Peach Pie

Peach pie. What more can I say? This pie will be good any time of the year! Actually guys, I don't know. I haven't tried it yet. Tomorrow I will tell you if it's good or not! If it's terrible, I will delete this post. How about that? But I can tell you this much, it smells pretty dang good.

Peach Pie Filling:

5 cups sliced peeled peaches (or thawed from the frozen section) 

2 tbsp lemon juice

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp butter

Double-Crust Pie Dough:

2 1/2  cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling out the dough
2       tablespoon sugar
1       teaspoon salt
8       tablespoons vegetable shortening, chilled
12     tablespoons (1 1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces and chilled
6-10  tablespoons ice water

1. Preheat oven to 425-degrees F. Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a mixing bowl using a whisk. Then put the shortening in the bowl and mix with a pastry blender quickly until it has the texture of coarse sand. Now scatter the butter pieces over the top and mix it in with the pastry blender until it looks kind of like coarse crumbs. Don't worry if you still have chunks of fat, that's what makes it flakey! 

2. Sprinkle 6 tablespoons of the ice water over the mixture. Stir and press the dough together, using a stiff rubber spatula, until the dough sticks together. If the dough does not come together, stir in the remaining water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until it does. Form the dough into 2 4-inch disks, wrap tightly in plastic rap, and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

3. Let the chilled dough soften slightly at room temperature before rolling it into 12-inch circles and fitting the first into a pie plate.

4. Put the filling into the pie plate lined with dough and then roll out place the other circle of dough on the top of the filling, using your rolling pin as a guide.

Bake at 425 for 10 minutes and then reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown.

Obviously, I did a lattice crust on top. It's really not very difficult. Just slice the circle of flattened dough into 1-inch strips and weave them carefully on the pie. I also didn't do a crimped edge, but I think it looks fine just tucked under instead.

Blackberry Pie

One thing I enjoy about my family living on a farm in Pendleton, Oregon is that in the summertime the blackberries come on strong. Fresh picked, wild blackberries is a delicious treat from heaven! If I can control myself enough to not eat every berry I pick, I can manage to gather up enough berries to make into pie. Other members of my family make cobbler and jam out of the berries as well as pies.

However, this is not the traditional recipe from my family (although it is great). This recipe has a thicker sauce, more like a jam.

Blackberry Pie Filling

6    cups of blackberries
2    cups of sugar (more or less depending on tartness of berries)
4    tablespoons of lemon juice
6    tablespoons of corn starch
2    teaspoons of vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon of cinnamon

Pour the ingredients into a sauce pan and stir over medium heat. Let the mixture simmer for 30 minutes, or until thick (sticking to the spoon). Stir every so often. Tasting is really helpful to figure out if you need more cinnamon, lemon juice, or sugar.

Let the sauce cool before pouring it into your pie pan with crust.

Pie Double-Crust

2 1/2   cups all-purpose flour
2/3      cup shortening
6 to 10 tablspoon cold water
1/2      teaspoon salt

Stir together flour and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Using a pastry blender, cut in shortening till pieces are pea-size.
Sprinkle 1 T. Of the water over part of the mixture; gently toss with a fork. Push moistened dough to the side of the bowl. Repeat moistening dough, using 1 tblspn of the water at a time, till all the dough is moistened. Form dough into a ball.
On a lightly floured surface, use your hands to slightly flatten dough. Roll dough from center to edges into a circle about 12 inches in diameter.
To transfer pastry, wrap it around the rolling pin. Unroll pastry into a 9-inch pie plate.  Ease pastry into pie plate, being careful not to stretch pastry.
Trim pastry to 1/2 inch beyond edge of pie plate. Fold under extra pastry. Crimp edge as desired. Do not prick pastry.

Don't make your vents like I did. Please. For me. Don't make them look like a pig snout. Sloppy cuts that look like nostrils...

Cherubic Cheese Ball

Every Thanksgiving there is one special item I make for the feast. It's my thing. If it's not there and I am, something is wrong. So I am gracing you with this highly delectable recipe. The Cherubic Cheese Ball! May you bask in it's radiance.

I made this recipe up myself, so I'm pretty sure that makes me an awesome cook or something.

So. Let's get down to the nitty gritty...

Ingredients:

2 packages of cream cheese
1 T. minced garlic
2 green onions, chopped
1/4 t. salt

Sliced almonds

Directions:

Let your cream cheese packages sit out for a little while so they can get soft. Then add all of your ingredients except the almonds into a mixing bowl and combine thoroughly. Use a cracker and see if the flavor blend is the way you like and add more seasoning ingredients if you'd like.

Once the flavor is to your liking, Scrape the contents of your bowl onto a serving plate of some sort. Using a rubber spatula or knife, shape the mixture into a ball.

After the ball has been shaped, clean your plate around the ball with a wet paper towel or cloth. Then cover the ball with slivered almonds. Using a spoon helps a lot, I've found.

Serve as an appetizer with crackers of your choice. I like to use Ritz!

Looking for a healthier option? Use neufchatel instead of cream cheese. I can't really taste a difference.

Pumpkin Pie!

Thanksgiving means pies! In my mind, pie has always been the holy grail of baking. I come from a family of great home cooks and bakers and all of the women can make great pies. My maternal grandma was once the best cook I knew! Unfortunately she doesn't cook or bake anymore because she has forgotten how. But the legacy was passed to my mom, aunts, sisters, and now to me.

One of my favorite pies is pumpkin. Crust is the trickiest part about pies, in my opinion. It's easy for them to be messed up by over-stirring and handling. So let's get rolling on the recipe.

Single-Crust Pie Dough
*For one 9-inch pie

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling out the dough
1       tablespoon sugar
1/2    teaspoon salt
3       tablespoons vegetable shortening, chilled
4       tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces and chilled
4-6    tablespoons ice water

1. Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a mixing bowl using a whisk. Then put the shortening in the bowl and mix with a pastry blender quickly until it has the texture of coarse sand. Now scatter the butter pieces over the top and mix it in with the pastry blender until it looks kind of like coarse crumbs. Don't worry if you still have chunks of fat, that's what makes it flakey! 

2. Sprinkle 4 tablespoons of the ice water over the mixture. Stir and press the dough together, using a stiff rubber spatula, until the dough sticks together. If the dough does not come together, stir in the remaining water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until it does. Form the dough into a 4-inch disk, wrap tightly in plastic rap, and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

3. Let the chilled dough soften slightly at room temperature before rolling it into a 12-inch circle and fitting it into a pie plate. Please enjoy the following photo-instructions:

Don't forget to freeze your crust at this point! Now, onto the filling.

Pumpkin Pie Filling

Ingredients:

1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin
1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
2 eggs
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix all the ingredients together and pour into the frozen, unbaked pie crust. Bake in preheated 425-degrees F oven 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350-degrees F; bake 40 minutes longer. Cool completely before serving.

Indian Tacos Recipe

Indian tacos (also known as Navajo tacos or Native American tacos) are a must if you ever visit the Pendleton Round-Up. Of course fry bread (the base of Indian tacos) with some honey or jam is delicious, too. The people who set up stands at Roy Raley park next to the Round-Up grounds have been making fry bread for a long time and their recipes are tried and true.

Naturally, I love fry bread, so I wanted to find a recipe that I liked as much as the fry bread from my home town. There are so many variations of the recipe, and they're all very similar, but sometimes a little tweak here or there can make all the difference in the texture. Isn't baking cool? I found one that's almost as, if not as good as the Round-Up staple.

So first, let's start off with the recipe for the fry bread. I got the recipe from this website and tweaked the amount of salt: 

Ingredients:

• Oil for frying (around two cups)
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt (the recipe called for 2 TABLESPOONS!!!)
• 2 1/2 cups warm milk (more or less)

First mix your dry ingredients together in a large bowl. If you have a sifter, sift them. If not, use an egg beater. Warm up your milk (I used a microwave) to a bit hotter than body temperature and stir it into the dry ingredients bit by bit until your dough comes together. If it gets too sticky, add a little flour. Then cover your bowl with a towel and let it rise for about 15 minutes.

While your dough is resting, heat up your oil. You'll know your oil is ready if you splash a little bit of water into it and it sizzles. But don't go too hot or you'll burn your fry bread! If you're not sure, test a small amount of dough. It should brown fairly quickly (about a minute, maybe two). Then adjust the heat as necessary. 

When your dough is finished rising, tear off a small chunk and roll it into a ball and then flatten it out with your hands. It should look something like this:

The size of each piece of dough will depend on how big you want your fry bread to be. When I make Indian tacos, I make them a bit bigger than when I make fry bread just for eating with honey or jam. 
Place your dough pieces gently into your oil. You don't want it to splash back at you! Don't crowd your pan. Put two if they will fit, more if they are small, but try not to overlap each piece. 
With tongs, flip each piece so that both sides are a nice golden brown. When this color is achieved, place the hot fry bread onto a plate or bowl with a paper towel covering the bottom to catch the grease.

If you are making Indian tacos, prepare your taco meat. I used hamburger and those nice cop-out taco seasoning packages you find at the grocery store. I also had these toppings: 

• diced tomatoes 
• shredded lettuce
• chopped onions
• sour cream
• taco sauce (we also had salsa) 
• canned black beans (drained) 
• shredded cheese 

Once everything is ready to go, top your fry bread with any or all of the taco toppings and enjoy!

The Indian tacos I've had at the Round-Up have some kind of chili instead of seasoned ground beef, but I personally find the seasoned ground beef to be just as good.