I come from a culinary arts background, but have since left that industry. I am now working on my writing, and enjoying cooking for family and friends.
My original plan was to make this meal last weekend, Memorial Day weekend, when I was going to Leavenworth on Saturday, but I had misplaced the recipe and couldn't find it, and was just too lazy to deal with it all, so I scrapped it till this weekend. I chose this wiener schnitzel recipe because Leavenworth is a Bavarian-style town, and I like German food, so it was a perfect connection. While there, I picked up a package of spaetzle to try, because I've never had it before and it's the quintessential German side dish. Neither disappointed.
The recipe is from a newspaper clipping from an unknown year, from one of the Seattle newspapers, because I can see Seattle-related things advertised on the other side of the clipping, but no date or year listed anywhere. It does say the recipe is a reprint from the San Francisco Chronicle originally. I'll type it out because it's larger than the last recipe and won't show up very well in a photograph.
4 pork cutlets, each about 1/2" thick or slightly less (about 1 1/2 lbs.)
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 1/2 cups panko or homemade breadcrumbs (see note)
2 Tbsp. butter, plus more as needed
1 1/2 tsp. sea salt or kosher salt
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 lemons, halved
Preheat oven to 225 degrees and place a serving platter in the oven.
Pound the cutlets until they measure roughly 7" by 10" and are very thin, about 1/8" thick. It takes about 4 minutes per cutlet to accomplish this. The cutlets can be pounded the day before and wrapped in plastic wrap until ready to cook, if desired.
Pour the milk in a shallow bowl, and put the beaten egg in another. Sprinkle the panko or breadcrumbs on a sheet of aluminum foil.
In a large frying pan, melt the butter over medium-high heat. While it is melting, dip one cutlet into the milk, then the egg, and then lay it in the panko or breadcrumbs, then turn and coat the other side. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. When the butter foams, put the breaded cutlet into the hot butter. If the pan is large enough, repeat with a second cutlet.
When the crust is golden brown, about two minutes, turn and repeat on the other side, 1-2 minutes. Remove and place on the warm platter in the oven. Repeat, adding more butter as needed, until all are done.
Serve hot, along with half a lemon.
Note: To make homemade breadcrumbs: Simply put dried baguette or other artisan bread in a blender or food processor and chop or process to medium light crumbs.
I started off with two thin-sliced pork chops. Basically one pork chop, cut down the middle. The recipe doesn't say exactly what kind of cut of meat to use, which would have been helpful, so I just went with these, because they were already thinner, and affordable.
And as you can tell, I don't always follow directions as they are written. This is usually because I don't actually really read them until just before cooking, and then I generally wing-it as I go, as long as I got the ingredients right, which I also sometimes don't follow either, cuz what's the fun of following the rules? I mixed the egg and the milk together, like you would for dipping bread for French toast, and you know what? It turned out just fine. Don't bother dirtying up a third plate for the breading process, it's totally ok to mix the egg and milk.
Here is the finished result! I used panko, and half of it falls off, so don't freak out if that happens to you too. Enough will stay on to be delicious and coat it all. And as you can tell, it's not nearly as thin as the recipe says it should be. This is because I spent forever pounding them with a meat mallet and that's as thin as they got. I got worried my apartment neighbors would start to get upset if I kept at it, so I just stopped. Again, if it had said what cut of meat to use, it would have helped because some work better than others for this, and clearly the pork chops I had weren't the right cut. It's ok if yours don't get as thin as they should either, just know that you'll need to cook them longer, but it'll all work out fine in the end. Don't panic.
Here they go in the melted butter. The butter immediately sucked up into the breadcrumbs and I had to keep adding more and more that I finally switched to oil because I was tired of using so much butter. It still needed way more than it called for, so be prepared emotionally to be consuming so much butter and oil in one dish, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, you know? Just work out a few extra minutes the next day and you'll be all good.
Here's the first flip. It does take a few times on each side to get it really browned. Be careful with the tongs because the breading is delicate and will scrape off if you press too hard with them. And make sure to take extra care to fry the edges too, because they won't brown on their own if you don't. If they were thinner, they'd cook faster and probably cook the sides better too. But, just adapt to what you ended up with and it'll be fine!
Here's the spaetzle I bought in a German cheese shop in Leavenworth. It was expensive, but worth it. It's an imported item and you're supporting a small, independent store, so I had no problem shelling out some extra money on it. I just followed the directions on the package exactly, which are thankfully in English, and it turned out great. I know sometimes people fry these in butter after they're cooked, and I'd definitely eat it that way. It would just make it that much more awesome. It's a good alternative from other, more common forms of side dishes, and a must for German entrees!
Here's the final result! Nicely browned, crispy breading which you must put lemon juice on, it just takes the flavor up to a whole other level of deliciousness! This didn't go exactly as the recipe said it would, but it still turned out great. That's the important lesson to be learned with cooking. Don't be intimidated by the instructions. If one way doesn't work for you, find another way!
If you like German food, or want to explore German cuisine more, this is a great starter recipe. It's pretty basic, and quick and easy. I think you'll all enjoy this one! Happy Cooking!
Welcome to my newest food blog project! I have been trying to think of a good project idea for a while, but nothing really jumped out of me as a fun idea. My grandmother is currently preparing to move out of her apartment and bequeathed to me three large containers full of newspaper clippings and recipe cards that she had collected over the years, with the words "You'll probably throw them away, but if you wanted to look through them..." So I took them with me and spent an entire day looking through all of them. I narrowed it down to one tin-worth of recipe cards and newspaper clippings to try out, and was thinking of the best time to try them and it hit me: blog project! "What's in Grandma's Recipe Tin?" is the perfect title for this project.
The inaugural recipe for this project is Oatmeal Cookies.
Oatmeal cookies are delicious, but they're not that exciting. They're pretty basic. So why did I choose it this time? Because look at the recipe-there's no flour in the ingredient list. I thought at first that maybe it was a missed ingredient, but then I noticed there are no eggs in there either, another standard for most oatmeal cookie recipes. That made me start thinking it was written this way on purpose after all, and therefore, was much more interesting as a recipe. I mean, no flour, no eggs, how was this cookie supposed to hold its shape? How would the butter and sugar not just melt out of it, leaving a mess of caramel and oats on the sheet pan? I had to see how it would work out. And if it worked out, it's a viable gluten-free cookie recipe and for people who need that, what an exciting thought!
I made these Friday night and they weren't very hard to make. First step was mixing the oats with the brown sugar. I used old-fashioned oats, not the quick-cooking kind.
After those were blended together, I added the butter, cut into cubes, and mixed it really well until it was blended.
(Sorry the font is different for this, the picture wouldn't let me add a space and freaked out and only let me add a caption instead...)
At this stage, it was almost like a shortbread dough in texture. It doesn't say to, but I refrigerated it at this point for a while to help it stay firm. A while later, I used a small cookie dough scoop to make uniform-size cookies. Some cookies need to be shaped delicately, but since these are so precarious, they actually do better by being rolled tightly into a ball. Don't be afraid to squeeze them into a ball, they'll retain a better shape when they bake.
The wet fork is really an important step because the dough would just crumble if you pressed it with a dry fork. The ones that were pressed down less held their shapes better. I recommend just a gentle pressing down, maybe to about 1/4" thick or so.
The ones with the browner edges were more delicate and crumbly, but the thicker ones held their shape better. Those ones were chewier. Both were delicious, but the crumbly ones are SUPER crumbly. Like, make sure to eat them over a plate or the sink or something cuz you'll end up with crumbs everywhere if you don't!
This recipe made about 5 dozen cookies with the size of the scoop I used. The texture held up the next day when I took them to my family gathering where my father proceeded to gobble them up and then commandeered the rest of the bag. Luckily I have another bag set aside to take to work tomorrow to share with my coworkers.
This was a simple cookie, a delicious gluten-free option for somebody who can't eat gluten and really misses traditional cookies. This was a great inaugural recipe for this project. I get to share them with my friends and family. And hopefully over the course of this project, I'll get to share a lot more delicious food with my friends and family, especially my grandmother, who will be reading along with the blog posts. Grandma, when you read this, know the recipe turned out great! Thank you for passing the recipes on to me!
Last week, Chadwick Boseman hosted Saturday Night Live. While on it, he did a skit as his character, T'Challa, from the movie Black Panther. If you have not seen Black Panther yet, do yourself a favor and go see it while it's still in the theatre. It's worth seeing it on the big screen. In the skit, as you can watch for yourself in the above video link, he references potato salad in conjunction with the stereotype that white people generally under-season their food. "Aw hell naw, Karen!" has become the new viral catchphrase on social media platforms.
While I generally try to steer clear of stereotypes as much as possible, I have to admit to being a Karen at times. I have definitely been guilty of under-seasoning my food. And I went to culinary school! So, in order to not be a Karen, I decided to create my own potato salad recipe that would hopefully not be "bland-ass". And definitely wouldn't have any raisins...! And apologies in advance because this isn't a measuring type of recipe. You just go by what you have and what seems right. So I present to you, my recipe for:
Aw Hell Yah Potato Salad Salad:
Russet potatoes, scrubbed, poked with a fork like you would do for baked potatoes (I used 3 good-sized potatoes for this)
Eggs (I used three. Two for in the salad and one for the garnish)
Bacon (I used the very thick-cut regular bacon from the butcher's counter at my grocery store. Three slices. Two for in the salad and one for the garnish)
Dill pickles, chopped
Dill pickle juice (I used 3-4 Tbsp.)
Black olives, sliced
Green onions, sliced (I used the white and light green parts for in the salad, and the dark green for the garnish) Dressing:
Mayonnaise (about 3/4 cup)
Sour Cream (about 1/3 cup)
Yellow Mustard (about 1-2 Tablespoons)
Hot Sauce of choice (to taste. I was going to use Tabasco but my bottle was really old so I used a bottle of habanero pepper sauce I had on hand instead. I used about a half teaspoon but it could have used a little more.)
Dried dill (to taste)
Black pepper (to taste)
Cayenne pepper (to taste)
Paprika for garnish (this is not optional)
Place the scrubbed, poked potatoes and eggs in a large pan of salted water, over high heat. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat a little to avoid boiling over onto the burner. My potatoes took about a half hour to cook, but remove the eggs after about ten minutes of boiling to avoid overcooking. Just use a spoon to remove them and place them in cold water and set in the fridge to cool down completely.
At the same time, cook the bacon. I usually do the thick-cut bacon like this in the oven. From the above picture, you can see that I put it on a sheet pan covered with parchment paper. I cooked it at 325 degrees for about a half hour, turning it over halfway through and draining off the oil before putting it back in the oven.
When the bacon is cooked, remove it from the pan and let it drain on paper towels. Place in the fridge to cool down.
When the potatoes are cooked through, turn off the stove and remove the potatoes to a large plate. Let them sit a few minutes to cool off a bit before placing in the fridge to cool even more. Don't cool them completely, just get them to the point where you can handle them with your hands without burning them. At that time, use a knife to peel the skin off and cut the potatoes into chunks. Place in a bowl that will be large enough to fit all the ingredients and be able to be stirred without dripping, as well. While the potatoes are still warm, pour the pickle juice over them and mix well, trying not to break up the potatoes too much. (I got the pickle juice idea from a coworker who likes to add pickle juice to her devilled eggs. I thought this might be a good way to season the potatoes themselves and really let flavor absorb into them.) Place the potatoes in the fridge and allow them to cool completely.
For the dressing, mix the mayonnaise, sour cream, mustard, dill, hot sauce, cayenne, and black pepper together in a smaller bowl. When the bacon is cool enough, chop up two of the slices and add them to the dressing. Mix well and refrigerate until ready to use. Note: In spite of T'Challa's disgust that Karen's potato salad was only
seasoned with a little bit of salt, do not put salt in the dressing.
Trust me on this one. There's enough salty elements in this salad that
it's not needed.
When everything is chilled, you can assemble the salad. Peel the eggs, chop two of them and add to the potatoes. Add the chopped pickles, green onions, and sliced black olives. Mix well. Pour the dressing over and mix well. Adjust the dressing ingredients to make sure the potatoes are well-dressed. I ended up adding a little more mayonnaise and hot sauce. Mix just enough to blend everything, but not enough to break the potatoes down.
Slice the last egg, chop the last slice of bacon, and top the potato salad with them. Sprinkle with paprika. Top with the green onions. Cover and refrigerate for at least two hours to allow the flavors to blend together properly.
This is what I ate with my dinner tonight and it was fantastic! I think the pickle juice on the potatoes really helps season the potatoes. You can dress potatoes with highly-seasoned dressing, and most of the time you can still taste the blandness of the potatoes underneath it. This helps combat that. Mixing the bacon into the dressing allowed the flavor to really permeate it. It would be less flavorful just to mix the bacon with the potatoes. I highly recommend doing it this way. And the sour cream adds a depth to the dressing that would otherwise be lacking if I'd just used mayonnaise. This is how I make devilled eggs, so I had a feeling it would work well in potato salad as well. I'm definitely sold on that.
I was really happy with this potato salad! I'm going to give some to my parents tomorrow and I'll probably share some with coworkers on Monday. Beside that, I'm going to eat it all myself!
I would like to think that T'Challa himself would enjoy this potato salad, but unless he comes to visit, or I get a chance to go to Wakanda, I'll just have to speculate! But you can try this out and let me know what you think. And if you come up with even better ideas, let me know!
So, March is Women's History Month and I wanted to acknowledge it. My friend and I came up with an idea to entwine women's history with my food blog by doing a meal in honor of the month. But how to do it? Well, I decided to gather five women from history and do a meal in their honor. Have you ever watched those shows where people from different walks of life gather at a dinner table and they just record whatever is said? It's always interesting, and that's what I had in mind. My friend chose Mae Jemison, and from there I assembled a group of women who worked well with her. Then I planned a meal based on the times and locations they were from.
The women at my "dinner party" last night, were: Dr. Mae Jemison, the first African American female astronaut. Medical doctor, and Peace Corps member, prior to joining NASA. Born 1956, Decatur, Alabama. Still living. Katherine Johnson, one of the African American women who helped integrate NACA/NASA, and helped derive the mathematical equations needed to send John Glenn into space, and later, to send the first astronauts to the moon. Born 1918, White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. Still living. Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in the world to go to space, in 1963. Born 1937, Maslennikovo, Russia. Still living. Nichelle Nichols, an actress best known for her role as Lt. Nyoto Uhura from Star Trek and the subsequent movies. Born 1932, Robbins, Illinois. Still living. Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly across the Atlantic, unaccompanied. Possibly best known for her disappearance during a flight that has never truly been resolved. Born 1897, Atchison, Kansas. No known death date, but based on her birthdate, I doubt she'd still be alive today.
Why these particular five women? Well, this is how I connected them together: Katherine Johnson and Valentina Tereshkova are both part of the Space Race of the 1960's. Nichelle Nichols and Star Trek's success wouldn't exist without the Space Race. She also became an ambassador for NASA and helped draw people of color to the organization. One of those people, was Dr. Mae Jemison, who was so inspired by Star Trek that she actually guest starred on Star Trek: The Next Generation. And none of those women would have been able to do what they did, if pioneers of aviation like Amelia Earhart hadn't started it all with airplanes. I can only imagine that they'd have a fascinating conversation if they'd ever had a chance to get together.
What do you serve a group of women such as these icons? I didn't want to do freeze-dried space food, because it's gross and you can't actually do that much with it. Since most of these women were associated with the Space Race, I thought that focusing on foods of the 1950's-1970's would be best. I scoured the internet and my own recipes and came up with a whopping five recipes! An entree, a starch side, a dessert, an appetizer, and a beverage! And though it wasn't a recipe, I did do a veggie side as well. I was in the kitchen from about 1pm, to 7pm working on all of it! Two of them are my own recipes from my collection, with no sources listed. I will write them out here. The other three are from the internet and I will provide links to those recipes, as they aren't my own.
Sparkling Strawberry Lemonade
1 pt. strawberries, leaves removed, chopped
1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice, about 4 lemons-worth
3/4 cup superfine sugar(superfine really is the better kind of sugar for this recipe as it dissolves more easily. The mixture isn't heated, so regular sugar wouldn't dissolve in it.)
Seltzer water, unflavored, chilled
Puree the strawberries with the lemon juice and the sugar.
You can refrigerate this mixture until ready to serve. When you're ready to serve it, pour some of the lemonade concentrate into the bottom of a cup and top it off with the seltzer water. Adjust to your tastes by adding more water or concentrate, if needed.
This one is suuuuuuper delish! It's bubbly and tangy and just sweet enough. I was really happy with this recipe.
Next up, is Shrimp Salad on Cucumber Slices
This is a pretty basic shrimp salad recipe. You use celery, dill pickle relish, green onions, chopped shrimp, and mayonnaise. I used the medium-sized, 51/60 shrimp, as opposed to bay shrimp because I don't think bay shrimp has much flavor. My grocery store sells it already cooked, fresh, in the fish section, so I bought a handful and cut off the tails before chopping them up.
I put some of it on cucumber slices, as the recipe calls for, and some on Ritz crackers. Both worked great!
I used dried dill as a garnish and that just made the color pop even more. This is a really simple, but elegant appetizer. Next up, was my entree...
Easy Baked Chicken Kiev
6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1/3 cup seasoned Italian-style bread crumbs
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 tsp. dried oregano, divided
Black pepper
2 Tbsp. butter, softened
1 Tbsp. finely chopped parsley
1 egg, beaten with 1 Tbsp. cold water
3 oz. low-fat Monterey Jack cheese
1.) Place breast halves, one at a time, between two sheets of plastic wrap. With the flat side of a mallet or with a small heavy frying pan, gently pound breasts until each is about 1/4" thick. Set aside.
2.) Combine bread crumbs, Parmesan, 1/2 tsp. oregano, and a little black pepper. Spread on a plate and set aside.
3.) Mash together the softened butter, parsley, and 1/2 tsp. oregano; set aside. Whisk egg with water, pour onto a plate and set aside.
4.) Cut the cheese into 6 sticks, measuring about 1.5"x2". Set aside.
5.) Spread a little of the seasoned butter on each chicken breast. Lay a piece of Jack cheese about 1" from lower edge. Fold lower edge of breast up over cheese, fold in sides and roll up to enclose filling. (Note: I ended up having to use toothpicks to secure them. Just make sure to remove them before serving.)
6.) Roll each bundle in egg mixture, then in bread crumb mixture, until evenly coated. Place bundles, seam-side down, without touching, in a 9"x13" baking dish.
7.) Bake, uncovered, in a preheated 425 degree oven about 20-25 minutes, or until no longer pink in the center.
As you can see, I only did two instead of six, but it turned out really well! If you have never had this dish, as I hadn't, it's the same basic concept of Chicken Cordon Bleu, but without the ham, and a different type of cheese. I chose this dish because I feel it would have been considered the height of sophistication for the time period at which I was aiming. I took the toothpicks out and cut the chicken into slices to display the melty cheese. It felt even fancier that way!
For my starchy side, I chose this recipe: Minute Rice Pilaf. Why Minute Rice? you might ask. Because it's the food of the future! It's science and it's food! And it cuts down on the amount of time it takes to cook, thus giving the average 50's-70's housewife more time to do other things than housekeeping. She can have more time in her day to pursue her interests outside the home! What we today in 2018 might scoff at as "cheapo" or "lazy" food, was revolutionary when it came out. Women didn't have to worry as much about coming home from work(if they were one of the ones who worked outside the house) and having to spend hours preparing dinner for their family(because of course they were still expected to keep house and tend the children).
I must admit, I was skeptical at first of the idea of Minute Rice. I think I'd tried some in the past and haven't cared for it. This particular recipe is a rice pilaf, slightly akin to Rice-a-Roni(don't be a food snob, you know you eat the stuff!) but it actually cooked faster! It had less powdered ingredients, and more natural ingredients. I used chicken broth, but fortified it with a sodium-free chicken bouillon packet to keep in the spirit of the recipe. I also used the dried parsley flakes because I think fresh parsley is generally a huge waste of time that doesn't really add much to the final outcome of a dish, besides being a pretty bit of green on top. I happened to have the slivered almonds on hand, and I threw some in as well. If you have some, I highly recommend it. It adds flavor and texture.
Here are all the elements, prior to being fully cooked. I was really pleased with the outcome of this dish. It was flavorful and the rice tasted just like any other rice. The texture was great. And it only took five minutes!! It's really quite incredible. I highly recommend this recipe.
For my veggie side dish, I had a mixture of green beans and asparagus. I sprinkled them with dried tarragon, salt, and pepper. I poured on a little olive oil and mixed it all on a sheet pan and roasted them. The tarragon works really well with these vegetables. It all just tasted like spring! And it was quick and easy.
Here's the meal, in all its glory! As you can see, I cut the chicken into slices and the cheese is showing. The flavors of all these items worked really well together. It was filling, but not heavy, and it all looked so elegant! I was extremely happy with all of it. I would eat any single one of them again!
Now, onto dessert. So far, everything felt centered on the people from the 60's, so I wanted to have something dedicated to the time era of Amelia Earhart. I turned to the 30's and looked around for recipes, and found this gem: Grandma's Great Depression Cake. This was a fun one because most of it was actually cooked on the stove! And it involved some food science!
You start by boiling most of the items on the stove. It sounds wacky, but it works!
Post boiling. You can see that the raisins have absorbed some of the liquid.
This is the fun science part! Baking soda and salt are mixed with water before being poured into the slightly cooled mixture and it bubbles and froths! This is where the leavening comes from.
Baking powder and flour get mixed and then added to the frothy liquid.
The final batter before it gets poured into the pan to bake. It looks like a cake mix to me!
Freshly out of the oven! Mine needed only about 50 minutes to bake, so I recommend testing it after 45 minutes and seeing where it stands, baking-wise. When it cooled down, I sprinkled it with powdered sugar.
This was my piece for dessert last night. It's really dense and moist and tasty! It's like a gingerbread cake, but there's no ginger. It was still wonderful the next day when I shared it with my family for Easter dinner. The rest will be going to work with me where it will probably be eaten in ten minutes!
This whole meal was incredible! I loved every bite of it and every moment of preparing it. I have plans for more meals next March to do this again, hopefully at least twice. So, if you liked this post, stay tuned for next March where I will do more posts like this!
Looking for something to watch while you eat this amazing meal? Here are a few suggestions:
-Hidden Figures, the story about Katherine Johnson.
-Night at the Museum Two, featuring Amy Adams as Amelia Earhart.
-Any episode of the original Star Trek series.
-Episode 6.24 of Star Trek: The Next Generation, guest starring Dr. Mae Jemison.
And if nothing else, watch this hilarious Drunk History story of Nichelle Nichols and how she integrated not only science fiction, but all of space!
I hope everybody had a lovely Women's History Month. I'll see you next year!
I found and tested three recipes on Saturday. Two of the three turned out well and one of them, not so much. I will talk about the two that did, and we'll just forget the one that didn't, because it was that bad...! I was going to write about this earlier but the "luck of the Irish" ran out on me Saturday morning when my internet died and it took until Monday to get it back up and running! So here, at long last, is the post!
Entree: Dublin Coddle with Pearl Barley, courtesy of this website. I don't eat beef, so corned beef and cabbage is out for me. Besides, it's a very popular dish for this day and I wanted something different. Bacon, sausages, potatoes, and barley all cooked in one pot? Now that sounds fantastic to me! I had to try it. It totally worked.
Two kinds of breakfast meat and two kinds of carbs in one entree? Yes, please! Here is the obligatory, "prepped food before it's cooked," shot.
Post sausage and bacon browning. The barley has been mixed in, the onions are on the bottom, and the bay leaf is somewhere in the middle of it all.
The layer of potatoes on the top. Chicken broth is added and it cooks everything! I found it a little dry, the barley absorbed all the liquid. If you want it more "stewy," I would suggest adding more broth than it calls for.
This is the finished product! It's not fancy or that pretty to look at, but it is hearty and tasty! The flavors are simple and not highly seasoned beyond the salty/smoky of the bacon and the spices in the sausages, but it's still good. I ate all the leftovers over the next few days. It reheats well, but I wouldn't recommend freezing it. Potatoes never freeze and thaw well. This is a great change of pace from corned beef and cabbage, if you want something new, yet not complicated for next year!
Now for the dessert: Irish Shortbread, from here. Every year at Christmas, I make Scottish shortbread. It's delicious and impossible to mess up. I was very curious to see how Irish shortbread differs from its Scottish counterpart, so this was the perfect opportunity to try it out. It turns out, they are similar, but also very different, at the same time!
The cornstarch really changes the texture of the shortbread. With Scottish shortbread, you have to knead the dough with your fingers and my hands are so tired by the end of it. The cornstarch in this recipe keeps the dough from really coming together. It runs a little dry, but it's ok. It does come together a little bit, so you can knead it into a ball, but don't put too much effort into it. This is a really easy recipe!
Here it is, post baking. It bakes for a really long time on a really low temperature and one of my coworkers who tried a piece said it tasted caramelized to her, which makes sense with how it's baked. From here, I cut it into pieces while it was still warm and in the pan. I carefully moved them to a cooling rack when they started cooling down a bit.
I added powdered sugar to the top because I think it's pretty. Here is the post-cut version.
And here's a close-up of the cookie from the side. It's dense, and slightly crunchy. It's really rich and a little goes a long way! I splurged and bought Kerrygold butter for almost $4 for a half pound and that was on sale!!! Normally I would never, ever spend that much money on that small an amount of butter, but I decided that since it was a special day, and this recipe calls for so few ingredients, that I should make those ingredients really count. I don't know for sure if it made it taste better, but it was definitely more yellow than American butter, so it looked prettier!
The leftover cookies were scarfed down very quickly at work on Monday! It was definitely a winner. I want to make these again at Christmas and try them side-by-side with my Scottish shortbreads. So, to those if you go to Christmas Eve/Day with me, look forward to trying this one out!
Both of these recipes were fun to make and eat. I would definitely make them again. If you're looking for something new to try next year on March 17th, give these a try. You won't regret it!
So, this year I planned ahead, picked out a recipe, and actually baked the pie the night before Pi Day so I'd be ready to eat pie on the actual holiday. I am very proud of myself! I chose a recipe card from my collection that doesn't have a source listed, so I have no clue where it came from, but it probably came from a magazine of some sort. Here is the recipe, along with my pictures and notes. Enjoy!
Marquis Old-Fashioned Cream Pie Crust: 12 whole graham crackers, broken
2 Tbsp. sugar
6 Tbsp. butter, melted Filling: 2/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 1/2 cups cold milk
4 egg yolks
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 Tbsp. butter
Fresh berries
1.) For Crust: Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor, blend graham crackers and sugar until finely ground. (Note: I did this later in the evening and didn't want to deal with the noise, so I put the graham crackers in a gallon-size bag and crushed them with the bottom of a heavy cup and also a rolling pin and then I mixed in the sugar. It did just as good, although the crumbs were probably a little bigger than if you'd done it in a food processor. It held up just fine though.) Add butter and pulse until combined. (I dumped the crumbs in a bowl and just mixed the butter in with a fork) Reserve 1/4 cup crumb mixture for topping. Press remaining mixture into bottom and sides of a 9" pie pan. Bake until lightly browned, about 7 minutes. Cool while preparing filling.
This is post-baking.
2.) For Filling: In a 3qt. saucepan, whisk together sugar, salt, and cornstarch. Add milk and egg yolks and whisk to combine. Heat mixture over medium heat, whisking constantly, until mixture begins to bubble. Cook 1 minute longer.
(Note: This takes a lot of upper arm strength. It does take time for this to come to a boil and start to thicken, but stick with it, because it will work and it's worth it! Also, this will create a thick layer of froth while it's heating and you'll probably be concerned about it, but it will disappear when it thickens.)
Remove from heat and stir in vanilla, nutmeg, and butter; place over an ice bath to cool slightly before pouring into baked crust.
I thought the nutmeg was a little too strong, for my tastes. I would cut this 1/4 tsp. down to 1/8th next time. Nutmeg is a classic flavoring with dairy-based sauces, though, so don't skip it entirely!
This was my idea of an ice bath because I don't have ice cube trays in my apartment. It worked pretty well, actually. I recommend this method if you too, don't have ice cubes readily available!
This is the cooled filling after it's been whisked over the ice bath.
Here is the nearly finished product. Before being covered with plastic wrap.
Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, 5 hours or overnight. Sprinkle with reserved graham cracker crumbs. Serve cold with berries.
Makes 6 servings (Note: The recipe says it makes 6 servings, but I think that's not
accurate. I'd say 8 servings is correct because 6 pieces would be
gigantic!)
I used a combo of blueberries and blackberries because that is what my store had on sale! Raspberries would be fantastic with this as well. Strawberries might work, but you'd need to cut them into smaller pieces. The top of the pie is slick so the berries might slide around a bit, but the graham crackers help keep them in place.
My piece!
I took the rest of this to work the next day and when I set it out on the counter on my morning break, it only took about 10 minutes for it to be devoured!
This was a fun experiment and I'm really glad it worked out so well. I usually don't have luck making homemade pudding-type foods, to the extent that I was actually banned by my parents at one point in time from trying anymore, when I still lived at home. I guess I was wasting too many ingredients! But nothing was wasted on this pie. If you're a cream/custard pie fan, this is the pie for you!
