Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

Today is Thanksgiving eve and the kitchen is going at full tilt. Prepping the turkey, making the dressing, cranberry sauce, cheesecake, and the pies. It's just not Thanksgiving without pies....so let's crank up the music and get to rocking!
   I had a request for recipes so I decided to do pies and pie crusts (of course!) First the tutorial and then the recipes...here we go!

We will begin with the crust so it will be at the ready for the filling.   lot. twill make Combine the flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl. This is a great crust recipe that I use a lot. It's very easy and almost impossible to screw up so don't feel intimidated...remember is fun!

Cut the cold shortening and butter into cubes, they don't all have to be uniform, just approximate.

Add the cubed shortening and butter to the large bowl of flour mix. Using a pastry blender (or two knives) cut it together until its about pea-sized. Its fine if some larger pieces remain, that just adds to the flakiness of the crust.

In a small bowl combine the water, egg, and the vinegar. Vinegar, you say?! What sorcery is this?! Its fine, it adds to the tenderness of the crust and you will not taste any vinegar at all in the finished pie...I promise.

Toss it all together with a fork until it holds together. Don't beat it senseless, you aren't Mike Tyson. (Unless of course, Mr. Tyson is reading this blog) Overbeating will make it tough and nobody wants that. Gather it into a ball and put it in the fridge while you make the filling.

Pare, core and slice the apples, (if that is your pie of choice) place in a large bowl and add the sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and toss together. At this point the smell is so heavenly you may possibly attain nirvana. Once the apples are done, get the pie crust dough from the fried and divide it into how much you need. The crust recipe will make either a double crust and one single crust, or three single crusts.

Put the dough on a floured board, between to sheets of waxed paper, or into a zippered pie crust bag. Excluding every invention by Nikola Tesla (one of my very few idols) the zippered bag is the greatest invention known to man; I us mine all the time...very little mess and a perfect circle! Roll dough to a roughly 1/8 inch thickness, and place in bottom of pie plate.

Fit the crust into pie plate without stretching it, if it breaks, its OK, just piece it together. Take a fork and dock the bottom of the crust so it doesn't get soggy Docking is just a fancy word for poking a few holes in the crust.

Roll out the top crust, place on the pie, seal the edges, and if you have one, place a pie bird in the middle of the pie so steam can escape and the filling doesn't boil over while baking. I have a few pie birds, this one is called "Mr. McCann."  Lacking a pie bird, just cut a few slits around the pie with a sharp knife. Place the pie on a cookie sheet and pop it into the oven. If the crust seems to be getting to dark around the edges before the baking time is up, just wrap a few strips of aluminum foil around it  (or us a pie collar if you have one).

Voila!

If you did not attain nirvana before, you will while the pie is baking. The smell is like no other! Let it cool for at least an hour (if you can wait that long!) it gives the pie time to set so you don't lose the juice. Enjoy with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, or my favorite, a slice of sharp cheddar cheese on the side. Might sound strange, but the combination is delicious! My father was Irish and we always had cheese with apple pie.
   ...And now for the recipes! I have included a recipe for gluten-free pie crust if anyone needs it. My daughter needs to be gluten free and this is a pretty good crust.
I'm including the recipe for the Molasses Pumpkin pie that I pictured in my last post; darker and spicier than the usual pumpkin pie, but oh so tasty!

Pie Crust

4 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 3/4 cups shortening (I use 1/2 Crisco and 1/2 butter) cubed and cold
1/2 cup cold water
1 Tablespoon vinegar
1 egg
   Follow the directions above to combine and assemble.

Gluten-Free Pie Crust

1 1/4 cups gluten-free flour
1 Tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 Tablespoons cold butter
1 large egg
2 teaspoons lemon juice or vinegar

1) Lightly grease a 9" pie pan.
2) Whisk together the flour, sugar, xanthan gum, and salt.
3) Cut the cold butter into pats then work it into the flour mixture until its pea-sized.
4) Whisk the egg and vinegar or lemon juice until its foamy. Stir Mix into dry ingredients until it holds together. Add 1 to 3 additional Tablespoons of cold water if necessary.
5) Shape into a ball and chill for an hour or overnight.
6) Allow the dough to rest at room temperature for 10-15 minutes before rolling out.
7) Roll out on a surface that has been sprinkled with gluten-free flour invert the crust into the greased pie pan.
8) Fill and bake as your pie recipe directs.

Mile-High Apple Pie

3/4 to1 cup sugar (granulated or a combination of granulated and light brown)
3 Tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Dash or two of ground nutmeg (according to taste)
Dash of salt
7 to 8 cups peeled, cored, a sliced apples
1 Tablespoon butter (optional to dot onto the apples before putting top crust on)
   Follow the above directions to assemble.

Hearty Molasses Pumpkin pie

3/4 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground clove
1/4 cup molasses
2 cups mashed, cooked pumpkin (you can also use solid pack caned)
3 large eggs
1 cup undiluted evaporated milk or light cream
1 9-inch unbaked single crust pie shell

  Mix together the sugar, flour, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves. Add the molasses, pumpkin, and eggs. Mix well. Stir in the evaporated milk or cream. Pour into unbaked pie shell and bake in preheated 425 F oven for 10 minutes, then lower temperature to 350 F and continue baking for another 30 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool pie before serving and enjoy!

...One last thing.

Thanksgiving and Christmas are meant to fun-filled joyous holidays, but for some folks it's a very difficult time and sadly they feel depressed and alone. If you know anyone that fits this description you might want to ask them to join you, you'll be glad you did. We have actually had up to 15 people sitting around our table, you can always make room for one more. Relax and enjoy the time spent with family and friends, everything doesn't have to be perfect so don't be so hard on yourself. I remember one Thanksgiving as we were all sitting around the table, one of our cats jumped from the loft onto the hanging lamp above the table, I don't think he realized that the lamp wasn't stationary, he fell from the lamp  into the middle of the table right into the large casserole pan of turkey stuffing! After we all jumped at least a foot from the sheer surprise of it, we laughed until our sides hurt and we had tears in our eyes. Nobody wanted to eat the stuffing after that and the poor cat hid for the rest of the day (probably out of humiliation) We all say it was one of our best Thanksgivings. So enjoy the day. Peace and happiness to you and yours!

 

    Autumn....my favorite season! A perfect time to begin this blog on homesteading. This is my first attempt at a blog and hopefully as time goes by we will all see vast and wonderful improvements in my techniques.

   In celebration of the season we will focus on that beautiful, versatile fruit...the pumpkin! Yes, a pumpkin is technically a fruit as it has seeds inside and grows from a flower. But, whether you call it a fruit, vegetable, squash, or gourd, it is one divine creation! This was my first year of serious pumpkin growing. Previously I have planted the mini pumpkins, and the little ghostly white ones. This year I decided to plant pie pumpkins in the space outside of my kitchen window. Aside from a spearmint patch, it looked rather barren and needed something else growing there. In an area measuring a mere 6' x 12' I planted a total of 12 pumpkin seeds. Thinking that all of them might not germinate, I was hoping for at least a couple of plants. I was not disappointed, they all germinated and started to grow at a rapid rate...all of them.

   They grew like vines in a fairy tale! At one point the made a decidedly right turn and began to creep into the house via the back door. It wasn't long before the blossoms were replaced by beautiful pumpkins!

  As the summer progressed I kept a vigilant eye out for every new pumpkin, keeping count and tracking progress. When the final count was tallied up I was amazed. 50 pumpkins, yes that's right, 50 pumpkins in a space only measuring 6' x 12'! Wow....incredible! My plan was to roast the pumpkins, mash them, drain the excess water, and freeze the pumpkin in 4 cup increments which would make 2 pies, 2 - 4 loaves of either pumpkin-nut bread or pumpkin corn bread, a pot of pumpkin soup, or a few batches of cookies....as I said earlier, the pumpkin is very versatile. Everybody here loves pumpkin pie, so that was at the top of the list.

It may sound a tad conceited, but I make one helluva pie! Mine is not the pale, anemic, watery pie that you purchase at the grocery store.....oh no, this is a hearty pie, smelling of cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and molasses surrounded by a flaky, tender crust embellished with pie crust autumn leaves.....a dessert to be enjoyed with all of your senses. Around here we are big fans of 'breakfast pie'... but what could be healthier than pumpkin?

   Of course, I had to plant the Jack-be-Little's, they're cute and the kids love them (I do too). I planted 4 seeds in a different area and ended up with 27 of the cute little fellas! 
   I have to give kudos to the beautiful tomatoes we harvested from the garden this season. Heirloom Brandywine's are my absolute favorite tomato. One slice literally covers a slice of bread.....no lie!

   Aside from my endless bragging, the other purpose of this blog is to show that anybody, just about anywhere can homestead. You don't need a lot of land, people have started gardens in empty lots and rooftops in the middle of the city. It doesn't cost much for a packet of seeds and soil and water are free. Many of us do not want to be at the mercy of Monsanto and their GMO laced products, we want to know what we are eating, plus have the satisfaction of creating healthy food....real food, the way it used to be. The added bonus is the knowledge that YOU can take care of yourself. Homesteading is more than just growing food; it's reusing, recycling, repurposing, using your imagination and being inventive, raising chickens, hogs, goats, beef, rabbits; it's sewing, quilting, weaving, macramé, cooking, reading, writing; it's music and art; it's cutting down on your trips to Wal-Mart by 95% because you really don't need them.  It's happy kids that play outside in the sun and the dirt and learn where their food comes from....it's a good life.