Let’s face it. You’d rather have a homemade pumpkin pie this year than a store-bought one. But who has time to experiment and find the perfect recipe? Well… we do! We’ve done our homework; we’ve conducted our own kitchen experiments and discovered a few tips about how to make your next pumpkin pie ideal. You won’t have to wait until this pie chills before you can enjoy it.

Make pumpkin pie a la mode, enjoy it warm, straight outta the oven with your favorite ice cream. No more having to worry about whether the pie is set. Don’t believe me? Try it, bake this pumpkin pie then dive right in, you’ll see it’s ready to be devoured!

So how’d we do it? Well, after studying a few different pie filling recipes, we noticed most of them contained quite a few eggs. Though eggs can be pretty good thickeners, sometimes they can make a pie runny. Also, why do you need to use condensed milk and evaporated milk? We used a little less liquid, replaced it with some butter and added a good amount of spices. This filling isn’t bland. So how’d the pie thicken without eggs? We used corn starch. Instead of using refined sugar, we used powdered sugar (which is made from corn starch).

And what if you don’t want to bake the pie crust ahead of time? You don’t have to! Just be sure to get ahold of a handy pie crust cover and some aluminum foil. You’ll want to bake this pie for close to an hour, but keep it covered for most of the baking time so that the crust doesn’t burn.

So many details! Why don’t we get straight to the recipe. Ok, ok, here it is:

The next time you’re tempted to give into that cute little dough boy and his simplistic cookie varieties, give him something to really giggle about with these unconventional recipes. Mmm… with the weather outside finally cooling down, nothing would be better than a warm and gooey cookie with a cup of hot chocolate. While you might bring in new ingredients, the classic cookie and milk combination never gets old.

Speaking of warm and gooey, take a look at the picture of Valerina’s Butterscotch Toffee Cookies! The combination of oats, butterscotch chips, and brown sugar is the stuff cookie dreams are made of! If you really want to live on the edge, check out inspiredbites’ Almond-Cardamom Christmas Cookies. Sure, Christmas may be months away, but the smell of the cardamom might make Santa pay you an early visit.

For something slightly more in season, perhaps you could try amnichols’ Black and Orange Cookies. Bake these up for your trick-or-treaters and they won’t even bother asking for a jumbo-sized candy bar. For more holiday favorites, keep dropping by throughout the season!

There’s an art to preserving fruit. It really does require a bit of detail and precision, but not in the way you might think, if you’ve never canned anything before. The most important thing to remember when preserving your favorite fruits is this: sterilize the jars, both the lids and the jars themselves! The other tough part is figuring out whether you’re going to make a jam, preserve, marmalade or even a chutney!

Let’s start with a familiar classic, FoodieWife’s Strawberry Jam, she says it’s been perfected and… it’s made without pectin. Pectin sounds like it should be the name of a bird, but it’s the substance with the sandy texture that gives jams their gelatinous texture. FoodieWife’s secret to making pectin-free jam? Boil the fruit down and thicken it with sugar!

Martasalmon also has a great recipe for beginners; her Fig Preserves are what you’ll want to smother on toast in the morning. I have a secret, though, I don’t just use fig preserves for breakfast! Think about enhancing the flavor of your favorite savory dish with fig preserves (it works, believe me!).

Speaking of adding preserved fruits to savory dishes, that’s where chutneys come in. Justopia’s Peach Apple Chutney Surprise is flavorful and fragrant. Sweet and tart, this chutney is worth smothering on lamb, pork, or even chicken, says Justopia.

Want to know something? I prepared that dish in under half an hour! If you missed yesterday’s post, where I discussed Dr_Mom’s Moroccan Chicken with Green Olives and Lemons, then it’s a good thing you stopped by today. Everything I said about the recipe yesterday still holds true today: the aroma of this dish is heavenly!

If you don’t have time to stand in front of the stove all evening, think about preparing the sauce in advance then cooking the chicken in the crock pot with the sauce a little later. I was curious to see how the dish would come out if I baked it. So that’s exactly what I did. I snapped the photo before popping the cast iron pan in the oven, then I covered it with foil and baked it at 350 for about an hour and 15 minutes.

What else did I do differently? Not much, because this recipe works as is. I did add a little bit of honey and also thickened the sauce by reducing it and adding a bit of potato flour. The end result? A slightly sweet and savory dish with so much flavor, you can serve it over a bed of plain white rice and still feel like you’re enjoying a fancy meal… without the headache of having to prepare a complicated recipe. Simple and delicious!

Though I can’t imagine a world without olives, I don’t know that I’d actually want to try one straight off the tree. The truth is, olives taste pretty bad in their rawest form. Believe it or not, this is why they’re soaked in lye and washed thoroughly — to remove the strong, unappealing bitter taste.

But let’s not focus on the olive’s bitter past :P, let’s talk about how olives add such delicious flavor to some of our favorite foods, like bread. You’ll never want to eat plain white bread after you take a look at Vals Kalmata Olive Bread with Oregano. You know those breadsticks from your favorite restaurant? They pale in comparison to this recipe.

Susie87’s got a nice vegetarian meal or side dish. Her Chickpea Saute with Garlic and Olives proves that you can make a quick, nutritious meal in minutes, without having to sacrifice taste or blow your budget.

Olives and cheese are the perfect couple, right? In CynMaria’s Quick Feta and Olive Spread, they’re looking tastier than ever. Why’s that? Because they’re allowed to shine, the other ingredients, like lemon juice and oregano, only enhance their flavor.

Let’s finishes this post off right, with a meal that’ll fill us all up. Dr_Mom shares a mouthwatering recipe for Moroccan Chicken with Green Olives and Lemons. Cinnamon, onion and cloves make this a dish that’ll bring everyone to the dinner table on time… That frozen chicken looked pretty boring in my freezer a few hours ago, I know what I’m making for dinner later this week!

I have baked 60 cookies in less than a month’s time, slowly learned how to bake gluten-free, and though I don’t consider myself a professional in the least bit, I’ve been cooking and baking a variety of foods for a few years now… and yet I can’t seem to master the flour tortilla! I’ve been helping my grandma make these since I was in diapers, but making tortillas really requires that special touch. Rosa from Cooking with Rosie is a tortilla making expert! Her tortilla tutorial is perfect for beginners like myself because the photos are in-depth, she makes sure to capture all of the important parts so that you don’t have to worry about skipping a step :)!

Homemade Flour Tortillas
(adapted from allrecipes.com - click here for original recipe)

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp lard or shortening
3/4 cups water

1. Mix flour, salt and baking powder in a large bowl until well blended. Mix in lard or shortening with fingers until the flour resembles cornmeal. Make a well in the center.

2. Add water to the center. Using a fork, rotate it in small circles scraping the sides of the flour until a dough forms.

3. Continue mixing in the remainder of the flour with your hand(s).

4. Form into a ball.

5. Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface and knead for a few minutes till smooth and elastic.

6. Roll dough in a log, about 1-1/2 to 2 inches in diameter.

7. Cut into 8 or 10 golf-size pieces. Then roll the pieces to form a ball and flatten between the palms of your hands (not pictured). The dough does not need to be covered, but if you think you’ll be interrupted (eg. kids running around, phone ringing, etc), then cover dough with a bowl or a damp towel so it doesn’t dry out.

NOTE: At this point, heat an ungreased, large skillet or cast iron pan over medium heat.

8. Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface, starting from the center out and rotating the dough 90 degrees each time.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that if the dough is a bit sticky, lightly rub flour onto the rolling pin and onto the sticky side(s) of the dough. The key is to lightly flour.

9. Roll dough as thin as possible for best results, about the width-size of a dime.

10. Cook tortilla for 10-20 seconds on one side, until bubbles start to form and the “doughy” look is gone. Flip the tortilla and cook the other side for 10-20 seconds as well. The tortilla will seem a bit rigid, but they will soften up after it rests (see next step).

11. Wrap the tortilla in a clean dishcloth and keep covered during the cooking process. Then store the tortillas (still wrapped in the dishcloth) in a plastic bag. Let stand at room temperature and they will become very pliable.

12. Repeat steps 7-11 for the remaining pieces of dough.

Makes 8-10 tortillas

I served these with grilled veggies and ground beef. My husband loved them and was surprised when I told him that I had made the tortillas himself. He really enjoyed them.

Have some fun with this recipe and come up with your own creations. Tortillas are such a simple flatbread that the possibilities are endless.

Saludos!

Rosa

I know we’re always talking about how fabulous sweet breakfasts are here on The Back Burner. Though I’m not going to deny that they are, I’ve got to admit that there are times that I crave something hearty and savory for breakfast. Maybe you’ve even dived into last night’s leftovers and blamed the empty tupperware on the mystery mouse!

If Karen’s Chicken with Chorizo, Olives and Rice was on the menu last night, that’s probably what you did this morning! If there’s one scent I love waking up to (aside from bacon, of course), it’s chorizo! It has such a recognizable aroma and flavor that’s unparalleled; like bacon, its heavenly scent lingers in the air for hours! And if you didn’t have this for dinner last night? You’ll want to have it for breakfast tomorrow.

Because breakfast isn’t complete without the OJ, Karen made sure to sneak the juice of a fresh orange into the cazuela containing rice, cooked chicken, bell pepper and onion. This is the recipe to use when you really want to spice things up in the morning, you won’t need a strong cup of caffeinated coffee once you get a whiff of this! Karen’s Chicken with Chorizo, Olives and Rice is a meal that can literally be enjoyed any time of the day or night! Check out her blog Citrus and Candy for more mouthwatering meals.

The Happy Cook over at My Kitchen Treasures shows us how to make a strawberry roulade without the stress by following Michel Roux’s delicious recipe (she says they’re some of the best rolls she’s ever had!). Her dessert came out perfect — I was impressed. How do you get the génoise to roll up that beautifully without cracking even once?

The Happy Cook will tell us how in this week’s Tutorial Tuesday post:

Ingredients:
For the Génoise
20 gm soft butter for the cake pan
126 gm flour plus extra for the cake tin
4 medium eggs, room temperature
125 gm fine castor sugar
30 gm butter melted and luke warm

For the filling:
400 ml full cream plus powder sugar ( 2 tbsp or more of you like it sweeter)
400 gm strawberries slices ( i mixed 2 tbsp of strawberry syrup, it is optional)
Powder sugar to dust.

Method:

Preheat the oven to 190° c.
Lay a piece of baking paper from 40×30 cm on a baking plate, butter the paper and dust with the extra flour.
Add the eggs and sugar into a big bowl and beat it til they are really fluffy. It will take some 8 to 10 minutes with a mixture as it should turn into a pale white colour.
Add the sieved flour and fold in carefully and then add the melted butter also carefully. Don’t stir as you will remove the air bubbles in the mixture.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and with a palate knife smooth the top.
Bake in the preheated oven for 8 minutes.
When it is baked cover it immediately with a tea towel and remove from the baking tray to a rack.
Remove the baking paper carefully and cool for 5 minutes.

( In one of the other book it is written use wet tea towel or sprinkle with sugar, this one it is not written like that so i have no idea which method is the correct one, i just followed the recipe in the book)

In this book it is written roll the cake before it is cools, otherwise it will be difficult to roll.

In the mean time whip the cream with a bit of sugar .
And then spread the cream evenly on to the cake and the scatter the strawberries on top of the cream.
Roll the cake with the help of the tea towel from the long side.
Keep in the fridge for a hour and before serving sprinkle with powder sugar.

Enjoy one of the most soft rolls I have ever had or made.

Lynne has a delicious blog over at And Then I Do the Dishes. I have to say, that phrase applies in my house, too ;)! But what if we prepare a dinner that doesn’t require dirtying many dishes? Then everyone wins, and that’s definitely how everyone will feel if you serve sushi for dinner — just remember to follow Lynne’s tutorial. The photos will get your mouth watering, it’s a good thing her California Rolls don’t take too long too prepare! This is also the ideal warm-weather meal — it has summer and spring written all over it.

California Rolls or Beginner Sushi

Sushi is one of those things that when you start making it yourself, you’ll never stop thinking about it. You’ll think about all the variations you can make like imitation crab, spicy shrimp, smoked salmon, vegetarian… You can also use a variety of ingredients to decorate the finished rolls like fish roe, capers, grated veggies of all sorts, etc. Raw fish is absolutely optional, especially if you’re just starting to enjoy sushi.

Sushi making doesn’t require a lot of fancy equipment either, just a bamboo rolling mat, some plastic wrap, chopsticks, if you like, and a pot to cook your rice in. Some nice plates for serving your sushi are totally optional but having an excuse to buy new dishes is never a bad thing.

These days you don’t really need to go to a specialty store to get ingredients for your sushi. Most supermarkets even have little sushi shops where you can buy the rolls already made or ask the sushi chef for tips and tricks. I’ve found that they’re always happy to help, even if they do seem to find it a little odd that you’d want to make sushi yourself when you can buy it right then and there. Imagine if I had tried to bring my camera and take pictures in the supermarket, that would have gotten me a few weird looks!

Please remember that I am by no means an expert, and there are a lot of more experienced sushi makers out there with how-to posts you can check out too. But I had fun making these and I’ll try to show you how I made my sushi and maybe you’ll be intrigued and try to make some too. If I could do it, anyone can!

What you’ll need for each roll:
1 sheet of nori
1 cup of cooked sushi rice*
Black sesame seeds, or regular sesame seeds, roasted
Grated carrots
Cucumber, sliced lengthwise into thin strips
Avocado, sliced thinly
Your choice of smoked salmon, shrimp or imitation crab
Cream cheese, if you’re using smoked salmon
Fried egg roll wrappers, crushed (adds a little crunch)

You can make things easier on yourself by having all of your ingredients ready and close-by, because once you start you don’t want to have to run around looking for this and that. Also, a good trick is to wrap your bamboo rolling mat with plastic wrap before you start, it’ll make it a lot easier to clean. Oh, and have a bowl of water near by so you can wet your hands from time to time, otherwise you’ll end up with sticky rice everywhere.

Place a sheet of nori on your bamboo mat (shiny side down) and spread 1 cup of rice on top of it, leaving a 1 inch space at the end. Sprinkle some black sesame seeds onto the rice. Arrange your choice of ingredients into a strip and start rolling at the edge closest to you. Use the bamboo mat to roll the sushi firmly. You can use a few drops of water at the seem to help the seaweed to stick at the end of the roll.

Use a sharp knife to cut the roll into about 8 pieces. It’s easier if you cut the roll in half and then cut the ends into equal pieces. Serve the sushi with soy sauce, wasabi and pickled ginger.

The variations for the rolls are endless. You can make a shrimp salad using a little bit of hot sauce and mayonnaise and adding it to chopped shrimp. You can spread a little cream cheese onto the rice before adding the smoked salmon. You can do all veggies and use red bell pepper for even more color and crunch. Use your imagination and have fun!

* For the sushi rice:
You absolutely have to use short grained rice. Use specialty sushi (or Japanese) rice. It’s a lot like Arborio rice, the kind used for risotto. In a saucepan, add 1 1/4 cup of water and 1 cup of sushi rice. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and cook for 15 minutes, without stirring, until rice is tender and still shiny. Now here’s where it gets interesting. To the cooked rice you can add 3 tablespoons of rice vinegar and 1 teaspoon of sifted confectioner’s sugar. I didn’t add the vinegar or the sugar as I wasn’t sure I would like it but I might try it next time. You can then place the rice in a bowl or spread it on a baking sheet and let it cool to room temperature.

In my family, and I understand this is also the case in many families, tortillas are served up alongside a variety of meals, whether Mexican food or chili is for dinner. Their handy malleable shape makes them perfect for scooping up the last bits of dinner from your plate… and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve made a quesadilla with them. So when I came across Ann’s Corn Tortilla Pictorial on Thibeault’s Table, I knew I had to share it. Nothing beats homemade tortillas and hers are especially tasty; she even says they’re simple to make!

The recipe is very simple. Just masa harina, salt and hot water. I don’t measure. I just pour 1 1/2 to 2 cups of the masa into a bowl, add some salt and enough hot water to make a soft, but not sticky dough. Knead it for a minute to make it smooth. The dough should not be stiff or dry, but it shouldn’t be wet or sticky either. It is a dough that is easy enough to fix. Just add a little more of the masa or a little more water until you have the right texture. Cover and let it sit for 5 or 10 minutes.

Roll tortilla dough in to balls a little smaller than a golf ball. Cut a plastic storage bag slightly larger than the size of tortilla press. (I use ziplock freezer bags)

Cover with another bag, cut to size.

Press to flatten. Be gentle

Gently peel off top piece of plastic, flip tortilla over on to palm of hand, supporting with fingers and very carefully pull off remaining plastic. Place tortilla on the side of the griddle that is heated to medium. Cook for 25 to 30 seconds. You will see a little steam and the tortilla will move easily. Using a spatula, flip the tortilla over and place on the hot side of the griddle

Cook for about 30 seconds. Tortilla will start to get little brown spots. Flip it over again. And cook for another 20 to 30 seconds. The tortilla will start to puff up

Puffing up more

All puffed up. This is what a perfect tortilla looks like. It takes practice. But even if your tortilla doesn’t puff up it will still taste good. Just won’t be as tender

If you have a tortilla warmer, place the tortillas in it as they come off the griddle. They will steam and soften up. Which is what you want them to do.

If you don’t have a warmer just wrap them in a clean tea towel and keep them warm in a low oven.