Perfect Pie Crust

First thing,  I just learned this about pie crust so before we get started I'm sharing it with you.  If you are cooking an empty pie shell you put the little fork marks in it to get the air all circulating, BUT if your cooking the shell with the filling in it like Pecan Pie you DON'T put the fork marks in it.  Good to know  - right?  Ok so here is the best pie crust recipe that exists and I promise once you make a homemade pie crust you will never again buy one.  It cant be duplicated and will make or break any pie.  Also, another tip:  If you want it to be flaky (and you do) don't kneed it too much.  Don't overwork the dough. This is my Maw-maw Bobbie's Recipe from my dad's side of the family and it was given to her by her grandmother. Oh and guess what... its easy as pie to make :) sorry I had to add that.

Add 1 Cup Flour to a bowl

Add 1/2 cup Crisco

You can use buttered baking sticks or the big fat regular can.  We used the sticks.

It should say "nice AND pretty" but you get the point

 ENJOY!!!

Teaching Yourself to Cook: a short list of advice

Its not ideal but I'm teaching myself to cook and learning to love it as I get better at it.  I'm not a person that naturally loves to cook or a person who hates it.  My mom never taught me how because she didn't much care for it and it took me until now in life to realize she pretty much has 12 recipes that she has rotated out in different orders for my entire life.  My sister loves to cook and is naturally good at it and it comes easy to her.  I'm stuck somewhere in the middle.  I love the idea of cooking but I don't know much.  My dads side of the family is Cajun and everything happens around a table in their life, my Aunt Shirley can make something in 2 min that it would take me all day to make.  So at the age of 34 Im learning to cook and am on the verge of loving it but not quite yet but here is a little advise I have learned so far.

1. Pull your hair back - I don't care how great your food is if someone finds a hair in it none of that hard work matters.  Put your hair up or pull it back or something.

2. Give it time - It wont take as long the second time you make a recipe and it will take half that time the third time and eventually your flying through it.

3.  Keep a book (or Blog) of recipes you like -  I have started one for fast and easy and one for takes awhile but turns out delicious

4.  Get good Kitchen Soap - I never washed my hands so much until i really started cooking.

5.  Invest in at least one good knife - I was given a Cutco and I really think it was the turning point for me to be able to enjoy cooking.  It makes everything soooo much easier!

6.  Don't wear nice clothes to cook in - come on your not on food network.  Get comfortable and wear something you can get messy in.  Its probably going to happen so be prepared.

7.  Get a conversion list for measurements - I have one on this blog somewhere. I use it and its simple and I printed it and laminated it and keep it on the inside of my cabinet in a plastic sheath and pull it out when needed.

8. Cook stuff other people like - so you don't have to eat 12 pots of beans by yourself!

9.  When you mess up laugh about it. Its going to happen.

Thats all I have for now but i'm betting I'll think of more as soon as I publish this.

Recipe organization

So last night I wanted to make my squash pile recipe that my mom and aunt shirley and maw maw Bobbie always made so I got my iPad out and went to my blog and pulled it up (because by some miracle i remembered i posted it and i figured it would be faster than digging through all my paper recipes). It was awesome, i put in "squash" and pulled it right up. I'm going to start putting all my personal recipes on here so I can do that when I need to cook something. Eventually ill have all my favorite foods in one place and organized. Organization! Finally!

Give the Squash a chance (A fast, delicious recipe)

If your climate is anywhere close to mine then your local farmers market, garden or grocery store is probably overflowing with fresh tomatoes and squash.  So in the spirit of fresh food and easy fast recipes here is an absolutely awesome one from my Maw-Maw Bobbie's files. If your not a squash fan or have never cooked with squash give this dish a chance.  My boyfriend swore he hated squash and after I coxed him into trying a bite he ended up heating two plates. So if your new to squash or even swear you hate it just give squash a chance.

INGREDIENTS:

~ Ground Meat - 1 to 2 lbs. (I used 1lb. in the example recipe below)

~ Onion - for l lb use 1 small onion for 2 lbs use a large onion or two small ones

~ Squash - the regular yellow is fine,  the fresher the better for taste.

~ 1 can Rotel

~ 1 can tomato sauce

A variation is to use 1/2 can Rotel and 1/2 cup of fresh diced tomatoes.  Do this if you are worried about the whole can of Rotel being too spicy or just need to use up some of those garden tomatoes.

DIRECTIONS:

cut up onion into medium to small pieces.

Add meat and onions to skillet and brown on medium heat till the onions are soft and clear and the meat is brown. I do add a little Tex-Joy Steak seasoning at this point but not very much, a small sprinkle.  If your not lucky enough to have Tex-Joy in your area salt and peper will be just fine. http://www.texjoy.com/

Drain any excess fat or liquid from the skillet.  My meat is local grass fed Longhorn Beef http://www.gentzlonghorn.com/ and is very lean but I still pour the whole wad of meat and onions in a strainer and shake it really good. This is a personal preference so once it gets to the left over stage in the fridge it doesn't have little white clumps in it. The main point is get most of the grease off because we are using the same pan to cook the rest of the squash concoction.

OK, now the magic happens.  Add the drained meat and onions back to the skillet and proceed to cut up those beautiful fresh yellow squash.  They are the star of the show here and we really want them to shine so cut them fairly thick or they will wither away to nothing and turn to mush in the meat.  Not too thick either or they may be tough to cook evenly.  Maybe your can see from the picture about the size but the picture quality isn't that great and some of them are actually a little too thin.

Mix the squash, Rotel, and tomato sauce (I used paste but only because I didn't have sauce, and I improvise a lot.) You can also throw a few fresh diced tomato in it and leave out some of the rotel if you don't want it to be too spicy.

Turn on medium heat.  Wait a few min to see if you will need to add water.  This will totally depend on how juicy your squash and tomatoes are, sometimes a lot of water comes out of them and sometimes little to none.  Eyeball it.  The picture below is before I added water.

Cover and simmer untill squash is soft and opaque.  At this stage you are required to taste test  - yippee  :)

DONE!  Now just try to keep your boyfriend that hates squash from eating it all.

I serve this over rice the way my Maw-Maw always did but we are Cajun meets Cowboy where I live and the Cajun side of the family is know for eating rice with everything.  My point is you could serve it with other things like toasted buttered bread or probably even noodles but I have never tried. Let me know if you do and if its good.  Enjoy!