Time for Pie?

I admit, I'm not a huge fan of pie because I hate pie crust. I find it bland and greasy. There, I said it! But I will eat pie because of the filling! Oh, the custard and fruit goodness of it all makes me happy. So if you give me pie, please don't be sad if I leave an empty crust on my plate.

This may be the reason that, in addition to the perfect shortbread recipe, pie crust dough perfection still eludes me. I made one of those no fail recipes yesterday for a pie and it FAILED miserably. :( FAIL! I was so sad that I wasted the time and just didn't fork out the dough (hah! dough...) for some frozen Marie Callendar's crusts. Mostly because the filling, which was a fantastic lemon curd topped with a layer of fluffy lemon cake, was nothing short of angelic. Far too good for it's inferior crust.

So if you're a pastry diva, feel free to make your own crust. If not, do as I do and buy a couple of frozen Marie Callendars. At least until I find the perfect recipe...

Lemon Cake Pie
From the Sunset Cookbook

1 9-inch deep dish pie crust, unbaked
1 and 1/2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/3 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
5 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
3 eggs, seperated
1 and 1/4 cups milk

1. Put the rack on the lowest position in your oven.
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
3. In a medium bowl stir together the sugar and melted butter.
4. Stir in the flour, salt, lemon peel and lemon juice.
5. In a small bowl beat the egg yolks with the milk until well blended. Stir into the lemon mixture.
6. Beat the egg whites until they hold distinct but moist peaks. Gently fold the egg whites into the lemon mixture.
7. Set the pie crust on a cookie sheet and pour in the filling.
8. You will have more filling than you need for the pie, so you can pour the extra into greased ramekins and bake them along with the pie.
9. Bake on the lowest rack of the oven until the top is browned and the center jiggles only slightly when the pan is shaken, about 45-55 minutes. If the top begins to brown too much, drape the pie with a piece of tin foil.
10. Let cool before serving. But it's good warm too!

Danged Quesadillas

I know you can buy tortillas at the store or better yet, buy some fresh ones that you cook yourself from places like Costco or Bajio. But if you have some time to kill and want to impress people, plus know what's in your tortillas, this recipe is the way to go, man! They have canola oil in them instead of the traditional lard (lard is not so muy healthy) and they're super tasty. And they're easier than you might think. Depending on the size you make them you'll get about dozen...maybe more! Enjoy!

Recipe from Stacey Diaz in the San Jose Mercury News.

Flour Tortillas Diaz

4 cups flour (I do half white half wheat flour)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 1/2 cups warm water (not HOT)

1. Mix the dry ingredients.
2. Add oil and mix in with fingers.
3. Mixing with your hands, add water a little at a time, until you get a soft dough.
(You should be able to mix in all the dry ingredients, but the dough shouldn't be sticky.You can add in more flour if you add too much water.)
4. On a floured surface, knead the dough for 2- 4 minutes, adding flour if the dough is sticky.
5. Form dough into a ball, cover with towel and place upside down bowl over dough.
6. Let the dough rest for 15-20 minutes. NOTE: the dough will not rise, this just rests the gluten.
7. Heat ungreased griddle to medium-high.
8. Break off golf-ball sized pieces of dough and flatten into 5 inch circles.
On a floured surface roll out tortillas using a back and forth motion, turning the tortilla 1/4 turn after each roll. Flip the tortilla at least once.
9. Place tortilla on hot griddle and cook till bubbles rise (20-25 seconds).
10. Flip and cook on the other side 20-25 seconds. Finished tortillas will be speckled with brown.
11. Place cooked tortillas in a bowl covered and lined with a towels to keep them warm. When you get good you should be able to roll out a tortilla while one on the griddle cooks.

Hot Bar-B-Q, Today!

I was looking for a good way to use boneless chicken breasts that I could just throw in the oven and walk away from. I found this recipe yesterday. I don't know why it's called Tennessee Chicken, but it had a tasty sounding tangy barbecue sauce on it and it looked easy and fairly healthy.

Oh. MY. GOODNESS. This recipe turned out so good...fantastic! I know I put the leftovers in the fridge last night and they're all gone (to work with the husband, I presume). Wee girl is sad because that's all she wanted for lunch. Oh dear! I guess it's a success!

Boneless Tennessee Chicken

6 boneless skinless chicken breasts
salt
pepper
flour
1 medium onion, diced
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup ketchup
1 8 ounce can tomato sauce
4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar or lemon juice
2 teaspoons mustard
4 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
1 cup chicken broth

1. Grease a large skillet with canola oil or pan spray. Heat over medium high heat.
2. Salt and pepper the chicken breasts, dredge in flour. Brown the chicken on both sides in the skillet. (Not cooked all the way through, just browned...they will finish cooking in the oven.) Once browned, put the chicken pieces in a 9x13 baking dish and set aside.
3. Turn the heat down to medium and in the same skillet melt the butter. Cook the diced onion in the butter until brown. Pour in the chicken broth to deglaze the pan (all those browned bits=tasty!) then stir in the ketchup, tomato sauce, vinegar, mustard, brown sugar and worcestershire sauce. Simmer for 15 minutes.
4. While simmering preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
5. Pour the sauce over the chicken and put in the oven to bake for 40 minutes.
6. This can be made earlier in the day and refrigerated until time to bake.

Salad Days

Todays recipe is for Chinese Chicken Salad. Just in time for the Beijing Olympics! (Although I'm sure it's not even close to real Chinese, but it's yummy.) If you buy your chicken pre-cooked, you don't even have to heat up your kitchen.

Now if BigScottishJerk.com would quit eating it all before I could take a picture of it...seriously, we eat an entire salad bowl of the stuff between us. It's SO good.

I'm sure you've all had some incarnation of this salad, but this has more veggies and you can swap out the noodles if you don't want them, but you will need the little flavoring packets that come with the noodles for the dressing. I did notice when I was shopping the other day that Nissin now makes a baked ramen noodle (called Choice Ramen) that has a lot less fat and sodium...and it still tastes pretty much the same...in fact they're slightly crunchier than the fatty ones.

Chinese Ramen Noodle Salad

1 12 ounce bag broccoli slaw mix (Mann's is good)
1/2 head shredded green cabbage
2 packages chicken flavored ramen noodles
2/3 cup roasted sliced almonds (optional)
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup white or rice vinegar
1/2 cup sugar (I sometimes use 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup splenda)
1/8 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
pepper to taste
green onions, finely sliced (optional)
rotisserie chicken, cooled and shredded

1-Open the ramen noodles, set the seasoning packets aside. Put the noodles in a bag and crush them.
2-In a bowl whisk together the oil, vinegar, sugar, onion powder, ginger, pepper and both flavoring packets from the noodles until everything is dissolved.
3-Mix together the slaw mix, cabbage, crushed noodles, almonds and green onions (if using) and shredded chicken in a large bowl.
4-Pour the dressing over the top and toss to coat.
5-Refrigerate 4-6 hours to let the flavors blend (we never make it that long!) Stir again before serving.