'Please Sir, I Want Some More ...' ... of RHM's PIE!

My my, what do we have here? RHM's plump pie filled with a delicious fruit filler and crispy crunch crust! I've sampled her blueberry and strawberry pie (with a scoop of ice cream and side of Jersey Shore of course) and they were scrumptious! Courtesy of RHM, here's how you can make one too.

Crust:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup shortening
6 tablespoons cold water

Mix flour and salt in a large bowl. Cut in shortening with a pastry blender until mixture is completely blended and appears crumbly. Mix in water, 1 tablespoon at a time, by lightly tossing with a fork. Divide the dough into 2 balls and roll each out into a circle.

Fold one circle of dough in half, and gently lift. Place into pie plate and unfold and add filling to pie plate. Fold second circle of dough in half and gently place over filling and unfold. With a table knife, cut off excess crust evenly so that 1 inch extends beyond the edge of the pie plate. Fold under the excess dough and cut slits in top crust for steam to escape.

Yummy, take a look at that delicious filling. Here's how!

Filling:

3/4 cup white sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch (add a bit more to avoid a 'runny' filler)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 cups of fresh strawberries (can replace with whatever fruit you like)
1 tablespoon butter

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Mix sugar, cornstarch, salt and cinnamon and sprinkle over strawberries. When pie crust is laid out in pan, pour mixture into the pie crust and dot with butter.

Bake for 40-50 minutes and watch as crust browns and voila! EASY AS PIE!!!!

Oh and if you're wondering what this strawberry jam picture is all about, it's RHM's momma's fresh home made jam that she shared with us while we waited for the pie to bake! HEAVEN!!!

German Haus with a German Bombshell :)

For part 3 of our cultural culinary nights with my luvas, we trooped over to the German Haus for some good ol' hearty food. To start, RHM brought over some bacon wrapped dates oozing with blue cheese, oven baked to a crisp. They were so good, she brought them again to Part 4! (stay tuned for more details...)

For the entree, the German bombshell TS outdid herself. She made our tummies happy with some home-made-with-love rinder (beef) rouladen which is thinly pounded beef, slow cooked and wrapped with a pickle and bacon inside. Her delicious sides included sauerkraut (of course), simmered in thick gravy for 1.5 hours, rotkohl (red cabbage), and bratwurst simmered in a frying pan with the sauerkraut. Just the right amount of meat paired with savoury sides - that's how we luvas do it up!

Heidi, (oops, I mean TS), also served gurkensalat (cucumber salad) that was mixed with the strongest vinegar I've ever smelled in my life. We all took short far away whiffs and slammed our backs into the walls from the toxic smell and I'm sure our nose hairs were burned and numbed for the night too. Girls, back me up here! What an experience! :)

A Lebonese Meal ... Made with Love

Now what kind of Lebanese meal would this be without fresh finely chopped parsley? We embarked on another one of our cultural themed nights and my friend RHM truly outdid herself. How? By slaving away over the cutting board, slicing and dicing the fine particles of tabouli ingredients you see above so that we luvas could enjoy the true authenticity of our first Lebanese meal in.

While us hungry hippos waited on the main, we stuffed ourselves silly with fresh black olives (the best are from the Parthenon Supermarket I'm told), two types of pita bread, AHM's delicious fresh hummous (RHM's momma whom I had the pleasure of meeting and watching MJ's 'This Is It' with!) and the refreshing tabouli I mentioned above.

Sizzling in the oven was RHM's roasted paprika covered chicken drumsticks. Yum!

Nicely plated and paired with roasted potatoes, and dipped in RHM's special garlic 'toum' sauce (and when I say garlic, I mean 10 cloves of garlic spicy-ness) and with a bit of ketchup, we were well on our way to experiencing a night of wonder and intrigue for our tastebuds.

For dessert, I whipped up a simple and crunchy apple pear crumble. Diced and doused in cinnamon, rolled oats, flour, and brown sugar, my crumble came out of the oven crispy and ready to serve. We also had the privlege of pairing our dessert with Thomas Haas' famous 'sparkle cookie' (the bakeable version). PY picked up this delicious delight from Urban Fare and we popped them into the oven and they came out resembling mini lava cakes. Deemed the world's best cookie, this truffle, dessert, or whatever it is, is rich in chocolate and perfect with a scoop of Vanilla ice cream.