Let's talk pies

Traditionally we usually enjoy many different pies on Thanksgiving. I thought I would review some of my favorites but not as many stood out as I thought might. I don't necessarily think I've made a lot of bad pies but I don't think they get judged fairly after a heavy meal.

These are the few I've made (for Thanksgiving and at other times) that I enjoyed the most.

Butterscotch Pie - my brother's favorite but he won't be at Thanksgiving this year so I won't be making it. It's not the traditional butterscotch pie, instead it's made with melted ice cream.




Chocolate Buttermilk Pie - a Sandra Lee recipe but a from-scratch recipe.



Strawberry-Mallow Pie - tastes like a strawberry sundae.



Key Lime Pie




Washington State Granny Smith Apple Pie



Grandpa Boyen’s Famous Belgium Rice Custard Pie - I didn't like the prune layer but I made a substitution for that so it might be better if you follow the recipe.

Gearing up for the holidays

It's not even Thanksgiving and we've already make our annual trek to Candylane at Hersheypark to see Santa. It seems like we're not the only ones getting an early start this year - many people have already decorated, taking advantage of the mild weather we've been having.

I thought this would be a good time to recap my holiday baking recipes. Last year I had three posts:

Holiday Recap 1
Holiday Recap 2
Holiday Recap 3

And here's a review of the new recipes I made for the holidays last year or discovered during 2009:

Elfin Bites - These are so easy and colorful.

Gingerbread Men - I can't wait to make these again. They are a non-traditional gingerbread man made with butterscotch pudding.

Rum Balls - These are a nut-free version that I loved. They are really rum-spiked brownie bites.



Peppermint Bark and Oreo Truffles

Vanilla Popcorn - This is actually something I tested out recently that I might make this year.

Chocolate Malted Cookies - This was a cookie I tried this year that was very good.

Peppermint Patties - I made these for a bake sale and they were so easy to make and they were fantastic. I may make them for Christmas and add green food coloring.

Brown Sugar-Buttermilk Pound Cakes - These mini pound cakes would make great gifts.

Boring but good

Sliced Steak Sensation
Rachael Ray's Book of 10 Copyright 2009

3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons hot sauce
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
1 top-round steak (London Broil),1 to 1 1/2 inches thick, about 2 pounds

Preheat the broiler on high.

Combine the Worcestershire, hot sauce, vinegar, EVOO, and some salt and pepper and coat the steak with the mixture. I let it marinate all day. Put the steak on a broiler pan and situate the pan on the rack closest to the flame; broil for 6 minutes per side. Remove the steak from the broiler and all ow to rest for 5 minutes, tented with a piece of aluminum foil. Then slice it thinly against the grain to serve.
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This is not much different from any of the other London Broil recipes I've tried, delicious but you've seen it before. It probably wasn't even worth mentioning again except to demonstrate that Rachael Ray occasionally does have a short ingredient list for a recipe. She listed this in the entertainment section of this book. It's a great recipe to entertain with because if you use the proper thickness of meat (and most top round where I shop is cut in the thickness that this recipe calls for), and follow the cooking instructions, the meat comes out beautifully. What you see is 6 minutes per side exactly (and those are slices from the center of the steak - the rarest section).

I was going to say that there isn't really anything else you can do with this cut of meat (besides marinate and cook to medium rare, at most) but then I remembered that I've used it in stir-fries with good results. In an only slight twist, this cut is also good to slice first, marinate, thread on skewers, and then broil or grill. It's too lean to cook it for very long, in my opinion.

I'm not sure what next week will hold for this blog. If I have time to make new recipes, I may not have time to blog about them but we'll see.

Question of the Day: Do you realize that there are only 6 more weeks left of 2009?????

Rediscovering an ignored cookbook

Tangy Pineapple Chicken
Better Homes and Gardens Biggest Book of Slow Cooker Recipes Volume 2

1 tablespoon cooking oil
2 pounds, skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch strips
1 20-ounce can pineapple tidbits (juice pack), drained
1 large red sweet pepper, chopped
½ cup bottled barbecue sauce
¼ cup clean Italian dressing
2 teaspoons dried oregano, crushed

1. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Cook chicken, half at a time, in hot oil until brown. Drain off fat.
2. Place chicken in a 3 ½- or 4- quart slow cooker. Top with pineapple and sweet pepper. In a small bowl combine barbecue sauce, Italian salad dressing, and oregano. Pour mixture over chicken in slow cooker.
3. Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 5 or 6 hours or on high-heat setting for 2 ½ to 3 hours.
Makes 6 servings.

Per serving: 314 cal, 12g fat, 121 mg chol, 436 mg sodium, 20g carbs, 2g fiber, 31g protein
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I had sort of put this cookbook (and Volume 1) to the side. I did make a couple of minor successes from them, and one slight but not brutal disappointment. Sometimes a cookbook may not excite me at one point in time, but then I rediscover it later, which is what happened here. I realized these cookbooks had several boneless, skinless chicken thigh recipes. I wasn't interested in recipes for those when I first bought these books but now I'm very interested.

I thought this was going to be an 'eh' recipe but I found it very pleasing after all. Although my red pepper was a bit bitter. I find that to be the case with colored peppers (besides green) every now and then. They are generally milder and sweeter than green peppers but I often get colored peppers with a strange bitter taste. It didn't ruin the dish but I would prefer not to have that taste in my peppers. You could even use a jar of pimientos in this recipe.

This is not Asian at all - I'm not sure why I went with ramen and egg rolls. It just seemed like the right thing to do and it worked. I made it a couple of days ahead of time. I think this is one of those recipes that benefits from being made ahead of time.

So right now I'm stoked about using chicken thighs in the slow cooker. One thing that has never worked for me is chicken breasts in the slow cooker but I may go back and replace chicken breasts with chicken thighs in the chicken breast recipes I used to ignore.

I'll add this to my boneless, skinless chicken thigh recipe round-up.

Question of the Day: Do you know what I mean by that funny taste colored peppers can get or am I the only one experiencing this?

Cookbook Suggestions

With the holidays around the corner, I thought I'd put together some cookbook gift suggestions. I haven't seen every cookbook out there so these recommendations are based on books that I personally own or have checked out of the library.

I can't really do this list justice in one sitting. I'll probably tweak this post every so often. This is just a start. Pleast add your own suggestions in the comment sections.

Cookbooks with a little bit of everything:
The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook -This is one of my favorite cookbooks. It's very detailed oriented which makes it great for beginners but more experienced cooks can just ignore the extraneous information.

Taste of Home Cooks Who Care Edition - Any version of this cookbook is great but this particular version sends a nice message to caregivers of any sort.

For Food Network Fans:
I have to warn you that Rachael Ray books can be a bit intimidating. The ingredient lists are long but the recipes themselves usually aren't too involved. I also find that some of her books are much better than others. My two favorites are Rachael Ray's Big Orange Book and Rachael Ray's Book of Ten.

Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and More Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. I love these books. They bring the show to book form and there are a lot of great recipes in them too. Not all or even close to all of the recipes they show on screen make it into the book but it's still a good representation.

The Deen Bros. Y’All Come Eat - Great recipes and photographs.

Something from Giada - I haven't seen the New Family Favorite book but her books are usually consistently good.

For people who love to bake:
Dorie Greenspan Baking from My Home to Yours - the hottest baking book of the decade
Martha Stewart Cupcakes - who doesn't love cupcakes?
Martha Stewart Cookies -lots of cookie recipes and organized really well
Any King Arthur book - whether it's the Baking Companion, Cookie or whole-grain version, you can't go wrong
America’s Best Lost Recipes - I love this collection of old-fashioned recipes

Slow cooker cookbooks (maybe you can give a slow cooker and a cookbook. There are lots of slow cooker cookbooks and some are better than others):
Fix-It and Forget-It Big Cookbook - This is a no-nonsense mainly homestyle collection of recipes. It's organized better than the smaller Fix-It and Forget-It cookbook.

anything by Judith Finlayson. Here recipes require more prep work but they are more nuanced than the Fix-It and Forget-It cookbooks - sort of gourmet crockpotting.

For those trying to eat healthier:
Cooking Light Annuals. These are great. I've noticed a difference after 2007 (recipes getting more upscale) but these annuals are still one of the best sources of lighter recipes.

Biggest Loser cookbooks. The Biggest Loser Cookbook and The Biggest Loser Family Cookbook are great for people who are seriously dieting but if you know a person who is a big fan of the show, even if they are in full diet-mode, they may still enjoy these books since they have a lot of pictures of the contestants and other helpful information to get someone started.

The Most Decadent Diet Ever - same author as the Biggest Loser cookbooks. The recipes are a step up from the Biggest Loser cookbooks but still easy to follow and mostly based on common foods most people enjoy, just lightened up.

Just one of my personal favorites:
Food and Wine's Quick From Scratch series - these are some of my favorite cookbooks. The recipes are not run-of-the-mill yet not too fancy and they're not complicated.