Ol'Sante Claus: 2014

My Best Recipes

Best Pie Dough

Makes enough dough for one double-, or two single-crust pies.

2 1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (8 ounces, 16 tablespoons or 1 cup) unsalted butter, very cold
chilled water

Gather your ingredients: Fill a one cup liquid measuring cup with water, and drop in a few ice cubes; set it aside. In a large bowl — I like to use a very wide one, so I can get my hands in — whisk together 2 1/2 cups flour, 1 tablespoon of sugar and a teaspoon of salt. Dice two sticks (8 ounces or 1 cup) of very cold unsalted butter into 1/2-inch pieces. Make your mix: Sprinkle the butter cubes over the flour and begin working them in with the pastry blender, using it to scoop and redistribute the mixture as needed so all parts are worked evenly. When all of the butter pieces are the size of tiny peas — this won’t take long — stop. Yes, even if it looks uneven; you’ll thank me later.
Glue it together: Start by drizzling 1/2 cup of the ice-cold water (but not the cubes, if there are any left!) over the butter and flour mixture. Using a rubber or silicon spatula, gather the dough together. You’ll probably need an additional 1/4 cup of cold water to bring it together, but add it a tablespoon as a time. Once you’re pulling large clumps with the spatula, take it out and get your hands in there (see how that big bowl comes in handy?). Gather the disparate damp clumps together into one mound, kneading them gently together.
Pack it up: Divide the dough in half, and place each half on a large piece of plastic wrap. I like to use the sides to pull in the dough and shape it into a disk. Let the dough chill in the fridge for one hour, but preferably at least two, before rolling it out.

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Children Know Claus

I was in the store yesterday when I encountered two children with their Grandmother. The older child started telling the younger that I was Santa Claus and citing all the trappings. Daddy said he had a big belly and a white beard. As she spoke her eyes glistened and her small hand pointed to each sign and symbol. Children are magic, smart and inventive. It indicates to me it is that Special time of year. I am Ready!

Santas Mountain Lubatin-Sar Mountain Range

This is the sight I see out my front door. I have taken many photos of this wonderful view. I never tire of looking at the Lubitan. I love this place. Ljuboten peak although not being the highest peak of the range, is certainly the most attractive and bewildering peak of the Sar Mountains. It is somewhat isolated from the rest of the mountains making it stand out as far as Pristina. It in turn it may be called the 'Matterhorn' of the Sar Mountains. Ljuboten is best viewed from its northern face in Kosovo.

Apple Butter/Jus Like Aunt Ada's

CROCK POT APPLE BUTTER

Put 3 quarts of apples, sliced thin, in a crock pot and cook overnight on high. Next morning, add 2 teaspoons cinnamon, 3 cups sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cloves. Cook all day on low. Tastes like old-fashioned apple butter that is cooked in copper kettle.
You can use applesauce if you do not have time to prepare the apples. The crock pot makes it possible for apples to cook a long time without being stirred.
I love this recipe and have made it a number of times. It is delicious, easy, one bite and I am instantly transformed to my youth, when my Great Aunt Ada cooked this on a wood stove. She had an old copper pot that she used for canning, makeing apple sauce, applebutter, and all sorts of candy. I also remember the stack cakes she cooked in a cast iron skillet. She would spread each layer with jelly, jam, or apple sauce. A hot, steaming cup of cafe au lait, (half hot coffee/half hot milk) from the old blue enamel pot, always on the back of the wood stove. My mind races back to Flow Blue Platters, Blue Willow Dishes and Mason Jars of Marmalade.
Grace Please! Baba

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Thursday, November 20, 2014

Children Know Claus

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Apple Butter/Jus Like Aunt Ada's