Presidential Pie Recipe

Eat Like President Obama

White House Pastry Chef Serves up a Favorite

Yield: Serves 10 – 12
Cook Time: 60-120 min

First Lady Michelle Obama and White House Pastry Chef Bill Yosses.

President Barack Obama calls him the crust master and says he’s the mastermind behind the best pies he’s ever tasted. Read more about White House Pastry Chef Bill Yossess’ and learn the secrets behind his apple pie.

Ingredients:
Pie Crust:

• 3 cups (about 13 oz ) all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 10 oz. (2 and 1/2 sticks) cool room temperature, unsalted butter, cut into ¼-inch pieces
• 6-7 tablespoons ice water
• 1 egg and 1 teaspoon salt for egg wash

For Filling:

• 3 lbs apples, such as Gala, Granny Smith or McIntosh, peeled cored and cut into half-inch wedges.
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup honey, preferably local
• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• Zest and juice of one lemon

 

White House Pastry Chef Bill Yosses and the apple pie loved by the president.

Cooking Directions –
Make Crust:

1. Place flour and salt in a food processor and pulse five times. Add butter and pulse until mixture forms chickpea-sized pieces, about 20 seconds. Add ice water 1 tablespoon at a time and pulse until mixture just holds together. Divide dough and form into two equal-sized balls, then press each ball down to form a 5-inch disc. Wrap each disc in plastic and refrigerate for at least two hours and up to two days. On a lightly floured surface roll out each disc into a 14-inch circle. Place one circle between sheets of plastic wrap or parchment paper and refrigerate.
2. Grease a 10-inch deep-dish pie pan and gently place the other circle in the pan, leaving a one-inch overhang. Chill the dough in the pie pan for at least 30 minutes and up to overnight.
3. Preheat oven to 375ºF. Remove the pie pan with the bottom crust from the refrigerator and let soften for five to ten minutes. Fold the edge of the overhang under itself and pinch the dough to form a fluted edge. Line with foil and fill with pie weights, rice, or navy beans. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and lift out foil and pie weights; allow pie shell to cool for 10 minutes.

Make Filling:

1. In a large saucepan, sift together the sugar and cornstarch, then toss with apples, honey, vanilla, cinnamon, lemon juice and zest. Let stand for 20 minutes.
2. Bring fruit mixture to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally until the mixture has thickened slightly, making sure fruit does not stick to the bottom of saucepan. Remove from heat and cool.
3. Whisk the egg and salt and brush the rim of the prebaked pie shell. Fill with the fruit filling and then lay the second dough circle over the filling, press very gently around the edges to make sure the egg wash seals the top pie dough to the bottom pre-baked crust. With a paring knife, puncture the top pie dough in a wide circle about 10 times with the tip of the knife to form steam vents. Brush top with remaining egg wash and sprinkle with sugar.
4. Bake another 30-40 minutes or until the pie filling is starting to bubble out the vents and the top pie crust is golden brown. Remove to a cooling rack and allow to cool for 1-2 hours before serving.

(The egg wash is an egg that is stirred and thinned out by adding salt, it is then used as a paint to give color to the finished baked product or to stick the two doughs together, in this case the top and bottom of the pie.)

 

 

Franklin Pierce Mexican Cheese Dip

Reportedly, the 14th United States President Franklin Pierce enjoyed this appetizer.   The recipe is below so you can judge for yourself if it is good.

The 14th President of the United States of America, Franklin Pierce

Ingredients: 

• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 or 2 medium Jalapeño peppers, seeded and finely chopped
• 3 1/2 c. cooked tomatoes, peeled, seeded, chopped
• 5 c. Cheddar cheese, grated
• 1 tsp. celery salt
• Thin slices of toasted French bread

Directions:  In a frying pan, cook onions and garlic in oil until translucent. Add Jalapeño peppers and tomatoes.  Simmer 10 minutes. Drain excess cooking liquid.

Add cheese and celery salt.  Continue to simmer 10 minutes more.

Serve warm or chilled with toasted French bread.

Yield: 14 servings (about 1/2c. each)

Calories: 195 per serving

Hershey’s® Firecracker Cake

Blow their minds with this dessert this 4th of July.

Light up the party with this treat!

 

Yield: Serves 8 to 10.

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs, separated
• 1/2 cup plus 1/3 cup granulated sugar, divided
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup HERSHEY’S® Cocoa
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup water
• Powdered sugar
• 1 cup cherry pie filling
• 1 tub (8 oz.) frozen whipped topping, thawed and divided
• HERSHEY’S KISSES® Brand Milk Chocolate, HERSHEY’S HUGS® Brand Chocolates, HERSHEY’S MINIATURES® Chocolate Bars
• Blueberries, raspberries, halved strawberries
• 1 TWIZZLERS® Strawberry Twists

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375 F. Line 15-1/2×10-1/2×1-inch jelly-roll pan with foil; generously grease foil.
2. Beat egg whites in large bowl until foamy; gradually add 1/2 cup granulated sugar, beating until stiff peaks form.
3. Beat egg yolks and vanilla in small bowl on high speed of mixer about 3 minutes. Gradually add remaining 1/3 cup granulated sugar; continue beating 2 minutes. Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to egg yolk mixture alternately with water on low speed, beating just until batter is smooth.
4. Fold chocolate mixture gradually into egg whites; spread evenly in prepared pan.
5. Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until top springs back when touched lightly in center. Immediately loosen cake from edges of pan;invert on towel sprinkled with powdered sugar. Carefully remove foil. Immediately roll cake in towel, starting from narrow end; place on wire rack to cool.
6. Unroll cake; remove towel. Spread with pie filling and 1-1/2 cups whipped topping; reroll cake. Frost cake with remaining whipped topping. Place candies and fruit on frosted cake so that they form stripes around the cake. Add strawberry twist for “wick.” Refrigerate until serving time.

Summer Nights from the movie “Grease”

Here’s a scene from the 1978 movie “Grease,” based on the musical of the same name, starring Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta.  It is the song “Summer Nights.” 

Set in high school, most of the principal cast were way past their high school years. When filming began in June 1977, John Travolta was 23, Olivia Newton-John was 28, Stockard Channing was 33, Jeff Conaway was 26, Barry Pearl was 27, Michael Tucci was 31, Kelly Ward was 20, Didi Conn was 25; Jamie Donnelly was 30, and Annette Charles was 29; Dinah Manoff, Lorenzo Lamas, and Eddie Deezen were all 19.

Chicken Caesar Salad – A Blend Of Taste And Health

Give this salad a try.

Food 4 Your Mood

We have discussed about the benefits of Gluten-free diets and related recipes in the blogs titled “A Gluten-Free Smoothie To Beat Summers“, respectively. Now giving that discussion a more delicious shape, I present a true treat for your taste buds in the guise of Caesar Salad. It’s a lip-smacking continental dish that has croutons and romaine lettuce dressed with olive oil, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, eggs, black pepper, and Parmesan cheese.   

The salad actually got its name from its creator Caesar Cardini, an immigrant from Italy who set up restaurants in the USA and Mexico. The dish actually came into being as a result of depletion in kitchen supplies caused by fourth of July rush in the year 1924. It became hip since then. Though the original dish went through several iterations based on regions and taste preferences, while the juiciness and feel remained more or less…

View original post 222 more words

Summer Lovin’

Famous Beach Scene turns 60

 

During the summer, it isn’t just the sun that gets hot.  Check out this article by Samuel Wigley below.  (Click here to see original post on BFI Film Forever site.)

The famous Beach kiss – Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr in the film “From Here to Eternity.”

 

“The Pacific swells into crests of white foam, its waves crashing on the sand. Two lovers, Sergeant Milton Warden (Burt Lancaster) and army wife Karen Holmes (Deborah Kerr), lie entangled in the wash, oblivious to the surge of the tide over their adulterous embrace. She’s in a halterneck swimsuit; he in black trunks – both gleam with wet in the black and white photography as, breaking apart, they run up the beach to a drier spot. Karen lies down on her towel. Milton drops to his knees, kissing her. “I never knew it could be like this,” she gasps. “No one ever kissed me the way you do.”

Described in words, the famous beach scene in From Here to Eternity (1953) is torrid stuff, without even mentioning the soaring strings of George Duning’s Oscar-nominated score. Of course, as cinema, it’s magic – one of the Golden Age’s most memorably erotic encounters.
The scene was considerably toned down from James Jones’s source novel, about the lives and loves of American soldiers stationed in Hawaii in the leadup to Pearl Harbor. On screen, Milton and Karen aren’t exactly having sex, as they do in the book, but for 1950s cinemagoers they might as well have been. The orgiastic music, the thunder of the waves, trembling bodies, the looks of intent in their eyes – this was strong stuff for films of the time.

This alchemical moment is now 60 years old. Fred Zinnemann’s film premiered in New York on 5 August 1953, and would go on to receive 13 Oscar nominations, winning a total of eight including best picture, best director, best screenplay, best cinematography and best supporting actor for Frank Sinatra.

Nothing, sadly, for Lancaster or Kerr, though both were nominated. But it’s these two, and their amorous clinch in the waves at Halcona Cove, on the island of Oahu, that are the most fondly remembered elements of the film. History records that it was Lancaster’s idea to do the scene lying down in the surf; the script had maintained propriety by having the lovers kissing standing up. With this flash of censor-baiting inspiration, a classic sequence was born that’s lost little of its power in these 60 years. From here to eternity…”

 

To learn more about this charity organization, BFI Film Forever, click here.

 

 

 

Beer and Bananas — What a Combination!

Taste of Home’s Recipe

Beernana Bread

Yield: 1 loaf (16 slices)

Photo by Taste of Home©

Ingredients:

• 3 cups self-rising flour
• 3/4 cup quick-cooking oats
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1-1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3 medium)
• 1 bottle (12 ounces) wheat beer
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375°. In a large bowl, mix flour, oats and brown sugar. In another bowl, mix bananas, beer and maple syrup until blended. Add to flour mixture; stir just until moistened.
Transfer to a greased 9×5-in. loaf pan. Drizzle with oil; sprinkle with sesame seeds and salt. Bake 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes before removing to wire rack to cool.

 

Originally published as Beernana Bread in Simple & Delicious June/July 2013, p52

World Cup Continues

Pelé (born Edson Arantes do Nascimento), a member of 3 Brazilian World-Cup championship teams and 1999 FIFA co-Player of the Century, knows something about hard work and success.  He is considered by many as being the greatest football (soccer to the Americans) player of all time.

Although named after famous inventor Thomas Edison, the nickname Pelé stuck.  — Photo by Bio.com

 

 

Watchin’ Scotty Grow – Bobby Goldsboro

What Father’s Day is All About

 

Bacon Chocolate Bark

Better Homes and Gardens Test Kitchen worked on this creation of chocolate and bacon.

Bacon and Chocolate: What more could you ask for?

Yield: 4 Servings

Ingredients: 

• 2 slices thick-cut bacon
• 1 tablespoon caramel sauce
• Two 1 ounce squares bittersweet chocolate, unwrapped

Directions:
Place bacon on a rack in a shallow pan. Brush bacon with caramel sauce.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 to 25 minutes until crisp. Once cool, cut into 1-inch pieces. Meanwhile, line a small baking sheet with parchment paper. Place bittersweet chocolate square about 1-inch apart prepared baking sheet.

Bake chocolate for 4 to 5 minutes or until softened. Using a spoon, spread the chocolate to a thin even later. Place the bacon pieces on top.

Chill for at least 30 minutes or until chocolate is set. Wrap in plastic wrap. Store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

From the BHG.com Test Kitchen:

To use a candy bar:
If you are using a chocolate candy bar, reduce baking time to 2 to 3 minutes or until softened. Spreading is not necessary.