*Also, there will be pictures added tomorrow*

I don’t have a sweet tooth, really. But there’s only so much turkey or mashed potato I can eat each Thanksgiving before I need a sugary, spicy chaser. (How’s that for a tortured metaphor?) And this year, since I’ve had to go gluten-free, I’m not going to leave it up to fate that there will be a dessert at my not-in-laws I can eat. Thus? This Friday, I went over to Heather’s, and we made pumpkin pie.

Gluten-free pie-making isn’t really a whole lot different from regular pie-making. A lot of the same principles apply; keep the butter cold, drizzle the ice water in slowly, don’t mash the flour and the butter together too much so that the crust will remain flaky. That sort of thing still applies. The difference, really, is that (like any other gluten-free baking) you’ll use more than one kind of flour.

The reason for that, and we can explore this more another time, is that there is no single kind of flour which can easily do all the things you need your wheat-based flour to do. So what you do is use a mix of various types of flour (each with its own useful qualities, like protein content or chewiness) in the hope that, all together, they can approach the qualities you’d want from wheat-based flour.

Make sense?

In this crust, we have white rice flour, which is a nice start, but doesn’t add a whole lot of extra oomph to the dough, and can be gritty with a bit of an aftertaste. So you temper it by adding sorghum flour (which has a nice body to it), cornstarch and tapioca (both of which are light starches, so they won’t contribute any heaviness to the dough, and they lack any aftertaste.) And we add sweet rice flour.

Sweet rice flour, also known as mochi flour or glutinous rice flour (because it’s sticky, not because it has gluten in it) is made from a particular kind of sticky rice popular in various parts of Asia. You can buy it online, but I found mine in an Asian food mart for less than half the price. The best part about baking gluten-free goods with sweet rice flour is the texture it imparts: spongy, moist, and almost like a “real” baked good. I had brownies made with sweet rice flour a few months ago and they were about the best brownies I’d ever had. Ever. This was the first time I’d gotten to bake with it, and I can’t wait to try out all those recipes with it that have been popping up all over the internet lately.

You need an egg for binder, and apple cider vinegar for…well, in this recipe it’s for flavour. Apple cider is used a lot in gluten-free baking to help raise acidity in the dough and add a little bit of leavening with the yeast it contains, but we’re not dealing with a risen dough here. Anyway.

That’s about it for the unconventional pie crust ingredients. Let’s get started.

• 1 cup white rice flour
• 1/2 cup sorghum flour
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/4 cup tapioca flour
• 3 tablespoons sweet rice flour
• 3 teaspoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon good, real cinnamon
• 8 tablespooons (one stick) cold butter
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup ice water, or just enough to make the dough not crumble

Combine all the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl, and stir them all together until they’re homogenous. Cut your butter into small pieces, and cut it into the dry ingredients with two butter knives or a pastry cutter until the dough looks crumbly and none of the chunks of butter are larger than pea-sized. If you work slowly, like I do, put the whole shebang into the fridge for a few minutes so that the butter can harden back up. The quicker you work, and the colder your butter is, the more flaky your crust is going to be.

Once the butter has been cut in, make a little well in the middle and dump in your egg and your apple cider vinegar. Stir all that together with a fork until the dough is evenly wet, trying not to smash too badly all those lovely tiny bits of flour-covered butter. On tablespoon at a time, being adding in your ice water until you can pinch a bit of the dough and the bits will stick together.

Dump this good-smelling mess into the center of a piece of parchment paper -trust me on this; if you use waxed paper the water content in the dough will make it fall apart when you roll it out, and you’ll be picking little bits of waxed paper off your neatly-rolled-out dough. Don’t be like me. Gather it together into a slightly-flatted ball, and cover it with another piece of parchment paper. Press out from the center so that a wide disc of dough (almost as wide as your pie plate) is sandwiched between the two pieces of paper, and pop it into the fridge to chill. Best practice says to let your dough chill in the fridge overnight, but this turned out fine with only an hour or two of refrigeration.

While it is chilling, start preparing your filling. (That rhyme was accidental. I’m leaving it in. I’m that kind of girl.)

• 1 large (about 8″ diameter) or two medium pie pumpkin(s)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1.5 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 large eggs
• 1.5 cans (12oz each) of evaporated milk

Preheat your oven for

*/
hey Heather, what did you do it at?
/*

Heather says: 400F

Cut open your pie pumpkin(s) from stem to stern, and scoop out the seeds and stringy innards. Place them face-down on a cookie sheet, and fill that cookie sheet with water. Pop them in the oven for about an hour, or until the pumpkin is soft when pierced by a fork.

Take your dough out of the fridge at this point; you’ll want it to rest in room temperature for about twenty minutes before you use it so it will become malleable enough to roll out.

Scoop the pumpkin from the skin, and let it cool enough to handle. When it is, put it in the middle of some cheese cloth and gently squeeze out some—but not all—of the water. If it looks a little runnier than the pumpkin puree you’d get from a can, that’s perfectly fine; the recipe takes that into account. You’re going to be using 3 cups of this cooked pumpkin in this recipe. Discard the rest, or use it for another recipe.

Use whatever blending tool you have around (we used a stick blender) to blend the cooked pumpkin to an even consistency.

In a mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients (sugar, spices, salt). Stir in the eggs, the evaporated milk, and the pumpkin, and make sure they are blended well together. I took the stick blender to it again, not only because it’s fun to use, but also so that the spices were incorporated well into the filling.

Go back to your dough. Roll it out in a circle between the two layers of parchment paper so that it’s thin and wider than your pie plate by a few inches. Take off the top layer, place your plate upside down on top of the rolled out dough and flip it right side up. Peel the second sheet off of the dough, and begin damage control. Smooth out the cracks, press the crust into shape, and make it pretty. You have slightly more leeway with a gluten-free crust than you do with a traditional crust, since the slightly-stickier dough means you can just press back on bits which have fallen off, and generally sculpt your pie crust without worrying about affecting structural integrity.

Pour your pie filling into the pie shell, and bake at 425 F for the first 15 minutes. Then, turn the oven down to 350 F and bake for another 45 to 60 minutes, until the filling no longer jiggles, and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

The pie will set as it cools, and your patience will be rewarded.

Enjoy!

Did you do anything for Fearless Friday? If so, please feel free to share in the comments. Either share a link to your own blog or tell us in your comment how you pushed your culinary boundaries.

I made a beef roast yesterday and even though it was perfectly rosy on the inside it was still pretty tough… Enough so that I’m not finding the idea of leftovers particularly appetizing. Is there a way I can use the meat up that will correct (or at least disguise) the toughness?

Signed,

Leathery in Louisiana

Heather says:

My options depend on the original flavoring of the roast itself. If it was simply onion, garlic, salt and pepper, cook the rest of the roast in a crockpot,  in salsa, then shred for chimichangas.

If the roast had other flavors that wouldn’t go well with salsa, slice it as thinly as possible and use it on French dips, beef and cheddar hoagies, or in a beef stroganoff.

How about you, what would you do with a tough piece of roast beef?

Send your domestic quandaries to helpme@home-ec101.com.

There are two things on today’s to-do list. First get out the shopping list and plan your attack.

Second, figure out how long your frozen turkey will take to thaw. Frozen turkeys need a full 24 hours per 5lbs to thaw in a 40F refrigerator. Once thawed the turkey can be held for up to 48 hours.

For example, an 18lb turkey will take nearly 4 days to thaw and should be used by the 6th day. Thanksgiving is 1 week away, so it’s time to start thawing those 20 plus pound turkeys. Don’t forget to keep that turkey in the very bottom of the refrigerator to prevent any cross-contamination through drips  and spills.

If you are picking up a fresh turkey, it should be cooked within 3 days of pick-up, so play it safe and pick it up on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Signed,
Mystified by Mozzarella

Heather says:

Freezing fresh mozzarella isn’t the best idea. In fact, it’s not easy to store fresh mozzarella for long. If stored too long it becomes bitter and if frozen the consistency becomes funky.

Fresh mozzarella is excellent on pizza, but has a very mild flavor and to take advantage of using this ingredient it should be treated as the star of the show. Due to its consistency it should be sliced rather than grated.

It’s also lovely marinated and served in salads or sliced thinly and served on sandwiches. Be sure to use toasted bread and crisp vegetables to fully enjoy the contrast of textures.

How about you Home Eccers, how do you use fresh mozzarella?

Send your domestic questions to helpme@home-ec101.com.

It’s time to pull out your menu and recipes and put together your time table.

What time will dinner be?

How many of your side dishes can be made the day before? How will you reheat them in a timely manner.

What will have to be done to ensure everything is hot at the same time?

If your schedule gets thrown for a loop*, what can you have on hand to keep people from circling the kitchen like starving vultures?

*For instance your child getting sick which results in having to spend half your prep-day at Urgent Care. (He’s fine now). I’m just saying, it happens.

Recently a reader posed this question in the comments:

My dughter is a vegetarian and has been asked to bring something for Thanksgiving that she can eat and that will provide a taste of something good and different than the usual Turkey-day fare. We have’nt come up with anything “spectacular” but I thought I would try your readers. Any suggestions? She is a pretty good cook, so it doesn’t have to be super easy, just needs to taste great! Thanks.

After further questioning, I learned that she is looking for an idea for a main dish. So, I would love to open this question up to all of you. Please feel free to link to your favorite vegetarian holiday recipes to help this reader out.

In September I had the pleasure of meeting a representative of Chefs Requested at the Type-A Mom conference. We began talking and I was asked if I would be interested in trying out their products here on Home-Ec 101. I thought about it for a moment and decided I had best be up-front about my suspicions.  I said, “I have to be honest, I have a freezer full of beef at home because we buy beef by the half cow.”  He didn’t blink, so I went for what I thought would be the killing blow, “Do your products contain MSG?” The answer? No, they do not. Relieved, we traded info and went on our merry way.

Last month a box of Chefs Requested products arrived for us to try -see that FTC, disclosure. I’ve been working them into our menu over the past few weeks, the products are all individually vacuum sealed, so that makes a quick thaw via water-bath exceptionally easy for a busy night.

What products did I get to try?

• Bacon wrapped filets (hands down my favorite)
• Flat Iron Grill Boneless Steaks (Pre-portioned into 100 calorie steaks, can we say steak and eggs? This was Mr. Heather’s favorite.)
• Bacon Wrapped Chopped Beef Filets (Easy, gourmet-style burgers)
• Bacon Wrapped Chicken Filets (For those looking for a juicy, chicken burger)

Who do I see finding the most value in these products?

Singles, couples, those exploring portion control, and most especially someone new to cooking who needs the positive reinforcement of a successful experience. The individually wrapped servings make portion control a breeze for those who don’t want leftovers or for those who don’t want to have the temptation to return for seconds.

Long time readers may wonder why I am giving a positive review to a convenience product. And here’s my logic, steaks can be intimidating to a new cook. The idea of screwing up a comparatively high dollar item keeps many people from attempting the act. The pre-marinated meat is more forgiving than a non-marinated cut which allows room for overcooking or other newbie errors such as frequent checking, poking, prodding, and turning too often. Even the filets can withstand being cooked past the medium-well point without turning into a hockey puck. In my restaurant days I used to cringe when someone ordered our 14oz filet mignon well done, I’d try to cajole them into choosing a well-marbled steak that could tolerate the higher temperatures, but it never worked. If we weren’t slammed, we”d have a moment of silence for the culinary tragedy we were forced to perform.

This is  Home-Ec 101 not Home-Ec Post Graduate and this resource is here for even the newest cooks. My boys have both recently learned to ride their bikes without training wheels. Of course they fell a few times, but they had the previous experience to know that it would be fun once they got the hang of things. Cooking can be like that. If a person has a success they will be more willing to experiment in the future.

I’ve been grilling for a long time and I was pleasantly surprised to find even though I had a propane shortage while grilling the chopped beef filets they still turned out well. I transferred the burgers to an indoor grill and finished cooking with excellent results.

Did I have any problems with any of the products?

I’m kind of a texture freak; there I’ve said it publicly. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve never been a huge hamburger fan. I can either be wildly in love with a burger or it’ll trigger my gag reflex, so I attend to avoid burgers altogether.  Yes, weird, I’m sorry. So the husband and kids all powered down their chopped beef filets and I ate most of mine. The six year old went for seconds. The flavor was excellent, the texture was just a little different than I expected. It was more tender than your average burger. This isn’t even an inherently bad thing, just my own, personal weirdness. Four out of five Soloses are fans, the fifth admits an unfair bias; all things considered that’s not a bad rating.

I also approached the chicken in the wrong manner. I should have treated it like a burger, but I prepared it as an entree. When I prepare the rest of my sample, I will saute some onions, grab some cheese and create a chicken melt.

Summary, my family and I enjoyed the Chefs Requested products. The flavor was good, the convenience was enjoyable, and I am excited to be able to recommend a forgiving product to new cooks. If you click through the ad in the upper right corner, you should receive a coupon for up to $3.00 off a Chef’s Requested product. To see if a store in your area carries it, check out the list of retailers.

If you have any questions, I’d be glad to answer them.

It’s a shop from the fridge and pantry kind of week. I have a bunch of potatoes that need to be used up. I’ll round everything out with fresh produce.

• Monday – Loaded baked potato soup, spinach salad
• Tuesday – Trying out recipes from the BBC – pan grilled sirloin, yorkshire pudding, buttered cabbage, potatoes gratin
• Wednesday – C.O.R.N.
• Thursday –  Company Spaghetti with meat sauce, 7 layer salad, garlic bread
• Friday – Pan fried catfish, cheese grits, steamed vegetables
• Saturday – Homemade pizza night (pizza crust recipe / pizza sauce recipe )
• Sunday – Beef shoulder roast in red wine, pan roasted vegetables, cheesy broccoli rice casserole

Tell me, what’s on your menu this week? Are you trying anything new.  Are there any seasonal items you’ve been waiting to add to your menu? Feel free to share or link to your own menu plan in the comments.

One of my main goals here at Home-Ec 101 is to help others realize that no one has it completely together. If from the outside they look as though everything is in order, chances are they have a fear that someone will find out they are hanging on by their fingernails? It’s ok that we put on our best for company, but there comes a time where we need to admit our shortcomings. It’s not a celebration of mediocrity, as I’ve heard it referred to, rather it’s a chance to laugh at ourselves.

The whole week has felt like a scramble to catch up, to what I don’t know. Remember last week’s roast turkey? My husband was at work, so I immediately packed the turkey away into the refrigerator and freezer. The kids and I had sandwiches (yes, turkey) and fruit for supper. . . several nights in a row.  Even as much as I know that family dinners matter, when it’s just the kids and I, it can be very hard to summon the energy to get it all together.

Oh, and those candy corn votives? The kids saw Mr. Heather snacking from them, so they are now over the fireplace and I’ve had to pry kids off the mantle several times.

So, the Sunday confessional is now open. Let’s hear it, Home Eccers, did you have any disasters this week? None of us have it all together and there is a sense of camaraderie when we own up to our flubs.

My first encounter with a fried turkey had to have been around 1997. I was visiting the family of my then boyfriend down in Jacksonville, FL. The family was big and friendly, but I was extremely shy, so I lurked outside with the dad who was in charge of frying the turkey.  Circumstances changed, but I have put the knowledge of turkey frying to good use.

Obviously there are safety precautions one must take when deep frying anything as large as a turkey.

1. The turkey must be fully thawed.
2. This is an outdoor activity. All the way outside, the garage is NOT outside.
3. It must be done on level ground, preferably concrete. Nothing flammable should be in the vicinity.
4. The propane tank should be set as far from the burner as possible without stretching the hose taut and creating a trip hazard. (Common sense people, please)
5. The fryer should never be left unattended while in operation.
6. Children? Keep them away from the area.
7. Use gloves.
8. Use a thermometer.
9. Don’t let drunk Uncle Bob be in charge of this operation.

Equipment needed:

• turkey fryer (a “turkey lifter”, a large stock pot, with a propane burner)
• propane tank
• a thermometer with a long probe & clip
• heavy gloves
• meat thermometer
• peanut oil
• Cajun seasoning

You’ll have better results frying two smaller turkeys than one large turkey. Smaller turkeys don’t cause the temperature of the oil to drop as much. If the oil is too cool, it will be greasier than it should be.

Before the big day, you’ll need to figure out how much oil the turkey will displace. If you filled the pot without checking, you risk either having too little oil or risk an overflow. With the turkey still in its plastic wrapping place it in the pot. Fill the pot with water until it barely covers the turkey. Remove the turkey and note the level of the water.  When you fill the fryer with oil, do NOT fill it to this line. Fill it about 2/3rds of the way, then turn on the heat. After the oil has reached 350F, then add more oil if necessary. Oil significantly increases in volume with the addition of heat.

Back to the turkey.

An hour before frying pull the turkey from the refrigerator or cooler, remove the plastic wrap, giblets, neck, and tail. Check the bird carefully for any plastic, it may have a pop-up indicator or plastic wrapped to hold the drumsticks in place. Remove these pieces.

Someone else should be outside getting the fryer ready.

Blot the bird as dry as possible with paper towels. Water and hot oil are a very bad mix.

Rub the turkey down with Cajun seasoning, including inside the cavity.

Place the turkey on the stand, it should be doing what would be a headstand, if it still had a head. It can hang out here until it’s time for frying.

The oil should be at 350F.

Carefully, wearing gloves and using a hook, lower the DRY, seasoned turkey into the oil.

Watch the temperature of the oil and adjust the flame as necessary. Immediately reduce the flame if the oil creeps over 350F.

Fry the turkey for 3 minutes a pound. Remove the turkey from oil and check the inner thigh with a meat thermometer it should be between 161 & 165. If so, bring it inside and allow it to rest for 10 – 30 minutes before carving. (The internal temperature will climb a few more degrees, so it’s ok if it isn’t exactly 165 when it is removed from the oil.

If your oil was too hot (this happened to us when we didn’t know our thermometer was off due to sword fighting children), the skin may be very dark. Don’t worry, the meat should still be fine, if you removed it from the oil when it was cooked.

Turn the propane off and ensure no one will disturb the oil as it cools before leaving it unattended.

Carve and enjoy.

Questions?