Tag Archives: cooking

Apple Pie in an Iron Skillet, aka Apple Tarte Tatin

What's For Supper?, , , ,

Last year about this time, Daughter #2 saw a recipe on Food Wishes, that she wanted to make for her French class (I think there was some extra credit involved). So she needed an iron skillet and I just happened to have one.

It is so very easy, and super delicious! There are only 4 ingredients:[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:6]

She spread the butter onto the bottom and sides of the iron skillet. Then she sprinkled the sugar over the butter. After peeling and quartering the apples, she placed them on top of the sugar.

She cooked this on the stove top (med. hi) for about 10 minutes. The sugar began dissolving into the melting butter, making an ooey, gooey delicious syrup.

After the apples began to soften, she placed a single pie shell on top. Then cooked it in the oven at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Allowing it to cool for about 5 minutes, she turned the skillet upside down onto a plate. The Farmer and I got to be the guinea pigs (yay!)

I can’t express to you how delicious this apple pie is! It is gooey, and sweet, and the sugar and butter creates a chewy caramel texture and flavor. Then to make it more complete, she served it with a scoop of ice cream! So good!

If you would like to see this recipe in action, Chef John has a video of him preparing Apple Tarte Tatin

 

I’m sure you’ll enjoy this dish. Leave a comment and
let me know how yours turns out.
picnic bon appetite

How To Peel A Hard-Boiled Egg Without Smashing It Against The Wall

Recipes, , ,

How To Peel A Hard-boiled Egg

?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????–Without Smashing It Against The Wall

Well the title may be a little extreme, but some of you may be able to relate to what I’m talking about. Several times in my life (usually before a big BBQ), I have tried to make deviled eggs and end up peeling chunks of the white part off, because the shell won’t come off.

One time I was having the kids over and deviled eggs was on the menu. I boiled the eggs, sat them aside while I fixed everything else, and at the last minute remembered that I hadn’t gotten them fixed yet. As usual, I cracked the egg shell on the counter and started peeling away the shell. And as usual, it took part of the egg white with it.

I usually made extra eggs just for this reason, so no problem. But then I started peeling another one…same thing. And the next one and the next…each egg was completely ruined because I couldn’t get the shell off. On the last one I attempted, it started tearing apart so I struck it with my hand and smashed it all over the counter. (temper, temper) I was so frustrated, now I had no eggs and a mess to clean up, too.

I knew I had to find a better plan. I searched the internet to find out how to peel a hard-boiled egg and found that there were many opinions out there.

  • Peel it hot
  • Peel it cold
  • Peel it fresh
  • Peel it old…

Fortunately for me, Daughter #2 shared the best way I’ve ever found. Her husband’s grandmother gets all the credit, but I thought I would share it with you.

Take a straight pin (I use one I got from a corsage) and pierce the egg before cooking.

111 pin in egg

Place the eggs in a pan of water that just covers the top of the eggs. Bring to a boil and cook on medium high for 10 minutes.

112 boil eggs

After the eggs are finished boiling, run cold water over the eggs. Just until they are cool enough to touch. Crack each egg until the shell resembles crackle glass, and place them back into the water.

113 crack eggs

After you have all the eggs cracked, simply peel the shell off; it should peel off without any problems.

114 peel eggs

Works for me every time!

115 perfect eggs

Dash and Flash Meals for the Farmer

Home, , ,
If you know me at all, then you probably know that I’m not a big plan-ahead person. Daughter #1 enlightened me on the reason recently, by reminding me that I was born on the biggest procrastinating day in US history—April 15 (tax day, in case you live under a rock). At any rate, this gift of procrastination is manifested in just about every area of my life, but the most noticeable area would be in supper preparation.
The Farmer gets home around 4:30 every evening (for the past 35+ years), and being the hard working, over achieving, workaholic that he is, he’s usually starving by the time he hits the door, wraps me in his arms, and tells me what a great wife I am! (hee, hee)
Of course, being the perfect wife, I have supper timed so that he still has just enough time to check cows, move them to another paddock, and feed the bull (which I’m sure he doesn’t give a thought to how much effort I put into this notable achievement).
So, you may be wondering how the queen of procrastination can accomplish such a feat (maybe not, but read on anyway).
First of all I have a freezer full of frozen beef—frozen being a key word here. I keep staples aplenty like potatoes, canned vegetables, flour, and seasonings. And that’s really all I need; oh, and soda.
The procrastinating attribute comes to light when the Farmer calls to let me know he is on his way home from work, which gives me a full 40 minutes to prepare supper. Not too bad, if he calls when he leaves work, but more often than I like, he gets busy on the phone with someone else before he can call me. Often I have received a 20-minute warning, or worse yet, a 10-minute warning! (yeah, well supper isn’t always on the table).

Well, I have become a master of Dash and Flash Meals.

Translated—putting together a delicious meal super fast!
Hamburgers and fries are probably the easiest, because when we get our beef processed I have a lot of my hamburger made into patties.
So, I scrub a few potatoes, cut them into steak fries, and soak them in vegetable oil that’s been brought to a boil (saw this on FoodNetwork).
Then I get the hamburger patties out of the freezer, throw them into the microwave for 2 minutes, break them apart, and throw them into the skillet. (I’m about 10 minutes in at this point)
When the hamburgers are almost done, I turn the fries on high temp. And magically my hamburgers and fries get finished right before The Farmer comes in for supper.
Spaghetti is another really quick meal. I again start with frozen hamburger, peel off the outside plastic, and throw it into the microwave for 3 minutes. It comes out ready to crumble into a skillet. It only takes about 5 minutes to brown at a high temp, so I put my water on to boil during this process. After the hamburger is browned and drained, I add seasonings, tomato sauce and parmesan, and simmer this until the spaghetti noodles are cooked. I usually fix biscuits (canned of course), garlic bread, or just butter bread with this.
Both of these meals can be cooked in about 20 minutes. As I was writing this, I thought of other Dash and Flash dishes that I make.
  1.       Beef and noodles
  2.       Chili (made from left-over pinto beans)
  3.       Cowboy Supper (made with beef, beans, and bbq sauce)
  4.       Tacos
  5.       Chicken Quesadillas
  6.       Sausage hash
  7.       Steak and baked potatoes (baked meaning microwaved)
  8.       Swiss steak burgers
  9.       Chef’s salad
10.       Frozen pizza J
What about you? Do you have any Dash and Flash meals that you make? Share it with the rest of us and maybe we can exchange recipes.