Salmon Pasta with White Sauce

If you like salmon, you'll love this recipe. The flavors of the lemon and yogurt really enhance the flavor of the fish. Just bursting with flavor! Hope you enjoy this one.

Ingredients for White Sauce:
3 cups plain Dannon yogurt
Juice of one lemon (approximately 3 TBSP)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup walnuts, finely chopped
1/4 cup fresh basil, finely chopped (1 TBSP dry)
1 clove garlic, divided
1/4 cup light olive oil

Directions:
With food chopper, chop walnut until very fine.

In medium sized mixing bowl, combine the yogurt, lemon juice, chopped walnuts, Parmesan cheese, pressed garlic, chopped basil, and light olive oil. Stir until combined. Set aside. 

 

Ingredients for Salmon Pasta:

1 lb farfalle pasta (bowties)

1 lb fresh salmon fillets

1 clove garlic

1-2 TBSP refrigerated pesto

Olive oil for brushing

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush salmon with olive oil to coat. Press garlic clove over fillets and spread around evenly. Evenly spread pesto on top of the garlic to coat.

Bake salmon at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes, or until salmon flakes easily with a fork. Meanwhile, boil water and cook farfalle according to package directions. When salmon has finished cooking, slide spatula under salmon between the skin and the bottom of the meat and transfer to a plate (check bottom for any missed skin). Flake salmon with a fork and then transfer to the pot with the cooked, drained pasta. Pour prepared white sauce over salmon pasta and turn to coat evenly. Serve hot with shredded Parmesan on top. Enjoy!

French Apple Pie

This is truly an aware-winning recipe. No really. I've actually won awards with this one! :) Okay...so maybe they were just church function contests...but hey, I still won first with this one several times. It is the best apple pie you will ever eat and will make you a favorite with your friends. Enjoy one of my family's favorites!

Ingredients for Crust:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I love King Arthur-It's just great flour! But any will do!)
1 TBSP sugar
1 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups butter flavor shortening (like Crisco)
1 egg
1/2 TBSP white or apple cider vinegar
water

Directions: 
Mix flour, sugar, and salt with whisk until combined. Cut in shortening with pastry blender until mixture is in pea-sized crumbles. In 1/2 c. measuring cup, mix egg with vinegar, then fill with water until cup is full. Pour over shortening mixture. With wooden spoon or spatula, stir just until blended (don't over-stir, or your dough will get tough).

Heavily flour a sheet of parchment paper then dump dough onto surface. Sprinkle enough dough on top to keep rolling pin from sticking. Roll to approximately 1/2" thickness. Baker's Trick: take your rolling pin and roll up the dough onto the pin (parchment paper and all). Unroll over-top of pie pan, parchment side up. Then peel off parchment and voila, you have the perfect pie crust! Just trim off any dough that hangs over the edge, fold under to create a smooth top, the press to create the pretty, wavy edge. Note: save dough scraps to make a pretty decorative shape for the top (to be added at a later date)

Ingredients for Pie Filling:
8 medium sized apples (McIntosh are the best! But others baking apples, like Gala or Fuji will also work)
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
Optional: 1 tsp lemon juice to add tartness to apples

Directions:
Shave apples, then use your handy-dandy apple slicer to cut into wedges. Now take each individual wedge and cut into 3-4 smaller wedges. The thinner the better on these!

Put all your sliced apples in a large mixing bowl. Measure into bowl the sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg. With a spatula, gently turn apples to coat in mixture.

Now pour apple mixture over prepared pie crust! This is where I start preheating my oven to 425 degrees.

Ingredients for Crumble Topping:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar

Directions:
Mix all ingredients until you have pea-sized crumbles. Evenly coat entire pie with the mixture. Now you're ready to bake! Place pie in pre-heated 425 degree oven. Bake for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, turn oven down to 350 and bake for 50 minutes. During cooking, make a pretty decorative shape for the topper. I usually like to cut an apple shape, but if it's for another event, like Christmas, I'll make a holly leaf (pictured below), or another shape to fit the occasion. During the last 20 minutes of baking, place your topper on the center of the pie and place a crust shield over the edges to prevent burning. Once it's finished baking, let cool for 15-20 minutes, then serve. Enjoy!

Cast Iron Pan Pizza

I saw this recipe recently on Pinterest and knew this was one I had to try! Josh and I love our homemade pizza (why would we ever buy Papa Johns or Domino's again when we can get double the flavor & yumminess and double the ingredients at half the cost?!). I personally am a deep dish girl, while Josh likes his hand-tossed. Still this was one we both agreed on as a definite do-again! The overall time is 3 hours...but wait! Before you stop reading my blog post here, let me put your mind at ease and tell you the actual prep time is only about 20 minutes (the rise time for the dough is 2 hours and 15 minutes). There, relieved? Well without further adieu, here is the recipe for cast iron skillet pan pizza amazingness!

Ingredients for Dough:

• 1 1/4 cups lukewarm water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons yeast (1 packet)
• 3/4 tablespoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/4 cup corn oil (preferably darker color, though any corn oil will do-I actually substituted with canola oil)
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons corn meal to coat the dough
• Fresh ground black pepper, also for coating the dough

Toppings:

• 14 ounces pizza sauce
• 12 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese (plus additional cheese if you want)
• Optional: 1 large, fresh tomato, finely diced
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder (or 2 chopped cloves garlic; fresh garlic is always better if you have it on hand!)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons oregano
• 1/2 lb Italian sausage, 6 slices bacon, and/or 5 to 6 ounces sliced pepperoni (we're meat lovers so the more the better!)
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
• 8 to 10 ounces sliced mushrooms (I used green peppers!)
• More cheese to top it all off
• Additional pizza toppings as desired

Preparing the Dough:

• In a large mixing bowl or stand mixer bowl if you have one, pour in 1 1/4 cups of lukewarm water. Add yeast, salt, sugar, corn oil, and olive oil and mix together with the water.
• Add 3 cups flour and mix together thoroughly to create dough. I used my KitchenAid Stand Mixer with the dough hook for this step (it worked great and only took about a minute!). If mixing by hand, you only have to mix the dough for a few minutes; it does not require a long, tough kneading. The dough will be very wet and sticky, which is exactly how it is supposed to be! Cover the bowl with a damp cloth or towel, and let stand at room temperature for 2 hours and 15 minutes. 
• At this point, just relax. Pull out your favorite book or pop in a movie. I actually went and watch my little sister, Bethany's volleyball game! 
• After an hour and 45 minutes, when there are approximately 30 minutes left before the dough is ready, place cast iron skillet or pan (with a diameter of 10 to 12 inches) in your oven and preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. You don't have to grease or oil the pan in advance.

Making the Pizza:

• As the oven and iron pan are heating, prepare your ingredients. You want to have your pizza toppings ready to be added to the pan while it is still hot (vegetables sliced, meats cooked and prepared if you use sausage, bacon, chicken or other meats).
• When the oven and cast iron pan are at 500 degrees and the dough has risen for 2 hours and 15 minutes, it will be time to prepare your dough to go into the pan. Uncover the bowl and with your fist, gently punch down the dough to remove the gas.
• Put out a flat baking sheet or just lay out a large sheet of wax paper on the counter-top and sprinkle it with about 1 TBSP of the corn meal and spread it around the surface with your hands. Add on a sprinkle of black pepper, to add spice to your pizza crust. Uncover the mixing bowl and pour (or dump) the dough directly onto the corn meal. Sprinkle the remaining 1 TBSP of corn meal on top of the mound of dough, and add a little more pepper to the top. This will provide a drier surface on the dough and allow you to knead the dough and work at it with your hands. You only have to knead the dough for a couple of minutes or so, to help condense it and remove the extra gas from the dough. Don't worry about kneading or rolling into a circle. Just knead the dough into a roughly rough and flat shape to fit the circumference of your pan. The resulting dough will be very spongy and moist – it will be far more thick than flat pizza dough. This dough will still rise in your pan when it cool.
• Using heavy gloves or oven mitts, take the hot iron skillet out of the oven, and place it on your stove-top. Pour a little olive oil in the bottom of the skillet to coat. Then using a wooden spoon, pour (or dump) the dough directly into the cast iron pan. It will sizzle immediately when it hits the hot metal. Use the spoon to spread the dough around the pan as best as you can, forming a depression in the center with which to put on your pizza toppings, while forcing the dough towards the edges of the pan. Don't worry if the dough doesn't reach the edges of your pan; it will expand to completely fill your pan as it cooks. (Please be careful! – the cast iron pan is very hot) In this order, add your pizza toppings:
• Spread a thin layer of olive oil on top with basting brush
• Tomato Sauce (if using)
• Mozzarella cheese (plus other cheeses mixed in, if any)
• Tomatoes – spread them around over the cheese
• Garlic, oregano, and Parmesan cheese
• Mushrooms/Green peppers
• Any meats being used (sausage, bacon, pepperoni, etc)
• Extra cheese on top
• With your heavy gloves or oven mitts, place the whole pizza into the oven. Bake for 30 minutes at 500 degrees. Remove from the oven and place the cast iron pan onto a trivet, cooling rack, or stove-top. Let the pizza cool off and settle for 10 to 15 minutes before serving. Enjoy!