Pie Crusts… some cooks swear that lard is the secret key ingredient. Others swear that the secret ingredient that makes their pie crust outstanding is Vodka. Me? I just swear…  not just a little swearing. A big bunch of drunken sailor swear words come out of my mouth each and every time I make pie crust. I have yet to make a pie crust without having some sort of random issue. The crust sticks to the board, I roll it too thin. I roll it not thin enough. It burns. It shrinks. I’ve been tempted to try the much acclaimed Vodka pie crust recipes, but I am afraid that with how frustrated I get when I make pie crusts, I would use the few tablespoons needed for the crust and by the end of the night the bottle will be gone because I will have drowned my pie crust frustrations in vodka. Remember the pie crust bag? Well, that worked dandy for awhile, and then it stopped… it stopped being my favorite pie crust tool. Oh - and forget trying to make them pretty. How the heck do y’all do that? My mom has patiently worked with me demonstrating how to properly crimp and let me tell ya’… I must have missed the crimping gene because my pie crusts are never, ever even close to pretty.

So, what’s a girl to do when in her desperate need to get her computer fixed, she calls her uber technical neighbor (never mind that my husband is a computer guy… his computer skills are soooo not useful unless I wanted to put a giant mainframe in my house) and in order to convince him to come fix the computer she exclaims… “If you do it, I’ll bake you something… anything!” Feeling pretty confident in my baking abilities, I knew it was a payment that would be simple to make. That was until he says… “I love blueberry pie. I’d love for you to make me a blueberry pie.” Seriously? I can bake! I can bake breads, cakes, cookies… just about anything, and what does he choose? A flippin’ pie. My nemesis in the kitchen and the one thing that causes curse words to come flying out of my normally somewhat clean mouth at a fervent pace.  But, I made a foolish promise and that promise was one I had to keep.

I found a pie crust recipe that I had not tried before. The pie crust tasted great… rolled out pretty smooth and only caused a few curse words to escape my lips.  The pie, however not pretty, was amazing. Blueberry pie… I’ve never made it, never tasted one and now I think I have a favorite fruit pie! One of these days, I’m going to make a pie crust and it will not make me cuss. It is my goal this year to be a successful pie crust maker. Now, I have an excuse to practice. Blueberry pie… well worth the pie crust frustration and a good reason to continue to practice.

Bakers Secret Pie Crust Recipe (from Allrecipes.com)

• 3/4 cup cake flour
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 5 tablespoons shortening
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar
• 3 cubes ice
• 1/2 cup cold water

Measure butter & shortening onto a plate, put into freezer for about 20 minutes.

Measure cake flour, all-purpose flour, sugar, salt and baking powder into the bowl of a food processor. Pulse for a few seconds to mix.

Take 1/2 of the cold butter and 1/2 of the cold shortening, put into processor with dry ingredients and pulse off and on for about 1 minute. Scrape down twice while doing this.

Take remainder of the cold butter & cold shortening and cut in very briefly with the processor, leaving visible pea-sized chunks. Do not over process at this stage!
In a measuring cup, mix egg yolk and vinegar together, add ice cubes and water. Let this get chilled, about 3 to 4 minutes.
Remove mixed flours and shortening from processor, put into a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle approximately 4 to 5 tablespoons of this egg, water, vinegar mixture, a little at a time, mixing gently with a fork. The key to this is, you do not want a wet dough, and you do not want to overmix.
Place this dough into plastic wrap or plastic bag, chill in refrigerator for a few minutes. (May also be frozen for a few weeks at this stage for future use).
Remove from refrigerator and roll out. This makes absolutely the BEST pie crusts. I have won County Fair competitions with this pie crust. Double for making a 2-crust pie.

Blueberry Pie (from Recipezaar.com)

One of the most annoying/challenging/predictable parts of living in the state of Kansas is the weather. People always say "If you don’t like the weather in Kansas… just wait!" It is so predictably unpredictable. One day this week we had temperatures in the 70’s. It was so lovely. Our entire neighborhood was out playing, chatting, firing up their grills and enjoying the warm sunshine beating down. By this weekend, we are supposed to have snow falling from the sky again. Yep - if you don’t like the weather in Kansas, just wait because something new will be coming along the next day.

Throughout the month of March, Spring teases us with these little glimpses of what we have in store… the mild and lovely days where capris and sandals are the norm. People begin to emerge from their homes after the long winter hibernation, and the driveway happy hours are happening on every block. Giggles are heard from the children who have stored up their energy and driven their moms crazy all winter long. The ice cream truck travels through the neighborhoods ringing its familar bell, and baths are a requirement every night because of all of the outside messy adventures the kids get themselves into. Bedtime is later because you don’t want to miss a minute of what is going on outside, the outdoor grill and patio set finally get to be used again and life just seems more carefree!

Yes… I know Spring is coming and I absolutley cannot wait. Oh wait… oh no… Warmer weather means skimpier clothes. I am not going to be able to hide under my jeans and big bulky sweaters anymore. Swimsuit season?? Eeeeeeeeks!!

Well… as I do every winter, my winter hibernation has not helped me in the weight loss department at all. I didn’t gain anything over the long winter, but I certainly didn’t lose any weight either. It is time to start thinking light… to start thinking about healthier options and fresh veggies.

One really fun way to present your salad veggies is in a parmesan cheese bowl. An edible bowl to go along with your salad is perfect for spring… you won’t have a dish to do and it saves more time for playing outside!

Speaking of playing… we are heading out of Kansas to find the sunshine for a week. We are going to Florida to visit my best friend and her wonderful family. We are going to hit the beach for a few days and do a couple days of Disney. We are so looking forward to being refreshed! When I return, some big things will be going on at Dine and Dish… stay tuned!

Parmesan Cheese Bowls

1. Spray an 8-inch non-stick saute pan with vegetable oil spray.
2. Heat the pan over medium heat.
3. For each Parmesan bowl, sprinkle 1/3 coarsely grated Parmesan to the bottom of the saute pan, distributing the cheese evenly across the pan.
4. Allow the cheese to bubble for about 30 seconds before adding an additional 1/4 cup of finely grated Parmesan.
5. When the cheese starts to turn golden brown, remove from the pan and place over any (flipped upside down) bowl you would normally use.
6. Now, I like to place a paper towel (or two) over the grated Parmesan to soak up any oil, while I gently press/mold the grated cheese to the bowl.
7. Allow a few moments for your Parmesan bowls to cool before removing.

When I was younger I used to always have the radio on. When I would wake up in the morning, I would listen to music when I was getting ready for school and work. I remember bopping around the house/apartment/room to the music. I would also always fall asleep with music on softly in the background. Even after I was married, my husband and I would listen to Sting, Jim Brickman or Enya as we fell asleep at night.

I am not sure when all of that music listening stopped. I imagine that it happened after my kids were born and my house contained enough noise to drown out any music I was listening to. Either that or I didn’t turn the music on because I did not want to wake the baby. It also could have been when I would get out voted by all the little people in my house and the Top 40 hits got replaced by The Wiggles soundtrack and Raffi. Day after day of that is enough to make any mom throw out all of the radios in the house!

I did not realize, until this morning, how much listening to music in the morning can change your mood as you are getting ready. The baby was messing with the alarm clock and somehow got the radio turned on. As I was drying off from my shower, the sound of music filled the room and I was suddenly uplifted. Getting ready this morning was a completely different experience as the kids and I bee-bopped around the house turning the routine into fun.

It is interesting to me the different ruts we get in and how getting out of those ruts can be something as simple as turning the music on!

The recipe I am about to share comes from the March/April 2008 issue of Simple and Delicious Magazine and yes… it does have somewhat of a tie in to my rambling above. If you live in any community where you are invited to events where you are asked to bring an appetizer, you can almost bet that at least one person will bring some form of Spinach Artichoke Dip. What they choose to accompany it may vary… crackers, pita bread, veggies, etc. Another popular appetizer is stuffed mushrooms. I’m always bringing stuffed mushrooms to things. Well, the folks at Simple and Delicious Magazine gave us all who are stuck in the "same old same old" appetizer rut, a cure! Spinach Artichoke-Stuffed Mushrooms! Yep… how brilliant is that? They combined two very popular and simple appetizers into one tasty treat. Incredibly easy to put together, impressively delicious and a perfect way to switch things up just a enough to keep people on their toes.

Spinach Artichoke-Stuffed Mushrooms

• 1 package (3 ounces) cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 can (14 ounces) water-packed artichoke hearts, rinsed, drained and chopped
• 1 package (10 ounces) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
• 1/3 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
• 4 tablespoons shredded Parmesan cheese, divided
• 3/4 teaspoon garlic salt
• 30 to 35 large fresh mushrooms

Directions:

In a small mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, mayonnaise and sour cream. Stir in the artichokes, spinach, mozzarella cheese, 3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese and garlic salt.
Remove stems from mushrooms (discard stems or save for another use). Fill each mushroom cap with about 1 tablespoon of filling. Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese.
Place on foil-lined baking sheets. Bake at 400° for 16-20 minutes or until mushrooms are tender. Yield: 30-35 appetizers.

As a follow up to my "Life is Short… Have Fun" post, I had to post pictures of us having fun! This is Kelly, thouroughly enjoying eating her cake with no hands. I hope everyone is remembering to have fun!

One of the most popular recipes on my site is a recipe I posted "way back when". Back when I was a newbie blogger, I posted a recipe for Oooey Gooey Monkey Bread. In that post, I encouraged people to get messy with their kids. Allow them to use their hands to eat and let all of their inhibitions go out the window.

I know that people are going to that particular post for the recipe, as I get a ton of hits on that post each day. I hope what folks are taking away from it, besides a really yummy recipe, is the thought to let loose some, HAVE FUN (if you haven’t seen this video, you MUST!), and that living life without pristine cleanliness is often times a great way to live!

What are you doing to let loose a little? My mom called me the other day and shared something she read on the wall of her doctors office. It was something about raising happy children, and one of the suggestions was to make a cake and let your kids eat it without using their hands! Can you imagine the memory that would make in their minds? Well, we are doing it this weekend and I’ll let you know how it goes!

If you are stuck in a "can’t quite get the whole let loose thing" rut, I am posting a different recipe for a pull apart bread that can be a babystep for you getting started.  I hope that you are enjoying your life because it can be very short… you might as well make the most of it and have fun!

Pull-Apart Caramel Coffee Cake from the March/April issue of Simple and Delicious Magazine

• 2 tubes (12 ounces each) refrigerated flaky buttermilk biscuits
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Cut each biscuit into four pieces; arrange evenly in a 10-in. fluted tube pan coated with cooking spray. Combine the brown sugar, cream and cinnamon; pour over biscuits. Bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes before inverting onto a serving platter. Yield: 12 servings.