Tagged “food”

  1. Pasties - Yet another repost

    The following is a repost from 2006 that I wrote as notes to myself on how to make pasties, a sort of stew-baked in a crust type meal that is popular in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It came out really good. Every year or so, I re-reference this post to reuse the recipe. Here it is again. Plus, I'm playing with the blog again, so it's time to see if the blog still works.

    The Pasty

    Well, I'm not a chef. I'm not even a cook. I can barely order McDonald's. However, a few weeks ago, I got a craving for some pasties, a sort of stew-in-a-pie-package that is a delicacy of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I got a recipe off of this web site, and here it is, with my comments. Note! I have not yet eaten them, so if they turn out terrible, well, here is the proof.

    Making the Crust

    • 3 c. flour
    • 1 1/2 sticks butter (cold and cut into bits)
    • 1 1/2 tsp. salt
    • 6 tbsp. water

    In a large bowl, combine flour, butter and salt. Blend ingredients until well combined and add water, one tablespoon at a time to form a dough. Toss mixture until it forms a ball. Kneed dough lightly against a smooth surface with heel of the hand to distribute fat evenly. Form into a ball, dust with flour, wrap in wax paper and chill for 30 minutes.

    My Commentary

    This sounds a lot easier than it is in reality. As far as mashing the flour and butter together, I did this with my bare hands as pressing it around a bowl with a wooden spoon was taking too much time and did not seem to be making any good progress. I also ended up added probably somewhere in the range of 10 tbsp of water since it all kept falling it apart, and forming it into a ball was impossible.

    The Filling

    • 1 lb. round steak, coarsely ground
    • 1 lb. boneless pork loin, coarsely ground
    • 5 carrots, chopped
    • 2 lg. onions, chopped
    • 2 potatoes, peeled and chopped
    • 1/2 c. rutabaga, chopped (can substitute turnip)
    • 2 tsp. salt
    • 1/2 tsp. pepper

    Combine all ingredients in large bowl. Divide the dough into 6 pieces, and roll one of the pieces into a 10-inch round on a lightly floured surface. Put 1 1/2 cups of filling on half of the round. Moisten the edges and fold the unfilled half over the filling to enclose it. Pinch the edges together to seal them and crimp them decoratively with a fork. Transfer pasty to lightly buttered baking sheet and cut several slits in the top. Roll out and fill the remaining dough in the same manner. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Put 1 tsp. butter through a slit in each pasty and continue baking for 30 minutes more. Remove from oven, cover with a damp tea towel, cool for 15 minutes.

    Milwaukee Journal March 28, 1943 Welsh

    Commentary

    • Add brown sauce

    This is a LOT of food. When I was out buying the food, I didn't realized how much food this is. After rolling out the dough, trying to pack all that food in would be impossible. I got maybe 2/3 of it in, and I'm going to have to figure out what to do later with the remainder.

    Rolling the dough turned out to be a lot of fun, but I had to keep the kids away. Their comment about eating uncooked dough: "It tastes like Play-Doh".

    I used 3 spanish (yellow) onions, since they were pretty small and the recipe called for 2 large onions. They were pretty strong, and made me cry quite early into the process.

    I used a turnip in place of the rutabaga. I picked just a small one. They are tough little vegetables and strong to the taste. I think that if anything fails in the recipe, it's going to be due to not chopping up the vegetables enough.

    Well, 45 minutes to go...more later. I'll publish this now to avoid closing this window by accident.

    Aftermath

    These were, by far, the best pasties I have ever eaten. I'm sure that a good part of that is due to the fact of the work I put into it. However, the really did taste good.

    Things to think about in the future: Next time, I have to figure a better way to put them on the plate. I put down wax paper, but evidently (according to my wife), it was upside down. That really is the worst part of the whole thing. A bit of work, and it came off ok.

  2. The longevity of the blog format

    Looks like it's been at least 4 solid months since I've written anything here. And, I only showed up to find my pastie's recipe. I guess it's still useful for that.

  3. Pumpkin Seeds Recipe

    This is what I do to roast pumpkin seeds. As I am lazy and don't really want to go around buying special ingredients, here is my bare bones recipe for yummy roasted pumpkin seeds. You will note that I use the words "or so" a lot in the following recipe. Use this as shorthand for "improvise as required". This is a recipe that MacGyver would use in a pinch. This has been reposted several times, but works good every time!

    1. Wash the pumpkin seeds. I have not found a quick and easy way of doing this, nor of getting the pumpkin seeds separated in the first place. I assume that the only way is manual labor.

    2. Lay out the pumpkin seeds on a cookie sheet covered with aluminum foil. Improvise as required if you do not own a cookie sheet or aluminum foil. I think non-stick aluminum foil would work best, but use what you have lying around.

    3. Salt them pretty good.

    4. Put them in an oven at 250 degrees F. According to my [](house of conversion), this is about 120 degrees C.

    5. Using a spatula (or pencil or stick or something), move them around every 20 minutes or so. The idea is that you don't want them to stick to the aluminum foil, burn, etc. You want them to dry out evenly.

    6. They should be done in about 3 hours or so.

    That's it! Eat and enjoy. I know other web sites have you adding oil and such, but if you are a bit culinary impaired (like I am), this is an easy way to get a nice result without too much work.

  4. Pasty Recipes
    • food

    Here are some nice recipes for pasties. Note that it's pronounced "pass-tees", not "paste-ease".

  5. Pounds makes sense in hexadecimal

    For years, I've wondered why there were 16 ounces in a pound. Then, being the computer geek that I am, it finally makes sense: ounces should be written in their native hexadecimal format. For example, a 1 pound 10 ounce steak would be written as 1.A pounds. 3 pounds, 15 ounces would be 3.F, and so on.

  6. Biscuits 101
    • food

    This is an updated post from my old blog. It's been a long time since I've tried to make biscuits. Since today was a cold, rainy day, and I had taken a walk out in the autumn woods, the timing felt right for some homemade biscuits. The following is the simplest recipe I could find. My notes said it worked good last time and, being hungry, I doubled the recipe.

    Baking Powder Biscuits, from a 1933 Recipe

    Ingredients:

    • 2 cups sifted flour

    • 2 tsp. baking powder

    • 4 tablespoons butter or shortening

    • 1/2 tsp. salt

    • About 3/4 cup milk

    Original Recipe

    Sift slour once, measure, add baking powder and salt, and sift again. Cut in shortening or butter. (this is where I use my hands by rubbing the butter into the flour). Add milk gradually, stirring until soft dough is formed. Turn out on slightly floured board and lightly "knead" for 30 seconds, enough to shape. Roll 1/2 inch thick and cut with 2 inch floured biscuit cutter. Bake on ungreased sheet in a 400 degree oven for 12-15 minutes. Makes 12 biscuits. You can also make tiny tea biscuits that are only 1 1/2 inches wide with a small cutter or glass bottom. These are great served with tea, jam or honey. Makes 24.

    Lazy Cook's Recipe

    Mix the above ingredients willy-nilly into a bowl, and make globs of dough on a flat baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees from 12-15 minutes.

    My Last Experience

    I'm not really sure what "tea biscuits" are. I assume that they are some sort of English biscuit that you eat with tea. Anyway, after mixing and following directions, the biscuits seemed a bit dry. I added a tad bit more milk than called for, to get a nice consistency, based on my vast experience (ha!) of making pancakes. Make sure that you use the floured board before trying to roll, as the dough seems pretty sticky. Also, make sure that you read the tablespoons before you get started, as I had a 1/4 tablespoon and 1/2 tablespoon, and I thought the 1/2 tablespoon was the "normal" tablespoon. I figured this out almost too late, but I got enough baking powder into the mix in time. I hope.

    This Experience

    Dough is a lot sticker than I remember.

    End Result

    Much better than the last time. Make sure not to overbake; otherwise, they will get too hard.

  7. Pasties 101 [Repost]
    • food

    The following is a repost from 2006 that I wrote as notes to myself on how to make pasties, a sort of stew-baked in a crust type meal that is popular in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It came out really good. Every year or so, I re-reference this post to reuse the recipe. Here it is again.

    The Pasty

    Well, I'm not a chef. I'm not even a cook. I can barely order McDonald's. However, a few weeks ago, I got a craving for some pasties, a sort of stew-in-a-pie-package that is a delicacy of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I got a recipe off of this web site, and here it is, with my comments. Note! I have not yet eaten them, so if they turn out terrible, well, here is the proof.

    Making the Crust

    • 3 c. flour

    • 1 1/2 sticks butter (cold and cut into bits)

    • 1 1/2 tsp. salt

    • 6 tbsp. water

    In a large bowl, combine flour, butter and salt. Blend ingredients until well combined and add water, one tablespoon at a time to form a dough. Toss mixture until it forms a ball. Kneed dough lightly against a smooth surface with heel of the hand to distribute fat evenly. Form into a ball, dust with flour, wrap in wax paper and chill for 30 minutes.

    My Commentary

    This sounds a lot easier than it is in reality. As far as mashing the flour and butter together, I did this with my bare hands as pressing it around a bowl with a wooden spoon was taking too much time and did not seem to be making any good progress. I also ended up added probably somewhere in the range of 10 tbsp of water since it all kept falling it apart, and forming it into a ball was impossible.

    Making the Filling

    • 1 lb. round steak, coarsely ground

    • 1 lb. boneless pork loin, coarsely ground

    • 5 carrots, chopped

    • 2 lg. onions, chopped

    • 2 potatoes, peeled and chopped

    • 1/2 c. rutabaga, chopped (can substitute turnip)

    • 2 tsp. salt

    • 1/2 tsp. pepper

    Combine all ingredients in large bowl. Divide the dough into 6 pieces, and roll one of the pieces into a 10-inch round on a lightly floured surface. Put 1 1/2 cups of filling on half of the round. Moisten the edges and fold the unfilled half over the filling to enclose it. Pinch the edges together to seal them and crimp them decoratively with a fork. Transfer pasty to lightly buttered baking sheet and cut several slits in the top. Roll out and fill the remaining dough in the same manner. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Put 1 tsp. butter through a slit in each pasty and continue baking for 30 minutes more. Remove from oven, cover with a damp tea towel, cool for 15 minutes.

    Milwaukee Journal March 28, 1943 Welsh

    Commentary

    Well, in writing this up, I realize that I forgot the salt and pepper. I figure that it's not that big a deal as I plan on adding extra salt and pepper at eating time (sorry, I'm a computer geek and talk about run-time and compile-time). I'm also planning on eating them with brown sauce, which is pretty salty anyway.

    This is a LOT of food. When I was out buying the food, I didn't realized how much food this is. After rolling out the dough, trying to pack all that food in would be impossible. I got maybe 2/3 of it in, and I'm going to have to figure out what to do later with the remainder.

    Rolling the dough turned out to be a lot of fun, but I had to keep the kids away. Their comment about eating uncooked dough: "It tastes like Play-Doh".

    I used 3 spanish (yellow) onions, since they were pretty small and the recipe called for 2 large onions. They were pretty strong, and made me cry quite early into the process.

    I used a turnip in place of the rutabaga. I picked just a small one. They are tough little vegetables and strong to the taste. I think that if anything fails in the recipe, it's going to be due to not chopping up the vegetables enough.

    Well, 45 minutes to go...more later. I'll publish this now to avoid closing this window by accident.

    Aftermath

    These were, by far, the best pasties I have ever eaten. I'm sure that a good part of that is due to the fact of the work I put into it. However, the really did taste good.

    Things to think about in the future: Next time, I have to figure a better way to put them on the plate. I put down wax paper, but evidentally (according to my wife), it was upside down. That really is the worst part of the whole thing. A bit of work, and it came off ok. The salt and pepper thing didn't seem to matter at all.

    My son's comment: "Much better than Play-Doh." I'm serious. I'm not making that up.

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