Apple (or Pear) Butterscotch Pie

This recipe is being posted in response to a couple requests from friends who really wanted the recipe. The original calls for pears which is also quite good (if you like pears) but it translates right over for apples as well.

Filling:

3 TBSP flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/8 tsp salt

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 1/2 lbs (about 5) apples (or pears), peeled, cored & cut into wedges

1 TBSP lemon juice

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 TBSP butter, cut into little pieces

Place a baking sheet in the oven and preheat to 425 degrees.

Whisk the dry ingredients together so there are no lumps and toss the fruit in the mixture along with the lemon juice and the vanilla extract. Let macerate for about 15 minutes then place in the

bottom crust in the pie pan. Dot the top with the little pieces of butter, then cover with the top crust and crimp the edges. Cut vents in the top. If you'd like, lightly beat an egg and brush it over the top crust for a nice golden glaze.

Bake the pie on the hot baking sheet for 20 minutes, then reduce the temp to 375 and bake an additional 40 to 45 minutes.

Pie Crust: (or use store-bought. Seriously.)

2 cups flour

1 cup shortening (I use half COLD butter and half Crisco)

pinch of salt

1/3 cup ICE water

Cut the shortening into the flour & salt mixture until it resembles cornmeal then add the ICE water. Mix til it just comes together--DO NOT OVERWORK IT! Makes enough for 2 pie crusts.

Cook's Notes:

1. If using apples, I'd recommend using Braeburn or Fuji, but pretty much anything other then Red or Golden Delicious would be great. For pears, use Bartlett or Anjou, or mix it up and use some of each.

2. The brown sugar & vanilla is what makes this a butterscotch pie as well as the butter pieces melting down into the filling.

3. You can make the pie crust by hand which is what I used to do or if you have a food processor, use that. It cuts the shortening into the flour much more evenly and your hands don't get as icky. If you do use the food processor, contrary to popular belief, DO NOT make the dough ball up. If you do, the dough has been overworked and will not be flaky. Pulse the mix until the dough comes together in large clumps then you can gently press the clumps together. What happens is that you're making many teeny tiny layers of flour & shortening and when the pastry bakes, the shortening melts and the water in the shortening evaporates leaving all these teeny tiny pockets which is what makes a flaky pastry. The colder the shortening, the more it keeps it shape and makes the little pockets. When you overwork the dough, the shortening melts and you begin to develop gluten strands and it causes the dough to become tough.

4. The reason you preheat the baking sheet and then bake the pie on it is to bake the bottom crust a nice golden brown which doesn't usually happen when there is a heavy filling like pears or apples in the pie pan. This is the equivalent of blind-baking which is what you do for custard-filled pies (but we can discuss that in another blog!).

Eat well,

Holly

Italian Bread Crumb Fish

I had someone ask me for a breaded halibut recipe so I delved into my trove of clippings and found this Italian bread crumb topping for cod. It can be used for any white fish as well as chicken and pork, low-fat and is quite simple to throw together when you're in a hurry.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup bread crumbs
2 TBSP grated parmesan cheese
1 TSBP cornmeal
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 Italian seasoning
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/8 black pepper
4 (3 oz) cod fillets
1 egg white, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Stir together all dry ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

Spray the rack of a broiling pan with cooking spray. Place the fish on the pan and fold under any thin edges so they don't burn. Brush the egg white on the fish then spoon the bread crumb mixture evenly over the fillets..

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until the fish flakes easily when tested with a fork and is opaque all the way through.

Cook's notes:

1. I prefer to use Japanese panko instead of traditional bread crumbs for breading. You may be able to find it in the ethnic aisle of your grocery store; I know that World Market carries panko and of course, any Asian market such as Uwjimaya and Pal-Do. Panko is lighter and crispier and doesn't get soggy the way regular bread crumbs do. My gluten-free friends can substitute their gluten-free bread crumbs, of course!

2. For my dairy-free friends, there are hard goat cheeses that would be a great substitution for the parmesan and still have that great tangy flavor; check out Trader Joe's and Whole Foods.

Eat well,
Holly

Thoughts on cooking & family

I ran across an article, written by Nancy Harmon Jenkins in "Saveur", February 2009.

"Real home cooking is like fine art: it is hard to define, but we know it when we see it...(it) stresses finesse over fancy techniques. It calls for ingredients at hand, like the fresh and dried chiles that Mexican home cooks swear by or the salt-cured anchovies that southern Italians can't do without. Simplicity is a hallmark of home cooking, and so is adaptability: if a dish calls for six cloves of garlic and you only have one, if the recipe requires a tablespoon of tomato paste and you're all out, if you're supposed to use lemon juice but you've only got oranges, you cook anyway, and you end up making something good. In the end...home cooking is: a link, a continuum from one generation to the next, a flow of knowledge and love that strengthens and nourishes everyone it touches."



I love this piece because that's what I want people to know--cooking isn't hard, recipes can always be adapted and love really is a secret ingredient. I had a friend tell me (and I know she doesn't really consider herself a cook) that she had made the tilapia with roasted tomato sauce that I posted a few weeks back, but since she didn't have certain ingredients on hand, she adapted the recipe by using what she did have and the dish turned out fine. I sometimes hesitate to pass recipes along only because I cook from ingredients and I don't have specific quantities.



As for the "continuum", well, I've been privileged to be the keeper of my paternal great-grandma's, my dad's and my maternal grandma's personal recipe collections, as well as a handful of my paternal grandma's Christmas cookie recipes. I have secret family recipes now! And my siblings have all called me at one time or another to ask me for help with recipes and I cherish being able to share what I know with people I love. Feeding others is my gift, my act of love, my gesture of comfort; it's my connection to my past, my legacy from my family and my path to the future as there is nothing that unites people more than a home-cooked meal.



Eat well,
Holly

~~The picture is a page from my great-grandma's personal cookbook; she wrote her recipes in a spiral-bound notebook and some of the pages are nearly illegible due to grease and food splatters.

Roasted Vegetable & Quinoa Salad

I haven't actually made this recipe yet, but as I have several friends who are gluten-intolerant, I thought that I'd post this as it A) it sounds really good and B) quinoa is good for you even if you can eat glutinous (ha!) products.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees

3 cups water

1 1/2 cups quinoa

1/4 cup balsamic blend seasoned rice vinegar (such as Nakano brand)

2 tsps olive oil
1/4 tsp black pepper

2 cups chopped carrots

3 1/2 cups chopped zucchini

1 3/4 cups chopped yellow squash

1 jar of roasted red peppers

1 cup feta cheese

1 garlic clove, minced

cooking spray

1. Bring the 3 cups of water to a boil in a medium saucepan and add the quinoa. Cover, reduce heat and cook for about 15 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Remove pan from heat and set aside.

2. Whisk together the vinegar, olive oil and pepper in a bowl, then add the carrots; toss to coat. Drain the carrots but reserve the liquid. Spread the carrots on a baking sheet sprayed with non-stick spray and bake for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, coat the zucchini and squash, once again reserving the extra liquid. Add the remainder of the vegetables to the baking sheet with the carrots and bale everything for an additional 20 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely.

3. Drain the jar of red peppers and cut into smaller strips, if so desired. In a large bowl, mix the quinoa, veggies, feta cheese and reserved vinegar liquid. Stir well to combine; cover and chill.

Cook's note:

1. There are three kinds of cultivated quinoa--white, red and black. I found red and white at Trader Joe's and one of the staff recommended that I toast the grains before cooking them. Toasting is easy but you need to be alert; place the amount of quinoa that you'll be cooking immediately in a large saucepan or cast-iron skillet, keep moving the pan over medium-high heat just until the grains smell toasty and remove from the heat source. Ta-da!

2. I'd use chicken or vegetable stock in lieu of water when making the quinoa; it adds another dimension of flavor. I always have chicken stock on hand, though, so it's easy for me to say!

3. Use whatever vegetables you like for this recipe, but remember that the harder ones (like carrots) will take longer to roast, so plan accordingly. Or email me and I can help you figure it out! And play around--green beans roast nicely as does broccoli and cauliflower, mushrooms and onion wedges. Mix it up!

4. As for the seasoned vinegar, if you don't have rice vinegar on hand, use balsamic or red wine vinegar; improvise. Rice vinegar is really nice to have around (you can find it at Albertson's on their "ethnic" aisle) as it's a lighter seasoning but don't get hung up on it. Seriously.

5. This recipe would be really good with diced chicken as a main dish or as an accompaniment to grilled chicken. Quinoa is just a versatile as rice and pasta and potatoes, so use your imagination!

Eat well,

Holly

~~As I have no quinoa picture, I'm sharing one of some of my herbs for fun.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

I had a request this week for this particular recipe, so I thought I'd pass it along to everyone instead of just the one person who asked; share the wealth, right?

Ingredients:

1/2 vegetable oil

4 oz unsweetened baking chocolate, melted & cooled *(see conversion in Cook's notes)

2 cups sugar

2 tsp vanilla

4 eggs

2 cups flour

2 tsps baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 c powdered sugar set aside in a bowl

Mix together the oil, chocolate, sugar & vanilla in a large bowl--I use my Kitchen-Aid mixer. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well before adding the next one. Add the dry ingredients and blend well. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least three hours as dough is very sticky.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease your cookie sheets with shortening or cooking spray. Drop teaspoonfuls of dough into the powdered sugar bowl; roll around to coat thoroughly and shape into balls. Place onto cookie sheets about 2 inches apart.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from sheets and let cool on wire racks.

Cook's notes:

I recommend using unsweetened cocoa powder and doing the conversion; it saves you a messy chocolate bowl and you don't run the risk of your chocolate seizing while it melts. The conversion is on the side of the container but for you, my loyal followers, it's this: for this recipe you'll need *12 level tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder and an additional 4 tablespoons of vegetable oil. Seriously. Do this.

As for the cocoa powder, I like SACO brand; use what you have or can find (Hershey's, Valhrona), but I definitely recommend that you get Dutched cocoa whatever brand you end up with. Dutched cocoa has undergone an alkali process to give the chocolate a smoother, richer flavor and it makes your baked goods that much yummier.

Your cookie dough will still be sticky, even after refrigeration. Be patient. I use a cookie scoop, like an ice cream scoop that releases the dough and all my cookies are the same size; dip the scoop or your spoon in warm water and it'll help with the stickiness. Also--I really, really, really hate washing cookie sheets and I've yet to buy any Silpat baking sheets, so I line my cookie sheets with a piece of tin foil and spray it with cooking spray. That way, I can just throw away the icky, sticky foil afterwards and it cuts down on my cleanup. It may not be the most environmentally friendly thing to do, but it saves my sanity. Really; my sanity is more important than a ball of tin foil.

Eat well,

Holly

Apple Pie

I realize that it's not technically apple season but as I was driving over to Eastern Washington on Thursday, all the apple trees were in bloom and smelled heavenly. In honor of that, I would like to share with you my apple pie recipe, which I'm thinking of renaming "Miriam's All-Time Favorite Pie Ever" as my sister-in-law has told me that she could eat an entire pie at one go!



Preheat oven to 425 degrees

Apple Pie Filling:



5 or 6 apples, peeled, cored and sliced
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 TBSP flour



Mix everything together in a large bowl and let it macerate while you make the pie crust.



Pie Crust: for those of you brave enough to try your hand at making your own!
2 cups flour
pinch of salt
1 cup shortening
1/3 cup ICE water



Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl. Cut in the shortening til the mixture resembles coarse crumbs then add the ICE water. Work dough together but DO NOT overwork it! You'll probably want to chill the dough for a couple hours before dividing into two equal balls. Roll out one on a floured surface, then place in a pie pan. Place filling in pan, dot the fruit with 2 TBSP of cold butter that have been cut into little pieces and then top with second rolled out disk of pie dough. Crimp edges together and cut vents in the top so steam can escape as it bakes. Don't worry about how it looks, really, as long as the filling's not oozing all over the place.



Bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes then lower the oven to 350 degrees and bake an additional 40 minutes or so.



Cook's Notes:



1. I like to use a couple of varieties of apples as you get some different flavors. I love green Granny Smiths because of the tartness; I also like Braeburn, Gala and Fuji.



2. The butter pats on top of the filling will do two things; first, it adds a little richness to the filling and second, as the cold butter melts, the steam helps give a nice lift to the top crust.



3. Pie crust isn't scary! I promise. There are just a couple things to remember; Crisco is less expensive than butter and tastes just fine but chill it first so you'll have a lovely, flaky crust. By all means use butter, but keep in mind that it's quite finicky particularly for beginners and again, expensive. I also capitalized ICE water. The easiest way to do this is to fill a glass measuring cup with ice and water before you begin and then measure out the 1/3 cup of water that you need. The way you get a flaky pie crust is by keeping your shortening and your water COLD and by not overworking your dough. See, as you mix the flour and the fat, you make lots of little layers and when those layers start heating up, the water in the fat releases steam. The steam evaporates and leaves these teeny tiny layers of crust which are nice and flaky. You want that in pastries; not so much in a boyfriend! Or any friend, I should say.



4. Most importantly--your hands come clean. Get in there (with clean hands!) and TOUCH YOUR FOOD. As long as you have proper hygiene, you and your food will be fine, but you need to know what pie dough feels like so that if it's too dry, you can add a touch more water or if it's too wet when you're rolling it out, you throw some more flour on it.



Eat well,
Holly

***the pie pictured is actually strawberry-rhubarb but I included it to show you more or less what your finished product ought to look like.

Great vs Good: Food & Relationships

I was contemplating this Sunday's sermon which was about relationships and my thoughts, as they usually do, turned to food and food analogies. The essence of the message was "what you put into a relationship is what you'll get out of the relationship" and great relationships like great food take time and effort. If you make a conscious effort to eat healthy, it takes time to go to the grocery store, choose the best and freshest and organic ingredients, take them home and prepare them. It's also not cheap, particularly if you hit up Whole Foods, nor is it very convenient time-wise. Think about it; you can either spend $5.47 at Little Caesar's for a "Hot'n'Ready" pizza or spend several times that amount to buy fresh produce and organic meat (and please don't ask how I know the exact price for the pizza--I never claimed to be a gourmet; I'm much closer to a gourmand!). It's simply quantity versus quality. Now, in their defense, more companies and grocery stores have made eating healthy easier with little bags of carrots and celery, apple slices and melon chunks; you can even buy grilled chicken breasts at deli counters, but we still have to make to choice to buy those items and not the fried chicken dinners with the bags of chips.

The other phrase that I jotted down was "The biggest enemy to GREAT is GOOD". We settle for what we're used to, what we think is good enough. I made myself beef pot roast a few weeks back; it was from an actual butcher's shop in Woodinville and they sell only local and organic products. It had been aged a minimum of 21 days and was beautifully marbled with fat...let me just say, I know GREAT beef now. But when you chose to eat healthy, buy organic produce or make the trek to a butcher's shop which, let's face it, is one more stop you just don't have time for...you're making your health a priority. Maybe it means cutting out store-bought coffee and making it at home, or making dessert rather than buying a container of ice cream. It's the same thing with your relationships. What do you need to cut out of your life in order to be available to the people around you? Think about this--what effect do your actions have on those people? What effects do eating better have on you? In both cases, neither one may show immediate results but your efforts will pay off in the end.

I'm going to share something personal here; some of you are more familiar with the story than others and I'm really nutshelling as it's quite complicated, but here goes--I have a friend who I've known for probably six years now, Matt. I knew from one of the first times I met him that he was the man for me, one of those gut feelings at which I always used to sneer. Until just recently, I have made every overture in our friendship--phone calls, encouraging cards, stopping by his place to make sure he was OK. That's a lot of effort, especially when he flat-out told me he wasn't interested in being anything more than friends, and even then it would sometimes be months before I'd be able to get ahold of him or see him. One thing that came out in our conversations in the past couple weeks was how comfortable Matt feels being with me and in sharing personal things (and there's been a turning point with him contacting me much more often). He told me that it's easier to talk to me about these things than his own family because I've been there for him over the past years. I don't share this with you easily; it makes me feel really vulnerable, but I'm really trying to drive home my point--you DO NOT know the effect that you have on someone's life.

That, my dears, is what has been on my mind the past couple days; food and relationships. A huge thanks to Pastor Scott for his excellent message on Sunday which inspired my contemplations and to my readers who allow me to be so open with them.

Eat well,

Holly