Thanksgiving: Turkey Pie with Chive Mashed Potatoes

The filling was made up of sauteed turkey breast, celery, carrot, mushrooms and peas. I also added some chicken stock and heavy cream. It's seasoned with sage, salt and pepper. I put that in a regular butter crust bottom crust.

The top is made up of chive mashed potatoes. I used 8 small potatoes, mashed with a little more cream and butter and then about two tablespoons of chopped chives. It turned out to be the perfect amount to put on top of the pie. The potatoes had cooled somewhat when i spread them on top of the pie. I baked the whole thing about 40 minutes. It probably would have been good to let the top brown a bit longer, but I had lots of other pies to bake that day.

Happy All PieThanksgiving!

Pictures speak louder and words, and I remain in food coma from the seven pies that made up Thanksgiving dinner. Full details to follow in the week to come.


Here's the dog guarding the food.

Preparing for Pie Thanksgiving

I braved the crowd at the big Stop and Shop in Long Island City to get cheap butter for pie crusts last night. There's a pie menu set and now I'm making the battle plan for accomplishing seven pies/tarts.

In the meanwhile I had to link to this comic a friend sent me last night. Yay for nerd/pie humor.

Middle of the Night Pie

I had a friend in town visiting who I had promised pie to, so when I got home on Friday just past midnight I decided to at least make the dough for the pie. Then I just made the whole thing. I was impressed that the line at my 24 hour fruit and vegetable stand was just as long at 12:30 at night as it is during the day.

This one is Four Berry Pie. There are strawberries, blackberries, blueberries and raspberries.
And I got to play with my leaf shape cutters again.

How do you like them apples?

I invited folks over this weekend to do an apple pie tasting. I had seen a recipe on Serious Eats for Apple Peanut Butter Pie and wanted to try it. It may actually be the richest pie I've ever made. I think if I did it again I would not add extra sugar to the peanut butter, it was a bit too sweet for me. I bought three different kinds of apples. I paired the peanut butter pie with Red Delicious.

In addition I thought I would do a regular apple pie with a crumb topping. The apples for this were Fuji apples. This is actually the first crumb topping I've ever made:
The third pie turned out to be my favorite. An apple cheddar pie. I used the regular butter to flour ratio (2 cups flour/10 tablespoons butter) and mixed in 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar and used milk instead of water to form the dough. The filling is granny smith apples, a tiny bit of cinnamon, sugar and another 1/2 cup or so of the cheddar just layered on top. It melted between the crust and the apples, and I love how it made the final look. I also got to play with the fondant cutters I picked up at Michael's last week. This is currently winning the prize for prettiest pie I've ever made:


And since no party would be complete without drink I made an apple cider rum punch. The rum was barely noticeable and I'm not sure it actually added anything to the taste. I got to serve it in one of my tea sets and that always makes me happy. Punch recipe is here, though mine had a bit more cinnamon and cloves. I warmed it up in the crock pot.

Fun things

My dad sent me a fun novelty in the mail this week. A rolling pin pen. It is shaped like the rolling pin he sent me from the dollar store a year ago (featured in the title of the blog) which is my favorite rolling pin ever. I know there are many more "hi tech" sorts of rolling pins, but there's something wonderful about just the straight pin that I have. No moving rolling parts, no handles, just the ability to put your weight behind rolling out your dough.

Perhaps the rolling pin pen can be used to roll out mini tarts.

Tomorrow I have people over for apple pie tastings. I'm mulling over pie recipes as I type. Stay tuned...