Heart of the Home

Hand pies: Scrumptious treats held in your palm

Savory or sweet, hand pies are tiny packages of flavor

A mixture of sweet and savory ingredients contribute to the unique flavor of these Moroccan hand pies.

The exact origin of hand pies is ambiguous, and nearly every culture has its own version. Some of the more well-known hand pies include Australian meat pies, Cornish pasties, empanadas, Jamaican patties, samosas and spanakopita. In America, hand pies are considered a Southern staple of convenient snacking.

While there are no limits on shape or filling, hand pies all have a few common characteristics—they’re small enough to hold in your hand, and the filling is encased in pastry or dough. They can be fried or baked.

Made to be convenient for eating on the go, these miniature pies can even be made ahead of time and frozen for a quick meal later.

Moroccan Chicken and Apricot Hand Pies

INGREDIENTS Pastry:

2½ cups pastry flour ½ teaspoon salt 1 cup butter, cubed 2 eggs, divided 2 teaspoons white vinegar

Filling:

1 tablespoon unsalted butter ¼ cup chopped onion 1 clove garlic, minced ½ cup diced red pepper ¼ teaspoon cumin ¼ teaspoon oregano ¼ teaspoon each of salt and pepper pinch of cinnamon, optional ¼ cup diced, dried apricots 1 cup cooked, shredded chicken 3 tablespoons reduced-sodium chicken broth

DIRECTIONS Pastry:

In a food processor, pulse together pastry flour and salt. Add butter and pulse 3-4 times or until mixture resembles coarse crumbs with some larger pieces. In a measuring cup, whisk 1 egg with vinegar, and add enough ice water to make ½ cup. Pour over the flour mixture, and pulse just until the dough starts to clump together. Transfer to a lightly floured surface, and knead a few times or until dough comes together. Wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 45 minutes.

Filling:

Heat oven to 375°. In a skillet over medium heat, melt the butter and sauté the onion and garlic for about 3 minutes or until softened. Add red pepper, and cook for 5-6 minutes or until tender. Add cumin, oregano, salt, pepper and cinnamon, if using. Add apricots, chicken and broth to the skillet. Simmer for 3-5 minutes or until chicken is moistened. Let cool. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to ¼” thickness. Cut into 4” rounds, re-rolling scraps once, to make 18 rounds. Transfer rounds to a parchment paperlined baking sheet, spacing them about 1” apart. Place a heaping tablespoonful of filling onto one half of each round, leaving a border all around. Whisk the remaining egg with 1 tablespoon of water. Brush the edges of

COURTESY OF HOME BAKING ASSOCIATION / ARDENT MILLS

Scrumptious treats held in your palm

the rounds with some of the egg wash. Fold the pastry over, and seal the edges with a fork. Brush the tops with egg wash. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden and crisp.

—Home Baking Association and Ardent Mills

Lamb Empanadas with Red Chimichurri

INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons olive oil 1 medium yellow onion, diced 3 garlic cloves, minced 5 pounds ground lamb 1 tablespoon smoked paprika 1 tablespoon dried oregano 1 tablespoon ground cumin 1 teaspoon cayenne 1 cup sliced green onions 1 cup golden raisins kosher salt and cracked black pepper to taste 50 frozen empanada-prepared dough discs, thawed 2 eggs, whisked 1 quart red chimichurri

Chimichurri ingredients

1 bunch fresh cilantro 1 bunch fresh parsley 16 ounces roasted red peppers, drained 1 cup piquillo peppers, drained 1 shallot, minced 3 garlic cloves ¼ cup red wine vinegar 1 tablespoon smoked paprika ½ cup olive oil salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

Heat a skillet to medium-high heat. Add oil and sauté onion and garlic until translucent, about 6 minutes. Add lamb, paprika, oregano, cumin and cayenne, and sauté until lamb is browned and fully cooked. Add onion and raisins. Remove from heat, and set aside to cool. Heat oven to 375°. Arrange empanada discs on a flat work surface. Fill with 2 tablespoons of lamb filling, and then brush edges with whisked eggs. Fold half of the round over the filled half, and pinch edges together to seal. Crimp the edges using a fork. Arrange the finished empanadas on a parchment-lined sheet tray, and brush with eggs. Bake until golden brown, about 18-20 minutes. While empanadas are baking, make the chimichurri. In a food processor, pulse cilantro, parsley, peppers, shallot, garlic, vinegar and paprika until fully incorporated. Stir in oil, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve empanadas with chimichurri.

COURTESY OF AMERICAN LAMB BOARD

These lamb empanadas get an extra kick from a rich, spicy red chimichurri dipping sauce. —American Lamb Board

3-ingredient Caramel Apple Hand Pies

INGREDIENTS

14-ounce box puff pastry, thawed 1 large apple, chopped into ¼” pieces ⅓ cup caramel sauce

DIRECTIONS

Heat oven to 425°, and place a rack in the center. Unroll or unfold pastry onto a flat work surface. Using a 3” circular cookie or biscuit cutter, cut out as many rounds as possible—at least 18. Place half of the rounds on a parchmentlined, rimmed baking sheet. Spoon one heaping tablespoon of apples into the center of each round, leaving a ½” border. Top apples with one heaping teaspoon of caramel sauce. Brush pastry border with a pastry brush dipped in water, and top each filled round with a second pastry round. Using a fork, crimp edges together, sealing each pie well to avoid leakage. With a sharp knife, cut a few small slits in the top of each pie to allow steam to escape. Bake pies, rotating the sheet halfway through, until golden brown and puffed, about 15 minutes. Serve warm.

—Recipe adapted from New York Apple Association

Pandemic’s end unlikely to change consumers’ habits

Food consumption trends created by COVID-19 will continue long after the pandemic has passed, according to a Jan. 11 panel at the 2021 American Farm Bureau Federation Virtual Convention. “As of February 2020, only 5% of households were buying groceries online, and in March that jumped up to 30%,” said Roxi Beck, consumer engagement director for The Center for Food Integrity. She moderated the panel, which was titled “The Post-COVID Consumer: What’s Top of Mind for Them.”

“So even if half of those consumers go back, that’s still a three-time increase in terms of online shopping that took place in a matter of weeks,” Beck explained.

One Virginia agricultural expert agreed with her assessment.

“While that volume may decline in a post-COVID economy, online grocery shopping is here to stay,” said Tony Banks, senior assistant director of agriculture, development and innovation for Virginia Farm Bureau Federation. “We’ll likely continue to see grocers focus staffing on stocking and picking orders as opposed to cashier services. Some less-popular food items or package sizes may be very slow to return, if ever.”

Beck also noted an increase in consumer skepticism regarding food choices, but noted that isn’t necessarily bad for agricultural producers. “When people have skepticism, that means they’re paying attention, and that means they’re open to conversation,” about how and where their food is produced.

The increasingly widespread availability of COVID-19 vaccines for essential workers, including food and agricultural producers, is forcing industry leaders to consider the impact this will have on farmers and food retailers.

Martha Hilton, vice president of produce and floral for Wegmans Food Markets, said consumers have figured out how to be more self-sufficient, and that may mean only celebratory-type events will see an immediate economic rebound. “I think you’ll see certainly people ready to have some entertaining and some partying that they haven’t been able to do, but I don’t know that you’ll see everything that’s happened during this time period change. People have learned how to cook at home.”

Exclusive savings for FARM BUREAU MEMBERS

We value our long-standing partnership with Farm Bureau and are proud to offer their members exclusive savings.

Peanut butter is among food banks’ most-requested protein sources, and was collected along with other nonperishable food items by county Farm Bureau women’s committees in 2020.

FORD F-150

FORD SUPER DUTY ® FORD RANGER

Visit FordFarmBureauAdvantage.com today!

Thousands of pounds of food donated through PB&J collections

The numbers are in! County Farm Bureau women’s committees collected a cumulative 4,306 pounds of food and $3,367 in monetary donations.

Throughout the summer and fall of 2020, the committees organized food drives to help the hungry in their communities with a classic lunchtime staple—peanut butter and jelly.

Sponsored by the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation Women’s Leadership Committee, the food drives collected peanut butter, jelly and other nonperishable food items to help support regional food banks, local food pantries and Virginia families.

The PB&J theme was chosen in honor of Virginia Agriculture in the Classroom’s 2020 Book of the Year, PB&J Hooray! by Janet Nolan. Peanut butter also is among food banks’ most-requested sources of protein.

Keep uninvited guests from hogging the birdseed

BY ALICE KEMP

Terry Lautzenheiser laughs when she thinks about the extreme lengths to which she and her husband, John, have gone to keep squirrels away from their bird feeder.

They tried hanging it high off their elevated screened porch, which was inconvenient to squirrels, but the Lautzenheisers couldn’t access it without dragging out a big ladder.

So, John Lautzenheiser devised a workaround. “He cut a window within the screen itself that he can open and shut,” explained Terry Lautzenheiser, the horticulture technician for Virginia Cooperative Extension in Henrico County. Opening the custom window, he reaches out with a specially-made hanger to take the feeder down for refilling.

“He’s an engineer,” she chuckled. “It’s been funny.” Outsmart the squirrels

From elaborate obstacle courses to spinning bungee-jumping apparatuses, people have invented hilariously ingenious ways to keep squirrels out of bird feeders.

Backyard birders get frustrated when their feathered friends are pushed away by squirrels. Additionally, purchasing pricey, specialty birdseed only to have squirrels dominate the feeder is money down the drain.

Some bird feeders are made specifically to keep squirrels out. Lautzenheiser said she bought her feeder for its weight-sensitive closing mechanism—birds are light enough to perch, but a squirrel’s heavier weight triggers the seed ports to close.

“That’s what’s worked best for us,” she said.

Horticulturalist Mark Viette went a different route and customized his bird feeder using plastic-coated chicken wire he purchased from a hardware store.

“You can make a box and put it over

Weight-sensitive bird feeders, like this one hanging at Terry and John Lautzenheiser’s home, are effective at keeping squirrels out of the birdseed.

the feeder,” he explained. The holes are just large enough for birds to get into, but too small for squirrels.

Viette also added a separate feeder just for squirrels that he placed 100 to 200 feet away from the others.

“Squirrel feed tends to be inexpensive and is based more with a mixture of sunflower, corn and other foods,” he said. “Some people like the squirrels, but you can feed them away from your other feeders.”

Round, slick metal baffles are another option. Attaching underneath or above a feeder, they can block a ravenous rodent from climbing on. Spice things up

“You can get birdseed already premixed with hot pepper,” Viette said. “Squirrels can’t stand it.”

Birds don’t have the same taste receptors as mammals so spicy seed doesn’t bother them. Homeowners can purchase it premixed or mix their own birdseed with hot pepper. However, some don’t like to use it because they claim it can irritate squirrels’ eyes, Viette noted.

Other tips:

Squirrels can jump far! • Keep bird feeders up high, in an open area and away from branches or anything a squirrel could use as a jumping point to get access to the feeder. • Consider your seed choice; birds love Nyjer and safflower seed, but squirrels will avoid it.

Don’t forget the water

Just as important as the birdseed, is making sure birds have a source of water like a birdbath, especially in communities where there’s no natural water source. For wintertime, there are heated birdbaths available, or you can use a birdbath warmer (Some are solar-powered) to keep the water from freezing.