Sweet Potato Pie

I modified one recipe for the filling and one for the crust. Since this was the first time I've ever made sweet potato pie, I was quite happy with the way this came out.

Crust Ingredients
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 1/4 cups flour, and some extra for rolling
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons ice water

1. Soften the butter.
2. Mix the flour, salt, sugar and cinnamon.
3. Combine butter with the flour mixture. I did this by hand with a spoon, which is great exercise, but you can use a food processor as well.
4. Add in enough ice water so the mixture becomes doughy.
5. Kneed for a minute or two.
   
6. Refrigerate while you prepare the filling

Filling Ingredients
2 largish sweet potatoes (the original recipe called for 1 lb)
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup Silk
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Peel and quarter the sweet potatoes. Boil for 15 minutes or until softened.
2. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
   
3. Mash the sweet potato with the butter.
   
4. Add in the sugar, Silk, nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla, mix and then add in eggs. It will be a bit liquidy.
   
5. Take out your chilled pie dough and shape into a ball, and press out into a circle big enough for a pie dish. If it's too sticky to work with, add more flour. I just did this by hand, no roller, and it came out great.
   
6. Press the crust into the pie plate and shape until it's evenly covering it.
7. Pour in the filling.
8. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes. You should be able to insert a knife and have it come out clean when it's done.
   
9. Try to refrain from eating while the pie cools :)
   

Apple Stuffed Cornish Hen

You should make this if for no other reason than to experience how it makes your home smell while it bakes. It's essentially an apple pie with a chicken substituting the crust. I usually do this recipe with an orange, but today I had an apple at hand so I decided to try that, and I'm glad I did.

Ingredients
1 apple
1 Cornish hen
2 tablespoons butter, softened

1. Remove any plastic bags and hen bits from the Cornish hen. Do not forget this step.
2. Slice up an apple.
3. Coat the hen with the butter and stuff if full of as many apple pieces as you can. If you can't fit the whole apple, just set those pieces aside for when you bake.
4. Place the hen in a deep skilled with a cover at medium heat.
5. Salt and pepper the exposed side.
   
6. When the hen has browned a bit (probably at least 5 minutes for this), flip it and let that side brown for about 5 minutes. Salt and pepper the newly exposed side.
   
7. Flip the hen back over and then pour in enough white wine to cover the bottom and quickly cover. The old "wine and cover" trick.
   
8. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
   
9. If your pan has a metal handle, transfer the entire thing to the oven. If your pan has a plastic handle, for God's sake, don't do that and transfer the hen to a baking pan or pie plate instead.
10. Bake for 40 minutes, remove from oven. You could try adding broccoli and covering it for a few minutes right after removing the hen from the oven, that was my original plan but there was a small incident.
    

Sweet Potato Fries- half fried, half baked

This recipe works with regular potatoes too. The half frying, half baking process results in the best of both (crispy but not greasy).

Ingredients
2 sweat potatoes. Or yams, I always forget which is which.
Oil- canola works well for this since it heats to a high temperature.
Garlic salt and pepper

1. Cut up the sweet potatoes. I find these come out better if I cut the sweet potatoes to be somewhere in between the size of fast food fries and steak fries. Too small and they'll get mushy; too big and it's hard to cook them through.
2. Cover the bottom of a frying pan with oil and add the sweet potatoes on medium heat. I don't fully submerge fries when I cook them, since I finish the process with baking which cooks them through. Just enough oil to brown one side of the fries at a time.
   
3. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
   
4. Flip the sweet potatoes every few minutes until they've all browned a bit on more than one one side. So long as they don't char, don't worry about over-browning- the browning carmelizes them and makes them quite tasty.
5. Now transfer them for baking to finish. I have a vegetable steamer that opens up flat, so I put that in a baking dish and put the fries on top of it. This let's the excess oil drip down and gives them a nice air baking. But if you don't have a means of doing that, a cookie sheet will do too.
6. Garlic salt and pepper them.
   
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes. I'll usually make burgers while they're baking.
   

Scallops with Saucy Noodles, Broccoli and Shallots

I made this just for myself, hence the small proportions, but it's easily scaled. I'm using handful as a measurement for this which may work quite well- if you have big hands, you can probably eat more.

Ingredients
.6 lb of scallops (I used fairly large scallops for this, and obviously the weight doesn't have to be that precise)
Handful of broccoli cut into florets
1/2 a handful of shallots, sliced
1 clove garlic, chopped
Splash of white wine (I used cooking vermouth)
Handful of noodles- I used a Thai linguini style, but any Asian style noodles would work

1. Start the water boiling for the noodles while you prepare the vegetables.
2. Start the noodles, the rest of the recipe will cook in the time it takes them to be done.
   
3. Lightly oil a frying pan on medium-high heat and add in the scallop- salt and pepper the exposed side. Scallops will get chewy if you cook them too long, so make sure the heat is high enough to brown the side that's cooking in no more than a couple minutes.
   
4. Once the scallops have browned on one side, flip them and then add the brocolli and garlic- make sure the scallops all still have contact with the pan. Salt and pepper again.
   
5. When the other side of the scallops has browned, splash in enough white wine to cover the bottom of the pan and quickly cover the pan. I use this technique with wine and vinegar in a lot of recipes- it steams everything, makes a nice sauce and also has a nice dramatic effect.
6. The noodles should be done by now, so drain them.
   
7. The wine just needs to cook long enough for the alcohol to cook off, but you still want some liquid- a minute or two will do it. Then add in the noodles, turn off the heat and mix.
   

Burgers

This is my go-to burger recipe. It's basic enough that I don't really need to document it for myself but thought I'd share, and maybe one day in my senility it will be nice to have it for myself. The mustard and onion idea I got from a Gordon Ramsey show- one of the older British ones when the focus was actually cooking and you could pick up some tips. Just two long, anecdotal-type instructions for this one.

A took this picture on a night when I hadn't had lunch that day and decided to do it up with a fried egg on top of the burger. Those are sweet potato fries on the side.

Ingredients
Ground beef - about 1lb. or slightly more (makes 3 hefty burgers)
1 heaping teaspoon of dijon mustard
1 egg
2-3 rounded tablespoons chopped onion
Salt and pepper

1. Mix all ingredient together. The egg helps bind the burger, says Ramsey, and it does hold together better than when I do it without the egg. The mix will be slightly gooey and that's fine- this lets you make some big burgers and the moisture burning off will steam the insides so it cooks through. If it's not slightly gooey, add a little ketchup.
   
2. Cook the burgers. If you have a grill and the weather permits, that's probably the best way to do it but I usually end up cooking these in a frying pan. I start with the heat a little above medium and cook them for about 4-5 minutes on each side, turning when they're well-browned. Don't mess press down on them or keep flipping them, just leave them alone while they brown. If you're not sure if they're done, press lightly on them with your finger (don't do this right after you flip them)- well done burgers are fairly firm. To some degree this just takes practice. If they do need more time after they've browned, lower the heat to medium low. If there's a lot of liquid in the pan, I'll sometimes tilt it by putting a wad of aluminum foil underneath one side of it and let it cook that way so they don't get soggy.
   

Roasted Salt and Vinegar Baby Potatoes

I'm sure this would work with other vinegars as well, and I'll definitely give it a try with balsamic, but the rice vinegar worked well for this.

Ingredients
Baby potatoes, sliced in half
Olive oil
Rice vinegar
Salt and pepper

1. Put enough olive oil in a skillet to cover the bottom, and put the heat on medium.
   
2. Place the potatoes sliced side up in the skillet (you don't have to be that precise, but it does help them come out more even).
3. When the potatoes have browned a bit, which will take 3-4 minutes, flip them so they're sliced face down.
4. Wait another 3-4 minutes for that side to brown lightly.
   
5. Hold the cover to the skillet in one hand and the rice vinegar in the other and splash the vinegar over the potatoes until the bottom of is lightly covered in vinegar.
   
6. Then put the top down to hold in the steam (and the burning vinegar smell) and let that sit for about a minute.
7. Turn the heat off and transfer the potatoes to a baking pan or cookie sheet.
8. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
9. Bake in the oven 20-30 minutes (I honestly don't remember, but it will vary based on the size of the potatoes).
   

Garlic-Lime Breaded Chicken Wings

These came out like fried wings even though they were baked, so it's relatively healthy. You don't taste the lime too much, it just gives it a little zest.


Ingredients
1 1/2 lbs chicken wings
1 cup breadcrumbs
1/4 grated parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon of garlic salt
Pepper
1/8 of a cup of lime (or lemon) juice
1 egg
2 teaspoons corn oil

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
   
2. Mix the breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, pepper (to taste) and garlic salt in a large bowl.
3. In another bowl, beat the egg with the lime juice and just 1 teaspoon of olive oil (this helps crisp the skin of the wings).
4. Put the wings in the egg mixture and coat them.
5. Grease a baking pan with the remaining 1 teaspoon of oil.
6. One or two at a time, coat the wings with breading and place in in the baking pan.
7. Bake for 45 minutes for smaller wings, or 1 hour for larger wings.
   

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are amazing and are baked regularly, often with variations. It's loosely based on the Vanishing Oatmeal Cookie recipe on the top of the Quaker Oats container. To vary, use half chocolate chips, half dried cranberries (I highly recommend this) OR half chocolate chips, half raisins (we call these Raisinoats) OR go traditional and use all raisins. This recipe makes 2 dozen cookies.



Ingredients
1/2 cup (1 stick butter)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups oatmeal
1/2 bag chocolate chips

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix butter and sugar until creamy.
3. Add eggs and vanilla.
4. Mix in combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
5. Mix in the oats and then the chocolate chips / cranberries / raisins.
6. Optionally, refrigerate the dough for about half an hour to make it firm. The cookies will come out a little chewier this way, otherwise they'll be thinner and crispier.
   
7. Tablespoon the dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
8. Bake for 8-10 minutes if you didn't refrigerate the dough, or 10-12 minutes if you did refrigerate it.
   

Eggplant Smoked Goudagiana

I made this one night when I was making eggplant and happened to have some smoked gouda, and was quite pleased with the results. It includes my standard tomato sauce recipe as well and makes enough sauce for 3/4 to 1 lb of pasta.

Ingredients
1 eggplant
Olive Oil
1/2 a medium onion, diced
1 garlic clove, chopped
2 medium tomatoes, diced
1 small can of tomato paste
Wine or vodka
Salt
Pepper
Basil (fresh if you have it)
Pasta, your preference
Smoke gouda sliced- depends on how thick you want the slices, I used about 1/8 lb

1. Slice up eggplant about 1/2" thick and fry in a pan with olive oil over medium heat until both sides are browned.
2. Place them on a cookie sheet in the oven 325 degrees.
3. Put the diced onion and chopped clove of garlic in the pan, cook until soft.
4. Add diced tomatoes, a small can of tomato paste, enough wine (or vodka) to make it saucy, salt, pepper and basil (if it's fresh basil, don't add it until the pasta is done).
5. When you're ready to cook the pasta, spoon a little sauce on each eggplant slice and cover with thin sliced smoked gouda.
6. Put the eggplant back in the oven, start cooking the pasta and it will be ready when the pasta is done.