Chocolate + Raspberries = A Summer Pie

Because I hosted company for dinner twice last week, that meant I got to bake two pies. :-) The second that I chose from the Martha Stewart summer pie series in the June issue of the magazine was Chocolate Raspberry Pie, after baking the Peach Custard Pie earlier in the week.

Again, I baked my tried-and-true Flaky Pastry pie crust, instead of the chocolate mixture they had... the chocolate would have been more adventurous, but it was already getting late in the evening, and it wanted to be chilled for an hour, so I decided to stick with the basic recipe.

Here it is, ready and waiting for the next step. There's something very promising about an empty pie crust - like a blank canvas waiting to be filled in with any number of possibilities. :-)

I first filled mine with a melted chocolate mixture. The recipe called for bittersweet chocolate, and I used unsweetened baking chocolate, which ended up probably more bitter than it should have, but, when combined with the raspberries and ice cream, it actually was a nice combination to not have sweet chocolate.

It was at this point that I put it in the refrigerator to chill and went to bed, to be continued the next morning.

This random sweet puppy face showed up on my camera in the midst of the pie photos... It must have been the doing of Scott the next morning, before I came upstairs.

So the morning's first task was to make the raspberry syrup, by crushing a few of the raspberries and combining with some sugar, cornstarch and water.

This is how it looked after simmering a few minutes.

Then I tossed the rest of the fresh raspberries with the syrup.

And added them to the pie crust atop the chocolate filling. We enjoyed it with vanilla ice cream that evening with Emily and Morgan, after a trip out to see the mares and foals, and it was very tasty and the recipe was approved by all.

Peach Custard Pie and a Girls' Party

Sunday evening I spent preparing food for Monday evening's Roundup girls' dinner, which I hosted as a get-to-know-you, welcome-to-the-team event for Tressa, our editorial intern this summer, and Saige, our assistant editor.

Along with Ranch Potato Salad, Marinated Tomatoes and Dijon-Rosemary Steak and Lemon-Garlic Shrimp marinade for build-your-own kabobs, I also put together a Peach Custard Pie.

Although many pie recipes that I come across come along with their own pie crust recipe, I always stick to my mom's Flaky Pastry recipe. I'm not sure where it came from, as I just have it written on a recipe card, but it most always turns out good for me, and most times I can make it flaky.

This was one of those recipes, since it was for custard, that required the pie crust to be baked before the filling was put in.

To easily peel the peaches, you place them in boiling water for a minute or two, then remove them to an ice bath before peeling and pitting them. I remember doing this in large quantities in Georgia, where my family had access to a peach orchard - all the peaches we wanted, there for the picking. We canned quite a few in those days.

The custard filling was very simple, but if I were to make it again, I might double the amount, as my deep pie dish kind of made the custard filling look a little skimpy. As it was, I had extra peach slices so I added them to fill the pie a little more.

And here it was, crust all baked, custard and peaches arranged, and ready to go in the oven for the final baking process. Quite cheery to pair with a summer's evening dinner and grilled kabobs.

The recipe came from the June 2011 edition of Martha Stewart Living, which included a whole series of summer pies - most of them fruit. I might have to keep working my way through the recipes, as I had a hard time choosing which one to make for this event. We're having company again Friday evening - friends Emily and Morgan on their way back from Idaho - so perhaps I will choose another recipe for them.

Other than that, I spent much time last weekend working on my gardens and yard, and it was really nice to have enough time that I could take my time deciding how to plant and where to put things. The zinnias I started from seed are doing the best so far, and they took the heat of the last few days in stride. We're supposed to have cooler weather now, so hopefully that will help the spinach, herbs and other flowers adapt better to being outside. Next time I start seeds, I will start them earlier, as many of my plants are still a little too delicate to transplant. It's all an experiment!

Getting ready for company

The to-do lists, shopping lists and things-to-not-forget lists continue this week, in preparation for our wedding party this Saturday. In the last three days all my spare time has been dedicated to making lists and crossing them off... cleaning, shopping, cooking, packing supplies for the ranch, decorating...

Last night, after mowing and trimming the yard and dusting the front room, was breakfast roll night, and I made my mom's roll recipe, but used PW's orange marmalade filling.

These rolls are for tomorrow morning, to send up to the ranch with Scott tonight for those who are loading up and heading to gather and trail cows tomorrow. The extras I'll keep here at the house, and my mom, dad and I can enjoy them for breakfast.

I have yet to put the orange glaze on them, as I wanted to wait until as late as possible so they're as fresh as possible.

Given the nature of yeast breads, I was up until 11 finishing these up - my usual bedtime is 9 these days. I couldn't resist taking the warm, sticky, soft center out of that one for a sample. I can never resist fresh bread hot out of the oven. I figure I put all the work into making them - I can destroy one, right?

This morning has been a cleaning morning, working on downstairs, as my parents will stay in Scott's and my room tonight. Soon I'll head to the office and finish up the paper, run some more errands midday and work on the last of the cleaning and cooking while waiting for my mom and dad and friends Jim and Kami to arrive from Iowa this evening.

Spring Strawberries

Last night, in return for borrowing the tiller for our flowerbed project the previous evening, I made a new recipe for Strawberry Shortcake Cookies to take across the street to our neighbors Bill and Lorie.

The first step was to dice the strawberries, and then mix them with a little lemon juice and sugar. That mixture along was delicious. :-)

These cubes of butter are what put the short in shortcake.

My pastry blender is frequently used in my kitchen. I always get impatient, though, and don't get the butter mixed into the flour quite as much as I should, and that results in some cookies running at the edges when they hit the oven.

After the butter is cut in, add the cream. I ended up using a full two cups instead of the 1 1/3 cup the recipe called for, because the batter still seemed dry. Fold in the strawberries as the next step.

And drop the cookies on a greased baking sheet. The recipe called for parchment-lined, but I've had bad luck with parchment in the past, so I just grease the pans.

And the final product cooled on the counter before the prettiest ones were packaged to give away. After the first pan came out of the oven, I learned that the cookies spread quite a bit, so to give them plenty of space on the pans. Also, they might not have spread quite as much if they didn't have so many strawberries. But nonetheless, they did taste good!

Meatballs with Peppers and Pineapple

Earlier this week I made PW's Meatballs with Peppers and Pineapple. At this point I can't really tell you what day it was that I made this, as the week's been full of another trip to Cheyenne, a visit to the baby doctor, getting our editorial intern off to a good start on the paper, beginning to make calls on Horse Edition... you get the idea.

But I made it, and it was very good!!

The above picture is all those wonderful peppers getting happy in the skillet.

Again, any recipe that starts out with ground beef is right up my alley. The meatballs are composed of the traditional egg, bread crumbs, onions, etc. Because I sometimes have trouble with my meatballs falling apart in the skillet, I was glad for PW's directions to form them, then freeze for about 15 minutes. Not one fell apart as I fried them!

She also said to roll them in flour. Maybe I rolled mine too much in the flour, but I didn't care for the treatment. They were a little too flour-y for me, even after frying in the oil.

Powdered sugar-covered bon bons!

Frying away.

The completed stack. I ended up with plenty, as my packages of ground beef contain more than 1 1/4 pounds, and I just cooked up the whole thing instead of saving some small amount for a random later use. That, and I'm supposed to eat plenty of iron these days, anyway. Something about needing more blood for the baby...

As the meatballs were finishing up I started in on chopping the peppers and pineapple. The fresh pineapple is really good, and it is worth the effort, but to make this a more pantry-friendly recipe, in the future I might just use canned chunk pineapple that I can keep on hand.

After I got the peppers going in the skillet I added the pineapple. This is one of those treatments where you want the burner on high heat, so that everything gets a nice charred finish on the outside, while not getting mushy on the inside.

Then you add a beef broth/corn starch/sugar mix. Yes, sugar. It's what gives the dish it's nice sweet and sour taste, along with the pineapple sweetness.

Then just leave it alone and let it bubble for a while, so the corn starch has a chance to take effect.

And add the meatballs after a little while, so they can start to pick up the flavors of the sauce.

Don't forget to get some rice started cooking at the beginning of the dish, so that it's done about the same time as the meatballs and sauce! This time I used a mix of brown and white rice - I had a little bit of white rice left over from the rice pudding I made some time ago. Usually we use brown around our house.

When the rice is done and the sauce is slightly thickened and everything tastes wonderful, serve it up with plenty of juice over the rice, and enjoy! This has also made great leftovers this week. Last night I cooked up some fresh rice to use with the rest of the meatball mixture.

Make it! It's good. :-)

Chicken and Dumplings: Part 2

So the above photo is where I picked up last night from where I'd left off the evening before, on Tuesday. I had pulled the chicken broth out of the refrigerator, put it back in my stock pot and began to reheat it, getting it ready to add vegetables and the dumplings.

While the broth was heating, I mixed up the dough for the dumplings. I'm not sure what happened, but I think in visiting with Scott I lost count of my cups of flour, and so ended up with a lot of dumplings, and had to add more milk to make the consistency right for rolling out and cutting.

After preparing the dumplings I chopped the vegetables: garlic, carrots and onions. Again: most good things start with large piles of chopped vegetables.

I added the vegetables to the simmering broth, and brought it to a boil again.

I rolled out the dumplings, and cut them in about one-inch by one-inch squares, as directed by the recipe.

Then I added the dumplings to the pot, as many as could fit, put the lid on, and let it go.

Meanwhile, the rest of the dumplings I baked like biscuits, in a buttered baking dish. They turned out pretty good, but were salty.

When the dumplings were finished cooking, I stirred the shredded chicken into the mix, and *ta da* we had chicken and dumplings.

When I served it up into bowls and decorated it all pretty, Scott came in for his and said, what's that stuff on top? It's parsley, Scott, it won't hurt you. :-)

So now I'm sitting in a water law conference in Cheyenne until tomorrow, and Scott is at home enjoying the leftovers this evening. :-)

Otherwise, I didn't get too much done on my before-7 p.m. goal, because I worked late at the office and didn't get back to the house until after 6. But again, the weekend is upon us, and I had Scott pick up some wood stain this week, so hopefully this weekend I can finish my two staining projects.

Oh, I intended to share the exact recipe with you from my Texas cookbook, but really it was a little bit odd, so just run a quick online search for 'Chicken and Dumplings' and get to work! :-)

Chicken and Dumplings: Part 1

Yesterday evening, amidst getting my car from the mechanic, cleaning the ceiling fans, reworking the cords on my top-down Roman shades and watching Biggest Loser, I also boiled the chicken for Old Fashioned Chicken and Dumplings, a recipe from my new Texas cooking cookbook.

Yes, I broke down and bought chicken again.

I've got to hand it to the poultry people - their product is abundant and cheap. I guess I could have started with a whole chicken, but using these pieces was easier to handle, and I don't know that a whole chicken would have been that much cheaper.

The recipe says to start with a little chicken broth in the stock pot. I had bought two cartons from Safeway on sale last Sunday, and filled out the remaining two cups with water. I figured the chicken itself would add enough flavor to make up for it.

Then I just put all the pieces in the pot, set the burner on medium low, and let it go for a little more than an hour, just to make sure the chicken was extra tender.

This is what it looked like after simmering all that time. I pulled the chicken pieces out of the stock and let them sit for a little while so they could get cool enough to shred.

I peeled the skin, fat and bones away from the meat, and put the broth in a container to save until I finish the recipe tonight. Having all that delicious chicken stock makes me want to use it for chicken noodle soup.

One of the first things Scott said to me this morning, when I was still groggy and in bed, was that we were having homemade chicken and dumplings tonight. I think he's looking forward to it. :-) It's dark and damp here today, so it will be a good recipe for a chilly spring evening.