Apple Pie

The one and only way to make it.

Crust:

2 C. flour
1 t. salt
2/3 C. shortening
Cold water (5-7 T)

Filling:

1 C. sugar
5 T. flour
2 T. cinnamon
Spices to taste
6-8 medium apples

There's some voodooo involved with making this pie right, so I'm not going to mention all that voodoo here right now (I'll keep it in my heart) but I will note this:

Bake it 30 minutes at 400 F and then turn the oven down to 350 and bake it 30 more.

Sublime. Every time.

Sour Cream-Nutmeg Sugar Cookies

From my Christmas Cookies book, because I was craving cookies (and had sour cream, see how good I am being about trying to use what I've got before it spoils):

Prep: 25 minutes
Cook: 12 minutes per batch
Other: 1 hour

The book says: "These fragrant, buttery cutouts are soft and thick like old-fashioned tea cakes our grandmother used to bake."

1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
4 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Sugar

Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy; gradually add 1 1/2 cups sugar, beating well. Add eggs, beating well. Add sour cream and vanilla, beating well.

Combing flour and 4 next ingredients, gradually add to butter mixture, stir in by hand. Cover and chill at least 1 hour.

Divide dough into fourths. Working with 1 portion of dough at a time (keep remaining dough in refrigerator), roll each portion to 1/4-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface. Cut with a 3-inch cookie cutter; place on ungreased baking sheets. Sprinkle cookies with additional sugar.

Bake at 375 F for 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool slightly on baking sheets, remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Yield: 4 dozen.

(This really does make 4 dozen. No joke. But I ate a surprising amount of these cookies and was satisfied in a cookie (if not an exciting cookie) way about found them a softer alternative to the traditional tea cake recipe I've been using.)

Refridgerator Cabbage Goulash

The end of the monster cabbage!!!

I chopped that cabbage right up, with all the other vegetables I owned, and stuck it all in a pot. Take that cabbage!

I got the inspiration for this dish from http://www.cheriestihler.com/recipes/sides.html under Spicy Fried Cabbage, but modified it according to the vegetables I had in the fridge. This is what I made:

5-6 T. olive oil
2 russet potatoes-- peeled and chopped into thin slices
3 small cloves garlic-- minced
1/5 monster cabbage-- cut into thin strips
5 stalks celery-- cut into pieces
1 ear corn, cut the kernels directly off the ear
1/2 package sliced ham, cut into squares
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. allspice
1/4 tsp. white pepper
2 dashes nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp. salt


Heat oil in large saucepan on medium high. Add celery, potatoes, ham, and garlic. Stir-fry until potatoes are becoming soft, add cabbage and spices and stir until everything is coated evenly. Add corn, cover, and cook on medium low covered for 10-15 minutes or until cabbage is soft. Serve warm.

Weekday Vegetable Soup

Hoping to use the rest of my monster cabbage, I found this recipe for a cabbage soup on Epicurious. The soup was delicious, but I still have about a fourth of the cabbage left, and that was after packing the maximum amount of cabbage possible into that soup. I made the recipe almost exactly as described, only I omitted the rosemary, added a minced clove of garlic, and replaced the rosemary with 1/4 C. chopped parsley and 1/2 tsp. of oregano and thyme. Very easy to make, but took me a while because of chopping all those vegetables. I would make this as a mom if I could chop vegetables around 4 pm and then let it simmer until it would be served.

Ingredients

3 tablespoons olive oil
3 large carrots, peeled, chopped
1/2 large head green cabbage, thinly sliced
1 onion, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary or 1 tablespoon dried
6 cups canned chicken broth
1 28-ounce can Italian plum tomatoes, chopped, juices reserved
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Additional grated Parmesan cheese

Preparation

Heat olive oil in heavy large pot over medium heat. Add carrots, cabbage, onion, celery and rosemary and sauté until tender and beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. Add broth and tomatoes with their juices and simmer 45 minutes. Season soup to taste with salt and pepper. Stir in 1/3 cup Parmesan. Ladle soup into bowls. Serve, passing additional cheese separately.

p.s. Loved this soup. Also should note: used neighbor's soup pot. Thanks Castleman boys.

Banana Sour-Cream Pie

Looking for the Creamy Rice Pudding recipe, I came across this second recipe in the Moosewood and was immediately intrigued. I just knew I had to make one, especially as I had ripened bananas attracting fruit flies on the counter. In fact, I thought it was such a good idea that I made two.

Original:

Ingredients:

Crust
1/3 lb. (1 "stay fresh" package) crushed graham crackers
6 Tbs. melted butter
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
dash of nutmeg
1/2 C. finely chopped almonds

Combine all ingredients and mix well. Press firmly into a 9" pie pan, building up thick sides with a nice edge.

Filling
12 oz. softened cream cheese
1/2 C. (packed) light brown sugar
3/4 C. mashed, ripe bananas
2 Tbs. fresh lemon or lime juice
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1/4 C. sour cream

Beat together all ingredients, until well blended. Pour into crust; Chill 3-4 hours, at least. Overnight chilling is ideal.

My comments:

I used sliced almonds from a package in the store and didn't chop them any further, this seemed to work well for me and I liked having the almonds visible. Also I used dark brown sugar instead of light, as that is what I had. This pie does have a very rich filling, but it is very distinctive and very delicious. The first pie disappeared in the first 24 hours and I think the 2nd pie will go almost as fast. VERY FAST to make as far as pies go-- if I go anywhere for Thanksgiving this year maybe I will consider contributing this pie, as it will be easy to make late the night before or early the morning of and still have enough time to chill.

Creamy Rice Pudding

This is another recipe from Moosewood-- turns out the Moosewood is giving me serious inspiration to do some cooking! I made this on a lonely Saturday night when I needed some comfort food.

Original recipe:

Ingredients:

2 C. cooked rice (1 C. raw, cooked slowly in 2 C. water until well-done)

2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/3 cup honey
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. salk
handful of raisins or chopped dates

1/2 tsp. cinnamon
dash or two of nutmeg
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
1 C. of yogurt, sour cream, or whipped cream

optional: 1 C. grated apple, 1 C. fresh peach slices, 1/2 C. chopped nuts

Directions:

Beat eggs, milk and honey together in a blender. Combine with cooked rice and remaining ingredients, except yogurt, sour cream, or heavy cream. Spread into a buttered 8" square pan (or its equivalent) and bake at 350 F. Stir well every 8-10 minutes during baking. Remove from oven after 25 min. It'll still be loose, but will solidify as it cools. After it has cooled 10 minutes, stir in the yogurt, sour or heavy cream. Eat it hot, warm, or cold.

My comments:

I omitted the raisins and pureed a large honeycrisp apple in the blender with the eggs and milk. I also used 1/2 C. yogurt and 1/2 C. unwhipped heavy whipping cream. This was so easy to put together and absolutely delicious. It hit the spot just right. In the future if I use an apple maybe I will omit the lemon. I think the best thing about this recipe is that it can be varied easily to produce many different kinds of rice puddings using the basic formula and just adding different optional ingredients.

Pirozhki

Still needing to find things to do with the monster cabbage (which I kept in the fridge wrapped up in tin foil), I came upon this pirozhki recipe on Epicurious under the five fork category which would use the potatoes and some of the remaining dill. I made the dough and the filling up on a Thursday night and baked them on a Saturday morning. Pirozhki are a baked Russian potato-cabbage dumpling.

The original recipe can be found here:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/PIROZHKI-11648

Ingredients:

For the dough
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon double-acting baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into bits
2 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sour cream (I used 1/4 C. sour cream and 1/4 C. plain yogurt)
1 tablespoon cold water if necessary

For the filling
3/4 pound russet (baking) potatoes
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 onion, chopped fine
3/4 teaspoon caraway seeds (I omitted these)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 cups chopped cabbage
3 tablespoons sour cream (I used 3 T. plain yogurt)
2 tablespoons water if necessary
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh dill

an egg wash made by beating 1 large egg with 1 teaspoon water

Preparation

Make the dough:
In a food processor blend together the flour, the baking powder, the salt, and the butter until the mixture resembles meal. In a small bowl whisk together the egg yolks and the sour cream, add the sour cream mixture to the flour mixture, and blend the mixture until it just forms a dough, adding the water if the dough seems dry. Divide the dough into fourths, form each fourth into a flattened round, and chill the dough, each round wrapped well in wax paper, for 1 hour or overnight.

Make the filling:
Peel the potatoes, cut them into 3/4-inch pieces, and in a steamer set over boiling water steam them, covered, for 12 to 15 minutes, or until they are very tender. Force the potatoes through a ricer or food mill into a bowl and stir in 1 tablespoon of the butter. In a heavy saucepan cook the onion and the caraway seeds in the remaining 1 tablespoon butter and the oil over moderate heat, stirring, until the onion is golden, add the cabbage, and cook the mixture, stirring, for 5 minutes. Cook the mixture, covered, over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes more and stir it into the potato mixture with the sour cream, the water if the mixture is too thick, the dill, and salt and pepper to taste. The filling may be made 1 day in advance and kept covered and chilled.

On a lightly floured surface roll out 1 piece of the dough 1/8 inch thick, keeping the remaining pieces wrapped and chilled, and with a 3-inch cutter cut out rounds. Brush each round with some of the egg wash, put 2 level teaspoons of the filling on one half of each round, and fold the dough over the filling to form a half-moon, pressing the edges together firmly to seal them and crimping them with a fork. Gather the scraps of dough, reroll them, and make more pirozhki with the remaining filling and dough and some of the remaining egg wash in the same manner. The pirozhki may be made up to this point 5 days in advance and kept frozen in plastic freeze bags. The pirozhki need not be thawed before baking.

Arrange the pirozhki on lightly greased baking sheets and brush the tops with the remaining egg wash. Bake the pirozhki in preheated 350°F. oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until they are golden, and serve them warm or at room temperature.

Makes 50 pirozhki.

These were a LOT of work, but a really delicious finished product. If I ever do these again (and I might, they are really good), I would make larger pirozhki because it takes a long time to make 50 individual turnovers. Note: the egg wash on the inner side of the pirozhki is really necessary in helping the pirozhki dough stick to itself and make the crimped edge of the turnover. Also, the dough should not be rolled if unchilled-- it will be too sticky.

I still have 1/3 cabbage left.

Cabbage With Bacon

Last Saturday we went to a seed farm in Geneva and harvested cabbages for a local food bank. This was an extraordinary effort which involved grabbing cabbages by the throat and decapitating them from their roots using hefty knives. Everyone cut at least one finger and most of us lost substantial skin on our knife hand. We harvested 18,000 lbs. of cabbages. Our reward: One huge cabbage. And when I say huge, I mean like 10-15 lbs. What a cabbage. I had no idea cabbage even existed of that caliber.

The first thing I did with it was hack half of it off and cook up some cabbage and bacon, an old favorite from home. This is how:

Fry up a package of bacon well-done and let it dry on some paper towels so it is left crisp and crumbly. Without removing the bacon grease from the pan, add a bunch of cabbage cut into long thin strips. Stir fry up the cabbage in the bacon grease, add some salt if you like. Then remove the cabbage from the pan, careful to not take too much grease with you, and then crumble the bacon into the cabbage. Keep cooking more cabbage until all of the grease is gone. Serve warm.

You can also refrigerate the leftovers and re-heat them, but the cabbage may be a little more limp the second time around. Delicious.

Chickpea Salad With Ginger

I saw this recipe on the Minimalist Blog on the NYTimes and was immediately intrigued. I think it was the charming picture of chickpeas nestled among the colorful peppers and deceptively enticing red onion. I hadn't been planning to make the salad immediately, but when I had an unexpected little trip to the grocery store, I picked up the remaining ingredients and made it the following evening. First I give the original recipe, then my modifications, and then my comments:

The original recipe on the Minimalist Blog can be found here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/03/dining/031mrex.html?scp=3&sq=chickpea%20salad&st=cse

Time: 10 minutes with precooked chickpeas

Ingredients:

3 cups cooked or canned chickpeas (rinse canned ones)

2 bell peppers, red, yellow or orange; cored, seeded and diced

1 red onion, diced

1 1-inch piece ginger, peeled and minced, or more to taste

1 tablespoon sugar, optional

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, or to taste

Salt and pepper to taste

Chopped fresh cilantro leaves.

Instructions:

1. In a dry pan, toast cumin seeds over medium-low heat until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Grind to a powder using a spice mill, coffee grinder or mortar and pestle. If using ground cumin, lightly toast.

2. In a large bowl, toss all ingredients but cilantro. (You can prepare dish up to this point in advance; let sit for up to 2 hours.)

3. Taste and add more salt, pepper or lemon juice if you like, garnish with cilantro, and serve.

Yield: 4 servings.

My modifications:

I didn't have cumin seeds or a ginger root, so I substituted the ground cumin and about 3 teaspoons of powdered ginger. I also didn't have any fresh cilantro, but I did have a whole big punch of fresh parsley, so I threw about 1/3 C. of chopped parsley in the salad as well. I also think this salad could feed 6, not 4.

Thoughts:

This salad was STROOOONNNGG. The red onion was positively pungent. I couldn't eat more than a few bites at a time. At first I solved this problem by eating the salad with smaller scoops of sour cream, but after a time I had to buy a large container of plain yogurt and mix the salad into the yogurt in order to tone down the flavors. I think this salad could be quite excellent if made with a lesser onion-- perhaps a white one instead of red?-- and mixed generously with yogurt and eaten all in one sitting. I imagine having fresh ginger would have given it even more of a bite. Yikes! If made again, however, I would use fresh ginger and omit the parsley and stir the whole thing in some yogurt/sour cream mix and serve fresh.

Nonetheless, this was a good culinary experience for me because it branched me out into a whole new realm of cooking that I had not yet explored. Despite the potency of this project, I am likely to try something in the genre again.

Cheddar Dill Scones

Using the definition of vegetable broadly, I made these delicious scones for my PBL group which was meeting the next morning. These were a favorite from Melville, a Thomas family treat. The recipe is taken from K.'s recipe blog:

http://kt-recipe-box.blogspot.com/2008/06/cheddar-and-dill-scones.html

I made this recipe as described, only I omitted the pepper. The scones were well received by my group: P. ate three! I served them with pickle halves and wished I also had cranberry juice, although that might have been a little too pungent a combination. These are a perfect light breakfast food: savory, not sweet and easy to make.

Serves 12, or 4 P.'s.

Ingredients:

2 large eggs
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon buttermilk
1/3 cup minced fresh dill
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon pepper
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 3/4 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese (about 6 ounces)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly butter two 9-inch pie pans.

Beat eggs, buttermilk and minced fresh dill in medium bowl to blend. Combine flours, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, pepper and salt in large bowl. Add butter to flour mixture and cut in until mixture is crumbly. Stir in egg mixture. Add grated cheddar cheese. Stir to mix well. (Dough will be stiff and crumbly.) Knead gently until dough just holds together.

Divide dough in half. Pat each half into prepared pans to 1-inch thickness. Using long knife or pizza wheel, score each round into 6 wedges. Bake until toothpick inserted into each center comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Transfer pans to rack and cool scones slightly. Cut into wedges.

(I cut right out of the oven, and that seemed to work well also.)

Banana Coffee Cake With Chocolate Chip Streusel

Another recipe from Epicurious, which I found to make use of the six slowly rotting bananas sitting on our kitchen counter top. I don't know what in this recipe is a Vegetable, and it's Saturday, not Tuesday, but I'm for. I'm for love.

Again, the original recipe, followed by my modifications and then thoughts.

Original: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/BANANA-COFFEE-CAKE-WITH-CHOCOLATE-CHIP-STREUSEL-107629

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips (about 8 ounces)
2/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg
1 1/3 cups mashed very ripe bananas (about 3 large)
3 tablespoons buttermilk

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour 8x8x2-inch metal baking pan. Stir chocolate chips, brown sugar, walnuts, and cinnamon in small bowl until well blended; set streusel aside. Sift all purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat sugar, room temperature butter, and egg in large bowl until fluffy. Beat in mashed bananas and buttermilk. Add dry ingredients and blend well.

Spread half of batter (about 2 cups) in prepared baking pan. Sprinkle with half of streusel. Repeat with remaining batter and streusel. Bake coffee cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cool coffee cake in pan on rack.

Modified version (What I made):

Following the advice of the reviewers on Epicurious, I doubled the cake recipe for a 13x9x2 pan and 1.5 timed the streusel recipe. I lowered the sugar in the cake. We didn't have any cinnamon, so we substituted other spices, and I used sour cream instead of buttermilk.

Ingredients

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (about 8 ounces)
1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Generous dashes nutmeg, cardamon, ginger, and allspice
3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/8 cup sugar
1 cup (2 stick) salted butter, room temperature
2 large eggs
2 2/3 cups mashed very ripe bananas (about 6 large)
6 tablespoons sour cream

This took about an hour to bake at 350. When it came out, we ate it after it cooled it for about 15 minutes.

This cake is very moist. When it came out, it had a denser bottom layer, perhaps this comes from something in the mixing procedure. The streusel makes this cake very sweet, even with lower sugar, but it adds some interesting flavor, especially with our spice changes. The cake by itself is tasty and I might make it again with a less sweet streusel with some butter in the actual streusel itself.

I like a regular coffee cake better, but I would make this recipe again if I was having company for breakfast or I had six bananas hanging around waiting to be used. It is certainly delicious.

Turkish Zucchini Pancakes

This Tuesday I tried out making some Turkish zucchini pancakes. I got this sweet recipe from Epicurious.com.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/TURKISH-ZUCCHINI-PANCAKES-1208

Here's what Epicurious has to say about the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 pound zucchini, trimmed, coarsely grated

2 cups chopped green onions
4 eggs, beaten to blend
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup chopped fresh dill or 1 1/2 tablespoons dried dillweed
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon or 2 teaspoons dried
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese (about 3 ounces)
2/3 cup chopped walnuts (about 3 ounces)

Olive oil

Preparation:

Place zucchini in colander. Sprinkle zucchini with salt and let stand 30 minutes to drain. Squeeze zucchini between hands to remove liquid, then squeeze dry in several layers of paper towels.

Combine zucchini, chopped green onions, 4 eggs, flour, chopped dill, parsley, tarragon, 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper in medium bowl. Mix well. Fold in crumbled feta cheese. (Zucchini mixture can be prepared 3 hours ahead. Cover tightly and refrigerate. Stir to blend before continuing.) Fold chopped walnuts into zucchini mixture.

Preheat oven to 300°F. Place baking sheet in oven. Cover bottom of large nonstick skillet with olive oil. Heat skillet over medium-high heat. Working in batches, drop zucchini mixture into skillet by heaping tablespoonfuls. Fry until pancakes are golden brown and cooked through, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer each batch of pancakes to baking sheet in oven to keep warm. Serve pancakes hot.

My Comments:

I made a few modifications to this recipe. I grated one yellow zucchini and one green zucchini and used maybe 1 1/2 cups of green onion. Also I used 1/2 C. dill, no pepper, and 4 oz. feta cheese.

These were super delicious, but next time I would cut some of the dill, add more cheese, and use a little more salt and just a pinch of pepper. These were a little more time consuming (total time about 2 hours) than I want most Vegetable Tuesdays to be, but today was fine because I didn't have a lot of homework today so it was pretty chill.

I ate mine with sour cream, which I found improved the experience. A. ate hers with ranch dressing and ate a second one the same way. B. and R. also had these without complaint.

I def. don't see little kids loving these, but for a vegetarian these could be another great vegetable option. Maybe next week we'll branch out of the zucchini.