Apple Asiago Pie?

Pie
Pie
Me oh my
Nothing tastes sweet, wet, salty and dry
all at once o well it's pie
Apple!
Pumpkin!
Minced
an' wet bottom.
Come to your place everyday if you've got em'
Pie
Me o my
I love pie




I know most everyone loves eating pie, but most everyone hates making it....Well I do NOT love eating pie at all. There's nothing worse than cooked fruit, or icky custard type fillings, and soggy crust, heck I don't even like the crust if it isn't soggy. Baking a pie on the other hand I LOVEEE doing. There's nothing better than making pie crust, getting everything nice and cold, cutting in the butter, adding the right amount of ice water. I've been told it's a hard thing to make, and most people don't like doing it. I'll never understand why people think it's such a hard thing to do. It's like second nature to me, i could probably do it blind folded, one hand tied behind my back.
Pretty much anything can be made into pie, well ANYTHING could be made into a pie if you really wanted to but.... Fruit pies, and custard filled pies usually go over the best. So pick a flavor, the next hardest decision, top with pie crust, open faced, or crumb topping?
I am best known for my Asiago Apple Pie. Yes, that's right, apple pie with an asiago cheese crumb topping. There's no real recipe, it's yet another one that comes from my head. It's one of the most carried on recipes from the waterbarge days. Did you know (?) it takes 10 regular sized apples to fill a pie, And if you stand your apple right side up, peel it verticaly beacuse it won't turn brown, at least not nearly as fast if you peel it round ways.
I am not going to give out "my recipe" for this pie, but just basic pie steps... If you would like a real recipe for this pie feel free to e-mail me at ki13wi@aol.com, or if you don't want to make one, but you want to eat one... use the same e-mail.

-Make your dough. Use your favorite pie dough recipe, if you do not have one try this site, i've used it before, i've heard it's pretty darn good crust.
-peel, core and slice your apples, coat with cinn. and sugar, dash of nutmeg and ginger.
-make a basic crumb topping, brown sugar, flour, butter, add grated asiago cheese.
- Blind bake your pie crust.
- par cook your seasoned apples
- fill crust with apples, top with crumb topping
- cook until golden brown on top, or until you smell asiago cheese.
- Enjoy!
A-la-modie even if you like.

Late Night Bread

What's better than late night eating just made warm bread watching CHEF!?
We've recently inherited (thanks Brie!) a bread machine for the time being. Along with the machine a book, The Bread Machine Book (over 100 recipes for easy-to-make spectacular breads) by Marjie Lambert. All the recipes we had used before were really good. Adam decided to make Italian Herb Bread. In the book it's described as 'this is a delicious white bread, seasoned with garlic, and italian herbs. it makes delicious cheese or meat sandwiches , and is an excellent dinner bread'
I think it would be really good to grate some asiago or parmesan cheese into the mixture. It's really good, so soft and moist the butter rips right through it, YUM!

Italian Herb Bread 1 1/2 LB Loaf

3 T olive oil
1 or 2 cloves of garlic pressed
1 1/2 t dried basil
3/4 t dried oregano
1/4 t dried rosemary
1/2 t dried thyme
3/4 C water
6 T milk
1 1/2 t sugar
1 1/2 t salt
3 C bread flour
2 1/4 t yeast

- heat oil in small skillet
- add garlic and herbs, saute for 2 mins taking care not to burn the garlic
- put herb oil and remaining ingredients in bread pan in order suggested by your bread machine instructions.
- set for white bread, medium crust
- press start (haha i can't believe press start is actually a direction, really!?)

Who Doesn't Love Biscuits and Gravy?

A few days ago I was over at my dads and he wanted me to help him make biscuits and gravy. Easy peasy! This recipe is certainly no secret but people still don't know... I've used this same recipe since I've learned how to make them when I was like 13. Simple but yummie.


Biscuits and Gravy one of many recipes found in my head.

You will need:
~1 roll of jimmy dean sausage (i prefer the HOT)
~flour
~two regular sized cans of evaporated milk
~salt and pepper
~can of grands big flaky biscuits (or whatever kind you prefer)


- Preheat your oven to 350 (or whatever the biscuit can says)
- cook off your sausage
- do not drain the grease and coat the sausage pieces they will look like a gummy mess
- when they look like a gummy mess but the biscuits in the oven
- add the evap. milk, salt and pepper to taste and bring to a boil
- once it boils it will start to set up fast, turn it down to low and wait for the biscuits to be just about done
- thin out now really thick gravy with second can of evap. milk
- It's now ready to serve! Cut biscuit in half and top with gravy
- Eat and enjoy!

Super Bowl XLIII

I was supposed to work this weekend on Sunday as I always do, but the other girl I work with needed to switch days. Oh, sweet, two days off in a row! When I told my dad he said to come on over for a super bowl party. My thoughts on the super bowl?? I managed to avoid football all the season so far, I have no clue who is playing, nor would it make a difference if I did know,BUT... of course there's always a BUT... I get to make food for people! SCORE! Two days in a row off and I get to make tons of food I don't have to worry about eating.

So what's in store for my super bowl menu you ask? Well seeing as I've already posted about white, kidney and no beans one more is fitting. Roasted garlic hummus (ode to my brother) with pita chips and" red lobster's" cheddar biscuits.

"RL" Cheddar Biscuits found on abcnews.com

Ingredients:

2 ½ cups Bisquick baking mix

¾ cup cold whole milk

4 tablespoons cold butter (1/2 stick)

¼ teaspoon garlic powder

1 heaping cup grated cheddar cheese

Bush on Top:

2 tablespoons butter, melted

¼ teaspoon dried parsley flakes

½ teaspoon garlic powder

pinch salt

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

2. Combine Bisquick with cold butter in a medium bowl using a pastry cutter or a large fork. You don't want to mix too thoroughly. There should be small chunks of butter in there that are about the size of peas. Add cheddar cheese, milk, and ¼ teaspoon garlic. Mix by hand until combined, but don't over mix.

3. Drop approximately ¼-cup portions of the dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet using an ice cream scoop.

4.20Bake for 15 to 17 minutes or until the tops of the biscuits begin to turn light brown.

5. When you take the biscuits out of the oven, melt 2 tablespoons butter is a small bowl in your microwave. Stir in ½ teaspoon garlic powder and the dried parsley flakes. Use a brush to spread this garlic butter over the tops of all the biscuits. Use up all of the butter. Makes one dozen biscuits.


Roasted Garlic Hummus found on RecipeZaar.com

Ingredients

• 2 cups canned chick-peas or cooked chickpeas
• 2 tablespoons tahini
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 1 large head of garlic
• 1 lemon, juice of
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F Cut off the very top of the garlic clove (about 1/4") so that the tops of most of the cloves are exposed slightly. Coat with a little olive oil and wrap securely in tin foil. Roast garlic in oven for 1 hour. Remove and allow to cool.
2. Using your fingers, squeeze the soft, roasted garlic out of each clove into food processor. Rinse and drain cooked or canned chickpeas. Add them, and all other ingredients, to the food processor and blend until completely smooth.
3. Scrape ingredients off sides of food processor to make sure it blends evenly. If you find that the hummus is too thick, you can add additional olive oil at this time. Add it very slowly, allowing the mixture to combine fully before adding more liquid.
4. Serve at room temperature with crudites, warm pita or crackers.
5. Optional: Sprinkle with chopped parsley or paprika before serving.

The Dangers of Kidney Beans

The real truth about dried kidney beans (found on offthecontrary blog spot)
I guess it's a good thing i HATE kidney beans.

"I made a humongous pot of chili tonight for supper. Chili is great for making a lot and then freezing it for later, so I like the aspect of cooking once and eating several times. Mmmmmm, laziness.

One of the ingredients in my chili is kidney beans. They are a tasty and healthy food, containing nutrients like iron, thiamin (Vitamin B1), folate, molybdenum, manganese, and fibre. But there's something else inside these innocent-looking legumes. Something downright sinister that could make you very sick.

Phytohemagglutinin is a compound found in many raw beans but is especially high in uncooked red kidney beans. This chemical can make you ill if ingested in high quantities, causing nausea and severe vomiting before inducing a wave of diarrhea. Yummy.

So how many raw kidney beans does it take to make you sick? The answer: 3. Just a few beans can trigger the above mentioned intestinal roller coaster ride.


You may ask "Why haven't I heard of this?" or "Why didn't I get sick from eating kidney beans at a salad bar yesterday?" It's all about cooking the poison away. By boiling kidney beans, even for 5 or 10 minutes, you reduce the amount of phytohemagglutinin 200-fold and bring it down to a safe level. We always eat cooked beans, so we never worry about the toxicity.

Canned beans are great because they are already cooked. No fuss, no muss, no vomiting. Dried beans need to be soaked for a while and then cooked for about 2 hours, but the important thing is to boil them at some point. If you simmer the beans for the entire cooking process without boiling them, they will still contain a high level of the toxin and you'll start feeling their effect 3 hours after eating them.

A friend of mine made her own chili a while ago, but bought dried kidney beans and didn't cook them first. She just added them directly to her simmering pot. When she tasted her chili she realized her mistake, but by that time she had already eaten 4 of the hard beans. The next 12 hours for her were not very pleasant.

So the next time you buy dried beans, especially kidney beans, make sure to cook them properly or else you'll face the painful consequences. "

CHEF!

I stumbled upon this tv show one late night of no sleep. I watched one episode and i was hooked. CHEF! is a Brittish comedy about Gareth Blackstock the finest chef in england, possibly even the world!? Le Chateau Anglais, finest French resturant in England. If anything in the culinary world can go wrong, will go wrong for Gareth, but like a true chef he makes it work.
I'm not sure how may 'normal' people (people who are not in the culinary world) could actually sit down and actually appreciate it and giggle at it for other reasons than it's a "comedy" 1. who gets brittish comedy? 2. who gets culinary jokes/issues if you arn't in the culinary world? 3. who gets brittish culinary comedy? CHEF! IMDB
It has become one of my favorite things to watch! It tackes culinary "issues" from food critics and famous chefs who you do not want to dissapoint and you'll do anything to please them by making the perfect salmon mousse, and battling the law for unpasturized stilton cheese. To kitchen 'relationships', love life and family wise, having to fire your boss' daughter. Hiring people who don't belong in a kichen at all!
Sadly it was only on for three seasons, you can catch re-runs on channel 10KTEH, it's always on at odd hours so keep an eye out for it. Or if you really want to see it you can purchase the DVD's season 1-3 for a pretty reasonable price an amazon.com ( if anyone is thinking about something to get me..hint hint)

White Bean Soup

Earlier this week I was craving my Grandmas bean soup so I tried making my own. Of course it's not the same as Grandmas soup, but it wasn't horrible either. Every thing that day took twice as long as it should had, and I had forgotten to text Adam to put the beans on heat. I used a maple bacon, chopped it up, threw it in my big pot and waited for it to fry. Except it didn't. It started to poach itself in.... maple water? So we drained it, I threw some oil in and cranked the heat as high as it would burn. Finally, some frying action. Beans were boiling away. Bacon was finally done, pulled it out poped in the veggies and spices, added in 3/4 of the beans... okay so here's where I got lazy.. instead of pulling out my food processor I used the masher to mash the beans. It wasn't the same, it never got that nice texture I like for bean soup. We decieded to add in all the bacon for a bean and bacon soup. It was bland eventhough I added a lot of salt and pepper, spices. Next time I suppose i'll just have to ask my Grandma to make some for me or use a ham bone or something. I don't know why I have such a hard time making soup, to me when I make soup doesn't matter what kind it is, it always taste like the same soup, weird.

White Bean Soup from www.about.com

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces dried Great Northern beans
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 3 slices bacon, chopped
• 1 cup minced onion
• 2 stalks celery, minced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• pepper, to taste
• salt, to taste
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Preparation:

Rinse and pick over the beans; soak beans overnight in cold water to cover. Cook bacon in a Dutch oven or stockpot over medium-low heat until crispy. Remove and reserve to use as a garnish, if desired. Increase heat to medium. Add onion, celery and garlic to the bacon fat. Sauté until tender. Add beans, chicken broth and bay leaf. Simmer until beans are tender, about 2 hours, adding additional stock or water as needed. When beans are cooked, remove bay leaf and discard. Puree 1/4 cup of the soup in a food processor or blender and return to pot. Adjust consistency with more stock or water if necessary. Season with lemon the juice, pepper and salt. Serve garnished with Parmesan cheese and crumbled bacon.
This white bean soup recipe makes 6 servings.

Chewy Caramel #1

I made the first chewy caramel recipe yesterday. It was really easy. Instead of adding the pinch of salt, i added three table spoons of sea salt when i added the vanilla at the end, and obviously i didn't dip it in chocolate. It's a little to soft for me, the flavor is a little brown sugary, but over all it's not too bad. I'm not sure i'll make this recipe again. I can't wait to try the other caramel recipe.

Craving those girl scout cookies?

Home made girl scout cookies! As good as they are I hate paying for them. Even though I once sold them, if someone told me i could make my own instead of begging people to buy them from me, heck yeah i would have made them. Four flavors i found recipes for at www.bakingbites.com.

Thin Mint
Tagalongs
Do-si-dos
Samoas

Chewy Caramel with our without salt?

I went to the fancy food show in San Francisco with my boss and some other girls from work, there was so much food. Sweets, savories, drinks.... you name it, they had it. One of the best things we came across was some really good chewy caramels. They had a bunch of flavors, plain caramel, sea salted caramel, chocolate caramel with our with out sea salt, chipotle caramel and more. We are getting some in at work, but i thought until then i'd try my hand a making some.
I found two recipes that sound really good, one with Sea Salt and one with out (for all you anti-salties)

Chewy Caramel Recipe from www.grouprecipes.com
Ingredients

• 1 c butter or margarine
• 1 lb light brown sugar
• 1 c light corn syrup
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 1/2 tsps vanilla extract

Directions

• Step #1 In a heavy bottomed saucepan over med-heat/flame, brown sugar, mix the butter, sweetened condensed milk, corn syrup & salt.
• Step #2 Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
• Step #3 Heat to between 234 & 240 degrees F (112 to 116 degrees C), or until a small amount of syrup dropped into cold water forms a soft ball that flattens when removed from the water & placed on a flat surface.
• Step #4 Cook for 2 mins at that temperature.
• Step #5 Meanwhile, butter a 9x13 inch baking pan.
• Step #6 When the caramel is ready, pour this into the buttered pan.
• Step #7 Allow to cool completely at about room temp.
• Step #8 Remove from the pan & cut into squares using scissors.
• Step #9 Wrap individual pieces in waxed paper or cellophane.

Salted Butter Caramels from www.recipezaar.com

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (preferably unflavoured like safflower)
• 1 1/3 cups heavy whipping cream
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 1/3 cup honey
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, cut into pieces
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (paste if available)
• 3 teaspoons fleur de sel or other fine sea salt
• 1 lb bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

Directions

1. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with aluminum foil that overhangs. with a paper towel, coat the bottom and sides of the foul with 1 tbsp of the oil.
   
2. In a 4-quart heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat, bring the cream to a boil. Add the sugar, corn syrup and home and stir constantly with a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula until the mixture comes to a boil (about 5 minutes).
3. Wash down the sides of the pan two times with a pastry brush dipped in water to prevent the sugar from crystallizing.
4. Place a candy thermometer in the pan, increase the heat to medium-high, and cook the mixture, stirring occasionally until it registers 257°F on the thermometer (about 15 minutes [ hard ball stage if dropped in a glass of cold water].
5. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the butter, vanilla paste, and 2 teaspoons of the sea salt.
6. Pour the caramel into the prepared pan and let it sit at room temperature until cool and set (about 1 hour).
7. With the remaining tbsp of oil, coat a cutting board and the blade of a large chefs knife. cut the caramel into eight 1-inch wide strips, then cut each strip into four pieces.
8. Melt and temper the chocolate. place a caramel in the chocolate, coating it completely. with a fork, remove it, shake off the excess, and let fry on a baking sheet.
9. While the chocolate is still not set, sprinkle on the remaining sea salt, and let set up for about 2 hours.

Candy of the month jan. 09

The candy this month is a Ruth Hunt Candy called a Blue Monday Bar, it's mint flavored (one of three Blue Monday Bars). Shiny silver package with green print. It's a 1oz rectangle bar with a rusching like pattern on the front. Covered in semisweet chocolate, take a bite and light green middle melts in your mouth. It's like a really soft after dinner butter mint covered in chocolate. A really mild minty flavor, it's perfect! This is one that could, and should be loved by all. To order some of your own (and i suggest you do) visit http://www.ruthhuntcandy.com/defaultt.html








WTF came in the mail?

What is your favorite bean!!??

Don't forget to poll your favorite bean this month! There's good things to come for the winning bean!

yummy yummy citrus boys

On the big kitchen with food cooking show with 5 year old Julian Kreusser is so cute! I wish my parents let me have my own cooking show when i was that young. http://www.boingboing.net/2009/01/06/big-kitchen-with-foo.html

Candy of the month dec. 08

We signed us up for a candy of the month club through http://www.lollyphile.com.
They have some interesting lolly pop flavors, which we have yet to try. Maple Bacon lollys, Absinthe lollys, and their newest flavor Wasabi-Ginger lollys. The Candyphile section is where you can sign up for your own candy of the month, get more information and prices, and see what next month's candy is.











December was our first month, and the candy was Sifers Valomilk. On the package they are described as creamy flowing marshmallow in two milk chocolate cups. They were really big,, deep like the resses BIG peantubutter cups. Bite into them and marshmallow starts to go everywhere, you better eat them fast. If the chocolate broke in the package you bet you'll be gnawing all the marshmallow off the package. They were extreamly sweet, but pretty good. I don't care for marshmallow, i could barly eat one of them. I think i'm going into sugar shock just thinking about eating one again. If you really like marshmallow, and really sweet these are for you, other wise beware! Not for the faint of heart. To find out more about the candy itself visit http://www.valomilk.com/

Ode to a bear

Fuzzy wuzzy was a bear, fuzzy wuzzy had no hair, fuzzy wuzzy wasn't very fuzzy was he?????