PIE

FIRST: Begin with an excellent homemade crust

Ingredients

• 2½ cups of flour (all-purpose)
• ½ cup cold shortening (I use the Crisco sticks, half a stick per crust)
• ¾ cup cold butter (I use salted butter, 1½ sticks)
• ½ tbs. kosher salt
• 1½ tbs. sugar
• 6 tbs. of ice water, add 1 or 2 more if necessary

 

 

Instructions

1. Pulse the dry ingredients in a food processor, to mix.
2. Add the cold shortening in pieces. Pulse a few times.
3. Cut the butter in chunks and add to mixture. Pulse until the butter chunks are about the size of pencil eraser.
4. Add the water a little bit at a time and lightly kneed into dough. (6 tbs. should be enough, only add more if crust is too crumbly to work into a ball)
5. Split the dough in half, roll in balls and wrap in plastic wrap.
6. Chill in the refrigerator at least 45 minutes.
7. Roll out pie crust on floured surface.
   

 Hi,
It is almost berry and fruit pie time.  Will give you the recipe for all the best pies....and you can freeze them.  Haul them out for Thanksgiving/Christmas.  They thaw well also.  Have a berry/fruit picking time with your girl friends, freeze the berries/fruit, have a "pie baking" party at a later date and enjoy.  If you don't like picking fruit, buy a box of already-picked-fruit....but hold a "pie baking" party.  The stress-relief is unbelievable.  It will save you a ton of money in therapy from your stressful job.
Pie making, next on the blog.

Second on the agenda:

Cheesy Chicken with Bacon and Avocado Quesadillas

Rating: 5

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 8 medium flour tortilla shells
• 3 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless, cut into bite-sized pieces
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup green onions, diced
• 8 strips of bacon, cooked & crumbled
• 1 to 2 avocado diced
• mild cheddar cheese shredded
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 limes

Instructions:

1. First thing first, cook the bacon, drain it well and crumble it. To reduce some of the fat, place it on paper towels. Don't discard all of the bacon drippings, keep about a tsp of it and add the diced green onions to it and cook about 3 minutes until softened.
2. Add the chicken, make sure it's cut into bite size pieces and keep sauteing for about 5 min until chicken is thoroughly cooked, turning over the chicken pieces, to make sure all sides are cooked. Add the salt and pepper and stir.
3. Remove the chicken mixture from the pan into a plate.
4. In a clean skillet, add a bit of the butter and melt. Add a tortilla and move it around until it's buttery. Now the fun stuff begins. Add a little bit of the chicken and onion mixture to half of the tortilla, a bit of bacon, a bit of avocado and a bit or lots of cheese, depending on how you like it.
5. Now flip the other side of the tortilla over and pat it down. Now flip it over and cook on the other side until the other side is nice and golden. It looks amazing. Cut this into two pieces using a pizza cutter. Repeat these steps with the remaining tortillas. Serve this with some sour cream on the side and squeeze some limes over the quesadillas and you've got yourself an awesome meal.

A bit of comedy first!!  My cats are just like this cartoon!!

Animals here at the ranch, big or small, are quite funny!!

A very fun and great recipe!!!

Quickie Posole

Posole is a Mexican dish, New Mexico subspecies. It’s a chile or stew with hominy. Most of the recipes I’ve seen are in a red base, but I like it in a chile verde base. So get:

One 29 ½ ounce can of Juanita’s* chile verde.

One 4 ounce can of diced chile peppers.

One 15 ounce can of hominy, drained.

Toss in a pan, heat, and consume.

*Juanita can really cook. It’s a brand of Mexican comidas that I usually find at Safeway. Her chile verde is better than anything I‘ve made from scratch. Besides, you don’t have to mess around peeling tomatillos and stuff.