Kitchen items I can't live without

There are several kitchen "items" that I am not willing to do without.  In no particular order:

Electronic scale.  This is especially true if you love to bake.  You will get much better results if you can weigh your ingredients instead of measuring them in cups.  I don't know why--that's just the way it is.


Garlic press.  Keeps your guests/family/friends from finding large hunks of garlic in their food if you're pressed for time and don't mince it thoroughly.  Personally, I love garlic and wouldn't be upset, but if you're making something with a smooth sauce, you'll want to use a press.

Stand mixer.   You can use this bad boy for just about anything.  It's especially helpful for when you're working with something very dense/tough (like extremely thick cookie dough).

Food processor.  This is actually a new addition for me.  I've been cooking regularly for 15+ years, and I only recently bought my first one.  The first time I used it was to slice cucumbers.  I fed it through the tube and when I opened the lid, my cucumber had turned to complete mush.  I learned the hard way that if you want to slice or shred something, you must first remove the blade (ahem) and leave only the slicer attachment attached.  

Something to hold my hair back.  Yes, I know that headbands aren't kitchen utensils, but it is my biggest fear ever to serve someone food with a hair in it.  It's disgusting enough if it's your immediate family who's eating the food, but if you're making something to take to a family cookout/holiday dinner, or (worse yet) to work for a potluck, would YOU be happy taking a bite of something scrumptious, get a tickly feeling in the back of your throat, and proceed to pull a 10" long hair out of your mouth?  This happened to me at a work function once, and I assure you it was not pleasant.

Sharp knives.  It doesn't matter if they're cheap, but they must be sharp.  I spent $50 on a sharpening stone at the Cooks Warehouse in Atlanta, and have used it once.  Not even a "full once."  I sharpened half of a knife and decided it would be best to have my husband do it as I need all 10 of my fingers if I want to continue cooking.  He did a bang up job, but hasn't done it since.  These things are dangerous.  He told me that Publix will sharpen them for free in the meat department, but I have a bit of a problem carrying a bag full of knives into a grocery store.  Dull knives suck.  And when you DO have them sharpened/sharpen them yourself, be sure never never never to put them in a sink full of dishwater.  I heard a horror story once about my father-in-law sharpening his wife's knives and one of them ended up in a sink of soapy dishwater.  It didn't end well.   And don't put them in your dishwasher--it'll dull the blades considerably.

Magnetic strips.  I keep my knives stuck to one, and it's bolted into the area above the stove.  I have three young children and knives are my biggest fear around them.  I believe it cost about $8.00 at Ikea.  Plus, it frees up counter space if you don't have a bulky knife block sitting there.

    

 

Kittencal's Extreme Chocolate Brownies

Who is Kittencal, you ask?  She's a darn fine cook, for one.  She also has her own food blog , and she's one of the top contributors to www.food.com (It used to be www.recipezaar.com, but they paired with Food Network and changed the name of the site.  I'm still a bit miffed about that.  "food.com" is so bland.) 

I never liked homemade brownies because I never found a recipe that was gooey enough (cakey brownies stink), or chocolatey enough, or moist enough, or sweet enough.  I stumbled upon Kittencal's recipe and was instantly hooked.  You've never had a brownie until you've tried one of these.  I'm typing the recipe as posted at www.food.com, but instead of all white sugar, I use half dark brown and half white, and I use two cups of bittersweet chocolate chips and two cups of semi-sweet.

Much like vanilla sugar's recipe for the 1/4 lb. Double Chocolate Cookies I posted a while ago, this brownie recipe is one of those "Oh-my-God-I-need-chocolate-NOW" recipes that will definitely satisfy your craving.  (And yes--that's a jelly  jar full of milk.  I did that for two reasons:  1) my husband takes coffee to work in the morning in our drinking glasses and forgets to bring them back inside when he gets home; and 2.  I'm a bumpkin at heart.  Stuff tastes better out of jelly jars.  (Especially moonshine.  Heh--just kidding about that last part.)

Kittencal's Extreme Chocolate Brownies

2/3 cup butter or 2/3 cup margarine

1 1/2 cups sugar (reduce to 1 1/4 cups for a less sweet taste)

1/4 cup water

4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided

2 teaspoons vanilla

4 eggs

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 325 degrees and grease a 13x9 pan.

In a heavy saucepan, bring butter, sugar and water to the boil, stirring constantly until the butter is melted and sugar is dissolved (about 3 minutes).  Remove from heat, and with a wooden spoon, stir in two cups of the chocolate chips until melted; cool slightly and beat in vanilla

In a mixing bowl, whisk eggs and gradually add in the chocolate mixture, beating with a wooden spoon until completely mixed.

Mix together flour, baking soda and salt; add to the egg/chocolate mixture and mix well to combine.  Stir in remaining chocolate chips.  Spread into prepared baking pan and bake for 35-40 minutes* (Do not over-bake.)  Cut into squares.

Note: If desired, chopped walnuts may be added.

*NOTE:  I usually bake mine for about 45 minutes.  I have a slow oven.  Gooey brownies are delicious--raw ones are not.  :)

I'm not a picky eater, but there ARE some foods I just won't eat.

No, this isn't a recipe--it's a list (in no particular order) of foods I don't like.

Eggs (other than deviled, once a year or so).  I hate eggs.  Baked into a cake=fine; fried with runny yolks that can be popped with toast points=NOT COOL.

Beets.  They taste like dirt.

Any type of organ meat.  (Do I really need to explain this one?)  I would like to add that this includes fried shad roe.  I realize it's not an organ, but it comes from the inside of a creature.  My grandmother tricked me into trying some once.

Ground beef that's pink.  When I order a steak at a restaurant, I want them to slap the cow on it's ass and run it through a hot kitchen.  When it comes to ground beef, if it's the slightest bit pink and has that "not-well-done" ground beef flavor and texture, you can forget it.

Kale and collard greens.  Yuck.  Yuck.  Double yuck.  (Yes, I promise I'm from the South.  Once again, it's not all about fried chicken and cornbread.)  When you cook them properly (boiling them until they're not much more than mush) they turn a horrible shade of dark green and they taste bad.  I can't explain it.  They're just bad.

Lamb.  Lamb has a flavor--I can't put my finger on it, but those of you who like it know what I'm talking about.  It has a flavor all its own, and there's no way to describe it.  Whatever you want to call it, I hate that flavor.  And it smells twice as bad as it tastes.  Plus, lambs are really sweet and cute and shouldn't be killed.  They should be allowed to grow up and be sheared.   I would like to note that there is one exception--gyros.  You can *almost* taste the lamb, but if it has enough tzatziki sauce on it, then that's okay.  On a sort of unrelated note, it's pronounced YEAR-oh.  It's not a JIE (rhymes with "pie")-row or a GUY-row or a GEE-row.  It's YEAR-oh.  Sorry, but that really bothers me--especially the JIE-row. 

Veal.  I can't even type this without almost tearing up.  Have any of you ever wondered how veal calves are produced?

Tomato soup.  Whether it's from a can or from scratch, tomato soup is just nasty.  What a perfectly horrible way to ruin a delicious grilled cheese sandwich.

Skim milk.  It's like water with white food coloring.

Margarine.  Water + oil = disgusting.  BUTTER IS TASTY!  Even the Kraft Macaroni and Cheese box recommends using real butter!

Pre-minced garlic in a jar.  It's gross.  End of story.  It really doesn't take that long to mince fresh garlic, and the flavor is so much better than the jarred stuff.

Pepsi.  It's like overly-sweet, flat Coke. 

Electric bread machines.  I realize this isn't a food, but it produces food, so I think it needs to be in this list.  For me, most of the fun in making bread is actually making it.  Dumping a bunch of ingredients in a machine and pushing a button is CHEATING.  It's like going camping and sleeping in the lodge at the main entrance to the campground.  If you're gonna do it, do it right.

Use your muscles--knead the dough by hand!

I don't remember where I got this recipe, honestly.  I've had it a while, and I know it wasn't a family recipe, so I probably got it online.  Since these dinner rolls require three risings, keep that in mind when making them.  I've lucked out a few times and had them come out of the oven right as dinner was ready.  They're very good once they've been out of the oven for a while, but they're so much better if you eat them slathered with butter straight out of the pan.  These beat the heck out of any rolls you can buy at the grocery store.  Now that I think about it, they're better than any restaurant rolls I've had, too!

Super Fluffy Dinner Rolls

2 packages yeast (not instant)

1/3 cup warm water

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter, melted

2 teaspoons salt

1 cup scalded milk

2 eggs, beaten

4 1/2 to 5 cups flour

Melted butter

In a large bowl, combine sugar, butter, salt and scalded milk (let it cool to luke warm first).  Soften yeast in warm water until foamy (about 5 minutes) and add to the bowl of wet ingredients along with the eggs.

 This is what it should look like after five minutes assuming your water was the correct temperature.  Notice the little bubbles?  They were emitting a lovely yeasty smell.  :)

Gradually add the flour to form a stiff dough, beating well after each addition.  Knead on a floured surface until smooth and satiny (5 minutes or so).

Place in a well oiled bowl, cover and let rise for about 1 hour (or until doubled).

Yes, I realize this is more than double its original size.  I got busy helping the boys with homework and it rose for closer to 1 1/2 hours.  Oops.

 

Punch down and let rise until doubled again (another hour or so).

 Notice my fist mark in the dough?  I, uh, was a little frazzled from trying to explain even and odd numbers to Jacob for nearly 20 minutes, and I took it out on the poor dough.  It'll be a miracle if these things turn out at all.

Punch down and shape into 18 round balls.  Place in a greased 13x9 baking dish, cover, and let rise until double (again, about an hour).  (I cut the recipe in half and used a 9x9 pan.)

Before

After

 

Brush tops carefully with melted butter and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 15 - 18 minutes.  Immediately upon removing from the oven, brush tops again liberally with melted butter.

 If anyone is curious, these rolls end up being about 3 1/2 inches tall.  :)

I'm from the South--of COURSE I know how to make peach pie.

This isn't my usual recipe--this is one I discovered recently (about 6 hours ago, actually).  I love love love Saveur magazine.  I've yet to make a recipe from one of the issues that wasn't outstanding.

The boys and I were at Walmart tonight and I noticed they had peaches on sale for $0.68 per pound.  I thought, "Yeah, they're beautiful--I'm sure they're about as soft as rocks."  I picked one up and I'll be damned--they're PERFECT.  Seriously.  I have never bought any type of fruit from Walmart that was ripe.  Normally it has to sit on my counter for a few days before you can eat it without chipping a tooth.  So when I got home I thought, "Now what?  I know--I'll make a peach pie for my blog!"  I used the crust recipe listed instead of one of my own.  I might have mentioned before that when it comes to food, I believe that "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."  I always try a recipe as-written once.  If it's perfect, then great!  If it's not, then I'll try to figure out what it needs (or doesn't need), make notes, and tuck the recipe away for making again later.  I figured I'd give the crust recipe a shot.  You know what?  It's awful.  It's the worst pie crust I've ever eaten.  Use a different crust recipe!

Speaking of pie crust, I love working it with my fingers (versus a pastry blender).  There's something about rubbing bits of cold butter into recently-sifted, very soft flour that makes me nearly euphoric.  I'll (seriously) stand there and drift off to my happy place while working the butter into the flour.

Okay, enough of that.  I'm willing to bet this will be the best peach pie you've ever tasted.  Yummmmmmm!

Ginger Peach Pie  

 2 cups flour
1⁄2 tsp. salt
8 tbsp. chilled butter, cut into pieces
3 tbsp. chilled vegetable shortening
1 egg
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice

1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
2 tsp. peeled, minced fresh ginger
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
2⁄3 cup plus 1 tbsp. sugar (next time, I'll increase the sugar in the pie to 1 cup)
1⁄4 cup instant tapioca
4 lbs. fresh peaches
2 tbsp. butter
1 egg white

For the crust: Sift flour and salt into a medium bowl.  Rub butter and shortening into flour mixture with your fingers until it resembles coarse crumbs.  Whisk egg and lemon juice together in a small bowl, then sprinkle into flour mixture with 3–4 tbsp. ice water.  Mix until dough just begins to hold together.  Wrap; refrigerate 1 hour.

For the filling: Combine lemon juice, ginger, cinnamon, 2⁄3 cup of the sugar, and tapioca in a large bowl.  Blanch peaches in a pot of boiling water for 15 seconds, then cool in a bowl of cold water.  Peel, cut into thick slices, and toss in lemon juice mixture.

Preheat oven to 375°.  Divide dough in half.  Roll into two 12" circles on a floured surface.  Line a 9" pie pan with one circle; add peach filling.  Drape remaining circle on top, crimp edges, and slash top.  Brush with egg white, and sprinkle with remaining 1 tbsp. sugar.  Bake until golden, about 1 hour.  Serve warm.

The first time I made this recipe, I vowed NEVER to make it again.

That was when I had my "first place" and was starting to cook for myself without the help and guidance of my grandmother (the second best cook in the universe!).  She never made Greek food, so I never learned from her how to work filo dough.  (We're German on one side and English on the other, and what do they know about filo, right?)

This recipe for Spanikopita came from a cookbook compiled by the good ladies at Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Cathedral  in Richmond, Virginia. My sister and I went to the Greek Festival there many years ago and I scraped up $10 to buy one of their cookbooks.  That has to be without a doubt the best $10 I've ever spent.

If you've never worked with filo, you're in for a treat.  It's tricky at first, but once you get the hang of it, all the work is so worth it when you try the finished product.  By the time this had finished baking, I was ready to cry.  My kitchen had melted butter covering practically every hard surface; I had sheets and sheets of torn and dried filo (remember to keep it covered with a dish towel while you're not using it) littering the counter top; I had dirty dishes galore piled in the sink that I knew were going to take me two hours to wash (They were from the night before, but it still LOOKED bad and didn't make me feel any better.); and my entire apartment reeked of burned spinach (I had to cook it and wring the water out.  I forgot it was cooking and went to chat with my next door neighbor for a little while.  Oops.)  I had to start that part over, and I can tell you that wringing water out of spinach is a complete pain.  If you have any flour sack dish towels, they make great spinach-wringers, but they do a horrible job drying dishes.  Anyway, when I finally pulled it out of the oven I took one bite, moaned with pleasure, and thought "Damn this is good.  Too bad I'm never freaking making it again."  That was in 1998 when I was young, single, and had all the time in the world to cook.  Since then, I've gotten married, had three children, and have lost count how many times I've made this recipe.  I can whip one up in about 30 minutes.  I'm so glad I gave this delicious spinachy-cheesy goodness another chance.

Kali Orexi!

Spinach Pie - Spanikopita

1 pound filo dough (You'll use less than half of one roll of the double roll box)

2 (10 ounce) boxes frozen, chopped spinach OR 1 pound fresh spinach, cooked and wrung dry

1 pound feta cheese, crumbled

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 beaten eggs

1 bunch green onions, chopped

1/2 bunch fresh dill OR 3/4 teaspoon dried dill

1 cup clarified butter (if you attempt to make this with margarine, you deserve a good smack upside your head)

1 bunch fresh parsley, chopped (Do not omit this.  It's far more than a garnish in this particular recipe.)

1/4 teaspoon pepper

To a large bowl, add the cooked spinach, feta cheese, eggs, salt and pepper, parsley, green onions and dill.  Mix well.

Butter a 13x9 baking dish and lay nine sheets of filo, buttering between each layer with melted butter.  Add filling and spread evenly.  Lay nine more layers of filo on the top, again buttering between each layer.  Butter the top and edges well.  Cut through the top layer only into desired portion sizes; bake in a preheated 350 oven for one hour or until golden and well risen.

Mmmmmm--apple pie--mmmmmm.

 This particular example isn't one of my prettier pies, but I was pressed for time and forgot to add the sugar on the crust until it was almost finished baking.  I accidentally tapped the crust and got a big crack.  :(  I was also a bit upset while making it, hence the vicious stab marks instead of dainty steam holes carefully cut into an artful apple pattern.  Oh, and then I dropped the pie onto the oven door as I was removing it.  I should probably make this pie again and take a new picture.  :D

Who doesn't like apple pie??  Okay, so my stepfather doesn't, but he also doesn't like mashed potatoes, and the only vegetables he'll eat are Green Giant cut green beans and Lesueur early peas (and yes, they have to be those specific brands).  Need I say more?

This (and I'm sorry, Granny) is better than Granny's apple pie.  It's not as good as Aunt Linda's pie, though.  She claims it's because she uses Northern Spy Apples.  Personally, I think she gave me the recipe a little too quickly when I asked for it.  She probably left out a crucial secret ingredient.  Hmph.  This isn't your typical apple pie because the apples are covered with a caramel sauce after being put into the pie shell instead of being tossed with flour, sugar and cinnamon.

Growing up, we always ate apple pie with a thick slice of sharp cheddar.  Sometimes we'd eat it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and sometimes we'd eat it plain.  I can honestly say that this pie needs nothing extra.

I'm also including one of my crust recipes below.  (Not the one made with lard.  This one is a vinegar and butter pie crust.)  The lard crust is so rich, and with this recipe and the large amount of butter in it, it's rich enough on its own.

Caramel Apple Pie

1 double crust pie pastry (recipe to follow)

1 stick butter (salted or not--your choice.  I prefer unsalted.)

3 tablespoons flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 cup water

8 granny smith apples peeled and sliced thinly

Milk

Sugar

Melt the butter in a sauce pan and stir in the flour to form a light roux.  (Do NOT let it brown too much or your pie will taste, well, just weird.)  Add the sugars, cinnamon and water.  Bring to the boil, reduce to low, and simmer for about 5 minutes.

Place the bottom crust into your pie plate (I use a 9" deep dish plate, which makes for a "flatter" pie.  If you want a big, pretty one, use a 9" standard pie plate.  If you want to make a gigantic mess, burn yourself with caramel, and end up cussing a lot, use an 8" pie plate.)  Fill with apples, mounding them slightly.  Pour the caramel sauce carefully over the apples, place the top crust and crimp the edges.  Carefully brush milk over the entire crust (including the rim) and sprinkle with sugar.  Cover the edges with foil. 

Bake for 15 minutes in a preheated 425 degree oven.  Reduce the heat to 350 and continue baking for about 45 minutes.  Remove the foil during the last 15 minutes or so of baking.

Vinegar and Butter Pie Crust

4 cups flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar

1 3/4 cups cold butter (if using salted, decrease amount of salt in recipe to 1/4 teaspoon), cut into small pieces

1 tablespoon white vinegar

1 egg

1/2 cup ice water

Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl.  Cut in the butter using your fingers (or, if that freaks you out, a pastry blender, two knives, etc.) until it's crumbly.  Whisk the vinegar, egg and water and add to the flour/butter mixture.  Mix until just combined.  ***DO NOT OVER WORK YOUR PIE CRUST OR IT'LL HAVE THE TEXTURE OF CARDBOARD***  Okay sorry about that, but it really irritates me to eat crappy pie crust.  It's so incredibly easy to not screw up a pie crust.  Just stop fiddling with it!!!

Divide into four equal parts, flatten, and wrap each part in plastic wrap.  Chill for at least an hour before using.  Roll out and use.

This makes enough dough for two 9" deep dish pies.  It freezes beautifully--just make sure to wrap it well before you do.