Homemade Pie Crust

I know I have not posted in awhile I have been very busy, so I going to post a couple of things tonight. Before I get into this post I wanted to thank everyone so much for your comments. I love to hear your suggestion, comments and stories. Keep them coming I love to read them all, so now to get back to my blog posts.

I branched out a little this weekend and decided to make an apple pie this. It was important to me to make sure I made my own pie crust. I think that it just adds a little more to the pie when you make your own pie crust. One thing that I want to do this summer is to make two different pie crusts one with butter and one with shorting and see which one tastes better.

This was an easy pie crust to make and turned out very well. The best part is you can make it and freeze the crust for up to a month. This made me happy, to think that I would be able to make this pie crust in October and freeze it so I would have it ready for the Thanksgiving holiday! If you have not noticed I am a planner.

This recipe uses butter; but like I said check back later to see if butter or shorting.

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
2 sticks chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Directions
To make the dough for the pie crust, mix 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour and 1 teaspoon each salt and sugar in a medium-size bowl. Cut 2 sticks chilled unsalted butter into pieces. With a pastry blender, cut in butter, working until mixture resembles coarse meal.

Add 4 tablespoons ice water; work with hands until dough comes together. If dough is still crumbly, add more ice water a tablespoon at a time (up to 4 more tablespoons). Do not overwork.

Divide dough in half, and flatten halves into disks. Wrap disks separately in plastic; refrigerate at least 1 hour.

To form the pie shell, roll the dough on a floured surface into a 14-inch round. Wrap around rolling pin and carefully unroll over a 9-inch pie plate.

Fit gently into bottom and side of plate. Use kitchen shears to trim dough to a 1-inch overhang; fold under, and seal to form a rim.

Crimp rim with fingertips and knuckle. Repeat with remaining dough; wrap each with plastic, stack, and freeze


The crust once I was done mixing it up.

The finished pie crust. It make alot fo it was perfect for a whole pie.

Another look the pie curst, so delish!!

Ciabatta Bread

I was home a couple of Fridays ago and with the extra time I had not having to commute I made some Ciabatta bread. It was delish and was great with some herbs and oil. The only problem that I am having when I make my own bread is trying to get it to keep. This made two HUGE loaves and there was no way my husband and I to eat it all. I wanted him to bring some of them to the neighbors but they were away because of the holiday weekend. Does anyone have any ideas? I always try to make breadcrumbs, croutons etc. but you can never seem to use it all.
This was great and delish. Below is the recipe try it out and let me know.

Ingredients
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 cup water
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 egg
3 tablespoons olive oil

Directions
1. Combine 1 cup flour, sugar, salt, and yeast. Mix well. Heat water and vegetable oil until warm, and add to yeast mixture along with the egg. Blend with an electric mixer at low speed until moistened. Beat for 2 additional minutes. Stir in 1 3/4 cup flour while beating, until dough pulls away from side of bowl.

2. Knead in 3/4 cup flour on floured surface. Cover dough with a bowl, and let sit for 5 minutes. Place dough on a greased baking sheet. Cover with greased plastic wrap and a cloth towel. Place in a warm place for 30 minutes.

3. Lightly flour or use parchment lined baking sheets. Divide into 2 pieces, and form each into a 3x14 inch oval. Place loaves on prepared sheets, dimple surface, and lightly flour. Cover, and let rise in a draft free place for approximately 45 minutes.

4. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).

5. Dimple dough for a second time, and then place loaves in the oven, positioned on the middle rack. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. During baking, spritz loaves with water every 5 to 10 minutes for a crispier crust.

The dough before I put it in the oven.

The bread after I took it out and it was done. It was so crispy and good. Loved it.

Easy Homemade Pasta

There is nothing that I love more than pasta. If I could I would eat some form of it everyday, but we all know that is not good for our waist lines or for our health. I know I have written a lot about my grandfather in law and how he owned a bakery and some of the great items I have been lucky enough to receive. Well one of the best items was a pasta maker. I was pricing them out of my kitchen aid mixer and even the “used” ones were around 100 dollars. Not worth it to me.

So you can imagine my surprise when my husband pulled the pasta maker. I literally jumped for joy. I have made many different kind of pasta including regular, whole wheat, spinach and tomato. Some came out better than others. I will post all the recipes as soon as I perfect them a bit more.

I did include the recipe I used for the regular pasta, very simple and easy to do. How much do you love my pasta maker?! It takes some work but like I have said before I love stuff that has a story to it. And this one has the best story of all. Enjoy the pasta.

Ingredents
1 ¾ cups flour
2 eggs
3-4 tablespoons of water more or less depending on the consistency of the dough
I don’t add salt to my pasta, I just don’t see the need for the extra sodium. If you would like you can add ¼ teaspoon of salt.

Put the flour in a bowl and make a well and add the eggs and water. Beat the eggs and water in the well of flour. Once the eggs and water are mixed start to work the flour into the egg mixture. You can use a wooden spoon but I prefer my hands. Make sure the dough is not too sticky, if dough is too sticky sprinkle with flour so it is easy to work with.

Once dough is incorporated use your pasta machine to roll out the dough for the pasta. Once the pasta is done place them on a surface to dry. The pasta will last 3 months in an air thight container.


My old school pasta machine. Love, love, love it. I cant wait to make some gift baskets for the fall.

The well of flour that you put the eggs and water in.

Rolling our the pasta dough getting ready to cut it.

The pasta dough after it has been mixed.

The pasta drying on my counter.

The homemade pasta with pesto sauce. I will post the pesto sauce in a later post.

Pastry Crust

I love the summer. I love the sun, heat and summer fruits. So I decided to make a strawberry tart. I made the crust from scratch and it was super easy to make. The dough was a little sticky so you are going to need a good amount of flour. Once you cook the crust it will shrink so make sure that you roll the dough out to cover the entire tart pan. This is a must try. See the recipe below.

One thing to keep in mind is the once you take the crust out of the oven the first time it will puff up. Let the crust cool and it will go back down to a normal size.

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) cold unsalted butter, diced
2 tablespoons cold shortening (recommended: Crisco)
1/4 cup ice water
2 cups Pastry Cream, recipe follows
2 pints whole strawberries, hulled and halved

Directions
Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a small bowl and place in the freezer for 30 minutes. Put the flour mixture in the bowl of a fitted paddle. Add the butter and shortening and mix until the butter is in the size of peas. Add the ice water and mix until the dough comes together. Dump on a well-floured board and form into a disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Roll out the dough and fit into 4 (4 1/2-inch) tart pans with removable sides. Don't stretch the dough when placing it in the pans or it will shrink during baking. Cut off the excess by rolling the pin across the top of each pan. Line the tart shell with a piece of buttered aluminum foil, butter side down, and fill them with dried beans or rice. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove the beans and foil, prick the bottom of the shells all over with a fork, and bake for another 15 to 20 minutes until lightly browned. Set aside to cool.

How to make Pastry Cream, Super Easy

I love to make different kinds of pastry and I have been looking for an easy pastry cream. Some pastry creams are hard to make requiring the person to temperate the cream and constantly whisking the cream. I found this recipe and this is the easiest one I have tired. It only took me a hour and the cream thickened within 15 minutes. The cream only took about 2 hours to fully cool and it was ready to eat. I would highly recommend this recipe to anyone.

Pastry Cream:
5 extra-large egg yolks, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/2 cups scalded milk
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon Cognac

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon heavy cream

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the egg yolks and sugar on medium-high speed for 4 minutes, or until very thick. Reduce to low speed, and add the cornstarch.

With the mixer still on low, slowly pour the hot milk into the egg mixture. Pour the mixture into a medium saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the mixture thickens, 5 to 7 minutes. Don't be alarmed when the custard comes to a boil and appears to curdle ; switch to a whisk and beat vigorously. Cook, whisking constantly, for another 2 minutes; the custard will come together and become very thick, like pudding. Stir in the vanilla, Cognac, butter, and heavy cream. Pour the custard through a sieve s into a bowl. Place plastic wrap directly on the custard and refrigerate until cold.

What the cream looked like before it was placed in the fridge. It makes approx 2 cups which is plently for a tart.

The tart once it was finished. Wow that cream was great .

Close up of the tart. So delish!!

Mini Cinnamon Buns

My husband lover cinnamon buns, but I refuse to buy the ones in store because they are full of preservatives not to mention they are very expensive. So I know how much he loves them so I decided to make some this weekend as a treat for him.

I had made pizza that Friday night (I make my own pizza dough I make about 3 or 4 at a time you never know when you are going to need some dough in a pinch) and some left over dough that I did not want to throw away.

I took the extra dough and I had and used a rolling pin to roll it out to the desired consistency, sprinkle the dough with cinnamon and sugar. Roll the dough back up into what looks like a jelly roll. Cut off the cinnamon buns and place them on the baking sheet with parchment. I then sprinkled the top with a little extra cinnamon and sugar.

Place the in the oven at 350 for approx. 15 min. If you want your cinnamon buns a bit more crispy place them in the oven for longer.

Once the cinnamon buns are out of the oven you can drizzle a little bit of icing on them. I usually don’t wait for the to cool I like the icing to melt on them. I just make a simple icing with powder sugar ad some water. Just stir until the sugar dissolves. These are a great fun and fast breakfast to have as a treat.

A view of all the mini cinnamon buns.

Close up of the mini cinnamon buns.

The buns once they came out of hte oven they were all really hot and delish.

The mini cinnamon buns with the icing on them. They are so delish, but the bad part is you can pop 3 or 4 in your mouth at the same time. Never good!!

4 Favorite Things

It has been a crazy year, with my new promotion my husband’s new job it has been a crazy first year of marriage. We are quickly approaching our one year anniversary on June 12th so I need to start being thankful of the little things in life and remembering the small things that make me smile every day.


I love drinking S. Pellegrino water out of a champagne flute with fresh fruit. I don’t know why but it just puts a smile on my face. I love sitting outside on the deck with my fizzy water on the summer nights.



The vintage jell-o mold I got from my grandfather-in- law house. I cannot wait to hang it in my butler’s pantry and I love that there is a story behind it. I think the best pieces are the ones with a story.



My wedding program framed hanging at the bottom of the stairs. I hate the wall color of my front hall and going up the stairs but hanging stuff on the walls makes it a little more easy to tolerate. Plus I love my husband and I love to remember our special day together.


One of my favorite pictures from our wedding, it was one of the last pictures we took and it was a long day. But I just loved every moment of my wedding and would relive it all in second. It just remind me how lucky I was to find my husband and how much I love my husband.