Week 16: Pie Birds

Who doesn’t like pies?! I had always thought of pies as sweet desserts, but when my boyfriend, Scott, got a Pie cookbook for Christmas a few years ago, we realized the diversity in sweet and savory pies! Marie Calendars has made millions on Chicken Pot Pies! (Have you seen the calories in the frozen varieties?) Scott is currently on a pie kick, pie for breakfast, lunch, and even dinner! So we have been making a few pies lately, with store bought crust for now, but soon we will move up and experiment with making our own pie dough. Fruit pies are some of my favorites and usually you just make slits in the pie for venting. But, we starting looking into pie vents, AKA, pie birds, and there is just something cool about a little bird in a pie. Anyone can cut a regular little slit in a pie, but a pie bird is so cute and an amazing little invention.
So for Christmas this year I decided to get Scott your traditional black pie bird and... I couldn’t find them anywhere! I checked Sur la Table, Williams Sonoma, other local cooking stores, hardware stores, and nothing! The only place I could find a pie bird was online. You practically pay more for shipping than the pie bird, but he was cute. Scott loved him and we decided to name him, Charlie. So this weekend, we used Charlie the pie bird in a mincemeat pie. Charlie did his job, our pie tin was a little too big, but all in all, it worked well and Charlie was happy to be doing his job and venting steam.

I’d recommend when making your next fruit pie, forget cutting those little vents and get yourself a little pie bird and have some fun. It is a bit hillbilly so enjoy! Here is an amazing pie cookbook if you love pies as much as we do and they use pie birds too!

Pie, by Angela Boggiano

Week 15: Presser Cooker Cooking

Pressure cookers have always been a mystery to me. As a kid, I remember this scary, whistling, dangerous pot on the stove. My mother was burnt a few times and boy those are nasty burns! Well a few decades later, it seems pressure cookers have gone hi-tech! A few years ago, I got a pressure cooker for Christmas, but this was no ordinary whistling scary pressure cooker, but a German designed, hi-tech, hard to get burned pressure cooker! I got a WMF Perfect Plus pressure cooker and a wonderful cookbook called, The Pressure Cooker Gourmet, by Victoria Wise. If you have a pressure cooker, get this book!

I love the concept of short cooking times with the taste of cooking in the oven. I still have some work to do with cooking in the pressure cooker and need to try some more recipes. My favorite way of cooking cabbage is in the pressure cooker, it takes 5 minutes of cooking and 5 minutes of cool down. Easy and awesome. So that has been about all I have cooked in my pressure cooker until this past weekend, when we decided to make game hens! Big step I know, but the recipe sounded so good, Game Hens with Fig, Orange Zest, and Herb Couscous Stuffing in Honey Almond Glaze. Yum! Total cook time was 22 minutes with 5 minutes of rest. We could have cooked the birds a little longer since we had monster game hens, so we microwaved them for a few minutes, but the pressure cooking method was easy. We definitely need to work at this, but I think this is a great way to cook a little hillbilly. Have fun and don’t be afraid to cook with a modern pressure cooker.

Recipe credit to: Pressure Cooker Gourmet, by Victoria Wise

Week 14: Hot Buttered Rum

Okay, winters in California are not that cold, but it has been getting down in the 40's and we were eager to try a hot buttered rum. I am not sure if I had ever had one, but we thought it would be fun to make it for the holidays. So off to the internet we went to try and find a recipe. Well we found quite a few and found out that you can make a "batter" ahead of time or just use some butter and spices for one cocktail. If you are not worried about calories, this is a great and easy drink to make on a cold winter’s day! We liked making up some batter and having it around to make a drink anytime. Have fun and enjoy a wonderfully comforting winter hillbilly drink!

Hot Buttered Rum Batter

• 1 cup brown sugar


• 4 oz unsalted butter, softened


• 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon


• 1 ½ teaspoons nutmeg


• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves


• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Step 1: Mix all batter ingredients together in a bowl.
Step 2: I put the batter on a piece of plastic wrap and shaped it into a log, so it would be easy to slice when chilled. Refrigerate in a sealed air-tight container for up to 2 months.

Hot Buttered Rum Cocktail

• 2 tablespoons hot buttered rum batter (1/8 slice from your batter log)


• 6 oz boiling water


• 1 ½ oz dark rum


• 1 tablespoon light cream or ice cream


• Nutmeg to garnish

Step 1: In a hot beverage mug, combine 2 tablespoons of hot buttered rum batter with boiling water and stir well.
Step 2: Add rum and cream.
Step 3: Garnish with nutmeg

Special items needed: none, just rum

Makes 8 servings. Calories 301 per serving!!

If you don’t want the temptation of having batter around, then just put a dash of each of the spices and a few tablespoons of butter in a mug and add hot water and rum. You can also skip the butter and basically you are making a hot toddy! Less calories too and still good. If you want a non-alcoholic version of the recipe, just add about 1/3 cup ice cream in replacement of the rum. Super Yum! Enjoy!

Recipe credit to: Stephanie Jolly

http://cocktails.suite101.com/article.cfm/hot_buttered_rum_recipe_and_history

Week 13: Mr. B Dog Biscuits

I got a dog almost two years ago and his name is Byron. Due to a change in my work schedule, I was working out of my home a lot and thought it might be nice to have a dog. My boyfriend really wanted a dog, but couldn’t have a dog in his apartment complex. We decided to look online one day for fun and came across this pretty "funny" looking photo of Byron. He was all shaved down and had the longest tail on the planet! We called up the rescue group to see if we could stop by and see him. The next thing I knew, Byron was at my condo with all his stuff and "spending the night" to see if we got along. I was floored! What do I do with a dog? Byron just sat there looking at me, asking what’s next? Help!! I got soooo lucky, with a wonderful, sweet, and even tempered dog. His hair has grown out and I think he is the cutest dog on the planet! (Okay dog lovers, I know YOUR dog is the cutest dog, but hands down, Byron wins!!) We have had people say they were going to bump us off, so they could get my dog! Byron has been amazing and I can’t imagine life without him. If you have a dog, you know they love walks (Thanks Cesar Milan, the Dog Whisperer!) And treats. Byron has a pretty sensitive stomach so I decided to make some homemade dog biscuits that were good and healthy. Well, as an early Christmas present, Byron got a dog bone cookie cutter and some recipes for homemade dog biscuits, so I decided to make some and also give them as gifts to the rest of the dogs on the block! Merry Christmas Dixie, Miho, Flur, Esmay, Ruby, Herbie, Tammy, and rest of the Pasadena dogs!

There are hundreds of recipes out there and I was looking for an easy recipe that I could make up with just ingredients I would always have in the house. Below is the first I have tried and they came out nice and pretty tasty too. It is really just a human biscuit recipe. Byron seemed to like them, so I guess we are good. Enjoy doggies and Happy Holidays!

Easy Dog Biscuits

• 1 cup whole wheat flour


• 1 cup all-purpose flour


• ½ cup wheat germ


• ½ cup dry milk powder


• ½ teaspoon salt (love the Kosher salt)


• 6 tablespoons margarine or shortening


• 1 egg


• 1 teaspoon brown sugar


• ½ cup water (more if needed)


• Optional ingredients: 1 teaspoon: grated carrot, garlic powder, or grated cheese
  

Special items needed: none

Step 1: Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Step 2: Combine flours, wheat germ, powdered milk, salt, and margarine/shortening. Mix until it resembles cornmeal. I love getting my hand messy and your dog will love your scent!

Step 3: Beat the egg and brown sugar together. With a fork is fine, no mixer needed. Stir into the flour mixture.

Step 4: Slowly add water to the mix and stir until it makes a stiff dough. I needed to add more water since my flour is always dry. You basically want the dough to stick together, but not too sticky so you can roll it out.

Step 5: Knead a little and roll it out to ½ inch thick. Cut biscuits with cutter (dog bone shape preferred and loved by dogs. You don’t want to get them mixed up with other cookies in the house.)

Step 6: Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool and store in a sealed container.

Have fun and enjoy your hillbilly treats!

Recipe credit to: www.dragonbear.com/rec-bis2.html. Michelle Jordan, Treat Cookbook.