Strawberry Pie

This one's a delicious pie that's perfect for spring. An excellent accompaniment to Easter dinner.

Strawberry Pie

Crust:

• 1 1/2 cups finely ground graham cracker crumbs (in my experience this ends up being one packet of graham crackers)
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 6 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Filling:

• 2  quarts fresh strawberries
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1 (3 ounce) package strawberry flavored gelatin

Crush the graham crackers as finely as possible.  If you have a food processor, this is perfect for it. If not, just get them cruched as well as you can. I often put them in a ziploc baggie then crush them with a rolling pin.

Mix the crumbs with the sugar, melted butter, and cinnamon until well blended and then press into pie pan. If you use a smaller pie pan you may have some leftover crumb mixture, that's okay.

Bake at 375 degrees for 7 minutes.

Wash the strawberries, cut off tops and slice.

In saucepan mix together the sugar and cornstarch, blending thoroughly. Add the boiling water, cook over medium heat until it thickens. Remove from heat, stir in gelatin. Let cool to room temperature.

Pile the strawberry slices in the pie crust evenly. When the gelatin mixture has cooled poor over the strawberry slices. Place in the fridge to set.

Serve with whipped cream.

Grilled Pizza

I was going to post more about the wedding planning today, but it is imperative that I interrupt your regularly scheduled post for the most amazing pizza recipe ever. It will require a grill, a stand mixer or some fierce dedication to great pizza, and some planning on your part since you will need to make the pizza dough a day ahead of time, but it’s worth it!

Step One: Pizza Dough (otherwise known as: You Are About to Hate Me If You Don’t Have a Stand Mixer)

In bowl or stand mixer combine: 2 tblsp sugar, 1 tblsp kosher salt, 1 tblsp olive oil, 3/4 cup water, 1 cup bread flour, and 1 tsp yeast.

Mix on low until combined. Slowly pour in 1 more cup of bread flour.

Once everything comes together and pulls away from the sides of the bowl (if it doesn’t add a little bit of flour and mix for 30 seconds, repeating as necessary), stop mixing. Dough should be tacky, but not wet. Add 1 tsp garlic powder and 1 tsp dried basil.

Now here comes the hard part if you don’t own a stand mixer. Lightly coat hands or dough hook with olive oil. Knead (by hand if you don’t have mixer with dough hook) on medium for 15 minutes.

Once done kneading remove from bowl. It should remove from hook and bowl easily, barely sticking. Place in glass bowl. Let rest five minutes. When you come back the dough should be smooth, very soft and not sticking to your finger if you run it lightly over the top. Pour two tblsps olive oil over the top and flip dough, coating the ball in olive oil. Cover with saran wrap and refrigerate for 24 hours.

Step Two: The Next Day

Make or purchase your favorite alfredo sauce.

Two and a half hours before dinner remove the dough from the fridge. If you’d like two smaller round pizzas, split dough in half. For one larger rectangular pizza, leave as is. Sprinkle clean counter top with cornmeal. Place dough on cornmeal and cover with damp kitchen towel. Let rise one hour.

Boil 2 split chicken breast in just enough water to cover. When done remove and cool. When cooled remove skin and bones, cube meat. If you’d like to skip the skin and bones part just cook up 2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts (bake or boil so they’re nice and soft on your pizza) and cube.

Fry up some bacon. Let drain, then crumble. Set aside.

Come back and punch down dough. Get towel moist again and cover dough. Let dough rise one more hour.

Brush a red pepper with olive oil and place on plate.

Cut the top and bottom off an onion, remove skin, slice and place on large piece of aluminum foil. Brush slices with olive oil, sprinkle lightly with kosher salt, and fold foil into packet, leaving small crack at top to vent steam.

Wash and slice several roma tomatoes, brush both sides with olive, sprinkle lightly with kosher salt, and set aside on red pepper plate.

Cut top off head of garlic (two if you really like garlic), so tops of cloves are visible. Place on foil, drizzle with oil, sprinkle lightly with salt, and fold foil into packet.

Bring all your veggies outside to the grill. Spray grill with olive oil. Place packets, tomato slices, and red pepper on grill. Turn tomato slices as first side is nicely grilled, then remove when other is done. Place red pepper over hottest section, turning occasionally and letting each side blacken. When everything is done remove, set aside. Put pepper in paper or ziploc bag to steam.

Wait 5 minutes, remove pepper from bag, peel off skin. Slice the pepper open, remove seeds, then slice into strips. Set aside. Remove garlic cloves from skin, mash with fork, set aside.

Punch dough down again. Rub your hands with a little bit of olive oil and begin stretching dough out. Once you can’t get it any further put it back down on the counter and let it stand for 15 minutes. Come back and finish stretching it the rest of the way into shape.

Brush one side of dough with olive oil, place that side down on the grill. It will begin to puff up quickly. Once that side is almost browned to your liking brush top with olive oil. Use tongs to flip. Here’s the catch to grilling the pizza dough. If the grill is hot enough the pizza dough will grill very quickly, solidifying before it sags through the spaces between the bars. It will however burn easily if you don’t watch it VERY carefully. If it does burn it tends to be easily scraped off the bottom with a knife or fork. If the grill isn’t that hot you are less likely to burn, but the dough will cook around the bars and it can be difficult to remove. If you’d like to take extra precautions you can cook the dough on a cookie sheet placed directly on the grill. It will take longer, but be more forgiving. If you do this I suggest when it’s mostly done placing it directly on the grill for 15-30 seconds on each side before moving on to the next steps.

Once second side is browned, remove to cookie sheet.

While letting grill cool down to medium heat, spread your mashed garlic onto the crust. Spread the alfredo sauce over top of it. Cover with the best quality mozzarella you can find/afford (the better it is the better it will taste, but it’s still great with basic shredded mozz). Do NOT use water packed mozzarella. Your pizza will thank you for it. Place fresh basil leaves over the mozzarella. Sprinkle with parmesan. Place grilled tomato slices, roasted red pepper slices, and caramelized onions on pizza. Add cubed chicken and crumbled bacon. I also add sliced kalamata olives because I’m an olive fiend.

Place back on medium heat grill. Cover and cook until cheese it melted and bubbly.

Remove pizza carefully. Sprinkle with parmesan. Serve. Enjoy the most orgasmic pizza ever.

Recipes

I love cooking. I love that thrill of trying some new recipe, something you’ve never made before. I’m always a little disappointed when it doesn’t turn out or it’s just not to my tastes. But! When something new turns out well, when you take that first bite and you know this a new favorite, and OMG! how did I not know about this, I made something great today. That, my friends, is one of the best feelings in the world.

I bring this up because A: I made this last night. It was AMAZING! I’ve never had the dish at all, let alone made it at home. And, even though chicken and pasta are far from Oliver’s favorites (he complains loudly whenever I announce I’m making one or the other, let alone both), he was blown away by it. We stuffed our faces with it the last two nights. That’s how good it was, he ate leftovers without complaining. He still talked about how great it was. Go forth, make yourself some. Now. Well, not now, because it’s 9:30 at night now, but soon. You will not regret it. Unless you’re vegetarian. Then go make it with some eggplant slices dredged in egg and coated with panko  (japanese bread crumbs). You’ll still thank me.

And, finally, B: Because I’ve come to realize how similar writing and cooking are. Bear with me. You have a recipe for either. I know, I know, everyone hates formulaic fiction. But there’s still a recipe that’s followed in good fiction. You need characterization. Enough to make your characters feel real. And part of that is making sure their motivation is visible and understandable, even if the reader wouldn’t react in the same way. You need worldbuilding. Enough to suck the reader in and make them feel like they’re living in the pages of your book. You need a plot. Even if it’s about a person changing, there still has to be a plot. You need conflict to drive that plot, lest it fizzle out. Proper grammar allows the story you are trying to tell to be understood. There are a dozen more things.

Just like cooking, they can be combined in different quantities for different effects, but there is still a base formula to follow. And just like cooking, when you write something new and it falls flat there is the disappointment. Maybe you can fix it with a few tweaks, maybe the dish needs to be dumped out and remade from scratch (hello, completely rewriting the book), but at least you probably know where you went wrong and have an idea of how to fix it this time. You might not. It might take four or five tries. You might never get it right, or vow never to make it again. Much like me and pork chops until this last year.

But in both writing and cooking, maybe you should give it another shot later on. Don’t give up on something forever. Just because you don’t have the skill to make something now, doesn’t mean you’ll never have the skill needed. In the last five years both my writing and my cooking skills have steadily grown. Every time I do either of them a lot, when I get to the end of a big push I can look back and see how much better I am than I was before.

And just like cooking, when you get it right there’s that stupendous thrill when you take a bite/reread a section and realize, not only did it turn out, but it turned out really well. Especially when it’s something new, some new experiment you have tried before. Fried rice when you’ve never made asian food, or a science fiction short story when you’ve written few short stories and no sci-fi. Man, that feeling really is the best. So off I go, with a belly full of a delicious new recipe, to work on that sci-fi short story that’s turning out better than I ever would have expected.

Pot Roast

Some pot roasts can be dry and gross. But a good, moist roast can be the simplest dish in the world.

Pot Roast

• a 5 pound roast
• 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup
• 1 packet dry onion soup mix
• 1 1/4 cup water
• several tablespoons of flour

Put the roast in a crock pot. Add cream of mushroom soup, onion soup mix, and water. Stir to combine.

Set to low, cook 7-9 hours.

Fifteen to twenty minutes before you're ready to serve dinner, remove roast to platter. Whisk in flour 1 tablespoon at a time until gravy is thickened.

Serve.

Mac 'n' Cheese

My favorite food ever. I've been told I'd grow out of it as an adult, start to like more complex things. And, yeah, I've learned to like a lot more foods as an adult, but nothing will ever replace my beloved mac n cheese. There are a lot of recipes for it that I like, but this is my fallback recipe. The recipe I use when nothing else will do and I just want that delicious creamy familiar comfort food.

Mac 'n' Cheese

Ingredients

• 1 (16 ounce) package elbow macaroni
• 9 tablespoons butter
• 4 cups shredded cheese, I like to combine a few (often cheddar, smoked gouda, parmesan, and some monterrey jack)
• 2 cups cream
• 8 ounces cubed velveta
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 pound bacon
• 1/2 pound sausage (I prefer sage, as always)

Optional

• 1/2 cup crushed potato chip crumbs
• 1 tablespoon butter

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cook the sausage and bacon, set aside on paper towel to soak up as much extra grease as possible.

Bring a pot of water to boil, lightly salted and with 1 tablespoon of butter. Cook the macaroni according to the directions on the package, drain well, and return to pot.

In a saucepan combine the cream and cubed velveta, stirring until the velveta's entirely melted. Continue to let this cook until it begins to boil, making sure to stir often so it doesn't scorch. Once it begins to boil, remove from heat.

Melt 8 tablespoons of butter in the microwave, pour over macaroni, stir.

Pour the shredded cheese into a large bowl and mix until well combined with each type being spread throughout.

Crumble the bacon and sausage.

Pour the cream and velveta mixture over the noodles. Add the shredded cheese, the meats, and the salt, stir thoroughly. Pour into lightly buttered 3 quart casserole dish.

Optional: Crush potato chips, combine 1/2 cups chip crumbs with 1 tablespoon melted butter and sprinkle over the top of the macaroni and cheese.

Bake for 35 minutes or until the top has gotten a little crispy and the cheese is bubbling.

Pasta Casserole

I found this recipe at Allrecipes. I've made it a few times and it's been a nice go to dish when I'm looking for something easy. There are a few changes I've made from the original, but all in all I'd say it's a good dish.

Pizza Casserole

• 16 ounces uncooked pizza noodles
• 1/2 pound ground beef
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 2 cups pepperoni, sliced
• 32 ounces pizza sauce
• 8 tablespoons milk
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook noodles according to package. Drain.

In medium skillet brown ground beef with onion, and garlic, peppers.

Drain excess fat. Stir in noodles, pepperoni, pizza sauce, and milk.

Pour into 2 quart casserole dish. Bake for 20 minutes.

Top with cheese. Bake 5 minutes longer.

Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal Cookies

My father doesn't like oatmeal raisin cookies. So I set out to come up with a recipe for oatmeal cookies that used something other than raisins. Luckily, he and I both LOVE cinnamon apple oatmeal, so I had an idea of what I should make. There are a couple different way to make these cookies. They can be made with cinnamon apple instant oatmeal packets or plain oatmeal and chopped up bits of apple.

Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal Cookies

• 1/4 cup butter if using instant packets, 1/2 cup divided in half if using oatmeal and apples
• 1 cup applesauce
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 egss
• 2 tablespoons vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 tablespoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon salt (I prefer kosher)
• 10 packets apple cinnamon oatmeal or 2 cups plain oatmeal
• 2 cups apples
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

If you're using oatmeal and apples, peel your apples, dice them and put them in a pot with half the butter, cooking until soft. If using instant packets, skip this step.

Mix 1/4 cup butter, applesauce, b rown sugar, eggs, and vanilla.

Mix in flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt.

Mix in oatmeal and apples, or packets. Sometimes at this step I like to chop up a cup or so of dried apple pieces and mix them in for extra apple, but it's not necessary.

Spray a cookie sheet with nonstick spray and drop tablespoons of batter onto it. Bake for 12 minutes. Remove to wire rack to cool.

I've made these a number of times now, and I think I might actually prefer them with the instant oatmeal packets. Make sure you've got a big glass of milk ready to enjoy these with!

Easy and Delicious Lasagna

I love lasagna. It's one of my favorite foods. It will never quite top good mac 'n' cheese, but still, yum. So today I made my Easy and Delicious Lasagna.

Over the years I've tried a lot of lasagna recipes. A lot. In the end I've spackled together all my favorite parts of the recipes I liked and come up with this beauty. Very simple, easy to throw together, you just have to have a little but of time. And boy is it good.

Lasagna

• 2 pounds ground beef
• 1 pound sausage (I prefer sage but usually use italian or mild because of others' preferences)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup onion, minced
• lasagna noodles, 10 or so
• 4 cups canned whole tomatoes, give or take depending on can size
• 2 cups tomatoe paste, give or take depending on can size
• 1 cup water
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons dried oregano
• 2 tablespoons dried basil
• 1 teaspoon salt, I prefer to cook with kosher
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 4 cups cottage cheese
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup parmesan cheese, divided in half
• 1 more teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 1/2 pounds low-moisture mozzarella cheese, sliced or shredded

Start by putting your ground beef, sausage, garlic, and onion in a pan. A large pan.

We cheat in my house, we buy the big  jars of minced garlic. For the amount we go through it saves a lot of time. I also cheated and used a half of cup of dry minced onion from a jar. Feel to chop up an onion if you prefer, I was feeling lazy.   :)

Brown your meat. When it's finished remove most of the fat/grease, leaving just a little behind for flavor.

While you meat is browning, get out a medium to large bowl. Into the bowl pour 2 cups tomato paste and 4 cups whole tomatoes, with liquid.

I like to smush the whole tomatoes with a potato masher so that I still get nice big chunks of them, but not an entire tomato in one bite.

Next, add to the tomatoes: 2 tblsp sugar, 1 tsp salt, 2 tblsp dried basil, 2 tblsp dried oregano, and 1 tsp fennel seeds.

Give it a good stir.

When the meat is browned and you've removed the excess fat, pour the tomato sauce into the pan.

Add one cup of water, stir to combine, simmer for 30-90 minutes. It's all a matter of what you have time/patience for and personal preference, here.

While the meat sauce is simmering, get out a stock pot, fill with water, 1 tsp salt, and 1 tblsp olive oil, set to boil.

When the water's boiling, add lasagna noodle. Cook according the directions on the package. You want to cook these to al dente so they still have a little bit of a bite, we're still going to pop this thing in the oven.

When the noodles are done drain them, rinse with cold water, and set them aside.

Now get out another medium-large bowl.

To the bowl add: 4 cups cottage cheese (I prefer this to ricotta in my lasagna just because I've found it to dry out less then the ricotta while baking), 2 beaten eggs, 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp ground nutmeg.

Give it a good stir.

If you're like me and forgot the ground nutmeg, add it now and give it another stir.

I often forget things in the kitchen and remember to add them later. Sometimes it's too late, but normally they're little things that don't effect the dish too much. Don't stress too much if you forget something little. Most dishes are at least a little forgiving. I've learned to kind of wing it in the kitchen (maybe I spent too much time watching my father cook. He never makes something the same way twice. But it's always delicious, so whatever works)

Once the cottage cheese mixture and noodles are ready check on your meat sauce.  If it's not ready, throw your cottage cheese mix in the fridge until it is and throw a damp kitchen towel directly over the noodles. If it is ready pull out your biggest pan. I like my giant roaster for doing lasagna, but have used a big glass casserole or cake pan in a pinch.

In the pan put down half the lasagna noodles. In my roaster I like to do 4 lengthwise and 1 perpendicular to them at the end. On top of the noodles spread half the cottage cheese mixture. Over the cottage cheese add a half pound of mozzarella cheese. I LOVE fresh mozzarella, but I've found that because it's kept in brine too much of the water comes out in the baking and you end up with water-logged lasagna. That's no good for anyone. It's just better to use the low-moisture stuff. You can use shredded or slices, I've found no real difference. On top of the cheese add half your meat sauce. Repeat once more. On top of the second layer of meat sauce sprinkle 1/2 cup of grated parmesan and then the last 1/2 pound of mozzarella.

You now have a giant pan of delicious.

Cover the pan with aluminum foil.

I like to make this up the night before and pop it into the fridge until it's time to bake it. If you'd rather this can go straight into the fridge after assembly.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes. If you refrigerated this before cooking it could require an extra 5-10 minutes. Pull up the foil and see if everything's starting to look bubbly. If not, give it the extra time. Remove foil and let bake for 5 minutes or until the cheese on top if browning nicely. If the cheese isn't browning up enough I like to turn the broiler on for a few minutes. Make sure you keep a close eye on it though, things can burn quite quickly under the broiler if forgotten.

Remove from oven, let sit for 10 minutes before serving. When you remove the lasagna from the oven, put it on potholders on the counter, never remove an item from the oven and place on the stove top, the stove top will still be quite warm and the dish will keep cooking.

Voila! Easy and Delicious Lasagna!

Pork Chops

Pork chops are one of those things I grew up just never liking. No matter how they were cooked or who cooked them they always seemed dry to me. Which always lead to me drowning them in applesauce just to get through the meal. Unfortunately, despite my distaste for them, I couldn't see to avoid them, my father and O love them. Hence the search for a pork chop recipe I could live with. Turns out it's really simple to make succulent pork chops that melt in your mouth.

Pork Chops

• 1 pack pork chops
• 1 can apple pie filling for every 2-4 pork chops, depending on your preference
• 1 box Stove Top

Pull out a frying pan, a nice cast iron one if you have it. Add a teaspoon or two of oil and place over medium heat. While you pan is heating up, pull out your pork chops. Pat them dry and sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. Frying one at a time, place one in the frying pan. Sear for 1-2 minutes on both sides, until each side has gotten a little golden brown. Place pork chop on a plate and add another to the pan in a different spot. Do this for each pork chop.

Once your pork chops are done, open up you can of apple pie filling and add to frying pan over low heat. Don't let the sugar in the pie filling scorch. Use a spatula to get all the tasty pits from searing the chops. Once you've heated the apple pie filling through and gotten as much of the scraps as possible, pout pie filling into a rectangular casserole dish, spread evenly. Place the pork chops evenly across the pie filling.

Make the Stove Top accroding to the directions. When finsihed spread on top of the pork chops.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25-35 minutes.