Classic American - Apple Pie

We were invited to a BBQ at a friends Dad's house. I always feel you should bring something to this sort of event, be it wine or food. So I offered to bring deserts.

I made a very easy fruit salad, though I must say I was disapointed with the strawberries I got at Morrisons! I've been spoiled by the strawberry farm up the road. I also made Lemon Drizzel cup cakes and the ultimate, Apple Pie.

Apple pie is one of the American favorites, so bramley apple pie eat your heart out.

For the Americans, apple pie over this side of the atlantic doesn't really have cinnamon in it.... and my mother in law made it from a can once. A CAN. The horror.

All 8 people at the BBQ loved the apple pie.

So here is my recipe, the pie crust is a new recipe but I have to say it is amazing and it adds to my cooking with alchohol idea !

Vodka Pie Crust

2 1/2 cups plain flour
2 tbs sugar
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter
1/2 cup vegetable shortening (make sure this is at room temperature)

1/4 cup cold water
3 tbs vodka

Mix together gently, make into two balls and put in the fridge for 1 hour.

When ready, roll out on a floured surface and place in pie plate etc.

Apple Pie

1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup plain flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
6-8 medium apples (I use granny smith)
1/2 cup sultanas (optional - its the only way I can get my husband to eat this)
2 tbs butter

Peal, core and cut apples into slices. Mix everything else but the butter. Pour into prepared pie plate.

Crumble butter over top apple mixture and then place pie crust on top.

Bake at 425F for 40 - 50 minutes

Optional Cream topping

1 package of cream cheese
1 container of double cream
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp icing sugar

Mix with mixer on high speed for about 4 minutes.

Cinnamon Tastic

One of my favorite breakfasts is cinnamon rolls, specifically Pillsbury Cinnamon rolls.


For the English who don't have them, they're lovely cinnamon buns with icing. They come in a tube and all you have to do is put them in a pan and put the icing on and bake for 20 minutes.

Sadly they are not sold in England so I haven't had them in 5+ years.

After two failed attempts to make them myself I found a recipe using the breadmaker. Which has worked very well for my first attempt, I did however find that the original baking time was too long.

Ingredients:

1 cup milk
1 large egg
4 tablespoons butter or margarine
3 1/3 cups bread flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons active dry yeast or 1-1/2 teaspoons bread machine/ rapid rise yeast
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Filling:
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon


Preparation:
Add ingredients to bread machine as recommended by manufacturer. Program maker for the dough cycle. When cycle is done, place dough on floured surface. Knead dough about 1 minute, then let rest 15 minutes. Roll dough into a rectangle, about 15 x 10 inches. Spread 1/4 cup melted butter over dough to within 1 inch of edges, Then sprinkle 1/4 cup sugar, the cinnamon evenly over dough. Roll dough up tightly on long side. Press edges to seal and form into a 12-inch long, evenly shaped roll. With a knife or 8 inch long piece of dental floss, cut roll into 1 inch pieces. Place rolls cut side down into a greased 13 x 9 inch baking pan. Cover and let rise in warm, draft free place until double in size, about 30 to 45 minutes.

Bake in preheated 375 degrees F oven for 10 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool in pan on rack for 10 to 15 minutes, then drizzle with powdered sugar icing made by combining 1 cup powdered sugar with 1 to 2 tablespoons milk and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla. Blend until smooth. If too thin or too thick, add more powdered sugar or milk, respectively, until desired consistency is reached. Cut apart and remove from pan.

Discovering Chutney

Growing up with my family they avoided a lot of Asian and Indian foods. I only had Chinese food once in a blue moon when Dad wasn't in the house and Mom wanted Shrimp Chow Mien with crunchy noodles. Indian food I hadn't heard of until I came to the UK and tried a Red Curry, thinking red meant the type of veggies used. Thankfully Mark had gotten a Green Curry which helped (I mixed them together).

We started going to Curry Restaurants in Leeds our favorite is Nawabb right near where I work. And they always ask if we would like poppadoms and they came with a plate of about 6 types of chutney. Of course I always had to try them all, some are creamy others spicy. My favorite is Mango Chutney as it's sweet.



Yesterday I decided that I was going to make a curry for dinner and thought a poppadom/chutney plate would be an perfect addition. However we have never owned chutney and I'm sure my Branston Pickle idea as a substitute wouldn't have gone down well. Off to Morrisons (a grocery store near Mark's work) and I purchased three types of chutney and some poppadoms.



I decided to go with the Morrison's brand and got Tomato, Onion and Fruit. The tomato one is a bit bland, it's not bad but it's not amazing either. The onion one is sweeter than I expected and looked to have mustard seeds in it. The Fruit one said it contained apple, mango & raisins, it was pretty darn good. I could probably eat the whole jar given half a chance.

However all three jars said you could put these on sandwiches.... Which seems a bit strange. I will however attempt to have some with wraps over the weekend.

BTW from my limited experience home made tomato chutney is way better than store bought. I really should have asked Jen & Jack for a jar when I was in Nottingham last. Oh well, live and learn!

Quiche

I’d never heard of quiche until I came to the UK. I had however heard of eggy pie (the American version depending on where you live) but I’d never had it.

However my mother in law introduced me to quiche and I do like it. Quiche is all about what you put in it.

My favourite is mushroom, but I like peppers as well and sometimes onion. Mark likes it with bacon as well as mushroom & onion.

I think the key to a good quiche is the egg to cheese ratio. Otherwise it’s too eggy.

So here is the recipe that my mother in law passed onto me that’s worked every time (except the first time I didn’t cook the mushrooms first!).

Quiche Pastry

¼ cup lard (at room temperature) or Crisco
½ cup self raising flour
1 table spoon milk
1 table spoon water

Mix the above together in a bowl until it holds together, the lard should be at a temperature that will allow you to blend it (otherwise it’s hard as rock).

Chill in the fridge for 1 hour (this helps when it’s time to roll it out).

Once the hour is up, roll pastry out onto a floured surface and place into quiche pan or shallow pie pan.

Quiche

3 eggs
1 cup of milk
1 cup of grated cheddar cheese

Mix the eggs and milk with a whisk.

If you want anything else, onions, mushrooms, bacon etc make sure it has been cooked first before putting into the quiche otherwise it won’t work.

Pour into prepared quiche pan. Sprinkle grated cheese on top.

Bake at 200C for 20 to 30 minutes. Let rest for about 5 minutes before serving if you’re having it hot. This can be eaten cold as well.

Bread!

Every once in a while I remember I have a bread maker. In fact I have a recipe I'm dying to try using it but I never seem to have everything I need. Today wasn't an exception.

Instead of cinnamon rolls I'm baking Cinnamon Raisin Bread. Sadly the recipe I originally used for this as gone AWOL so after a google search I've decided to make the following one.

Which turned out very well, I think I need to adjust where I put the breadmaker as all the raisins ended up on one side of the bread. Still, very yummy!

Ingredients

1 cup water
2 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
3 cups Gold Medal® Better for Bread™ flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast
3/4 cup raisins

How to make it

Measure carefully, placing all ingredients except raisins in bread machine pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Add raisins at the Raisin/Nut signal or 5 to 10 minutes before last kneading cycle ends.

Select Sweet or Basic/White cycle. Use Medium or Light crust color. Remove baked bread from pan and cool on wire rack.

Smokin’

Nearly two weeks ago I was defrosting ground beef in the microwave and at 19 seconds left smoke poured out of the top.

It took it 7 plus years but we finally killed the microwave without really trying. So I thought why not try to live without one. See how long I could go.

I didn’t think it would be hard, I tend to use the microwave to defrost, heat up, melt butter and make oatmeal.

The first week seemed the hardest, remembering that I would have to add about 30 minutes to heat up food wasn’t easy. The other problem being what can and can’t you heat up in the oven without killing it.

Week two I remembered aluminum foil, which has helped the warming up process a lot.

However I’m still not 100% comfortable without the microwave. But I will continue trying. I may even attempt making oatmeal on the stove (I’m sure it’s possible).

-Sabrina