chickenless chicken pot pie

yesterday i did nothing but watch season 2 of californication. it's such a good show. love it.

but when 530 rolled around i knew raul would be home soon and i needed to make dinner. it's the least i can do when i sit around all day and he works at a job he hates. seriously, the least.

so while i was watching alton brown my favorite molecular gastronomer he told me that i should make chicken pot pie so i did.

i went to august where awkward guy was working. i saw that they had carrots (out of season i buy carrots from an organic distributor called goodness greeness. i'm usually just a season eater but i've met the guy from goodness greeness and he has kids etc.) so i grabbed some carrots, a few waxy potatoes, some flour, one onion, chives and some cheese.

**a word about potatoes. waxy potatoes can be white or red but they are different from russet potatoes which are mealy. waxy potatoes hold their shape when cooked. they're still soft but they're not mushy. russet potatoes are what you use for mashed potatoes because they don't hold their shape. so for stews and other long cooking use waxy so you don't have a pile of mashed potatoes at the bottom**

3 carrots, chopped
1/2 yellow onion, minced
3 small waxy potatoes, chopped - about same size as carrots
3 tbs butter
1/3 cup flour
4 cups chicken stock
salt n' peppa to taste

biscuit dough
2 cups flour
1 tbs baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar

1/2 cup cold milk
7 tbs cold butter, sliced
1 tsp lemon zest
1/3 cup cheddar cheese
1/4 cup chives, chopped

first, the fillings.
in a sauce pan melt the butter. sautee potatoes and carrots for a while. then add onions. cook until onions start to brown - not that long.
add flour and stir well.
add chicken stock and cook until very thick. set aside.

preheat your oven to 450

the biscuit!
in a large bowl mix flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
incorporate 2 tbs butter until it's completely mixed in. (that means smash the butter with your hands until it's in tiny little pieces mixed into the dough)
take the rest of the butter and do the same thing except you want the pieces to be pea sized not completely gone.
add lemon zest to the milk and add the milk to the bowl.
add chives and cheese on top of that.
mix until it makes a loose dough.
on a floured surface pat out the dough out into a flatter shape

now the tricky part.

transfer your filling to a glass baking dish. that's easy.
you can do the biscuits two ways:

1. transfer the whole piece of dough to cover the dish and seal in the juices - like a top crust of a pie. then cut a hole in the top so it doesn't explode.

2. you can break off pieces of your dough and place them in the fillings making sure to cover the whole thing. there will be spaces between and you'll see the filling but make sure everyone will get a piece of biscuit.

i did it the second way, i think the biscuits soak up the juices better this way and ugh just taste so good.

put the whole thing in the 'fridge for 5-10 minutes.

bake for 20 minutes and let it rest for 5 minutes before you eat it.

i loved it and so did raul (he had seconds!) and you'll never miss the chicken.

love,
keighty

cookies cookies cookies

in honour of the holidays here are two great cookie recipes.

sugar cookies.

classic. delicious. can't picture christmas without them.

3 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

cream butter and sugar. add eggs one at a time. add vanilla. add dry mixture in slowly. scape the bowl and make sure everything is mixed well.

cut dough into two pieces. flatten into disks, wrap in plastic and put in the 'fridge for 12 hours.
after the long wait, leave the dough out on the table for about 30 minutes to get it warmed up. on a WELL floured surface (it's sticky!) roll out the dough. make sure that your rolling pin or wine bottle (i didn't have a rolling pin of my own until this year, prior, i've always used a wine bottle - whatever works!) is well floured too.
cut the dough with adorable cookie cutters that your mom bought and shipped to you. they're all cute except that one that i don't know what it is - it may be a santa hat but i'm not sure. i don't use that one.

bake on a un-greased cookie sheet at 350 for 8-10 minutes. when the edges are starting to get brown take them out. give them a few minutes to rest on the pan, then put them on a cooling rack to, you know, cool. keep doing that until all the dough is gone or you've eaten so much that you have a stomach ache.

you can also freeze the dough for later. and this isn't like pie dough so you can roll it out as many times as you want!

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pecan shortbread linzer cookies!

my dad, who doesn't like cookies (i know, what a freak), ate all of these. all. ray had one and that was it. so these are good. and they look super fancy so your friends will think you're the best.

1/2 cup pecans, chopped
1/4 cup sugar
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
20 tbs butter (2 1/2 sticks) softened
1 cup 10x sugar (powdered sugar), plus extra!
1 tsp vanilla
raspberry jam
fluted biscuit cutters - two sizes (depending on how big you want the cookies: a big size and little size for the cut out)

in a food processor, pulse pecans and sugar to make a coarse meal. save that.
mix dry ingredients. save that.
cream butter. once it's creamy add 10x sugar.
once it's mixed together well add pecan mix and vanilla. - mix well!
then add dry mixture slowly.
mix on high until the dough becomes a homogenous mass of deliciousness.

**if your dough is not becoming a mass and is just crumbly, add a tiny bit of water to the mixer. it should then start sticking together. only use a little at a time though!!**

cut the dough in half, flatten, cover with plastic and put in the 'fridge for 2 hours.

preheat the oven to 350.
you can line your sheet pans with parchment paper or you can use a silpat mat. these are like reusable parchment. they're kind of greasy so nothing sticks to them and you don't have to throw it away. totally worth it for cookie makers. you can get them at any cooking store. probably target too, but i'm not sure.

on a floured surface, roll out the dough. it will be hard to roll out because there's not a lot of liquid in this dough. it'll crack but that's ok.

with fluted biscuit cutters cut out the cookies. then on every other cookie cut out the middle.   (save the middles! they make tiny cookies that you can roll in 10x sugar and gobble up)

bake them for 16 minutes - turning them around half way through.

let them cool completely.
keep doing this until all the dough is used up. or again, you can freeze it for later.

take all the tops (the ones with the hole in the middle) and line them up on a sheet pan (cooled!). in a wire sieve dust them completely with 10x sugar until they're totally coated.
with the other halves spread a bit of raspberry jam in the middle of the cookie. you can leave the edges clear so it doesn't drip out everywhere.
then put the two pieces together for a fancy beautiful sandwich cookie.

they're so good. you may have to make extra to make up for the fact that you're going to eat about half of them before you're ready to give them out.

cookies are a good way to say, 'i wanted to remember you at christmas but i have no money to buy you that wii you wanted.' plus this is, for some reason, the one time of year that's it's socially acceptable to eat everything you see - which around christmas, is pretty much just cookies.

joyeux noel.

love,
keighty

pound cake for dessert

pound cake used to be made by using a pound of all the ingredients, hence it's name. but now we don't need the biggest cake ever. we can do with a little version. 

this is my fall twist on regular pound cake. it's not different at all except i use braised cranberries and pumpkin seeds on top. fancy.

1 1.5 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup sugar

1 cup butter, softened

4 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

.25 cup lemon juice

1.5 cup cranberries

.5 cup toasted pumpkin seeds (remember you pumpkin soup?!)

mix dry ingredients.

cream butter and sugar. add eggs, one at a time. add vanilla.

add dry to wet in small batches. 

add lemon juice. 

pour into a well greased loaf pan. 

bake at 350. 

check the cake at 30 minutes. if the knife comes out clean, take it out. 

if not, keep checking every ten minutes until it's been an hour. it should be done by then. 

(i don't know if it's the crookedness of my kitchen or the way my oven leans but my loaf took 30 minutes...)

in the meantime get your cranberries and your extra 1/3 cup of sugar and start braising. put both in a lidded sauce pan on low heat. there's not liquid now but the cranberries will make some. let that cook for a while. 

get your pumpkin seeds and if you haven't already toasted them, do so. spread them out on a sheet pan, drizzle with olive oil and salt. bake at 350 with the pound cake in there until crispy. 

check on your cranberries, stirring all the time so it doesn't burn. 

once the cake is done. take out of the oven and turn the pan on it's side to cool. that will make it easier to get the loaf out. even if you fill the whole thing up with butter it'll still want to stick. something about those sassy pound cakes that don't want to do what they're supposed to. 

now you can add them all together. 

serve a slice of pound cake and drizzle the cranberry sauce on top. sprinkle with few seeds. ta da! fabulous dessert. 

a good pound cake is something that you should know because it can be fancy and good moist cake is always a hit, whatever you put on it. 

happy new year everyone. 

love,

keighty

pumpkin soup

my stock pile for the winter is getting low but i think i did ok for my first year. but one thing i had a lot of was pumpkins.

i made a pumpkin pie that didn't taste good but other than that i use my pumpkins for soup!

when raul doesn't like something he doesn't eat it and when i'm done quickly offers to do the dishes so he can throw away his food. that is to say that he doesn't do that with this soup. he even gets seconds!

1 small cooking pumpkin (not the biggest jack-o-latern you can find, those are not that good tasting since they're so big. hint. get it in your produce section not somewhere that has pony rides)
6 cups of chicken stock
3 big dashes of nutmeg
1 onion minced
 salt and pepper
annci di peppe pasta (they're tiny tiny pieces of pasta, a little bigger than a rice grain - in your pasta aisle)

chop pumpkin up and scoop out the seeds. save them for later!
start boiling the chicken stock. drop the pumpkin pieces in there and let them cook a little. pumpkins are really hard to peel so letting them cook for a while until they're tender lets the rind come off really easily once they're cooled.
when they're ready take them out and save the stock in the pot. let them cool for a little bit then just take the rind off - easy! much better than struggling to slice it off. this way you get still get all the meat.
in a sautee pan sautee onions and garlic for a short while.
add the pumpkin, onion and garlic back to the stock. and simmer for a while.

if you have an immersion blender:
simply blend all the ingredients together in the pot until smooth.

if you have a regular blender:
strain all the ingredients out of the stock. again, save the stock. let the ingredients cool slightly. in batches, puree them in the blender and add back to the soup. whisk together for a good incorporation.

if you have neither of those things:
use a potato masher to mash up the pumpkin chunks. your soup won't be a puree but it'll still taste good. whisk together to make sure they're all incorporated.

for seasoning you have to add a little then taste it. salt is one thing i've had a problem with. it doesn't need as much as you think. nutmeg too. if you put half the bottle in there it'll taste like a gingerbread cookie (and not in a good way). just carefully add your seasonings.

now you can add the pasta. pasta gets bigger so don't add too much. after a few minutes of cooking stir the pot. the pasta can get caught in the pumpkin fibers and sink to the bottom in a clump. make sure they don't stay there and burn.

taste a piece of pasta and make sure it's cook. once they are, stir the pot one more time and serve with delicious bread!

you can save this soup too and it reheats really well!

love,
keighty

new internet, new recipes.

so in the winter it's hard to find good tomatoes. no, it's impossible because they're not in season. but canned tomatoes are a good replacement. i found a nice company that's from western illinois that cans their tomatoes in season and has a nice happy old school italian clown on the front.

that story is necessary because today we're making pasta sauce!

1 lrg can of tomatoes (3 fresh tomatoes, pureed, only if you're in california)
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 chicken stock
dash of nutmeg
1/16 of a cup of white wine (a little like than 1/4 - eyeball it)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 onion, minced
2 tbs olive oil
2 big pinches of sugar
salt and pepper to taste

in a sauce pan heat up olive oil. add garlic and onion. sautee until onion is wilted but before garlic gets too brown.
add everything but the nutmeg, sugar, salt and pepper. make sure to whisk in the sour cream since it's thick. you don't want sour cream chunks...
on a low heat, simmer that for a while.
taste it. is it too salty or bitter? add sugar until it tastes right, one pinch at a time
too sweet now? add more wine.
salt and pepper it at the end and let it simmer until it's served.

serve it with curly pasta to catch all the goodness it's their ridges.

this sauce can be frozen too. so you can make a lot and have it when you need it!

love,
keighty