Fumbling Toward Culinary Talent: Ham, Mushroom, and Leek Hand Pies

This recipe is a slight variation on a recipe that is in the current Rachel Ray Every Day magazine. My modest change was adding mushrooms. But I have another idea for this recipe, which I'll share at the end of the post. 

The big deal for me is that I've never had leeks before. I've obviously seen them in the grocery store, but I've never made anything that called for them. I had no idea what they would taste like. I was surprised. They're pretty tasty. Once cooked, they become sweet. 

Anyway, here's the recipe. 

Ingredients
1 package crescent roll dough, unmarked variety
2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
3 large leeks, trimmed, halved, and cut thinly ~ just the white and pale green parts
8 oz. of diced ham
1 package of mushrooms, sliced 
2 cloves of minced garlic
1 small dollop of Dijon mustard
4 oz of cream cheese, cut into tiny squares
1 egg

Process
Cut up the leeks, ham, mushrooms, and garlic and sit aside. Set out the cream cheese, so it gets to room temperature. Take the crescent roll dough and cut it into four equal sections. Take a rolling pin, use flour on the board, and roll out the dough so it's roughly a square with six-inch sides. Set the four dough squares in the fridge to cool. 

Melt the butter over medium-low heat until it has melted. Dump in the leeks, stir, and cover the skillet. Add salt and pepper. Cook for five minutes. Add the mushrooms, stir, and cover the skillet. Cook for five more minutes. Cut the heat and add in the ham, garlic, and mustard. Thoroughly mix. 

Lay out each dough square and top with cut-up cream cheese. Then top with the leek-ham-mushroom mixture making sure to leave roughly a one-inch border. Take the corners and fold to the middle. Brush with a beaten egg. 

Place into a 425 degree oven for 12-14 minutes. 

What I'd Do Differently Next Time
When I make this recipe again, instead of using cream cheese, I'd probably use grated sharp cheddar or jack cheese or smoked gouda on top of the leek-ham-mushroom mixture. I think that would be a good contrast to the sweetness of the leeks. 

What I plan to do next is used the same kind of "hand pie" but make it like a half-assed Ronza, which is like a calzone but has sauce inside of it. 

Random Notes from a Crank

If you're looking for a good laugh, and I certainly am these days, check out this segment on Jimmy Kimmel's show called "Celebrities Read Out Mean Tweets About Themselves." I'm sorry I've missed the first five installments. 

On the 19th, my daughter will receive a Kindness Award at her elementary school. The deal is that every teacher nominates a kid from their class to receive the award. I have to say it fits her character. If there's an example of Mom's teachings and actions flowing to the younger generation, Hannah receiving the Kindness Award is one. 

When we talked about the award last week, my daughter said she liked that she received the award, but she really wanted the Perserverence Award because, as she said (and I"m paraphrasing here), perserverence means you work hard toward your goals and never give up. For those of you who know my interest in the "growth mindset" and research about "grit," you understand the pride that enveloped me when she said that. 

When I was driving my daughter to school this morning, she asked when her grandma's birthday is. It's the 23rd of this month, and she wants to celebrate her grandma's birthday even though she's gone. We decided we could make pies for her birthday because my mom was an excellent maker of pies. I'm sure we'll make pecan, but I need to figure out what to make for the second one. This weekend will entail making pie crusts and then putting them in the freezer. 

Random Notes from a Crank

On Sunday my son and I made three pie crusts from scratch and then made a pumpkin pie. Is this a minuscule victory for, as my Dad would describe them, the "women's libbers" like me? 

I now know why my parents would never buy me the game Mouse Trap as a gift. You always lose the pieces (we're missing one of the balls and the rubber band), and the game, as a whole, is boring. When you have to patch together the game, it doesn't work very well. 

If you've been paying attention to this blog, I closely follow college football. But this NFL deal, there's something to it. I lived in St. Louis for five years and rooted for the Rams and want them to do well, but if I had to pick one team to root for in the NFL, it would have to be the Vikings. That was the team I cheered for as a kid. Other than those teams, I like the Falcons purely because of Julio Jones.

Random Notes from a Crank

I'm sure this has been proposed before, but in order to make meetings more concise and to keep myself in shape, I propose that all meetings will no longer have chairs and tables. Instead, meetings will take place with the participants arranged in circles as they use treadmills, stairmasters, and eleptical machines.

I just finished reading a really interesting collection of poetry, Ardency: A Chronicle of the Amistad Rebels by Kevin Young. Young writes from multiple personas but mainly from the perspectives of the slaves of the Amistad who won their freedom and then went back to Africa. If you like poetry and history, this collection is for you. For me, poetry + history = win. 

I'd rather have someone disagree with me than ignore me. At least there's communication happening. 

Next week I leave for a conference in Florida, specifically in Orlando. The conference is being held at one of the many Disney Resorts. I don't care for Disney in general, which is challenging because I have two kids. My co-presenter at the conference also dislikes Disney. We should officially call our trip "The Curmudgeons Go to Disney."

All I'm asking for is some Saturday and Sunday mornings where the whole Nasty family sleeps in late, say to 8:30 a.m. Is that so wrong? Is that asking so much?

A couple of weeks ago the supermarket had a sale on frozen pies. Because I perceived the pies to be a deal, I bought a peach pie to do some culinary recon since I haven't had a store-bought, frozen pie in years. Result: It's not very good. But I keep eating it. It's pie after all. I dislike it, but I keep eating it. I keep eating it even though I dislike it. And now it's gone. Peach pie, it dead.

Fumbling Toward Culinary Talent: Pie Crust

Since I just made this, why not post the recipe while I drink a glass of Guinness Black Lager and try to decide what beer it reminds me of.

But anyway, this pie crust is one I've used often. It comes from a cookbook created by my parents' church -- Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Waterloo, IA --  back when I was a kid.

Below are the ingredients and the process.

Stage 1:
3 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1 1/4 cups shortening or lard

Mix all of this with a pastry blender or fork until it's all crumbly.

Stage 2:
1 egg beaten and cold water to make 2/3 cup of liquid
1 teaspoon of vinegar

Put the wet ingredients in, mix it all together, form into 2-3 balls, chill them, and then roll out the dough.

I chilled it for thirty minutes in the fridge tonight, I started rolling one ball, and it just wasn't working.

So I put the two balls in the freezer for thirty minutes, then transferred them to the fridge for fifteen mintues, and then got to rolling.

But back to the black lager. It reminds me of Shiner Black Lager, but I think Shiner's version has a stronger flavor profile -- hoppier. Or you could just call it a Guinness Lite.

Ode to Blackberry Pie

There were a number of articles at the start of the year proclaiming that 2011 was going to be the "year of pie" since the homestyle desert was projected to supplant cupcakes as the next food trend out there. Apparently cupcake joints sprouted in major metropolitan areas all last year, a trend I knew nothing about.

Now I like a good cupcake. I'll gladly admit that. I'll stand as charged, but I've never been really all that fond of cake in general. But pie, that's a different story.

Behold the Dessert of the Gods, pie, glorious pie.

As the picture above shows, a good pie can put a body in a sweet stupor while watching such programs as The Fresh Beat Band, Dino Dan, or Wild Kratts. This was Quinn's first introduction to the one of my favorites: blackberry pie. And remembering him eating that delicacy puts pies on my mind:

Peach

Rhubarb Custard

Cherry

Strawberry

Coconut Cream

Blueberry

Lemon Meringue

Pumpkin

Apple

Mulberry

Custard

Sweet Potato

Pecan

Sweet Potato Pecan

Banana Cream

I've had some pies that are so good they make your taste buds ache in pleasure, an orgy of culinary perfection. One pie besides blackberry that I've grown to love is my mom's rhubarb custard, which to some people doesn't sound appetizing, but the sweetness of the loose custard counterposed by the tang of the rhubard creates a delectable balance that exemplifies a strange bit of hyperbole I heard a person use once when describing great barbeque: "It's so good it'll make you slap your momma."

To me, pie is the consummate comfort food. And blackberries, you see, they're good for me , so that gives me an even more valid excuse to indulge.

But I loved pie before pie was cool.

Pie is never a trend.

It's the food of every year.

Culinary Adventures: Terroir Illinois

A while back Diana and I had the pleasure of dining at the Super Jumbo Buffet at the Cross County Mall over in Mattoon.

While this expansive buffet isn't a culinary gem or anything, it does have one curious offering on its buffet: frog legs.

Frog legs, I love those little things. 

They're much better than the ubiquitous chicken wings that every other restaurant shoves onto their menus. Talk about a good thing gone wrong from over-saturation. I'm buffaloed out, people.

While the wonderful gams of our amphibious friends don't offer the same amount of meat as the yardbird, frog legs offer tender, succulent meat to gnaw on, especially if they're lightly battered.

Besides Super Jumbo, the only other place I know of in Coles County that offers frog legs is Roc's Black Front, a bar/restaurant that's semi-famous because its facade is featured on Backyard Tire Fire's Bar Room Semantics album, a good disc by the way.

And today for Father's Day we ventured over to Casey to try out Richards Farm restaurant, an establishment that serves up home-cooking specialties like chicken and noodles, country ham, catfish nuggets, stewed cabbage, good pies, and wonderful fried chicken.

That trip coupled with getting two pies (blackberry and peach) made by Sweet Tooth Specialties here is ChuckTown made this a wonderful weekend of eating.

I pine for pie.