Wow. How did it get to to be February already? And not just February, but *mid* February? It's a dreary, cloudy day, and both the philosopher and I are fighting bronchitis and a sinus infection. ::sigh:: At least we have a quiet weekend in front of us to rest and recover.
The big news of course, is Selling Brown: if all goes according to plan, we will close on our house in Alabama next Saturday. The buyers are doing a final walkthrough this weekend, so we are extremely hopeful that by the end of the month we'll no longer be property owners in Alabama! (And yea, verily, that is a Good Thing.)
In tasty news, I have discovered a crazy-sounding but absolutely yummy soup recipe involving red lentils, sweet potatoes, and an apple. Before you turn up your nose, you should try it. It's reminiscent of butternut squash, but with a savor and spice that is just delightful on a cold winter night!
In gardening news, I have finally transplanted almost all the plants I dug up around Brown. My grandma's roses, bulbs, irises, canas, hostas, and lily of the valley are all in the ground now. The only thing left are the sweet shrubs, and since I haven't quite decided where to put them they'll have to wait a little while longer. It's been so warm that the daffodils have already come up, so now we're hoping there's no deep cold that comes through to kill them off before they bloom. Crazy weather, indeed!
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Laugh or cry?
Back sometime around the first of the year, I blogged about starting to eat healthier. And generally, I do. I don't think I get my FIVE daily servings of fruits and veggies every day, but I get close enough to feel fine about my consumption. And I've definitely reduced the amount of fat and sugar and salt - (but I was doing that before, so can I count that as an improvement in my diet)?? Anyway, I'm feeling pretty good, and as I approach Middle Age (curses be upon it, ack-phtooie) I'm still managing to keep my weight at a constant level. Now of course the holidays are right around the corner - What? Yeah I know it's three months away, but have you been to Hobby Lobby recently? - anyway, we'll see how I do then.
Along those lines, I'm sure many of y'all have heard of Mrs. Obama's healthy eating campaign. So she's got to be a bit distressed to hear about a recent Gallup poll that asked 175,000 Americans whether they had easy access to fresh fruits and veggies (92% said yes) and whether they actually ate the recommended daily servings (46% said yes).
Oops. So the LA Times has a great (and a bit sarcastic!) article about what this poll really means. The author's conclusion? We don't wanna! ::heh:: I suppose I have a bit of libertarian streak in me - I don't want to be told what to eat, but once I decide for myself, it's a goal I can keep.
Along those lines, I'm sure many of y'all have heard of Mrs. Obama's healthy eating campaign. So she's got to be a bit distressed to hear about a recent Gallup poll that asked 175,000 Americans whether they had easy access to fresh fruits and veggies (92% said yes) and whether they actually ate the recommended daily servings (46% said yes).
Oops. So the LA Times has a great (and a bit sarcastic!) article about what this poll really means. The author's conclusion? We don't wanna! ::heh:: I suppose I have a bit of libertarian streak in me - I don't want to be told what to eat, but once I decide for myself, it's a goal I can keep.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Blueberry Pie - it's what's for dinner!
Well, ok. It's not really for dinner - it's for dessert. But you know what I mean. ::grin:: And it's - pardon the expression - easy as pie to make! It took me all of 10 minutes to whip together, and that included washing the berries and crumbing the topping.
Here's the recipe, for you adventurous souls!
Filling Ingredients
1 graham cracker pie crust
4 c fresh or frozen blueberries (fresh are better!!!)
1/3 c sugar
1/3 c granulated Splenda (not the packets, but the stuff found in the baking aisle)
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t allspice
7 T corn starch
3 T water
2 T lemon juice
Topping Ingredients
1/4 c granulated Splenda
1/4 c sugar
1/2 c all purpose flour
1/4 c butter or smart balance margarine
As Alton Brown would say, let's assemble the hardware and software.
For the filling:
1. Place the blueberries (washed and drained, mind you) in the pie crust
2. Mix all the dry ingredients together, then add the liquids and mix well.
3. Pour over the berries.
For the topping:
1. Mix the dry ingredients and cut in the butter until the mixture resembles course crumbs.
2. Sprinkle over the pie, covering evenly as possible (yes, some blueberries will peek through and that's OK)
Bake at 375 for 1 hour. (You may want to put a cookie sheet underneath to prevent any possible bubble-overage.)
Here's the really, really, really important part. You Must Let It Cool Completely Before Slicing. I mean it. No, I really MEAN IT. Cool it on the counter for a bit, then cover it with foil and stick it in the fridge. Forget it's there for an hour or two. When it is COMPLETE COOL, then you can slice. If you do not follow this step, your pie filling will ooze out all over the place and the center will squish down because the filling is oozing into the space vacated by the illegal piece you just cut and it will be a disaster of epic proportions! So ... Don't Do It.
I would also think this would work in a regular pie crust. The filling is pretty tart, though, and the extra sweetness provided by the graham cracker crust and the crumb topping are a beautiful counterpoint.
Nota bene
Now, if you're really against sugar substitutes, you can of course use sugar in the same amount in place of the Splenda. I can't vouch for the tastiness because I do use Splenda and it is a raving success. And, if you use Splenda, then you've only got about a tablespoon of "real" sugar in each serving, which is quite diabetic-friendly in moderate amounts. And you get the added bonus of blueberries - the superfruit!
Here's the recipe, for you adventurous souls!
Filling Ingredients
1 graham cracker pie crust
4 c fresh or frozen blueberries (fresh are better!!!)
1/3 c sugar
1/3 c granulated Splenda (not the packets, but the stuff found in the baking aisle)
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t allspice
7 T corn starch
3 T water
2 T lemon juice
Topping Ingredients
1/4 c granulated Splenda
1/4 c sugar
1/2 c all purpose flour
1/4 c butter or smart balance margarine
As Alton Brown would say, let's assemble the hardware and software.
For the filling:
1. Place the blueberries (washed and drained, mind you) in the pie crust
2. Mix all the dry ingredients together, then add the liquids and mix well.
3. Pour over the berries.
For the topping:
1. Mix the dry ingredients and cut in the butter until the mixture resembles course crumbs.
2. Sprinkle over the pie, covering evenly as possible (yes, some blueberries will peek through and that's OK)
Bake at 375 for 1 hour. (You may want to put a cookie sheet underneath to prevent any possible bubble-overage.)
Here's the really, really, really important part. You Must Let It Cool Completely Before Slicing. I mean it. No, I really MEAN IT. Cool it on the counter for a bit, then cover it with foil and stick it in the fridge. Forget it's there for an hour or two. When it is COMPLETE COOL, then you can slice. If you do not follow this step, your pie filling will ooze out all over the place and the center will squish down because the filling is oozing into the space vacated by the illegal piece you just cut and it will be a disaster of epic proportions! So ... Don't Do It.
I would also think this would work in a regular pie crust. The filling is pretty tart, though, and the extra sweetness provided by the graham cracker crust and the crumb topping are a beautiful counterpoint.
Nota bene
Now, if you're really against sugar substitutes, you can of course use sugar in the same amount in place of the Splenda. I can't vouch for the tastiness because I do use Splenda and it is a raving success. And, if you use Splenda, then you've only got about a tablespoon of "real" sugar in each serving, which is quite diabetic-friendly in moderate amounts. And you get the added bonus of blueberries - the superfruit!
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Tantalizing tastes of summer
So, we had some volunteer squash come up in the compost bin. And to my chagrin, they're doing better than anything I planted. ::sigh:: I call them MobySquash. They're almost white with light green stripes, shaped like a gourd and just as big. But you can cook 'em up and they're Really Tasty. We're going to stuff them tonight with an Italian herb stuffing (sage and oregano and thyme from the garden, of course) and make some fresh bruschetta to go along with it. My Roma tomatoes are coming in, as well as multitudes of the Sweet 100s. My Big Boys didn't do as well as I'd hoped, but I have vowed to redeem myself next year - better garden, better soil. The red and green bell peppers are also coming along nicely - the greens are especially happy. (I'm thinking fajitas are in our near future!)
We had a catastrophe in the carrot patch, tho. Not the rabbits, but the caterpillars. I've been so happy that the hornworms and the squash vine borers hadn't taken over the tomatoes and zukes that I didn't even consider something might attack my tiny little patch of carrots! Nooooo-o-o-o-o!!!!!
And the blueberries. We picked a gallon last Monday at the local U-pick place (I apparently offered up the few berries on my two bushes to the birds this year, drat them all.) We froze most of them, but five cups are waiting in the fridge ... I found a recipe for a blueberry pie in a graham cracker crust with a crumb topping.... AND it uses Splenda. WooHoo!
Finally, completely unrelated to the summer harvest but equally tasty..... I will never purchase packaged granola again. I discovered a very easy recipe for a fraction of the cost. Rolled oats, chopped toasted almonds, sunflower seeds, honey, canola oil and cinnamon. Perfection. My new favorite breakfast is 1/2 cup of vanilla yogurt sprinkled liberally with granola and some fresh blueberries. Can't get any better than that.
Oh, and eggplant! I completely forgot the eggplant! I'm not a huge fan, but the philosopher has come up with one sure-fire recipe... grill the eggplant and some onion with a splash of balsamic vinegar. Get some tasty cheese - mozzarella or monterey jack - and put it all on flat fajita sized tortilla. Cover with a second tortilla and grill until the cheese is melted. Presto - eggplant quesadillas! (You can add some chicken to the first grilling mix too, if you want some extra protein). And of course, I'll never, ever turn down the philosopher's eggplant parmigiana, either.
Sigh. I should never make these posts two hours before lunch.
We had a catastrophe in the carrot patch, tho. Not the rabbits, but the caterpillars. I've been so happy that the hornworms and the squash vine borers hadn't taken over the tomatoes and zukes that I didn't even consider something might attack my tiny little patch of carrots! Nooooo-o-o-o-o!!!!!
And the blueberries. We picked a gallon last Monday at the local U-pick place (I apparently offered up the few berries on my two bushes to the birds this year, drat them all.) We froze most of them, but five cups are waiting in the fridge ... I found a recipe for a blueberry pie in a graham cracker crust with a crumb topping.... AND it uses Splenda. WooHoo!
Finally, completely unrelated to the summer harvest but equally tasty..... I will never purchase packaged granola again. I discovered a very easy recipe for a fraction of the cost. Rolled oats, chopped toasted almonds, sunflower seeds, honey, canola oil and cinnamon. Perfection. My new favorite breakfast is 1/2 cup of vanilla yogurt sprinkled liberally with granola and some fresh blueberries. Can't get any better than that.
Oh, and eggplant! I completely forgot the eggplant! I'm not a huge fan, but the philosopher has come up with one sure-fire recipe... grill the eggplant and some onion with a splash of balsamic vinegar. Get some tasty cheese - mozzarella or monterey jack - and put it all on flat fajita sized tortilla. Cover with a second tortilla and grill until the cheese is melted. Presto - eggplant quesadillas! (You can add some chicken to the first grilling mix too, if you want some extra protein). And of course, I'll never, ever turn down the philosopher's eggplant parmigiana, either.
Sigh. I should never make these posts two hours before lunch.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Summertime, and the living is easy....
Well, actually, in the southeast summer means it's 94 degrees outside with 85% humidity, and in my book that is definitely *not* easy living. It means the mosquitoes are out, and they're large enough to haul off a small chihuahua. It means that car interiors are hot enough to hardboil eggs, and you get third degree burns on your feet if you walk barefoot on concrete. It means that your AC runs non-stop 24/7, and the water in your plastic wading pool evaporates faster than you can refill it.
On the other hand, you have gardens exploding with fresh produce, ready to pick and so full of flavor it's criminal. (OK, yes, that is a rhetorical trope but don't blame me - I'm waxing rhapsodical over homegrown tomatoes, darnit!) Just think.... a fat red perfectly ripe tomato sliced thick with just a tiny bit of salt and pepper, laid out on Wonderbread with a thin coating of mayo. Heaven. Or consider Silver Queen corn, newly shucked, quickly steamed then slathered with salt and butter. Then again, there's the quintessential watermelon - eat it in huge slabs outside by the lake (or hosepipe) and let the juices flow where they may. Spit the seeds at the chihuahua (those the mosquitoes haven't carried off) and then pickle the rind so nothing goes to waste.
And then there's the zucchini, the crookneck squash, the peppers, the peas and beans and cucumbers and carrots, the cantaloupe and peaches and plums and blueberries and blackberries and pears... So much abundance and so little time! So I pull out the boiling water bath canner, and my trusty freezer bags, and set to storing the bounty. Freeze the blueberries whole on a cookie sheet, then pour the frozen balls into bags. Ditto the blackberries (and strawberries too, but they're more properly a spring crop around here). Blanch peas and beans and shucked corn and toss them into freezer bags too. Make pickles and relish out of just about anything, cukes and squash and peppers and cauliflower. Hot or sour or sweet, it's all good. Slice and can the peaches and pears, or make jams in a huge variety of flavors. Harvest all your herbs before they bolt - for basil my favorite way to store it is to chop it up and mix it with a tiny amount of water. Then put it into an ice cube tray and freeze. You'll have perfect servings are hugely aromatic basil (and oregano, and sage, and other leafy herbs) for soups and stews and pestos.
Then when you're done look at your pantry, and see all the wonderful things you'll have to eat this fall, when you're *really craving* a crunch of corn or some blueberries for a late afternoon bowl of ice cream.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a date with a tomato sandwich and a couple ears of silver queen corn!
On the other hand, you have gardens exploding with fresh produce, ready to pick and so full of flavor it's criminal. (OK, yes, that is a rhetorical trope but don't blame me - I'm waxing rhapsodical over homegrown tomatoes, darnit!) Just think.... a fat red perfectly ripe tomato sliced thick with just a tiny bit of salt and pepper, laid out on Wonderbread with a thin coating of mayo. Heaven. Or consider Silver Queen corn, newly shucked, quickly steamed then slathered with salt and butter. Then again, there's the quintessential watermelon - eat it in huge slabs outside by the lake (or hosepipe) and let the juices flow where they may. Spit the seeds at the chihuahua (those the mosquitoes haven't carried off) and then pickle the rind so nothing goes to waste.
And then there's the zucchini, the crookneck squash, the peppers, the peas and beans and cucumbers and carrots, the cantaloupe and peaches and plums and blueberries and blackberries and pears... So much abundance and so little time! So I pull out the boiling water bath canner, and my trusty freezer bags, and set to storing the bounty. Freeze the blueberries whole on a cookie sheet, then pour the frozen balls into bags. Ditto the blackberries (and strawberries too, but they're more properly a spring crop around here). Blanch peas and beans and shucked corn and toss them into freezer bags too. Make pickles and relish out of just about anything, cukes and squash and peppers and cauliflower. Hot or sour or sweet, it's all good. Slice and can the peaches and pears, or make jams in a huge variety of flavors. Harvest all your herbs before they bolt - for basil my favorite way to store it is to chop it up and mix it with a tiny amount of water. Then put it into an ice cube tray and freeze. You'll have perfect servings are hugely aromatic basil (and oregano, and sage, and other leafy herbs) for soups and stews and pestos.
Then when you're done look at your pantry, and see all the wonderful things you'll have to eat this fall, when you're *really craving* a crunch of corn or some blueberries for a late afternoon bowl of ice cream.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a date with a tomato sandwich and a couple ears of silver queen corn!
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Happy 2010! My resolution for the year...
(Wow - it's been a while since I've posted anything. But maybe that's because I was on vacation and almost never turned on the computer? Naaaaaah.... couldn't've been that!)
...is not to make a resolution! ::grin::
I'm not a big fan of New Year's Resolutions, actually. Mainly because, well, I can never keep them. I'd rather commit to something achievable, and do it with the help, participation, and encouragement of my better half. Last year we started reading through the Bible together every night, and that is a Good Thing we still continue to do.
This year is a bit more nebulous. It's all about Healthier Eating. Now, I call this nebulous because we've been changing our diet slowly for the last few years - really since we joined a CSA farm when we lived in Virginia. When you get local, in-season produce delivered to your home every week, it becomes a motivation to actually EAT it. You don't want to waste the money you've invested in the farm share, and more importantly, the fresh produce is darned tasty!
We've been members of Grow Alabama now for a while, and we feel the same way about this CSA too. (Heck, we haven't bought produce in the grocery store for months!) So that certainly increases the quick access to produce. But we're also big meat eaters. And bread/rice eaters. And I must admit (in my opinion) that chocolate really should be a fifth food group. So this year, I want to increase my good foods, and decrease those things we really like but really shouldn't have.
For those of you who are fan of Good Eats, the host Alton Brown lost a lot of weight over the last year, not by dieting as we understand the term, but reorganizing how he ate. In a recent episode he made some food group lists, which I'll copy here:
Daily
- Fruits
- Whole Grains
- Leafy Greens
- Nuts
- Carrots
- Green Tea
3 times a week
- Oily Fish
- Yogurt
- Broccoli
- Sweet Potato
- Avocado
Once a week
- Red meat
- Pasta
- Dessert
- Alcohol
NEVER!
- Fast Food
- Soda
- Processed meals/frozen dinners
- Canned soup
- "Diet" anything
That's pretty basic, and straightforward. I'm pretty good on the "Never" list, because I don't consume the first three anyway. I use canned soup in recipes sometimes, but I'm much more fond of making my own. It's the final one that I have problems with. I'm a diabetic. And I keep sugar-free cookies and such because it keeps me from eating things even worse for me. So I'm not sure how much impact one sugar free cookie or one small piece of sugar free candy a day would be, but I also think that if I cut ALL sweets out completely I'd go 'round the twist and start hurting people. ::heh::
So this year, I think we're going to work towards a more balanced way of eating. Less meat. More fish (the flash-frozen salmon you get at Sams is quite tasty, and easy to cook with). More greens - and hey! - the spring season for dark leafy greens like kale and mustard/turnip greens is right around the corner. More whole grains and fewer processed starches like white bread and white rice. I'm not like Alton, I don't need to lose 50 pounds. (More like five...) But I also want to maintain my healthy-ish weight and help keep my diabetes in control.
So I may write blog posts about foods we discover, or recipes we find especially tasty. (There's this mushroom lentil casserole we made over the holidays that was absolutely fantabulous....!) This isn't going to become a food blog. It will still have a completely random theme of "whatever is on the librarian's mind at the moment", but expect more foodie bits. 8-D
Anyway, to all my friends in blog-land, have a blessed 2010!
...is not to make a resolution! ::grin::
I'm not a big fan of New Year's Resolutions, actually. Mainly because, well, I can never keep them. I'd rather commit to something achievable, and do it with the help, participation, and encouragement of my better half. Last year we started reading through the Bible together every night, and that is a Good Thing we still continue to do.
This year is a bit more nebulous. It's all about Healthier Eating. Now, I call this nebulous because we've been changing our diet slowly for the last few years - really since we joined a CSA farm when we lived in Virginia. When you get local, in-season produce delivered to your home every week, it becomes a motivation to actually EAT it. You don't want to waste the money you've invested in the farm share, and more importantly, the fresh produce is darned tasty!
We've been members of Grow Alabama now for a while, and we feel the same way about this CSA too. (Heck, we haven't bought produce in the grocery store for months!) So that certainly increases the quick access to produce. But we're also big meat eaters. And bread/rice eaters. And I must admit (in my opinion) that chocolate really should be a fifth food group. So this year, I want to increase my good foods, and decrease those things we really like but really shouldn't have.
For those of you who are fan of Good Eats, the host Alton Brown lost a lot of weight over the last year, not by dieting as we understand the term, but reorganizing how he ate. In a recent episode he made some food group lists, which I'll copy here:
Daily
- Fruits
- Whole Grains
- Leafy Greens
- Nuts
- Carrots
- Green Tea
3 times a week
- Oily Fish
- Yogurt
- Broccoli
- Sweet Potato
- Avocado
Once a week
- Red meat
- Pasta
- Dessert
- Alcohol
NEVER!
- Fast Food
- Soda
- Processed meals/frozen dinners
- Canned soup
- "Diet" anything
That's pretty basic, and straightforward. I'm pretty good on the "Never" list, because I don't consume the first three anyway. I use canned soup in recipes sometimes, but I'm much more fond of making my own. It's the final one that I have problems with. I'm a diabetic. And I keep sugar-free cookies and such because it keeps me from eating things even worse for me. So I'm not sure how much impact one sugar free cookie or one small piece of sugar free candy a day would be, but I also think that if I cut ALL sweets out completely I'd go 'round the twist and start hurting people. ::heh::
So this year, I think we're going to work towards a more balanced way of eating. Less meat. More fish (the flash-frozen salmon you get at Sams is quite tasty, and easy to cook with). More greens - and hey! - the spring season for dark leafy greens like kale and mustard/turnip greens is right around the corner. More whole grains and fewer processed starches like white bread and white rice. I'm not like Alton, I don't need to lose 50 pounds. (More like five...) But I also want to maintain my healthy-ish weight and help keep my diabetes in control.
So I may write blog posts about foods we discover, or recipes we find especially tasty. (There's this mushroom lentil casserole we made over the holidays that was absolutely fantabulous....!) This isn't going to become a food blog. It will still have a completely random theme of "whatever is on the librarian's mind at the moment", but expect more foodie bits. 8-D
Anyway, to all my friends in blog-land, have a blessed 2010!
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Bloggy Goodness....
So, there are lots of great blogs about food out there. Great recipes, pictures of things so tasty-looking that I'd eat them through the computer screen if I could (oh, when, oh when will they invent "scratch and sniff" electronics??) But I wanted to list two that were more than just yummy recipes and tantalizing photos. There are a couple of food-based blogs that just make me laugh out loud, and I wanted to share those with my readers (both of you!)
1. Cake Wrecks.
As her tagline says "Where professional cakes go horribly, hilariously wrong." Her commentary is side-splittingly funny, and the cakes are, well, side-splittingly bad.
2. Not So Humble Pie.
She's a biological anthropologist who makes extraordinary desserts. Like fruit fly cookies. And periodic table cookies. And gel electrophoresis cookies. (Not to mention some delicious regular stuff too.)
So there you go. Spend some time poking around, laugh and smile and be amazed.
1. Cake Wrecks.
As her tagline says "Where professional cakes go horribly, hilariously wrong." Her commentary is side-splittingly funny, and the cakes are, well, side-splittingly bad.
2. Not So Humble Pie.
She's a biological anthropologist who makes extraordinary desserts. Like fruit fly cookies. And periodic table cookies. And gel electrophoresis cookies. (Not to mention some delicious regular stuff too.)
So there you go. Spend some time poking around, laugh and smile and be amazed.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Mr. Brown, I respectfully disagree.
This week on Good Eats (my new favorite Food Network show) Alton Brown discusses the perfect, quintessentially American Apple Pie. (You can see the 7 minute condensed version HERE.) Good Eats is a fun show, and I think Alton Brown is a great teacher and has lots of wisdom to share about all kinds of cooking-related tidbits. BUT... about his apple pie....
He makes several claims as to what might constitute a perfect apple pie and I found myself, for the first time, completely disagreeing with him. He's from Atlanta - he should know how an apple pie is made. But this recipe was the most fiddly, full of random ingredients, complicated, and strangest compilation I've ever seen.
OK, I must first admit - he's got the *perfect* pie crust recipe. Though I disagree that Applejack should be the moistening ingredient, his crust looks fantabulous. I only dream of making pie crusts that good! ::sigh::
So here, in no particular order, are my beefs (if you can have a beef with an apple pie?)
1) He thinks it's necessary to have four or five different kinds of apples. I think two are quite sufficient - a tart version and a sturdy crisp and sweet version. And using a golden or red delicious apple just adds an apple's worth of mush at the end. They're really too mealy for a pie.
2) He drains the apples. Why waste all that lovely juice (only to add liquid to the apples later in the form of lime juice and ::gag:: apple jelly!) His concern is that it will make the crust mushy. But if you proportion the sugar and cornstarch properly, the juice will jell perfectly before it leaks all over the place!
3) He eschews cinnamon, saying it overpowers the apples. Well any spice, if you use too much, will overpower a dish. I use a teaspoon of cinnamon, and I've never masked the flavor of the apples. Instead he favors something called "Grains of Paradise". What the heck? I've never even heard of such a thing! If you're going to make a quintessential American pie, then be considerate and use common spices found in everyone's kitchen!
4) He recommends tapioca flour instead of cornstarch or all purpose flour as the thickening agent. Again - pick ingredients that everyone has! I've never even seen tapioca flour for sale here in north Alabama.
5) He strongly recommends using a pie bird. Huh? What the HECK is a pie bird, you ask? Yeah - it's THAT. I have all sorts of issues with this. He thinks a lattice or slits in the crust might allow the juices to spill over. Well, I think sticking a silly piece of ceramic into my pie is tacky and makes the pie harder to cut. So there. And I've slitted my crusts for years - no burned bits on the oven floor yet! Alton Brown purports to be a big "kitchen gadget multitasker" (all kitchen gadgets should serve more than one function) but he recommends this esoteric doo-hickey? Give me a break. Take a knife, cut a series of slits in a lovely star shape at the top of the pie, and you're set!
6) Finally, he recommends using a tart pan with a removable bottom instead of the traditional pie plate. Says it makes the pie easier to cut and remove because you take the pie out of the pan. Hmph. So how do you store the pie after you've pulled it out? Might not the crust sag over a day or two and fall apart without the plate to keep it's shape? And if you lightly grease the plate, the crust won't stick anyway.
So that's my apple pie rant. I still recommend Good Eats, and I still deeply respect Alton Brown for all the joy he obviously puts into his show - you can tell he loves to cook and he knows a tremendous amount about it, and he's also amazingly good at sharing that knowledge with us amateurs. So despite my disagreement with his apple pie, I have dozens of other recipes, facts, tips, and tricks that I tucked into my cookbook after watching his show. Bon appetit, Mr. Brown - keep cooking!
He makes several claims as to what might constitute a perfect apple pie and I found myself, for the first time, completely disagreeing with him. He's from Atlanta - he should know how an apple pie is made. But this recipe was the most fiddly, full of random ingredients, complicated, and strangest compilation I've ever seen.
OK, I must first admit - he's got the *perfect* pie crust recipe. Though I disagree that Applejack should be the moistening ingredient, his crust looks fantabulous. I only dream of making pie crusts that good! ::sigh::
So here, in no particular order, are my beefs (if you can have a beef with an apple pie?)
1) He thinks it's necessary to have four or five different kinds of apples. I think two are quite sufficient - a tart version and a sturdy crisp and sweet version. And using a golden or red delicious apple just adds an apple's worth of mush at the end. They're really too mealy for a pie.
2) He drains the apples. Why waste all that lovely juice (only to add liquid to the apples later in the form of lime juice and ::gag:: apple jelly!) His concern is that it will make the crust mushy. But if you proportion the sugar and cornstarch properly, the juice will jell perfectly before it leaks all over the place!
3) He eschews cinnamon, saying it overpowers the apples. Well any spice, if you use too much, will overpower a dish. I use a teaspoon of cinnamon, and I've never masked the flavor of the apples. Instead he favors something called "Grains of Paradise". What the heck? I've never even heard of such a thing! If you're going to make a quintessential American pie, then be considerate and use common spices found in everyone's kitchen!
4) He recommends tapioca flour instead of cornstarch or all purpose flour as the thickening agent. Again - pick ingredients that everyone has! I've never even seen tapioca flour for sale here in north Alabama.
5) He strongly recommends using a pie bird. Huh? What the HECK is a pie bird, you ask? Yeah - it's THAT. I have all sorts of issues with this. He thinks a lattice or slits in the crust might allow the juices to spill over. Well, I think sticking a silly piece of ceramic into my pie is tacky and makes the pie harder to cut. So there. And I've slitted my crusts for years - no burned bits on the oven floor yet! Alton Brown purports to be a big "kitchen gadget multitasker" (all kitchen gadgets should serve more than one function) but he recommends this esoteric doo-hickey? Give me a break. Take a knife, cut a series of slits in a lovely star shape at the top of the pie, and you're set!
6) Finally, he recommends using a tart pan with a removable bottom instead of the traditional pie plate. Says it makes the pie easier to cut and remove because you take the pie out of the pan. Hmph. So how do you store the pie after you've pulled it out? Might not the crust sag over a day or two and fall apart without the plate to keep it's shape? And if you lightly grease the plate, the crust won't stick anyway.
So that's my apple pie rant. I still recommend Good Eats, and I still deeply respect Alton Brown for all the joy he obviously puts into his show - you can tell he loves to cook and he knows a tremendous amount about it, and he's also amazingly good at sharing that knowledge with us amateurs. So despite my disagreement with his apple pie, I have dozens of other recipes, facts, tips, and tricks that I tucked into my cookbook after watching his show. Bon appetit, Mr. Brown - keep cooking!
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