Knitter in the Kitchen

When my sister was a teenager, she loved baking. I was unenthusiastic about it back then, but she usually managed to cajole me into the kitchen. By the end, I would always admit grudgingly that I had a good time. We used to bake a variety of goodies together, such as thumbprint cookies, crescent rolls, and Dutch apple pie. The pie was definitely a favorite of mine. It’s been at least five or six years since I’ve had it, so I decided to bake it last weekend.

The recipe comes from my sister’s junior high school home economics course. It is very basic but I think it tastes pretty good.

Crust:
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup plus 1 Tbsp shortening
3-4 Tbsp cold water

Measure flour and salt into a bowl.
Cut in shortening thoroughly, until the size of small peas.
Sprinkle in water, one tablespoon at a time, mixing until all flour is moistened and dough begins to stick together.
Gather dough into a ball. Shape into a flattened round on a sheet of wax paper.
Roll the dough until it is two inches larger than an inverted pie pan.
(Yield: one 8- or 9-inch crust)

Filling:
1/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 Tbsp flour
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 apples, peeled and sliced

Stir together all of the filling ingredients in a medium bowl. Pour into unbaked pie shell.

Topping:
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup margarine or butter (1/2 stick)
1/4 cup sugar

In a small bowl, mix all ingredients together until crumbly. Be sure to break the margarine or butter into very small pieces. Sprinkle over pie. Bake at 400 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

Eating this pie brings back fond memories of baking with my sister.

Recipe from Baking Illustrated.

This week Hubby and I made Basil Chicken in Coconut Curry Sauce. It was so delicious — I highly recommend this recipe. The flavors were interesting and there was a good amount of heat to the dish. Hubby handled the actual cooking of the chicken and he did it perfectly — it was cooked all the way through yet still really tender. I can’t ever strike that balance successfully, so I’ve named him the Official Chicken Cooker of our household.

This was my first time handling jalapeño peppers…Did you know that they can burn your skin? Yeah, I handled them with my bare hands and the next day I could still feel the burning sensation in my fingers. I must have gotten some of the juices on my contacts too, because when I put them in the following morning, my eyes burned for a nice twenty minutes. For anyone else who might be as clueless as I was, please consider this a public service announcement. Wear gloves when chopping jalapeño peppers.

You see the broccoli in the photo? You will totally laugh, but we actually used a recipe from the March 2007 issue of Cooking Light. Hubby loves broccoli so we cook it frequently. Our method has been to dump it in boiling water for two or three minutes. Very bland. So I suggested we try this recipe because really, we’ve got nothing to lose. The broccoli couldn’t possibly taste any worse than our boiled broccoli. It turned out really yummy and it wasn’t any harder than boiling the stuff! So this recipe is a keeper too.

Yarn: Claudia Hand Painted Yarn, Jungle, 2 skeins
Pattern: My generic 56 stitch top-down sock with short row heels
Needles: US # 1 / 32” Addi Turbos for Magic Loop
Thoughts: I don’t wear green very often. A quick peek in my closet reveals that I own only one solid green top. It’s just not a favorite color of mine. So it was a surprise even to me that I selected this colorway. I saw it several times in person before I succumbed to it; I think the beautifully saturated colors finally won me over. Plus I love Claudia Hand Painted Yarn. Unfortunately the two skeins I purchased ended up having slightly different tones (even though they came from the same dyelot). I loved the first sock. When I got to the second one, I found that I was pushing myself to finish it as soon as possible. At first I thought maybe I was sick of green, but then I realized that the second skein has much more of a yellowish tint to it. I think it shows up in my second photo — the sock on the right is the more yellow one. While the first sock was vibrantly green and fit the name of the colorway, the second sock just made me think of wilted grass. But no worries — I am still totally thrilled to add another pair of handknit socks to my collection.