Pumpkin Pie

adapted 10/27/2021

I just made pumpkin pie for the first time and it came out great! I put it in front of the tiny fan so it would cool off fast so we could eat it. I am so excited. I think pie is my new friend.

This is a delicious whole wheat crust and the pie is light like Indian Pudding and not too sweet. This is an adaption of the Libby's Pumpkin pie label recipe and the One Pie brand label recipe. I love pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin ice-cream pumpkin
everything!!
Ingredients and instructions for 1 pie (9-10 inch) or 3 mini pies (6 inch)

Pie crust:

1 cup of whole wheat flour
1/4 cup corn oil
6 Tbs white or brown sugar (the sugar is the glue holding the crust together)
1 teaspoon Kosher salt (less if using regular salt or white flour)

Mix ingredients with fingers so it is pebbly. Press into pie pan with fingers. Prick dough on the pan bottom with a fork. It can be sticky and hard to handle but hang in there, it will be delicious.

Bake at 350° F for 5-10 minutes. Then let it cool.

Tip from Once Upon a Chef Jenn Segal: Press the crust into the bottom of the pan with the back of a measuring cup.  This will make sure the crust is in the pan nice and firm, so that it won't fall apart when you cut this for serving.

Pie filling:

1/4 cup white granulated sugar
1/8 cup of dark molasses
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt (half if using regular salt)
1 teaspoon ground ginger (I used freshly finely grated frozen ginger root)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 large eggs
1 small can of pumpkin puree (15 oz.)
1 can of evaporated milk (12 fl. oz.)

Mix sugar, dark molasses, cinnamon, salt, ginger, vanilla, and eggs in large bowl. Whisk in pumpkin puree and evaporated milk. 

Pour into the pre-baked, cooled pie shells.

Bake pie in preheated 425° F oven for 10 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350° F; bake for 40 to 50 more minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack.

Some bakers use sweetened condensed milk so I tried it but I discovered that it is cloyingly sweet and drowns out the pumpkin taste compared to a pie made with evaporated milk and 1/4 cup sugar. The evaporated milk pumpkin pie is much more like Indian Pudding and tastes like a food!

Buttermilk Chicken

On my dog walk I found a big 20 year old stainless steel Kenmore propane grill being thrown away. I know the owners from years of walking by their house and they were very kind and delivered it to us in their big white truck. 

Over the weeks following my husband took it apart and sent for a bunch of new parts and basically rebuilt it and then bought a tank of propane and hooked it up. It's amazing.

We made and keep on making marinated chicken breasts, buttermilk chicken. Here's what you do:

Buy boneless chicken breasts and marinate them in low-fat buttermilk with sprinkles of Adobo seasoning and squirts of sriracha hot sauce overnight in the fridge. The buttermilk breaks down moisturizes and tenderizes the chicken and seasonings do their magic!

With tongs lift the chicken out of the marinade and bake it in the oven (single layer) in a Pyrex baking dish at 450 for 30 minutes or until done. 

To grill using propane preheat to 450 and cook it 9-12 minutes a side depending on the size of the pieces.

If using hardwood charcoal it will cook in a shorter amount of time.

You won't  be sorry! It's  moist and delicious and the chicken is equally good COLD or at room temps or hot. Don't reheat it in the microwave because it will change the texture and make it taste like a boiled chicken.

(I liked this web site for buttermilk chicken too)

Grilled Vegetables

My latest craze is making grilled vegetables using metal skewers we bought at the JOBLOT end of summer clearance a few years ago. We use hardwood charcoal on our Weber grill.

I chopped the veggies into skewer sizes pieces (2") Spanish onion, bell peppers, and leave the baby bella mushrooms whole. I dried the mushrooms with paper towel. Then I put all of the veggies in a large plastic bucket with a lid and shake it.

I made a marinade using olive oil and wine vinegar and dried oregano Adobo and salt. I whisk it until emulsified and let it all marinate for at least an hour.

After they have marinated I skewer the veggies and place them on the fire. Check and rotate often. They cook fast.

Make a lot because they taste even better the next day on sandwiches.

3 green bell peppers, 3-4 red bell peppers, 2 - 1 pound boxes of baby bella, pick the largest ones!
Spanish onion (the huge white ones) or big red onions.

Cod

Eating cod is like eating water! I baked a slab of cod with olive oil and a sprinkle of Adobo at (preheated) 350 F for exactly 20 minutes.
So simple and good, we ate it for breakfast.

Silky Salmon Slow and Low

I tell everyone about Chef Michael Smith's Baked Salmon. The slow and low method. We have never gone back to the old way.

Chef Michael Smith's Slow-Baked Salmon with Honey Mustard Glaze
Recipe
http://chefmichaelsmith.com/recipe/slow-baked-salmon-honey-mustard-glaze/

My Best Tomato Sauce Ever

I just made my best tomato sauce ever so I am going to write down exactly what I did for future reference.

I have made tomato sauce for decades slow cooking it on the stove top but this time I made it in my large 10 qt Instant Pot and cooked it for an hour which is the equivalent of cooking it all day.

The first thing I did was chop two celery hearts and added them to my Instant Pot. (My market was out of regular celery otherwise I would've used one head). Then I chopped a gigantic white onion and added it to the pot. Then I peeled a bulb and a half of (big) garlic cloves (I cored and chopped them with kosher salt to absorb the vital juices) and added them to the pot. Then I added 2 bay leaves, and about a tablespoon each of dried parsley, basil, + oregano and 2 teaspoons of red chili flakes. (If you have fresh herbs, by all means use them.)

I sauteed all of this in a generous amount of olive oil on the Instant pot sautee setting. I let this cook for ten minutes while I prepared the next steps.

I opened 2 (6 oz) cans of large black olives and drained out the water and chopped them up and added them to the onions and celery mixture. (olives have always been my secret to great sauce)

Then I opened 3 cans of (28 oz) crushed tomatoes and spooned them into the onion celery olive mixture.

I turned off the sautee button to avoid splattering sauce.

I used a cup of water to rinse out any of the extra tomato clinging to the inside of the tomato cans (since the recipe calls for a cup of water anyway).

Then I added about a cup of Carlo Rossi Chianti to sweeten the sauce and give it age.

Then I added 1 6oz can of tomato paste. (REMEMBER don't stir it in, leave it as a lump otherwise you'll get a burn notice).

I tasted the sauce even before cooking it further and it was already fantastic!

I closed the lid and hit the pressure cooker for 20 minutes, and did this cycle 3 times! Which means perhaps next time I will hit the button for 60 minutes. The first time it didn't seal, so good thing I was checking on it.

When the hour was up I let it rest and release on it's own for 25-30 minutes while I cleaned up. It tasted amazing, it tasted like it cooked all day and rested overnight. I've never made a sauce this good. Usually tomato sauce takes 2 days to taste this good. We ate it with whole wheat spaghetti and Romano cheese sprinkled on top. Tonight we'll have it on homemade sourdough baked as a pizza.

Note: The sauce seemed liquidy at first but after stirring and cooling it was perfect.

Party Wings from Butcher Brothers

We just went to the store and bought JC and Manny's party wings. "So it must be a party!" We are pressure cooking them for 10 minutes with a natural release which might add 10 minutes. Then we will broil them with homemade BBQ sauce. Since we purchased ten pounds of wings the price dropped and they gave us a dozen eggs!

Smoked Ham Hocks Greens and Beans Soup

After swimming I walked over to my local butcher shop and bought a smoked ham hock. He cut it into quarters. I am pressure cooking it with a pound of kidney beans, onions, lots of fresh garlic, red wine, Cholula hot sauce, frozen corn, spinach, oregano, bay leaf, Adobo. I took pointers from this recipe but mine is much more of a soup at this point.
Update: Today I bought three bunches of collard greens and chopped them steamed them in the pressure cooker and added them into the soup with more water and chianti Adobo and salt. It was fantastic!

The Circle

Leah feeds all of the stray cats in her yard and has a smile like a Jack-o'-lantern. She walks for miles each day carrying her gigantic purple plastic thermos mug of black coffee and a pack of cigarillos. One day she told me that growing up she was placed in twenty-five different foster homes. "Wow, Leah, You've survived that, you can survive anything," I told her and she smiled. I love running into her. Recently I told her she's Lily-dog's godmother and she was delighted.

When I was a child, weekends meant my stepfather wore suede slip-on sneakers and listened to his favorite records while watering the plants. Then he would do the NY Times crossword puzzle while lounging in his big black leather Eames chair. Grandma and Grandpa would drive up from Brighton Beach in their beige Buick Skylark convertible with the red interior. Grandpa seemed to always have a trunk full of boxes: lightweight shoes for dad to try on and a few cases of Wrigley's Spearmint gum for himself so he'd never run out.

When I visited Grandma and Grandpa I was surprised at how much food they had in their fridge. Their cupboards overflowed with saltine and graham cracker packages wrapped in blue rubber bands. When I asked my mom why they had so much food for just the two of them, she said Grandpa lived through the Great Depression and it was traumatic. He never wants to run out of food or go hungry again.

We've lived through a few recessions and this one is the Great Recession. Now I am traumatized. I don't like to run out of food or go hungry either. My fridge is full of packages of flour and grains and nuts wrapped in blue rubber bands.

Abandonment

This morning when I woke up I realized I had recurring dreams about my neighbor's pancake griddle left in the backyard on the pile of stuff they were leaving behind. Natalie had told me, "We used this all the time for pancakes, eggs, bacon. There used to be metal tray that caught the grease," she said as I turned it over. It was missing its cord and had a broken foot. It had been loved to death.

Nat worked in a restaurant in Medway so she never cooked at home. This was from another life when she worked at the hardware store down the street. I used to see her through the window and wave when I walked by with my dog. Then she became my next door neighbor and I was thrilled. The shouts and screams and squad cars became a way of life but I liked them nonetheless. I worried about them. When their electricity went out, I asked her if she needed anything. Nat only wanted a cup of coffee. "How do you like it?" I asked. "With milk and sugar, thanks," she said handing me her mug.

Friday and Saturday her daughter were moving things into Nat's tiny silver Toyota. Sam was away with his dad. He showed up last night to the empty apartment and the abandoned pile of stuff on the lawn. His friend stood outside on the sidewalk as Sam ran in and quickly threw everything he owned into his friend's blue pickup truck. He left the apartment door wide open. It was like a Sam Shepard play, reminding me of all the abandonment and rage I felt at that age.

Lisa Chune's Chinese Dumplings

Like most of the Jews in my family we harbor a secret desire to be Chinese. My Brighton Beach grandparents Nat and Sophie ate at the Chinese restaurant on 'the avenue' every night. Grandma drank clear tea at home in her depression glass mug, sipping it through a sugar cube.

When I got my first job illustrating on site for the Boston Globe I was hired by intern Lisa Chune from Queens NY. Her dad had a Chinese restaurant. Lisa and I also coincidentally had the same art teacher growing up! We became fast friends and when she stayed with us, she taught me how to make these.

Steamed Chinese Dumplings

These are so simple and fun to make. We chopped small bunch of scallions with dark greens included, about four chopped mushrooms, grated one large carrot, chopped a few cloves of fresh garlic, chopped two ribs of celery, added two tablespoons of sesame oil, a few splashes of soy sauce, salt, chili garlic sauce, and mixed it all well with clean hands. Then we taste tested for spice balance, then added 1 pound ground lean raw pork and mixed it with my hands (you could also use 1 pound of firm tofu crumbled). We microwaved a teaspoon of the raw filling for 25 seconds to cook our pork sample and adjust the seasonings. Then we folded a teaspoon of the raw stuffing into each dumpling skin and glued them shut with water. We steamed 6 to 8 dumplings at a time for 5-6 minutes. Enjoy with warm dipping sauce~ rooster sauce and soy sauce combined. A few rounds add up to a dozen per person and makes a nice meal. 

UPDATE: I use my 1950's electric frying pan and fry them in a tiny bit of oil. This is a pan I also use for pancakes because it never overheats, just gently cycles. 

Broken Yet Saved

Halfway through making my home made sour cream enriched waffled-eggs my 50 year old waffle iron broke. I carefully tilted the liquid egg batter into my small cast iron skillet and cooked them, covered so they fluffed up. I turn off the heat and the residual heat does most of the cooking. The egg is delicious on my home made sourdough.

Whenever I have a house guest I can't sleep due to the excitement. I stay up all night cooking and baking hoping to lure my guests awake so they will come down and join Lily and Sammy and me in the ice cold kitchen.

Lately Lily gets up with me and goes back to bed with Bill.

In a few minutes I will head out. Woonsocket is always up early. The post office starts up at three on weekdays. Diners open at 4 AM.

I am lucky, I love the silence of early morning but I don't mind taking a nap in my bat cave when the wearies come creeping after me.

This morning I am dreaming of making a beehive-oven in the vacant lot at the East School Street Rathbun Street intersection. Wouldn't that be cool? It would be a lot better than drug dealing and prostitution and piles of garbage and dead cars.

When we were kids we occasionally visited friends of my parents near Sturbridge Massachusetts in the fall and made home made apple cider from their apples growing in their orchard surrounded by free roaming dairy cows and . . . cow pies. We also made home made ice cream from fresh local cream. I wish the kids in my neighborhood could have these kind of sensory and immediate food and farm experiences.

When we first moved in to our house 17 years ago it was July, we made home made ice cream from the local cream from Wright's Dairy farm. The 6 year old girl next door came over to help as we churned the cream with ice and salt in the backyard. When she tasted the ice cream her eyes widened and she talked about it every time she saw me until she moved away a two years later. This is the kind of experience I wish to give all of the neighborhood kids with all sorts of foods -- and music! But that's another topic.