Meat Pockets

This recipe is an original creation. It's similar to a calzone, but not centered around tomato sauce, cheese or italian seasonings. Assembly is fun.

Ingredients:

Pizza dough
About 3-4 cups of leftovers cut into small chunks

General procedure:

Begin with a recipe of pizza dough for one 12" pizza. My recipe (from King Arthur Flour) follows, if you don't have a favorite.

Divide dough into four balls. Roll each out into an approximate 6" circle, about 1/8" thick.

Top each circle with about a cup of chopped up leftovers. Sprinkle on cheese, if desired. Carefully fold the circle in half over the filling, and seal edges (very important to avoid a mess baking!).

Bake as for pizza, at about 425 F. I use a pizza stone and it's done in about 15 minutes.

My dough recipe (this is for two pizzas):

1 pack yeast
3 1/2 cups flour
1 cup water
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt

Let yeast stand in water five minutes. Add half the flour. Add the olive oil. Add the rest of the flour. Knead 10 minutes (or 7-8 minutes with the dough hook on a mixer). Let rise in a greased bowl until doubled in size. Punch down and shape into two balls.

You can freeze dough for a pizza, rolled out into an approximate 12-13" circle and well-wrapped in plastic wrap.

Leftover tips:

I like to use chicken or beef, very well torn apart or in small chunks. Vegetables would stand alone well, also. I add vegetables. Leftover broccoli, cauliflower, cooked carrots, and potatoes are all good candidates. In order not to be dry, I make sure the leftover mix is juicy-moist. Generally there is juice enough with the leftovers, but I have used leftover cheese sauce before, with good success. I generally top the leftover filling with a sprinkle (maybe 2 tablespoons) of cheddar or mozzerella cheese.

Russian Tea Mix

I am not a gourmet purist. I do like some foods that use plenty of refined sugars, artificial colors, and processed ingredients, I must admit. One drink that I put in this category is a childhood favorite: Russian Tea. Drinking it evokes memories of days out sledding and then coming in to warm up, dry off, and have tea.

2 cups Tang or similar drink mix
2 cups sugar (1 1/2 will do)
1 packet lemon flavored Kool-Aid or similar
1/2 cup instant tea
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Mix all ingredients well. Store in an airtight container. Use about three teaspoons per mug of hot water.

Sweet 'n' Tender Cabbage Rolls

These are from the February issue of Taste of Home magazine. As usual, I've made alterations, which I note. Very tasty!

1 large head cabbage
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cups milk
2 cups cooked long grain rice
2 jars (4 1/2 oz. each) sliced mushrooms, drained
1 small onion, chopped
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 pounds lean ground beef (I used ground turkey.)

sauce:

2 cans (8 oz. each) tomato sauce
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons worcestershire sauce

My sauce:

Saute garlic (about 3-4 cloves) in olive oil in saucepan. Add 32 oz. (2 pints) home-canned tomatoes (pureed in blender), 1 6-oz. can tomato paste, italian seasoning and extra oregano, to taste. Simmer until flavors are blended. Salt and pepper to taste.


Cook cabbage in boiling water just until leaves fall off head. Set aside 14 large leaves for rolls. (Refridgerate remaining cabbage for another use.) Cut out the thick vein from the bottom of each reserved leaf, making a v-shaped cut.

In a large bowl, combine the eggs, milk, rice, mushrooms, onion and seasonings. Crumble beef over mixture and mix well. Place about 1/2 cupt on each cabbage leaf, overlap cut ends and fold in sides, beginning from the cut end. Roll up completely to enclose filling.

Place seven rolls, seam side down, in a 5-qt. slow cooker. Combine sauce ingredients, pour half over cabbage rolls. Top with remaining rolls and sauce. Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours or until a meat thermometer reads 160 F. Yield: 7 servings

My cooking directions:
Bake in oven at about 375 F for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Test for doneness with meat thermometer, as above.

Soft Buttered Pretzels

This recipe is from the back of a bag of Pillsbury "Best" Unbleached Flour. My notes and adaptations are in brackets [].

3 to 3 1/2 cups Pillsbury Best Flour, All Purpose or Unbleached
[I used one cup of whole wheat flour and bread flour for the rest.]
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 (1/4 oz.) package active dry yeast
1 cup water
1 tablespoon Crisco All Vegetable Shortening
[I used melted butter.]
6 cups water
1/4 cup baking soda
1 tablespoon water
Crisco No-Stick Spray [I used butter.]
2 tablespoons butter, melted
Pretzel salt, sesame seeds or poppy seeds

Combine 1 cup flour, sugar, salt and yeast in a medium [electric mixer] bowl; blend well. Heat 1 cup water and shortening in a small saucepan to 100-110 F. [I learned if you use quick-rising yeast liquid should/can be as hot as 120-130.] Add liquid to flour mixture. Blend at low speed of electric mixer until moistened; beat 3 minutes at medium speed. Stir in by hand an additional 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 cups flour or until dough pulls cleanly away from sides of bowl.

Knead in an additional 1/2 to 3/4 cup flour.
[I used my electric mixer's dough hook, starting when adding in the "additional flour". Also, I found this recipe to be a little dry ~ even without this last flour addition. I had to pour in a little more warm water to make it hold together.]

Place dough in greased bowl; cover loosely with plastic wrap and kitchen towel. Let rise in a warm place (80-85 F) until light and doubled in size, about 45 minutes.
[With quick-rising dough, this can be just a quick 15-minute "rest"!]

Spray cooky sheets with no-stick spray [or grease with butter]. Punch down dough; divide into 12 [I made 16] pieces. Roll each piece into a 16-inch rope; form into pretzel shape. Place on greased cooky sheets. Cover; let rise in warm place about 15-20 minutes.

Adjust oven rack to the TOP position. Heat oven to 400 F. Combine 6 cups water and baking soda in a shallow sided saucepan; bring to a gentle boil. Slowly drop pretzels into water, one at a time, cooking 5 seconds on each side. Remove from water with slotted spoon, return to greased cooky sheet. Sprinkle with pretzel salt, sesame seeds or poppy seeds.

Bake for 8 minutes; brush with melted butter. Bake 2 additional minutes or until golden brown. Immediately remove from cooky sheet; brush generously with remaining butter serve warm.

To freeze pretzels to bake later:
I like the convenience of using frozen dough to make hot fresh pretzels ~ it's much quicker than making a whole recipe from the start, and requires very little effort.
To do this, I freeze pretzels just after shaping them, on greased aluminum foil, on a cooky sheet, well-covered with plastic wrap. When they are frozen, I tranfer them and their greased aluminum foil off of the cooky sheet, into a large freezer bag. It is fine if the foil crinkles. When you are ready to bake them, open the freezer bag, carefully smooth out the foil and frozen pretzels onto a baking sheet and let them thaw/rise in a warm place near the woodstove, if you use one, or in a warm sunny place, if you have one.
When they are risen, pick up with the regular baking instructions.

Pumpkin Pie from Scratch

As I've been giving out pie pumpkins from the garden, questions arise about how to use them, exactly. Here's what to to.

To cook the pumpkin meat, (these directions are for a 3-pounder):
Cut in half, remove the stringy/seedy stuff inside by scraping it out with a spoon. Clean and save the seeds for a toasted pumpkin seed snack (directions follow later). Pare the skin off the outside. Bake like baked potatoes, 400 degrees F for one hour is suggested. Alternatively, you can boil the pieces 25-30 minutes. The meat should be soft, like squash, when finished. Mash it up as smoothly as possible to use in pie recipe.

Here's a recipe for a 9" pie, using fresh pumpkin:

Pumpkin Pie (from the trusty "old" Betty Crocker cookbook, circa. 1961)

1 3/4 cups mashed, cooked pumpkin (or canned, same amount)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups milk
3 eggs
2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoons ginger
1/2 teaspoons nutmeg
1/4 teaspoons cloves

Heat oven to 425 degrees F. Beat all ingredients together with rotary beater (I'd say use an electric mixer). Pour into pastry-lined pie pan. (For extra crispness, have bottom pastry a little thicker than 1/8".) Bake 45 to 55 minutes or until a silver knife inserted 1" from side of filling comes out clean. The center may still look soft, but will set later. Serve slightly warm or cold.

How to use the pumpkin seeds:
After they are clean, boil in water 5-10 minutes. Drain well. For each cup of seeds, combine and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon margarine and 1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce (or soy sauce). Feel free to experiment freely with seasoning. Sprinkle with salt or seasoned salt. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, or until nearly dry.

Streamlined White Bread

Betty Crocker's (1961) Picture Cookbook has this recipe for no-knead bread. It is made in an electric mixer, but ~ consider those of the day ~ you don't have to have a really fancy high-powered mixer to make this. Actually, it even gives the number of "vigorous strokes" required, if you don't have an electric mixer.

Betty says: Easiest bread ever...no kneading...mix dough on mixer. A crusty even-textured loaf. Extra moist so it keeps better.

1 1/4 cups warm water (not hot 110-115 F)
1 package active dry yeast (If desired, you can speed this up with fast-rising yeast.)
2 tablespoons shortening (I use butter.)
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons sugar
3 cups flour *

Dissolve yeast in water in mixer bowl. Add shortening, salt, sugar and half the flour. Beat 2 minutes, medium speed or 300 vigorous strokes by hand. Scrape bowl frequently. Add remaining flour. Blend with spoon. Scrape batter from sides of bowl. Cover with (damp) cloth; let rise in warm place (85 F) until double, about 30 minutes.

Stir down batter by beating about 25 strokes. Spread batter evenly in greased loaf pan. Batter will be sticky. Smooth out top of loaf by flouring hand and patting into place.

Again let rise until batter reaches 1" from top of loaf pan, about 40 minutes.

Bake 45-50 minutes in a 375 F oven, or until brown. To test loaf, tap the top crust; it should sound hollow. Immediately remove from pan to cooling rack (away from drafts). Brush top with melted butter. Cool before cutting (the hardest part for me!). Slice with a sawing motion rather than pressing down, making slices slightly thicker than usual (due to the coarser texture). Makes one loaf.

* If you wish to use whole wheat or other non-white flour, use a ratio of no more than half other flour to half white flour, to maintain the bread's light texture.

Baked Custard

The old (1961) Betty Crocker cookbook suggests using brown sugar instead of white sugar, for a darker, more golden custard.

2 eggs (or 4 egg yolks)
1/3 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk, scalded
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Heat oven to 350 F (or, get your pressure cooker handy: put some water and a rack in it). Beat eggs, sugar and salt slightly to mix. Stir in scalded milk. Add vanilla. Pour into (6) custard cups and

either:

Bake in hot water bath 45-50 minutes or until knife inserted 1" from center comes out clean (or nearly so -- also keep in mind the middle can be quivery). Remove from oven.

or (my method):

Place custard cup on rack in pressure cooker. Water should already be hot and heating toward boiling. Put on lid. Time one minute at five pounds pressure. Remove from heat. Allow pressue to drop before attempting to open the cooker! Due to size considerations of the pressure cooker, you might have to cook these one or two at a time ~ it's still a time savings!

Serve cool, in cups or unmolded.

Old Betty suggests passing grape or other fruit juice to pour over, if desired. I bet that'd be great!

Chocolate Pots de Creme

This is from the 1997 edition Joy of Cooking. It describes itself as "something like a very rich chocolate cornstarch pudding". It's richer than American style custard, as it uses only egg yolks.

Heat oven to 325 F.

Whisk gently to blend:

6 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cocoa

Heat gently, stirring to simmer:

2 cups whole milk (not necessary, I used 2% lactose-free) or half and half
2 oz. finely chopped bittersweet or semisweet chocolate

Gradually whisk the hot milk into the egg mixture, then strain it through a fine mesh strainer (don't skip this tedious step!). Skim off any foam.

Add:
1 teaspoon vanilla

Pour the mixture into (6) individual cups and seal with aluminum foil (to prevent a skin forming). Bake in a hot water bath until set but still quivery in the middle when shaken, about 40 to 60 minutes. Let custards cool out of the bath 30 minutes, then in refridgerator at least two hours.

Mahogany Chiffon Cake

From Betty Crocker's New Picture Cookbook 1961, General Mills, Inc., McGraw-Hill Book Company ~ Directions are paraphrased a bit by me.

I find that for making stiff peaks, it's easiest to separate the eggs while they are still cold from the refridgerator, but let the whites come to room temperature before beating and they will loft up more nicely.

3/4 cup boiling water
1/2 cup cocoa
1 3/4 cups cake flour
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
7 unbeaten egg yolks (medium)
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup egg whites (7 or 8)
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

Heat oven to 325F. Combine boiling water and cocoa, set aside to cool. Sift and measure flour. Mix flour, sugar, soda and salt in bowl. Make a well and add oil, egg yolks, vanilla and cocoa mixture. Beat until smooth. Measure eggswhites and cream of tartar into large mixing bowl and beat until very stiff. Pour egg yolk mixture in thin stream over entire surface of egg whites, gently cutting and folding in with fubber spatula until completely blended. Pour into ungreased 10" tube cake pan. Bake 55 minutes at 325F, then at 350F for 10-12 more minutes. Invert. Let hang until cold.

The cookcook suggests a chocolate icing, but I prefer some kind of fresh fruit topping and whipped cream, or just enjoying slices plain and unadorned.