Turkey's Done

Happy Thanksgiving! 

On the Making of a Jalapeno Pie

Earlier this year we decided to make a jalapeno pie - an enjoyable yet infrequent occasion at the Barnhart house.  For the uninitiated, jalapeno pie is not sweet but savory.  It's equal parts spicy flavor and meaty cheesy goodness.  It's not eaten fresh, but refrigerated and sliced thin.  It's good with an icy beverage.

I know very little of the origins of this pie.  I was introduced to it when on vacation with the VanderWalls and it was made by a friend of theirs.  I've made it by memory a several times since then with a few modifications.  I recommend that you make it your own by tweaking the ingredients, amounts, and order to suit your taste.

Now the good part - the construction begins.  The basic ingredients are pie crust, jalapeno, onion, cheddar cheese, and pepperoni.  I've noted our modifications in the captions.

The jalapenos are sliced open, seeds removed, and then sliced thin.  Our absolute favorite pie crust is the easy and hearty crust in Baking With Julia, but any crust should work.

Ingredients are assembled.

Layer pepperoni first.  We tried half turkey pepperoni and half thin sliced pepperoni from our deli to cut down on the grease a bit, but the turkey pepperoni has an odd texture when baked - I'd go all regular next time.

Add sliced onion.

Add jalapeno.

Add banana peppers if you'd like (our modification).

Add cheese.  We did a mix of cheddar and pepper jack.

Continue layering until you run out of ingredients or pie crust to put it in.  You're goal is to pack it in tight so that it doesn't shrink too much when you bake it.

You might as well make two while you're at it.

Bake it until the cheese is bubbly and brown.

All that's left now is to let it cool then stick it in the fridge for future enjoyment.  Because it's so rich and spicy, you will want some friends to enjoy this with.  It should keep for at least a week in the fridge, though.

Enjoy!

Nachos

 These are not yo nachos!  Blue corn tortilla chips topped with cheddar cheese, smoky beans, corn, and fresh tomatillo salsa verde!  But if you stop in for a visit we might make you a plate of your own.

A Barnhart Meal

The Chicago-style Pizza Course

The Fruit Course

The Chocolate Chip Cookie Course

The After-dinner Activity

Let Them Eat Cake

Karl and I have discovered that owning a house comes with lots of expenses. While some people in this family are spending extravagantly on apples, we have been tightening our purse strings. I've started buying used clothes, we've been been trying to refurbish our existing furniture instead of buying new, and we're eating prison cake. That's right. Prison cake.

This recipe comes from a youtube strength trainer who spent some time in prison about 10 years ago. As soon as we saw the video and the combination of ingredients, we knew we had to try it. It seemed impossible that this could be edible, but it actually turned out pretty good!

Ingredients:

One sleeve of knock-off oreos (come on, you think they have real oreos in prison?)

2 tablespoons peanut butter

4 packets of honey

Half a can of cola (Shasta should do the trick)

First, begin by scraping off the filling from the cookies. Place the freshly scraped cookies in a ziploc bag

Add the peanut butter to the cookie filling

Stir until well blended

Use a can to to crush the cookies

They should look like this when they're thoroughly crushed

Pour your "cake mix" into a microwave safe dish

Add the honey. If you've had a pretty good month, add a little extra

Here's the surprisingly NOT disgusting part: add half a can of cola. We were at Karl's parents house, so they had the good stuff

Stir, baby, stir!

Put a cover on, but allow for some venting. Microwave for about 2.5 minutes

Add your frosting

We may need to work on Karl's frosting skills...

And enjoy! Congratulations! You just made cake for less than 2 dollars!

Tale of Two Apples

While some Barnharts are visiting THE Big Apple, others of us have to make do with whatever apples we have on hand.  This week, we've been content with just eating big apples.

I've made a habit this winter of looking for new and interesting apple varieties in the grocery store.  We ran out of our own storage apples sometime in March, and since then we've picked up a few Jazz, Kanzi, Ambrosia, and most recently Smitten (from New Zealand).  We wanted to expand our apple horizons and though my interest in apples is more for the older (heritage, heirloom, antique) varieties, these are available to us and new.  And they are in remarkably good condition for apples that have been in storage for half a year (except for the Smitten, which is presumable fresh from the Southern Hemisphere).

But we have also tried a few old standbys that we haven't had in some time.  We picked up a bag of Granny Smith (the kids had never had them).  And on our recent trip downstate we got some nice Golden Delicious (can't remember the last time I ate one of those).  Yet I haven't thought to pick up some good old McIntosh - until this week.

I usually don't care much for McIntosh even though I've read others describe them as being very good or even one of the best apples.  My perception is that they are small and round with thin, dark red skin, white flesh that is tender at best and mushy or mealy at worst, and a flavor that is good but not good enough to balance out the other factors.  So I was surprised when I saw these large McIntosh with a boxier shape and lighter coloring at our grocery store.  I decided to pick some up, though I was not hopeful because I also haven't known McIntosh to store all that well and here it is well into June.

I make a point of checking where the fruit is grown because I'm curious and also like to know where my food comes from.  And this time of year, it tells you whether you're eating an fresh apple (Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina are all just coming into season) or an apple that's been in storage since last fall (usually Washington, but sometimes Oregon, Michigan, New York, Canada, etc.)  When I picked out my McIntosh I found that some were from Michigan and some were from New York - and they looked different.  So I decided to get a couple of each and compare.

Rachel helped me with the testing, which consisted of slicing open each apple and getting a photo, then tasting and making observations.  The photos show the variation in appearance pretty well, though without a scale you can't easily see that these are good sized apples - about 3.25 inches in diameter.  Both apples were surprisingly firm and fairly crisp (though not super-crisp like most of the newer varieties).  We were surprised to see some greenish coloring in the flesh of each - more so in the Michigan sample.  The flavor was not bad in either.  We noticed the biggest difference here.  The sample from Michigan was sharp and almost tart while the New York sample was mellow and sweet.  Both had the thin tender McIntoshy skin though the New Yorker's skin tore a little more easily.  I did not distinguish much of what I think of as McIntosh flavor in either.  I was also glad not to find them mushy or mealy.





















So what could account for such variation from my perception of McIntosh or even between these two apples?  Here are some possibilities:

1. Sports.  No, not hockey, baseball, or even bobbing for apples.  A sport is a fruit specimen that's selected because it's slightly different from others on the same tree.  The apples on one branch might be bigger, redder, ripen sooner, have a different shape, etc.  If this branch is selected for propagation by grafting, an "improved" version of the same variety (in this case, McIntosh) is preserved.  I suspect that these McIntosh might be sports of the more traditional variety.
2. Culture.  Being near THE Big Apple, the New York McIntosh would naturally be more cultured.  No, not really.  By culture I mean differences in soil, climate, etc.  I've read that this can have a big impact on the fruit - even two trees of the same variety across town from each other can be quite different.  Consider the, er, apples that Dad has been growing in his back yard in Muskegon.  I've never seen apples like those.  In fact, I don't know if I've ever seen those apples - they seem to disappear before they ripen (but that's a different problem).  I know that McIntosh are highly regarded in the Northeast, and New York is a lot closer than Michigan.  I suspect many of the McIntosh I've had previously were from the Northwest, where McIntosh may not be at it's best.
3. Management.  McIntosh is one of those trees that benefit from thinning the fruit, or removing most of the fruit that sets before they grow to maturity.  This usually results in larger, higher quality fruit.  I guess we could add water, fertilizer, and pest control here (again, we come back to Dad's apples).  The ripeness at picking, handling, and storage can all impact the texture and flavor of an apple also - particularly after a long storage.
4. Age.  It's amazing that we're enjoying these apples in June and they really are quite good still (no doubt due to controlled atmosphere storage).  But they don't taste like they did when they were picked or even a month after they were picked.  People who know apples talk about the "flavor arc".  Some apples are best right off the tree; some a month or two (or five) later.  McIntosh is known to loose some of its balancing tartness and become sweeter in storage.  This describes the New York apple quite well.

There are other factors as well, I'm sure.  But that's enough to get us started.  Next time you're shopping for fruit take a look at the McIntosh (or other seemingly familiar variety).  Note where they're grown and whether you can tell a difference between two of the same variety grown in different places.  I'll bet you can.

Eggseronious

No offense Ben, but I feel like we've been wearing o' the green long enough and it's not making me feel all that hungry any more.

And so, I bring you....

Eggseronius!

Well, not really.  It's cabbage and noodles and it's one of our favorite dishes.  But this once it reminded me a bit of eggseronious from the movie Earnest Goes to Camp.  Maybe you've got something eggseroniouser than this.  If so, feel free to counter-post.

Wearing 'o the Green (envy, that is)

This is Butchers, Braggers, and Candlestickmakers, right? If so, then I believe I'm at the right place.

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, I threw a little party last night and decided to cook an Irish-themed meal. Which turned out to be two dishes that both contained Guinness. For the nondrinkers in the family, Guinness is an Irish stout that's very creamy, rich, and dark in color. It's pretty mild, as beers go, but has a slightly smoky and sweet flavor.

The main dish was a Guinness pie that cooked nearly all afternoon in the oven and made the apartment smell delicious. Seriously, I was chewing on the walls and the sofa after a few hours. Though they could have used a little salt.

This is the pie filling, which was mostly mushrooms, stew beef, onions, and Guinness. The skillet was full to the brim when I started, and it cooked down for about 3 hours until it turned into the smooth, savory, rich stew you see above.

And then I placed a pastry top on there and baked it for a little longer.

Which resulted in this. The pastry was flaky but substantial, and the stew filling beneath was savory and delicious. The perfect dish to start breaking in a new cast iron skillet.


And then for dessert, I tried my hand at a Guinness cake. Lisa had made one and I heard about it (and also how Dad wolfed down the four or fives pieces that Lisa brought over for both he and Mom to share), and so I have her to thank for the inspiration here.

The cake was really easy to make, and I could almost eat it without the frosting. It's dense, moist, not terribly sweet, and has a really heavy texture. But then you also get some cream cheese frosting for good measure.


I used up all my creative energy on those two things, but by the time dinner rolled around I wished I'd also made some colcannon (inspiration from Steve and Rachel on that one). It's probably not too early to start planning for St. Patrick's Day 2016, right?

Superbowl Soft Sourdough Pretzels

We made these soft sourdough pretzels for a superbowl party last month.  Though we didn't watch the superbowl, we did have a tailgate party food theme - except we stayed warm and ate inside.  

These pretzels are the second time I've attempted pretzels with the sourdough.  My first try was more experimental and I was trying to make hard pretzels.  I think I can safely say we all enjoyed the soft pretzels more.  These are good with a little mustard.

Birthday Burger

I just came across this photo of Rachel's birthday burger from last October.  It's too good not to post, so here you go.

We grilled olive burgers (our version uses green olives and cream cheese) and served them on those fancy pretzel buns.  Home made french fries, fresh from the garden carrot planks, dill pickles and apple cider rounded out the meal.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Shrimp on the Smoker

Back in July, we smoked up a special batch of shrimp.  Now that it's winter, and cold, I'm going to post it to remind us of warmer days.  Plus, I'm hoping to make Ben hungry.

We had gotten some ocean run coonstripe shrimp from the Rowes and I wasn't quite sure how to cook it, never having cooked shrimp before.  Besides that, Rachel doesn't prefer seafood so I was putting it off.  But since we already had the smoker fired up for some chicken and red peppers, I decided we might as well add some shrimp.

I used a spicy garlic brine based loosely on one that claimed to be useful for seafood.  This also helped the shrimp complete its final thaw.  I'm not sure that shrimp would thaw today, even in the house (with a low of -8 degrees F tonight).  They looked pretty tasty even before I put them on the smoker.

 It didn't take long to smoke/cook these on the charcoal smoker.  With a little applewood smoke and the heat of the charcoal, they were done in about ten minutes.  We ended up eating these cold at Philip's first birthday party and I thought they were excellent.  I don't recall if Philip liked them but Peter had a particular affinity for the shrimp.  Rachel even said they were ok.  I did also try them warm and they were good that way - they seemed buttery, even though we never put butter on them.  The smokiness was just right. 

Here's some of the chicken that we did at the same time.  The chicken was smoked with apple and honeysuckle.  It took about 5 hours, but it was also well worth it.