The pudding

To make this pudding is a test of patience. It's really very easy. You will need:

• 3/4cup Sugar
• 3 Tablespoon flour
• 3 Tablespoon Cocoa
• 2 cups Milk (for best results use whole)
• 2 egg yolks (if you like meringue I recommend saving the whites for such)
• 1 Tablespoon Vanilla

Combine all of these ingredients into a pan and bring to a boil. Here is the tricky part you must stir the entire time. Your wrist may get tired I don't care don't stop stirring the moment you do you will burn the bottom of your pudding. I made a pie with this pudding last night and while cooking I took a few shots to show you the changes the pudding goes through.

When you first start stirring

Right before it begins to boil

Desired thickness in a pie shell

 

 

My finished pie with homemade whip cream

So there are a few things I should note. One thing is that hot pudding is awesome. Also hot pudding is scalding hot you will curse yourself if you try to just grab a little bit for a taste, keep in mind it was just boiling and it's thick for whatever reason it makes it worse. One more thing if you plan on putting a topping on
the pudding/filling give it plenty of time to cool.

The man behind the pudding

The following recipe is one of actual value to my own personal history.  So before you go trying it out I'd like to share with you where this recipe is from. The man to the right is not a gangster. He is my paternal great grandfather. Roy Luther Dunn. While he looks like he'd be a scary man he actually was a candy maker. While many of his recipes have been lost through the years the recipe I am going to share with you has not and I hope that by making it a small part of his dream of making people smile from sweets will continue.

Applesauce experiment

Last year when I gave you all my Criss Cross Applesauce recipe it was very measure out and clear. Not this year. I've decided to take some apples put them through my apple torture device and throw them in the crock pot with some sugar and cinnamon. The picture is of my apple torture device. It peels cores and slices the apples.

So I put the apples in a crock pot and added a lot of sugar cinnamon and water. We will just see what happens. Why did I decide to do it this way? 

1.  I have guests coming into town and wanted it to be able to can some sauce for them.
2. Seemed like a good idea at the time.
3. I'm lazy.

There now all of that has come to light let me tell you more of the apple plans for this year.
I want to make a pie. I didn't last year. I would like to make some more bread because it was really good. Most of all our biggest plan this year is to make a hard cider.


We were going to make our own cider but that seems pretty difficult so instead we are going to take a second Elijay trip and buy some of their non pasteurized ciders and harden them up a bit.

Apple Day!

So it's that time of year again. As I type into my iPhone I'm on my way to Elijay Georgia, home of delicious apples. I've decided while not my favorite fruit out right apples are probably my favorite fruit to to use in cooking/baking. Because of this we go straight to the orchards to get our apples. It's a nice trip that is not too far away. I plan on sharing a lot of photos once I get home and can update at home. Until then I have a teaser for you, we plan on making hard apple cider this year so stay with me.

Some recognition

So if you are a fan of the author Will Kenyon you may have noticed me on his blog roll. Oh what's that you didn't notice? Oh my well that won't do! Please go and check out how he linked me on his blog and once I figure out how to link someone's personal blog I will do the same for him. In the meantime. Go check out Willl's blog

Recipe theft

As creative a cook as I am I would be nothing without a few people who have influenced me over the years. Number one on that list is my Grandma. Grandma can't cook to save her life. Dinner with her is often painful awful and over or under cooked. Bless her heart. However you will sit through that awful meal in hopes she will say something like "I made a ____ pie for dessert" or "Would you like a piece of cake? I made it this morning". Oy sweet Abraham is my Grandma a great baker. Her pie shells are amazing. My pie shells are awful I desire the knowledge she has. Sadly my beloved Grandma (Oh I forgot to mention I'm an orphan, if it wasn't for her I'd been on the streets) has been diagnosed with Colon Cancer. Thing is Grandma is okay with it. She doesn't really want to fight it. She is also closer to 90 then 80. She has been telling us for years "I won't be here forever" and last Christmas she told us "This may be my last Christmas". So we can't be upset that she doesn't want to fight cancer. It sucks because Cancer orphaned me but shit happens it has to happen to someone right? Anyway I got distracted with mushy stuff. Sorry 'bout that.

I plan on stealing my Grandma's recipes. Slowly methodically. I want all of the recipes that I can't master myself. Starting with whatever it is she does to make a pie shell. I'm going to Grandma's house today and I'm going to have her make me a pie while I take serious notes. Hopefully pictures of pies will follow in the meantime here are pictures of my Grandma.

Grandma is awesome. That bag in her hand filled with cookies for me. That's right she's that type of grandma.

Grandma is the one on the right. Her hair is/was naturally red. Walking down Peachtree Street in the late 1940s

Happy Birthday Carrot Cake Cup Cakes!

First off let me start with this: I never knew I could butcher a simple recipe so bad and still have a success! I'm baking the second batch now hopefully they will be as good as the first.

The Cup Cakes
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
3/4 cup oil
1/2 cup applesauce
2 Tablespoons Vanilla extract*
blend well
mix and then add to the sugar batter
2 Cups All Purpose Flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
mix that well then add
3 cups grated carrot
1/2 cup pecans
1/2 cup raisins

I then baked this concoction at 350 for 20 minutes.

They fucking rule. Hopefully my SO who I'm making these for will agree.

*I was only supposed to add 2 teaspoons. However they worked with 2 tablespoons.

Last minute feel better steak dinner

So last Thursday my SO was very upset calls me from downtown to explain how upset he is. I recommend for him to go to one of our favorite bars and have a few drinks before he comes home. Now before I continue I would like to point out to any of the ladies reading this blog that it is super important to let a man who is upset to be alone. The last thing he wants is for you to try to comfort him right now. While that is all fine and well first let him have a few hours to himself. Let him go have a drink without you asking him if he is okay every 5 seconds or asking if there is anything you can do because most of the time the answers are clear, you probably already know them. One, no he isn't okay (although he will say he is fine just to get you to stop asking), two, no there isn't anything you can do (if there was he would of already had you do it). Now telling him to go have a drink or two to let him unwind should give you about 2 1/2 hours.

This gives you the time to make him a nice manly dinner.
I ran to the store bought a couple of bottles of my favorite red wine Bear Blood. This stuff is really good it also happens to go on sale a lot. I also bought a crown of broccoli, steaks, bacon and two potatoes. Now I'm going to assume all of you know how bake potatoes and steam broccoli so I will tell you what I did with the steaks.

 easy/lazy marinated steaks
wrap steaks in bacon , this keeps the juice from the steaks inside while you are grilling or broiling it also makes the steak bacon flavored which is pretty tasty.
rub steaks down in pepper and salt don't go crazy with the salt
drown steaks in red wine generally a merlot is a good idea I prefer semi dry reds when it comes to marinating a steak because it doesn't over power them. The most important thing with using wine in any cooking is only use wine that you would drink. if it isn't worth drinking it isn't worth cooking with. Now you ask what about cooking wine? Cooking wine is bull shit, it's undrinkable so that the chefs won't get drunk while they are cooking. They do this by taking cheap wine and filling it with sodium which will add a lot of unwanted sodium to your meal.
add worshire sauce of course not everyone likes the stuff but it does a good job of making meat more tender so I really love using it on steaks
let it sit until your SO gets home
broil until your desired doneness in my opinion anything that doesn't bleed when you cut into it is over done but again this is a matter of opinion so have it your way.

Hopefully this will make you SO feel better if not at least they will appreciate your attempt because cooking a steak and baked potatoes and a green means a lot more than ordering a take out. Any home cooked meal means more than something you paid someone else to do for you. Keep that in mind ladies.

How Christmas dinner went...

Well to be honest it didn't. At least not on the 25th anyway. I managed to get food poisoning so I was too sick to cook. A few days later it turned out pretty well. My S.O.'s dad really enjoyed it and that's what matters to me. Everyone told me they enjoyed it and I will assume they weren't lying. i didn't take a single picture. I still felt a little sick so I just threw it out there. However tonight is a special night because my S.O. and I think it might be our anniversary. We don't know for sure the exact date but it's some time around now so I'm cooking something somewhat special. It's a little lazy to be honest except for the dessert. Tonight I'm steaming rice and broccoli and I'm also making herby pork chops. Simple pork chops I just cover them in oil and spices and bread crumbs then let them bake. I might drop the rice and do fancy potatoes instead. The point is I made a fancy dessert. I made a chocolate mousse which I'm not sure if he will like. Oh well, back to the kitchen I go.