The flakiest pie crust

Some people hate the crust, some people love it.  Personally, I am for the tastiest crusts you can find, but I had a grandmother who made the real deal.

Do not expect this to taste like a flavor-less grocery store crust (though it might not be as pretty), but do expect a flaky, tasty finished product.

This recipe makes two crusts: a top and a bottom to a covered pie, or two separate bottom-only pies.
Ingredients:
2 sticks of butter, cold but not frozen (sitting in the fridge overnight, at the least)*
2 1/2 cups flour (I like do 2 1/4 cups flour and 1/4 cup almond flour or ground almonds for the flavor and crunch, but that's purely personal)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup of water

Directions:
 Set your water in the freezer while you do the first steps.  You want it to be very cold.

Put flour and almond flour (if using) in a large mixing bowl with sugar and salt.   Give it a quick stir to make sure the sugar and salt are evenly mixed throughout the flour.

Set the COLD butter (I mean it!  Not room temperature, melted, or soft.  COLD)  in the bowl.  With a pastry cutter (see one here) or two knives, cut the butter up into the flour until it looks like cornmeal (you'll still see flecks of butter.  That's fine!  It makes it tastier)

Now pull your water out of the freezer and add it in.  Start with 4 tablespoons, then work your way up one tablespoon at a time until the dough is sticking together, but not sticky on the outside.  If a little flour remains on the bottom, press the dough down into it and knead just a few times (You don't want it to get hot) until the flour is all incorporated.

Divide dough in half and pat into a disc.  Cover with cling wrap and set in the fridge for at least 2 hours.  (I've found that leaving the dough overnight can make it too hard to work with for me.  I don't much recommend it.)

Take your discs out and roll them out, one at a time, on a lightly floured surface.  You'll probably need to put a bit on top of the dough too to keep it from sticking to your rolling pin.  Dough should be about 1/4 inch thick to stretch out to the proper size for a 9 inch pie pan.  To make moving the crust over to the pan easier, roll it around your rolling pin, then slide it off into the pan.

For the most attractive crust you can manage, fold any excess crust back under the edges forming a fairly regular circle around the edge of the pan.  Then, using your thumbs, press the dough over and in with just a little space in between your thumbs all the way around.

Bake about 10 minutes before you add the pie filling, or as the recipe directs.  (without filling, the bottom can rise.  You can put a handful of dried beans in the bottom or pie beads and it will keep it flat.  Really not the end of the world, though.



*Do not melt your butter or soften it!  If you do, you'll have a thick, solid, dense pie crust.

Onion bagels (Like a BOSS!)

If you, like me, love the poor misunderstood onion bagel, then you know the pain of trying to find them in a grocery store.  As the years go on, it seems you can find them less and less places, and even when you do they're just not as great as you remember.

So what's an onion bagel lover to do?  Make them, obviously!

Ingredients:
2 cups warm water*
2 packages dry yeast (or 4 1/2 teaspoons of the kind you get in a jar)
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon salt (I like rock salt, but that's me.  Doesn't actually matter too much)
1/2 chopped dehydrated onions (they're in your spice aisle, usually on the bottom shelf in a big jar)
5 cups of flour, plus more if needed
1 tablespoon baking soda

Directions:
 Mix the water and sugar together in a large mixing bowl, then sprinkle the yeast on top.  Let it sit for about 10 minutes (If you don't have a foamy top of active yeast after ten minutes, your yeast is dead.  Start over with new yeast.  DO NOT go any further with the recipe if your yeast isn't rising)

Stir in salt and onions, then add in flour.  Start with 3 cups, then work your way up until you're kneading the dough and it isn't sticky at all anymore.

Coat dough with melted butter on all sides, cover, and let rise 40 minutes.

Dust a large work surface with flour.  Divide dough into 16 evenly sized (or nearly evenly sized) pieces.  Roll each piece into a ball, then poke through the middle with your thumbs.  Turn the dough in your hands, stretching slightly and molding the outside, until you have a donut shape with a LARGE hole^  Lay them out on the floured surface a few inches apart, cover, and let rise another 15 minutes.

Broil bagels in your oven (mine automatically sets to 500.  That's fine) for about 4 minutes on the top rack.  Basically you want them to start to brown EVER so slightly.

In a large saucepan, place about 4 cups of water and the baking soda and bring it to a boil.  Drop in a few bagels at a time (their sides touching is ok, but don't stack them) and turn once a minute for 3 minutes.  Pull them out and place them on a towel for a moment to absorb extra moisture, then put on your baking sheet.  Repeat until you've boiled all the bagels.

Preheat oven to 400.  Bake bagels 25-30 minutes (tops should be lightly golden).

Eat immediately or cool, slice, and freeze.


*To get the temperature right, I usually heat 1 cup in the microwave and then add the other at room temperature
^As the dough rises, the holes will close up a little.  Small hole=no hole after rising.

Leftover Rotisserie Chicken Noodle Soup

You're looking at that rotisserie chicken you bought, thinking there's enough meat left on it to do something, but what?  Not really enough for another full meal, but maybe...

Soup!  The original way to stretch a little bit of food a long way (Ever read Stone Soup?  You should.)

Warning: since you're using the whole chicken, you will be fishing out bones.  They add a lot of flavor, but they can kind of weird out the squeamish.

Ingredients:
The leftover body of your rotisserie chicken (that means the wings, legs, bones, skin, etc, etc)
1 onion, peeled and quartered
2-4 stalks of celery, as you prefer, chopped up roughly
Approximately 1/2 cup of roughly diced whole carrots or chopped baby carrots
A sprig of thyme, if you have it, or some freshly ground pepper if you don't
1/2 a bag of egg noodles

Directions:
Lay the chicken down in a crock pot and pour water over it until it's about 3/4s covered.  Add in everything else.  Cover and cook on high at least 4 hours.

Fish out the bones and the thyme if you added it.

Toss in noodles, stir them in, and let it cook another 10-15 minutes (just letting the noodles soak up juice, really)

Enjoy!