Thankful

There's a place....there's a place. In outer space......in outer space.

This was a non-traditional Thanksgiving Day, but a good one none the least. I worked and wasn't with my family.......But will be seeing them tomorrow and we will have our celebration just a day late. Today, instead I got to catch some glimpses of the parade while snug inside away from the crowds and then dined on some amazing food made by chef Dan with friends. His culinary expertise shown through.

He made amazing cornbread stuffing, which blew away my sad attempt from last year. Thanksgiving 2010, my sis and I cooked, while my mom worked. It was really fun preparing the whole meal. This was prior to my blog direction, so I didn't post about it. Let's just say stuffing is maybe my favorite part of the meal and ours came out pretty blant and I was super disappointed. Dan's was AMAZING. I watched him cook like I was watching the food network. It was awesome!

Mashed were amazing as well. Turkey was super moist and flavorful and covered with a herb butter spread.

The spread!

Emily's pumpkin pie!


Oh and verdict on my new crust: tastes great! My pie was a HUGE hit!

My pies just got a makeover!

Isn't it pretty?

My pies and quiches taste awesome. Homemade crust makes them, but although mine taste really good, they don't look that good. They also crumble quite easily. Whenever I would travel a piece of quiche to work, during the journey the side of the crust totally falls off. Beverly at work used to take out her lunch and have exquisite pieces of quiche with beautiful in tact crust.

I inquired and she shared her secret. Vodka Pie Crust.

The alcohol cooks off, so you don't have to worry about getting tipsy off your pie. Their is something magical about the alcohol which really holds things together.

Today I was making yet another apple pie in prep for Thanksgiving. I decided to try her crust out. It looks so much prettier and seems to be far less crumbly. Success! Thanks Bev!

Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon table salt
- 2 tablespoons sugar (to be omitted for quiches)
- 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch slices
- 1/2 cup cold vegetable shortening, cut into 4 pieces
- 1/4 cup cold vodka
- 1/4 cup cold water

Directions:
1. Mix 1 1/2 cups flour, salt, and sugar in until combined
2. Add butter and shortening and mix until dough just starts to collect in uneven clumps and all flour is coated.
3. Mix in remaining cup of flour
4. Sprinkle vodka and water over mixture and continue mixing. Dough will be slightly tacky and stick together.


5. Divide dough into two even balls and flatten into disks. Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 45 minutes (or up to 2 days)

6. Remove from fridge and roll out!


Here are more pics of apple pie making, not that I haven't already posted about this one!


Hope everyone loves this pie tomorrow!

Cherry Pie Lara Bars

I love Lara Bars. I even got my mom obsessed with them. I’ve been meaning to do this forever…..

Finally, I made some homemade ones. It is super easy and they taste exactly like Lara’s! I mean how could they not be easy to make? They each have only 3-5 ingredients, so you can basically use that list to develop a recipe.

Today I made Cherry Pie Bars. I can’t wait to try making other varieties.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup Dried Cranberries
1/2 cup Seedless/Pitted whole Dates
2/3 cup Almonds (unsalted)
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon


Directions:
1. Place the dates and cherries in a food processor and blend until fully combined.

2. Transfer blended dates and cherries to a bowl.
3. Place nuts into the processor and blend until chopped fairly small

4. Add the nuts and cinnamon to the bowl with the fruit paste.
5. With your fingers, mix the nuts into the paste until all is combined into a ball.

6. Move ball to clean surface. Cover with plastic wrap and use rolling pin to make flat sheet of the mixture

7. Cut into bars and wrap in plastic wrap for storing.

This recipe made me 9 bars, plus some scraps for taste testing. Enjoy!!!

Vegetarian Chili

When it starts getting cold out there is something really nice about having a bowl of chili to warm yourself up with. It is also a great thing to make to supple yourself with multiple meals for the week! And this dish I feel taste even better the next day because the flavors have had more time to seep in. I have made many variations of vegetarian bean chilis and have yet to post one, so here goes. I drew my inspiration from Martha, but changed up beans and veggies I had on hand.

Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 small onion, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- dash of salt and ground pepper
- 1 zucchini, halved and thinly
- 2 carrots, thinly sliced
- 2 stalks of celery, thinly sliced
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 can of red kidney beans
- 1 can crushed tomatoes

Directions:
1. In a pot, heat oil over medium-high.
2. Add in onion and garlic and cook for about 4 minutes, stirring occasionally, and adding salt and pepper to season.
3. Add in zucchini, carrots, chili powder, and cumin. Cook until veggies are tender, about 6 minutes
4. Add in beans, tomatoes, and 1 cup water.
5. Simmer for about 10 minutes.
6. Enjoy!

I usually have corn in there too, but I didn't have any in the freezer. I like eating this over rice and topping it with shredded cheese!

Happy Halloween and Happy Apple Season!

What do I love about the fall most? After the running weather....Apples.

Apple picking, Apple pie, Apple Cider, Cider Donuts

Hurricane Irene cut the apple picking season short this year.......No annual trip to Fishkill happened. Soooooooooo we just went to the farmer's market and bought apple and pretended we had just picked them and then continued the tradition of apple pie baking.

Same lovely recipe as last year!

Lemon Poppyseed Cookies

I bought poppy seeds back in June to make muffins and as much as I love muffins, I felt like putting them to a different use with this cookie recipe. If you are a lemon lover, you will love these cookies and their tanginess.

I made this delectable recipe, which was a hit at the Fat Kid's Club meeting, aka Sheena pot luck birthday party.

Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
- 3 1/2 teaspoons lemon zest (2 to 3 lemons)
- 2 sticks unsalted butter
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon poppy seeds


Directions:
1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
2. Simmer lemon juice in a small saucepan over medium heat; cook until reduced by half and then add 1 stick of butter; stir until melted.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. In a separate bowl, cream remaining stick of butter and 1 cup sugar with an electric mixer.
5. Mix in egg and lemon butter. Mix for about 3 minutes.
6. Then add in vanilla and 2 teaspoons zest.
7. Finally add in flour mixture and poppy seeds.
8. Stir together remaining 1/2 cup sugar and 1 1/2 teaspoons zest. Use this to roll spoonfuls of dough in before putting them on cookie sheet.
9. Cook for approximately 11 minutes.

Martha Stewart is to thank for this recipe!

Maple Almond Granola

I love making homemade granola. The first time I ever made it, I followed Alton Brown’s recipe (minus the coconut.) It was amazing. It is super sugary and almost too candy like; right up my alley! Since then when make it, I don’t go to great lengths to measure things. I kind of just throw a bunch of crap in and test it to make sure it tastes good and then cook it up.

One thought I must share from my experimenting: I usually use honey because it is way cheaper then maple syrup, but man, maple syrup makes for an even tastier glue! This batch got its extra scrumptious base thanks to Leslie’s bridal shower favor.

I made a batch today, which came out tasty as always. Here’s the run down:


Ingredients:
- 4 cups rolled oats
- 1 cup slivered almonds
- 1/2 cup sesame seeds
- 1/4 cup wheat germ
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup maple syrup

Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.
- In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients.
- Next add in wet ingredients and mix to coat all oats thoroughly.
- Pour mixture onto sheet pans or anything you have the has sides, so mixture won’t pour out into your oven. I made do with 4 pie pans!
- Cook for an hour, stirring every 15 minutes.
- After you remove it from the oven, you can add any dried fruit you desire!