Applesauce Biscuits from Baking by Martha Day

This week I made some applesauce biscuits because I love applesauce.  I did not get confused by the measurements this time, but I thought the dough looked a little bit runny when I was dalloping it on the cookie sheet.  Lo and behold, they spread out flat while cooking.  I know it was not because of my oven, I got that fixed.  One thing I can think of is that the applesauce may have been too runny, but it wasn't that bad and I don't think it could have ruined the biscuits so badly.  What I think did it is that the book was written for sea level but I live at about 4,000 feet.  That may not sound like much, but it is a lot when baking.  I'll probably have to modify any recipes I do from that book in the future, especially the cookies and biscuits.

Pumpkin Pie

If you follow me on Twitter, you may have heard that I was thinking about making an apple pie today.  Unfortunately, I did not have all of the ingredients for apple pie, mainly apples, and I had no intention of going to the grocery store hours before the Super Bowl.  The lines would be huge!  It just so happens that I keep pumpkin and pie crusts in my kitchen just in case.

I don't happen to keep condensed milk, however, so it ended up being more like pumpkin jelly or sludge.  It tastes fine, though!

Yummy!  

(That was sarcasm, by the way.)  

One tip I offer is, if you put a cookie sheet under them to catch drippings, you should either place the cookie sheet on the rack underneath the one the pies are on, or you preheat the cookie sheet in the oven before you put the pies on it.  

I just realized I did two pumpkin things in a row.  

Pumpkin Pasties!

Last week I mentioned that I would be cooking a tasty treat from the Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook by Dinah Bucholz.  Pumpkin pasties are kind of like those fruit pies you buy at the gas station, but these are probably healthier and they taste a lot better.  Plus, they're MAGICAL!!!  Woo!

For pumpkin pasties you make a dough, like for a pie crust.  You have to refrigerate it for a couple of hours after making it so that it won't separate when you roll it out.

While the dough is cooling you should make the pumpkin filling with a big ol' can of pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling) and put some spices in it (though I think, if you really wanted to, you could just use the pie filling).  When you roll the dough out, you cut out a bunch of circles, about 6 inches.  Put some of the filling on the circle, leaving an inch or so all around.

Fold the dough in half and smush the edges together with a fork.  Make a couple cuts in the top so it can vent.    Line them up on a cookie sheet and bake them until the edges are a little golden brown.

You can even put a little whipped cream on top, but I don't think that's entirely necessary.

Goat Cheese and Broccoli Pizza From Baking by Martha Day

My kitchen is packed with sweets; leftovers of the peach cobbler, Boyfriend made an Italian upside-down apple cake when one of his friends came to dinner, and of course all the Christmas candy you can imagine.  I was craving something a little more savory while I was perusing my recipes, so I chose this pizza for a little change of pace.  It may sound weird but it was delicious, as well as very rich.

Kneading some dough...  

Rolling out the crust

Next time I would add more broccoli to help balance out the richness of the goat cheese.  When you're piling on all the fixins it looks like it will be too tall to be a reasonable pizza, but it settles down in volume while baking, so adding broccoli would be just fine.

Before baking

Tomato sauce, steamed broccoli florets, cherry tomatoes, black olives, goat cheese, parmesan, and mozzarella for good measure.  

Coming up next week....
I found a lovely book at Barnes & Noble today which I will be cooking from next week.  I wet my pants a little when I saw it.  I can't wait to look through it some more and pick a recipe out for the next week!

Picture found here

Mmmmm......Lasagna *Updated*

Lasagna has definitely been my favorite food ever since I was born.  I made one this week for a friend of Boyfriend's that came over for dinner from a family recipe that I'm not at liberty to reveal.  It was a beautiful lasagna, as usual, but instead of showing you a lasagna I can't tell you about, I thought I would give my perspective on the creation of one.

If you are not opposed to pork, I recommend mixing ground sausage in with your ground beef, it adds a certain yummy flavor.  I don't know how to describe it because I'm not a real cook, sorry!  Just more flavors than MEAT flavor. 

Mixing a little bit of spinach in with ricotta makes it healthier, but it's hard to taste the vegetable-ness of it if you've a picky eater on your hands. 

Using ricotta makes the lasagna a little more liquidy, so it doesn't hold it's layered rectangular shape as well as if you just use meat, shredded cheese and noodles.  I really like the ricotta though.

DON'T BE AFRAID TO USE MORE CHEESE.

If you do use chopped spinach, and you get it frozen, thaw it well beforehand and drain it, that will help the lasagna keep its shape as well.

You can build a lasagna and freeze it for a while before you put it in the oven, so you have something for later.

*Also, if you get a fresh block of mozzarella and shred or slice it yourself, that will also make the lasagna more watery, so cut the cheese beforehand to let it dry out a bit, or just use the pre-shredded stuff.

If I could devote my whole life to lasagnas, I would.  I want to know everything about them, and taste all the different kinds.  My favorite so far is from a restaurant in California that my family went to frequently when I was little.  The restaurant was in San Jose, it was called Gallo's.  I think it was family-owned, so of course it was good!  Does anybody else in the blogosphere know any good restaurants for lasagnas?  Or any other tips when making them?