Recipes
This is just a virtual list of Recipes I use and have collected. Navigation has apperead on the right before this gets out of hand.
Pie Crust
Adapted from a recipie from Elizabeth Fullerton posted on Genius Kitchen and available at this external link.
Ingredients
| 2 cups | flour (pretty much any) |
| 1 teaspoon | salt (standard or small granuiles) |
| 2⁄3 cup | butter, salted. |
| 5 to 8 tablespoons | cold water |
| Some | cornstarch (to dust) |
Firstly sift your flour into your mixing bowl along with your salt. Yes, we are using salt along with salted butter. Cut the butter in, I use a knife and fork because I am not upperclass enough to own or have the time to clean a pastry blender. Gradually add water teaspoon by teaspoon until a dough is formed. Do not overhandle! Roll out until you're satified with the thickness. I do mine on cornstarched wax paper o about a quarter inch. You may also wish to put starch on your rolling pin. If you don't have a rolling pin, like me, use a round drinking glass.
At this point you may need to adapt thing to your pie filling. I usually grease my pin tin with butter, then dock the crust. I bake the crust for 20-30 minutes blind at 375°F. I do not need to weigh it down or blind bake it upside down. It does not finish in that time. Then I add a mostly pre-cooked filling for another 20-30 minutes. Your results and recipie may vary.
Frozen Fruit Pie Filling
This comes from my head.
Ingredients
| A good bit of | sliced frozen fruit |
| Quite a bit of | sugar (to taste) |
| Some optional | cornstarch (for thickening). |
Place frozen fruit on one layer of an oven-safe dish, pan or cake pan. Allow extra ice to enter pan. Coat top with sugar. Place the pan in the oven. Set the oven to 375°F and allow to preheat with the fruit and sugar already in the oven. Check once pre-heated. Taste for sweetness. Add more sugar if you need to. Liquid may be thin. More sugar may be added to help it thicken, however additional thickening will occour while cooling. Once the fruit is soft or forktender remove. More sugar may be added while warm. Allow to rest in the open air for at least 15 minutes before moving to frige to cool and thicken. Allow to sit in the fridge at least four hours. Freezer is not reccomended. Taste for sweetness before using. You may artifically thicken the sauce by seperating the fruit and cooking it in a pan on medium heat while adding corntarch.
As the filling is already cooked it may be added to a baked crust and warmed. I like to cook it for an additional 20-30 minutes (with the rest of my pie crust) on 375°F.
Basically Grown-Up Chicken Fingers
Adapted from Bonless Fried Chicken on RePlay Report.
Ingredients
| 5 | Chicken breasts, halved (10 halves from four breasts) |
| 3-4 | Eggs (I used jumbo and had just barely enough, your milage may vary.) |
| 2 cups | all-purpuse flour, semi-packed |
| 2 1⁄2 TBSP | Baking powder (not a typo! I really used this much!) |
| 1⁄3 TBSP | Salt |
| 1 TBSP | Pepper (or to taste) |
| 1 TBSP | Garlic Powder (or to taste) |
| Quite a bit of | Oil (Vegetable) |
Be advised the above seasoning makes for pretty bland chicken, however you may want this if you are serving with a gravy or sauce. Natch, you may change the seasonings to whatever you want or have. Also always be stafe when using oil and don't leave things in the pan to update your website while cooking with it.
First trim and half your chicken breasts (or buy cutlets to start with). Then in a pan with tall edges add enough oil so that it will cover at least 1⁄3, but ideally 3⁄4 of your chicken. Do not put this on the heat yet. Next in a bowl beat your eggs until the yolk and white is combined. Let rest. Heat oil (already in pan) on medium.
In a medium sized mixing bowl (or cake pan because it has edges and it's what I have handy) put two cups flour not spooned into the dish. Add baking powder and seasonings. Give a good mix.
Take your prepared chicken and frist dredge in flour, then egg then back to flour. You fingers will get messy. You can try a spoon and wax paper but your hands will get dirty. There's no advoiding it. You should have some extra flour mixture, keep it handy as you may need it.
As soon as the oil spits back you may fry in it. Simply place the chicken in and let it cook. Depending on your thickness your time may vary, however 10 minutes on the first side then 5 minutes on the second seemed to work well for me. Drain and cool chicken on newspaper, paper towel or (as I did) paper towel on sections of an Amazon delivery box.
If you find your chicken absorbs the flour while waiting to cook you may add additional flour just before frying.
Plagerized Pancakes
This is 100% the Good Old-Fashioned Pancakes recipe on AllRecipies, just with the measurements cut kinda-sorta in half with a slightly altered method.
Ingredients
| 3⁄4 Cup | Flour (all-purpose) |
| 5⁄8 OR 1⁄2 + 1⁄8 Cup | Milk |
| 2 Teaspoon | Baking Powder |
| 1⁄2 Teaspoon | Salt (free-range) |
| 1⁄2 Tablespoon | Granulated White Sugar (farm-raised) |
| 1 | Egg (Large or Jumbo) |
| 1 1⁄2 Tablespoon | Butter |
| Some | Oil (vegetable) for frying |
| Some | Chocholate chips or fruit (for funsies) |
Melt the butter. In a large bowl, add all the dry stuff. Make a well and add the wet stuff. Wangjangle until the jangle is sufficently wanged and the batter has the consistancy of pancake batter. Then, in a large pan or on a griddle add some oil and put about a tablespoon to batter for each pancake. If you are adding chocolatre chips or fruit, add it on top of the pool of batter after it is in the pan.
"Actually Really Good" Drop Biscuts
This one is actually my own after trying about four different recipies.
Ingredients
| 2 Cups | Flour (all-purpose) |
| 1 Teaspoon | Free-Range Salt |
| 1 Tablespoon | Grass-Fed Baking Powder |
| 6 1⁄2 Tablespoons | Butter |
| 1+ Cup | Milk |
| 1 Heaping Cup | Shreadded Cheese |
| Some | Pepper |
| Some | Garlic Powder |
This makes like... 16 biscuts so it might seem like a lot of stuff but that only works out to like one tenth of a teaspoon of salt per biscut.
Anyway, put the onion on 450°F. Mix dry stuff. Make sure to spoon the flour, like you're always supposed to do but most people don't bother to. Cut in butter until only small crumbly chunks remain. Add Pepper and Garlic Powder to taste. I used about two tablespoons of just black pepper and it tasted nice too so your milage may vary. Onion powder probably also works. Add milk slowly. Do not overwork dough. You may need an extra splash of milk if you are using factory shreadded cheese.* Seperate dough into globs about two tablespoons big, or between the size of a ping-pong ball and a golf ball. Do not roll the dough into balls!!! do not handle the dough more than absoloutely necessary! Bake for 15 minutes or until brown. The tips may get a bit dark, but they will still be good.
For an added twist add pepperoni or another pre-cooked meat in.
*This is because the coat it in flour to stop it sticking
Finally! Hot Chocolate
I have spent the past two winters working on making hot chocolate (well, cocoa). I have finally found out where you should be lazy and where you should not. For this drink you will need....
| 1⁄4 cup | Cocoa powder |
| 1⁄2 cup | Sugar |
| 1⁄3 cup | Water (not cold) |
| 2 cups | Milk |
| Few grains | Salt |
| Some | Mint extract |
| Some⁄2 | Vanilla extract |
I want to talk about the ingredients a little before the method. Firstly, cocoa powder is cheaper and easier to work with. I think it gives more the slightly bitter edge I want. I prefer it for many chocolatey kitchen applications to baker's chocolate. Secondly, I use mint extract which is a spearmint and peppermint extract and then I use half that in vanilla extract. Of course you could use only one or the other. You could also use just peppermint or another extract altogether. These are to taste. Additionally, I call for a few grains of salt. This would be a pinch, only I don't pinch my pinches in this so it feels fraudulent to call it that.
Additionally, this can come up quite quickly so I do think you want to measure things out beforehand. Now, on to the actual method.
First, put the water in a pan and heat it. You do not need to even simmer the water, but you do want it hot to make the next part easier. Once hot, whick in the cocoa powder to make a sort of paste. If your powder is a little coarse or lumpy you can use a seive to remove larger clumps, however I find a vigorous whisking often works just fine. Important! Refrain from eating the chocolate water paste! It is not as good as it looks as we have not added the sugar yet. Speaking of, Whisk in the sugar and salt. It may seem like you have far too much dry and not enough wet. We will be adding a whole lot of wet near the end, so just carry on my wayward son-- there will be a drink when we are done. Once the sugar and salte are evenly distributed throughout the paste do not eat the paste! Add extracts as and if desired. Then, remove from the heat and vigorously whisk in the milk until forthy. Serve immediately with any accoutrements/