Smokey and Spicy Black Beans with Ham

Boy, does my kitchen smell good right now!

Last week, I got the Penzey's Spices catalog in the mail.  I do love Penzey's Spices--everything is super-fresh. What a difference fresh spices and herbs make when you cook and bake with them.  And surprise--it costs less than supermarket spices.  There are some, limited Penzey's Spices locations, but they also are available in other stores and by mail order.  But really, the Penzey's online catalog is vast, and a visit to a store is fun.  

Mixed among the list and pictures of the herbs and spices, is a good selection of recipes in each release of the catalog.  A recipe for Carolina's Cuban Black Beans gave me the inspiration to make this dish.  The original recipe was vegetarian, but I wanted to add ham.

I ended up adding supermarket ham steak.  It actually wasn't my first choice.  I wanted to add a ham hock, which would have been much more fatty and smokey. So I guess I'm glad I couldn't find one.  It was due to the lack of the smoked ham hock that I added the chipotle peppers.  Good move!  (pats self on back)

Chipotle peppers start out as jalapeños. The manufacturers dry them and smoke them.  You can buy them that way, but you can also get them canned in adobo sauce, which is what you need for this recipe.  The adobo sauce rehydrates them, and quite frankly, makes them amazing!   You can find cans of chipotles in adobo sauce in the Mexican foods section of the grocery stores.  I think they are pretty widely available.  I put them next to the tablespoon so you can see the size.  But don't be fooled, these things pack a serious punch! I started out this recipe with two.  I ended up adding a third, but you might not like it that way, so start small.  As the beans cook down, you can always add more.  And if you want to cut down on the spice, slice them down the middle and scrape out the seeds. That would help.  But keep it all off of your fingers.  The heat stays on your skin for a while, and if you rub your eyes after touching them, that would hurt.

  

The recipe in the catalog called for putting the garlic cloves, cumin, and a little salt into a mortar and pestle.  I don't know about you, but I don't keep those in my kitchen.  So, instead, I minced the garlic, added the cumin and a pinch of salt, and then minced the crap out of it for a while.  I ended up with this:

I used dry turtle beans (as opposed to canned).  I had plenty of time, so I soaked them overnight.  In fact, I ended up going out to see a movie and came home really late, so they soaked a second night.  That was not a smooth move.  If you ever find that happens to you, remove the beans from the liquid after the first night.  I saved the dish, cooked it less, reduced liquid, and cooked uncovered to get some of the liquid to cook down.  That worked.

Oh, the Penzey's recipe used a shortcut to soaking the beans--just in case you want to do it all in one day.  Cover them with water i a large pot and boil for 2 minutes.  Turn off the heat and let stand, covered, for one hour.  Then drain them.

Onto the results:  Those are some mighty delicious beans!  I'll definitely make them again. In fact, I could see making them several times a year for the rest of my life.  I'm highly recommending this recipe!


Smokey-Spicy Black Beans with Ham  
(serves 8)

1 16-oz bag of dried black beans (aka: turtle beans)
water for soaking
4 cups chicken stock (I used unsalted)
3 cloves garlic
1 Tbs ground cumin
pinch of salt
2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, chopped 
1 large green bell pepper, chopped
1 jalapeño, chopped, seeds removed
1 Tbs distilled white vinegar
2 whole bay leaves
1 1/2 Tbs herbes de Provence 
14 ounces hickory smoked ham, chopped
2-3 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, minced
sea salt to taste (maybe 1/2 teaspoon)

Wash off the black beans and soak them in a large bowl overnight.

Mince the garlic.  Add the cumin and pinch of salt, and mince it as much as you can. Optionally, you can make a paste, crushing the garlic, cumin, and salt using a mortar and pestle.

In a large pot, heat the chicken stock, soaked beans, vinegar, bay leaves, and herbes de Provence.

While the beans, liquid, and herbs heat up, add the extra-virgin olive oil to a large skillet. Heat it on medium-high and add the onions, bell peppers, jalapeño, and garlic mix.  Saute until the onions and peppers brown some. browned.  Transfer them to the pot of beans.

Add the ham, chipotles, and salt.  

Cover and simmer until the beans are tender, about 2 hours.

It's great on top of a bed of white rice, but if you don't do rice, put the beans in a bowl and enjoy!

The Nutrition Facts are just for the beans and ham.  I didn't add in the rice since you may not, or if you did, you might use less or more than I would.

Nutrition Facts
Servings 8.0
Amount Per Serving
calories 185
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 7 g	10 %
Saturated Fat 2 g	8 %
Monounsaturated Fat 2 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 1 g
Trans Fat 0 g
Cholesterol 14 mg	5 %
Sodium 411 mg	17 %
Potassium 399 mg	11 %
Total Carbohydrate 20 g	7 %
Dietary Fiber 6 g	23 %
Sugars 2 g
Protein 13 g	26 %
Vitamin A	4 %
Vitamin C	29 %
Calcium	2 %
Iron	9 %

Irish Soda Bread

Irish soda bread is awesome, and it's that time of year when the supermarket starts stocking it and the recipes are in every food magazine and Website. So I'm joining the crowd. It's hard to believe that up until past week, I've never made it. According to Irish chef Rory O'Connell (in Bon Appetite's online article), both the white and the brown Irish soda breads are traditional, and butter was not an original ingredient. The recipe I read about was made with 50% wheat flour and had butter, but not too much, and that's nice compromise in my mind.

The recipe came to my attention in the doctor's office. That seems to be when I get inspired to cook - looking at the recipes while I wait for my appointment (just seeing how my wrist is doing). This time, I brought along the latest issue of Bon Appetite. There was a fabulous article about Andrew McCarthy's (the actor) search for the Irish soda bread of his youth. It was a great read and the recipe was a tempting one for me. Though I had every intention of disgracing Andrew McCarthy's concept of what Irish soda bread is by adding nuts and currants.

The results were mixed. Things I did like were the oat flour and walnuts. But there were issues with the dough being too dry, my overworking it, and the difficulty cooking it through without burning on the outside (I scrapped the worst parts of the piece in the picture).

Based on the issues with the first loaf, I also made some changes which worked out well. I was pleased with the loaves when I took them out of the oven.


The flour mixture was 2 1/2 cups of white, 2 1/2 cups wheat, and 1 cup oat. If I were to make the recipe a third time, I would make change it to 2 1/2 cups white, 2 cups oat, and 1 1/2 cups wheat. If I don't become completely sick of Irish soda bread, I see a third batch in my future!


Irish Soda Bread
Inspired by Bon Appetit

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup oat flour
(note: I also enjoyed 3 cups white flour and 3 cups oat flour)
1/2 cup (packed) brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) chilled margarine or butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 cups buttermilk + 1/4 cup reserved to the side in case the dough is too dry
2/3 cup currants
1 cup toasted and chopped walnuts

Preheat your oven to 400°F.

Whisk the flours, sugar, baking soda, and baking powder in medium bowl to blend. Add the butter and cut it into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender (aka dough blender). It will be ready when the bits of butter are the size of peas.

Add the buttermilk and stir until the ingredients are just blended. There will be clumps at this stage. But if you notice that there is no way that the dry ingredients are going to be able to become one with the dough, you should immediately add more buttermilk.

Turn the dough out onto lightly floured work surface. Knead until the dough comes together, about 10 turns. Be careful not to overwork the dough!!! If you kneed it too much, the bread will be tough.

Shape the dough into two 6" rounds and cut large "x", 1/3 inch deep, in the top of the dough.

I read that cutting the "x" on the top serves several purposes. For the bread, the cut helps the bread cook because it is at the thickest part of the bread. For the people of Ireland, it signifies the cross, and is a way that the bread is blessed. It also is a symbol for breaking the bread - which is easier to do once the bread is baked.

Place dough on prepared (oil-sprayed) baking sheet. Mine baked for 42 minutes, but I suggest checking the dough's progress at 35. I did the toothpick test, but with a wooden skewer. Poke it into the thickest part of the bread, and you'll know it's done by a lack of resistance when you pull it out, and when you look at it, it's clean (there's no dough on the toothpick/skewer).

Let it cool completely before cutting it.

My favorite way to eat it is toasted, with butter and honey.

Roasted Pears Topped With Almonds, Raspberries, and White Chocolate Yummies

I'm so happy that this is my first recipe of 2010. It represents the way I'd like to cook and eat this year.

First of all, it's absolutely delicious! And it looks elegant, so you can serve it at the finest dinner party. Another plus was that it is quite simple. There really aren't a lot of ingredients, and you can have everything ready to assemble by the time the pears come out of the oven.

I don't know about you, but I need the "simple" in my cooking repetoire. My life is overwhelmed with minutia. But I do not want to cook the semi home made way. I want to cut down on processed foods and overwhelming amounts of sodium and chemicals. I believe that foods taste better when they are natural, and I feel better about eating them.

I decided to use organic frozen raspberries for my version of this recipe. It's the dead of winter, and while fresh raspberries were available, they were quite expensive and the quantity was small. I got about twice the amount of rasperries, and with the juice, I was able to make a 2nd sauce - a raspberry reduction. Here it is in all it's juiciness:


It was pretty spectacular. If you want to make the sauce, just though the raspberries. Strain out the juice while preserving the best of the berries for decoration. With some of the less-beautiful berries, put them in a sieve and use a rubber spatula to press out all the juice. You would be smooshing the berries to do this. Then put the juice in a small saucepan and boil it down to about 1/2 of the original amount of juice. If you wanted to, you could add some sugar. I didn't.

This recipe uses Vietnamese Cinnamon, aka Saigon Cinnamon. It is not the same as regular cinnamon - it's more pungent and complex. Maybe some of you can buy it in the grocery, McKormick does distribute it. But I prefer to order my spices online. I get mine from Penzey's Spices. They do have a few stores, which I hear are an incredible experience, but they also ship. My link is to the Vietnamese Cinnamon, but they sell every kind of spice, and they are fresher than anything you can buy in the grocery store, and most likely much cheaper per weight.

• Penzey's Spices: A jar of 1/4 cup (7 ounces) of the cinnamon is $3.25.
  
  
• McKormick on the shelf at Stop and Shop supermarket: only 1.5 ounce (the regular tall-size glass jar) costs $5.98.
  
  
• Amazon.com: Spice Islands Saigon cinnamon, the same size (7 ounces), is 5.80.
  
  
• King Arthur Flour: just 2 oz. cost $4.50
  

Roasted Pears Topped With Almonds, Raspberries, and White Chocolate Yummies
Inspired by Cat Cora (for McKormick)

1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon Vietnamese cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 pears, firm, halved with cores removed
2 tablespoons butter, melted
3 tablespoons heavy cream
2 ounces white chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted
fresh or frozen raspberries

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the pear haves, cut side up in an 8 x 8 inch baking dish sprayed with cooking oil. Brush the tops with butter and drizzle some more into the cavity, but leave as much as you can for later (I used half the butter).

Mix the sugar and spices in a small bowl and then sprinkle half of the mixture evenly over the pears.

Bake for 15 minutes. If your butter, sugar, and spices have fallen off of the pears, use a brush or spoon to baste the pears with it again. Sprinkle the remaining sugar mixture on top, drizzle with the remaining butter, and bake for another 20 minutes, or until the pears are tender.

While the pears are cooking, bring the cream to a boil in a small pot over medium heat. Take the pot off of the flame and add the white chocolate, stirring until it is melted and the sauce is smooth.

To serve, place a pear half on a dessert plate or shallow bow. Spoon any of the butter/sugar mixture from the pan over the tops and sprinkle with the almonds. Then drizzle the cream and chocolate mixture over it and top with the berries.

Winter Squash- Black Bean Bake with Meat

Watch out! This casserole is dangerous . . . . Dangerously irresistible, that is! I've made it twice in the span of a week, and I'm about to make it a 3rd time.

The first time, Joe and I ate it. And we did a good job of it. It was mostly gone the first night. Definitely gone the next day.

I made it yesterday to give to a friend, but as I was finishing the meat part of it, Joe called and said he needed a dish for his office Christmas party the next day. So since it was already made, he got that batch and I'm about to make it a third time for my friend whose husband is in the hospital. I figure she doesn't want to cook right now, and she will enjoy and appreciate some healthy and delicious home cooking. And her husband will probably be able to eat it since it is fairly healthy (he had heart surgery). While the original recipe called for beef, I made it once with ground turkey and once with ground chicken and both were wonderful.

I'm looking forward to the little bit extra that won't fit in the pan that I will put in a little loaf pan for myself (he he he).



Winter Squash-Black Bean Bake with Meat
Inspired by Better Homes and Gardens

1 lb. ground turkey or chicken
3 cups of 1/2-inch pieces peeled butternut squash
1 medium sweet onion, chopped
1 15-oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup whole kernel corn (I used canned)
1 4-oz. can diced green chiles
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp chili powder
1-1/2 tsp chipotle powder
a dash cayanne
1 cup lower-sodium beef broth
1 3-oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
1 8-1/2-oz. pkg. corn muffin mix (the Jiffy mix is 8 1/2 ounces)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup milk (I use 2%)
1/3 cup canned pumpkin


Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

In your biggest skillet, sautee the squash and onion with the salt and pepper until the onion is tender and golden and the squash is close to a point where it could be eaten - sort of like it's aldente.

In a separate pan, cook the meat. I find it helpful to cook it in a little bit of water. It breaks apart easier. Drain off the liquid and fat.

Add the meat to the veggies. With it, add the broth, beans, corn, green chiles, and the spices. Heat it all through and then Transfer mixture to 2-1/2-quart baking dish.

In medium bowl stir together the corn muffin mix, cream cheese, egg, milk, and pumpkin puree until just combined. Spoon over beef mixture.

Bake the casserole for 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted into topper comes out clean.

Easy Pumpkin Tiramisu

This pumpkin tiramisu was an absolute success, and yet it was so easy to make! My friends were visually impressed and quite happy when it made its way to their plates and then into their mouths. Even several days later, when I brought the last piece, which I saved and guarded with my life, to my friend in CT the night of her holiday party, it was still working it's magic. Linda scoffed it down instead of going for any of the desserts on her table, and raved over it.

In short, you should make this!

It was so easy to make, I made it one-handed. As my life is always full of drama, I broke my wrist in two places the weekend before Thanksgiving. So between my one good hand and my KitchenAid mixer, I was still able to make this. Typing up the blog post was another story - it got delayed until now.

As for the ingredients, let me just write about a couple of them. First, the ladyfingers. I guess the ladyfingers that are traditionally used in tiramisu are somewhat crunchy. So, if you are like me, you won't find crunchy ladyfingers at your grocery store. I only had the soft ones available to me - the kind you put in a trifle. To remedy this, you will have to toast them in the oven. I put them in the oven at 350 degrees for 7 minutes.

The other ingredient I want to mention is the amaretti cookies. I've seen them at Ocean State Job Lot. I got them at a specialty market because I was there and so were they. But if you can't find them, I saw reviewers of the original recipe write that they used ginger snaps. Amaretti cookies are great. And I totally loved eating the leftovers. But hey, if you can't get them, you can't. I would imagine that ginger snaps would be an awesome replacement.

Ooh, there's one more thing I want to mention. Don't skimp on the rum! By the time you eat it, it won't taste too boozy. In fact, I felt it added an essential flavor. When I used it, I used a small nip bottle and covered most of the opening with my thumb as I splashed drips onto the ladyfingers as evenly as possible. The rum was really a wonderful flavor when we dug into this tiramisu.

Do make this the day before you plan to serve it. And then use some self-control. It will be totally worth it!




Pumpkin Tiramisu
Bon Appétit

1 2/3 cups chilled whipping cream
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 (8-ounce) container mascarpone cheese
1 (15-ounce) can pure pumpkin
1 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice *
2 (3-ounce) packages halved ladyfingers - crisped
1/4 cup dark rum (or regular if that's what you've got)
2 ounces crushed amaretti cookies (if you can't get them use ginger snaps)
Powdered Sugar
* No pumpkin pie spice? No problem! Just mix 2 tablespoons each of cinnamon and ground ginger with 1 tablespoon ground nutmeg and 1 tsp ground allspice.


Beat the whipping cream and sugar until peaks form. I beat it till stiff peaks formed, but I recommend that you don't. Aim for softer peaks. Then add the mascarpone cheese, pumpkin, and pumpkin pie spice. Mix it until it's smooth and all the ingredients are well-blended.

Line the bottom of a 9-inch-diameter spring form pan with parchment paper. It might be good to make the parchment paper a little too wide. That way, when you put the finished tiramisu on a serving plate, you can slide it off the bottom of the pan, while someone tilts the metal disk toward you. Also, put parchment paper around the sides of the pan.

Crisp your ladyfingers in the oven if they are soft. I put my oven at 350 degrees and put the ladyfingers in for 7 minutes.

Spread out an even layer of ladyfingers to cover the bottom.even with 2 3/4-inch-high sides with 1 package ladyfingers, overlapping and crowding to fit. I regret that mine looked so messy. Were I to do it again, I would make this bottom row much neater, more like the 2nd row of ladyfingers looks (you will see that photo soon).



Sprinkle the ladyfingers with approximately 2 tablespoons of rum. Then, spread almost half of the leftover filling over ladyfingers. What I'm getting at is that if it's possible, it would be great if you can save some of the filling to spread it on the sides once you put the entire tiramisu on a plate.

Repeat with second package ladyfingers. Doesn't it look so much neater?



Sprinkle the new layer of ladyfingers with the remaining 2 rum. Top with much of the remaining filling (trying to save some for the sides) and smooth it on the top. A little trick you can use if the smoothing isn't going so well is to spray the bottom of you plastic spatula or spoon with cooking oil spray. That will keep the filling from sticking to it, allowing your top to be smoother.

Note: I didn't save any filling for the sides. You may notice that in my photos. That's why I recommend that you do. It doesn't need to be a lot. Most of the sides will have filling already. I'm recommending that you reserve maybe 1/2 cup.


The next day, put the spring form on a serving plate and release the sides of the pan and remove. In this photo below, you can see how I over-whipped my whipped cream. The top layer of mine was very thick. That's why I'm recommending soft peaks.

My husband helped me here to tilt the serving plate, while I lifted the tiramisu with a spatula and carefully grasped the parchment paper underneath it and took the entire tiramisu off of the bottom of the spring form and the parchment. Now my tiramisu was directly on the glass plate. It would have been even easier if the bottom layer of parchment was a little bigger than the pan - even if only in one area.

In this next picture, you can see where I wish I had that leftover 1/2 cup filling:


Grind up the amaretti in a food processor or crush it in a bag. Decorate the top with it. Perhaps even the sides. I put some on the sides to cover up flaws.

I sprinkled with powdered sugar just before serving.

Red Lentil and Butternut Squash Soup

Before I get to the food, let me address this important issue. Where have I been?

Well, I've been very, very busy getting a certificate in Web Design - the first step in a hopeful career change. So I've been crazy in over my head as I learned all about css, page design, flash, using available java scripts, jQuery, a bit about XML, and table-driven and css-driven DHTML.

I haven't cooked much beyond boxed pizza in months. The freezer has been full of frozen meals and I've been thrilled about the invention of the microwave. We didn't have those things when I was a little kid!

But on to the food!

This recipe happened by mistake, as I got punished by my bad karma.

Several weeks ago while out taking fall pics, I stopped in at one of my favorite foodie destinations, Idylwilde Farms. I saw the soup mixes on the shelves and couldn't resist. You know, the dry soup mixes - the ones with the dried beans in a clear cellophane bag, and then at the top are the herbs and such. You add some stock and veggies. Here's a pic of one of the mixes I got:



Well, I bought about four of them because I thought it would be like homemade goodness, but with convenience. Also, they make rather large batches, I could do it in a crock pot and freeze individual meal-sizes that I could just reheat when I felt like it and have comfort food any time.

The first one I made was the beef stew pictured above. And it was delicious. But as I made it I felt like an idiot. I spent so much time sauteing the onions and peeling and cutting up yellow turnip. I thought to myself, "Meryl, what you are doing now is the time consuming part of making anything. You could have made your own stew and made this a blog post and been proud of your creation instead." But it was too late for that.

So a couple of days ago I figured I'd use another of the mixes - this time the Red Lentil and Butternut Squash soup mix. But I got bitten in the rear by bad karma!

So, I was kicking myself as I cut up and seared some chicken, sliced and sauteed the onion, and cubed the butternut squash. But I thought that I must not let this soup mix go to waste. And I was sure it would taste good.

I put all the chicken broth (low sodium) in the crock pot. I added the chicken and veggies, and opened up the top of the cellophane bag of soup mix. The herb packet is always at the top. I reached in, took it out, and I immediately noticed that things were hanging off of it, as if caught on a web.

I was holding it over the sink, puzzled. I thought to myself, "what is this?" as I removed it all from the little plastic herb packet. It was then that I saw the live little worms twitching around inside.

Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

And now I've got a dilemma because the soup is already started! I had to do something right away! I remembered that I had some red lentils, so I ran to my laptop to look for my own recipe.

I began by typing in epicurioius.com to find out that my Internet went down. OMG, the Gods are totally against me today! I thought to myself, "Meryl, don't panic. Take a walk with the dogs and the Internet will be back up and running when you return."

So I did. And when I came home, the Internet was back up. I looked at various recipes on various sites and came up with a game plan. Then, I ran to the cupboards to get the lentils. CRAP! I no longer had any.

I decided to let the what was in the crock pot cook, since the chicken was in it, for the rest of the afternoon. Then I put the entire crock in the fridge that evening and went to the store, not knowing if I'd find the red lentils easily or not. Luckily I did find them and I got back to the soup the next day.

In the end, the recipe I chose was a success. Warm, cozy, seasonal, and tasty. I'm glad that I made it and not the mix, although I could have done without the roller coaster ride.

Red Lentil and Butternut Squash Soup
(a crock pot recipe that makes 8-10 servings)

10 cups broth (I use low sodium - by the way, how big is your crock pot?)
a bag of frozen chicken breasts – and olive oil (large bag - approx 8-9 breasts / 3lb?)
a bunch of scallions
olive oil
1 onion sliced
1/2 can light coconut milk *
1 tbs garam masala ** (mine was old)
1 tsp red madras curry
1 tsp cumin
2 cups red lentils (added in last - cooked for about 2-3 hours, tasting for doneness)
salt (I added 1 tsp - I'm very sensitive to salt. I'd suggest 3 tsp for normal people)

* The coconut milk was great. If I were to remake, I'd add the whole can.
** My garam masala was quite old. But even if it were fresh I would still try the entire tablespoon. I bet it would be awesome. But if you are wary of that, you could go with 1.5 teaspoons.

Okay, if I were making this today, all in one day, this is what I would do.

Put the crock pot on high and add the broth, the coconut milk, the cut up butternut squash, and the spices.

Cut up the chicken in to small pieces or slices. Sautee them and them in 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil and add them into the crock pot.

Back in the sautee pan, turn the flame on medium-high, add 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil, heat it up, and add the sliced onions. Sautee them till golden brown and then add them to the crock pot. Leave the crock pot on high for 1/2 hour to an hour. Then turn it to low for a good long time. Geeze, this is where I had it on low for about 6-8 hours and then put it in the fridge overnight.

The lentils don't need as long to cook. Red lentils will take between 1-2 hours to soften on low.

Then you have a delicious, hearty, comforting fall soup. If you put it in the fridge, you'll probably need to add more broth, it gets very thick overnight, and the crock pot can only hold so much liquid.

Blueberry Pie

This pie rocks! It was the best blueberry pie I've ever had! I'm super proud to have made it!

That's pretty impressive since I almost never have the opportunity to make a pie. It's been years since I've made a pie, and I've never made a blueberry one. So I'm patting myself on the back and saying "good girl, Meryl."

Why, do you ask, do I never get to make pies? To begin, it's just Joe and I (and the dogs), and we struggle with weight issues. So the last thing we need around here is an entire pie sitting on the counter top. And during all the holidays when people make pies, all the pies are spoken for by other members of the family. The one or two times that I tried to add to the repertoire of pies, my pies were practically untouched, so I gave up. Perhaps I lost my pie-baking confidence as well. So, I just don't make them.

I bought this Longaberger pie plate from my friend Karen about 4 years ago, and up until last Sunday, I hadn't used it yet:


But last Sunday we were invited to a friend's for brunch. She was going to make a peach pie for dessert, and that was very nice of her! But knowing that Joe wouldn't have touched it with a 10-foot pole, I offered to make a blueberry pie (blueberry is Joe's favorite pie).

She accepted, and I thought to myself that I had gotten into a conundrum. I would have to live up to Joe's idea of a blueberry pie, and that idea was his mom's blueberry pie. Oy vey! That's a lot to live up to.

I found a well-liked recipe for a pie on Epicurious.com. Well, the filling was well-liked and the crust was not. Many of the reviewers only suggested to double the cornstarch, so I did. I accidentally omitted the butter when I made my pie, but it wasn't missed.

The crust I used came from my friend Karen. I've posted her recipe as well.

If you are looking for a great blueberry pie, look no further! This is the one.



Blueberry Pie
Filling inspired by a Gourmet Magazine recipe

6 cups blueberries, picked over
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons half-and-half or milk (optional - to top the crust)
turbinado sugar or large-grain cane sugar (to top the crust)

Karen's No-Fail Flaky Pie Crust


Preheat the oven to 425°F.

In a large bowl toss together the blueberries, the cornstarch, sugar, lemon juice, nutmeg, and the salt. It might be easiest to use your hands so you don't crush all the blueberries. Mound the filling in the shell.

If you use the butter, place little pieces of it around on the top.

Place the top crust over it and crimp the edges.


Be sure to use a knife and make air vents in the top crust. I made a smiley face with some outer slashes like short rays of sunshine. Next time I do it, I will remove slivers in the smiley face.

Bake the pie in the bottom third of the oven at 425 for the first 20 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 375 (leaving the pie where it is) and bake for another 25-35 minutes. I baked mine 30 minutes and wish I had taken it out a few minutes sooner. But it was acceptable nonetheless.

Karen's No-Fail Flaky Pie Crust

I'm not accustomed to making pies, so when I needed to make one and I found myself visiting my friend Karen, I asked her if she had a no-fail, flaky pie crust recipe. I had a feeling she did, and I was right!

I thank you Karen for this wonderful crust recipe. It was perfect! So easy and simple, that even a pie buffoon like myself could use it and impress her friends.

Karen doesn't even roll out this pie crust. She puts it in the pie pan and spreads it out to fit it with her hands. But in the few times I've made crusts in my life, I've had problems, so I put the chilled dough between sheets of wax paper and rolled them out. It worked like a charm. I only wish I had a little more on the bottom crust. It didn't look too thick, but maybe I could have rolled it out a bit more to have more to play with on the outer edge.

Karen's No-Fail, Flaky Pie Crust
makes a double crust for a 9" pie

2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt (I used more like 2/3)
1 egg
1 tablespoon vinegar
1/4 cup water
3/4 cup shortening

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl.

Cut in the shortening. I used this tool pictured.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg, vinegar, and water.

Mix in the dry ingredients.

Use your hands to form it all into a ball.

Split the ball in two. One ball should be larger for the bottom crust.

Wrap them in plastic wrap and chill for at least two hours.

When it is time to make the pie, roll out the dough balls between sheets of wax paper.

I learned a little trick to get the dough from the counter to the pie pan when I was watching Sara Moulton the Food Network a long time ago. Fold the dough over in half once, and then again in the other direction. Then place it in the pie pan and unfold. It's much easier than trying to lift the thin sheet of dough.

Karen freezes hers sometimes so she has it ready-made for later.

I used this crust to make my Blueberry Pie.

Costa Rican Beet Salad

I love beets. I cannot say the same for my husband, but I can say the same for my friends, Phyllis, Jennifer, and Scott. So I took advantage of spending time with them on Sunday to make some beets.

This Costa Rican Beet Salad is the best I can do to re-live a fond food memory. I studied at the University of Costa Rica in San José for a semester and they served a beet salad that I loved on campus there. That beet salad was near and dear to my heart.

I'm sad that I forgot to save a sprig of the beautiful cilantro for the picture and I had to use a sprig of flat leaf parsley. It was better than nothing. But know, that the cilantro was a wonderful flavor in this dish.

Also, there really are few ingredients. That’s great, because I was originally going to make a salad that had many ingredients and would have cost a bundle. Like many of you, I recently lost my job, so I have to be careful about how much I’m spending.

This salad may have served four, but not if those four wanted large portions. I had more beets because I was originally going to make two different beet salads, but decided to double this one when I realized how little salad I had when I was done.

This recipe will be in the regular recipe rotation around here. It was scrumptious and easy. And who doesn’t like an easy recipe!

Oh, in the picture, I was sad to have to use a sprig of parsley for decoration on the beet salad. I had forgotten to save a sprig of cilantro. Cilantro was an important flavor in the salad. I was gentle with the cilantro - Phyllis liked that it was on the subtle side. But the salad wouldn't be the same without it.

Costa Rican Beet Salad
Inspired by a recipe posted on Recipezaar.com by Cheerleader

4 medium fresh beets
1/4 sweet yellow onion, minced (I used vadalia)
1/3 large yellow pepper, finely diced
2-3 Tablespoons chopped cilantro
4 tablespoons mayonnaise
salt to taste (if you must – truth is, I didn’t)

Prepare the beets and remove the skins.

Dice the beets into small squares

Add minced onion, cilantro, and sweet pepper. This is what I had before I added the mayonnaise:


Add mayonnaise and gently mix thoroughly.

Add the salt if you use it.

Preparing and Cooking Beets - The Boiling Method

Beets are easy to work with and there are several ways to prepare them. In the cold weather it's nice to put them in foil packs with the skins on, baked them, and then removed the skins when done. In the summer, I choose the boiling method.

When choosing your beets at the grocery store, try to get a bunch that has beets of approximately the same size. By doing this, you will have beets that finish cooking at the same time. If they aren’t the same size, be aware that the smaller ones will finish cooking sooner. You will need to remove them earlier so you don’t have beet mush!

Preparing the Beets

Cut off the greens at the base of the beets.

Cut off the tail of the beet.

Leave the skin on the beets! This is very important!

Boil the water first and then place the beets in it. I started out with a 30 minute time limit with the pot covered. Check the beets by piercing them (or attempting to pierce them) with a fork or knife. When the fork or knife easily pierces the beet and goes toward the middle, coming out with no effort, the beets are done! Beets shouldn't be cooked al dente.

When I checked at the 30 minute mark, I knew that at least another 30 minutes would be necessary. I had chosen large beets at the store.

Thirty minutes later, I set the timer for 10 more minutes. At that point, my two smaller beets were done. I removed them and ran cold water over them while I removed the skins. By the time I was done with that, a few more of the beets were done, and so on and so on.

Important Note About Skin Removal

If you want to place the beets in a bowl of cold water before handling them, do it with the skins on!

Case in point – I removed the skins of the first two small beets and then cut them in half and put them in cold water. I forgot to do it with the next beets, and I’m so glad! Look at the difference in the color of the beets I cut in half and then placed in cold water without skin compared to the beets that I place in cold water with the skin on and in tact before removing the skin:


Removing the skin is easy when the beets are cooked. I took the picture below without the water running just so you could see that all it takes is a little pressure with your thumb and pulling away. The skin will go with it. Easy-peasy! Even easier under running water.



Now you are ready for any beet recipe, such as Costa Rican Beet Salad, or to just eat them as they are.