Popovers

I've really come to love popovers lately. They are relatively fast, super easy, and lend a bready, eggy, goodness to a meal without the effort required for homemade rolls. They are kind of magical, the way they change from a runny batter to a puffy but substantive morsel. To me, they're guiltless, too: in my book they are fairly low-calorie (~70 kcal per popover).

It recently came to my knowledge that popovers are basically the same as Yorkshire puddings. I have British ancestry, but I guess my view of pudding has been 100% American (as in, banana pudding, chocolate pudding, tapioca pudding, butterscotch pudding) up until a few months ago. Anyway, these cute little "puddings" do indeed go marvelously with a beef roast... and basically any other meal! I like them alongside my fauxtisserie chicken (we even substituted chicken and popovers for turkey and rolls last Thanksgiving).

Popovers
(yields 12)

3 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup flour
shortening to grease muffin tin

1. Lightly grease muffin tin wells.
2. Mix all ingredients together with a whisk or fork. 
3. Fill each well of the muffin tin 1/3 to 1/2 full. 
4. Place in cold oven. Turn to 450°F. 
5. Bake 16-18 minutes, or until popovers "pop over" well edges and turn a golden brown.
6. Remove from pan with a fork and serve hot. Can be refrigerated and reheated in the microwave (as if you'll have leftovers!).

Chicken Pot Pie

I like a good chicken pot pie, but Mr. B. isn't keen on actual pie dough for most things. Thanks to Betty Crocker, we found an easy compromise that is pretty tasty! It's not exactly Marie Callendar's (which I quite like) and it's definitely not like a made-from-scratch version, but it comes together quickly and has ingredients you can't really go wrong with!

Easy Chicken Pot Pie 
2 cups frozen mixed vegetables
1 cup cooked chicken, diced
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) cream of chicken soup
1 cup Bisquick mix (which is not something I buy; see below for the substitute recipe)*
1/2 cup milk
1 egg

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Mix vegetables, chicken and soup in baking dish of your choice (I usually use a 9*9 Pyrex).
2. Combine Bisquick, milk, and egg; spread evenly over the top of vegetables/chicken/soup mixture in baking dish.
3. Bake until crust is golden brown (approx. 30 minutes)

*Substitute for Bisquick mix
1 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp  salt
1 Tbsp shortening

1. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt.
2. Cut shortening into dry mixture. Then use in place of Bisquick mix as above.

Strawberry Shortcake

'Tis the season for strawberries, and one of our favorite ways to eat them is with shortcake. We recently tried out this recipe (click for original). It had a very light sweetness and was not as spongy as what we're used to, but it was worth making.

Strawberry Shortcake
2 c flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3 Tbsp sugar
1/3 c shortening
1 c milk

1. Preheat oven to 450°F.
2. Mix dry ingredients thoroughly.
3. Add shortening, and cut in using pastry blender, forks, or knives until crumbly
4. Add milk and mix until combined.
5. Bake for about 25 minutes in greased pan (we used our bundt pan), or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Biscuits from scratch

 We received some sausage gravy mixes for Christmas last year, and decided to try them out. What better way than with biscuits? This is a recipe I found online recently here that turned out pretty well for us.

Biscuits
2 c flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp shortening (or just 4 Tbsp of one or the other)
1 c buttermilk, chilled (or 1 c milk with 1 Tbsp lemon juice)

1. Preheat oven to 450°F.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. Add cool butter and shortening. Mix in with a fork or with your fingers (taking care not to melt the fats) until it reaches a consistency like peas or looks like crumbs.
4. Add buttermilk. Mix. It will be VERY sticky.
5. Pour out onto a well-floured surface and cover dough with flour. Knead around, folding dough in on itself a few times. 
6. Spread out until about 1" thick. Cut circles from dough. I used a 3" cup to do so.
7. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes. Biscuits will turn a golden brown color and should rise a bit.

Marble squares

Hungry for chocolate chip cookies, but short on time?

Need a yummy dessert for a pot luck?

Marble squares are a delicious solution to both of these predicaments. They are essentially chocolate chip cookie bars, which means they are cooked in one pan and you don't have to spend an hour or more baking 12 cookies at a time!

Marble Squares

1. Preheat your oven to 375°F, or the appropriate temperature for your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe.
2. Make the batter for your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, using about 1/3 to 1/2 less chocolate chips than it calls for. One of our favorite recipes can be found here, with the ingredients listed below:
   

   1C shortening
   3/4 C sugar
   3/4 C brown sugar
   1 T vanilla (liberally)
   1 t salt
   1 t baking soda
   2 eggs
   2 C flour (may take up to 1/4 C more)
   12 oz. Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate chips

3. Spread your cookie dough into a 9"*13" baking dish.
4. Sprinkle some chocolate chips on top.
5. Set into your preheated oven for about 5 minutes, or until chocolate chips are melted. Remove baking dish from oven. Using a knife, "cut" into the dough length- and width-wise in straight lines, pulling the chocolate as you go. This is to create the "marbled" look. See photo below.
6. Continue baking for about 15-20 minutes, until done.
7. Cut into squares and serve (goes great with ice cream!)

It will be sticky, but try to spread the cookie dough evenly into your baking dish.

The dough may shift in the direction you "cut" it, but it will slide down the edges of the pan as it finishes cooking.

Notice the lines running horizontally in this photo. Cut vertically also.

The final product!

Quiche Lorraine

A slightly modified submission to the blog by Thomas' mom, this came from his dad's (her husband's) mother. A few quotes and tips that came with the submission:

• "It is the best American recipe I have ever had, and is a good as many- (better than the poor quality) french ones."
• Use a deep dish pie pan. You can use a regular pie plate, but you will have too much liquid.
• It will actually taste even better one day after. (Maybe you should double it for leftovers.)
• "Bon appetit!"

Quiche Lorraine

Pie Shell
1.5 C flour
1/2 t salt
1/2 C shortening
4-5 T cold water

1. Mix flour and salt.
2. Cut in shortening.
3. Mix water in slowly until all is moistened.
4. Form into a ball, and roll to about 1/8" thick.
5. Transfer the shell to a greased pie pan and crimp the edges.

Innards
1/2 lb bacon
1 onion
1/4 lb mushrooms
1 lb guyère (or 1/2 lb swiss and 1/2 lb monterey jack)
4 eggs
1 C sour cream
1 C milk
salt and pepper

(**UPDATE 3/13/2011: we used slightly less cheese and only 1/2 c milk today and our quiche was much less liquidy**)

1. Preheat the oven at 375°.
2. Fry the bacon.
3. Chop the onion and sauté it in the bacon grease.
4. Slice the mushrooms and sauté them with the onion.
5. Mix the bacon back in and sprinkle into the pie shell.
6. Add cheese over the bacon.
7. Mix the eggs, milk, and sour cream together and pour into the pie shell.
8. Add salt and pepper. The pepper dots add to the look, so put lots in.
9. Bake until it passes the toothpick test. Let sit to set 15-30 minutes.
10. Cut, serve, and eat.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

A normal title for a "normal" recipe. Actually, this comes from my (Thomas') mother's arsenal and is the best chocolate chip cookie recipe that I know of. We often would double or quadruple it, as a single batch only makes about 40 (forty). And yes, I can end a sentence in a preposition and be grammatically correct. And yes, I can start a sentence with "and"... :D

On to the recipe.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
1C shortening
3/4 C sugar
3/4 C brown sugar
1 T vanilla (liberally)
1 t salt
1 t baking soda
2 eggs
2 C flour (may take up to 1/4 C more)
12 oz. Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven
2. Mix all the ingredients excepting the flour
3. Add flour (more if it is extremely sticky)
4. Roll into 1.5 inch balls
5. Put into preheated oven. Bake at 375° for 4-5 minutes or until they look like slightly doughy cookies (but have flattened out into the shape of cookies)
6. Take out (and don't let the bottoms get more than light brown)
7. Let cool a bit
8. Test (i.e. taste), varying cook time accordingly

(Mmmmm...Crisco!)

(Eggs, sugar, baking soda, salt, vanilla...)

(Cookie dough sans chocolat)

(After the addition of Ingredient X)

(Dough ready to be incinerated)

(Some of the final product)

And, as a bonus, Lisa has assembled ice cream sandwiches. Try them out!