All right, I finally had to use a recipe. I was in the mood for a red curry. I do not make it that often so I had to start with a recipe off the web. However, I am good at identifying the tastes I like so I adapted it to suit my tastes. Here is what I ended up making. It serves about 6 to 8 people served over some steamed Basmati Rice. (I use 50/50 mix of brown and white Basmati)

Indian Red Curry
INGREDIENTS
6 bone-in chicken breast halves, skinless
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 onions, peeled and quartered
1 Tablespoon finely chopped fresh ginger root
1 Table poon crushed garlic
1 Tablespoon curry powder
2 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
2 (10 ounce) can coconut milk
8 whole cloves
6 pods cardamom
1 cinnamon stick
DIRECTIONS
1. Cut chicken breast into about 2 square inch by ¼ inch thick pieces; season with salt and pepper to taste. Sauté chicken until browned. Remove from heat and set aside.
2. Sauté onions until translucent; add ginger and garlic and sauté until fragrant, then stir in curry powder.
3. Put all ingredients into an 6 quart or larger pot and bring to a low boil. Season with salt to taste and stir all together.
4. Reduce heat to low and simmer for about 35 to 45 minutes.

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These are one of the three types of cookies I made for the S@H anniversary picnic. They were pretty popular. The recipe comes from a book called "The Wellesley Cookie Exchange Cookbook". The author is Susan Mahnke Peery.

Peanut Butter Cookies

1/2 cup of butter
1/2 cup of chunky peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 egg
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt

Cream butter, peanut butter and both sugars together until light.

Add egg, mix well.

Blend together all the dry ingredients and add to butter mixture.

Mix well.

Chill dough 1 hour.

Roll dough into 1 inch balls and place 2 inches across on lightly greased cookie sheets.

Use a flour dipped fork to make the traditional criss-cross pattern and slightly flatten cookies.

Bake at 375 degrees for 10 to 12 mins. Makes 3 dozen.


Angela's modifications

I prefer creamy, not crunchy, peanut butter in this recipe. I feel that nut chunks distract from the perfect crispy-chewy texture I try to achieve.

Natural peanut butter just doesn't work in this recipe. You have to use the kind with the yummy trans-fats. Sorry...

Because of the high butter content, I find I get a better texture baking at 350 degrees for 9 to 10 minutes. When they are set around the edges but still a little soft inside, I take them out of the oven and let them cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes. That helps them set up and makes the slightly under-baked cookie easier to remove from the sheet.

IMHO, the key to making a good peanut butter cookie is to avoid petrifying it with heat. You want it crispy on the outside and just slightly chewy on the inside.

I believe that it is better to under-bake rather than over-bake most cookies with a high butter content. An exception to this over-baking rule would be a cookie that is supposed to be crisp throughout, like a toffee cookie.

When life gives you lemons, make pie!





Lemon Meringue pie is my "signature dish". I have been making lemon pies since I was about 12. I used to use a different crust recipe, but now I use the Cook's Illustrated recipe. It really is consistently excellent.

The recipe is available to you if you go to their website and get an on-line subscription. I will share the recipe via pm with individuals upon request, but I don't think I should "publish" their recipe here since it is their product to sell. If you really like to cook, a subscription to their magazine and/or to their website are both more than worth the price they charge.

The filling for this pie was originally an old Better Homes and Gardens recipe, but I have adapted it enough that now it is mine!

I have lots of little tips for you in this recipe, since I have made so many of these pies in my life. The most pies I've ever made in one marathon baking session is three, and so I know the filling can be tripled. If you want to make multiple pies, I recommend that you do the crusts and meringues separately.


Lemon Meringue Pie

1 fully baked homemade pie crust


Filling

1.5 cups sugar
7 Tbsps cornstarch
good pinch of salt
1.5 cups water
3 egg yolks, lightly beaten
2-3 Tbsps butter, cut up
1 generous tsp lemon zest, minced
1/2 cup (or a bit more) fresh lemon juice


Zest and mince the lemon peel and put it in a small bowl with the butter.

Squeeze, strain and measure the lemon juice. (While you are juicing lemons, put 1.5 extra tsps of juice aside for the meringue.)

Separate the eggs. (While you are separating eggs, separate a 4th one - pitch or save the extra yolk and put the extra white in with the 3 whites - set aside for the meringue.)

Wisk together the sugar, cornstarch and salt.

Mix in the water.

Over medium heat, cook stirring until very thick. This step is very important. You want to drive all the moisture out of the filling now, so that you can add the lemon juice later. Even if you think the filling is adequately thickened, keep it on the stove another 3 minutes, just to be sure. It won't burn if you keep it moving. The mixture should be super thick before you proceed.

Remove from heat.

Temper the egg yolks with some of the hot filling.

Add the tempered egg yolks to the filling and cook the filling for another minute on medium.

Remove from heat and mix in the butter and zest.

When the butter has melted in, slowly - in small batches, add the lemon juice.

Set aside to cool, stirring from time to time.


Meringue

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

4 egg whites
1.5 tsps superfine sugar or Baker's sugar
6 Tbsps sugar

Beat egg whites and lemon juice to soft peaks.

Gradually add the sugar, beating constantly.

(Here's a little tip to minimize beading of the final product! Before the final beating, let the mixture just sit for about 3 minutes. The sugar will dissolve better. Rub a pinch of the egg white mixture between your fingers. If you feel sugar, let it sit a bit longer.)

When the mixture feels smooth, continue to beat to stiff peaks, but don't over beat. If you go too far, the meringue will not puff well.

Pour cooled lemon filling into pan.

Top lemon filling with meringue, making sure to overlap the crust well.

(To prevent shrinkage of the meringue away from the sides of the pie, I use a 2 step process. I push an "undercoat" of meringue all the way to and slightly over the crust on all sides, then I pull a "topcoat" of meringue over that. Sealing the meringue on two levels means that my meringues NEVER pull away from the crust!)

Bake 15 - 18 mins, rotating pie after about 10 mins. to ensure even browning.

Only problem with Pie is that they all don't go on forever. :D

Looks nice and yummy Angela.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

In my experience, the hardest part of a good meringue pie is getting that even lightly browned look. How do you do it?

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Hi Bill!

Many lemon pie recipes instruct you to broil the meringue. That may be why you are not getting even browning.

I've never had success broiling meringues. The meringue tips burn, nothing browns evenly and a thick layer of meringue may not even get cooked all the way through.

I recommend baking the meringue topping - moderate heat. Works every time!

Anybody have any good apple recipes? A relative just gave me a box of Golden Delicious apples from her tree.

No rush on recipe posting. We have house guests coming over this weekend, so I just stuck the apples in the fridge for now. They will probably sit there a few weeks until I figure out what to do with them.

Just tell me what you want to do.
Cookie or what?

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With each crime and every kindness we birth our future.

Not sure what I want to do. Guess I'm looking for inspiration.

Golden Delicious apples tend to be very sweet, but in my experience they get quite mushy when cooked. This variety would probably work well diced finely in a quick bread.

For pies I like to mix crisp apples that hold their structure in baking with a few softer apples that break down more when you bake them. That gives you the best of both worlds... but at 2 or 3 soft apples per pie, it is a very slow and calorie laden way to get rid of a big box of apples.

Maybe I should just make a big batch of homemade cinnamon applesauce.

Eric doesn't like cooked apples in any form! He doesn't know what he is missing!!!

Maybe I should just make a big batch of homemade cinnamon applesauce.

Eric doesn't like cooked apples in any form! He doesn't know what he is missing!!!

I'd agree with Eric right up to the word "cinnamon." That's where we part company.

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Eric doesn't like cooked apples in any form! He doesn't know what he is missing!!!

Cooked apples with honey or vanilla ice. Yummy!!!

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Ingredients
80g/3oz mixed dried exotic fruit, (such as mango, papaya, banana, fig, golden raisins), chopped
55ml/2fl oz brandy
30g/1oz soft light brown sugar
½ tsp allspice
100g/3½oz butter, plus extra for spreading
6 eating apples, cored
200g/7oz Greek yoghurt, to serve

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas 2.
2. Place the mixed dried fruit and the brandy into a bowl and leave to soak for at least two hours, but ideally overnight.
3. After soaking, add the sugar, allspice and butter to the brandy-soaked fruit.
4. Spoon the fruit mixture into the holes in the cored apples, pressing in to fill well and spread some more butter over the apples.
5. Place the stuffed apples into an ovenproof dish, cover with aluminium foil and transfer to the oven to bake for 40 minutes.
6. Remove the foil and cook 15-20 minutes more, until the apples are soft, but not collapsing.
7. Place onto plates and serve with a dollop of Greek yoghurt.
© BBC

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Old enough to know better(but)still young enough not to care

Peanut Butter Pinwheels

Perfect for your Halloween Parties, as they look rather "entrailish".

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup regular peanut butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 & 1/4 cups flour
1 6oz pkg of chocolate chips

Cream butter and peanut butter with both kinds of sugar.

Beat in egg.

Whisk dry ingredients together and blend into batter.

Cover and chill dough a couple of hours.

On waxed paper pat dough out into approximately a 12 inch square.

Melt chocolate chips and spread over dough square to within half an inch of each square.

Roll up the dough, wrap in wax paper and chill a few hours.

Slice dough (1/4 to 1/2 inch slices) and bake slices on an ungreased cookie sheet 375 degrees for about 10 mins.

Let cookies cool partially on sheet, then remove to a rack.

Makes a couple dozen cookies. I got this recipe from my mom and she does not remember where she got it.

Happy Halloween!

. . . 'yummy' young lady - both of you [& as well - the lil' critters] enjoy your Halloween as well . . .

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BOINC Wiki . . .

Science Status Page . . .

What did you have in mind Fuzzy?

Angela, when I come back from Milan I'll post some recipes of real Italian food cooked for me by a real Italian.

I will be watching him cook for me, in fact I will become so entangled in watching him cook for me that I can't escape it. :-D

He will offer me a lot of Italian to eat. ;-)

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"I'm trying to maintain a shred of dignity in this world." - Me

Oh my Fuzzy!!! Oh my!!!

Ok, Angela, here's an Italian pasta recipe for you:

Warm up some olive oil in a pot and fry some diced pancetta in it till they are light brown. Then take a can of original Italian tomato sauce and pour it in the pot to the pancetta. Taste it with a little sugar and some salt if the pancetta is not salty enough.

Boil some bucatini and when it's al dente, serve it with the tomato sauce with the pancetta. Pour lots and lots of grated parmigiano over it, more than you think is enough, a lot more! Mix it all so the parmigiano melts and makes it all nice and thick.

Serve a nice Italian red wine to it.

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"I'm trying to maintain a shred of dignity in this world." - Me

This is a Roman recipe, called amatriciana. In Milan you eat risotto giallo and cassoela. My pizzaiola, a rather enlarged copy of Sophia Loren in the movie "The gold of Naples" has promised me a cassoela in November. Cheers.
Tullio

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This is a Roman recipe, called amatriciana. In Milan you eat risotto giallo and cassoela. My pizzaiola, a rather enlarged copy of Sophia Loren in the movie "The gold of Naples" has promised me a cassoela in November. Cheers.
Tullio

You are right, my Italian friend who cooked this dish for me told me that it's a Roman dish.

I didn't get the Risotto Milanese and the Cotoletta Milanese, I was too tired last night to go out and find a restaurant near my hotel that serves them. I was cold, tired, and hungry when I returned from the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, so I went into a bar next to the hotel and got some ricotta and spinach filled cannelloni and a beer. There are restaurants at the Galleria that serve both, but it was too early to get dinner, and I suspected that the prices are quite steep there compared to what they charge other places in the city. I went to a restaurant but they didn't open before 7 pm, and I was there, exhausted, cold, and hungry, at 6 pm. So next time I fly to Milan I will have them both, just not this time...

By the way, one other dish my Italian friend cooked for me was some garanelli looking pasta with pesto and less parmigiano on it than on the other dish with the pancetta.

I had prosciutto and salad for lunch while he was at work. Before he cooked the pasta we snacked on some Taralli Pugliesi, some prosciutto, pancetta, and salami, and some parmigiano cut in bites with a glass of red wine to it.

I took the rest of the bag with the Taralli Pugliesi with me home, I snack on them at the moment. :-D And I had a packet of prosciutto with me home too, I had that earlier together with the rest of the salad, I also took with me home. Alas, they took the San Pellegrino water from me at the security check at the airport. Oh well, they don't allow fluids in the hand baggage at the moment and I hadn't drank it all. :-(

Oh, and by the way, the weather in Milan these days is really rainy and cold, just as cold as here in Denmark at the moment. Brrrrr........

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"I'm trying to maintain a shred of dignity in this world." - Me

Sorry for the weather. It was sunny and hot a few days ago. About 20 or 30 years earlier you had the autumn fog which was very dense. It has disappeared due to climatic changes, I remember driving from Agrate, where STMicroelectronics is, to my village Rodano near Linate Airport and I had to drive by memory, remembering the bumps and holes in the road. One night, with eyes tired from watching a computer screen, I ended in a ditch with my Lancia Delta. When they dragget it out of the ditch the body was so twisted that repairing it cost me almost a new car. I should have clunked it. By the way, did you fly through Linate or Malpensa? My pilot friends told me that Linate should be abandoned, too close to the city and with only one runaway (it was a military airport). But the milanesi do not want this, it is too near and easy to reach compared to Malpensa. Cheers.
Tullio

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