More belt tightening

Basic Food Processor Pie Crust
Big Kitchen Instruction Book Copyright 1998

1 ¼ cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons very cold butter
2 tablespoons very cold shortening
¼ cup ice water

Put flour and salt in the bowl of the food processor. Pulse 1-2 times to blend. Add butter and shortening, cut into small chunks. Pulse 4-5 times, until mixture resembles coarse meal. Sprinkle on 1 ½ tablespoons of the water and pulse twice. Repeat with another 1 ½ tablespoons of the water. Finally pulse in the last tablespoon of water. Do not overmix or the dough will become tough. Form dough into a ball and wrap in plastic. Handle it as little as possible. Refrigerate for 30-35 minutes before rolling out. Do not double this recipe.

Makes 1 9-inch pie crust.
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My mother-in-law wanted to give us eggs even though I already had two dozen at home. I don't usually cook eggs for dinner due to my son's egg allergy but that allergy is likely out-grown and I knew he wouldn't eat it anyway. He doesn't always eat what I make so why not add egg-centric entrees back to our rotation?

I pulled out an old favorite, Quiche Lorraine. As part of my money-saving plan, I didn't want to buy the pie crust so I found this simple little recipe. It was very easy to put this dough together and it rolled out nicely. It doesn't really star in this recipe so I can't tell you whether or not it's a great pie crust but it served it's purpose here.

Not much else to say. There is something making it's way through our house and food is not all that appealing to me right now.

Question of the Day: What's the last thing you did to save money?

Back to basics

Green Onion Dressing
The Practical Produce Cookbook Copyright 1997

1 ½ c. mayonnaise or salad dressing
½ c. chopped parsley or 1 T. dried parsley
1/3 c. finely chopped green onion
¼ c. light syrup
2 T. lemon juice
1 T. Worcestershire sauce
¼ tsp. pepper

Combine all ingredients. Mix well. Cover and chill. Makes 2 cups.
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For a while we were only eating homemade dressing but somewhere along the way I went back to bottled dressings. Some of them are quite good, others aren't. I find that the creamy style bottled dressings usually aren't as good as I would like.

I made a half-batch of this recipe and I liked it quite a bit. The ingredients really came together nicely. I'm realizing how much I enjoy the flavor of green onions. I need to find more recipes that use them.

I did a lot better on groceries last week. I've been paying for two children in daycare for over 7 months, with about 5 more months to go. It's painful to write that check every week (although the center I use is worth every penny and I'll be very sad when my son leaves it for kindergarten). Push has come to shove in our household. I can't just pick up bottles of salad dressing willy-nilly anymore. I may even start making croutons again (yes, yes I've been buying those too). I even buy storebrand mayo instead of Hellman's (yes, it's that bad).

Question of the Day: What type of onion do you use the most? I actually use sweet onions the most. If a recipe calls for a yellow onion, I've used a sweet onion. I haven't purchased regular yellow onions in years. The sweet ones don't make me cry.

Oops!

I was working so hard on getting back on track and I forgot to upload the picture and recipe that I planned to blog about today. I'm not at that computer anymore. Darn.

My first rhubarb

Streusel Rhubarb Cake
The Practical Produce Cookbook Copyright 1997

2 c. flour
½ c. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
¼ c. butter
1 c. milk
1 egg
4 c. sliced rhubarb I diced it
3 T. strawberry or raspberry gelatin I used 'wild strawberry' flavor
¾ c. sugar
½ c. flour
½ c. rolled oats
¼ c. butter

Combine first seven ingredients. Blend 1 minute at low speed; beat 2 minutes at medium speed. Spread into a buttered 9x13-inch pan. Top batter with rhubarb; sprinkle with gelatin. I tossed the gelatin with the rhubarb before putting the rhubarb on the batter. In small bowl, combine remaining sugar, flour and oats. Cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over rhubarb mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes. Serve warm or cooled, topped with whipped cream, if desired.
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I heard that rhubard was in season but on my first trip to 'Auction' (local farmer's market) this year, there was none to be found. I don't get there until late in the day so it was probably sold out or maybe I just missed it. I really wasn't planning on buying any.

On Saturday I visited a few farm markets in another area and picked some up, with no idea of how I would use it. It just looked too good to pass up. Luckily, I also picked up this cookbook, The Practical Produce Cookbook, at the market where I bought the rhubard. There were many cookbooks there but there I was, standing in a produce market right at the beginning of the produce season in this area. I really didn't have to think too much before decided on this cookbook.

This may be my first rhubarb ever. I remember seeing a rhubarb pie back in my teens but I can't recall whether or not I ate any of it. I've seen rhubard in past seasons but I didn't feel compelled to buy any. It's something that is only seen during it's season so I only had to walk past it a few times and then it was gone until next year.

I managed to buy exactly enough rhubard for this recipe. The rhubard breaks down quite a bit. I wasn't sure if this would work - the rhubard was quite tart - but it did. The streusel topping wasn't my favorite. It tasted fine but it didn't quite all come together. I may not have blended it properly. It seemed like the sugar all ended up on the bottom of the bowl which then ended up on top of the cake. The rhubarb gives off a lot of liquid which seeped into the streusel by the next morning when I took it to work. If you like a crunchy topping, you need to eat this right away.

I'm not sure what to think of rhubard. I liked the tartness of it but I don't know if it had much flavor besides that. Was I tasting rhubard or the strawberry flavor from the gelatin? I think you could put just about anything between cake and streusel and it would taste good so I'm not sure that this recipe highlighted this fruit (or is this a vegetable?) I may have to experiment a bit more.

Question of the Day: What do you think of rhubard?

P.S I'm still working on the decor around here. It seems like a step backwards but I had been working with an old template that I customized myself (messily, right in the code) which prevented me from adding gadgets and all that fun stuff that Blogger now offers. I'm always the last one to get on board with anything.

Redecorating

Pardon my dust while I try to spiff up this joint.

P.S. If I used to link to your blog and I don't now it's only because Blogger lost some of my links. I have them saved on my other computer which I won't get to until Monday. It's nothing personal!