Two (pecan) pies for the price of one

Right now, I'm listening to Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" on KINK FM, my Thanksgiving noon-time tradition since I don't know, The Dawn of Time as I Seen It. My family used to listen to it on 102.5 KACY while we drove to my grandparents' house in Ark City, KS. Listening to "Alice's Restaurant" as I get around for Thanksgiving is a better tradition, I think, than watching that sissy Macy's parade. To me, there's nothing in the world like sitting around, listening to the radio with people you enjoy.

Though this is the first year that I've been away from my family for Thanksgivin', I'm still surrounded by blessings, new friends,a job in radio (they still make those!), lovely kitties, Arlo Guthrie, and a new ceramic-top stove. Could a gal ask for more?

I'm taking a pecan pie to our neighbors' family today, and using the rest of the pie crust I made on a mini fall pie of pears, cranberries, and pecans. The mini-pie tasted great, but the pictures didn't come out well. C'est la vie. Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving all.

Pretty Pecan Pie (and mini Fall Pear Pie)
serves 6

Crust

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (2 1/4 cups)
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt
• 2/3 cup chilled butter, sliced thin
• about 1/4 cup cold water

Filling

• 3 slightly beaten eggs (4 eggs)
• 3/4 cup corn syrup
• 1/4 cup honey or agave nectar (1/2 cup honey)
• 2/3 cup dememera or turbinado sugar (1 cup sugar)
• 1/3 cup melted butter (1/2 cup butter)
• 1 heaping tsp. vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups pecan halves (2 cups pecans)
• (1 comice pear)
• (1/4 cup dried cranberries)

First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Next, prepare the crust. Cut the butter into small cubes and mix the butter, flour, and salt in a small bowl. Using a pastry cutter, mash the butter into the flours until the pieces are pea-sized. Sprinkle a spoonful of cold water over the dough, then toss everything gently with a fork. Repeat this process, one spoonful of water at a time, until the dough is moistened. The less you handle this dough, the flakier it will be. Divide the dough in half, and form each half into a ball.

Flatten each ball on a lightly floured surface, and roll the dough from the center to the edges into a 12" diameter circle. To transfer dough to the pie plate, roll it gently around the rolling pin, and dust the dough occasionally with flour. Prick the bottom crust with the tines of a fork, and trim the excess dough. Set the pie plate aside and drape the second crust over a small ceramic dish. Now, on to the filling!

If you're preparing a pecan pie, use only the first set of recipe measurements. If you're making both, use the measurements in parenthesis.

If you're just preparing a pecan pie, use the first set of recipe measurements and combine the ingredients (minus pecans) in a large bowl. (If you're making both, reserve 1 cup of the filling liquid + pecans for the tart.) Make sure everything is well blended -- the sugar dissolved, the butter melted, the eggs evenly stirred. Stir in the pecans and pour the filling into your prepared crust. Line the crust edges with aluminum foil or use Sam's Paper Bag Trick, then set the pie on a cookie sheet in the center of the oven.

For the mini-pie, slice 1/2 of a ripe pear into thin, wafery slices. Place a layer of these slices in the ceramic dish, pour half the pecan filling on the pears, then repeat. Pour the filling into the crust and close up the crust, crimping down the edges with the tines of a fork. Cut a few holes in the top for steam and bake along with the pecan pie. (I drizzled a little leftover filling over the other pear half and baked it, too.)

About 30 minutes into baking, remove the tin foil from the pie edges, then cook the pies 30 minutes more until the fillings are set. Let them cool, put on some Arlo Guthrie records, and enjoy.

You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant....

Biscotti and things

These biscotti didn't turn out as I planned. I meant for them to be fluffier, for the dough to remain uniform despite the chopped nuts. When I shaped the dough for baking, it stuck to my hands as if I'd coated them with honey. But even with all of these obstacles, the cookies turned out fine. I give this recipe full credit.

The recipe's origins escape me; some time in college, I wrote it down on an index card and filed it in an olive green box. The original recipe calls for almonds and vanilla extract, but I've riffed on that theme to bake biscotti in chocolate-ginger, chocolate chip, pistachio-cornmeal, cinnamon orange varieties.

My great-aunt Carmon enjoys the double-chocolate variety; I like a plainer version, perhaps with its outer ridge dipped in melted chocolate. The Biscotti Recipe of Mysterious Origin has seen me through tough times! It even saw me through difficulties this weekend.

My mother flew from Kansas to visit our new Portland home on Thursday, and I had grand culinary plans for her stay. I wanted to make a coffee cake for the lazy weekend, and Raymond wanted to cook eggs and bacon for breakfast. I'd envisioned home-made potato soup and cornbread.

What I got was a dead oven. While Raymond cooked breakfast on Saturday morning, it ceased to function, right as Raymond cracked eggs into a skillet. The burners were lifeless, the oven cold. We haven't got a toaster or a microwave yet (due chiefly to laziness) so our only backup is a spasmodic pink Hotpoint mini-oven.

The Hotpoint burns things. (Bagels have caught fire in it on two separate occasions.) That morning, Raymond and I managed some reheated hashbrowns and a rescued-egg frittata, but any subsequent tries in that Hotpoint failed. I burned a coffee cake, which bitterly disappointed me, but my mom said, "Oh, that's fine. I like burned things. I like burned toast the best." She ate some coffee cake like a champ, and she really liked these biscotti. Good old mom. Thanks for being flexible (and for visiting!)

PS: Have you noticed? In a Pickle has a new domain name: www.katesinapickle.com.

Joy! It's like Christmas come early!

Almond biscotti with lemon icing

makes about 2 dozen cookies

• 1/2 cup virgin olive oil
• 1 cup cane sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup finely chopped almonds (or hazelnuts, or macadamia nuts)
• 1 overflowing tsp. almond extract
• zest of one lemon
  
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• a pinch of sea salt

Icing

• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• 1-2 tsp. cream
• 1/2- 3/4 cups powdered sugar
  

Preheat your (working) oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit, then cream together the sugar and oil in a large mixing bowl. Beat in the eggs and almond extract. Sift together the dry ingredients, then stir the mixture into the wet ingredients. Gently stir in the lemon zest and chopped nuts.

Grease a cookie sheet (foil-lined is optional) and form the batter into two flat "loaves" three inches apart. This can get sticky, and you'll want to flour your hands first. Shape the loaves long and thin -- no taller than three inches or so -- as the batter will spread when it bakes. Bake the biscotti at 375 degrees for 15 minutes.

Once the loaves are lightly browned on the outside, remove the cookie sheet and, using a sharp, serrated knife, quickly cut each log into a dozen (or so) inch-wide cookies. I use a gentle sawing motion to cut the delicate dough; pressing down on the biscotti seems to create more jagged edges on the cookies.

Flip the freshly cut cookies on their sides and lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees. Bake the cookies for five minutes per side. Remove the sheet and let the biscotti cool on a baking rack. Turn the oven off. If the cookies aren't completely dry after they've cooled, pop the biscotti back in the still-warm (but off!) oven until they are.

Blend together the icing in a small bowl while the cookies cool. Brush or drizzle a little icing on each biscotti, and wait for the icing to set. I find the icing is easier to drizzle after I warm the bowl for a few seconds.

Store the biscotti in an air-tight container for up to a week, and freeze them, individually wrapped, for up to a month.

If you liked this recipe, you might enjoy:

Chocolate chip biscotti with orange
Candied orange peel with almond
Cashew macadamia nut butter cookies

Red and chili and tomato

Tonight, I'm cooking a giant batch of red chili, my second in seven days. Excessive? Nah.

Considering that the sun now sets at 5 pm (thanks, Daylight Savings Time!) and that it rains constantly, I hardly ever make the stuff. In fact, you should be pleased with the amount of restraint I exercise in the chili department. It's not like I've entered any cook-offs lately.

Speaking of chili cook-offs, have you ever attended one? My home town has one downtown every fall. For around 5 bucks, you received a plastic spoon, a card for voting, chili from 20 or 30 booths.

Each booth had a gimmick -- chefs in red-checkered aprons, five-alarm chili, venison chili, mystery chili, green chili, all-bean chili, no-bean chili....the list went on. I remember that the cooks all competed for several prizes - to serve the hottest, the most unique, best red, best white, best green chili. And at every booth, the cooks sold their wares in the style of infomercial hosts:

"We're using the hottest chili peppers from Mexico! You can't get them any hotter!"

"Everybody knows that firemen make the best chili!"

"If you know beans about chili, you know chili ain't got no beans."

"This is the best venison chili ever. We killed the deer ourselves."

Guys mostly competed for the Hottest Chili title, as if ingesting mountains of capsicum translates directly to manliness. Lady's church groups prepared safe white and green chili, and a mixture of bikers, restaurateurs, and regional oddballs experimented with meats (buffalo or ostrich, anyone?)

Chili, to me, should rest cozily in my stomach and have enough heat to warm my belly. It should not weigh me down so much that there's no room for pie, and the heat should not scar the inside of my mouth. And the mystery meats can wait for another day.
So, here's a chili that suits me fine. I saute the onions and peppers until they're soft, add tomatoes for moisture, and stir everything into almost-cooked beans. Then, there is only the question of some seasoning and simmering before the work is done.

Kate's Red Chili

serves 8

• 1 big can (24 oz) diced organic tomatoes
• 1 small can tomato sauce
  
• 1/3 - 1/2 cup Sriracha hot sauce
  
• 4 tbsp. chili powder (I used El Guapo New Mexico chile powder)
  
• 2 tsp. ground cumin
  
• 2 cups dry beans (mix chili, pinto, navy, kidney)
• 1 medium green or red tomato
• 1 medium red pepper
  
• 1 large yellow onion
  
• 2 Tb. butter
• sea salt
• bay leaves
  
• olive oil

Soak the beans overnight in cold water, or use a quick soak method. Drain the beans. In a large pot, cover them with fresh, cold water. Bring the water to a boil, and let the beans cook for 20 - 30 minutes while you prepare the veggies.

Chop the onion finely, then transfer it to a skillet. Saute the onions in butter. When they wilt, dice the fresh tomato and pepper, and add them to the fray. Toss in a tablespoon of olive oil and stir. Let the veggies cook on medium heat until the onion is translucent.

By now, the beans should be halfway cooked -- soft on the outside with a hard interior. Add the onion/pepper/tomato mixture, plus the canned tomato and tomato sauce, to the beans. The chili should have a thin consistency; if it doesn't, add a tomato can of water.

Stir in the Sriracha, chili powder, cumin, salt, and bay leaves. Adjust your seasonings to taste, then bring the heat to a low simmer. Let the chili cook, covered, until the beans are soft and tender. This could take from 1 to 2 hours, so peek under the lid every so often and check on the chili. Add water as needed. I've found that the spices help thicken the chili, and that it's better to boil off too much water than to not have enough. :-)

When the chili is to your liking, remove the bay leaves and serve with crackers or corn bread.

If you liked this recipe, you might also enjoy:

Butternut squash soup

Cajun shrimp and rice

Easy tamale pie

Happy Halloween/All Saints Day

 

Happy Halloween, All Saints Day, and Leftover Pumpkin Innards Day (the latter is a personal holiday I observe.) Tomorrow, I bring you a recipe for Melt-Your-Face-Off Chili. Today, light up yesterday's Jack-o-Lantern, roast some pumpkin seeds, and watch the horror movies you couldn't squeeze in yesteray. 

Ah. I love fall.