Bourbon Sweet Potato Pie

Bourbon Sweet Potato Pie

I love pies, don't you?  Cakes are okay too, don't get me wrong.  But biting into a pie is like taking your mouth to a party!  The textures, tastes and contrasts make it a very popular desert option on most menus.

Holidays in my childhood home meant pies.  Usually apple and pumpkin for Thanksgiving, pumpkin and mincemeat for Christmas.  My father's mother even got her nickname from her popular rendition of the stuff - Nanny Pumpkins.

With all that history behind me, you'd think I'd be gearing up to make the traditional desert too.
Usually I do make at least pumpkin.   Mincemeat is usually a vegetarian version - recipe coming soon!
Jack had even asked about pumpkin pie.  We talked about it.  I was even planning on making it.
But did I?

Well......no.
As fate would have it, I'd completely forgotten to get pumpkin, canned or otherwise, during the holiday food shopping trip.  I did however have an overabundance of Beauregard Red yams and even a few cans of Princella's in the pantry....so guess what kind of pie got made?

Having covered pie crusts in a previous blog entry, I'll skip all but a few important details.
1) Make sure everything is cold - water, flour, shortening, salt......bowl and rolling pin too!
2) Spread waxed paper over your rolling surface - clean up is a lot easier!
3) Don't overwork the dough!  Let it rest in the fridge between steps!
4) Don't add all the liquid at once!  Watch for subtle changes as you mix!

Once your dough is prepped, let it rest in the fridge before rolling it into the pie pan.

Cooked yams in the bowl

Rather than boiling the yams, I wash them, score them with a knife and microwave them.  Depending on how many you're using (four being the minimum), cooking time (on HIGH setting) could be anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes.  Good rule of thumb is to check after 10 minutes.

Oh! Make sure you have enough piecrust for 2 pies!

Once the sweets are done, scoop out their innards into a bowl and let them cool slightly.


BOURBON SWEET POTATO PIE

Preheat oven to 425 degrees
Place a cookie sheet on the shelf being used for baking, this will help cut down on spill-over.

Hand mixing the yams

NOTE: Due to yam's fibery nature, I've found it better to use a food processor rather than a hand mixer for making this pie. But if you don't have one, mix it a lot and check the texture often!

2 cups cooked sweet potatoes or 1 1/2 can cooked sweet potatoes
2 eggs well beaten
1 1/4 cup milk (or liquid from canned sweets with 3 1/2 Tablespoons of powdered milk blended into it)
2 teaspoons bourbon
3/4 cups brown sugar (or 2/4 cups brown sugar and 1/4 cup white sugar)
1/4 teaspoon salt o substitutes (optional)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
4 Tablespoons melted butter

Bourbon, milk and eggs

Food processor

Combine all ingredients in the food processor if you have one. Otherwise, put the yams in a mixing bowl and have at it! Hand mixing may take about five minutes or so. Food processor at high setting may take about three to four minutes.  Check the texture.  If it's still a little "stringy," process it for an additional two minutes.  That should take care of it.

Place pie crust in pan and pour this mixture into it.  This mixture is enough for two pies, so prepare two shells.
Once the pies are poured, place them on the cookie sheet in the oven.  My oven is wide enough to fit both pies on one shelf.  If yours is not, use two shelves or-even better-cook one pie at a time.

Let the pie bake for 10 minutes at 425 degrees then immediately lower the heat to 300 degrees and bake it for an additional 50 minutes.  Then its done! Let cool on a wire rack for a bit...if you can wait that long!

Time for pie!

Please feel free to share your ideas, memories and recipes on this site via the comments box.  All credit will be given where it is due...and I promise to try the recipes too!
Enjoy!

Breadly Speaking

Bread baking for the holidays!!!!   I don't know of a better way to warm up the house on a chilly day (or night) than to crank up the oven and fill the space with that sweet aroma that only comes with the baking of bread!


For Thanksgiving at Jack's sister's house this year, we were asked to bring the bread.  I didn't want to just stop by a store and pick up some biscuits...that would have been okay, but GEE!


Rather than do that, I decided to make a selection of wholesome whole grain offerings....2 corn breads, 1 whole wheat/oat and a whole wheat walnut loaf.  It took a few days, but I loved every minute of it!



The whole wheat/oat bread is a yeast based so it takes a bit longer than the others, which could be classified as Quick Breads. So I started with that.


BREAD A THON  PART ONE - Whole Wheat Oat Bread

1 1/2 Tablespoons active dry yeast
1/2 cup LUKEWARM water - for activating the yeast
1 teaspoon molasses or brown sugar - for activating the yeast
2 1/4 cup HOT water - for softening the oats
1/2 cup unprocessed oats or oat bran
1/2 cup white flour (pure gluten flour will make it rise higher)
1 Tablespoon salt or salt substitute
1/4 cup safflower oil
1/4 cup molasses
6 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (as needed)
2 Tablespoons powdered whole or nonfat dry milk 

First things first....the yeast. I have a very fine opinion of yeast and want to treat it very well throughout the process of it becoming bread.  So I'm careful to make sure the water used for activating it is Lukewarm....not too hot, not too cool. 

Yeast starting to foam

After foaming 15 minutes

I like to feed the yeast with molasses or brown sugar rather than regular sugar.  Either one of these works and seems to get the little yeast critters foaming like crazy!  
After activating the yeast,  put it somewhere warm-not hot! Let those yeasties honker down on that molasses or brown sugar and let it rip!  First time I did that, I was amazed!


The oats or bran need some attention, too. Put them in a small bowl, pour the 1 1/4 cups of HOT water over them and give the whole thing a stir.  I let this rest and moved on to the dry ingredients.

While that was going on, I combined the dry ingredients in a large bowl.  
Hint :  Make sure these ingredients are well blended. This is a good time to add any dry base seasonings, too.   

Blending wet and dry

Then I started adding the wet ingredients - starting with the oats then mixed with a spoon.  This dough can be blended with a sturdy upright mixer with a dough hook, too.   

After that I added the oil, molasses and finally the yeast.  Note that I added the yeast last.  It's a personal preference....not sure why but it's how I've always done it.  Then it was more elbow grease until the dough left the sides of the bowl.

Ingredients well blended-no longer sticking to sides of bowl

Dough division

 Then I turned the dough out onto a slightly floured piece waxed paper,  divided into two equal portions and tucked each portion into its very own greased loaf pan, covering each with a towel for a 30 minute rising nap.   

Bread on the rise!

 During this time, the dough should rise....maybe even double its original size!  Ain't yeast just awesome?!

Grow little yeasties, grow!

The 30 minute rising time was a great opportunity to clean up a little then take a break...so that's what I did!
A little coffee, a little soapy water and the kitchen no longer looked like a disaster area! That done, I double-checked the oven settings, made sure the bread had risen enough, removed the towels then put the filled loaf pans on the on a mid-oven shelf and let them bake for 40 minutes in a 350 degree oven. 

Once done, the loaves were placed on a wire rack to cool before packaging for transport.

Breads cooling on a rack

  These loaves didn't rise a lot...I didn't have any gluten flour, so didn't expect them to grow much more than they did...but they were delicious!  The wheat acted as a perfect foil for the oats sweetness, and like all good breads it had that crunchy exterior and soft interior...it even had enough flavor to stand up with or without butter!  Yum!

Feel free to share your recipes, too!  As always, Enjoy!












 

KITCHEN THOUGHTS - kenamewakehena

Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and foodies everywhere are working overtime on creating a wonderful feast.  There are special dishes, courageous creations and even a few daring dabbles that are bound to find their way into the annals of family traditions.

Turduken, deep fried turkey....one has to wonder about the next craze!  Will the turkey be chocolate dipped? Or perhaps wrapped in pastry and baked?  Or maybe just shot out of a cannon?   Who's to say....?  Food creativity is like that.  But underneath it all, this holiday is about folks getting together and sharing a little quality time.  So in the spirit of Thanksgiving, the following....

....which is Lenape for giving thanks (kenamewakehena) and amen (literally "thank you, you're welcome").

We dedicate the season to this spirit.

This week will be a busy one for all.  More recipes with next blog entry.  Feel free to submit some of your own, too!
Enjoy~

What's For Dinner? Chicken, Asparagus, Coleslaw....Really?

Chicken, cole slaw, asparagus...ingredients for dinner

Food shopping near a Food Holiday is a tricky venture; not only are you getting what you need for the festivities, you have to remember about the "regular" days as well.

I do my best...don't we all?!
But there's bound to be a bit of menu strangeness when juggling like that.

Tonight's menu is a pretty good example.  I've been concentrating on apples a lot lately; Jack's sister gave us a bunch from her wonderful apple tree, so I was knee deep in pies, breads, apple sauce cakes and so on.   This morning when I looked up at the clock it was 11 a.m.; when Jack came down to the kitchen and asked "What's for dinner?"  I noticed the time....4:35 p.m.

Hmmmmm. "Chicken," I replied, then looked in the fridge.  Fortunately I'd remembered to defrost the chicken.  "It won't take long."  Jack smiled, grabbed a glass of water then left me to the task at hand.

I'd been in the process of chopping apples when Jack asked that fateful question.  So I decided to use them in the meal.   A second cruise of the refrigerator secured the ingredients for the meal; the aforementioned chicken, a bag of pre-shredded cabbage and carrots (a/k/a a "cole slaw kit"), some asparagus, an onion, some orange juice....didn't sound like things I could combine into one dish.  So I opted for separates.

I rinsed the chicken then patted it dry.  Lucky for me it was a pack of skinless, boneless thighs...lots less work! Thank heavens for sales!   After that, I sprinkled a little low salt, pepper, dried onions and garlic powder on both sides of the chicken and placed it in a bowl.  Then I poured some orange juice over it and covered the bowl.  This sat for about fifteen minutes while I prepared the rest of the meal.

The asparagus was a no-brainer.  Hot water, steamer, seven minutes....done!
Jack likes his asparagus with a side of mayo, so I didn't have to make a fancy sauce or anything. Yay!

Waldorf Coleslaw - slaw with walnuts

Cole slaw?  Been there, done that.   But I wanted something a little more interesting, so I found some walnuts, chopped 'em up and added them, along with the chopped apples and raisins...kind of a Waldorf Cole Slaw.
It's always better to make your slaw ahead time and let the flavors mingle and mature.  Best scenario is the day before service, but 45 minutes will do in a pinch.  So that's what I did.

Chicken in the pan

Then it was time to take on the chicken. I drained the meat and let it sit on a wire rack then put some heat under a cast iron skillet, chopped then added onion and garlic.  After the onions started going transparent, I added the chicken and browned it for five minutes on each side.  After browning, I poured the orange juice over the chicken, covered and cooked it for an additional 3 minutes per side then removed the chicken to a plate while making a pan reduction.

Reductions really make the flavor happen!   It takes a little time, but is well worth the effort!

Once the juice is reduced, add the chicken to the pan and coat each piece with the reduction.  I drained the asparagus, put it in with the chicken, mixed everything around a little  then put the skillet with everything in it in the oven (at 350 degrees) for about 10 minutes more.  Then it was time for plating and service.

Orange chicken w/cranberry sauce, asparagus and slaw

And you know what?  It was pretty good!  The flavors seemed to compliment each other, even the slaw. Jack thought I'd been planning the meal all day.  And in a sense he was right....after all I did defrost the chicken!

So feel free to try this idea, feel free to share your recipes and ideas too! I look forward to hearing from you!
Enjoy!

Turnip Turn On!

Turnip turn on

Mom had her hands full when we kids were growing up!  Imagine, five kids.  Enough to make a person go on strike....and I'll be the first to admit that my brand of insanity didn't make her job any easier.  Somehow she and Dad managed and in the process taught us how to do the same.

One way of managing was stretching the food dollar.  Mom could make that eagle scream and give change!
She used vegetables a lot to make the main course go further.  One of my favorites of hers was so simple, Steamed Mashed Turnips.  These were a favorite, especially with a little extra melted butter or gravy. 

Like many other kids, some of her brood could be picky. She got us kids to like turnips by saying they were magic....they turned colors as they cooked!

Peeling turnip with knife

 Preparation for this dish is simple.
You have to peel the turnip in order to use it.  Rather than using a veggie peeler, I just have at it with a very sharp knife.  As the photo demonstrates, I chop down the side at a slight angle.  This seems to work pretty good. I don't chop the top off 'til last, but I did chop off the bottom so that it would sit flat on the table.

Steaming turnip

Once peeled, chop the turnips into cubes and put in a steamer.  I prefer steaming to boiling as it retains more of the vegetables' nutrients and flavors.  If you don't have a steamer, that's okay...just don't fill the pan completely with water.  Only fill it to about 1 inch or so.

Turn the flame on high until the water is boiling rapidly, then turn the flame to medium and let steam for about 10 minutes. It's a good idea to stir the turnips once in a while, especially if the pan is full.

The turnips are done when they're soft enough to cut with a spoon.   Once done, remove from heat and place steamed turnip cubes in a warmed bowl.  Add butter to taste.  With a potato masher or hand mixer, work the butter into the turnips until the vegetables are mashed.  Taste.  Add more butter if need be.  That 's it!

Some people add a bit of heavy cream....bacon bits....garlic.   What ever you like, go for it!
Turnips are great as a side dish when made like this....they're a great substitute for potatoes, too!

As always, feel free to share your recipes, thoughts and so on.  Just do so in the comment section.  Use the comment box or check the email icon.

Enjoy!

Steamed Mashed Turnips

KITCHEN TOOLS - George Foreman Grill

Isn't it great when something works like it's supposed to?  Such is the case with the George Foreman Grill. Mind you, I have the small version, actually two of them, bought at a garage sale.  They were used when I got them, about six years ago, but they still work like new!

For grilling burgers, hot dogs and sandwiches, the Foreman Grill is a natural!  Heating elements on both lid and base assure even cooking.  One of my grills has a special bun warmer in the lid, and it actually works pretty good.

Foreman Lean Mean Grillin' Machine w/ bun warmer lid

The grill works pretty good on other cuts of meat like chicken breast fillet and sausages. Vegetarians will find it useful for grilling those thick portabello mushrooms, eggplant "steaks"  and other such goodies.

Dripping into the drip pan

No matter what you're grilling, be sure to keep an eye on the drip pan.  It's probably a good idea to have a spare on hand if you're making a lot of things...that way a fresh one can be slid underneath while the old one is being emptied.

Not submersible, the George Foreman Grill' s clean-up is still fairly easy, with its non-stick, raised surfaces.  A warm sponge usually does the trick.

My main complaint about my grill is that it is too small. 

Boxing With Carrot Cake

Boxed mix basics

Some people think there's a standing rule about baking.  You're either baking from scratch or you're not baking at all.  I disagree

Boxed cake mixes have the same ingredients as you or I would be using.  Of course when it comes to brands some are better than others, but this article is not out to choose which is which.  I'm here to talk about using cake mixes rather than choosing which to use. I leave that part up to you.

I like cake, like making it, decorating it and eating it.  Lots of my friends like cake too...leastways that's how it seems.  They sure hold enough gatherings throughout the year and each one has at least one cake as its centerpiece.

This morning, one of our buddies called with an invitation to a party.  During the conversation they asked if I knew how to make carrot cake.  After fifteen minutes of trying to explain how to make it, I broke down and volunteered to make the cake.

Grating extra carrots into the mix

As luck would have it, I had a Betty Crocker cake mix in the pantry....and it was a carrot cake at that!  Yay!

I could do it the easy way, just follow the instructions, throw it in a pan and let it bake.  Piece of...pardon the expression...cake.  But that's not me.  So while the oven pre-heated to 350 degrees,  I set about augmenting what Betty Crocker began.

The original mix comes with flecks of carrot, but not enough if you ask me.  So I started by grating 2 carrots.
There were no raisins in the mix, so I got some out of the pantry and looked around for any other treasures.  Eureka! Walnuts!  This cake was gonna rock!

Mixing the mix

The thing about adding raisins to breads or cakes is that they will, by nature, sink to the bottom as the cake is baking - that is unless you prevent it from happening.  And how does one do that?  Simple! Take your raisins and put them in a little bowl.  Now take about 1/4 cup of cake mix (or flour mix if making from scratch) and add it to the raisins.  Stir until everybody is coated evenly, then add everything back into the cake mix...raisins and all.  That little trick will prevent raisins from sinking. Actually I did the trick with the raisins and walnuts mixed together....just in case the nuts wanted to "go south" too.

Cooking carrot cake

Follow all instructions on the cake mix box. You may have to allow for 5 extra minutes cooking time but don't just assume this is so.  Check the cake as you normally do, with a toothpick or thin knife.  Let it cool for about 10 minutes before removing from the cake pan.   This cake can be served frosted or not.  I usually just sprinkle some sifted powdered sugar over the top.  But if I'm really out to impress I make cream cheese icing.

Carrot, Walnut, Raisin Cake

Of course, there is a pre-made version of the stuff too if you want to follow the "store bought" theme to its very end.  But I'd suggest adding a little extra cream cheese to the boxed icing.

I'll be adding a from-scratch carrot cake recipe to the blog soon for all the purists out there.  If you'd like to send some of your cake recipes....from scratch or boxed additions, feel free.  And don't forget to Enjoy!

KITCHEN THOUGHTS Holiday Kitchen Time at last!

It's....HOLIDAY KITCHEN TIME!

The news is full of mayhem and murder....people angry - for good reason....people frustrated - again for good reason.  Lots of us are feeling more than just "the pinch,"  we're feeling the punch in the gut of our nation's economic woes.
There's that and the global economy.
And the wars here and there....
and the people that hate us....
and the people that like us but are catching grief from the people who hate us....
on and on and on.

I looked at the calendar after watching the morning events.....and found myself smiling. It's holiday baking time at last!  Time for the house to be filled with hints of cinnamon, cloves, bread, fruits and nuts....spicy, tactile, alive.

Sure, money's tight and it's gonna be hard to get enough walnuts; coffee's prices are through  the roof too but what the heck!  Making due is a very special kind of magic; more satisfying....more meaningful than throwing a store bought mix together in 20 minutes.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Artwork from Grand Canyon Tower

So with glad heart and ready hands,  a few special prayers of thanks and a box full of recipes we begin this Food Holiday Season with playful anticipation....hoping that all the warmth, joy, lightness and love that's generated in this and other kitchens all over the world spread and grow.

May the Holy Spirit of Peace and the Healing Power of Love Abide and Grow in the Hearts and Minds of All, Amen.

As always, please feel free to share your memories, recipes, traditions, ideas and so on!
Enjoy

Pie in the Sky

There's nothing like a basket (or so) of fresh harvested apples! 

Jack's sister has a great back yard filled with seasonal fruits and flowers.  Among these is a wonderful apple tree and we've been blessed with some of its bounty.

All the way home from our visit, the fruit's aromatics teased my senses.  I envisioned pies, cobblers, cakes, cookies, breads and ciders.....roasts with apples, chops with apples, chicken with apples....stuffings, sauces and relishes - to say the least, I had a lot on my mind!

I wanted to make something to bring to Jack's family Thanksgiving dinner....using the apples would make it even more special.  I asked him what he thought and Jack voted for apple pie.  It was up to me to decide which type of pie, crust and so on.

Some may wonder what I mean.  "Apple pie is apple pie, right?"

Well, yes and no.  There are different types, different ways to make it, different crusts.   For example, maybe instead of just plain old apple I might want to throw in some raisins and walnuts....or maybe pears.   I

Baked Pie

may want to make it with a crumb topping, or lattice, or plain old slit-top pie crust, or even just go crazy and make the crust with cereal.  I may even make a "Cookie Pie,"  which is a pie with a thin "cookie" top crust.  For that matter, maybe make the whole crust like a cookie.....who knows?


As far as the fruit goes, I don't peel the apples before pie-ing them.  But if you have digestive problems perhaps you should peel them.

There are a lot of ways to make an apple pie!  Do I make it in a paper bag?  Do I put plain apples in a pie shell, lattice the top and pour sugared, thickened liquid through the lattice before baking?
The sky's the limit!

I decided to try a few different recipes, after we had plenty of apples!

This first one is a standard double-crust pie.  I'll be doing another pie crust in a couple of days, so watch for it! The pie crust is the most complicated part.  Common rule of thumb is to keep everything cold, cold butter, cold liquids, heck even cold bowl and rolling pin!

PIE CRUST 1
 
Chill butter and liquids before you begin. 
2/3 cup + 2 Tablespoons butter
4 Tablespoons liquid  (Try using apple juice (or other fruit juice) instead of water)

2 cups of flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. cloves

Preheat oven to 450 Degrees
Place a cookie sheet in the oven.

Sift flour, salt, cinnamon and cloves into a large bowl. Stir until evenly mixed.   Cut 1/2 of chilled butter into dry ingredients using pastry knife, mezzaluna or two table knives until it reaches a cornmeal state.  Add the remaining butter and continue cutting in until it looks like cornmeal with large bits in it.

Filled Pie ready for oven

Add liquid a little at a time, stirring with a fork, add more liquid until dough, when squeezed in hand, stays together.  Put in the fridge for 30 minutes to allow the flour to absorb all the moisture.

Dust a dry, clean surface with flour.  I use a large sheet-cake pan; plenty of working room and no flour mess on the counter.  Some people roll their dough out in between layers of waxed paper.  If you do, just be sure to dust it with flour first! Otherwise it'll stick.

Pie filled, extra crust around edge

Working quickly roll dough to 1/4 "  thick or smaller. While rolling, turn the dough one-quarter turn at a time to keep rolling even.  When you've reached the desired thickness, roll the dough over the pin and unroll it over the top of a pie pan.   Make sure to leave a little overhang of dough around the edges, this will be part of what crimps the pie together.

For filled fruit pies, pierce bottom of crust before filling it.

APPLE PIE FILLING

Mixing the apples, sugars and spices

5-6 apples cored and sliced
Juice of one lemon
1 cup sugar (mixed brown and white)
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp cloves
1/8 tsp nutmeg (optional)
1 Tablespoon butter

Crimping the pie edge

Mix apples with lemon juice, corn starch, sugars, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg until apples are evenly coated.
Fill empty pie shell, dot top with butter .  Cover with top crust.
 Fold the excess bottom crust over the top crust edge then crimp using your fingers or a fork.

Venting the top

Pierce the top with a knife to vent the pie. Place pie on pre-heated cookie sheet in the oven.
Cook for 15 minutes at 450 degrees then lower heat to 350 degrees and cook for 50 minutes longer.
If your oven is slow, rotate the pie once during 350 degree cooking.  Pie will be done when top crust is golden brown.

This is just one recipe.  More to come!
Please feel free to share your pie recipes, thoughts and ideas!
Enjoy!

Cutting into pie

 

THOUGHT FOR FOOD

It's here!  At great long last, one of my favorite times of year is truly upon us!  Autumn has been here for a while, but the autumnal holidays make it truly official! 

Of course in some ways we've had it going on a while...many cities have already sported then shed their arbor plumage, and of course there's been that early snow....

Autumn  by rcw

....but from All Hallows through Thanksgiving's final pie slice and prayer, it's here!

That means time for apples, pumpkins, corn and cider....candy corns and horns of plenty, witches and settlers, ghosts and Spirits; it's here!

Cooking takes on a special purpose as cherished, handed-down recipes sit side-by-side with someone's adventurous creation. Pies, cookies, main courses....veggies, snacks, deserts....beverages.....tangible, sensuous feastings for the moment and for memory. 

My favorite thing to do, always but especially this time of year, is cooking with friends and family.  There's nothing more fun and wonderful than putting on some tunes, getting into the proper frame of mind and cutting loose in the kitchen!

During the second part of November, I'll be writing a lot about cookies, but will also take a moment to share a method of baking turkey that not only insures moisture, but guarantees that the white meat will be every bit as tasty and moist as the dark.  For now, all I can say is to have some brown paper or a paper bag ready.

Oh! Make sure the bag doesn't have any ink on it.

For now here's to frost on the pumpkin, ravens against the moon, stuffing and cranberries....and all the trimmings.  It's Autumn! It's here!

Enjoy!

Halloween and Beef Stew

Here it is, Halloween! 
Don't you just love this time of year?  I sure do!
From the pumpkins and costumes to piles of crunchy leaves and chilly nights, Autumn is a very special time!

If Halloween hadn't been invented, we'd have had to come up with some sort of holiday to acknowledge this season!

As a kid, I'd worry for weeks over costumes and "bag strategy."  I grew tired of the princesses, pirates and clowns that were available at our local Five and Dime store.  My last such store bought outfit was a Micky Dolenz costume....I actually got it more for my growing Monkees collection than for actual trick-or-treating. 

What I enjoyed most of all through the years was when I made my own costumes....usually with just things I had around the house.   One year I was a sack of laundry, and when I was done with it as a costume I just popped the clothes into the washing machine! 

As I got older, I started going "Halloween Caroling" instead of begging for candy and doing tricks.  Doing this enabled me to crash parties without crashing them. 

My unsuspecting host or hostess would ask "Oh! You actually use that guitar?!  How's about a tune?"  
Of course I'd have to oblige....with songs like "Silent Night, Haunted Night," "Here Comes Frankenstein" (to the tune of "Here Comes Santa Claus"), "The Twelve Days Of Halloween," and "We Three Ghosts" to name a few.  Most folks seemed to like it.

This year we're celebrating the holiday in a more low-key fashion.  Jack's health issues makes him tire easily, so rather than going through a lot of stress we decided to spend the evening together, just the two of us; a nice meal, a couple of horror flicks on the t.v.....perfect!

My "cauldron"

I wanted something for dinner that would incorporate the colors of autumn within the confines of a one pan, healthy meal. Jack suggested Beef Stew with Biscuits.  So that's what I did. 

Grab yourself a cauldron and some Witches' Brew, chase the bats from the belfry and tell Dracula to go get some take-out....let's cook!

1/4 lb per person

AUTUMNY BEEF STEW


Meat-wise, 1/4 lb of uncooked cubed meat per person is the rule of thumb
1 onion
1 large or 2 small rutabaga
1 or 2 potatoes
3 or 4 large carrots or 1/2 bag of baby carrots, cut up
1 yam
1 or 2 crowns of broccoli cut up
1 to 2 cloves of garlic
1 or 2 bay leaves
2 tsp corn starch
1/4 cup cold water
Seasonings to taste
2 cups of broth (from pan drippings after browning the cubed meat and veggie steaming water)
Any other ingredients you'd like to add....kitchen sink included!

Prepare almost everything in the same pan to insure maximum flavor! The exception would be those veggies that require extra cooking.  Use a steamer for things like your chopped rutabaga, carrots, potatoes.  Steam them 'til they're about 3/4 done.  Use the steaming liquid as your "water" for the broth base.

Steaming the "hard" veggies

Brown the meat with chopped onions and garlic, set it aside.  Add 2 cups of  the steaming water to the pan drippings, let simmer for about 10 minutes.  Add bay leaves, veggies, starting with the steamed ones first. Let this cook for about 10 minutes.

Add , broccoli, what ever other "softer" veggies you might have.  Let this simmer for about 15  minutes. Taste.  Adjust your seasonings.  Add meat and any remaining ingredients.  Let simmer another 10 minutes and taste again.  Some folks like a thin stew, but if you want to thicken it, mix the cornstarch and cold water together then add to the stew.  Let simmer another 5 minutes or so.  Taste again, adjust seasoning.

Let sit 1/2 hour before serving

HERE'S THE SECRET- Let it sit for about 1/2 hour before serving, this allows it to cool down for a bit, and also helps the flavors to mingle and work with one another.

Serve with a salad and  good bread or rolls.

Serve with rolls and salad

As usual, if you have any suggestions, comments or recipes feel free to share!
Enjoy!