Two Frugal Chicks

We visited Bar Harbor Maine last October and my sister and I had the most amazingly delicious blueberry pie I’ve ever had. I loved it so much I came back to ask the owner at Cottage Street Bakery how they achieved such an amazing crust. He gave me a few tips and I have to say mine is close to as good as theirs. If only I could get my hands on real Maine blueberries. They are smaller and more tart than our large berries of the NW.

Pie Crust
3 C pastry flour (If you don’t have pastry flour you can substitute 1 C all purpose flour and 1 C cake flour)
1/2 C Crisco
1/2 C butter
1 egg beaten
1/2 tsp salt
4 T ice water
1 T vinegar

Put bowl and pastry cutter in freezer while assembling your ingredients. Measure out the flour and cut in the Crisco and butter. Put the flour/crisco/butter mixture in the freezer.  In a small mixing bowl, beat the butter, beaten egg, salt, vinegar and water. Mix flour/crisco/butter mix with the wet ingredients until a dough forms. Don’t overwork the dough or it will be tough. Just work it enough to get it to turn out on to a lightly floured board or countertop and pat out two discs of dough. Wrap each disc in plastic wrap and put in freezer for a few minutes to chill. The warmth of your hands and the kitchen will warm up the butter and you want it to be ice cold. Take out and place dough disc between two large pieces of plastic wrap and roll out. Peel off wrap and assemble your pie. Put the whole pie back into the freezer while you preheat the oven. Take pie out and bake.

Why I like this crust – the butter and crisco blend keep it flaky and buttery. Chilling every step of the way keeps the butter/crisco cold. When the cold butter/crisco hits the heat of the oven it releases steam and keeps the crust flaky and tender.

For my blueberry pie filling, I mixed 2 C frozen blueberries with a jar of blackberry jam. So I guess it was really a berry pie but the pronounced flavor was blueberry.

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Mmmm…beef vegetable soup, just what I was craving.  Warm and salty, comforting.  It’s definitely soup season.  For a soup like this, its all about the broth.  The broth has to be rich and flavorful, then you can add whatever veggies or meat you like.  Here’s what I did…..

First, I went to the store to pick up the beef.  I opted to buy a sirloin steak after seeing that I could get it much cheaper than already cut up stew meat.  Then I headed home and out to the garden.  I gathered leaks, kale, carrots, celery, jalapenos, potatoes, and beans. Out of my pantry, I grabbed a can of diced tomatoes with basil, tomato paste, beef broth, garlic, bay leaves, olive oil, flour and frozen peas from the freezer.  I chunked up the beef, and washed and diced up the veggies.

Grab a soup pot and put in about 2T. of olive oil.  Heat on medium-high heat.  While the oil is heating, in a pie plate, put 1-1/2C. flour, seasoning salt and lots of black pepper.  Coat each piece of meat in the flour, then brown it in the olive oil on all sides.  Remove from the pan and set aside.  Add a little more oil to the pan if needed and add the leek and jalapeno and saute till tender, about 2 minutes.  Add 3 minced garlic cloves to the leeks and cook another minute.  Dump the leeks, jalapeno and garlic on top of the browned meat you have sitting to the side. Now add the celery, carrots, and potatoes to the pan, and saute for about 10 minutes to get them slightly browned.  To the veggies, add 6 cups of beef broth and stir to pick up all the golden deliciousness on the bottom of the pan, then add a can of diced tomatoes, 3 T. tomato paste, 3 bay leaves, the meat, leeks and garlic, 2C. of torn up kale and 1-1/2C. frozen peas.  I also added a handful of fresh beans that I shelled.  I used scarlet runner beans and when cooked, they had a lima bean thing going on, which nobody cared for but me.  Anyways, turn the heat down and let everything simmer.  The longer it simmers, the better.  Serve with some freshly grated Parmesan cheese on top and some crusty french bread.

Here’s the ingredient list (customize it to what your family likes)……

1-1/2 pound stew meat or chunked up beef (the longer the soup simmers, the more tender the beef will be)
1-1/2 C. flour
1 leek (white and light green parts only) or 1 medium onion, chopped
1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
4 smallish potatoes, diced – I left the skin on
4 carrots, diced
2 celery stalks, chopped – use the leaves, too…they add great flavor
2 C. kale, torn into pieces
1-1/2 C. frozen peas
1 C. fresh beans
6 C. beef broth
1 can diced tomatoes
3 T. tomato paste
3 bay leaves
Olive oil
Seasoning salt
Pepper.

The original recipe name of these little beauties is Tea Time Tossils.  That name just doesn’t fit…what’s a tossil, anyways? So I changed it to Pecan Tartlets.  A friend of mine gave me this recipe 10 or so years ago and I stuffed it in my recipe box along with all those other recipes with good intentions.  Occasionally I would run across it and thought of making them.  Then one day a few years ago, I finally made them and am I ever sorry I didn’t make them sooner.  All those wasted years…wah!

PECAN TARTLETS

1 3oz pkg. cream cheese
1/2 C. butter, softened
1 C. flour
1 egg
3/4 C. brown sugar
1 T. butter, softened
Dash of salt
1 tsp. real vanilla
2/3 C. pecans, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Pastry:  Let cream cheese and butter soften to room temperature (I never remember to do this, so I microwaved them both for about 20 seconds).  Blend together with the flour.  Chill about 1 hour (um…yeah that didn’t happen either.  I put it in the freezer while I made the filling). Once chilled (sorta), shape into 2 dozen 1 inch balls and place one ball into each cup of a mini muffin pan.  Press dough onto the bottom and sides of the cups.

Filling:  Beat together the egg, sugar, 1T. butter, vanilla and salt until smooth. Divide the nuts evenly into the cups (oops, I accidentally threw them into the filling, so I stirred it all up and then filled each cup). Spoon filling into cups.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until filling is set.  Cool before removing from pans. 

Even with all my distractions and alterations, they turned out great!

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Suzanne and I both worked in downtown Tacoma at the same time a long, long time ago.  Occasionally, we would manage to meet up for lunch.  We loved to go to a crepe restaurant in the Old City Hall building that made divine crepes stuffed with crab, or chicken and spinach with a rich cream sauce and lots of cheese.  They had an apple crepe filled with warm vanilla pudding and apple filling that we would sometimes split for dessert.  I saw a recipe for crepes the other day and it jogged my memory of how much I loved this apple crepe.  That crepe restaurant is no longer there, in fact, the Old City Hall building has been converted into professional offices.  So, here’s my take on the apple crepe at Old City Hall (it tastes just like I remembered!)….It seems like there are a lot of steps to this recipe, but each step is super simple.

Vanilla Pudding
2 C. milk
1 tsp. real vanilla extract (or if you’re super cool -1 vanilla bean, split)
2 eggs
1/2 C. plus 2 T. Sugar
3 T. flour
1/4 C. (1/2 stick) butter, softened

Combine the milk and vanilla in a saucepan and heat on medium-high heat till it almost comes to a boil.  In a bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar and flour till well combined.  You will need to ‘temper’ the eggs, which means you will need to warm them up gradually by adding 1/3 C. of the scalded milk to the egg mixture while whisking, so that the eggs don’t scramble.  Add the warmed egg mixture to the pan of milk and whisk over medium-high heat till the pudding thickens and begins to bubble. (Remove the vanilla bean, if using).  Keep whisking for 4-5 minutes until the pudding becomes very thick.  Remove from the heat and stir in the softened butter until it melts.  Set aside to cool down.

Apple Filling
2 apples (I used Gala), peeled, cored and cut into small chunks
1-1/2 C. apple juice
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1-1/2 tsp. cornstarch
1/2 C. apple juice

Cook the apples and the 1-1/2 C. apple juice  in a saucepan on medium heat until the apples are tender, about 25 minutes.  Stir in the cinnamon and sugar.  Increase the heat to medium-high heat.  Thoroughly mix the cornstarch with the 1/2 C. apple juice and stir into apple mixture.  Cook for 3-4 minutes until the mixture thickens, stirring occasionally.  Set aside to cool down.

Crepes
1/2 C. flour
1 C. milk
4 eggs
3 T. butter, melted
1/2 tsp. salt
1 T. sugar

Combine the flour, salt and milk in a bowl.  Add the eggs and mix well. Stir in the melted butter and mix well.  Pour 1/4 C. batter into a shallow, non-stick frying pan lightly greased with butter (or crepe pan, again if you’re super cool) on medium heat.  Swirl the batter around until the bottom of the pan is coated.  Cook for 2-3 minutes or until the edges are just brown..no need to flip the crepe. Slide the crepe onto a plate.

Assembly
Fill the crepes with 1/4 C. warm vanilla pudding topped with 1/4 C. warm apple filling.  Roll or fold up the crepe.  Top with 1 T. apple filling and a dollop of vanilla ice cream..

I made this giant M&M cookie last night.  It’s a lot easier than having to bake pan after pan of the Toll House cookie recipe we usually use and its totally scrumptious.  Buttery goodness and freckled with M&Ms……

1 C. M&Ms
1-1/2 C. flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 C. butter, softened
1/3 C. sugar
1/3 C. packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350.  In a small mixing bowl, mix the flour, baking soda and salt.  In a medium mixing bowl, combine the butter, sugar and brown sugar, then add the egg and vanilla and mix well.  Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture till combined.  Fold in the M&Ms.  Spread the dough onto a round cookie sheet or baking stone until its about an 11 inch circle (I lightly flour my hands and pat the dough out).  Press a few more M&Ms into the top.  Bake for 16-18 minutes.  Cut with a pizza cutter..

I’m finally resigning myself to the fact that fall is on its way.  Ready or not here it comes.  Last night I made zucchini bread and it really got me in the fall spirit.  Now I’m seeing soups and stews, roasts and squash ravioli in my future.  I’m getting excited about candles, fall wreaths, pumpkins and sitting by a warm fire in the woodstove.  My neighbor has been giving me zucchinis lately; some are the size of a small car! Suzanne and I made zucchini relish with one of them and I shredded up another one and froze it in 2 cup portions for making zucchini bread.  This recipe makes the most moist and delicious zucchini bread ever…

3 eggs
1 C. oil
2 C. sugar
2 C. shredded zucchini
2 tsp. Vanilla
1 8oz can of crushed pineapple, drained
3 C. flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1-1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 C. walnuts (optional)
1 C. dates/raisins (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Beat the eggs, oil and sugar together.  Stir in the zucchini, vanilla, and pineapple.  In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.  Fold in the nuts, dates and/or raisins, if using.  Grease 2 loaf pans and dust with cinnamon and sugar.  Divide the batter into the two loaf pans and dust the tops of the batter with cinnamon and sugar.  Bake for 1-1 1/4 hours or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool for 10 minutes, then remove from pans..

 We harvested our peas yesterday.  Peas are one of those crops that take up a lot of room and really don’t produce that much.  I planted a whole pack of peas and didn’t end up harvesting enough for one dish.  They really are super good though, and really sweet.  We ate a bunch raw as we were picking, pods and all. I ended up making a pea salad.  Nothing fancy or gourmet,  but we like it just the same.

4 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled (I make at least 2 extra slices because I can’t resist eating some)

4 C. cooked peas (I steam them)
1 C. shredded cheddar
1/2 C. diced red onion
3/4 C. ranch dressing

Run cold water over the cooked peas to cool them off.  Drain in a colander. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and serve.  Super easy, surprisingly good..

My parents are southern folks.  We grew up drinking sweet tea, put salt on our watermelon, peanuts in our cokes and ate Charles Chips by the barrel full. Fried chicken was a weekly occurrence with sides of mashed potatoes and pan gravy, white bread, homemade bread-and-butter pickles, tomato and cucumber salad, and wilted lettuce.  My  mom used to keep a can of bacon grease next to the stove and she’d use it for adding flavor to a pot of green beans and potatoes, making wilted lettuce or just for frying. This was, of course, before we knew of the dangers of saturated fat, sleeping in the back window of the car, or riding your bike behind the bug spray truck.

Since my garden has produced an unreasonable amount of leaf lettuce this year, and my folks were coming over for dinner, I thought this would be a great time to make wilted lettuce.  This recipe is my mom’s classic version (although the bacon grease is now substituted with vegetable oil).

8 cups of leaf lettuce
2 T. sugar
Salt and Pepper
1/4 C. thinly sliced onion
1/4 C. vegetable oil
2 T. apple cider vinegar
3 strips of cooked bacon, crumbled

Wash and spin the lettuce and put in a large bowl along with the onions.  Sprinkle the sugar on top of the lettuce and add the salt and pepper.  In a small pan, heat the oil until medium hot.  Remove the pan from the heat and being very careful, pour in the vinegar – it will spatter!  Pour the hot oil/vinegar mixture all over the lettuce, add the bacon and toss.

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I’ve made my own mustard for years. Sometimes I use beer, sometimes champagne vinegar, sometimes I’ll add honey or brown sugar. It’s easy and you can make it as spicy or sweet as you like. I buy my mustard powder and seeds at Pacific Food Importers (PFI) in SODO. We are big mustard fans in this house.Thanks ATK Here’s a how to link 

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