Cop Car's Beat

One of those days

I just returned from my trip to the butcher's shop, preparing for another spate of hunkering down with ice and snow. Mostly, I don't include meats in my order to the grocery store (for pick up) because I don't have enough trust in their shoppers to let them substitute if the store is out of whatever it was that I ordered. Today, for our hunkering down, I particularly wanted to buy a beef roast. Right.

My shopping at Sig's, today, was more pleasant than my previous foray. The co-owner was working (the only worker in the shop while I was there) and there were no other customers in the store. I timed my trip to make the chances of having other shoppers present minimized. I double-mask to go inside, but the workers and customers on-the-whole, do not.  Anne, the co-owner with her son (Sig, her husband, having died about 15 years ago) told me that she had to come back to work because they had been unable to find reliable help. I understand that. The last time I was there, several weeks/months ago, there were three men working - one butcher and two counter servers - none of whom I had seen, before. (There was a reason for that: Not one of them had been employed there for more than a couple of weeks, and the guy who waited on me said that it was his first day on the job.) 

Moving right along...this (below) is the treasure trove with which I returned home.

Hmm...let's see, now...taking inventory I find two 1.5-pound packages of ground Chuck, one hunk of frozen salmon, one package of pork loin, one package of young fryer chicken (that probably won't get fried since HH thinks that any fried chicken that isn't "extra crispy" from KFC can't be worth eating), and a pint container of ambrosia (a dab of fruit and shredded coconut with a whole lot of whipped cream) that HH will devour. What? No beef roast? Oh, yes. Instant flashback photo in my mind tells me that there were a lot of various steaks in the display case, but no roast. Drat! As it turned out, I should not have worried. In placing some of the packages in the downstairs freezer, I found this package (below) - "Beef Top Round Steak" that will substitute nicely for a beef roast. Note that it was packaged on November 16, 2020. It's about time that it be used.

Why did I need beef roast in the first place? Because Roberta X has, unknown to her, "talked me into" trying something that my mother couldn't get me to try after decades of pleading - parsnips.

As a child, age 8 or 10, I remember sitting at the dinner table (actually, our only table) dejectedly staring at the parsnips on my plate. The odor off of that root vegetable turned my stomach. I was forced by my (truly) loving parents to consume them - after which I promptly went to the bathroom to barf them up. I caught holy heck from my folks. but have never knowingly eaten parsnips since that day. 

Enter Roberta X of The Adventures of Roberta X. If you've never read her blog, Roberta is a techie who occasionally writes about her cooking adventures - such as here, here, or here. Those adventures frequently (as in the previously linked postings) feature parsnips. OK, Roberta. I'm going to give parsnips another try. It has only been 74 years (at least) since my last trial. Mother would be proud.

I think I have enough root veggies (below) to make a decent try at it. Having Idaho potatoes, sweet potato, onions, turnips, parsnips, tiny carrots, and radishes on hand, I may pare it down to just three or four of them.

 

11/20/2020 - An idea from me, a poor cook

 

Hunky Husband must have his dessert after most lunches and dinners; so, I try to keep him supplied. Some years, I've made him a gift of home-made goodies, promising to make him a batch of cookies or a pie each month for one year. In parallel, I've been trying to sneak better nutrition into his foods - especially since he is prone to making breakfast bars his staple, consuming at least two each day. (I consider breakfast bars to be disguised candy bars.) Sneaking the nutritional ingredients into HH's foods has become easier over the past couple of years. HH is no longer a picky eater. If I put the food in front of him, he will eat it - wow! For instance, the other day, I made macaroni and cheese where the sauce for a 6-serving casserole contained one cup of a chopped salad (much kale and broccoli stems) and mushrooms. He liked it.

The idea I thought to push, today, is the addition I made to HH's pecan pie that I baked yesterday. HH prefers pecan to any other pie and prefers pecan pie to any cake in the world.

Prior to pouring the filling of the pecan pie, I put a layer of plumped raisins down on the crust. This comes under the heading of sneaking in nutritional value. As one can see in the photo, above, the raisins re-distributed themselves - floating up in the filling. The big surprise, though, was the taste of the filling after I baked the pie. My recipe calls for 1 teaspoonful of vanilla extract. I had absent-mindedly used orange extract, instead. It added a bit of extra tang.

I would love to have a slice of HH's pie; but, I just get to lick the knife. Too much sugar makes me ill. (HH says that there is no such thing as too sweet - that "too sweet" is an oxymoron.) Of course, it did not occur to me to photograph the pie while it was still whole and pretty. (Before you ask: I don't "do" pie crusts. The above crust is one put out by Marie Callender's, sold in the frozen foods section of food markets.)

Cop Car's Chow - Pecan Pie

                                         Beat, lightly: 2 large eggs

Add & continue beating, just to combine: 1 cup corn syrup (light or dark)

                                                            1 tablespoon wheat flour

                                                            1/4 teaspoon table salt

                                                            1/2 cup granulated white sugar

                                                            1 teaspoon vanilla extract

                                                            2 tablespoons molten butter

Pour batter into un-baked, 9-inch pie shell.

                                Top batter with:    1-1/4 cup pecan halves

Bake at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream, cold with whipped cream, or at any temperature, alone.

Note: I use deep-dish, commercially produced pie crusts to prevent run-over.

Tip on keeping pie crust edges (or pizza dough edges) from burning: brush crust edges with plain water before placing the pie into the oven.

I'm not a great baker, but....

Slashdot.org led me to an article on the ABC website concerning a subject that is near and dear to our hearts - baking cookies in space! From the ABC article, "First space-baked cookies took 2 hours in experimental oven" By MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer, ‎January‎ ‎23‎, ‎2020‎ ‎4‎:‎57‎ ‎PM, come a few excerpts explaining the "experiment".

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The results are finally in for the first chocolate chip cookie bake-off in space.

While looking more or less normal, the best cookies required two hours of baking time last month up at the International Space Station. It takes far less time on Earth, under 20 minutes.

And how do they taste? No one knows.

Still sealed in individual baking pouches and packed in their spaceflight container, the cookies remain frozen in a Houston-area lab after splashing down two weeks ago in a SpaceX capsule. They were the first food baked in space from raw ingredients.

....

Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano was the master baker in December, radioing down a description as he baked them one by one in the prototype Zero G Oven. The first cookie — in the oven for 25 minutes at 300 degrees Fahrenheit (149 degrees Celsius) — ended up seriously under-baked. He more than doubled the baking time for the next two, and the results were still so-so.

The fourth cookie stayed in the oven for two hours, and finally success.

One of my first cookbooks - circa late 1950s.

I make no pretense at being a great baker...or, even, a good baker...but, baking cookies for 20 minutes at 300 degrees F sounds just plain crazy to me. Having lived at an altitude of about 6,000 feet (Albuquerque, foothills of the Sandias), I thought that I recalled having to use higher temperatures and longer cook times. Since "Betty Crocker" has been a household name for as far back as I can recall (at least the mid 1940s), I went to see what "Betty" had to say. From her website comes this advice, below.

Baking at High Altitudes

Air pressure is lower, so foods take longer to bake. Temperatures and/or bake times may need to be increased. Liquids evaporate faster, so amounts of flour, sugar and liquids may need to be changed to prevent batter that is too moist, dry or gummy. Gases expand more, so doughs rise faster. Jan 10, 2017

Even "Betty" confuses me, though, when I read part of a table (below) that was included in her article. (I've added highlighting to the confusing part.)

 

Cookies

Cookies generally bake well at high altitudes. You may notice: • Cookies have a drier texture • Cookies may spread too much • Cookies may not spread enough • Cookies may overbrown • Cookies may be underdone

• Decrease butter or shortening (2 Tbsp to 1/4 cup) if cookies spread too much • Decrease sugar slightly if cookies spread too much (amount depends on size of batch and other ingredients) • Increase liquid by 1 to 2 Tbsp only if dough is too dry and cookies don’t spread • Increase flour (starting with 1 or 2 Tbsp) if cookies spread too much • Increase bake time by 1 to 3 minutes • Decrease bake time by 1 to 2 minutes

I guess the message is that one needs to vary parameters to produce the best result - something that the experiment in space was not set up to do very well. My final comment is that, perhaps, I shouldn't be comparing baking in space to baking at high altitude.

Recipes for Wonderful Granddaughter (WGD) - 6

Taco Salad

Recipe was passed along by Lois Wethington (wife of Bob who, in the late 1970s was CC's Group Engineer at The Little Airplane Company.

Brown & Drain:

    1 pound (weight) ground beef

Add & cook as directed on the packet:

    1 packet taco seasoning

Into a separate bowl, chop:

    1 head iceberg lettuce

    1 medium white or yellow onion

    2 medium tomatoes

Add to vegetables:

    10 ounces (weight) grated/shredded cheddar cheese

    1 each 15-ounce (weight) can red beans that have been rinsed

 Mix meat into vegetable mixture and mix in:

    Catalina French dressing - enough to make mixture very moist

Just prior to serving, toss all with:

    Taco flavored corn chips that have been lightly crumbled 

Recipes for Wonderful Granddaughter (WGD) - 5

CC's Chili

The recipe was developed by Cop Car.

Brown in large, heavy pot:

    1 pound (weight) lean ground beef

Add & bring to simmer:

    1 pound (weight) brick chili

    1 pound (wet weight) cooked pinto beans

    1 pound (wet weight) cooked kidney beans

    1 tablespoon chili seasoning

    3 cups water (or tomato juice)

Simmer for 15-30 minutes. Chill in refrigerator to cool thoroughly. Skim fat off of the top. Return pot to stove top, simmering for at least 1 hour.

Add:

    1 pound canned tomatoes (squished up, if not diced) - Tomatoes may be omitted if tomato juice was used instead of water.

Simmer for another hour. Serve, as desired. [I like chili served over shredded Romaine lettuce or other greens.]    

Recipes for Wonderful Granddaughter (WGD) - 4

Enchilada Chicken

Recipe was developed by Cop Car.

Sauté to blacken:

    Drizzle of olive oil

    2 slices onion, very finely diced

    1/3 large Pablano pepper, finely diced

    1/4 teaspoon prepared, diced garlic

Remove vegetables from skillet, but continue using skillet (with any oil that survived).

Sauté for a few minutes on either side:

    3 large boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

Place chicken in oiled casserole, but continue using skillet (with any oil that survived).

Heat to bubbly in skillet:

    1 small can green enchilada sauce

    vegetables that had been set aside, above

    3 ounces finely sliced and chopped wheat tortillas

Pour sauce mixture over chicken breast halves in the casserole. Cover the casserole and bake for 60 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove casserole from oven and let set for a few minutes. Cut each chicken breast half into 2 or 3 pieces, lengthwise. Serve with sauce spooned over chicken pieces.

Recipes for Wonderful Granddaughter (WGD) - 3

Ora's Sugar Cookies

Recipe is from the late Ora Thomas of Iowa - a family friend in the 1940s and 1950s.

Cream:

    3 cups granulated white sugar

    1 cup lard (lard that requires refrigeration - not hydrogenized)

Add & beat:

    2 eggs

Continue beating as add:

    1/2 teaspoon table salt

    1 teaspoon cinnamon [I sometimes use ground nutmeg.]

    1 cup sour cream

    1/2 teaspoon baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)

    1 teaspoon baking powder

    1/2 teaspoon vanilla

    7 cups flour (or enough to make a stiff rolling dough)

Roll out. Cut into 2 1/2-inch-to-3-inch-diameter circles. Place on cookie sheets. Bake 10-15 minutes at 400-450 degrees Fahrenheit. [Ora did not, but I sometimes cut into various shapes, decorated with sprinkles, and/or iced the cookies - after baking.]

    

Recipes for Wonderful Granddaughter (WGD) - 2

Small Batch Cookies

Recipe is from Alicia Ross as published in the Derby Informer on 2/15/2017 and modified by Cop Car.    Makes 20-36 cookies

Cream:

    1/4 pound (weight) butter, softened

    3/4 cup granulated white sugar

Add & mix:

    1 1/4 cups all-purpose white flour

    1/2 teaspoon baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)

    1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Stir in:

    4 ounces (weight) toffee pieces

    1/2 cup chopped pecans

    4 ounces (weight) chocolate chips

Crop onto lined cookie sheets, using 2-inch separation. Bake 12-15 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit (light brown state). Let cool for 5 minutes, then remove from sheet to cooling rack.

 

Recipes for Wonderful Granddaughter (WGD) - 1

Bran Muffins

Recipe is from a Kellogg's™  All Bran box. Makes 12 muffins

Soak:

    1 cup All Bran

    1 cup milk

Beat in:

    1 egg

    1/4 cup vegetable oil

Add & stir to just mix:

    1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

    1 tablespoon baking powder (sodium bicarbonate)

    1/2 teaspoon table salt

    1/3 cup granulated white sugar

Pour batter into greased muffin tin (or lined with paper baking cups). Bake for 25 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit.