Life is a Piece of Pie

Yesterday was prep for the feast today. The stuffing has been made already before my mom and I even had breakfast. And the pies are made. Pies are one of the things that I like making because they are so simple yet very delicious. Here's my favorite pie crust recipe from Jenna Wogenrich's Made from Scratch.
1 1/2 sticks butter, chilled
2 tbs vegetable shortening
1 tbs sugar
2 cups flour
3 tbs ice water

Cut butter into cubes and place into bowl. Add shortening and sugar.

 Add flour and cut into butter mixture with a pastry blender or food processor until it looks like coarse cornmeal.

 Add ice water until it looks like this.

 Place half of the dough onto plastic wrap. Take two edges and press then to the center and repeat until you form disks like.....

 ...This. Chill for at least one hour.

 Roll out and place into pie plate. The easiest way to do this is to place the pie plate upside down onto the pie crust. Grip two edges of the pie crust and hold the pie plate and flip it.

Now I made pumpkin but do whatever filling you want.

The finished product. Yum!

Herbalious Chicken Noodle Soup

The other night I made the most scrumptious soup never. Who ever new chicken noodle soup could be this good? I sort of had my own way to the recipe in the Better Homes cookbook adding oil, more veggies, parsley,  and more noodles. The more I cook the more I get a sense of what goes with what and how much of that ingredient I like. I'm more of a "to taste" sort of person than following a recipe to the T. Well, for baking I follow it! So, I reworked some of the ingredients to suite me and even how to prepare it.
Someone really needs to start working on scratch and sniff computer screens.
Let's start with the soup backbone. Onions and celery. Soup wouldn't be soup with out these two things. Add to the backbone a little support with herbs then add the body. Your finished product is a masterpiece.

Rachel's Chicken Noodle Soup
2 c cubed chicken (cooked or uncooked)
1 1/2 tbs oil
1/2 c celery
1/2 c onion
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried parsley
48 oz can chicken stock
16 oz. package of frozen veggies
1 c egg noodles
pepper to taste

Pour about 1 1/2 tbs of oil into pot and cooked chicken in it.(Skip if already cooked) Remove chicken and place onions, celery, and herbs into pot and cook until onions start to appear translucent. Add in chicken stock and veggies. Wait until it boils then add noodles. Wait for it to return to boiling and turn the heat down to low and cover for 8 minutes. Add in chicken and heat until chicken is warm.
Serve on a nice chilly Autumn day.

Microwave Popcorn is Good?!

About a year ago I posted about how I hate microwave pop corn because it just doesn't taste very good. I preferred the stove top method a lot better. But now, after searching for recipes that you can cook in a dorm (as a little cookbook present to a friend) I found another way to make delicious popcorn.

Things You'll Need:
Brown paper lunch bag
Stapler
1/4 c popcorn kernels
1 tsp oil
Salt or other seasonings

Place all of the ingredients into the paper bag. Swirl to distribute. Refold bag getting all of the air out. Fold top of bag down twice and staple. Place in microwave for 3 minutes. Don't worry about the staple sparking in the microwave just keep the staple away from the edges of the microwave.
You can bet I wont be buying microwave popcorn again! And the best thing is no box, to plastic, and the bag is reusable and recyclable!

Note: The recipes and video do not match.

The Great Soda Challenge! Drink Recipe # 3: Ye Ole Fashioned Iced Tea

To make 2 quarts

6 tea bags*
1/4 c sugar
2 quarts water

In a pot combine sugar and 1 cup of water. On high heat, stir until sugar dissolves. Turn burner off and place tea bags in pot. Steep covered for 20 minutes making a concentrated brew. Pour concentrate into pitcher and fill the rest of the way with water. Chill. Serve with ice and enjoy.

*At the supermarket this is a huge variety of teas. Black, green, white, oolong, and pu erh are the five categories of teas. You will most likely find the first four listed in your supermarket. A few brands make life easy and put flavoring in their teas. To make things interesting choose a few flavors and use them instead or with your standard tea bags. Get experimental and switch it up! Also, instead of ice, try frozen fruits.

The Great Soda Challenge! Drink Recipe # 2

Honey Lemonade

1/2 c water
1 1/2 c lemon juice
2/3 c honey
6 c water

Heat 1/2 c water, lemon juice, and honey in a sauce pan until the honey dissolves in with the water and lemon juice. Pour in to pitcher and add 6 c of water. Chill and serve with ice.

This definatly tastes a lot better than commerical lemonades!

Dear My Future Man

Worry not about food for I make it from scratch! You will never go hungry.

Baked chicken fingers. Flaky buttermilk biscuits. Garden fresh green beans from my garden. Can a girl ask for more?
Including buttermilk biscuits in the menu was inspired by the Mobile Home Woman when she was determined to make biscuits. They were so easy! But one BIG tip. Make sure your baking powder isn't old! My biscuits barely rose and were dense.
As for the breading for the chicken I used about four palms full of plain bread crumbs, about 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp parsley flakes, 1/4 tsp pepper, and 2 tbs parmesan cheese. Then I dredged the strips of chicken through milk, flour, milk, then the breadcrumb mixture. Don't forget to lightly grease your pan!
Edit Note: To cut my biscuits I did not use a biscuit cutter. Instead I used a glass cup dipped in a little flour to cut them.

The Great Soda Challenge! Drink Recipe # 1

Every Monday of the Great Soda Challenge I will post a recipe.

Drink recipe #1

Easy Minty Iced Tea
2 quarts water
6 regular sized tea bags
1 sprig of mint
2 tsp honey

Fill a 2 quart pitcher with water.  You can boil water for a quicker brewing time but who wants to heat up the house? Place six tea bags in water and leave at room temperature for two to three hours until water takes on an amber brown color. Remove tea bags. Take a sprig of mint a bruise it gentle in your hands. Place mint in pitcher and drizzle in 2 teapsoon of honey in mixture