It's National Clam Chowder day! Click recipe for a recipe I found on epicurious. I unfortunately did not have time to test out because I had loads of homework last night. If you try this recipe and like it, leave a comment!

Hello everybody, and Happy National Cherry Pie Day! I didn't have time to make a cherry pie today and it is not cherry season anyway. Although I couldn't make one, I found a great recipe in a book called First Prize Pies, by Allison Kave. Here it is:

Sour Cherry Pie

Ingredients
(Pie Crust of Choice)
Filling-
1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup slivered almonds, chopped or ground in the food processor
2 pounds pitted sour cherries
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
Egg wash or milk for glaze
Raw sugar for garnish

Procedure
Preheat oven to 425 F. Roll out half the dough into a circle about 11 inches in diameter. Transfer it to a 9-inch pie plate. Trim overhang to 1 inch and refrigerate crust.
In a small bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, and almonds. In a large bowl, toss together the cherries and vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix together the brown sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Just before adding the filling to the pie plate, toss the fruit in the brown sugar mixture. Brush the  rim of the bottom crust with egg wash or milk.
Put the bottom crust on a baking sheet. Pour the almond mixture into the crust. Pour the filling on top. Roll out the second half of the dough, cut it into lattice strips, and arrange them over the filled pie. Trim the edges and tuck the top crust over the rim of the bottom crust to form a tight seal. Crimp the edge in whatever pattern you like. Brush the top crust with egg wash or milk and sprinkle it with raw sugar.
Bake the pie for 20 minutes, turning it once, halfway through. Lower the temperature to 350 F and bake it for 30 or 40 minutes more, until the crust is golden and fully baked and the juices have thickened. Remove the pie to cool completely, at least 1 hour.

This pie can be refrigerated up to one week, covered in plastic wrap. Let it come to room temperature before serving, or warm in a low oven. It can be kept frozen for up to 2 months: Wrap it in plastic and then foil, and let it come to room temperature before serving.

A collection of short stories about food in reverse chronological order, 

 almost as told to my class by our Social Studies teacher Ms. Catapano. 

"Sammiches"

Back before the Greeks colonized the European coastline, they had only grapes and olives. The grapes were good for making wine, and the Greeks made olive oil with the olives. They were pretty happy eating olives and drinking wine but they had no wheat or barley. With no wheat or barley they couldn't make bread, and without bread, they couldn't make sammiches. And they were starving because they had no sammiches.  

I realized I was feeling hungry. So I went home, and I realized I had no bread for sammiches. So I called Daughter No. 2 and she came ovah with some bread that had to go in the freezer. Some kinda thing with no preservatives because Daughter No. 2 is on a bit of a health kick. So I put the bread in the freezer, so as not to hurt her feelings, and went out to buy some regular bread for my sammiches. 

Salmonella Poisoning 

One day, I was doing paperwork in my room, and I was starving. So I went over to the deli and got a coffee and this little tiny cake. When I got back to my homeroom,  I bit into the cake and it was raw. It had not been baked and I thought to myself, I could have died from Salmonella poisoning. 

In the Desert 

The other day I was leaving work around 6:00, and I was very very hungry. So I started walking and it was so cold and windy and I felt just like the Jews starving in the desert. So I walked and walked and walked, and when I got home, I had no food in the house. I looked in the fridgerator and I had some left ovah Challah bread. And so I went into the closet and found some string beans and potatoes. And so I cooked that all up and then I was not starving anymore. 

                                     

http://visittehamacountry.com

Happy Valentines Day everyone! I don't know how many of you who are reading this have a fondue pot, but if you don't, you should definitely get one. Here of some pictures of my chocolate fondue on Friday night:

Here is the recipe: 

Ingredients

1 package of  dark or milk fondue chocolate 

1/2 cup heavy cream (more if needed)

1 tsp unsalted butter 

The other day, I was just sitting around and I decided I wanted to bake something. At first I was going to bake gingerbread. But then I decided I didn't want to. So I looked and looked through a bunch of cookbooks, and finally came across a recipe for Dutch seed cookies. I had eaten them before and really liked them. Here is the book I got the recipe from, and cookies!

   

Small Seed Cakes 
Makes 4 dozen 
Ingredients: 1/2 cup butter 
                    1 cup sugar
                    2 eggs 
                    2 cups flour 
                    1 tablespoon caraway seed 
                     (bruised with in a mortar with a pestle)
Cream the butter with the sugar. Add eggs one by one and incorporate thoroughly. Add seeds and flour a little at a time, stir well. Use two teaspoons to shape the cookies about the size of a nutmeg and place them on a buttered baking sheet . Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes, until the rims are browned. 

                                                  www.123rf.com

                                                                                            

Happy National Bagel and Lox Day! Personally, I love bagels and lox, but  there is really no better place to get it than Brooklyn. And where else but Shelsky's Jewish appetizing shop. Luckily, I live only a few blocks away.

It also just so happens that Shelsky's has this totally amazing thing called salmon cream cheese.  I'm not kidding. Plus everything bagel.  I always get the same thing, and never get tired of it. It's that delicious. It just occurred to me that the word delicious actually has the word deli in it. It's meant to be. Here is my bagel in a before and after...


                                                                                


                                                         

                                                                                          Shelsky's Pickles

 Go to nationaldaycalander.com for more random holidays to celebrate!