Concord Grape Pie

Across the street from our house we have delicious Concord grapes that grow wild. There were so many of them this year, we harvested them and tried to find a good recipe. We were about to start making jam when we saw the idea of a grape pie. Even though it sounded strange, this pie tastes amazing. It is both sweet and tart, soothing and instigating- a terrific pie. I've made it twice so far, and both times it has been a pie with a shockingly delicious full taste. I didn't get a picture of a slice of the pie, because it was eaten much too quickly. If you have Concord grapes- make this pie!





Concord Grape Pie

5 cups Concord Grapes, gently rinsed
1 cup sugar
4 tbsp flour
juice of half a lemon
2 tbsp butter


For topping

3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup melted butter




Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Remove skin from grapes, but save the skins for later. This is the lengthiest part of the preparation! Remove any gross or rotten looking grapes and skins.





Simmer grape pulp on the stove for about five minutes. When pulp gets nice and soft and squishy transfer to the food mill. Press through a sieve or food mill, which removes the pits.



Mix skins and pulp together in a bowl.



Combine the cup of sugar with the 4 tablespoons of flour and then add to the grapes, stirring well. Squeeze out the juice of half a lemon into the mixture, or use 1 tbsp or so of lemon juice. Add 2 tbsp butter (this is easier if you've melted the butter).


Pour the mixture into the pie shell (it is fantastic if you've made your own pie shell, but I definitely did not).



Now its time to make the topping which is crucial to the overall taste of the pie.





Blend 3/4 cup flour, 1/2 cup sugar and 1/3 cup melted butter. With clean hands sprinkle the mixture over the top of the pie until covered loosely with all the topping.




Bake at 350 for 40 -45 minutes. This pie will make your whole house smell delicious!

Bison Meatloaf

My brother and father both claimed this was the best meatloaf they had ever eaten. Were they exaggerating? You'll have to judge for yourself, but I LOVED it!

Bison Meatloaf
1 lb ground bison meat (1lb is the package size from my grocery store)
1 tbsp butter (or more)
1 small onion diced
1 large clove garlic minced (or more!)
2 eggs
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp parsley
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp basil
freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup half and half
1 1/2 tbsp ketchup
1 1/4 cups bread crumbs (the fresher the better, but from a box will work just fine)

Glaze: (amounts are suggestions, you can play around with these)
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 tsp balsamic vinegar (or white or red wine vinegar)
4 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Melt the butter in a skillet/frying pan and saute the onions and garlic in it until nice and soft. Set aside.

Mix together the eggs, seasonings, ketchup and half and half.



With clean hands blend in the bison meat into the mixture. When the liquid is well distributed add the onions and garlic.
Add the bread crumbs and mix well.



Place the meatloaf into one or two meatloaf pans, depending on the size of your pans. Bake in 325 degree oven for 30-50 minutes, checking that the internal temperature reaches 140 degrees. Take meatloaf out and spread glaze over the loaves, then return to oven until the temperature reaches 165 degrees.

For the glaze:
Put the dark brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce and vinegar in a saucepan. Heat to simmer, stirring constantly to dissolve the brown sugar. Once everything is dissolved and well mixed (maybe 5 minutes or so), you can pour the glaze on the meatloaf.


Delicious!

Chocolate Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies and Bars

I wanted something sweet the other night and decided to look at the recipe on the back of the Reese's Peanut Butter Chips bag. It looked delicious- but like it was missing something- chocolate chips, and some deeper cocoa flavors. The dough was so thick my hand held mixer actually burned out (I could smell it!). So maybe consider switching to hand mixing towards the end.

The cookies turned out really yummy, but the bars are absolutely fantastic. I think my mother's eyes rolled into the back of her head when she tasted the bars. 4 stars for this recipe!!

Chocolate Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

2 cup flour

1/2 cup Hershey's European Style Cocoa

1/4 cup Ghirardelli Unsweetened Cocoa

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 sticks butter, softened

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1 package Reese's Peanut Butter Chips

1/2 package Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate Chips

Parchment paper for lining baking sheet

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Stir the flour, cocoas, baking soda and salt together and then set aside. Beat the butter and sugar until they are creamy and fluffy, then add the eggs and vanilla. Continue to beat with a mixer. Gradually add the flour mixture, mixing well.

When all the ingredients are well incorporated add the peanut butter chips and the dark chocolate chips. This dough tasted delicious!

I usually line my baking sheet with parchment paper, which helps the cookies bake evenly and avoid burning (due to high sugar content!).

Form teaspoon size balls and place on baking sheet, with enough space for spreading. Bake 8-9 minutes, but don't over bake. Let cookies cool on tray for a few minutes before moving to wire rack/parchment paper/newspaper, etc.

Chocolate Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

Follow directions above, but instead of dropping cookie dough onto baking sheet, spread dough into 8x8 greased baking pan and cook for 20 minutes.

I had enough dough for about 20 small cookies and an 8x8 pan of bars.

Happy eating!

Too many Tomatoes! Casserole

Our garden produced an amazing amount of tomatoes this year, and by October we were looking for new ways to consume them. I found a recipe for Thracian Tomato Casserole which claimed to be typical of the Thracian region of southern Bulgaria. I decided to change the recipe a bit to fit our needs more (namely, I added cheese!). Also I was working with cherry tomatoes, so the look is very different.

Too many Tomatoes! Casserole

2 1/4 lb tomatoes, sliced

3 tbsp chopped parsley

2.5 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp sugar

1 cup breadcrumbs

1/2 tsp paprika

salt

chopped or dried parsley

1/2 cup grated Parmesan

1tbsp dried chives

1 tbsp salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and brush a casserole dish with 1 tbsp or so of the oil.

Place sliced tomatoes into the dish so that they overlap and layer. If you are using large tomatoes you can make a pretty layered look, but if you are using cherry tomatoes you can't really worry too much about how it looks- just get them in there!

Sprinkle the tomatoes with the sugar and salt.

In a bowl, mix together the breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, paprika and remaining olive oil.

Sprinkle the mixture over the tomatoes.

Sprinkle chives and parsley over the casserole.

Bake for 40-50 minutes. If the topping starts getting too brown, cover the dish with foil.

Serve hot or cold, with bread, or without!

Russian Chicken Cutlets

I'm not sure if this is an actual Russian recipe- but the dill definately brings out an Eastern European flavor! This recipe is an easy and quick way to make a meal out of ground chicken or turkey.

Russian Chicken cutlets

2 rolls white bread, or two slices italian, french, or hearty white bread, crusts removed

1/3 cup half and half

1.3 lb ground chicken or turkey (one package)

1 egg

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground pepper

1/2 tsp dill

5 tbsp butter , 3 of them at room temperature

1 cup bread crumbs

2 tbsp (or so) olive oil for frying

Break the bread into bits and soak with half and half until the fairly saturated (at least two minutes). Add in the egg, chicken, salt, pepper and dill and 3 tbsp of butter at room temperature. I added a lot more dill than listed- probably 2 tsp at least. After mixing stick the bowl in the freezer or fridge to harden up a bit for 8-12 minutes.

Form mixture into patties (it will still be very soft and pliable), and coat them with bread crumbs.

Heat the remaining butter and oil over a medium heat and lightly fry the cutlets until the are a nice golden brown, at least 4 minutes per side.

Serve with a nice Russian salad, or some Polish pampushki!

Yummy Recipe for Beet Greens

Our garden has an overabundance of beet greens- even late in the season. You can just steam beet greens and serve them with butter, but its nice to have something a little more interesting once in a while. I've tried this recipe 4 times and I have found that you need to stick to the directions fairly closely, otherwise you will overcook or over flavor your beet greens!

Yummy Beet Greens Recipe
1 lb beet greens (you can soak to wash, and rinse heavily)
3 cloves garlic, sliced or minced
1 tbs butter (or more :)
2 tbs olive oil
1/2 tsp chicken bouillon paste (or 1/2 chicken bouillon cube)
1/4 cup water

Bring the water to a busy boil and add the washed beet greens. You may have to wait for the first batch to cook down a bit before you can add the rest. Add in the garlic. Make sure to stir regularly to move the beet greens around- otherwise some will cook much more than others. As the beet greens cook down and the water has evaporated a bit, add the butter.

Turn the heat down to a med-low setting depending on your stove. Cook for 4-6 minutes after the beet greens wilted.

Mix together the bouillon cube with the olive oil. Add to the beet greens after the butter has melted.

Stir stir stir!! Drain, and serve with salt and pepper if desired.

Easy Pan-Fried Chicken

This recipe was created by my father. We've been using Japanese Bread Flakes for pan-fries (we don't do many deep-fries around here) and the result is a meat that doesn't feel like its going to clog your arteries! This is a nice easy main course for a meal. It was also very delectable- I look forward to trying it again!

Easy Pan-Fried Chicken (and Mushrooms)

Ingredients:

chicken tenders (or chicken breasts cut/pounded thin)

1 egg

dash of water

Japanese Bread Crumbs

Seasonings (Creole mix suggested)

Olive Oil

Mushrooms, whole or sliced

Directions:

Mix egg and water to create an egg wash. Dip chicken in egg wash.

Mix Creole Seasonings (or Italian, Parmesan, whatever) with Japanese Bread Crumbs. Dip chicken in bread crumb mix.

Put olive oil in cast iron skillet (enough to just barely coat the pan). Add chicken and surround with mushrooms. Cook on high until the bottom sides of the chicken strips are brown and crispy. Flip chicken over, cover the skillet with a saucepan lid (it is okay if its a bit to small) and reduce heat. If you keep the heat around low-medium you can let the other side of the chicken heat slowly while you fix the other vegetables to go with dinner (we had mashed potatoes, string beans and asparagus).

When ready cut largest strip in middle to make sure there is no pink left.

Voila!