Aunt Elna’s Apple Pie

   preheat oven to 450°

2 C flour
1/2 pound cold butter (2 sticks)
1 beaten egg

3 pounds or more apples
1/2 C sugar
2T flour
1 t cinnamon

1/4 C brown sugar
3 T room temp butter
1/4 C lemon juice
additional sugar for sprinkling on top

●Peel and cut apples into slices and put into a large bowl.
Mix with the sugar, flour and cinnamon. (You can use more or less apples depending on the size of your baking pan or how many apples you have)

●Blend the flour and butter until crumbs are formed (I use the food processor to do this)
After crumbs are made, add the beaten egg and process to form a dough ball.
Do not over process.

●Pat 1/2 of this mixture into the bottom & up the sides of a 13” x 9” pan (or a round pie pan.)
Do not handle this dough too much or the butter will get too warm.
Reserve the remainder for the top crust.

●Put the apples in the pan.
On top of apples put the brown sugar, bits of the butter, and lemon juice. You can use more of each item than given here.

●Take remaining dough and form into flattened pieces and place all over the top of the apples. (I make the pieces about 2” in diameter but the size of them doesn’t matter, just cover most of the top. There’ll be empty spaces, which is okay.)
Sprinkle some sugar on top.

●Bake for 30 to 40 min. or until apples test soft. If the crust is browning too much, cover top with a piece of aluminum foil.

Brownie Moon Cakes

3/8 Cup of butter or margarine (a little less than one stick))
3/8 C cocoa ( a little less than 1/2 C)
2 eggs
1/8 t salt
1 C sugar
1 t  vanilla
1/2 C flour

Preheat oven to 350°. In a saucepan on top of stove, melt butter. Remove pan from heat and add cocoa. Beat eggs and salt until light. Gradually add sugar and vanilla. Fold this into the chocolate mixture. Mix until blended. Fold in the flour, mixing until no longer visible but DO NOT OVERMIX   Pour into a square pan that is lightly oiled. Bake 25 to 30 mins.

I got this recipe maybe 8 years ago, or more, from someone via PostcardX, which was my first experience with internet postcard exchanges. I don’t have the name of the person who sent me this, but it’s quite tasty. I’m not sure why the odd measurements ie. 3/8, perhaps this was originally in metrics.
I made this today, because we had the most beautiful moon last night.

Neat Balls, vegetarian

VEGETARIAN “MEAT” BALLS

AKA Neat balls.

 

 

2 hard-boiled eggs

1 small onion, chopped

½ C wheat germ

½ C ground pecans

1/3 cup matzah meal (I use bread crumbs)

or more, as needed

2 raw eggs

salt & pepper to taste

oil

Process all ingredients except oil.

From into balls and brown in oil. Add hot water

About ½ cup and 1 cup or more of tomato sauce and simmer covered for 30 minutes. Freezes well.

Meat ball sauce as Mom did it:¼ C grape jelly  1 bottle of chili sauce

I’m avoiding high fructose corn syrup so I made the sauce with canned organic tomato sauce, vinegar, and sugar (you can probably use honey.) combine to taste. It was delicious.

 

Redux – Thai Eggplant/Chickpea dip

Thai Eggplant/chickpea Dip

(Adapted from the A to Z cookbook, Madison, WI)

2 medium eggplants (I had only one lovely bell eggplant)

3-4 garlic cloves ( I had one giant one)

1 T minced ginger (I had only powdered so used about 1 t)

2 T soy sauce ( I used Tamari)

2 T rice wine/vinegar

1 T sesame oil

½ t crushed red papper flakes    salt to taste

pita bread or other crackers or flatbread like naan

Cut off eggplant stem, pierce with a fork all over, and cook on a baking sheet for at 350F for about an hour, or until VERY soft. When cool to handle, remove skin. Process garlic in processor, add eggplant, a can of chick peas (because I didn’t have the second eggplant I substituted) and the ginger. Gradually add the liquids, then the pepper flakes and salt to taste. I played with the quantities, using a little less of each to start with and adding after tasting. This is a very flexible recipe. It’s really good and a change from a middle eastern hummus dip.

Refrigerate up to 4 days or freeze. I froze a previous batch and it came out nicely creamy when it was defrosted. Even people who say they don’t like eggplant, like my honey, like this garlic-y dip.

Hummus – Baba Ganouj

1 bell eggplant
1 can garbanzo beans (chickpeas)
a big clove of garlic
tahini
olive oil
Greek yogurt
lemon juice
cumin, salt, cayenne pepper

I had a nice bell eggplant that I didn’t want to go to waste so I decided to make a dip. I pierced the eggplant all over with a fork and roasted it in a 400° oven for about 35 to 45 minutes or until it was nice and soft. When this was cool, I cut it open and scooped out the insides.
I put them into my food processor.
I added a drained and rinsed can of garbanzo beans and 2 T of tahini, a T of plain Greek yogurt, 1 T of olive oil, and a cut up clove of garlic. I whirled this around a bit and then added about a teaspoon of lemon juice, a half t of cumin, some salt, and a pinch of cayenne. I mixed this in and then tasted it. I added more oil, and seasonings, to taste, and processed until smooth.
I liked the way the yogurt gave it a creamier taste, though I didn’t process it super smooth, left it a bit of texture.
Really YUMMY!

Bean Spread

I decided that I needed a nice bean spread to add to my cheese sandwich.

I took a can of organic fava beans and organic black beans and blended them with a big garlic clove, some olive oil, a sprinkle of crushed red pepper, a sprinkle of dried basil flakes. Adjust the seasonings to your taste. Add water to thin a bit, a dash of lemon juice,  and salt to taste.

I was very pleased with how this turned out. I did it thick so it worked as a spread, but you can thin it with more liquid (oil and water) so it could work as a dip.

PESTO

PESTO

I got some beautiful basil at my farmer’s market and decided it was time for PESTO making.
I didn’t have any pine nuts, as usual. I’ve used cashews in the past, but didn’t have any of those, so I used what I had, almonds and pecans.
So here’s my current recipe, and it turned out great!

3 Cups of fresh basil leaves
some grated parmesan, about 2 T (mine was coarsely shredded with my mueli grater and was maybe a tad more than this. I think you can do more or less.)
3 cloves of garlic
1/3 cup of nuts (I slivered my whole almonds and broke the pecan halves into bits to make work easier in the processor)
1/8 C water
1/8 C olive oil, or more as you like
½ teaspoon of lemon juice
salt

Process the nuts in your machine (I used a food processor but a blender will work) then add some water, and blend more. After that I added the cheese and garlic and processed a bit before gradually adding the basil leaves. Add your lemon juice (or not) and then gradually add the olive oil & some salt. Taste. Add more olive oil until you get the texture and taste you like.
You can easily play with the proportions.

This is very yummy! And healthy.