for the Pear Streusel Tart. I choose lemons for the Ohio Lemon Pie and then decided to make one of the Canned Fruit Pies. I got pears for that pie.

I had never made or even heard of Ohio Lemon Pie. You take three lemons and zest them and then with the while part of the peel still on you slice them “paper thin” and mix them with their zest, two cups of sugar and a bit of salt. As they soak, or as Irma puts it they macerate everything becomes soft and very sticky. I was instructed to macerate them for a minimum of two hours and up to twenty-four. The longer you macerate them the better. I went for fourteen hours and took it to the sale still warm. I do not know what it tasted like as it was sold in the bake sale. The lemon pie and the tart were purchased by the same gal and I know people who know her so perhaps I can get a message to her through them and she would comment on here as to how she liked or did not like the baked goods. The Wife ‘O My Life told me if I wrapped the tart in colored plastic wrap and gathered it up top and put a ribbon on it I could sell it for fifteen or twenty dollars. I did not have colored plastic wrap or ribbon…they went for ten dollars each.

Fruit Crostata

The Fruit Crostata was a pat-in-the-pan shortbread crust, so it was a little different than any other. It looks a bit like a Galette, but does not taste like it. I made it for Scott and Susan’s regular every-other-Thursday get together. Last time I baked for them was the pumpkin pie with brandy sauce. This was better, they both tried it and both said they liked it. Sues and I liked it too. It was trickier to put together than the Galette in that the dough had to be rolled out between two pieces of parchment paper because it was very sticky. I made a nice fat border this time, learned my lesson making the Galette. I used fresh peaches and the frozen blueberries we were given.

As an interesting side note the Wife O’ My Life is journaling all her food intake now and so I try to provide her with calorie counts on what I cook and bake. All About Pies and Tarts does not list that sort of information so I have to calculate each ingredient and do math to figure it out. A lot of the time I am able to find a recipe on the internet that has about the same composition and use the information provided. I did a search for Fruit Crostata and was surprised to find a web site called Trusan Cuisines that had a sample menu on their web site with different menu items and photos of the dishes. The surprise came in the photo they had for their Fresh Fruit Crostata. The photo is a little hazy as if it were a phone pic or it was scanned and as I looked at it I realized why it seemed so familiar. It was the picture from All About Pies and Tarts. I called Sues over and we compared different parts of the pictures and it is, right down to the wrinkles on the berries, the same photo. I wonder if they can get in trouble for that. If you want to see it you can look here: http://www.trusancuisines.com/menu_tuscan.htm

Tamale Pie

I do not know why, but making the savory pies does not get me as thrilled as the dessert pies do. I still feel creative, but it is different.

This is different from most of the Tamale Pie recipes I have seen in that it has a top and bottom crust, most just have the top crust.

This turned out very nice. The crust was solid enough to hold up to being served in whole pieces and tender enough to compete with some of the best cornbread I have had. The top crust blended with a layer of cheddar cheese that made it quite remarkable. The filling was spicy and very flavorful. The only downside to this dish was that it made an entire 9x13 pan with Sweet Wife and I being the only ones home to enjoy it most of it ended up in the trash.

I went out to Camp Yamhill this weekend for the retreat that we have with our youth group each year. It is a really great weekend with some terrific kids. The Spirit of God permeated the weekend. I was moved as were so many of the teens and participating adults.

One of the reasons I enjoy Camp Yamhill so much is the couple that has taken over the cooking and such there, Alex and Pam. No more packaged foods. The food there used to be OK, but now it is very good. I have struck up a friendship with them and enjoy visiting with them whenever I go out there. Alex is a funny guy, I always enjoy his humor and Pam is a chef willing to teach and answer all my goofy questions. It was sad this weekend because Pam was sick and I only saw her briefly the first morning for breakfast. I pray she gets well fast.

If I had not run out of time to bake on Friday before I left I had planned to bring her an example of my baking adventure in an Apple Galette. She told me that one of the "final exams" in culinary school was to bake a galette and I wanted to get her opinion of mine, well maybe next time.

Apple Pie II

Well, I got some new stuff from Pampered Chef (R) and have been enjoying the garlic peeler, fun little gadget it is a silicone tube and you put your garlic clove in there and rub it between your hands and it peels it for you so you can chop it up. Also got some little prep bowls that I have not used much, becuase they are kind of small and I forget have them and just use monkey dishes.

One of the tools I got was a pastry cutter wheel. It has three blades, one that cuts straight like a pizza cutter, only smaller, one that is flat for crimping dough and one that cuts a wavy line. I used the wavy one to cut the dough to make a lattice on this pie.

I finally got around to making the second recipe for apple pie in the book. The filling is cooked before it goes in the pie and Irma said that it is a bit softer filling than Apple Pie I and not as sweet, but with more apple flavor. I did taste the filling before it went in the pie and thought it was very good.

The lattice was fun to make. I always wondered how people got those great lattice patterens with thin pieces of dough, because my dough would always get all messed up with the filling while I was weaving it. In the book I found out. You make it off the pie on a cookie sheet and refrigerate it until it is stiff and place it on the top of the pie in one piece...pretty clever. I do not know if you can tell I used my new cookie cutter to put a couple of little apple shapes on the top of the crust...Ellen noticed when I gave her the pie *smile*.

Rolling the dough went very well with my new pin, I just love it! Also it was good to make the pie for someone else. This is the pie I made to trade for the raspberry jam for the Linzertorte. I went out to Battle Ground to take the pie to Ellen and got to visit with her and Roberta and Jennifer and Elisa. It was a lot of fun and if they enjoy the pie half as much as I enjoyed their company I would be quite pleased. I asked them to make a comment on this blog entry as to how they liked the pie...or not.

There was a little more darkening on the crust than I like to see, but I was writing the previous post on quiche while it was baking and lost track of time, oops.

By the way, Roberta, if you read this thanks so much for the big bag of frozen blueberries. I was planning to make a pie with them, but my wife took them and said they are for her lunches to make up for all the pies I make she does not get to eat. On that same note my sweet daughter, Rachel asks me the same thing every time I bake, "Do we get to eat this one?" Poor thing, I asked her to pick a pie and it will be just for her. She choose the peach, so this summer when peaches are ripe I will bake one just for her!

Quiche Lorraine...does it count if I fail?

My pal Mike has chickens and they laid more eggs than he could use so he gave me a couple of dozen. I thought what a great time to make a quiche. So I set out to make one for him.

As you can see by the pictures I failed in my attempt to make Quiche Loraine. I am so glad I put that pan under the tart pan, what a mess that would have been.

The problem was that I rolled the crust too thin and it shrunk down on one side of the tart and developed a hole during baking. It has an egg yoke glaze baked on the crust to help to seal it, but it was not enough.

The color and flavor were very good and the wife 'o my life very much enjoyed the crust and the filling on the small one, although it had shrunken sides too.

I am going to go ahead and scratch it off the list as done even though it failed. I will attempt it again, only next time I will have to use store-bought eggs.

I got a french-style rolling pin and I am loving it! It is so much nicer to use than the one my mother used. I thought it would take a little getting used to, but it was better right out of the gate. I also got four small removable-bottom tarts and used one in the quiche disaster. They will take a little practice. Irma says to double over the edges of tart crusts that are 3 1/2 to 4 1/2-inch pans, but not if they are very small pans with sloped sides. Well my new pans are 3 1/2-inch, but they have sloped sides...I am going to double the sides next time, we will see how that works out.

Well, I have Apple Pie II in the oven right now. I am baking it for Ellen, a friend at church. I put out the word that I needed 12 ounces of home-made raspberry jam to make the Linzertorte because I did not want to use store-bought jam to fill a tort I have worked so hard on. Ellen gave me a whole quart of jam made by her mother, who she says makes the best jam, from home-grown raspberries. I just hope the rest of the Linzertorte can live up to that!

My Book Is Here!

The book I am baking these pies from, The Joy of Cooking; All About Pies and Tarts, is a library book and I figured I could just keep renewing it all year, but the library will not let you renew if it has a hold on it. I decided I would just buy the book on line.

I found the Joy of Cooking "All About" series in several places on the web and the prices vary on different editions such as All About Cookies or Chicken or Whatever, they were all in the range of $3 to $8...except All About Pies and Tarts. The new copies were $85 and up to $115. Wow, that is a bit much. The used copies were not much better at $45, 50 or 65.

Perseverance pays off. I have continued to look on line and finally found a copy for under $20 including shipping. It said it had "minimal underlining" and was in "good" shape. Well, I thought it would be OK no matter how much writing was in it or whatever.

It arrived the other day and it is in better shape than the one I got from the library!

No writing or underlining to be found. Funny thing is it came from a used book store in Bothel, Washington through http://www.thriftbooks.com/ and the stamp on the book says it was "withdrawn" from the Omaha, Nebraska Public Library. That is a well traveled book.

By the way, I have purchased several books from thriftbooks.com and I have always been pleased with the service and the goods.

Key Lime Pie

My son, David asked me to make the Key Lime Pie for him because he relly likes the key lime flavored yogurt...well, it works for me!

This was different in that I have never made a citrus pie, but I was game. I had to buy a citrus juicer and I wish I had bought a squeezer in stead, maybe I will get one before I make the Lemon Meringue Pie.

Those little, tiny key limes do not have much to them, I had to zest a dozen of them to get the 3 or 4 teaspoons of zest I needed and I had to juice 16 to get the half cup of juice. I did learn my lesson making the French Yeast Galette and used my zesting tool and not the grater to avoid the bitter flesh of the peel.

I had the choice of making it with a meringue topping or whipped cream, I opted for the meringue. The meringue Irma had for me to use has a corn starch paste in it which is suppose to keep the meringue stable for several days...we will never know since Susan took the left-over pie to work and they leave nothing to destablize, ha ha.

The wife 'o my life, Susan said she was surprized that it was not green in color. I had not even thought of that because I saw the picture in Irma's book and it was yellow with just a hint of green, which is just what my pie looked like.

My pie did not look exactly like the book. I tried to "anchor" the meringue to the crust as instructed, but it seperated a little and the pie did weep a bit, the next morning it had maybe a half teaspoon of liquid in the bottom of the plate. They can not all come out perfect, now can they!

One strange thing I noticed was that Irma called for a 15oz can of sweetened condensed milk and both brands at the store come in 14oz cans...weird.

His peace,

Lewis

French Yeast Galette

Well it has been a while, but I finally got back in the kitchen!

My 10th grade daughter, Rachel had us scheduled at her school for student-led conferences, which never go well for us. I do not know if it goes well for others, but Rachel's always seems a little rushed and a little scattered. I did secretly enjoy it though. The reason I bring that up is that her "advisor" at school is a French gal so I decided to make the French Yeast Galette since Irma says that throughout France different regions have varied versions of the galette, but they all have some version it would be interesting to present it to a French native and get her input on how I did. I have asked her to comment on this blog...I hope she will, good or bad I would like to know what she thinks of my galette.

The galette was fun to make in that it was real different from a pie. It was described as a cross between cake and bread. Unlike the apple galette it has no fruit, or any filling at all. It did call for lemon zest. I made two of the galettes and on the first one I used my grater to get the zest from the lemon and I think I dug in a little too deep and got some of the bitter flesh of the peel in the mix. The second one I used my "zester" tool, which takes more time, but renders a better not bitter result.

After mixing the yeast and sugar and the rest you are suppose to cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough stand in a warm place for 3 hours. I always wonder how they made these recipes years ago when there was no plastic wrap...hmm.

To bake the two galettes I had to put them together and then refrigerate them for 10 minutes and then bake for 10 minutes. Which turned out pretty good because I could put one together and refrigerate it while I put the next one together and bake the first one while the second one chills. This worked out OK until I took the first one out of the oven. I was instructed to pat the very sticky dough out to an 11-inch circle under plastic wrap and then to turn up the edges about three-quarters of an inch to form a rim all around. I did not take that very seriously and made a haphazard rim around. Well, the first one I baked on my 15" round baking stone and it grew out over the edge and the second one I made on my 12" stone and the dough was so sticky and delicate that there was no way to transfer it to a larger stone, so I made a very definite rim on the second one. It turned out beautiful, I wish I would have done them both that way. The first one tasted grand, but it was not as pretty.

We ate the first one, the ugly one and gave the second to her advisor, Mrs. Lawrence.

His peace,

Lewis

Not Baking...bummer

Ugg, I have not baked anything in so long. I am going to have some serious chatching up to do to stay on schedule.

The problem is that I have hurt my leg, I do not know even how I hurt it, but there is an open sore on my stump and I can not wear my artificial leg for a while. I do not know for sure when I will be getting back on two feet. It is so hard to just get along doing life; cooking dinner, shopping, cleaning up the kitchen and working on the drawings I have to do. Baking seems out of the question.

I will try and get some done this week end come what may!

I have an appointment with my prosthetist (leg man) on Wednesday and perhaps he can get me back in the saddle!

On a happier note I have found some work to do. Not a job to go to, but I am talking to a couple of different companies about doing contract work out of my home for them. I have done bits and pieces out of my home before, but this is serious amounts of work...pray for me!

His peace,
Lewis

Empanadas, Pizza Rustica and Apple Galette

It has been crazy busy for me this past couple of weeks. I got a contract to draw a machine called the VersaLift for a local company and that has been a real fun challenge and I got a chance to speak to the teens out at Camp Yamhill at a retreat called Leadership Seminar. That was a blast, but it took a lot of my time in preparation...well worth it. I drove out there today and I had planned to drive right back home when I was invited to stay for lunch, I was told the food had improved dramatically and i can attest to that from being out there for Junior Teen the last few years. The improvement has been the result of new management of the kitchen. A lot less prepared food, a lot more "scratch" food and some real knowledge of food preparation. Alex and Pam run a pretty tight ship. No more mid-night raids on the goodies in the kitchen, no more lounging in the kitchen after hours playing Trivial Pursuit, but the trade off is some really great food and a legal kitchen.



Well I have not been blogging for two weeks, but I have been cooking!
I made an Apple Galette that was so light and delicate that it shocked me. The whole family loved it and it was light in flavor and in sugars, I had two pieces and still kept my glucose levels within reason. The Galette is like a "free-form" pie with, like I said, very little sugar and it was fun to eat, because the recipe said you could serve it with whipped cream I ate it like a pizza and my sweet little girl, Rachel dipped hers in the whipped cream.




The Pizza Rustica (Italian Meat Pie) was nothing like what we call pizza. It was instead a meat pie with sweet Italian sausage, prosciutto, pork loin, cheese and more cheese. It called for two pounds of ricotta cheese, where a 9 x 13 pan of lasagna only calls for one pound and this pie was only an 8 x 8! It was a lot of cheese. The family liked it...well, not so much. I, on the other hand thought it was delicious. OK, I would cut the ricotta in half next time, but it was a very good dinner, for me. The most fun was making the crust. For this pie Irma had me mix the dry ingredients and then gave me the choice of mixing it with the wet ingredients in a bowl or right on the table. Of course I choose to make it on the table. What fun to crack the eggs in the well, beat them with a fork and then mix with the flour mixture. It was messy, but I had a blast. You can see the pictures.



The other recipe I made was Empanadas. Irma said that you can fill them with anything from fruits to nuts, but mostly they are filled with meat. That is what I chose. I made them the day before I had to go in for a medical procedure and was on a liquid diet and could not eat them. When I made the filling with ground beef, potatoes, tomato, raisins, green olives, oregano, etc. it nearly drove me nuts not being able to even taste the darn things. I decided to make them for lunch and take them to Sues' work and let them eat them. The unusual flavors of beef, raisins, olives, etc. were a big hit, as a matter of fact one of the gals is having some kind of event this Sunday (wedding, maybe, IDK) and she wanted the recipe so she could make them for the event. I also asked our Youth Minister's wife if she would like to get together and make them some time. We made pies together before and she is a delight.

Must run. Busy weekend. Back soon. I will be baking!