Pi Day, March 14, 2010

Chocolate Pistachio, Butternut, Chocolate Mint

'Pi Day', or more accurately, 'Pi Approximation Day', is recognized on the 14th day of the 3rd month; hence 3.14 the mathematical constant used in geometric equations involving circular objects. It is mostly recognized by geeks and people who love pies. Fortunately both of these apply to me.

I have been aware of Di Day for a few years but have never celebrated it in the past. This year I decided to throw a Pi Day Party. I invited some close friends over to enjoy some homemade pie and good company. I have never had so many people over at my place before and it went great. I am glad that so many people had a good time.

For this party I served 4 different pies: Apple, Butternut, Chocolate Pistachio, and Chocolate Mint. I have made the first three but the Chocolate Mint is a new experiment; it uses a pudding base similar to the one found in the Chocolate Pistachio Pie recipe (http://fromthemindofkenneth.blogspot.com/2009/11/chocolate-pstachio-pie.html). The basic pudding pie filling I use includes pudding mix, maple syrup, eggs, and melted butter. Such pudding based pie fillings usually turn out to be moist, spongy and soft. The chocolate pudding filling is topped with crushed King Peppermints that I received from a care package a few months ago (Thanks Mom and Dad!). It turned out pretty good.

Chocolate Mint Pie

1 pkg. Chocolate Pudding Mix
1 tbsp. Maple Syrup
3 Eggs
2 tbsp. Melted Butter
3/4 c. Milk
1 Chocolate Pie Shell
1 tsp. peppermint powder
1/2 c. crushed peppermints
(The last two items can be obtained from crushing 2 rolls of King Peppermints)

1. Crush peppermints, sift out powder and larger chunks.
2. Mix well pudding mix, syrup, eggs, butter, milk, and powdered peppermints into a large bowl.
3. Pour the mixture into the pie shell and sprinkle with peppermint chunks.
4. Bake for 30 minutes at 325 F.

One man's junk is another man's treasure

For those of you who don't know what I have been up to recently, I am kind of on the down and out. For the past 3 months I have been looking for work in Edmonton but have been unsuccessful. I am looking for part time work while I deal with some things and I think finding part time work is more difficult than finding full time work.

Although I do have money left over from my last job and I am kind of been supported through family, friends and EI I am still ambitious to make more so I can support myself. Since work is hard to find I have resorted to finding whatever I can as I journey through the city. Some times I find loose change or bottles and cans or discarded clothing... whatever. If I think it is useful and someone threw it away I might take it.

Anyway, Yesterday I started to do something I did not do before, I started to dig through trash cans to look for recyclables. I found many bottles and cans that people had placed in the wrong spot, but also some other interesting items:

• A decent cake pan (the kind with the removable side)
• A pair of gloves
• A slightly dented unopened can of diced tomatoes
• An unpeeled greenish yellow banana
• A pair of Uggs
• A pack of sheets talking about self esteem (very good advice for me on those sheets)

I took everything but the Uggs; they were not my size. Digging through the trash is humbling, but I am sure that it is a reality that many people have come to in these hard times.

I feel that I am being drawn towards a lifestyle of poverty and that I can not seem to escape from it. During the last Bible Study I went to someone posed the question 'What is God doing in your life [right now]?' This question is based on the assumption that God is always doing something in my life whether I am aware of it or not. Therefore, whatever I am going through right now, God has a part to play in it. This leads me to believe that my state of semi-poverty is somehow ordained, even if it hurts and I don't understand. What is God trying to tell me?

In a recent Facebook status I talked about foot washing and how it has appeared in my life throughout the past 6ish years. The symbol of washing someones feet brings up ideas of humility, service, health, cleanliness, relationship, trust, etc.; it is all around a good thing. When I couple foot washing with my exposure to a lifestyle of poverty I begin to wonder if I am supposed to 'wash the feet of the poor' or whatever that might mean realistically. I will have to look at this closely.

Pankegg

The Pankegg. 50% Pancake, 50% Egg, 50% Awesome... That's 150% in case you are counting. I first heard of the pankegg from the video blogger ZeFrank. A couple years ago he he had a video blog simply called the "The Show". It ran for one year and encouraged viewers to interact with each other through a social network called the ORG. I got involved by sharing photographs and videos. Unfortunately neither The Show or The ORG is producing anything new; The Show is archived and The ORG was abandoned. At the end of one of the last episodes Ze frank teaches his audience how to make a pankegg. That episode can be seen here: http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/archives/2007/02/022707.html.

Basically I start making a pancake as usual, either with a pancake mix or by scratch. As the first side of the pancake is grilling it forms holes. When the pancake has holes throughout it is ready to flip. Lift it off the pan, crack an egg and flip the pancake on top of the egg. Pat the pankegg down with the flipper so that the egg side covers the pancake; just separate any egg bits that spill out. Then fry it on the egg side till it reaches the desired runniness. The result is a pancake with an egg fused to it on one side. If it is done excellently both sides of the pankegg will look similar. I usually eat it with butter and syrup, but it could probably be eaten with ketchup... if that is your thing. Enjoy.

50% pancake

50% egg

50% awesome

=

150% pankegg!

Erin's Fabulous Baking

Every week I have the pleasure of visiting my friends Matt and Erin to have a bible study with them and other friends from church. It is a time to discuss topics of faith and religion, socialize and of course... enjoy some of the finest food and drink! Matt can usually be found making hot drinks such as lattes, hot chocolate or his signature hot apple cider ( Christmas only :( ) for guests as they arrive. Meanwhile Erin puts the finishing touches on whatever delicious food she is making that evening.

Last week we were treated to "Chocolate Dump Cake" which was great. Apparently it is super easy to make as well. I do not know the exact ingredients but I do know that it has chocolate and peanut butter in it with is always a win. All it needs is to mix the ingredients together in a microwavable container and put it in the microwave for 10 minutes and its done! Above is a picture of the remains of the "Chocolate Dump Cake" after it had mostly been devoured. The week before she made a dessert pizza made with a cookie crust, cream cheese cake filling, and fruit toppings, it was great too!

I look forward to meeting this week, not just for the great food and drink, but also for great discussions and great friends.

Does the Deep Fryer = perfection?

Last night I was at a friends house and I had a discussion about deep fried food basically being awesome, unmatched in taste. My friend (of the male persuasion of course) made a comment like, "the deep fryer equals perfection", or, "everything is made perfect when it is deep fried." Now, I would agree that deep fried food is awesome and the taste is usually great... but perfection? That would mean that the deep frying method is always better than other methods.

As I was going to sleep last night I decided to run a little experiment, a competition if you will between deep frying and pan frying. For this first experiment I chose to make french toast. I have never prepared french toast before but it is super easy, I found a recipe from cooks.com here: http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,195,135187-243192,00.html. I made the coating and coated 2 slices of bread; one for the pan and one for the deep fryer. Because bread floats in the deep fryer it is necessary to flip it over part way through (just like the pan fried one) so both sides are submerged in the oil.

The results were not surprising. The pan fried french toast came out delicious and great where as the deep fried french toast came out nice and crispy. I had no issues with the pan fried french toast which turn out the way french toast should. But the deep fried french toast was less appetizing because the inside was still soft and therefore retained a lot of oil. I still ate it... I guess that's why I try to go to the gym regularly. So the winner here is definitely the pan fried french toast, sorry Matt.

Next I tried a variation on the french toast idea just because I love to experiment in the kitchen. I had a small jar of raspberry jelly that I was not using in the fridge and decided to spread some on before coating the bread. I carefully spread the jelly on both sides of the bread and again put a slice in the pan and in the deep fryer.

The results this time were a bit more surprising. I figured that the pan fried french toast would again turn out better but it turned out to be quite soggy and not much like french toast at all. They both tasted like they had the jelly on it but the deep fried french toast came out much like it had in the first test; nice and crunchy (but oily too of course). In this case I much preferred the deep fried version; so in this case the winner is the deep fryer.

To be fair to my beloved deep fryer the odds were stacked against it. 1. it is an old deep fryer. 2. The oil was not fresh and clean. 3. The recipe used in this experiment was meant for pan fried french toast.

If anyone has any other suggestions for kitchen experiments I would love to try them out. Please let me know, Thanks.

Black n' Blue Crumble Pie

Last week I posed a question on Facebook asking what king of top crust I should try for my next pie. Based on those suggestions I wanted to try and do a lattice top. Unfortunately I didn't do it right and I did and epic fail :( I tried to do it while the filling was hot and was unable to weave it. The dough just melted and it got really messy.

I was out of the necessary ingredients to make more regular crust so I needed to improvise. I decided that a crumbly kind of crust might work. I had a box of Oatmeal Squares cereal that I didn't really enjoy as a breakfast cereal. But it is a pretty good texture for baking. So I just crushed some of those (the recipe below says 1 1/2 cups but I can't remember exactly how much I used, best to just eyeball it) and added it to a brown sugar sauce. It seemed to work just fine. You can of course make a different type of crumbly topping using other kinds of cereal; I could see it working with Golden Grahams or Cinnamon Toast Crunch as well. If I try this again I think I might use less sugar all around.

Left: Pie filling that is thick. Centre: Ingredients. Right: Adding Berries and butter.

Filling:

3/4 c. sugar

1 c. blueberry/blackberry juice

1/4 tsp. salt

1 c. blueberries

1 1/2 c. blackberries

2 tbsp. flour

1 1/2 tbsp. cornstarch

2 tbsp. butter

Top Crust:

1 1/2 c. crushed Oatmeal Squares cereal

6 tbsp. brown sugar

2 tbsp. butter

Filling:

1. Combine sugar, salt, flour, and cornstarch; mix well.

2. Add juice; cook until thickened.

3. Add berries and butter, stir till butter is melted.

4. Put into bottom crust (of your choice).

Top Crust:

5. Melt butter and brown sugar.

6. Add crushed Oatmeal Squares cereal; mix well.

7. Cover Pie with top crust evenly.

8. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.

Together at last.

Bacon + Mayonnaise = Baconnaise.

Together at last.

If your interested here is the website: http://www.baconnaise.com/. Also, it is available across Canada at London Drugs.