A St. Patrick's Day Sandwich

A "green" sandwich for St. Patrick's Day.

I know it's not quite St. Patrick's Day, but I've been baking "green" desserts with a St. Patrick's Day theme and for supper I decided to make a "green" sandwich for Dan and me. 

I spread pesto on each side of the bread, followed by slices of yogurt cheese. 

Spread pesto on each slice of bread.

Add yogurt cheese to each slice of bread.

I added fresh spinach to each side of the bread.

Add spinach.

On one side I put slices of a ripe avocado.

Add sliced avocado to one side of bread.

Then I put the two slices together to make the sandwiches.  

Put the two slices together to make the sandwich.

I grilled the sandwiches in butter.

Grill in butter.

Ready to eat.  Delish!

This is a new twist on grilled cheese sandwiches that will be good not just on St. Patrick's Day but any day of the year. 

It's Pi Day

Plantation Pecan Pie.

March 14 is Pi Day (3.14) and in honor of the Day and to honor the dessert that recently won the Our State magazine contest as the best dessert in North Carolina, I made a Pecan Pie.  Dan and I are certainly going to enjoy Pi Day.  (We'll be sharing with family too.)


I used my favorite pecan pie recipe from the Southern Living, Southern Hospitality Cookbook. 

Plantation Pecan Pie

1/4 cup butter (not margarine)

1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

1 cup light corn syrup

1 tablespoon of cream or milk

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 large eggs at room temperature

2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups broken pecans

1 9 inch unbaked pie shell

Directions:

Cream butter, add sugar gradually, then add syrup and cream or milk.  In another bowl add salt to eggs and beat until light.  Stir well into first mixture; add vanilla and pecans. 

Cream butter and brown sugar.

Add syrup.

Add eggs.

 

Add pecans and vanilla extract.

Pour mixture into a 9-inch unbaked pie shell. 

In unbaked pie shell and ready for the oven.

Bake pie in a preheated 400F oven for 10 minutes.  Lower heat to 350F and bake for 35 to 40 minutes longer or until a silver knife inserted in filling comes out clean. 
Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Pie is out of oven.

Ready to enjoy. Yummy.

Why don't you try this recipe so you too can enjoy Pi Day? 

Pie versus Cake--- State Champion: Pecan Pie!

Photo from Our State Magazine web page. 

Our State magazine recently had a contest to decide if North Carolina is a pie state or a cake state with voting to determine the results.  The February issue of Our State has a lot of information about and some great recipes for pies and cakes of North Carolina.

From Our State Magazine website.

 By February 14th the contest was down to the Elite Eight:  Four pies and four cakes.

Only eight desserts remained in Our State’s Pie versus Cake competition.

In the second round, top-seeded pecan pie continued its domination by easily routing peach pie, 70.4% to 29.6%. It now faced lemon meringue pie, which defeated sweet potato pie in a surprising upset.  And chocolate chess pie faced apple pie.

On the cake side, chocolate layer cake narrowly beat carrot cake, garnering 51.2% of votes to carrot’s 48.8%. Chocolate layer cake faced red velvet cake. And pound cake faced pineapple upside down cake.

I chose pecan over lemon meringue, but that was a close call for me.  It was easy for me to choose chocolate chess pie over apple pie.  In the cake category I voted for chocolate layer cake and pound cake. 

Now it's down to the final four: two pies and two cakes. It was Pecan Pie vs. Apple Pie and Pound Cake vs. Chocolate Layer Cake.  I voted for Pecan Pie and Pound Cake.

Pecan Pie.

Pound Cake.

In the final round it was Pecan Pie vs. Pound Cake.  Oh it was hard to choose between these two. Both are mighty good, but I voted for Pecan Pie. 

A person could vote each day for their favorite in each bracket (reminds me of the NCAA basketball brackets).  I voted on many days, and I was pulling for pecan pie to be the winner.

State Champion: Pecan Pie!

Pecan Pie, The Winner!!!!

And indeed the Pecan Pie did win.  I am making one this weekend in honor of its being the favorite pie in North Carolina.

There's Very Little " Wiggle-Room" in Baking

Meyer Lemon Tart sprinkled with chocolate.

I know how important it is to use the size of pan called for in a recipe when baking.  Yet I had heard a reference to a recipe for a Meyer Lemon Tart on Here and Now on NPR.  I had gone home and "googled" the recipe because I had some Meyer Lemons on hand that I wanted to use.  The recipe called for a 9-inch tart pan.  I only had a 10-inch so I thought I could adjust the cooking time a bit and it might work. *

Meyer Lemon Tart

Ingredients:
Crust:
1/2 cup room temperature butter, cut into small pieces, plus butter for greasing the pan
1 cup all-purpose flour, plus flour for dusting the pan
1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
Filling:
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon Meyer or regular lemon juice (from 2-3 lemons)
Instructions:
Make the crust: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and lightly flour a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom.
In a large bowl whisk the flour and sugar. Add the butter and using your fingers or a pastry cutter blend the butter into the flour and sugar mixture until crumbly. Press the
mixture into the bottom and sides of the tart pan.

Dough pressed into pan and ready to bake.

Bake on the middle shelf for around 20 minutes, or until the crust begins to turn golden.

Tart shell baked and ready to fill.

Remove from the oven and place on a cookie or baking sheet.
Make the filling: Whisk the sugar and flour together in a large bowl. Add the eggs and lemon juice and whisk until smooth.

Making the filling.

 Pour over the hot crust and place the tart back on the middle shelf.

Filling poured over the crust and ready to go back into the oven.

 Bake for about 22-25 minutes, or until the center seems set when you lightly jiggle the tart. Remove and let cool on a wire rack.

Baked and chocolate dusted on top.

  To remove the rim, place on cylinder of some kind (I used one of my canisters) and the rim falls out of the way.

Serves 6 to 8. 

I had to spread the crust a little thinner because of the 10-inch pan and the filling was not as thick.  Although I adjusted the cooking time to 20 minutes, the filling was a bit overcooked and, of course a bit thin.

It was certainly edible, and Dan thought there was nothing wrong with it, but I knew it could have been better had I used the right size pan.  

*I'm going out this week and buy a 9-inch tart pan, because most of the recipes for tarts call for an 8 or 9-inch pan, and I do want to try this recipe again using the right size pan. 

Turkey-Bacon Bean Soup

Turkey-bacon Bean Soup.

Yesterday was certainly a good day for soup.  It was rainy, windy and very cold.  So I made this Bean Soup using a recipe from Cooking at Home with Dan Eaton.


                                                           Turkey-Bacon Bean Soup
SERVES: 6-8
INGREDIENTS:
• 6 slices turkey bacon, diced
• 1 Tbs vegetable oil for crisping bacon
• 1 cup peeled, diced carrot
• 1 cup diced onion
• 1/2 cup diced celery
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 2 Tbs vegetable oil for cooking vegetables
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 3 drained 15-ounce cans white beans (such as navy or great Northern)
• 1/3 cup chopped green onion or rough parsley (optional)
• black pepper to taste (and salt if needed)

PROCEDURE:
1. Cut all the vegetables you need before heading to the stove and then add a splash of vegetable oil to a heavy bottomed soup pot and crisp up 6 diced slices of turkey bacon.
2. Take the crispy bacon out of the pan, add another splash of vegetable oil to the pot and add about 1 cup diced, peeled carrot, about 1 cup diced onion, 1/2 cup diced celery, 2 minced cloves of garlic and add a sprinkling of dried thyme.

Diced carrots, onions and celery.

Diced turkey bacon.

3. While you're keeping your eye on the vegetables and stirring them around occasionally, take a minute to drain three 15-ounce cans of navy beans.

Navy Beans.

Drain three cans of white beans.

4. Once the onions are translucent, add 4 cups chicken broth and add the drained white beans, stir those in, and bring it up to a simmer.

Add chicken stock.

5. Then adjust the heat on that so it's gently simmering along for 10 - 15 minutes.
6. At that point you could use a potato masher to gently mash the beans up a little bit, or use a hand blender to give it a somewhat smooth, somewhat chunky consistency.

Fold in bacon.

7. Then fold in the crispy bacon and an optional handful of chopped green onion and season it to taste with a little salt if it needs it and a good crack of black pepper and it's good to go.

Fold in green onions.

Ready to eat.

This was most welcome on a cold day like yesterday.