TrishCT

This family recipe for pie crust is too good to keep to myself. It's my yankee New England mother-in-law's recipe and has won her accolades for years. Although seemingly basic, it's unique in that you make a large batch of the dry ingredients/shortening and keep that mixture chilled till you are ready to make a pie. Then you measure the amount of dry ingredients you need and add ice cold water accordingly. Your dough is cold (because the shortening is cold) and good to roll out immediately -- no waiting. Joan's Yankee New England Pie Crust 6 cups all purpose flour 2 teaspoons salt 2 1/3 cups shortening Combine flour and salt, cut in half the shortening to make coarse crumbs. Cut in the remaining shortening. Place in an airtight container, store in refrigerator up to 2 months (or longer). For a nine single crust inch pie: Put 1 1/4 to 1 3/4 cups of the flour mixture in a mixing bowl. Add 2 to 3 tablespoons of ice cold water and stir to combine. Roll out crust immediately. For double crust 9 inch pie: Put 2 cups flour mixture in a mixing bowl and add 4 - 5 tablespoons ice cold water and stir to combine. Separate into 2 balls. Roll out crusts immediately.

--I have his autograph from when he stopped by the Brockton Fair as... Lieutenant Governor.

My blackberries in the pen are still green, can't wait till the end of this month... I love the bramble flavor. Besides jelly, a Black and Blue Pie is nice...half blackberries half blueberries... Also, blackberry sauce (blackberries cooked and strained then the juice is sweetened and thickened with cornstarch slurry) is great on pancakes and french toast.

It's clear now...

I make blueberry shortcakes: biscuits topped with the fresh blueberry pie-filling that Rose Levy Beranbaum uses for the fresh open-faced blueberry pie in The Pie and Pastry Bible. The filling is 3 cups fresh whole blueberries stirred into a glaze made on the stovetop using one cup blueberries, water, sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, and a pinch of salt. I find the filling tasty enough without need for adding anything to "wake it up." The lemon juice in it is key. But maybe for color contrast one could sprinkle on a few red raspberries. Also, a scattering of butter-roasted pecans would be delicious. A variation of this same idea is to make a sauce on the stove with half the fresh blueberries...then at the end stir in the other half of the blueberries...that way not all the blueberriers are cooked. This is the blueberry filling I use for things not being baked. A little fresh fresh lemon juice and zest keeps it fresh.

Goulash Place in Danbury, heralded by The Sterns on their Road Food Web site. Entrees are $10.00. You won't spend more than $20.00 for your entire meal. Roseland's in Derby. You'll spend between $10.00 and $15.00 for huge portions of old school italian. And get the birch beer. The Sycamore Diner in Bethel... still offers car hop service... a throw back to the 50's, good burgers and shakes.

Ciao Mario, I was recently involved in a minor skirmish about my recipe for Buccatini All'Amartriciana. Mine includes a couple cloves of garlic in the sauce. I was severely chastised by someone who travels extensively to Italy, that Italians would never put garlic in this particular recipe. He then criticized Americans for generally putting too much garlic in Italian food and being unable to truly recreate authentic italian cuisine. To me it begged the question as to whether Italy really has such strict and rigid regional recipes. Are Americans generally overgarlicking and mucking up authentic italian cuisine? Grazie, Trish

Sparrow, that sounds very nice and very pretty. too. It reminds me of a recipe a dear late friend gave me for Strawberry Cream Pie Torte. It calls for 3 round layers of pie crust layered with strawberries and sweetened whipped cream.

My mother-in-law brought over a significant quantity of freshly picked starwberries the other day. So flavorful, a real treat. Decided to make strawberry shortcake so I asked my family if they wanted biscuits or cake with it... and we were evenly divided 2 and 2. Made a mental note to self: In the future don't ask...just make what you @@#$&@ want! The August issue of Cook's Illustrated (Bought while on a trip, don't usually get it) had a recipe for "Tall, Fluffy Biscuits" so I gave them a whirl. All I can say is "WOW!" What an excellent recipe!! These biscuits are wonderful with perfect flavor and soft, soft, soft texture. My homemade biscuits usually taste like sawdust.....no more... I will NEVER need to travel to the Loveless Cafe in Tennessee for soft fluffy biscuits again! Served the strawberries on biscuits with freshly whipped heavy cream. After making them I didn't feel like cooking anymore so I bought an Entemann's pound cake (and some vanilla ice cream) for the cake lovers. How do you all make your shortcake?

I like Antico Forno in the North End, and afterwards you can stroll over to a cafe' for cappucino. You can check out Their Web Site for their menu. Also, unlike some North End joints, they take reservations, preventing a long wait for a table.

The King Arthur Cake reigns supreme.

Nice pic MK it captures the essence much better than mine...I hope I can figure out how to make my pics actually look good and not distorted because it does the food extreme disservice.... Anyway...just slightly off topic... but Bleau is it true that the French also don't know how to make chocolate chip cookies and that they are a highly prized delicacy?

Does anyone know if this is a dressy, dressy/casual, or casual place?

I'm blessed with a huge blackberry patch and for years I've made blackberry jelly for my kids' peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I've found that strawberries make excellent freezer jam. If you're new to jelly making this is a good place to start because the jam requires no cooking.

...not for me, I'm still in awe

Awesome Chef"peon"??!

MK...I know you have made (many more than) your fair share of cakes lately!!! The King Arthur White is really good... and I think it would satisfy Reap's request for a light cake.... (though not as light as angel food, which is the ultimate light white cake...) Cake flour definitely makes for a finer, softer texture. I would use cake flour for these white cake recipes.

Wow, I love the idea of hat boxes...I am going to use them the next time I make cupcakes for display....good one Toliver.

In interviews I've read he had no use for italian cuisine, period. He grew up eating it but wouldn't learn how to make it. When he went into cooking, he studied French cuisine - his true love and passion. It's been rumored that he has had substantial cosmetic surgery (nose, eyes) to make him look less italian as well. He'll be an interesting talk show host...

Toliver, sorry the recipe is vague, it's an old yankee recipe and that's how they wrote 'em... I would use 1 Tablespoon water max. If you use frozen berries they might need little to no water.... Glad you had some good blueberry sauce!

That's a bit strong, don't you think? Perhaps, like many people, he feels that in a pc world, it's still o.k. to poke fun at one's own kind. It does sound strong, but the rationale comes from Rocco's own statements. In past interviews he has criticized italian cuisine and openly admitted he is ashamed of being italian. He said those were the motivating factors for opening Rocco's - to atone to his mother and make amends for dissing his heritage. At the beginning of the shows for Season 1 he starts the shows off with similar statements.

I guess Rocco doesn't think his 15 extended minutes are up yet...he appeared today on the Jack & Ali (Schmoopy from Seinfeld) talk show "Living it Up." He said that Ed Wilson of NBC told him he would make a great talk show host so he's going to pursue that line of work. As a side note, his behavior on this show was a bit mean-sprited. Before he even sat down he chided a woman in the audience for saying "He's not as cute as he is on tv." Well...it's true... even cleaned up he looks puffy and tired... By the way, if he has a herniated disk, he never mentioned it. Next... During a cooking demo of pasta with broccoli he put a fair amount of whole garlic cloves into a pan of hot oil and remarked... "It's okay to add this much garlic, they do this in Italy and no one notices because everyone stinks over there..." He caught himself and said he was just joking.... but his subconscious speaks volumes... he can't contain his loathing of his own ethnicity... Finally, he chose a young teenage girl from the audience to assist him in the cooking demo. He gave her a pound of dry, uncooked spaghetti to hold in her hand. He did his cooking thing... and he kept telling her that what she was doing was very important...and that he would get to her soon... At the very end when he put plated his cooked pasta dish he turned to the girl and told her now she was going to do something important -- and he instructed her to throw the pasta in the air. She hesitated for a second so he repeated for her to throw it in the air... she did and it landed all over everything.... Wheeeeeeeeee.... Welcome to Fake Fun TV.

Actually it was interesting from this article to find out what Ron Siegel of Iron Chef fame is doing these days. Ron, as die hard IC fans know, was the first American to beat an Iron Chef (Hiroyuki Sakai in Battle Lobster). Looks like folks can visit the SF Ritz Carlton if they want to be treated to Siegel san's flavorful California cuisine. As for Mr. Dispirito... In SF I am sure they are probably saying "Rocco who...?" I think Tony Bourdain's comment (on some thread here somewhere) about Rocco being the cause of the death of the 'celebrity chef era' may have a little substance to it. The tv airwaves may chill for awhile.

I made MK's Rich White Cake and King Arthur's Elegant White Cake. First up was Rich White Cake. I made it in a 10 inch springform pan which could be why it cracked. But that didn't matter because.... It became the base for Boston Cream Pie Next I made the King Arthur Elegant White Cake in 2 9-inch round pans Here is a slice of Elegant White Cake. The picture doesn't do justice to the soft, fluffy texture. Both cakes are very good, but there was a definite preference by my family and friends for the King Arthur Elegant White Cake. Comments about the King Arthur included -- "Soft as velvet," "If a marshmallow was a cake this would be it," "Delicious flavor, yum." Rich White Cake had a nice texture, but was a little dryer than KA's, it scored slightly lower on taste as well. Both cakes are relatively easy to make, the KA requires more mixing time and a stand mixer makes a simple task of it. Rich White Cake- 4.0 King Arthur Elegant Cake - 5.0

"Puxa!! Que palavres horrivel! Faca-te uma caipirinha, meu bem! Voce vai ficar mais calma! " I think it translates as follows: "A pox on you!! Such palavaring horrible drivel! Face me refreshing mixed cocktail, -- you bum you! You -- yes you -- are the voice of my calamity!"