Turkey Pot Pie

So, I realize that I suck at this whole blogging thing.  Like my fiance says, bloggers start out strong, blogging daily or weekly and then give up after a while.  The funny thing is, I make all these things and take pictures of them but never get around to posting them.  Anyway, after way too much time, here's a post (finally)!

I used left over turkey from Christmas that I threw in the freezer for use another time.  I based my recipe on a chicken pot pie recipe from Paula Deen that can be found here.  The crust recipe was from Ina Garten and can be found here.  I did modify both of the recipes, which you can read!

Turkey Pot Pie Filling Modifications

1.  I roasted the carrots and potatoes as per the instructions, except I added extra virgin olive oil to the salt and pepper-they were delicious and I'd consider doing this in the future as a side dish that would go with a meal.

2.  I didn't have frozen peas, so I used a frozen veggie medley from trader joe's that included corn, carrots, green beans, and peas.  Because it had corn it in, I reduced the amount of frozen corn used and increased the amount of the mixed veggies.  It doesn't really matter what kind of veggies you use, as long as it equals the same total amount (1 1/4 cup).

3.  I didn't want to use heavy cream for health reasons, so I just used the milk I have at home, which was 1%.  It turned out okay, but I wouldn't suggest using skim milk--it would wind up being too runny.

Pie before baking!

Perfect Pie Crust Modifications

1.  I used two sticks of butter instead of 1 1/2 cups of butter and 1/3 cup of vegetable shortening.  I try to avoid using that product in general.  Otherwise I kept everything else the same.

Needless to say, the pie turned out great and the crust was SO GOOD.  I'll probably stay with this crust recipe for all my pie options! 

Pie after baking-look at that delicious crust!

Look at that filling!

I hope you enjoy this pie as much as I did.  Also, this recipe could be modified anyway you'd like it to be-it could be vegetarian or chicken and any combination of veggies can be used.

Enjoy!

Banana Cream Pie

As promised, the second post for the actual pie aspect of this series :)  This is my favorite type of pie, banana cream pie, which was given to me by the mother of one of my best friends.  It's quite easy, but I remember making it once for Pat's family and telling them how easy it was...he mom was like "you're making the custard from scratch!"  As it, it can't be that easy ;)  I have made a few modifications to the recipe, which is how I will post the recipe.  I hope you enjoy this pie as much as I do and if you're too busy to make the whole pie, you can always buy the crust from the freezer section...I won't tell ;)

Ingredients

Ingredients

1/2 cup white sugar

6 tablespoon all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon of salt

2 1/2 cups milk--I use skim milk, although it would probably taste much more rich using whole milk.

1 egg

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 vanilla bean or 1 tablespoon of vanilla bean extract or 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

3 ripe bananas

1 pre-baked 9-inch pie shell--deep dish works best, but I used a regular pie shell.

1/2 cup of heaving whipping cream, whipped

Directions

1.  Mix the flour, sugar, and salt together in the top of a double boiler.

2.  Slowly stir in the milk and cook over boiling water until thickened, stir constantly.

Custard before it thickens.

3.  After the custard thickens, cover the mixture for 10 minutes and stir occasionally, every 2 minutes works well.

4.  Beat the egg in a small bowl.  Add a small amount of the custard to the egg to prevent the egg from scrambling once added to the custard.  Combine the egg mixture to the custard and mix constantly for 2 minutes over hot water, not boiling water.

5.  Remove from heat and add the butter and vanilla.

Custard after the addition of all ingredients

6.  Allow mixture to cool for a few minutes.

7.  Slice and arrange the small amount of the bananas in the bottom of the crust shell in an even layer.  Cover the bananas with a portion of the custard.  Arrange another even layer of the bananas on top of the custard.  Cover the bananas with the remaining custard.

8.  Chill in the fridge for at least an hour.

9.  Cover with whipped cream if desired just prior to serving--enjoy!

Completed Pie without Whipped Cream

Here's a new addition to the blog--it's called Don't Let my Mistakes Happen to You!  What is it, is the part of my blog where I tell you what happened/went wrong while I was making the recipe.  So, enjoy and hopefully you'll learn from my mistakes.

Don't Let my Mistakes Happen to You!

I've done the whole, adding a small amount of the hot mixture to the egg thing to prevent scrambling, or cooking the egg, before and never had a problem, except this time...of course, when I need it to be perfect for my blog...wah wah.  Thankfully, it was only mildly scrambled, so it didn't affect the taste of the pie.  I recommend preventing this in the future by adding a larger amount of the custard to the beaten egg.  Then, I would make sure the water wasn't boiling in the double boiler (I think mine was boiling) before adding the egg mixture to the custard.  Theoretically, this should prevent this problem in the future.

Homemade Pie Crust

This is the first post in a series of posts about pie, which I absolutely love.  This first post will be about the homemade crust.  My second post will be about the banana cream pie...that's right, lovely, delicious, decadent, banana cream pie.

Now, to be honest, I've always shied away from homemade crusts because they can be so completely hard to make.  If you handle them too much, they become dense, hard, and not delicious at all.  This recipe however is a bit different in my opinion regarding taste and ingredient list-the crust rises a bit more than I'm used to because of the cake flour.  It can be made many different methods (with a stand mixer, hand-held mixer, mixed by hand, etc) and is pretty easy to whip up.  

Ingredients

1 c. cake flour

1 c. all-purpose flour

1/2 t. salt

3/4 c. cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/3 inch cubes

7 T. of ice water or heavy cream, or 2 egg whites, lightly beaten

Directions

1.  In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, mix both flours and the salt on slow for 30 seconds.

2.  Add the butter and combine it with the flour on low to medium for 1 minute.

3.  Add the liquid and mix the dough on low to medium speed for 40 seconds to 2 minutes, until it looks like gravel.  If the mixture is still powdery after two minutes, pinch a small amount together; if it falls apart, add 2 more tablespoons of liquid; if it clumps together, continue mixing.

4.  Flatten the dough into a disk.  If not using right away, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate.

5.  Roll dough until it is approximately 2 inches wider than your pie plate.

6.  Place over pie dough and cut around the edge so there is an extra inch of dough hanging over the edge.

7.  Tuck the extra dough under to form a thick boarder.

8.  To flute the edges, press against both sides of the rim of the pie pan to get the pastry to rise up above it.  Press with 2 fingers on 1 side and 1 finger on the other to form the fluted edge.

9.  Blind bake the crust in a pre-heated 400 F oven with pie weights or beans lining the bottom for 15 minutes.  Take the weights out of the bottom and bake for another 15 minutes until golden brown.  Thinner shells and pastry with sugar brown more quickly.

To be honest, my boyfriend has made this shell before for a homemade apple pie and it was better.  We were discussing why and we've come to this conclusion: his crusts were thinner because he made a bottom and top from one batch, which I think made it more like a traditional crust.  The other thing I will do in the future is add 1/2 c. white sugar to the flours to make the crust sweet.  I think that I'm going to practicing pie crusts in the future, so look for those posts and learn from my mistakes!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

These cupcakes were so ridiculously good...they're decadent, but not so rich that you can't eat more than one per sitting, which is a good thing, depending on who you ask :) 

I got the recipe from a blog I stumbled across called Joy the Baker.  You should check out her blog--she takes gorgeous pictures that I tried to model my pictures on, but, alas, her pictures are far superior to mine.  

Without further ado, the recipe follows...

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

For the cupcakes:

1/4 c. all-purpose flour

2 c. sugar

1 c. unsweetened cocoa powder

2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

1 T. vanilla extract

2/3 c. canola oil

2 t. white vinegar

2 c. cold water

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 F and line cupcake pan with liners.

2.  Shift the dry ingredient together and set aside.

3.  In a medium bowl, whisk together the oil, water, vanilla, and vinegar.

4.  Slowly whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.  Do NOT overmix!  The mixture will be wet.

5.  Pour the batter until the cups are 2/3 full and bake for 20-24 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cup comes out clean.

For the Frosting:

1.  1 c. (2 sticks) of unsalted butter at room temperature.

2.  1 c. of creamy peanut butter.

3.  3-4 c. of powdered sugar, depending on how thick you like your frosting.

4.  1 T. of milk.

Directions for Frosting:

1.  Beat butter and peanut butter together until smooth.

2.  Add 3 c. of powdered sugar and beat on low for 1 minute.

3.  Add milk and beat on medium-high for 1 minute.

4.  If you want, add the 1 other cup of powdered sugar.

5.  Decorate cupcakes and top with chopped peanut butter cups...Enjoy

Homemade Pasta!

Well folks, Pat and I have the homemade pasta bug, which we acquired at a cooking class we took together on my birthday.  Basically making pasta is soooo easy, and it's fun (it's actually quite novel), so why not make some for yourself?  We (read: Pat) has been really, really, really wanting to make pasta at home since the class, and we finally did it (hey, it only took me about 2 weeks after the class to get the motivation to make the pasta)!

You don't necessarily need a pasta roller, to make pasta.  In fact, our teacher told us that the person who taught him to make pasta was an old Italian immigrant that lived in the Bronx; she used to make pasta everyday, roll it out by hand with a rolling pin, and hang it around her house to dry.  I have this very romantic image of this little old Italian woman in the bronx making pasta by hand...it really makes you appreciate the art of making food, like truly creating food for love, not just to stuff ourselves silly.  

Anyway, if you have a pasta roller, it does make the processes a lot easier.  The recipe for making pasta is ridiculously easy.  The one we used is from The Chopping Block...enjoy!

Your ingredients

Blend all ingredients 

Dough Ball

Roll out the dough.

Cut your pasta and enjoy.

Ingredients

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1/4 cup semolina

3 eggs

1-2 tablespoons water

Directions

1.  Place the dry ingredients in the bowl of a food processor.

2.  Add eggs and 1 tablespoon of water; process until well combined.

3.  Test dough to make sure it will hold together.  If it is dry, add up to a tablespoon more water as needed to make the dough moist, but not sticky (I used 2 tablespoons of water).

5.  Wrap the dough tightly in plastic and allow it to rest at least 20 minutes.

6.  Roll out pasta in a pasta roller until smooth, then roll into sheets and cut into desired noodles.**

7.  Plunge pasta into rapidly boiling salted water, cook until tender, about 2 minutes, and serve at once with your favorite sauce.

8.  If you do not want to use right away, the pasta can be frozen, or laid straight to dry.

**To use a pasta roller: start by cutting dough ball in half.  Flatten one edge of dough ball to run through pasta roller smoothly.  After the dough has gone through one time, fold it into thirds to make a straight edge to run through the roller with the open edge feeding through the roller first (see photo below-excuse the blurriness).  Run thru the roller until you can seal the edges into a large loop.  Run the loop of dough through each size on the roller at least twice until the desired thickness.  Make sure to use enough flour to prevent sticking.  At this point the noodles can be cut by the machine or by hand. 

Homemade Spaghetti! 

S'more's Cookie Bars

Hey everyone!  I am so happy to share this phenomenal recipe with all of my followers (or anyone that happens upon my blog), as I LOVE S'MORES!!!  They remind me of childhood, camping, fun, laughter, and relaxing by the fire...there is something so nostalgic about roasting a marshmallow over the fire on a stick.  So, the other day I was perusing one of my favorite food blogs, Crepes of Wrath, and I saw this recipe...I just knew I HAD to make it.  Let me tell you all, run, do not walk to make this recipe, you'll be glad you did.  Enjoy!

S'more Cookie Bars

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg, room temperature

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 extra large chocolate bars that are large enough to fill an 8" x 8" pan--I used Hershey's chocolate

1 1/2 cups marshmallow fluff--about one jar

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 350 F.  Grease and/or line an 8" x 8" brownie (square) pan.

2.  In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light.  Beat in the egg and vanilla.

Sugars and butter

After eggs and vanilla 

3.  In a small bowl, whisk the flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder, and salt.

4.  Add the dry mixture to the butter mixture and mix at a low speed until combined.  

Finished graham cracker dough

5.  Divide the dough in half and press half of the dough into an even layer on the bottom of the pan.  If it seems thin, that's okay, the dough will rise during baking.

6.  Place chocolate bars over dough in an even layer.

7.  Spread the marshmallow fluff over the chocolate bars.

8.  Top the fluff with the remaining dough by forming the dough into sheets with the palm of your hands and laying it down.

9.  Bake for 30-35 minutes until lightly browned.  You can cover the top of the pan with foil if it is browning too quickly.

10.  Now, here's the hard part...Let it cool completely before cutting, because they will crumble when you try to cut them if you don't.

ENJOY!!!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake

Well, once again, I have been seriously lacking in blogging...I blame it on my new internship and adjusting to life after school (in addition to juggling multiple other responsibilities)! Well, I made this cheesecake back in May as one aspect of Pat's birthday dinner, so I've had the pictures for quite some time! Ha. I have to admit that this is one of the best cheesecakes I've ever had (and made).

The first part of making this cheesecake was to make the chocolate chip cookie dough (recipe from Marcy Goldman's A Passion for Baking). Now, if you're considering making this and don't want to make the chocolate chip cookie dough yourself, by all means, buy store bought cookie dough. I made the cookie dough using the recipe she recommend, however, feel free to use your favorite CC cookie dough recipe.

Tender, Buttery Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Ingredients

1 cup room temperature unsalted butter

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 cups chocolate chips or coarsely chopped semisweet chocolate

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. Cream butter and sugars until very smooth (3-4 mins).

3. Add vanilla and eggs and blend well.

4. Fold in flour, baking soda, and salt and mix well (2-3 mins).

5. Add chocolate chips.

6. Put onto baking sheets and bake for 10-13 mins. for smaller cookies or 14-18 mins. for larger cookies.

Now, I clearly didn't cook these cookies, because I needed the dough for the cheesecake, but if you wanted to do that, you could :) Instead, I cut them into 1 inch chunks and set them aside for use in the cheesecake.

Onto the cheesecake! Here are the ingredients:

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake

Crust

1 1/2 cups shortbread cookie crumbs (I used Lorna Doone cookies).

1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 tablespoon sugar

Pinch of cinnamon

Cheesecake

1 batch of chocolate chip cookies

2 pounds of cream cheese at room temperature

1 (14 ounce) can of sweetened condensed milk

1/4 cup sugar

Pinch of salt

3 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour

1/3 cup whipping cream

1/3 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. Toss crust ingredients into an ungreased 9 or 10-inch springform pan and press into pan bottom.

3. Blend cream cheese with condensed milk, sugar, salt, eggs, vanilla, flour, and whipping cream. Blend until smooth, about 4-6 mins.

4. Pour half of the batter into the pan; scatter most of the chocolate chips and half of the cookie dough chunks into the batter.

5. Top with the remaining batter, cookie dough chunks, and remaining chocolate chips.

6. Bake in a water bath for approximately 45 mins. to 1 hour, remove from bath, and place on a cooling rack. Make sure your pan is wrapped in a double layer of tin foil before you place in the water bath.

**Note: this is a deviation from the original recipe. I prefer to bake my cheesecake in a water bath, while the author of this recipe prefers to bake for half of the time with the oven on, then reducing the temperature and finishing in a reduced temperature oven. Finally, she turns off the oven and opens the door, letting the cake cool in the oven for an hour.

7. Refrigerate overnight then enjoy!