BB's "Yum-ptious" Apple Pie

The theme for last week's baking challenge was 'Kids', so I asked BB what she would like to make with me. Of course, the girl who used to sing a song about pie wanted to make apple pie. So, we did!

I peeled and cut the apples. She pretty much did the rest.

We didn't get to make it until today, because of all the work finishing up the smoker last week, plus all the chaos of my birthday party on Saturday, plus other parties BB and KB went to this weekend, PLUS the fact that BB's playing softball. She called yesterday upset that we hadn't made the pie yet, so that's what we did right after school today.

She did TRY to peel the apples, but didn't like the peeler.

She added the sugar and flour...

Stirred it all together...

Filled and pinched the crust...

And mixed and brushed on the egg wash all by herself.

The filling itself was made of about 5 large granny smith apples (7 or 8 cups, peeled and chopped) tossed in lemon juice, about a cup of sugars (I used about 1/3 brown and 2/3 white), a small bit of flour, plus some cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger that I just eyeballed, but was a little heavy handed with.

I cut the smiley face vents, she made the nose.

I haven't had a full slice yet, just tasted a bit of the filling, but it is, indeed, yum-ptious. Even more importantly, she had a blast making it!

After cooking. So cute!

Bacon Roses!

Pretty!

KB's wanted to make bacon roses with me ever since I came across the instructable last year. For Valentine's day, I decided to oblige her, and to complete the Valentine's day themed cooking and bacon challenges. There really isn't much need for a long and detailed explanation of what was done, since there's already an excellent guide out there, so I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Who needs a drill and real pans? Disposable works well. So does a phillips-head screwdriver.

13 strips of bacon to a pack... 12 cups. Challenge accepted.

Baking complete. A little cooling, and then they're ready to stem.

KB is in her tweenie years, which means she is physically incapable of expressing excitement. Ah well.

Overall, a fun project, and one I'll likely do again. I mean, it's BACON, and it isn't overcooked and crunchy and gross. Soft, perfect, pretty bacon is the way to go.

Total prep/cook time: 1 hour, including all the time it took to prep the silk flower stems.
Happiness rating: 12/10. Om nom nom.

52 weeks of baking, Week 2: Mini deep dish pizzas

Just as with the first week of the 52 week cooking challenge, the first week of the 52 week baking challenge was a little 'meh'. The theme was brownies - simple enough, but I made butterscotch brownies, which is one of my dad's favorites that I used to make way back in high school. The recipe came from page 271 of the Betty Crocker cookbook, published in 1978, and although they were insanely delicious, I was pretty busy that day and trying to pack up my kitchen when I made them, resulting in me taking the self-rising flour shortcut plus being about two minutes late to get them out of the oven, so they rose... and fell.

Not only do I suck at photography, but I suck at making butterscotch brownies that don't fall, too!

The second week's theme was miniature, which isn't necessarily difficult to come up with in terms of baking, but it was definitely an issue for me to come up with something creative. I mean, mini-cupcakes are kind of boring. On Thursday, it finally came to me - pizza is baked, too! So, I decided to make mini deep dish pizzas, with the intent of testing out a pizza dough recipe for future use in my dad's pizza oven/smoker/firepit.

By the time 11:30 rolled around and I was ready to start lunch, my mom was also busy in the kitchen, so the idea of a new dough recipe went out the window. However, I always keep Jiffy pizza dough mix on hand - it's very inexpensive, it works very well for deep dish pizzas and breadsticks, and it's super quick. So, I mixed up a couple of batches of dough and pressed them into muffin tins. I pre-baked them for a few minutes, which is important, because this mix rises in the oven, not during a proofing cycle. After 3-4 minutes at 425, I took it out and pressed it back into the muffin tins, then added layers of sauce, pepperoni, and slices of the mozzarella-stuffed meatballs that BB and I made last week. 

More evidence that I'm terrible at the photography thing.

More shredded mozzarella went on top, and it all went back in the oven for about 10 minutes. It came out looking divine, and tasting delicious. Even the Chloe-pup thought so, when I dropped one on the floor and she got to nom away. The biggest complaint came from my dad, who prefers his crust a bit more brown, but I prefer it a little lighter and more bready, so that's not too big of a deal.

Caution: Food in photo is much more tasty than it may appear.

Total prep/cook time: 25 minutes per batch of 8

Family happiness rating: 9/10. Could be a little less saucy and messy, but otherwise these might become a go-to after school snack.

52 weeks of cooking, Week 2: Chinese food

I could post on week 1 of the challenge, but that was a very uninspiring challenge for me - eggs. I HATE eggs. The smell of a cooking or hard boiled egg makes me want to gag. There's nothing appetizing at all about how they look. I won't eat them, unless they're baked into something. So, for the last day of the holiday break, I cooked breakfast for my nieces to get this challenge out of the way, making french toast. I also made a fried egg sandwich for my dad. I suppose the pain is over, at least.

See? Even if I had any photography skills, that would not be appetizing at ALL.

At any rate, Week 2 went much, much better. The theme was Chinese food, and although I'm not particularly good at asian cuisine, I decided to go for it. The full meal was comprised of potstickers, mongolian beef, and chicken and vegetable lo mein.

The potstickers were a lot of fun. KB was home sick from school, so BB stayed home too. BB had been asking to cook again, so I decided that this would be the perfect project. I went to the asian market and picked up some dumpling wrappers and other assorted ingredients, then stopped at Publix for ground pork. I mixed ground pork with minced garlic, minced ginger, green onions, some soy sauce and sesame oil, and some shredded bok choi, and put it in the food processor just to get the veggies into smaller bits and well-integrated.

I'm soooo glad I'd bought that dumpling/ravioli/mini-pie press a couple of years ago! This was our first chance to use it and BB took to it like a pro. By the time she'd made about 3 dozen, she was calling herself the 'dumpling magician'. I cooked them simply by steaming them over high heat, and tried this 'dumpling sauce' I'd found at the asian market instead of making my own, as I normally do. It was roughly the same as what I would make at home, so that's nice for when we decide to raid the other two dozen that are stashed in the freezer!

My 'dumpling magician' definitely put some magic into these yummy things.

I also made some Mongolian Beef, based off of this recipe, but with the addition of broccoli and bok choi. Overall, it turned out excellent, but I think I would slightly increase the sugar-to-soy ratio next time. I've already been asked when I'm going to make it again!

Finally, there was the lo mein. I used this recipe that I'd seen someone else post on with good results as a starting point, but changed it up a bit. First of all, I replaced the linguine with some wider noodles marketed as 'Chinese wide lo mein' noodles, but the linguine probably would've done just as well. Second, I reduced the amount of chicken to 3 thin-sliced breast pieces and added a lot of vegetables. Peas and broccoli from the garden were at the ready in the freezer, and I also added in some slices of carrot as well as more bok choi. Instead of shiitake mushrooms I used beech mushrooms, which were adorable and very tasty. I also completely ignored the cooking procedures - cooking chicken, then putting it in a bowl, then cooking the veggies, then cooking the sauce and noodles and adding it all together was a ridiculous idea.

Overall, the meal was a huge success. In retrospect, I wish I'd been more thorough in reading the comments about the lo mein recipe and picked up some oyster sauce, which appears to be the missing 'secret ingredient'. I will agree that it didn't have exactly the same flavor as what you get in a restaurant, and although it was very good, it was just different enough for BB to notice.

You can't fake that kind of excitement.

Total prep/cook time: 2.5 hours, including dumpling assembly.
Family happiness rating: 8/10, they asked where the fortune cookies were!

See the full album here.