How to Make Pie Crust

The holidays are approaching and over the last few weeks I received a few requests for help with pies.  I thought about how it took me awhile to be comfortable making pie crust from scratch and after taking my sister-in-law through the process a few weeks ago, I realized any pie newbie would really benefit from a quick video tutorial on pie crust. So here you go my very first video post.  It's not slick or fancy, but it a first pass.

The video leads you right up to finishing the dough, you can go on from this step and follow whatever pie recipe you are making or you can use one of my pie recipes.  I'm really interested in hearing what you think of my first video.  Is it helpful?  Would you like to see more?  Post in the comments or shoot me an email.

Oh and don't forget to check out Love 4 Lasagna and join us in making 1 lasagna a week for the month of November.  It's a fun way to get creative with a classic and it starts on Sunday.

Enjoy!

Unprocessed: BUTTER!

Those of you that follow me on Twitter or are a friend on Facebook know that not too long ago I made butter from scratch.  Well without further ado, I wrote up how to make butter as my contribution to the October Unprocessed challenge and you can find it over at our fearless leader's blog Eating Rules.  Go ahead, check it out, read more about the challenge and learn how you too can make butter at home.

Enjoy!

How To: Hard Boiled Eggs

Here we go, my very first 'How To." Now I don't consider myself an expert at anything culinary, I just know what I like and how I like to do things. So from time to time I'll share my methods for doing some of the basic things in the kitchen. I'm sure most of you have hard boiled eggs before and think they turn out fine, but the method I use gives you perfect eggs practically every time. Bright yellow yolks, shell is easy to remove with little to no cracks every time. I figure with Easter just over a month away this could come in hand for egg coloring. Here's how I do it:

Hard Boiled Eggs

4 eggs - refrigerated
saucepan with lid
water

1. Place 4 eggs in the saucepan. Pour cold water into the pot until the eggs are covered by at least 1/2" of water. It's important that the water is cold.
2. Place pot on a burner and turn it on to high. Let cook uncovered until water reaches a rolling boil. Then remove from heat, put lid on the pot and let sit for 12 minutes. UPDATE: If you want a softer center let sit covered for 8 minutes.
3. After 12 minutes have elapsed, bring the pot to the sink and let cold water run into the pot until the water is cooled and let eggs sit in the cool water for approx 10 minutes. (This last step is to cool them more quickly and not necessary if you don't want to use them right away.)

Look at those bright yellow yolks. I'm sure if I had used Eggland's Best eggs they'd be even brighter! I still swear by their farm fresh eggs and will for sure pick up some on my next trip back home.

You can do this with as many eggs as can fit in a single layer in your pot, although I've never done it with more than 6, but I'd imagine it would work with up to a dozen.