Replies

I'll share two (main course and dessert). You can improvise the main course to taste. I make corned beef and cabbage but cb is expensive. This is a little cheaper and feeds a lot, is good for you (except maybe the meat). I love kielbasa and rinsed sauerkraut in the crockpot but it's a little salty so I improvised this instead.

Get my turkey roaster down and take out the insert.
Cut up the rings of sausage into chunks (whole it will crack), cover not quite all the way with water and bake at 275 for an hour or so.
Shove the meat to one end and add cut up carrots (lots), potatoes (4 premium Idaho or yellow or red, doesn't matter, and an onion or two, no garlic. Pile sliced head of cabbage over the top, cut into wedges with ribs removed.
Add one packet of Swanson's new beef flavor booster and stir in the liquid. Or boullion, or broth. I got some of that English OXO cubes which seem good but only used it once so far.
The flavor booster is super salty concentrated and so is the meat so I only add ground pepper.
Return to oven and cook until the veggies are done.
Use the cover the whole way and I close the steam vent.
The broth is tasty and you can kind of tell when it's done and it smells really good.

You could try some other veggies but this is more traditional spinoff of cb and cabbage.

I cook a lot like this in the oven at 275, takes awhile but can do other things while it's going. I even make my soups and chili in the oven this way in a covered soup pot.

Would be good with corn bread but this fills me up.

The meat I've got to use tomorrow if my stomach settles down is all Hillshire Farm. Polska Kielbasa, Cheddar Wurst (in rings) and Turkey Pepper Jack shaped like hot dogs.

Then I'm learning how to roll pie crust in my old age as I gave up when I was young and just patted it in. I need more practice, but this you can roll, fold in quarters and center nicely in the pie plate without breaking up.

Use purchased dough if you like or your own favorite for lemon meringue pie. I use the Jello cooked lemon pie filling which cooks up nice, thick and tasty when cooled. For the meringue, I used a tip to mix 2 tablespoons of corn starch mixed well with the sugar you slowly add while beating the egg whites. It tastes a tiny bit different but doesn't weep. Meringue will weep in the fridge and meringue pies should be stored in the fridge if any left over.

I have to keep trying with the crust. This turned out too tough which I'm told is because I added too much water. But otherwise it was nice. Have everything cold, even the rolling pin. I wanted to be able to roll right on the counter although I have a pastry cloth and sock also a silicone mat. I watched tons of videos of different ways to do it.

I don’t have much luck rolling a dough out either and usually just pat it in, too. And forget having a pretty edge. The best thing I found was a plastic thingie that Crisco gave out free about 25 years ago. It was clear plastic (like a thick freezer bag texture) that was cut into two circles (maybe 12” diameter) and held together with a zipper all the way around. You could dust it with flour and zip up your dough inside and roll it out without it getting stuck to the counter top. Mine wore out years ago and I’ve never found another one. If you run across one, buy it! I’m thinking maybe a dollar store would have them because they shouldn’t cost much.

Also, a spoonful of vinegar into the dough helps keep it flaky.

This is probably too simplistic for this thread, but I’ll take a chance and post it anyway in case there are any pie addicts out there who are all about the filling and topping. This pie crust method was from Peg Bracken’s “I Hate to Cook” book. It’s tender but not flaky (more like a cookie.) Adding a little sugar makes it even more like a cookie.

Flour
Half as much shortening as flour (I use butter)
Half as much water as shortening
Dash of salt
Sugar if desired

Cut butter into flour and salt. Stir water into mixture.
Turn out onto generously floured tea towel or silicone baking mat and roll out into circle. Place pie pan in middle of rolled crust and upend the whole thing. Trim the edges. Pre bake or fill.

The interesting thing about this crust is that handling and adding lots of flour doesn’t affect its tenderness. I’m all about not wasting stuff, so it’s perfect for the fast and sloppy frugal baker.

The only conventional pie crust recipe I ever used was the one on the Crisco label about 50 years ago. It was perfect. Then the real world impinged, and I’ve been fast and sloppy ever since. Nobody complained. Then again, if anybody did, I probably would have told them to just not eat it and there’d be more for me. Maybe that’s why.... ;)