Peach and Blueberry Pie

Easy Peach and Blueberry Pie

Preheat Oven to 350F

Ingredients:

1 Shortbread pie crust (premade)

1 Can of peach pie filling

1/2 cup of fresh blueberries

Mix peach pie filling and blueberries together.  Pour into prepared crust.  Bake for 15 minutes.

(You can find the pie crust in the supermarket aisle near the prepared graham cracker crusts.)

Easiest Roquefort Dressing Ever

This is easy, can be prepared well ahead and makes any salad inviting.  Add bacon crumbles for a nifty touch!

Ingredients:

2 cups of sour cream

1 pkg. of Ranch Salad Dip Dressing

1 pkg. of Roquefort Cheese

1 capful of apple cider vinegar

Mix all together.  Refrigerate.  Delish

Bread

Basic Bread Dough

My grandmother made bread dough so often that it never seemed to be a challenge to make it come out properly.  Her teaching method was simple:  stand next to me and watch.  She never wrote anything down, never consulted a recipe.  Here is what I learned about making bread dough:  never kill the yeast; use really good water and wait patiently for the dough to rise.  Yeast killed means deflated bread.  Bad water results in weird tasting dough.  Waiting for the dough to rise means you will achieve your goal of perfect bread.  I usually do a double rise, time permitting.

There are a couple of good theories on how to keep your yeast alive while making bread dough.  One is simple:  preheat your glass mixing bowl (this works beautifully if you have a Kitchenaid machine).  The other is to mix your yeast separately in a measuring cup with 1/4 cups of warm water (tap warm).  

Finally, kneading is really important to good dough.  It matters not how you mix your ingredients (as  long as you don't kill the yeast).  What does matter is kneading the dough properly.  It takes eight to ten minutes to knead the dough by hand.  This is my favorite part of making bread.

Two other tricks to perfect bread:  baking stones in your oven and 1 cup of hot water thrown in the oven before you shut the oven door.

Preheat oven to 350F

Ingredients:

1 pkg. of yeast

1/4 lukewarm water

1 cup of scalded milk, cooled

1 cup of cold water

1 tbl. of butter at room temperature

2 tsps. of salt

1 tbl. of sugar

6 cups of all-purpose flour

Add yeast to water.  Allow to set for five minutes.

Using the bowl of your Kitchenaid or a regular mixing bowl if doing by hand, pour in yeast mixture, butter and salt.  Mix well.  Mix in milk and cold water.  Add flour, gradually, until well mixed.  Add sugar and salt at end.  Mix well.  

Turn onto a surface with flour.  Knead until a good consistency is achieved.  Place in a mixing bowl rubbed with olive oil.  Pour a little olive oil over the surface of the dough and rub lightly.  Cover with a linen towel.  Allow dough to rise.  Punch down and allow a second rise.  Slip dough onto a baking stone in your oven.  Throw some hot water on the bottom of your oven and close the door.  Bake the bread dough for around 45 minutes until it is golden brown and when you tap it, it sounds hollow.

Perfect Gravy

Perfect Gravy

Making gravy is not difficult if you follow these easy steps.  My preference is to create a roux with cornstarch.  I also add heavy cream to my special gravy.  If you have chicken or turkey stock on hand, this will enrich your gravy.  Follow these easy steps.

Ingredients:

Pan drippings from turkey roaster (I do mine right in the roasting pan)

2 to 3 cups of chicken/turkey stock

Cornstarch roux (1 tbl. of cornstarch mixed with cold stock or water)

Salt & pepper

Heavy cream

After removing turkey from roasting pan, set roasting pan over large burner over low heat.  Using a wooden spoon, stir the bottom to loosen the browned bits on the bottom of the pan.  Add stock and stir slowly to incorporate everything.  Mix your roux using a fork in a measuring cup.  There should be no lumps at all.  Slowly add the cold mixture to your gravy and use your wooden spoon to blend everything together.  Add cream (eyeball it) and taste.  Should be creamy and delish

Brosseau Family Stuffing

BROSSEAU FAMILY STUFFING

As the story goes, this meat stuffing has been handed down generations in my mother's family as the go to stuffing with turkey.  It became so popular as our family grew that my mother had to triple the recipe to accommodate everyone.  It is simply five ingredients and quite easy to do.  The secret ingredient is Bell's Seasoning (you can buy it on Amazon).  

Ingredients:

3 lbs. of ground meat (1/2 beef and 1/2 pork)

2 Large onions, diced

2 bunches of celery with leaves

6 to 8 Yukon gold potatoes, cooked and cubed

Salt and Pepper

Bell's Seasoning

In a really large dutch oven, put butter and olive oil, and diced veggies.  Saute until translucent.  Salt and pepper, remove from pot but retain juices at bottom.  Brown ground meat slowly (salt and pepper added) and prepare potatoes at same time (to cut prep time in half, buy prepared potatoes).  Remove pan from heat when meat is browned.  Allow everything to cool at room temperature.  Mix veggies, meat and potatoes.  When the entire stuffing mixture is cool to cold, add the Bell's, sprinkling carefully and tasting as you sprinkle.  (The seasonings will intensify when you warm the stuffing back up.)  You want the mixture to taste mildly seasoned.  Add salt and pepper if necessary.  Place in a buttered Corningware dish.  Bake at 300F for about 30 minutes.  Serve hot.  

Easy Aspic

Easy Aspic

This is epic.  Three ingredients.

1/2 can of Beef Consomme

2 cold cups of Raspberry Jello

1 nip of Chambord

Blend in blender.  

Allow to chill a little before covering something.  Garnish with fresh raspberries.

Pâté

Pâté

Pâté is truly easy to make if you can find processed brunschweiger liver.  You can combine flavors, both savory and sweet, and incorporate whatever you like.  The only tools you need are a fork and mini food processor.  Be creative in mixing ingredients you and your family and friends enjoy.  Call it a house dip because many folks reject liver without a good reason.

Ingredients:

8 ounces of Oscar Mayer Brunschweiger Liver Sausage

8 ounces of whipped cream cheese

1 tbl. Of salted butter

10 garlic cloves

3 shallots

1 Nip of Chambord or fruit flavored alcohol

Add other ingredients to taste such as bacon; berries; mangoes, etc.

Mix all ingredients together and blend well.  Add the chopped other ingredients to taste.

If you feel ambitious, put the pâté in a mold sprayed with Pam before refrigeration.  After four hours, unmold onto a plate covered with plastic wrap.  Put back in fridge for an hour.  Cover with your favorite aspic recipe or fruit aspic.  Decorate with fresh berries after refrigerating overnight.