Types of Antisocial Behavior

Sour Cherry and Raspberry Crumble Top Pie

The Antisocial — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 15:43:38 +0000

This post will be pretty short because my arms are insanely sore from riding my new bike yesterday (yes..sore from a bike ride…it happens, ok!) and I still have to go to work in a bit. Needless to say, I will be strictly ambulatory today.

I love cherry pie. It’s my absolute favorite despite the fact that I know full well where those cherries most likely came from. By this I mean those oft cutely-designed, but highly suspect cans labeled simply as ‘cherry pie filling.’ I refuse to use them so I have never been able to make cherry pies, that is..until now. At my local grocer, I found the most beautiful sour cherries fresh from Bashista Orchards.

Have you ever had a sour cherry? I never had before, but they are very much like a soft jawbreaker…almost painfully sour but delightful nonetheless. You wouldn’t believe how difficult it is to find a recipe for cherry pie with fresh cherries. I pretty much just made this one up as I went along. I had been planning on making just a cherry pie but my absent-minded snacking led me to a shortage of filling, so I threw in the rasberries I picked up at the farmer’s market and hoped for the best. I figured they were both tart, so why not?

This pie is time consuming! I think it took me at least 3 hours from start to finish, but you could just as easily use store bought crust and the above-mentioned filling if you are really pressed for time. From scratch though, here is the process I recommend:

Make the bottom curst (see my Pie Crust Tutorial), refrigerate dough for an hour to set
While it is in the refrigerator, take the pits out of the cherries (this took me forever)
Take out the pie crust dough after an hour, roll out and place in baking dish. Place in the freezer for at least 30 minutes. You can also blind-bake (putt ing beans or pie weights in the dish and baking at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes), but I never have any beans and I always tend to burn the crust. You are freezing/blind-baking so that the juicy cherry filling doesn’t make the bottom all soggy (a tip I should have used with my Strawberry Rhubarb Pie)
After putting the crust in the freezer/blind baking – make the filling and crumble top

Recipe to follow:

Sour Cherry and Raspberry Crumble Top pie

1) Pie crust, see Tutorial as I’m too lazy to re-type

2) Cherry & Raspberry Filling

2/3 cup sugar (but really it’s to taste)
3 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
About 3-4 cups sour cherries and raspberries

3) My Favorite Crumble Top, from Peach-Blueberry Pie

2/3 c. brown sugar
3/4 c. oats
1/2 c. flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
6 tbsp softened (almost melted) butter

Assemble the pie: Pour filling into frozen crust and sprinkle with the crumble topping. Bake at 375 degrees for about an hour, until the juices are bubbling and top & crust are golden.

It is an epically good pie, probably my favorite but I do so love cherry pie. I wish I had had some almonds for the crumble top, that would have been a nice addition. I had walnuts but I thought that might be a bit too nutty…and I thought surely the walnuts would burn if I had baked them for the entire time. I’ll experiment in the future since I will surely be making this pie again as long as sour cherry season persists.

ToAb Quote of the Day

The Antisocial — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 20:34:45 +0000

“We are not born for friendship. Basically, some other relationship is more appropriate to the human condition. No high-pitched paeans can remove the mistrust that divides human beings from each other. We are all playing a double game. It is the things closest to us that unite us: loneliness and separation. As for loving communion, perhaps people mean those common interests which lead to the establishing of cooperative societies. You only need to look round you to see what kind of blueprint underlies the human condition.”

-Hans Kielson, The Death of the Adversary

Looks like someone would be quite the fan of ToAB!

Farmer’s Market Pick: Basil

The Antisocial — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 15:27:58 +0000

Local red lettuce, basil, and tomatoes

It has been a painfully slow season this year but fruits, vegetables, and herbs are finally beginning to trickle into my local farmer’s market.

I have a shameful tendency of letting most of my produce go bad and so I’m making a concerted effort to not only incorporate more local produce into my diet, but to also use ALL that I buy. I always have a difficult time making menus but I find that it is much easier to choose a key ingredient and build around it. Most recently, I chose basil.

Here is what I managed to get out of a sizable bunch of basil leaves:

For dinner, Beef & Basil Stir Fry with Fried Rice

3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
dash of Sriracha
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 cup water
canola oil
1 1/4 lb flank steak
4 cloves minced garlic
1/2 cup chopped scallions (more on scallions to come!)
2 cups basil leaves, larger leaves chopped
fried rice (recipe follows)

Whisk together soy sauce vinegar, pepper flakes, Sriracha, cornstarch and water. Set aside and heat a little canola oil in a skillet to prepare the beef.

Season steak with salt and pepper. Sear in pan until browned on both sides. Remove beef from pan when done and set aside.

Add a bit more oil to the pan and add the garlic. As the garlic turns gold, add the soy sauce mixture and whisk. Cook for a minute or two and add the beef. Toss to coat the beef, then add the scallions. Heat for a minute or two then take off the heat. Add the basil and toss. Serve with fried rice.

Simple Fried Rice

2 cups cooked rice (I had made some the night before, it’s best to use day-old rice but you can also use freshly cooked)
red pepper flakes
2 tablespoon soy sauce (or to taste)
dash of Sriracha
2 eggs, lightly beaten

Heat some canola oil in a skillet. Add the rice and fry for a 4-5 minutes. Add pepper flakes, soy sauce, and Sriracha. Fry for a few more minutes. Make a well in the center of the rice and pour in the eggs. Leave for 30 seconds. Combine and fry until rice is slightly crisp (I like mine really crispy). Serve with Beef Basil Stir Fry.

I would have taken pictures of this meal, but I hate letting food get cold and I was really hungry!

With the leftover basil I made a chopped caprese salad for lunch the next day. I used local red lettuce and tomatoes, added a handful of roughly chopped basil, some chunks of mozzarella, and a healthy dose of pepper. I added the last few leaves to my iced sun tea. Basil is my absolute favorite herb to add to iced tea.

And that is how I used the entire bunch of basil I bought!

“Fond as we are of our loved ones, there comes at times during their absence an unexplained peace…”

The Antisocial — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 16:17:43 +0000

…which is how I sometimes feel about this blog, in case my long and frequent absences were not an indication. I truly wish I had the time and dedication to make this a truly worthwhile blog, but my overall laziness and embarrassingly short attention span sadly prevents such a thing from happening. For now, I will do my best.

Wow, I really haven’t posted since April? I’ve been busy but I didn’t realize I had been that busy. There hasn’t even been anything good on television (with the exception of Archer).

Oh yes…like the new look? The ease with which I slip into boredom paired with with my wandering heart is a dangerous combination for anything that is so easily changed.

The past few months have been a whirlwind of activity, so I will try to get to posting!

The quote that is serving as the title of the post is from Anne Shaw…don’t ask me who that it. I constantly mis-attribute the quote to Edith Wharton.

Happy Easter from Lucy

The Antisocial — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 19:44:12 +0000

I would have included my other rabbit Effi, but she never sits still when the camera is on her. She always lunges at it hungrily, overcome by the possibility of a new object for her consumption.

Anyway, enjoy a few pictures of Lucy who shows at most an annoyed indifference to any camera time I subject her to.

Effi may have her blunders, of which she doesn’t seem to know better, but Lucy goes about causing mischief and loving it.

A different kind of city…local wanderings around Smith College

The Antisocial — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 16:34:10 +0000

Perhaps it was because I grew up in a run-of-the-mill suburb in some random podunk town in Oklahoma that when I was younger I held such grandiose views of city life. I have since shunned such notions for an idyllically rural, (non) existence.

Technically, I do live in a city. It just happens to be a city of less than 30,000 people and surrounded by acres upon acres of farmland. I have yet to come to terms with the fact that I have become one of those earthy-crunchy types that I constantly scoff at. Ugh, I am only a pair of birkenstocks away from being a full-blown hippie.

I sometimes get the urge to flee to a major metropolitan area, this happens mostly after encounters with filthy, dreadlocked actual hippies who are playing their accordian/xylophone/random quirky hipster instrument on the street but then I shudder at the thought of not having this right outside my door:

I realize these images are a bit bleak, but I think there is something very beautiful about a stark landscape. These were all taken on one of the earliest days of Spring, the same day I went to the Smith College Greenhouse Bulb Show actually. As much as I love the colors of spring, there is something equally inspiring about the final days of winter.

Living in such a rural town has absolutely spoiled my eating habits. I shun almost any food not grown or raised locally. I don’t necessarily care about things being ‘all-natural’ or ‘organic’ because oftentimes those terms are bandied about quite liberally and with no true standards. I do care about supporting the local economy and sustainability though.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the pictures. I will try to put up a few more recipes but I apologize if it’s a bit slow-going. I’m planning a trip to Iceland in June and I have been consumed with trying to learn more about this beautiful and fascinating country.

Butterscotch Brickle Bars

The Antisocial — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 15:02:27 +0000

It’s amazing how many confections are born from brown sugar and butter alone. I suppose it’s arguable that toffee, caramel, and butterscotch are all just different versions of the same sweetness but even then I would retort with, if that basic flavor is so delicious, why not have three types? Just in case you were wondering, butterscotch and toffee are basically the same…toffee is just caramelized.

Anyway, this recipe was very good, although for some reason I totally spaced out and used way too much butter. I made it quite some time ago so I don’t remember too clearly but I think I might have used two sticks or something ridiculous. That in turn made the crust very oily and greasy, but as long as you don’t become a total spaz during the cooking process, you should be fine. Even though I did pull a Paula Dean, I still thought they were delicious. Of course, the butter probably clogged my arteries instantly and the blood was subsequently rushing from my head to try to aid my poor heart, so it might have been delirium…a sweet, buttery delirium. I think I used pecans & walnuts and I can’t be sure, but I suspect that I added more butterscotch chips as well. I also used a double boiler instead of the microwave method. Very easy to make, I highly recommend. Recipe in full below.

Butterscotch Brickle Bars, from Cookie Madness.

1 1/2 c. sifted flour – or use 1 1/3 cup unsifted (6 oz)
3/4 c. light brown sugar
4 oz (1 stick) butter, softened
1/2 tsp. salt (divided use)
2 tbsp. butter
1 cup butterscotch chips
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 tablespoon water
2 cups chopped nuts, toasted (I used coarsely chopped walnuts)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a 13×9 inch pan with foil and spray lightly with cooking spray.

Mix the flour, brown sugar, softened butter and 1/4 tsp. salt and blend until crumbly. Press into the prepared pan and bake on middle rack for 10 minutes.

Melt the butter in a microwave-safe bowl. Add the remaining salt, butterscotch chips , corn syrup and water to the hot butter and stir well. Microwave at 50% powder for 30 seconds. Stir and repeat if necessary until chips are melted. Note: You may also do that step in a double boiler. The microwave worked perfectly, just don’t use a high setting. Stir in the nuts (batter will be kind of thick and goopy) and spoon over baked layer, spreading evenly. Bake for 8 minutes longer. Let sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes, then remove from pan and score while still warm.

Makes 24.

“Die young, stay pretty”…

The Antisocial — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 16:56:51 +0000

…such is the nature of flowers (although Debbie Harry probably had something different in mind). Their reappearance indicating the beginning of spring is always a much welcome sight but there are few things sadder than witnessing their end as the summer comes to a close. To my chagrin, Western Massachusetts seems to be rather confused as to what season it’s supposed to be. Thank god for the annual Smith Greenhouse Bulb Show (sorry readers, to tease you so…but the event is long since over). I stupidly missed it last year so I was determined to make it this time around. I am, for the most part, very happy that I went but it made my actual surroundings seem even more lackluster, especially the SNOW that we got on the first day of spring.

All of these pictures are completely unedited. That is how beautiful and vibrant the colors are. These photos still do the flowers no justice but I hope you still feel as inspired and ready for spring as I do.

I know after these photos you are probably cursing my procrastination in posting. Well, there is always next year…

Pecan Pie

The Antisocial — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 15:21:02 +0000

Did you know that pecans aren’t actually nuts? The tree is actually a species of hickory, and the pecan itself is a drupe, which is a fruit with a single stone or pit…one example being another southern favorite of mine, the peach. Despite growing up in Oklahoma, the fourth leading producer of pecans in the US, I never really grew an affinity for them until I moved to the northeast where the sight of a pecan tree is most unnatural. That doesn’t make me love my exported-from-Georgia pecans any less though. I know with the onset of spring and the pecan season being mid-October or so, posting this recipe seems a bit incongruous with, well, everything but I made it ages ago (in November to be exact) and I thought I might as well since I had planned to post them anyway. You see, I had thought that through some technical fluke (which I am very prone to) I had lost at least four recipes worth of pictures. However, after cursing Lightroom to no end, I come to find that it was completely a user error (another thing of which I am prone).

The recipe is from Simply Recipes. I followed the recipe almost exactly except I added 1 tsp of cinnamon and 1/2 tsp of nutmeg. I also didn’t have any molasses so in a pinch, I combined 1 tbsp of brown sugar with a pinch of cream of tartar (leading me to wonder why in the world I have latter but not the former). My mom loves pecan pie and she said she tries to cut out the corn syrup that is in most recipes by using honey, maple syrup, etc…She’s tried a few different things, but I myself have not. I rather liked it with the corn syrup. Is that complete blasphemy? I don’t care, it was delicious. Another note, I used the crust from my pie crust tutorial.

Here is the recipe in full, via Simply Recipes.

1 9-inch pie shell, frozen or chilled for an hour if freshly made.
1 1/4 cups pecans, coarsely chopped
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp molasses
2 Tbsp melted butter
2 Tbsp flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

1 Preheat oven to 375°F. Spread pecans along the bottom of the pie shell. Mix the remaining ingredients and pour over pecans. (No need for an electric mixer, you can mix by hand.) The pecans will rise to the surface of the pie.

2 Bake at 375°F for 40-45 minutes until the filling has set. About 20 minutes into the cooking you may want to use a pie crust protector, or tent the edges of the pie crust with aluminum foil to prevent the pie crust edges from burning.

3 Remove from oven and let cool completely.

* I am almost completely over my illness and even though it’s quite dreary and cold out, I am feeling a renewed sense of energy and purpose. Baking and posting has been at a standstill due to my various maladies, workload, overall laziness, etc… but thanks to my own ineptitude at most things technological there is a backlog of recipes waiting to be posted. We’ll see how long this kinetic spurt lasts but at least you will be able to reap the benefits in the meantime….

Toasted Oatmeal & Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies

The Antisocial — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 00:28:13 +0000

As you might have already been able to glean from previous recipes, I am not exactly a minimalist when it comes to baking. Nor am I one of those fancy bakers (that I secretly envy) who make glamourously unrealistic confections like vanilla and cardamom-infused pots de creme topped with crystalized sugar-rum shards and marrons glacés (hmm…ok, that sounds delicious). Unlike many of my tendencies, I actually prefer the hearty American baked good. There is just something much more satisfying about biting into a moist cookie than nibbling on, say, a glazed pear.

My point is, I see nothing wrong with cramming all sorts of ingredients into a cookie and seeing what happens. These were made for a friend who loves coconut. I took great care in the wording of these cookies because it should be clear that these lovelies are filled with toasted oatmeal, toasted coconut, and chocolate chips. If you google, I think you will only succeed in finding a toasted coconut chocolate chip oatmeal cookie, which is similar but the key is the toasted oatmeal. The toasted oatmeal cookie comes from a vintage cookbook that was a gift from my sister called June Platt’s Dessert Cookbook. I LOVE this recipe. I usually top with a maple glaze but I thought I would try something different with it. I thought they were delicious. I will definitely make them again.

Recipe below:

Toasted Oatmeal & Coconut Cookies (adapted from June Platt’s Dessert Cookbook, I adjusted the method quite a bit and added toasted coconut and chocolate chips)

I c. butter (2 sticks)
1 1/2 c. light brown sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 c. rolled oats
1/2 tsp. salt
2 c. flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup toasted coconut (My additions)
3/4 c. chocolate chips

At 350 degrees, toast the oats on a baking sheet, laying in a flat layer, for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown and lightly scented. Prepare cookie sheets.

Increase oven temperature to 450 degrees. Stir together flour, salt, and baking powder.

Cream butter and brown sugar (see my creaming butter & sugar how-to for more detailed instructions). Add eggs one at a time, beating after each. Add vanilla and beat again.

Stir in flour mixture. Add toasted oats, toasted coconut, and chocolate chips and stir. Drop by tablespoon-fuls onto cookie sheets and bake for 10 minutes. Makes about 2 dozen.