Sugar Cream Pie

Happy Fourth of July!

only one piece? : ( 

I hope that everyone has been having a great time celebrating and eating lots of delicious foods today!  My family and I were invited to a cook out at another log cabin across the lake from ours.  We had a great time with friends and the sugar cream pie that I made, which got rave reviews.


This was not a new recipe to me.  I found it in the pages of Country Living a year or two ago, maybe longer.  I have made this before, to the delight of my family, and since it is so good, I wanted to share it with you.  


The pie could not be easier.  Combine ingredients, stir, pour into crust, and bake.  Simple!  I did find that the liquid was a bit lumpy after the flour was added, but I don't think it affected the outcome at all.


The recipe called for a store-bought pie crust, but I used a homemade crust.  I used a pate brisee recipe from the Martha Stewart magazine, which uses a bit of sugar and butter instead of shortening.  I had actually made extra pie dough a while ago and froze half.  I was interested to see how the crust would hold up after being frozen for about a month.  I defrosted it in the fridge overnight and then put it out on the counter for about half an hour before I rolled it out.  I would have never known I was working with dough that had been frozen!  Someone at the party commented to me about how good the crust tasted which alleviated any doubts about freezing dough.


Enjoy this recipe with whatever kind of dough you use.  It is a big hit!


PS- if making pie dough is intimidating, here is a link to a pate brisee tutorial.  It is with Martha, also intimidating, but its not too bad.  ; )

Lemon and Garlic Pasta with Arugula

I have an article from an old issue of Martha Stewart Living hanging on my fridge that lists "super veggies." These are veggies that are packed full of vitamins and minerals that you don't find in many other vegetables.  I try to buy the veggies from this list as often as I can. 


Happily, one of the veggies, arugula, was in my box that I received from the Dancing Hen Farm. I did a search for arugula with pasta online and Garlic and Lemon Pasta with Arugula from epicurious.com was the first to come up. It didn't seem like too much trouble so I made it for dinner. 


This recipe is so easy and delicious. I used the garlic scapes that I received from the farm and added some onions. I had bottled kemon juice and used that instead of fresh.  I also added the fresh basil right at the end instead of sautéing with the other ingredients. It was very tasty; I couldn't stop myself from having seconds! I would definitely recommend making this dish.

Burritos with Bok Choy

Sorry for the month-long hiatus, Log Cabin Kitchen followers!  But I'll be getting back into the swing of things with the following recipe for Pork Burritos from rachaelraymag.com.

delicious, with pork or ground beef

On Tuesday, I received my first delivery from Dancing Hen Farm.  This is the second year I have signed up with a CSA (community supported agriculture) and couldn't wait for it to get started.  I knew I would be getting bok choy in my first delivery and wanted to try it in this burrito recipe.

There are a few things  I did a bit differently when making this.  First, since I didn't have shiitakes, I diced up the stalks from the bok choy and sauteed them with some garlic scapes that I received from the farm.  Once they had softened, I added the bok choy leaves and cooked as directed.  Even though it looks like a lot of leaves, they will be cooked down. I didn't have ground pork so I substituted ground beef.  Otherwise, I followed the recipe exactly.


I loved it! The bok choy stalks added a bit of crunch and the leaves with the soy sauce were great.  The sour cream and Thai chili sauce really made the burrito; it was like a slightly sweet, slightly spicy, cool, combo.  Now, my husband said it was good, but it was not something that he'd really want or order from a restaurant menu.  Oh well, too bad for him!  I thought is was great and a terrific recipe for bok choy!

Pork Medallions with Pear

I pulled the recipe for Pork Medallions with Pear from February's issue of Good Housekeeping and tucked it away in my recipe binder.  While looking for a pork recipe this afternoon, I came across it and decided to try it out.  Although after re-reading the recipe I wasn't too sure I'd like it; it seemed too plain or something... but I went ahead and made it anyway.

This dish turned out to be a quick,
 tasty, and healthy weeknight meal!

Instead of using a 1 lb. tenderloin, I used a thick boneless pork chop sliced in half (it was probably only 6oz. total).  After sauteing the pork and removing it from the pan, I added the fennel and toasted for 30 seconds.  The aroma was so fantastic!  Since I didn't have green onion, I added about half an onion diced, a little more olive oil, and the garlic.  I let it cook for a few minutes, then deglazed the pan with the water.  I added the pear (I just had one pear that I sliced), lemon juice, and salt and let cook according to the directions then returned the pork to the pan.


Instead of cutting the recipe in half since I only had half the amount of pork, I decided to keep the same amount of each ingredient of the sauce.  That way, I would have lots of extra sauce to add to the quinoa side dish.


I was happily surprised with this meal!  I really thought that it would be a bore and the pear and fennel combo wouldn't work but it was delicious.  Gordy really liked it and Baby Gordy enjoyed the quinoa with the sauce on it.  I'll put this recipe in the rotation!

Pizza! Pizza!

I have always used frozen pizza dough or a pre-made crust and canned or jarred pizza sauce to make my own homemade pizza.  I know, it's so unlike me!  Well after seeing this recipe in the February 2012 issue of Better Homes and Gardens I made myself make my own homemade dough and sauce.  I've been kicking myself ever since. How much time and money have I wasted buying the ingredients for pizza when it is sooooo easy to make it at home!

really good homemade pizza
is so easy to make!

First I made the dough.I used my mixer and didn't need to add any extra flour or water.  After letting the dough sit for 30 minutes, I divided it into four sections.  I took three and wrapped them up and froze them for later.  It says in the directions to refrigerate the dough overnight.  I was having pizza for dinner that night, so I just left it out.  I did not find that the dough doubled in size at all.  It puffed up a bit after a while and I punched it down to let it rise again.  But it never really doubled. Maybe if I had put it in the fridge... but I really didn't think that it affected the outcome.


I made the sauce according to the directions except instead of garlic powder, I used raw garlic.  I tasted the sauce and thought 'hmm, where is the flavor?'  So I added an extra 1/2 t basil, oregano, thyme and 1/4 t pepper.  Now I had sauce!  


The dough was easy to roll out and the pizza was easy to assemble.  Overall, so simple, so easy and so tasty!  My husband and son really liked it a lot.  If you make it at home, let me know what you think of the sauce and if you added more flavor to it.  I'll let you know how the defrosted dough turns out!


Scroll down through the Pizza article to get to the All-Purpose Sauce and All-Purpose Dough recipes.  Enjoy!!

Honey-Soaked Quinoa Salad

I have been dying to make something with quinoa!  I have been hearing and reading about it for some time and just bought some at Wegmans (they sell organic quinoa in bulk and it is much better value than buying prepackaged).  I saw this recipe, Honey-Saoked Quinoa Salad with Cherries and Cashews, next to the honey mustard pork in April's Better Homes and Gardens and knew it was meant to be. 

I LOVED the quinoa in the salad!!

Well, maybe not meant to be exactly.  I had some of the ingredients so I figured I'd use the recipe as a guideline.  Well, I made the vinaigrette as directed, using ginger powder instead of fresh.  The spice jar I have gives a conversion of fresh to powdered, something like 1/4 t powdered equals 1 t fresh.  I thought that the ginger flavor was a bit over powering at first but then I really liked it.  I added my cooked quinoa to the lettuce and that's where I stopped following the recipe. Instead of cherries, I used blueberries; instead of red onion, I used scallions; instead of cashews, I used walnuts; and instead of apricots, I used avocado.  


I loved this salad and even my husband who was "unwillingly eating salad" liked it a lot.  I saw him have seconds!  This is a great guideline for a salad recipe.  I can't wait for my next quinoa recipe!

Crispy Honey Mustard Pork Chops

This morning I was leafing through April's Better Homes and Gardens looking for a pork recipe.  Crispy Honey Mustard Pork Chops sounded perfect for dinner tonight.  


I had boneless pork chops so I used that instead of the bone-in.  I didn't had stone-ground mustard, just whole-grain Dijon. I really didn't see much difference in the cut of pork of the mustard choice.  It was very easy to prepare.  I used my cast iron skillet since I was only cooking two pork chops and was able to transfer that to the oven to finish off.  I almost forgot to add the panko bread crumbs at the end (since I was chatting away on the phone).  I didn't have onion powder or marjoram, so I just sprinkled some panko on by itself.


I thought this recipe turned out very well.  The pork chops were a little dry, but I will blame chatting on the phone for that.  The recipe does call for a half-inch thick chop and that is what I used tonight, but I really think that it should have been thinner.  Next time I will slice the meat in half to make two thin chops instead of one thick one.  I think that the onion and marjoram would have been nice, but I couldn't tell they were missing.  Two thumbs ups for this dish.