Best Apple Pie. Ever.

Best I've ever made because it's the first one I've ever made. And best I've ever eaten because I don't think I've actually ever had a homemade apple pie. Hungarians don't make pies.

Pie Crust

2.5 cups Flour. 1.5 sticks Butter. 1/4 cup cold Vegetable Shortening. 1/2 tsp. Salt. 4 Tbsp. Ice Water.

1. Cut butter into 1/2 inch cubes. Mix in flour, shortening, and salt. Mix by hand until the butter pieces are distributed, and pea-sized.
2. Drizzle in ice water and stir with a fork.
3. Squeeze the dough with your hand. It should stick together. If not, add more water until it does.
4. On a board or counter, divide dough into 8 pieces. Smear each against the counter with the heel of your hand to distribute the butter.
5. Divide dough in half. Make each into a ball, then flatten into a thick disk.
6. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Apple Pie

3 Tbsp. Flour. 1 tsp. lemon zest. 1/2 tsp. Cinnamon. 1/4 tsp. Allspice. 1/8 tsp. Salt. 1.75 lbs. each Sliced Granny Smith Apples and Fuji Apples. 1 Tbsp. Lemon Juice. 2/3 cup + 1 Tbsp. Sugar. 1 Egg, beaten.

1. Place a baking sheet in the oen and preheat to 425 degrees.
2. Mix together flour, zest, cinnamon, allspice, salt, and 2/3 cup sugar in large bowl. Add apples and lemon juice.
3. Roll out one piece of dough on a lightly floured surface. Fit into pie plate. Trim edge 1/2 from plate. Return to refrigerator.
4. Take out other piece of dough and roll out to fit top of pie plate, with extra.
5. Spoon filling into shell and cover with dough. Squeeze edges of top and bottom dough together and trim to 1/2 inch past pie plate.
6. Roll up dough edges and press down with a fork.
7. Cut three vents in top of pie. Sprinkle with tablespoon sugar.
8. Bake on sheet for 20 minutes. Reduce oven to 375 and bake for another 40 minutes.
9. Cool pie for 2-3 hours.

Taken from:

The Gourmet Cookbook

Ruth Reichel

2004

Caution: Contents May Be Hot

It's been a while since I've had any Hungarian dessert. They are oh so good, but quite complicated and time consuming. I have not yet dared making the pastries, even though I only get them around the holidays when Mom devotes weeks to making them. Feeling lazy, I made one of the quicker ones today. They won't look exactly like the photo. My breadcrumbs were stale, so I just used cinnamon and powdered sugar. They are definitely not the same.

Szilvas Gomboc (Plum Dumplings)

2 cups Flour. 2 Eggs. Water. pinch Salt. 1 tsp. Vegetable Oil. 2 Tbsp. Cinnamon. 1/4 cup Sugar. 1 cup Breadcrumbs. 1 cup Lekvar (Plum Preserve). 1/2 cup Butter.

1. Sift the flour onto a clean counter or board. Make a well in the center and add the egg and a pinch of salt.
2. Start mixing, adding water as needed to make a soft dough. Knead until smooth and cut in half. Brush with vegetable oil and let sit, covered, for 15 minutes.
3. Roll out one piece as thin as possible without tearing a hole. Use a 4" circle cutter, or top of a drinking glass to cut out circles in the dough.
4. Roll them out more now if they still aren't very thin. You should be able to just see your hand through it when holding it.
5. Mix the lekvar with a little it of sugar and cinnamon, to taste.
6. Spoon a very small amount of lekvar into each circle.
7. Whisk an egg with a small amount of water. Use to brush a SMALL amount on the edges of the circles.
8. To close, bring the edges together and pinch. Pinch off any extra dough. Make sure the top is completely closed.
9. Drop into lightly salted water at a low boil. Stir to keep from sticking to the bottom.
10. Remove and let water drain off when floating.
11. In a pan, melt butter. Add breadcrumbs and toast until golden. Add sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.
12. Roll each dumpling in the breadcrumbs.
13. Serve warm.

That French Chicken Dish

Inspired by the movie "Julie & Julia", I picked a random Julia Child recipe to make last night. Can't go wrong with an entire stick of butter, right? It turned out delicious, in all its buttery glory.

Poulet Saute Aux Herbes De Provence

For Chicken:

1 stick Butter. 1 Whole Chicken. 1 tsp. Dry Thyme, 1 tsp. Dry Basil, 1/4 tsp. Fennel Seed, ground. 3 Unpeeled Garlic Cloves. 2/3 cup Dry White Wine

For Sauce:

2 Egg Yolks. 1 Tbsp. Lemon Juice. 1 Tbsp. Dry White Wine.

1. Chicken. Using a sharp knife, cut the chicken into legs, thighs, wings, and breasts. Start by cutting out the backbone. It's pretty easy from there. Find the joints when you can. The knife you are using should be able to cut through bone to cut the breasts apart. Remove any stray pieces of fat or bone
2. Wash and dry the pieces thoroughly. I they aren't dry, they wont brown properly.
3. Melt butter in pan and brown the chicken, both sides, each 8 minutes, on med-high. Careful not to burn the butter. Season both sides with the spices. Add garlic cloves.
4. Cover and cook on medium for 15 minutes, basting and turning occasionally.
5. Remove chicken. Remove peel from garlic and mash the cloves. Add wine. Reduce until 3/4 cup is left.
6. Sauce. In a separate pan, whisk egg yolks, wine, and lemon juice. Gradually whisk pan juices in. Place on low heat, constantly whisking, until thickened.

Notes:

• Don't try to reheat the sauce, it's an emulsion, and it'll just fall apart and be greasy.

• Use the extra chicken parts, like the backbone, to make chicken broth, or bean soup.

The Lighter Side

Last weekend, John wanted something "light". I understood, seeing as we ate a massive dinner at Ruth Chris Steakhouse the night before. BUT this meant salad. Ugh salad...diet food...so boring. So I snuck in some pasta. mmm carbs.

Italian Salad with Orzo

Salad Greens. Orzo Pasta. Chopped Fresh Basil. Balsamic Vinegar. Olive Oil. Quartered Vine Tomatoes. Cubed Fresh Mozzarella. Toasted Pine Nuts (optional). Sun-dried Tomatoes (optional). Salt. Pepper.

1. Mix together at the ratios of your liking. Pair with garlic cheese bread.

Notes.

• Cook pasta with salt and garlic to give it flavor.

• Grow your own basil pants for fresh basil anytime. They grow like weeds, you don't have to do anything to them. And you save $4 buying that little package of 5 leaves at the grocery store.

• Buy the Mozzarella that is in water. Even better, buy buffalo mozzarella. These are usually in the fancy cheese refrigerated section. Getting deli mozzarella is NOT the same.

• If you can't find toasted pine nuts, get pine nuts from the baking section and toast them yourself, in a pan, on LOW heat. They burn easily.

• Cover your salad with a wet paper towel when putting it away. It keeps everything crunchy.

• Also use the balsamic and olive oil for dipping a good bread like "boule", an artisan bread. Add salt and dipping spices if you like.

Criminal

The neglect I've given this blog is criminal, yes, criminal. I've been sitting on my butt watching all of the Desperate Housewives Seasons, NOT working on vet school applications, and working two whole half-days a week. On the weekends, I travel, go visit people. Laszlo in Maryland (wedding), Jess in Tally, John in Orlando. And yes, I drank way too much wine tonight, . It's Robert Mondavi Private Selection Pinot Grigio California 2008. Very good, I must say, for a dry white wine. I developing an aversion to white wine. I've become a red wine-o. Inspired by the $56 Robert Mondavi Pinot Noir John and I had at The Grey Gables in Charlevoix, MI a few weeks ago. $30 at the store by the way, don't you love restaurants? It was delicious, the price made it taste even better. Expensive things always taste better, even if they are actually worse. I had a good Pepper-Crusted New York Strip with it. He had a GREAT, enormous, Tomahawk steak with it. I was jealous. He ate the whole thing and only gave me a bite. He is a greedy man. Anyways, I used the Pinot Grigio in a dish I made tonight. Inspired by the recent movie "Julie & Julia" I made "Poulet Saute Aux Herbes De Provence". I stole it from a recent Food & Wine Magazine article. I was disgusted by the amount of butter used, but this of course, it what makes it good. The sauce is the best part, it makes the dish... characteristically French. I'm not sure I'm sold on French food. It wasn't that good. But nothing ever is when you make it yourself. Things are always better when someone else makes it, right? I wish someone would make ME something someday. Dr. Sameck had an interesting talk with us at the last staff meeting. It was about Love Languages. Apparently there's touch (which he commented we shouldn't use at work), service, speaking...and I'm not sure what else as I haven't read the book, yet. I've decided mine is definitely service. You know I love you when I cook for you. I REALLY love you if I cook for you all the time, and make excuses to cook for you. And get really nervous about it. John is a touch person. I feel like I need the speaking language back though. Ok. Wait. Stop. This is a cooking blog. What am I doing? Ok. So today I was thinking...I'm going to put Hungarian recipes in a separate blog. Hungarian food is SO fattening, and I'm not willing to sacrifice my figure for putting them all up here. I'm going to have to interchange them with some healthier things. So. eat.sleep.cook.hungarian will likely be born soon. I'm not happy that I'm coming back to this when I actually will have a lot to do soon. Wanted to get applications done before school starts, which starts in 2 weeks. Can I say procrastinator? What can I say, I do well under pressure. I'm going to drown myself in delicious fudge from Murdick's Famous Fudge in Charlevoix now. Goodnight, and hopefully I'll be more proactive soon.

Nom Nom

A plethora of Hungarian family recipes to come, just a few more weeks of torture...

The recipe list:

Bablaves (Bean Soup)
Csirke Paprikas (Paprika Chicken)
Fank (Doughnuts)
Gulyas (Beef Stew)
Haluska (Cabbage & Noodles)
Langos (Elephant Ear Pastry)
Nokedli (Egg Dumplings, like Spaetzle)

Magyaros Karfiol es Brakoli (Broccoli & Cauliflower Casserole)

Meggy Leves (Sour Cherry Soup)

Palacsinta (Crepes)
Tepertos Pogacsa (Bacon Biscuits)
Toltottkaposzta (Cabbage Rolls)
Szekely Gulyas (Pork & Sauerkraut Stew)
Szilvas Gomboc (Plum Dumplings)

Veal Stew
Potato Salad

Stealing Chris's Ideas

Just partially anyway. He made some buffalo chicken one night for dinner. It's super easy, he just grilled up some chicken breasts drenched in Budweiser brand wing sauce. We ate them on hoagie rolls with provolone cheese, ranch, lettuce, and tomato. You can use any brand of wing sauce you like and any cheese that you like.

Quick Look - Buffalo Chicken

Ingredients:

Chicken Breasts. Buffalo Wing Sauce. Cheese. Ranch. Tomato. Lettuce. Bread.

Instructions:

1. Marinate the chicken breasts in the wing sauce for 15 minutes.
   
2. Grill, basting with more wing sauce.
3. Assemble sandwiches with desired toppings.
   

The part that makes it partially mine is next. We had a lot of this chicken left
over and I wanted to do something different with them. But, I also wanted to
do something quick. I had been craving pizza, so I picked up some premade
pizza dough from Publix. I let it rise according to he package, stretched it out,
put wing sauce, chicken, and cheese on top and threw it in the oven. It came
out great!

Quick Look - Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Ingredients:

Pizza Dough. Wing Sauce. Buffalo Chicken. Cheese.

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven and let the dough rise according to the package directions.
   
2. When ready, stretch or roll the pizza dough out to the desired size.
   
3. Top with a thin layer of wing sauce, chicken, and cheese.
   
4. Bake in oven according to dough package.
   

Sorry no photos for this one :( And I promise I'll be more consistent with my
posts instead of waiting a while then posting a bunch. School always makes
me more organized.