Greekgeek's Family Recipe File

Get the starter out of fridge a day or so ahead of time, stir it and wake it up with 3/8 cup of unbleached flour and a fourth a cup of water. (If you don't have starter, see this great Sourdough Starter Primer for how to get some going.)

1. Proof Yeast...

Number of Loaves

2

3

4

Cups warm water*

1/4

3/8

1/2

Packages yeast

1

1

2

Tablespoons sugar

2

3

4

*warm water 60 degrees C = just barely can stand it on little finger.

Mix and allow to proof. Proofed = bubbly foam like milkshake on top.

2. Make dough...

Teaspoons salt (optional)*

2

3

4

Cups water

1

1 1/2

2

Cups warm milk**

1/2

3/4

1

Tablespoons oil

2

3

4

Cups starter

1/4

3/8

1/2

Cups sifted flour

4 1/2

6 3/4

9

*mom cuts salt in half.
**microwave 20 sec. This is just so it doesn't cool off yeast, shouldn't be hot.

Mix wets first. Then mix in sifted unbleached bread flour a bit at a time.

5 minutes heavy kneading for 2 loaves.

3. Leave Bread to rise.
Wash out bowl. Grease with butter or margarine.
Put bread in bowl.
Grease top of bread.
Cover and let it rise to twice size. ~ 2 hours.

4. Prep for Baking.
Punch down bread.
Knead briefly.
Pinch into balls.
Roll each ball into loaf. Fold ends under to get it even.
Grease cookie sheet-- lard or Crisco.
Sprinkle cornmeal where bread will be.
Slices along top of bread.
Turn on oven, let loaves rise for another half hour on cookie sheet.

OVEN TEMPERATURE = 400°

5. Bake 20 minutes, 400 degrees.

Remove bread. Wrap in towel and let cool upside-down.

Let the starter fusticate for a few days, giving it some more food, water, and TLC. Then banish it to the back of the fridge. Poor starter. I bet it wishes it had a real cook taking care of it.

Ingredients
Large Portabella mushroom caps
Shitake mushrooms
Onion
(optional) red wine
Chives
Thyme, preferably lime thyme
Jarlsberg, Swiss or Provolone cheese slices
Shredded Parmesan cheese

Wild and brown rice mixture (Lundberg black label)

Use 4 inch Portabella caps if available. If this size is used, one completed stuffed cap will serve one person. Place a thin slice of onion under each cap in a buttered shallow dish. Add a little butter to each cap, and a tablespoon of wine. Bake until caps are tender.

Saute sliced shitake mushrooms, about 1/3 as much as the rice.

Cook enough rice to have 1/2 cup cooked per serving. The Lundberg black label mix has about 7 varieties of rice plus wild rice. If this is unavailable, use any good brown rice and add about 1/3 wild rice. Do not fluff rice, it should be somewhat sticky. Add shitake mushrooms, chives, thyme, and about 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese per cup of rice.

Place a slice of Jarlsberg cheese on each portabella cap. Mound 3/4 cup rice mixture on top. Place a second slice of cheese on top of rice. Garnish with more chives. Run under broiler until cheese just begins to melt. Serve immediately.

(...I suspect Aunt Rose originally got this from the back of a Libby's Pumpkin Pie can, but she changed it up. I added more spices.)

PUMPKIN PIE FILLING:

• 29 oz can of Libby's Pumpkin Filling (NOT pie mix, just pumpkin -- tell the hubby or he'll get the wrong thing)
  
• 4 Large Eggs
  
• 2 cans evap. milk
  
• 2 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  
• 1 tsp cloves
  
• 3/4 tsp of: ginger, grated nutmeg
  
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
  
• 1 1/2 cup white sugar
  

Heat oven to 425° F.
Beat with mixer in this order: first eggs, then beat in sugar, then milk and spices. Pumpkin filling last of all.
Put pies in. After 15 minutes, lower oven to 350° -- you may want to open door for a moment until red light pops on to make sure.
Cook 35-40 minutes, then check pies.

Pies are done when you put a knife in the filling and no pie clings to knife when you remove it.

PIE CRUST

Use a mixing bowl with a lid if you have it.

2 cups baker's flour -- sift, sift sift!
2/3 cup shortening. -- cut in with pastry cutter (or large fork, in a pinch) until you get a sort of fine crumbly meal.

Note: Be careful! You don't want to handle the dough more than necessary; otherwise you'll activate the gluten and it'll start to bulk up instead of being light and flaky.

5 tsp water (often I need to add more)

If you've got a lid, put the lid on the bowl and shake it around to get the stuff mixed into a ball as much as possible without handling. Or stir with wooden spoon or fingers.

Once you have a light greasy mass, divide in two. Roll out on a floured surface. Keep turning 45 degrees so you don't wind up with Greekgeek's Strangely Square Pie Crust (tm).

Use upside-down pie pan to measure your crust: a little overhang on all sides.

Sneaky trick to transfer pie crust to pan without tearing (usually):
Fold pie dough in fourths (like a napkin), transfer thicker, stronger folded crust to pan, then unfold.

1 cup flour
a good shake of salt
2 large eggs
7/8 cup milk (for some reason, skim seems to work best)
1 or 2 tablespoons melted butter
Lots more butter for greasing the muffin tin.

• Preheat oven to 450. (If they don't rise this time, try moving up to 475 or 500).
  
• Heavily butter muffin tin, add "knob" of butter to bottom of each well.
  
• Beat eggs in large bowl until they foam.
  
• Beat in milk.
  
• Melt butter in microwave and pour in. It solidifies into bits.
  
• Put buttered tin in oven and monitor for it to get hot and pale brown but NOT dark brown. Rescue if it starts smoking. If it burns, clean pan and try again. (Original recipe specified that you must say scurrilous things about your oven when butter burns.)
  
• Add flour and dash of salt.
  
• Beat strongly.
  
• Take out tin and fill wells about 3/4ths full.
  
• Bake 12 minutes at 450 degrees. They should rise a bit. Do NOT open oven door or they'll fall.
  
• By 15 minutes, turn down to 350 and bake another 10-15 degrees. They should come out puffy and brown on top.

They're good for breakfast with butter. Or, for lunch or dinner:

Optional Spinach Stuffing

Either frozen or well-washed freshed, chopped spinach
One large onion, minced
Several cloves of garlic or garlic powder
Olive oil
Nutmeg (grated or pre-ground)
Good shredded parmesan
Half a cup to a cup of chopped pecans (or walnuts or pine nuts)

• Coat bottom of frying pan with oil, put in onions and garlic
  
• Once they're translucent, add spinach and nutmeg
  
• Stir until spinach is bright green
  
• Take off heat, add cheese and nuts, and stuff popovers

Ingredients
1/2 lb fusilli (or, if you can't find that, some other corkscrew pasta like rotelle)
about 6, 2-inch tomatoes
a lemon
about a 2-inch onion
2 cloves of garlic
Italian brown mushrooms, about 4-5 1 and 1/2 inch (I added these)
6 oz feta cheese
salt, pepper, pinch of cayenne
about 1/4 cup olive oil
FRESH if at all possible basil, lots!

While the pasta cooks, cook the minced onion in the olive opil in a skillet. Add garlic, mushrooms, tomato slices, and cook until tomatoes boil vigorously, about 4 minutes. I like my tomatoes collapsing in agony :), so I cooked it a little longer. Season with pepper, salt, cayenne and basil.

Remove from heat, add lemon juice. Toss pasta, sauce, and cheese and serve warm.

I add spinach when I've got it.-- Greekgeek

1 artichoke
Auntie Arwen's Spices: Crazy Ivan's Salt-Free Seasoning
SAUCE:
half a lemon
3 eggs
red cayenne pepper
fresh cut basil

Artichoke prep:
Wash artichoke, chop off bottom and top so it fits pot.
Squeeze half the lemon over artichoke to stop browning.

Put a couple pinches of Crazy Ivan seasoning over artichoke in pot (it's mostly paprika and black pepper).

Steam artichoke for 35-40 minutes until bottom is soft when you stick a knife in it.

Hollandaise Sauce:
Make 10-15 minutes before artichoke is done.

Get 3 egg yokes. Whisk briskly.
Squeeze the other half of the lemon into the eggs.
Add pinch of cayenne.
Chop in several leaves of fresh basil. (I've got a couple different varieties out back...mostly sweet Italian, also dark purple basil for color).
Whisk until thick and frothy.
Pour into saucepan, keep stirring. Low simmer -- don't let the eggs scramble.
Cut a stick of butter (half a cup) into pieces, keeping stirring them in until they melt.

Drain artichoke.
Pig out.

Can be frozen -- it's the best, darkest fudge ever! As usual, we've changed it up, but Nancy, thank you for yummies, wherever you are.

3 ea 4-oz bars of German sweet chocolate
1 ea 12-oz package semi-sweet chocolate chips [Greekgeek adds: GHIRADELLI!]
1 ea 7 3/4-oz jar of marshmallow fluff
1 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans) [Greekgeek eschews nuts]
1 tsp vanilla
2 tablespoons (real) butter
Pinch of salt
4 1/2 cups sugar
1 can evaporated milk

Beforehand, grease a wide flat pan (or several plates) with butter.

Combine in large bowl 3 bars of chocolate (grated)*, package of chocolate chips, marshmallow fluff, and nuts.

In a very large saucepan (boils up very high), combine sugar, milk, butter and salt. STIR constantly (!!) over medium heat until it boils. Continue stirring while boiling for 6 minutes.

Pour hot mixture over chocolate, etc, and beat well with electric mixer. Add vnilla and continue to beat until gloss is gone. Pour into pan greased with butter.

*Mom says that grating chocolate is murder on hands, so she just breaks it into squares, splits them with a knife. They melt pretty quickly at that point.

Photo credit: sometoast on Flickr

12 oz cranberry bag
1 cup water -- can split with OJ.
half cup sugar (or more)

Heat sugar/water until boiling.
Throw in cranberries..
Bring back to boil.
Throw things at the cranberries (cinnamon etc)
It's ready when cranberries burst.