I Made a Pie!

Just for the record. I'm winning the posting contest.





Clearly from the title of the post, you know what it is going to be about.

Now the question is: what type of pie?

I'll give you a hint

That bag in my hand was full to the brim
So logistically there was only one pie to make
Apple Pie

Pies are scary.
scratch that.
Everyone says that pies (pie crust?) are scary.
While it is halloween, this would be a really pathetic attempt to scare you.

Pies aren't scary, they just take some practice and a not OCD person.
It's butter, sugar, flour, apples, and spices. Honestly, I don't care who you are, it will taste good with those ingredients.

This was my first full pie I've attempted without the watchful eye of my mom (Hi mom!). My mom may not think it, but she's a champion baker. She just kind of does it, and it works. At least that's what it looks like to me.
I on the other hand am slowly trying to achieve that kind of skill, but until then I will obsess over every recipe I can find, trying to pick the perfect one with the best tips.

I settled on Joy the Bakers version with a few additions of my own (more spices! always!!), and I chose a Pâte Brisée crust.

It. Was. Awesome.

Move over pie. You're not so scary.

All Butter Crust (double for a bottom and top)

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling
• 8 Tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, very-cold, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
  
• 4 to 6 Tbsp ice water, very cold

Cut the sticks of butter into 1/2-inch cubes and put them in the freezer for at least 15 minutes to get them as cool as possible.

In a food processor, combine flour, salt, and sugar. Add butter and pulse a few times, until mixture is small pea size balls. Add ice cold water 1 Tablespoon at a time, pulsing until mixture just begins to clump together.

Remove dough and shape them into two discs. There should still be clear pieces of butter. This butter is key and is the reason for the delicious flakyness of the crust!
Sprinkle the disc with a little flour, wrap them in plastic wrap and refrigerated them for about an hour or more.

Remove one discs from the refrigerator, and let sit for a few minutes. Sprinkle some flour on top of the disk and roll it out with a rolling pin on a lightly floured surface to a 12 inch circle; about 1/8 of an inch thick.

Add a little flour if necessary to keep the dough from sticking. Fold the dough in half and transfer to the pie pan.

Repeat the same process for the second disc after the pie has been filled with filling.

For the Filling I used Joy the Baker's recipe. Like I said, the only change I really made was upping the spices. You can find it here.

It was a really great recipe, and I was super proud of my delicious pie!!

I can't wait for the next one!

Pie coma?

-Leah

My Birthday Cake

Ok, so we're bad at this.

The funny thing is, every time we cook something I try to take pictures. Unfortunately we cook at night when the lighting is poor, or I'll forget to take pictures during a pretty step and end up with a picture of dirty dishes instead.

...I also forget to post...

Anyways. Happy birthday to me. Let's bake a cake
.

Not just any cake, chocolate cake. Not just any chocolate cake, chocolate cake with alcohol in it.

I also put almonds in the middle.

They were wonderful.

Enjoy!

I did.

Chocolate Amaretto Cake
(adapted from Gourmet)

* 3 ounces semisweet chocolate
* 1 1/2 cups hot brewed coffee
* 3 cups sugar
* 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
* 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
* 3 large eggs
* 3/4 cup vegetable oil
* 1 cup well-shaken buttermilk
* 1/2 cup amaretto
* 3/4 teaspoon vanilla

To make the cake
Preheat oven to 300°F. and grease two 10-inch cake pans ( made it in two 9 inch and had a little mini cake too). Line bottoms with rounds of wax paper and grease paper.

Finely chop chocolate and in a bowl combine with hot coffee. Let mixture stand, stirring occasionally, until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.

Into a large bowl sift together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
In another large bowl with an electric mixer beat eggs until thickened slightly.
Slowly add oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and melted chocolate mixture to eggs, beating until combined well.
Add sugar mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined well.
Divide batter between pans and bake in middle of oven until a tester inserted in center comes out clean, 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes.


Amaretto Whipped Cream Frosting

* 1 Pint Heavy Cream
* 1 Tsp Sugar
* 1 Glog of vanilla
* Amaretto (as much as you please)

Put all ingredients in a chilled bowl and mix with a hand mixer or a whisk (poor you...) until whipped cream is formed.


This cake was REALLY good, and I'm not saying that because I made it. I plan on using this chocolate cake recipe until someone forces me to use another one (sorry mom).

Clearly even the batter was good

Happy cooking (or baking)

Leah

Scallion Pancakes

Ok… I’m on a carb kick. Let’s face it, who doesn’t love carbs? I promise I will try to tone it down a bit, but for now let’s just revel in the awesome glory of carbohydrates.

Done yet? (Me neither)

So a while back I had a potluck with a bunch of friends and, as oft happens with college kids who have no budget, we ended up with tons of rice and pasta dishes… There was one particular dish that caught my attention though; delicious scallion pancakes! Now I grew up eating authentic Chinese food once in a while, but for whatever reason I can’t remember really having these. Boy, I missed out!

My friend sent me the recipe he used, from Appetite for China. The trick he has is to sub in baking powder for the yeast to avoid the long process of letting dough rise. Once that additional 40+ minutes are removed from the process, making these are a cinch!

These are not your breakfast type of pancakes; this is a sort of tasty appetizer that pairs the striking green bite of scallions with a crisped doughy form that just calls for a bit of soy-sauce drizzled on top! Alright, rambling again…

Scallion Pancakes

1 1/2 Cups all-purpose flour

½ Cup water

½ Cup boiling water

1 ½ Teaspoons baking powder

1 Teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil

1 Cup finely chopped scallions

Sift together your flour, and salt in a bowl. Pour in your boiling water (it is supposed to kinda cook some of the dough a bit) and mix a bit, then add the rest of the water to start making a dough. You want a rough dough so if it is a bit too mushy add flour very gradually (conversely, add water if it hasn’t really formed a dough). Mix in your oil and give it a quick knead.

Roll out your dough on a floured surface, probably taking balls of dough a little smaller than a baseball. Roll it out pretty thin (about a ¼ inch) and sprinkle with chopped scallions.


1st appearance of a wine bottle as a rolling pin on this blog!

You then roll it up like a carpet so that all the beauteous scallions are inside the roll. Coil like a cinnamon bun (yumm...) and roll till 1/3 inch thick.

Now heat up a non-stick skillet on medium with a little bit of oil and fry these suckers up!

When they start getting that beautiful brown flip em over for a bit and serve fresh off the skillet topped off with a splash of soy-sauce!

Bon appetit!

~Kai

I had one of those moments.
I placed wonderful ingredients together, and created something fantastically delicious...by mistake.
That just gave me the image in Ratatouille when he's explaining the magic of combining foods and the visual is just exploding fireworks.

Anyways, I was trying to just use up ingredients, and thanks to my mom and her fabulous garden I had fresh tomato and cucumber. I also had a mini pita pocket.
Generally my goal with pita pockets is to shove as much stuff in them as physically possible. It's a fun game. Try it.

Tomato and cucumber are boring on their own. Brie cheese is not boring. Melted brie cheese is definintely not boring.

Result?
an amazingly melted brie, tomato and cucumber pita pocket. Yes, it is simple, but that was the beauty of it.

It's easy, it's delicious, it's warm, and it uses up the leftover food in my fridge preventing me from having to buy more food.
Win.



Unfortunately, I didn't realize how great my creation was until I was a few bits in. The result was some mediocre pictures.



I'll get better at this some day.



-Leah

This Is Us

I’ve gone through several phases since I noticed that Kai created our blog.
The first day I saw it, I was sitting at work. I immediately wanted to post, I had to post. I HAD to post!
Then I realized…I had nothing too post. So I waited.
Then when I finally cooked something and had pictures to prove it, not only were the pictures more horrible than when my dad decides to document family events with the camera on his blackberry, but the product of my cooking wasn’t exactly…something I wanted to share as of example of my all-star cooking abilities.
Here it is. One month after Kai posted his post, and I still have nothing. Sure I’ve made some food and taken some more pathetic pictures, and hell, Kai and I even cooked together, but nothing has been deemed worthy of my first post.
Well, I have to pop my first post cherry somehow, so why not introduce us!
I present: Kai and Leah……….

Kai Doo

Age: 21
Height: 5'10
Home Town: Honolulu, HI
Educational Status: BA in Spanish, Candidate for a Master’s in Education
Favorite Food to Cook: Pizza (It's just soooo easy)
Favorite Cooking Tool: The Polly Pocket sized whisk
Most Anticipated Recipe: Hearty sandwich bread with more grains than you can count
Worst Cooking Moment: Evacuating the dorm during the middle of the night in Winter due to a fire alarm and blackened peanut butter cookies.
Dream Date: Art museum followed by a picnic at dusk.
Life Ambition: To become OLD
When Not in the Kitchen Kai can be found: frolicking around campus, having spontaneous dance parties in his room, having spontaneous dance parties with Leah, attempting to out-lift the lacrosse team in the gym, scouting out free food opportunities, wishing he was swimming with dolphins, with Leah, and painting.
Favorite Leah Moment: Leah attempting to impress Kai by cracking two eggs at once, but accidentally having had grabbed the hard boiled eggs instead.





Leah Melnick


Age: 21
Height: 5'6
Hometown: Wayland, MA
Educational Status: BA in Environmental Science, Candidate for a Master’s in Environmental Science and Policy
Favorite Food to Cook: Curried Cabbage
Favorite Cooking Tool: Side beer
Most Anticipated Recipe: Gnocchi
Worst Cooking Moment: That time I decided to leave eggs out of pancakes to see what would happen.
Life Ambition: To learn how to make decisions
When Not in the Kitchen Leah Can Be Found: in the library, lost in the aisles of the grocery store, pondering over a useless decision, lecturing friends about the wonders of renewable energy, analyzing beer, texting Kai, calling Kai, stalking Kai, singing Spring Awakening and Sara Bareilles as loud as she can repeatedly, and running.
Favorite Kai Moment: Watching Kai sprint around campus in high heals, fishnet stocking, a tight sparkly dress and a very blond wig.



Kai and Leah

Often Seen:
Cooking
Baking
Throwing food items at each other
Throwing burnt food items at each other
Holding dance parties while cooking
Throwing dance parties after cooking
Yelling at each other
Laughing with each other
Laughing at each other
Laughing at the other while the other is laughing with the other
Drinking beer together
Being snooty about beer together
Actually socializing with other people



The point is, we have fun together and we like to cook. We created this blog to force ourselves to cook together when our schedules started to clash this year, and so that we can document what we are doing in the kitchen while we experiment and (hopefully) increase our kitchen skills. It could go super well, it could be a gigantic disaster which then gets lost in cyber world and will be rediscovered by us when we are 70. Regardless, I’m excited!

I hope if anyone does begin to read this blog that they enjoy it, and maybe even pick up a recipe or two!

So I promise I will work on my camera skills, work on my cooking skills, and get a real post up soon!

Until then,
Happy cooking!

Leah