fall supper

Last week we had the grands over for dinner.  The weather was perfectly fallish - crisp and a little breezy.  Chicken and dumplings are a favorite in our house, easy to whip up, but comforting and totally delicious.  We used Pioneer Woman's recipe, which can be found here.

                                  

For dessert we had fresh-from-the-mountains-apple pie.  (the apples, not the pie)

 When your pie crust doesn't look perfect, call it "rustic."  It sounds cool, and allows for imperfections.

 Introducing. . . Rustic Apple Pie.

Perfect.

For the crust we used this recipe, and for the filling we pulled out the handy Southern Living cookbook.  (recipe at end of post) 

A double recipe of crust is needed If you are doing a top and bottom on your pie.

Everything was delicious, the company was stimulating, (as Miss Bingley would say) and of course the sisters were gorgeous.

      

I think the head-tilt thing runs in the family. . .

I am so loving fall!  What about you?

Apple Pie

6 cups sliced apples

1 T lemon juice

1/2 c sugar

1/2 c firmly packed brown sugar (we used Sucanat)

2 T flour

1/2 t cinnamon

1/4 t nutmeg

2 T butter

Roll half of pastry out and place in pie plate. Set aside.

Combine apples, lemon juice, sugars, and spices.  Spoon filling into pastry shell and dot with butter. 

Roll remaining pastry and place over the top, folding or pinching excess crust until desired look is achieved.  (I say go for the rustic look.  It's super easy.)

Cut slits in top crust and brush top with a mixture of beaten egg yolk and half-n-half. (optional) Sprinkle with cinnamon and/or sugar.  (also optional)

Bake at 450 for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 and bake for 50 more minutes.

New Blog!

I know we haven't posted in a long time, but I wanted to start a blog with a little bit of everything, not just cooking.  So, I did!   :)  I will try to post some food, but it will be mostly be other topics.  Please stop by!

http://juliaeady.blogspot.com/

Mothers Day Baking

A loaf of "Pain d'Epi" and a fresh arrangement from the back yard for 

the grandmothers.  I'm loving my new Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a Day!

Gluten Free Blueberry Cobbler

Okay, I'll admit it.
Most of my gluten free creations are a total flop.
But this was different. Even my Dad liked it! [Enter little pat on the back.]

So here it is........
Gluten Free Blueberry Cobbler
Recipe found at Serious Eats

Filling:
4 pints blueberries
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Topping:
1 cup tapioca starch or t. flour (they're the same thing)
2/3 cup rice flour
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cold butter
3/4 cup heavy cream

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Butter a 9x13 baking dish.
2. In a large bowl, toss ingredients for filling together until blueberries are well coated.
3. Pour berries into baking dish and set aside.
4. In another bowl, mix together the dry ingredients for the topping.
5. Cut in the butter until only small pieces remain.
6. Add cream and mix well. If you use milk, wait a while and the milk will soak in. You may need to add a little more starch to thicken it up enough to drop it in globs.
7. Glob on the topping. (Don't you just love my terminology?) :)
8. Bake for 35 mins or until golden brown and bubbly. If you aren't sure if it is done, lift up one of the biscuit globs and it should be cooked through.


*note* The best way to eat this is imagining there is a big scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. Then again, it would be even better if there really was a big scoop of ice cream on top. Which for me was sadly not the case. *sniff*
Oh well.

Enjoy!

Salad Days

Fresh spinach from the garden, strawberries, craisins, and goat cheese.

Serve with poppyseed dressing -

1/4 cup cider vinegar

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon dry mustard

1 cup oil

2 teaspoons grated onion

2 teaspoons poppy seeds

Heat vinegar, sugar, salt, and mustard to boiling.  Let cool.  Slowly add oil while beating constantly with electric beater.  Stir in grated onion and poppy seeds.  Refrigerate before using. 

Spring Supper

Night Cuisine

It was almost nine o'clock.

I headed downstairs to get my book, anticipating a relaxing evening in bed reading, when I saw the bread dough rising on the counter, waiting to be put in the oven.  

Actually, waiting to be dusted with flour, slashed on top, and "flipped" onto the hot baking stone.  Immediately afterwords hot water is poured into the broiler pan below, causing scary noises and hot steam to disrupt the pourer. 

So much for my relaxing evening.

I tried to get a picture of the offending loaf, but the camera died.  This morning, not much was left, so no evidence of last night's labors!

Ah, well,  these things will happen.   I've got a few recipes ready to post soon, so look out!

Homemade Crackers

Troublesome, and time consuming they may be, but oh-so rewarding!

The Recipe  ~ from Two peas and Their Pod

Homemade Wheat Thins 

Recipe from King Arthur Whole Grain Baking Cookbook

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus extra for topping
1/4 teaspoon paprika
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup water (you might need to add a little more)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.

2. Add the flour, sugar, salt and paprika to a medium bowl and whisk to combine.  Cut the butter into small pieces and add it to the bowl.  Using a pastry blender, mix the butter into the dry ingredients thoroughly.  Combine the water and vanilla in a small measuring cup or bowl.  Add to the butter/flour mixture and mix until a smooth dough forms. If the dough is still dry, add a little more water.

3. Divide the dough into 4 pieces.  Work with one piece at a time, keeping the others covered with a towel so they don’t dry out.  Lightly flour your work surface and rolling pin and roll the dough into a large rectangle.  Lift the dough and turn it as you roll to ensure it’s not sticking.  You want to roll the dough as thin as possible, try to make sure it’s 1/16-inch thick at most.  If you want all of your crackers to be perfect, trim the edges of the dough so you have a rectangle with even sides.  Use a pizza cutter to cut the rectangle into squares about 1 to 1 1/2 inches wide.

4. Transfer the dough squares to the prepared baking sheets. You can place them close together because they will not spread.  Sprinkle the squares lightly with salt.  Repeat the rolling and cutting process with the remaining 3 pieces of dough.  Save all of your scraps under the towel to keep the dough from drying out; reroll them all at once to create a final batch of crackers.

5. Bake the crackers, one sheet at a time, until crisp and browned, about 5-10 minutes.  Check the crackers at 5 minutes, and if some of the thinner ones are browning too quickly, remove them from the oven.  The crackers can burn quickly so you want to keep a close eye on them.  Remove crackers from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.  Store the crackers in an airtight container.

 I must warn you that the recipe really doesn't make too many, in other words it is terribly easy for four people to eat the whole batch in one afternoon!  Plan accordingly.

Today we'll make...

...Pizza Pockets!

You'll need :

3 1/2 cups of flour

1 t salt

2 sticks melted butter

1 cup yogurt

Stir these together.

1 1/2 cups tomato sauce

1/2 t garlic powder

1 1/2 t oregano

1 1/2 t basil

Simmer together on the stove for a few minutes. 

You can use your choice of filling ingredients - ground beef, pepperoni, olives, cheese, etc.

I used *fresh* ground beef.  It was our first time using the meat grinder and it was a success!  A little different than store bought though.  I really only ground my own to use up some stew beef we had in the freezer - my whole family is sick of soup!

Now, roll out small 2-3 in balls of dough into a circle, top with sauce and other toppings, fold and seal.

Bake @ 400 degrees for about 15-20 minutes. 

This is another Heavenly Homemakers recipe!

Honey Whole Wheat Bagels

Ever since our dear mother came home from the grocery store with strawberry cream cheese, I 've been dying to make bagels.  I used a recipe from Heavenly Homemakers.

So I set out yesterday with my ever-present personal sous chef, Melissa Anne.  (who just turned 4, by the way!)

Here she is kneading bagel dough.

  

While I did this...

...it appears that my companion had tired of her culinary duties!

(*cough* it was time to clean up *cough*)

First you broil, then boil, then bake!

Meanwhile Melissa Anne took her dog, Doggy, and her cat, Kitty for a little walk.  

With a towel on her head. 

Ahh, the finished product.  Please enjoy toasted, with strawberry cream cheese!

Honey Whole Wheat Bagels
4  to 4 1/2  cups whole wheat flour (I use freshly ground flour from hard white wheat)
1 pkg yeast (2 1/4 t.)
1 1/2 cups warm water (if you put your finger in and it hurts, it’s too hot and will kill your yeast)
3 T. honey + 1 T. honey
1 t. sea salt
Stir together 2 cups of the flour, the salt and the yeast.  Add in the warm water and 3 T. honey.  Gradually add in the remaining flour.

Dump it out and knead the flour in until the dough is smooth and elastic. 
Cover the dough and let it take a nap for about 10 minutes. Divide the dough into twelve equal parts.

Set a timer for 20 minutes.  Begin shaping each piece of dough into a nice ball.  Stick your finger in the middle of the ball and pull it apart to create about a 2 inch hole.   

Lay it onto a buttered cookie sheet or baking stone.
Continue until all the bagels are formed.  Let them sit until your timer goes off.

After your 20 minute timer goes off, turn the broiler on in your oven.
Broil your bagels for 2 minutes on each side.

Meanwhile…bring a big pot of water to a boil.  Stir in the remaining 1 T. honey.

Put 4-6 bagels into the water, turn down the heat and
simmer for seven minutes, turning the bagels over once during that time.

Continue to boil your bagels until they are all done.
Let them drain on a towel.

Bake at 375 ° for 25-30 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.

Gluten Free Blueberry Muffins

2/3 cup coconut flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
6 eggs
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup coconut oil or butter
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup blueberries


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a small bowl, combine coconut flour, salt and baking soda.
2. In a large bowl combine eggs, honey, coconut oil and vanilla and blend well with a hand mixer.
3. Mix dry ingredients into wet, blending with a hand mixer.
4. Gently fold in blueberries.
5. Place batter in paper lined muffin tins.
6. Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes. For Mini Muffins, 10-15 min.


Makes 12 muffins, 30 mini

By experimentation, I have found that coconut flour in recipes make things very dry, hence the six eggs. Also, the batter doesn't rise very much, so it looks the same coming out as it did going in. I used melted butter instead of coconut oil as well. Enjoy, and Happy Baking!



Oh, I almost forgot......

Breakfast Potatoes.

Making these is a great way to use leftover baked potatoes the next morning.  If you also cook bacon or sausage you can just saute them in the grease.  Remember...

"Fat gives things flavor."

~ Julia Child 

For the recipe :

Heat up a skillet over med-medium/high heat.  Melt a couple tablespoons of butter (or grease)  in the pan and add cold, diced potatoes.  Press them down with a spatula and let cook for about a minute, them flip and repeat on the other side.  Just keep cooking them til they're nice and brown and crunchy.  Oh yeah, throw some salt and pepper in there too.

Eady would destroy them by pouring ketchup all over the finished product, but if you're like me you'll want to serve them with scrambled eggs and bacon or sausage. 

Enjoy!

Welcome to our Kitchen!

Hey Everyone!!!!

We are so excited about starting this blog and hope that it will be a helpful source of tips, recipes, and encouragement!  Some the recipes you'll find here will be gluten free, others ~ not so healthy.....  :)   But no matter the food, we wish to share the JOY that always seems to come with creating something for family and friends to enjoy!
So come back to see more - we hope to post frequently.  (you cook every day, right?)

See you soon!

Lillian, Julia Eady, and Melissa Anne (not a contributing author - she's only three but she does "help" in the kitchen sometimes)

P.S.  We sort of owe the title of the blog to Melissa Anne.  She was insisting on playing "Tom Kitten" where she was Tom, Lillian was Samuel Whiskers, and Eady was Anna Maria.  (from The Tale of Samuel Whiskers, by Beatrix Potter)  We had been mulling over blog names for several days, (actually Lillian was going crazy - it was all she could think about!) when this line was quoted:

"Anna Maria," said the old man rat (whose name was Samuel Whiskers) - "Anna Maria, make me a kitten dumpling, roly-poly pudding for my dinner."
      "It requires dough and a pat of butter, and a rolling pin, said Anna Maria....."

We stopped playing.  It was perfect!  (It was Eady's idea to use it as the title.)
 We guarantee there will be no recipes calling for kitten.