It's cherry season around here, and that means it's time for cherry pie! It's also the perfect opportunity to break out my handy lattice roller. Click "Read More" to learn how I use it to make this tasty pie!
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This simple variation on a classic recipe can be the basis for a lot of great pie and tart recipes. Be sure to use the finest butter and cocoa that you can get your hands upon. I think this crust works especially well in custard pies. Although, I bet it would be great with fruit fillings as well! Click "Read More" for the details... Check out that color! I'm not sure why I bake so many pies around here? It probably has something to do with the fact that pies are a great way to use up whatever fruit, vegetable, or even meat that you may have on hand. Whether they are sweet or savory, home made pies never last very long around our house. Here is a great example of what you can do with a few sweet potatoes and a handful of carrots. Click "Read More' for the details...:) I have always loved those crispy edges of the pepperoni that you find on your pizza. It's kinda like bacon, but more spicy! Every now and then I get a craving for that flavor. One day I decided to try to get that flavor out of the pepperoni without baking a pizza. What follows is the wonderful result of my little experiment... Click "Read More" for the details!
Ready for desert...(yes that is homemade enchilada sauce on the back burner) In my experience, pecan pie has always been a painfully sweet and gooey desert. Most versions of this classic pie that I have tried have been way too sweet for my taste. I came up with this recipe many years ago and have been tweaking and modifying it ever since. This version includes a few extra touches that I think really bring all of these ingredients together nicely. Don't be deterred by all of the different nuts that I use in this recipe. You can use any single type of nut or a combination of any that you like. Give it a try! Click "Read More" for the details... What do you do when someone gives you a giant bag of day old bread? Sure, you could go to the park and feed the ducks and pigeons. I just may do that with some of this bread. It's a pretty big bag! Although, before that happens I am going use as much of this bread as possible. Waste not, want not as the saying goes...
My bread pudding recipe is something that I have been making for my children for many years. It's the perfect recipe for those times when you find yourself with extra bread. More importantly, this recipe is perfect for those times when your kids are bugging you for french toast or pancakes on a Saturday morning, and you don't want to be stuck standing in front of the stove all morning! You can even assemble everything the night before, place it in the fridge, and throw it in the oven in the morning. What could be more simple than that? The bread does not have to be fresh. It actually works better if it is a bit stale. This is a great recipe because it is infinitely variable. It's a great way to use up the last bits of chocolate, nuts, dried fruit, jam, cream cheese, or anything else that strikes your fancy. This recipe goes together very quickly. I promise. Click "Read More" for the details! To the left of my stove for quick access! This is my knife drawer. Besides knives, it contains all of those things that I use nearly every day in my kitchen. This drawer also contains those things that I tend to need at the spur of the moment. That's why you see the oyster shucker there in the middle along with the vanilla beans, citrus zester, cake tester etc. That shiny new cleaver in the upper right is a recent replacement for an old favorite that I had to temporarily retire. Time for repair... At first glance, you might be tempted to toss a knife like the one pictured above into the trash. However, this knife is made of high carbon steel. You can tell that it is certainly not a stainless blade! Over the years it has tapered into a razor-sharp tool that is nearly indispensable. That's why when it fell apart, I nearly lost it! Sure I have other knives, but this one has a long history and has become an extension of my hand. I can slice and dice nearly anything with this knife. Well maybe not anymore, but one day again soon. I'm gonna have to dig out my old HVAC torch and braze a new piece of steel onto what is left of the handle. Nice knife, but harder to keep sharp! I have other knives. The one pictured above is quite useful, but it is a lot harder to keep sharp. The knife above claims to be high carbon stainless steel. It is certainly stainless compared to my old knife. The new kid on the block! Time will tell if the new version of my old favorite is gonna work out for me. Sure it looks kinda the same and its VERY sharp! However, I am a little suspicious. Maybe its because the knife is new? Maybe its because its NOT my old knife? A good indication will be if the new knife starts to stain. A razor-sharp knife is much more important to me than a stain-free knife! Here's the fancy box! The best part about this type of knife is that it is VERY affordable! I only paid 17 bucks for this knife at my local Asian market. They are widely available. Why pay over 100 bucks for a knife that you are afraid to use for fear of scratching or losing the darn thing? Go out and support your local Asian grocery store and try one today! Soft white and hard red wheat berries You can imagine my excitement when I recently learned that the folks who made my juicer also make a flour mill attachment for their incredible machine! Annette and I bought our Champion juicer over 20 years ago and it has not missed a beat. This juicer is basically a 1/3 HP motor with a bracket which allows you to attach various juicing tools to the shaft. It is quite powerful. I figured their flour mill attachment would have no trouble at all with hard red or soft white wheat berries. I was right! My new flour mill attachment... Freshly-milled non-gmo flour at home... For quite a few years, I have been systematically going back to the roots of food preparation. I am always looking for ways to set my cooking apart from the mainstream. It probably started back when I lived up in the Blue Ridge mountains of north Georgia, up near the Tennessee border. It was a very beautiful place to live. Very secluded and peaceful. However, a trip to the grocery store back in those days was about a 1 1/2 hour round-trip journey. We didn't just run out to the store for a gallon of milk in those days. This taught me to become very resourceful. It also helped me to appreciate the quality of foods that don't come out of a package. When the kids wanted pizza for dinner, there was no delivery or parlor nearby. I had no other choice but to make the pizza myself. I even made jam each year out of the wild huckleberries that grew all around! I planted a GIANT garden and preserved much of what we grew. Needless to say, I got pretty good at this sort of thing. There are a few advantages to milling your own flour. Perhaps the greatest advantage is that you know EXACTLY what goes into your flour. The flour that you buy at the store has been "enriched". This means that in order to get flour to have a stable shelf-life and avoid rancidity, modern flour mills remove the germ and bran from the flour. This leaves only the fluffy white endosperm of the wheat berry. This process also removes nearly all of the nutrients from the flour. As a result, B vitamins and minerals must be added back into the flour. Sure it works okay, but something tells me that the vitamins the wheat berry was born with are superior to the stuff that gets added back in later. Notes: Freshly-Milled Wheat Flour at HomeSoft white wheat berries are ideal for pastries and cakes. Hard red wheat is better for most breads. Both varieties can be found at many health food stores, some grocery stores, and online. I have baked cookies and a cake from my own milled flour so far. The results for both were so good that I will probably never buy a bag of flour again. The fresh flavor is amazing! Milling your own flour at home is kind of an intuitive process. You pretty much fill the hopper and go. I can tell you that the yield will be roughly 1 1/3 cups of flour for every 1cup of wheat berries. Have fun with it! Try blending the berries together in different ratios to see what works best for you. Peace :)
My giant bag of ORGANIC NON-GMO dent corn... Many of my recipes and ideas about food come from my desire to understand the history of our cuisine. Why do we eat the things that we eat? Why do cultures prepare foods differently from one another? Why does my family eat the way they do? What exactly were my "abuelitas" up to in their kitchens when I was too young to notice or appreciate the nuances and so-called "secrets" of their cooking? This recipe is my attempt to unlock and better understand one of those secrets. Please join me on my culinary journey into the ancient past to rediscover a lost culinary art. Click "Read More" to get started! :) Good stuff! Lemon curd is one of those things that once you learn how to make it, you will find yourself looking for excuses to make more. In my house that is never a problem. My kids and their friends gobble this stuff right up! Lemon curd can be enjoyed on toast, fresh fruit, as a cake filling, or even all by itself. You can also use it in lots of cool desserts. Try folding some fresh whipped cream into some lemon curd for an amazing pie filling! I put this particular recipe together for my daughter's best pal Opal. Of all the things I cook around here, this is her absolute favorite! Click "Read More " for the details. :) |
AuthorI have been baking breads, pies, cakes, and other treats ever since I was old enough to turn on the oven by myself. Although baking is my first love, I'm pretty good at the other stuff too! Over the years I have prepared everything from a pot of beans, to a whole roasted pig over an open fire! Archives
August 2021
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