The Best Blueberry Pie

I've mentioned a few times that my mother is a fabulous baker.  On Mother's Day, she made an amazing chocolate chip & orange cake and, naturally, she baked up another amazing treat for Father's Day:

My mom makes this blueberry pie for special occasions every summer when the blueberries are fresh & delicious.  Here is the recipe she uses, adapted from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook.  You'll need:

double pie crust of your choice

8 cups of fresh blueberries

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup cornstarch

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons butter, cut into small chunks

1 egg yolk

1 tablespoon of heavy cream

Start by lining a pie dish with half of your pie crust and roll the second crust flat.  Refrigerate both crusts for half an hour, until firm.  Meanwhile, put the blueberries in a bowl and crush some with your hands so that half of the berries stay whole and the rest are in pieces.  Add the sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice.  Mix together, then add the blueberry mixture to the now-chilled pie shell ("mounding berries slightly in the center," says Martha).  Dot the top of the pie with butter.

Here's where we differ from Martha a bit... you can cut out the remaining pie crust into stars, as shown in the cookbook (the Post-It note says "ROLL THE STARS THICKLY" in my mom's handwriting)...

...or just cut into strips and lay into a latticework pattern, as my mom did.  She does stars sometimes, for Fourth of July or various other patriotic occasions, but Father's Day 2012 called for classic latticework.

To give the pie crust a sheen, whisk together the egg yolk and the cream.  Brush the rim of the pie crust with the egg mixture, then add your lattice (or stars) and brush that gently with the egg mixture as well. Put the pie back in the fridge for about a half an hour until it firms up and preheat the oven to 400 degrees with the rack in the lower third.

Once your pie has chilled, place it on top of a parchment-lined baking sheet (this helps with cleanup) and bake about 20 minutes.  Then, turn the oven down to 350 degrees and bake for another 40-50 minutes, at which point the pie juices will be bubbling and the crust will be a golden brown.

Let it cool & enjoy with ice cream, whipped cream, or on its own.  Dig in and stay hungry!

Playing with Cement

Though in NYC I was a frequent cement-graffiti reader (I used to wonder about the hearts and initials and dates I saw scrawled all over the sidewalks) and a one-time cement-graffiti maker...

(Corner of Clinton & Livingston, Brooklyn Heights)

...I had yet to really use concrete for anything.  Enter a quick outdoor project- a cement planter for my dad. I grabbed a 20 lb bag of quick set cement from the Home Depot, a bucket to mix it in (using a paint stirrer), cooking spray, and two plastic bowls to use as molds.

There are recipes out there for planters that add pearlite and peat moss to the cement, but I decided to keep my first attempt simple.  Cement only.  First I sprayed down my plastic bowls with cooking spray (to make sure the planter would slide right out once it dried) and then I mixed the dry cement with some water.  Wearing protective eyewear and gloves, of course.  From what I understand, cement poisoning is no joke.

Then, I dumped the wet cement into my larger bowl.  Once it was all in, I smushed the other bowl on top to shape the planter...

...and then let it dry for a day.  24 hours later, it slid out of the bowls easily and I was able to fill it up with flowers!

Seriously so simple!  I'm excited to try more shapes & sizes!  Stay tuned and stay homey!

Hungry's Birthday Dinner: The Publican

I have absolutely no idea where I'd live besides Chicago.  The food continues to knock my socks off week after week.  With that said, it was difficult deciding where to eat for my birthday.  Should we go to a hot new place, or an oldie but a goody?  We settled on an oldie, but an awesomie.

You'll have to excuse the quality of the photos.  I was planning on enjoying my fair share of cocktails, so I wanted to leave my SLR at home where it was at a lower risk of me swinging it around like Bam Bam's bat.

Charlie and I first fell in love with oysters in Chicago of all places, specifically at The Publican.  Their mignonette is to die for.  It's sweet, sour, and complements the brininess of the oysters perrrrfectly.  One thing I learned.  I do not enjoy West Coast oysters nearly as much as East Coast.  Must be the Mainah in me. 

I have no clue what are in these little crack laced crackers but they are AMAZING.  They are buttery and flaky and have, what I believe are green onions, baked into them.  They are also topped with a healthy serving of sea salt.  Be still my salt licking heart.

I've always eyeballed the hams at Publican, but have never gone ahead and ordered them.  Since it was my birthday and I love me some pork, we said what the hell.  We are also getting very excited for our trip to Spain and decided we should start prepping our bodies for the inevitable high ham consumption.  We got the sampler of all three hams:

Serrano—rich, wild—Salamanca, Spain
La quercia rossa—mild, smooth—Norwalk, Iowa
Benton country ham—smoky, sweet—Madisonville, Tennessee

They were served with rye and goat butter.  My favorite was the Benton country ham.  It just melted in my mouth.

You guys have seen this dish before.  I refuse to go to Publican without an order of these puppies.  Fresh, crispy, divine fries covered with a fried egg.

Ok you pork lovers out there.  Hold on to your pants.  Because this shizz was BANANAS.  Here is the porchetta.  MY GOODNESS GRACIOUS.  This was incredible.  It's a brined pork chop, wrapped in pork belly, and slow cooked until everything is incredibly tender.  Maybe the most ridiculous thing I've ever eaten.  It's topped with escarole that was braised with golden raisins and finished with a little pecorino romano.  Salty, sweet, melt in your mouth tenderness...it does NOT get better then this.  After making it through about a tenth of this, we packaged it up to bring home.  Except, it never made it home.  Drunky left it in the cab.  I don't want to talk about it.  The end.

I love the custom postcards Publican serves with the check...

This place continues to amaze me.  I just love it.  Keep rockin' out Publican until next year...or this Tuesday...stay hungry! 

Hardware Store Jewelry Board

I'm not sure what inspired this project.  Rooting through my purse for my favorite necklace, since I thought I took it off and tossed it in there?  Searching all over for a second earring?  Finding my watch outside, taken off near the pool and left for dead?  Probably all of the above and more.  I have been trying so hard to get organized and my precious baubles, trinkets, & fine jewels (ha) were keeping me down.

Here's my fix, a jewelry board hanging from my side of our bathroom cabinet.  This provides easy access when I'm getting ready in the mornings and is a great way to keep my favorite jewelry from getting lost in my purse or languishing in a drawer, forgotten: 

This is an old project so I don't have photo documentation of the how-to, but it's really very simple.  I started with a corkboard (in retrospect, I would just use a plain piece of wood) and painted it in stripes with acrylic paint.  

Once the paint dried, I used drawer pulls from Martha Stewart and upholstery nails as jewelry hooks.  After mapping out how much space I'd need, I glued on the hardware and stuck in the upholstery nails.

I love that the upholstery nails, which hold bracelets and necklaces, have a costume jewelry look to them.  I almost went with regular cup hooks and I'm so glad I used these:

The three drawer pulls on top hold dangly earrings...

...while the two on the bottom (turned upside down) hold my watch, some hoops, and a few stud earrings:

Since I made this, it has seriously made my life so much easier.   I still have a box for my really special jewelry, but this is the stuff I wear day to day and need access to most often.  No more searching for a necklace three minutes before I need to be out the door.  No more missing earrings.  Everything has a place!  What do you think?  Let us know and stay homey!

Hungry's (Dream) Wish List

So today is my birthday.  That's right.  I'm dedicating a blog post to not only me, but all of my dream hungry gifts.  Some of them I already own (thanks to incredibly generous people who attended our wedding) and some of them I'll own...someday.

Really good knives are such an important investment.  If I'm cooking somewhere that's foreign to me, and I remember, I'll bring a couple of my knives with me.  I've even taken a couple camping.  I'm not joking.  Really.

Here are the knives that I own and can't live without.  Wusthof knives are pricey, but you can build up your collection one at a time.  My favorite is the 8" chefs knife.

Here is the Fissler CookStar Induction Pro Portable Cooktop.  Man that's a mouthful.  I can't tell you how many times I run out of oven and stove top space.  I'd love one of these little suckers to contribute to the party.  I love the fact it's portable.  I can see it now:  midnight grilled cheeses a la my nightstand.

So here is when I really lose my mind.  I've been watching Top Chef for far too long and have become obsessed with the idea of the sous vide technique of cooking.  You basically cook proteins in a vacuum sealed bag in a very low heated water bath.  This way, the meat will be juicy, evenly cooked, every time.  I would have pork belly cooking all day, every day if I had this thing.

Ok lastly, and a little more realistically, here is Chef'sChoice Egg Cooker.  I love eggs.  Love love LOVE eggs.  I love them soft boiled, hard boiled, fried, poached...you name it.  This would be the perfect little device to keep on hand so I can cook eggs just right, every time.  Check out the poached egg attachment!  Think about how easy eggs benedict would be...this could be dangerous.

Ok folks...here they are.  The three kitchen electronics I don't currently own and desperately want.  Pretty cool right?  Stay hungry!

Embellished Baby Burp Cloths

One of my best friends is expecting a baby on July 1.  Since I missed her shower out in LA, I wanted to send her a care package with some stuff for the baby.  On a tip from another new mom friend, I decided to add some burp cloths to the package as well.

First of all, I can't believe I'm blogging about burp cloths.  I mean, I actually just learned what they are and it seems sort of silly to sew some pretty fabric onto a piece of cloth that a baby is going to be yakking on anyway.  But.  I whipped out my sewing machine and figured I could add some color & pattern to Jenny's baby cleanup schedule...

Here goes:  I started with prefold diapers (from Target or Babies R Us) and a few strips of fabric that I liked.  I cut the fabric to fit along the diapers...

...ironed and pinned...

...and then sewed all edges.  A quick and easy handmade baby gift (& in relatively gender neutral colors, though of course you can add pink or blue or green or whatever):

What are your handmade baby gift ideas?  What did you use most as a new mom?  It seems like I'm starting to enter the era of new babies amongst my friends, so any ideas are much appreciated!  Let us know and stay homey!

Pesto Pea Quinoa Salad

I decided that this week we will not be going to the grocery store.  Our cupboards are bursting at the seams and it's time we start using the stuff I forgot I bought forever ago.  I also don't feel like going to the grocery store.  

There is no ingredient shot because this COMPLETELY changed from what I originally thought I was going to make.  That's how I roll people.  I create a "plan", forget what I set out to do, and then change it completely.   Sometimes it works out pretty damn good and this my friends, was pretty damn good. 

1 Cup of Quinoa 

2 Cups of Low Sodium Chicken Stock 

1/4 Cup of Frozen Sweet Petite Peas 

2 Tbs of Pesto 

1 Tbs of Finely Chopped Shallot

1/2 Cup of Almonds, Chopped 

1/4 Cup of Crumbled Feta 

Balsamic Reduction (optional)

I use chicken stock whenever I can because it adds so much flavor.  If you want to keep it vegetarian, I would recommend using water, but throw in a bay leaf to add some depth.  

Bring the stock and quinoa up to a boil and then reduce it to a simmer.  Let it cook for about 15 minutes or until the quinoa becomes translucent and the liquid is fully absorbed.   While that's going, throw the feta and chopped shallots in a bowl.  I like buying feta in a block and then crumbling it as needed.  I am convinced that they do something to cheese that's pre shredded or pre crumbled so it doesn't clump together and it just doesn't taste as good. 

Add the peas, pesto, and chopped nuts to the bowl as well and stir.  So I'm going to teach you a little trick for this salad.  If you use frozen peas, it will help cool down the quinoa.  You could eat this salad warm, but I wanted it to be chilled.  

The frozen peas cooled down the quinoa and the hot quinoa defrosted the peas.  Me = smart. 

This is the perfect summer salad.  It's healthy, bright, and incredibly refreshing. 

 

Dude.  This was amazing.  Charlie was pretty sad when I told him what I was making but after the first bite, his frown turned upside down. 

I think I'm on to something people.  Imagine all of the other wonderful things I could throw in here....YUM.  Oh I almost forgot.  Drizzle some balsamic vinaigrette to add some sweetness and tartness.   You can buy a really nice balsamic that is already thick, or you can simmer some balsamic over the stove with a little sugar until it thickens.  Invest in some good balsamic.  Trust me. 

 

 Stay healthy every once in awhile and as always, stay hungry!