Duchy of Domesticity

Pie gadgets

2011-11-28T13:19:00.001-05:00

Progressive makes a "pie slicer". I received one as a gift a few months ago and finally took it out to use this past Thanksgiving weekend. Here it is slicing a blackberry apple pie. It did slice fairly effectively, but I'm still ready to stick it in the yard sale pile. The slicer stores in a little plastic container, but that means that for each use you have to unscrew the base, slide each of the cutting wings in and rescrew the thing together. To was and put it away is a pain as it is hard to pull the base cover off. Really, it took two of us in the end. You can use either six or eight wings, but even with eight wings the pie pieces are still enormous. According to the box you can store your pie with the cutter in place like a pie gate. Mine however doesn't fit in my pie storage container as it makes the overall pie too tall. So between the extra time, the clean up, and the giant pie slices I just don't see a purpose for this kitchen gadget.

Roasted CSA Veggies

2011-11-27T13:19:00.000-05:00

I'm terrible at keeping up with this blog (or any of them...) but here's a photo of a whole mess of vegetables just prior to roasting from both my CSA and that of a friend who disliked her Brussels sprouts. I've been roasting vegetables all fall long as they are so easy and delicious!

Return to the CSA

2011-06-06T21:48:00.003-04:00

Hey look! I got a box of vegetables. It's the start of the second year of my CSA share. Now that I have regular fresh vegetables and I'm free of classes for the semester, maybe I'll get back to cooking and baking.

This week's goodies:
Japanese salad turnips
Boston lettuce
Salad mix
Red Kale
Spinach
Rhubarb
Arugala

A return to the blog

2011-03-30T21:55:00.002-04:00

Pie baking and general blogging took a bit of a back seat through the winter due to large amounts of school work and little time, but in an effort to resurrect the blog I offer you the results of Serious Eats Pi Day Pie Bake Off .
I'm seriously impressed with some of these pies. I think I'm most fascinated by how you bake a "pi" in a pie. I may have to experiment. Sadly, I missed Pi Day this year being preoccupied with writing a paper about Franz Liszt's Faust Symphony. However, should you ever need to know anything about that hour of music, I'm now well versed.

Haiku Tuesday!

2010-10-12T19:08:00.003-04:00

Apple and plum pie
Baked in my oven Sunday
and made a big mess.

But the result sure was pretty even if I do have to clean the oven now where the pie bubbled over. Note to self: invest in a non stick liner that can be easily cleaned.

Haiku Tuesday and a flood

2010-10-05T11:26:00.000-04:00

After the flood stops
many loads of laundry lead
to odd drying spots.

I've finally gotten around to washing everything that was in my closet when I discovered there had been a leak two apartments above mine that my management company (Vantage Management for those of you keeping track or looking for a landlord to avoid) had neglected to properly deal with by finding out how far the damage had gone. There were gallons of water in my closet that sat there for a couple of days. Sadly a great deal of stuff was damaged including a bunch of fabric and some dresses that had the colors run because they sat in the water. I'm still fighting to get the management company to at least pay for part of the damages. Of course it is now 3 weeks later and they haven't returned my calls or responded to the certified letter I sent. So stay tuned....

Cream of Cauliflower Soup

2010-10-03T18:13:00.003-04:00

I got a new toy the other day: an immersion blender. Amazon was having a sale. That coupled with the weather in New York finally hitting actual fall temperatures meant that it was time for soup. Plus as an extra bonus I got a leek in this week's CSA bounty. (CSA pictures will be up soon from what I have, I promise.) So I made up a Cream of Cauliflower recipe.

1 big leek
3 medium sized potatoes (or in my case about 12 tiny Nicola potatoes from the CSA two weeks ago)
1 Tbs herbes de provence
2 Tbs fresh chopped parsley
2 Tbs butter
8 cups chicken stock
1/2 a cup of cream
Salt

Clean and chop leek and saute in the butter in a large pot until just beginning to brown. Add chicken stock, chopped potatoes and chopped cauliflower. Stir in salt, chopped parsley and herbes de provence. Allow to simmer for approximately an hour. Then using your brand new nifty immersion blender, blend away! Mine took under 30 seconds. Stir in cream. Serve. I enjoyed mine with some buttermilk biscuits.

You can even see the steam coming off the soup in this picture.

Stone Fruit Pie

2010-09-15T08:19:00.000-04:00

A slightly belated Shana Tova to all.

I made this pie while up in New Haven a few weeks ago using leftover peaches approaching their last legs of ripeness that had been picked by a friend as well as some nectarines and apricots that were hanging out in her fridge. I'll probably be dreaming of it when I am fasting on Saturday.

Haiku Tuesday

2010-09-14T16:31:00.002-04:00

Major leak leads to
leads to much laundry and dry cleaning.
and the loss of stuff.

There was a major leak two apartments above me this weekend. Anger at the landlord abounds for not taking care of the full problem when it happened. Apparently they knew about it and fixed the leak 24 hours before I opened the closet to discover the damage, much of which would have been negated had the clothes not been sitting wet and pressed up against each other. Apparently though, Vantage Management seems to think that either water or their building are uneffected by the laws of gravity. I've been doing all kinds of hand washing and trying to treat dirty water stains. The closet is still wet inside and there's mold and it is all just very unpleasant.

CSA Week 13

2010-09-01T08:27:00.000-04:00

This week's bounty included

4 lbs of mixed beefsteak and plum tomatoes

Swiss chard

2 red and 2 yellow bell peppers

Parsley

Mixed salad greens

shallots

cherry tomatoes - of which there are never enough because I always finish my portion in the first hour they are in the house. Though they did make a lovely salad with the greens and some leftover cucumber.

Haiku Tuesday!

2010-08-31T08:27:00.007-04:00

I had never seen

The roots of a cabbage

Before Saturday.

Seriously, I hadn't. But I thought this one looked really neat and I had to take a picture. It's from a farmer's market in New Haven.

CSA week something or other

2010-08-25T11:25:00.000-04:00

I think it's week #12 but I've sort of lost track while I was away.

TOMATOES- Seven giant big red beefsteak tomatoes.
Fennel
Green Bell peppers
Red Bell pepper
Cherry tomatoes - sadly only a tiny handful of them
Red Batavia lettuce
Nicola potatoes

Haiku Tuesday!

2010-08-24T21:21:00.002-04:00

Why yes, it is true
I am the cutest Mickey
baking dish ever.

I picked this up while on vacation. Luckily for everyone's sanity I could only carry the small size. I want to make macaroni and cheese in it.

New Pie Dish!

2010-08-22T10:21:00.003-04:00

Shortly before I went away on vacation I got a belated birthday present of a fabulous new pie dish. I believe it came from Anthropologie. I think this brings up my grand total of pie dishes I own to six or possibly seven. Either way plenty to make an all pie Thanksgiving meal again if I decide to do that. Of course it may also be the start of an obsession with novelty pie dishes.

I was excited to use the dish for the first time the moment I go it. The only trouble was that I didn't actually have anything to make pie out of at the time since I was about to go out of town. Not that this would ever stop me. Instead of traditional pie in the new dish, I give you brownie pie.I love brownie mix and always have some in the house for just such occasions. Now I know it even makes great pie.

Haiku Tuesday!

2010-08-17T19:09:00.002-04:00

Back from vacation,
Cleaning ad laundry and now
An Epic Roach War

Seriously, the little buggers have overstayed their welcome this summer.

In other bug related news apparently bed bugs prefer Democrats to Republicans. Perhaps that explains my fall horror.

On Vacation!

2010-08-10T08:55:00.000-04:00

Happy Vacation!
I am eating with Mickey,
so no CSA.

Haiku Tuesday

2010-08-03T10:58:00.000-04:00

CSA is great!
I get to order fresh eggs
straight from the chicken.

I also ordered meat, dog bones and rye bread. My share partner got raw honey. The eggs made some of the best tasting scrambled eggs ever.

Pesto

2010-07-30T11:53:00.000-04:00

I made pesto for the first time and it was easier than I expected and also very good. Much better than the jarred kind.

I exchanged some zucchini for extra basil so I'd have enough to make pesto and managed to make the pesto just before the batch of basil went bad. I added garlic, pine nuts and Parmesan to olive oil and the basil leaves for less than thirty seconds in the food processor, and then added it to sauteed mushrooms over pasta.

CSA Week #8

2010-07-29T11:04:00.000-04:00

CSA Week #8

Beets
Zucchini
Savoy cabbage
Red onions
Basil
Romaine lettuce
Cucumber
Red Norland Potatoes

I did my volunteer hours handing out shares on Thursday and as a special bonus I got some leftover peaches and blueberries that came with the fruit share. I promptly made pie:

Blueberry Peach Pie

1/2 pint of blueberries
6 large peaches
and I probably dumped almost a full cup of flour and at least 3 tablespoons of tapioca to try to make it less watery. And it worked! Finally a peach pie that isn't a liquidy mass.

CSA Leftover Lasagna

2010-07-28T22:32:00.002-04:00

When I got back from Israel the greens from two weeks of CSA plus the week I had just picked up were a bit out of hand and so I made lasagna. This used up several kinds of onions as well as Swiss Chard and kale.

For the record the CSA weeks I didn't get photos of included:

Week #5 - Romaine lettuce, carrots, cippolini onions, beets, kohlrabi, Toscano kale, dill, broccoli

Week #6 - Zucchini, carrots, cabbage, radicchio, Romaine lettuce, green kale, cippolini onions, broccoli

Week #7 -Zucchini, Romaine lettuce, Toscano Kale, Broccoli, Scallions, Swiss Chard, Cucumber, Basil, Corn.
The corn was an unexpected surprise and though the ears were small it was pretty good corn.
I was also pleased to miss most of the zucchini run as it falls on the list of vegetables I just really don't care for.

2010-07-28T08:38:00.007-04:00

I spent the first two weeks of July in Israel. When I am not in Israel I dream of the many amazing milk products that you can get there that you just can’t get here. The dairy section of a regular supermarket is easily three times the size of any of the supermarkets I shop at in New York. There are all sorts of cheeses, yogurts, pudding type things and fantastic tasting milk and my personal favorite cottage cheese. It took me a long time to learn to like some of the white cheeses because I spent the rest of the year eating the filled with fat American cream cheese, but now I wish I had access to them all the time (especially when baked inside puff pastry).

That said, part of what I love about eating in Israel is that for the most part everything is most meals are accompanied with fresh cut up raw vegetables or salads and all these kinds of cheese. I did not expect to end up cooking while in Israel but my brothers begged for me to make baked macaroni and cheese. Normally I make my macaroni and cheese with predominantly cheddar cheese. I might mix some Gruyere or goat cheese to add some extra flavor, but part of the whole point of macaroni and cheese is that it is comfort food and to that equals cheddar. Except that you can’t really find cheddar in Israel. I imagine if you go to a specialty store that carries imported cheeses you might find something that as one family member said might have stood next to a block of cheddar in its life. I remember reading an American cookbook about Israeli food that discussed different cheeses and how Israeli chefs used to smuggle in various hard cheeses from Italy and France since they were not made in Israel.

I made macaroni and cheese anyway using the only vaguely yellow cheese I could find that came cubed and marked “Holland Cheese” mixed with some leftover Brinza (which I know as Bulgarian cheese and is vaguely Feta like) and some other leftover soft white cheese mixed with scallions. The breadcrumbs that were available at the grocery store were some of the finest breadcrumbs I’ve ever seen so I mixed them in with a generic Israeli brand of cornflakes. The end result baked up to look quite pretty in my grandmother’s casserole dish and tasted good if a bit bland.

We always used to leave Israel smuggling borekas and rogalech and various bags of Bisli and Bamba in the suitcase, perhaps next time I go I’ll be smuggling cheddar in.

Haiku Tuesday

2010-07-27T09:58:00.001-04:00

Shiraz is busy
Finding ways to use veggies
Before Disney World.

Haiku Tuesday! I am back!

2010-07-20T13:51:00.002-04:00

I apologize
for the lack of new content
Travel interfered.

I was away for a couple of weeks visiting family in Israel so wasn't able to post. I came back to a refrigerator filled with onions, kohlrabi and zucchini. I'm back now until my real vacation to go visit the mouse in August, so expect more CSA experiments.

Haiku Tuesday - Scallions!

2010-06-29T10:00:00.000-04:00

Never in my life

Have I seen such Enormous

Fresh, Bulbous Scallions

Do you have a haiku about your produce for the week? Or a tribute to scallions? Post in the comments!

CSA Week #4

2010-06-26T12:51:00.000-04:00

In the box for this week:

Fennel - I'd never actually seen fennel not already chopped up before

Scallions - The biggest ones ever!

Carrots - I had forgotten how good fresh from the ground early season carrots are.

Swiss Chard - In a rainbow of different colors

Dill - It was this or cilantro and the box I ended up getting had dill which at first I confused with the fennel

Collard Greens - I have never eaten or cooked Collard Greens. I'm slightly frightened of them.

Chana Saag

2010-06-24T20:39:00.003-04:00

Or how to use up your spinach and your kale before it goes bad.

Can it still be called Saag if it has kale in it too?

This was actually a pretty quick dish to put together, although it did involve using the food processor, which really means having to wash the food processor. The recipe makes approximately 4-6 servings and works well over rice.

2 tbs olive oil

2 tbs butter

2 medium onions, chopped

1 tbs garam masala

1 tbs tumeric

4 tsp minced garlic (probably 4-5 cloves fresh)

2 tsp ground coriander

2 tsp minced ginger root

approximately 1lb of green leafy combination of spinach and kale, lightly torn

1 15 oz can of chick peas

1/2 cup of water

1 cup of non fat yogurt

salt and pepper to taste

Saute the onions in the butter for appoximately five minutes. Add all spices and continue to cook for a few more minutes. Add the greens and cook until fully wilted. Put greens and onion mixture in the food processor along with oil, pulse until shredded well. (I think this took less than 10 seconds in mine which made having to wash it after that much worse, but it is the quickest way to get the right texture). Return to pan, add chick peas, water if necessary, and cook for about ten minutes. Stir in the yogurt just before serving.

Next week I hear I'm getting Collard Greens and more Swiss Chard. We'll see what I come up with for that.

Haiku Tuesday

2010-06-22T09:00:00.000-04:00

I'm beginning a new regular installment - Haiku Tuesday

When I was in college we used to leave notes that often took the form of haiku regarding cleaning one's dishes and other chores. I miss writing domestically minded haikus, so I thought I'd start a regular haiku section. If you would like to submit a haiku dealing with cooking, crafts, or general domesticity please email!

How many syllables
Does Kohlrabi have, and please,
How do you cook it?

More Pie Failures

2010-06-21T20:20:00.000-04:00

or Why You Should Never Bring Pie to a Picnic.
My birthday was last week and to celebrate I had a picnic with a bunch of friends in the Sheep's Meadow in Central Park this past weekend. It was a beautiful day for a picnic, plenty of people were out enjoying the gorgeous weather, but not too many to make it overcrowded. There were several children celebrating birthday's in the same area, including three legged races and water balloon fight. All in all an ideal picnic day and I asked everyone to bring something while I brought pie.

You'd think I would have learned my lesson from the last attempt to bring pie somewhere. Despite having a plastic pie saver so that I don't repeat the mess I had last year when taking a pie on the subway to a Newsies sing along on the Upper West Side where I ended up with pie juice dripping out of the pie dish all over me, my scarf, and the subway car, it's still inevitably a disaster whenever I try to take pie out of the safety of my apartment.
For the picnic I made two pies - Strawberry, Peaches and Cream pie and Three Berry Star Pie (Strawberry, Blackberry and Blueberry). I made both pies the night before thinking they'd have plenty of time to cool and be less liquidy the next morning. I tried making the crust dough in my food processor for the first time and as was my fear, when I wet to roll it out, the texture was off. I added eggs and milk and put the dough back in the fridge and was able to salvage the dough however so I thought things were looking up.

Three Berry Star Pie Before

Three Berry Star Pie After

This was the obvious problem of pie juice shifting during carrying. Not as big a mess as last time since the pie had cooled over night, but it still made for a tie dyed sort of pie look.

Sadly I don't have a before picture for the Peaches and Cream pie, but it was a lovely one crust pie with a brown sugar crumble topping. After pulling it out of the oven around midnight, I covered it with foil to protect it without thinking too much about it. It looked perfect. I was tired so I figured I would photograph it the next morning for the blog, but by morning the crumb topping had mostly melted into the rest of the pie. No matter, I thought, it would still taste good. Then when I unwrapped it at the picnic it had REALLY melted. I tasted it, but the texture was so funny that sadly this was one pie that just never got served.

On the plus side the salad I made with my CSA share partner for the picnic turned out fabulously including the roasted beets.

CSA Week #3

2010-06-19T20:37:00.003-04:00

In the box for this week is:

Toscano Kale (which a preliminary internet search leads to very few suggestions for, but I imagine works like most kinds of Kale)

Garlic Scapes (given over to my share partner for the cause of pesto)

Baby Spinach (according to them anyway it's baby spinach, more like adolescent spinach)

Baby Arugula

Red Boston lettuce (leading to the conclusion that the first week's Red Boston lettuce was really in fact Romaine because this clearly looked like a red version of Boston lettuce)

Beets

Kohlrabi (which looks sort of like an alien egg baby that I really have no idea what to do with.)

Semi-Failure Pie

2010-06-19T18:01:00.000-04:00

I was invited to a friend's to watch this year's Tony Awards (my thoughts on which I'll spare you on this blog as they have nothing to do with food, crafts or general domesticity) and I of course decided it was an opportunity to make pie. However clearly I had not made pie in some time, and I yet again forgot to pick up more tapioca because I've been out of it for weeks, so while still tasty (since really any homemade pie is tasty to some degree or other), the end result was an extremely runny Strawberry Blackberry Pie.
Better luck next time. And there will most assuredly be a next time as berries are super cheap at my fruit and veggie market.

Escarole and Swiss Chard Quiche

2010-06-18T23:56:00.002-04:00

Due to the overwhelming amount of greens in last week's CSA and egged on by the goat cheese and eggs in my fridge that were about to go bad, I opted to make quiche. I added onions and mushrooms as well as escarole and Swiss chard from the week's farm bounty and mixed it with some cream, Parmesan, goat cheese and of course eggs. I'd never actually cooked with either escarole or Swiss chard before as I've always been a bit afraid of all those big leafy greens.

I have now eaten quiche every day for at least one meal all week long.

CSA Week #2

2010-06-10T21:16:00.003-04:00

Or what do you do with this much escarole?

In the box this week:

A huge head of Escarole (the above picture is only half of the share)

A head of Romaine lettuce

a head of Boston lettuce

2 Baby Japanese Salad Turnips (sadly only two...I really liked these last week)

a big bunch of Swiss chard

baby bok choy

and garlic scapes

Garlic scapes seem to be the darling of the food blogging world and I've never tried them, so I'm somewhat excited, although they don't look like much amidst all the other produce.

I wonder what escarole pie would be like?

Return of the Pie!

2010-06-09T21:51:00.003-04:00

More from the CSA bounty:

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

I used this pie making opportunity to use a new mini cookie cutter set I have in the shape of Noah's ark and the animals. I've never made a strawberry rhubarb pie before and I fudged the measurements for the filling based on a number of different recipes (primarily that old standby the Betty Crocker Cookbook). I used almost two full cups of sugar for the filling which is more than I normally put into a fruit pie filling and made the whole thing a bit sweeter than I personally like, but still very good. Sadly rhubarb is not the easiest thing to come by in my neighborhood and so I'll have to wait until the next time the CSA box has some to experiment with it again.

CSA Week #1

2010-06-04T22:13:00.004-04:00

It's been a while since I've posted anything because I've been very busy with the end of the school semester and a lot of paper writing, but now that it is over I am ready for a summer of cooking, baking, sewing, beading and being generally crafty.

Yesterday was the first pick up of the season for the CSA I joined and here is the bounty:

There is red and green Boston lettuce (I never knew it came in multiple varieties!), French breakfast radishes, Baby Japanese salad turnips, arugala, spinach, rhubarb and strawberries.

I made a salad today using CSA produce and some leftovers in my fridge and discovered that Japanese salad turnips might just be my new favorite thing. It was a fantastic salad and with the heat and humidity that we've been having it was very filling and refreshing.

Stay tuned for my first strawberry-rhubarb pie!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2010-05-09T13:44:00.004-04:00

Several weeks ago I made chocolate chip cookies to take into work. I used a new (to me) recipe that called for putting the dough in the fridge overnight and then slicing it like you do the cookie dough you can buy in the refrigerator section. That used to be the extend of my baking skills. While this recipe was slightly more time consuming, it left me with four rolls of cookie dough that each made a dozen cookies that were some of the best soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies I've had. I may have to start keeping some on hand. This really is for soft and chewy cookies and not crisp cookies. The best ones that I ended up with were the ones that were still slightly under done. The ones that were in the oven a bit longer were still good, but tasted more like store bough Chips Ahoy than soft homemade chocolate chip cookies.

Just writing about them makes me wish I hadn't used up all the dough and could go pop some in the oven.

Fiddleheads!

2010-05-04T21:37:00.003-04:00

I went to Maine this past weekend and brought some fiddleheads back to the city. Fiddleheads are the unfurled fronds of young ferns. They grow wild in New England in early spring time. Although they are also available in canned form, I highly suggest avoiding those at all costs.

I prepared mine after cleaning and trimming them by boiling them for about two minutes and then I sauteed them with butter and garlic and two chopped white mushrooms until they were soft and tender.
This was the first time I'd had fiddleheads since I was in college and could get them at the farm stand next door. Sadly, I've never seen fresh ones in my local supermarkets in New York. If you've never had them I highly suggest trying some. Consider them vegetarian escargot.

So Many Vegetables!

2010-04-13T20:27:00.003-04:00

Today I signed up for the Sunnyside CSA program and I am super duper excited. I'm looking forward to making all kinds of savory vegetable pies. I only got the vegetable share for this year which I'm splitting with a friend because I'm not entirely sure how much volume it will actually be. They also offer a fruit share which was intriguing for pie making purposes, but we'll see how the vegetables go for this season.

I haven't had a CSA share since my second year in college. Back then though I didn't really know how to cook more than a few dishes and neither did any of the people I was living with. I remember we would get piles and piles of leeks and no one knew what to do with them so we'd stick them in flower vases all around the mod. Now I would love to have leeks all the time, so hopefully that won't happen. The jury is out on what I am going to do with all the greens though.

Happy Passover!

2010-04-04T18:59:00.009-04:00

Normally I try to avoid Passover recipes that try to replicate the things that I'm giving up eating for the week. The rolls, brownies, cookies, etc. just never taste as good as the real thing and it hardly seems worth the calories when there are plenty of good things that you can eat. Of course even with the determination each year to eat salads, simple meals, and embrace the hundreds of things you can eat, I invariably end up craving bread halfway through. It's more surprising because I don't eat bread on a regular basis.
This year, I invited company over and decided to see what I could do about making some sort of kosher for Passover pie.

Passover Turkey and Potato Pie
Crust:
4 Matzos
2 Eggs
1/2 cup of matzo meal
1 tsp Thyme
8 Tbs of parve (non dairy) margarine
salt to taste

Wet matzos, break into tiny pieces into a bowl. Melt margarine. Add eggs, margarine, spices and matzo meal to bowl. Mix together. Press into a 10" pie plate.

Filling:
1 lb ground turkey
1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic1/2 cup of frozen peas
2 Tbs. mushroom soup stock base (I use the Israeli brand Osem, you could use any sort of stock)
1 cup of water
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp olive oilpotato starch (if needed)
salt and pepper

Brown onion in olive oil with the garlic, add turkey and additional spices and cook through. Add water and soup stock base (or plain stock if using that) and frozen peas. Cook until peas are tender. If the filling is too liquid, stir in potato starch until it thickens. Put in matzo pie crust.

Topping:
4 medium sized potatos, boiled
2 cloves of garlic
1 tsp parsley
3 tbs water
2 tbs margarine

Boil potatoes and then mash with additional ingredients until smooth enough to spread on top of pie. Bake assembled pie in preheated oven for 30 minutes (or until potatoes start to brown on top) at 375 degrees.
The pie reheats really well which is an extra bonus! Luckily I have just enough left to make it through these last few days even if I will be dreaming of an Italian dinner all the while.

Pie on the Internet

2010-03-22T20:36:00.000-04:00

Jezebel is having the kind of March Madness that I can totally get behind:

Pie vs. Cake

They are in round two at the moment, so there's plenty of time but I'm hoping for an eventual showdown between Blueberry Pie and German Chocolate Cake. I encourage you to go vote.

I spent most of the weekend cleaning my apartment for Passover. I finished off a bottle of Murphy's Oil on the floors and most of a smallish container of bleach in the kitchen. It's now as clean as it was in October, but without all of my belongings in plastic bags against the bed bugs. Sadly though it does mean that baking projects will be put on hold until after Passover is over. Though if I get ambitious enough we'll see what sort of Passover recipes I might come up with, unless I choose to just eat salad all week long. I've always hated most Passover recipes that just attempt to recreate what you aren't supposed to eat for the week. Yes, it sticks to the letter of the law, but why bother? There's plenty that you can still eat, especially if you eat rice and legumes, and all those passover rolls and brownies never taste as good as the real thing anyway.

Happy Pi Day!

2010-03-14T20:55:00.004-04:00

3.14 pies - or as close to them as my baking dishes would allow.

Corn pie is the same as from Thanksgiving.

The sweet pie and the mini pie are both strawberry apple. The big pie has an almond crumb topping. The little one I tried to cut a pi into, but it didn't work out so well.

Pi #1 for Pi Day - Chicken Tikka Masala Pie

2010-03-13T20:20:00.003-05:00

I've been meaning to experiment with making this pie for a really long time. It was one of the very first pie experimentation ideas that I had. Pi Day is tomorrow and it seemed like a great time to try it out. I tried really hard to make an aesthetically pleasing pie. I like being able to see the filling in the vents. This is pie #1 in honor of Pi Day 2010.

Chicken Tikka Masala Pie

Basic Butter Crust

2 cups of flour

2/3 cup of butter

Enough cold water to hold dough together

1. Chop cold butter into square and work into flour by hand until the texture resembles store bough bread crumbs.

2. Add enough cold water to form dough. Be careful not to over knead. (approximately ¼ cup of water)

3. Put in refrigerator for at least 1 hour before rolling out.

Pie Filling

1 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated
2 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup cilantro, finely chopped
3 tablespoons of lemon juice
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 red onion, chopped
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 cup fat free plain yogurt plus 1 teaspoon flour
2 teaspoons tomato paste

1 cup frozen peas

1. Into a large bowl, grate the garlic and add the lemon juice. Add the garlic, cilantro, 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil, half the lemon's juice, and 2 tablespoons of yogurt, salt, and pepper. Stir, add chicken to bowl, and set aside to marinate.

2. While the meat is marinating, heat the remaining oil in a heavy, large skillet over low heat. Add chopped onion and cook gently for 10-15 minutes until falling apart and caramelized. Add the spices and stir well. Cook for an additional 2-3 minutes. Remove and set aside.

3. Add chicken to pan. Cook until brown and cooked through, but still tender. Return the onion mixture to the skillet, and add remaining yogurt and approximately a tablespoon of flour. Stir in the tomato paste and frozen peas and simmer for 5 minutes.

4. Let cool a bit then put in bottom pie crust. Add pie top, vent and cook for 35 minutes at 375 degrees.

Random things before Pi Day

2010-03-09T11:39:00.001-05:00

Pi Day is Sunday and I'm going to have to submit a pie photo to Serious Eats pie bake off, but I'm not sure what to go with yet. If you've got suggestions, then let me know, otherwise stay tuned...

And a bit of pie humor for all you Mac aficionados. I love the idea, but I can guarantee I would never have the patience.

Pretty Pie for the Oscars

2010-03-08T23:17:00.004-05:00

Strawberry Blackberry Pie

Why? Because strawberries and blackberries were cheap and had to be used that day.
The crust was a basic butter crust but came out particularly flakey. I also felt like being artistic with the top.

As to the Oscars...well let's just say I've never seen so many cut shots to so many bored and clueless actors. It was priceless.

Quick meal

2010-03-03T23:29:00.000-05:00

I've been very busy with school lately, and most nights when I get home I don't have the energy or time to cook. This of course conflicts with my desire to stop eating out as much. I put this together the other night in less than the time it took to listen to a half hour of Jeopardy. I thought I'd share because it is such an easy meal.

Easiest Mushrooms and Snow Peas

1/2 lb of snow peas
8 oz of fresh button mushrooms
1 tbs. of butter
3 tbs. soy sauce
2 tbs. rice wine vinegar

1. Saute the mushrooms in butter until about half cooked. Add the snow peas
2. Cook for a couple of minutes than add the soy sauce and rice vinegar.

Honey Mustard Chicken

1 can of low fat Cream of Chicken soup
3 tbs brown mustard
3 tbs honey

1. Brown the chicken in a pan, remove
2. Mix soup, honey and mustard in pan. Return chicken to pan, cook until chicken is fully cooked through
3. Serve over rice or mashed potatoes

Happy Purim!

2010-02-28T23:19:00.004-05:00

I have never liked hamentaschen. I like the idea of hamentaschen and I've always loved making them. This year I decided to try to create a hamentaschen dough that I actually liked. Since my favorite filling was always canned cherry pie filling, I figured that a hamentaschen is really just like a mini pie. Therefore, I'd base the dough on a sweetened pie dough and the filling would be real fresh berry pie filling.

They went into the oven looking very well:

Unfortunately they didn't hold together as well as they should have:

They tasted good but there's work to be done next year when I try again to try to make slightly more eye pleasing cookies. I have an idea of what went wrong so hopefully next time will go better. For a first real made up dough baking experiment I'm not displeased with the taste anyway.

I also attempted a large hamentaschen pie which sadly was a true baking failure. The berry juice went everywhere on the baking sheet, and it didn't cook as evenly as I would have liked.

Next year I try again!

M&M Cookies

2010-02-21T19:29:00.005-05:00

I used to have store bought versions of these all the time as a child. Last weekend my family came to visit and I made them these as a Valentine's Day treat. The recipe is straight off the M&M website, with the addition of chocolate chips. We added three or four M&Ms on the top of the cookie before they went into the oven to make them pretty. It was so much easier making these cookies now that I have 2 more cookies sheets. I will never have to try to make four dozen cookies using only one cookie sheet again.

My mother also gave me a cookbook featuring 400 soup recipes since that seems to be my new thing to do to make sure I have lunches through the week. You can expect to see more soups on the blog soon.

Cauliflower Mushroom Soup

2010-02-10T23:38:00.003-05:00

In honor of the bit of snow that the television keeps calling the blizzard of 2010 I decided to make a pot of soup. At first I was just going to make a cream of cauliflower soup, but then I decided to use mushrooms as well.

Cauliflower Mushroom Soup

1 onion, chopped
1 package of fresh mushrooms, chopped
1 cauliflower, chopped
1 sprig of rosemary
2 bay leaves
1 tbs. dried thyme
2 tbs butter
4 cups of chicken/mushroom stock
1/2 cup of light sour cream
1/2 cup of heavy cream
salt
pepper

1. Saute the onions in the butter for about two minutes, then add the mushrooms.
2. When mushrooms are half cooked add the cauliflower, bay leaves, rosemary, salt and pepper cook until cauliflower begins to soften
3. Add broth and simmer until cauliflower is tender enough to be pureed.
4. Allow soup to cool and blend soup in blender or food processor.
5. Stir sour cream and heavy cream into blended soup.
Serve with sliced scallions and biscuits if you want to bake them!

Happy Tu B'Shvat

2010-01-31T19:51:00.002-05:00

Tu B'Shvat is a minor Jewish holiday that is considered the birthday of the trees. By Jewish law this is important in terms of knowing when it is permissible to eat the fruit of the trees. Typically it's celebrated by eating dried fruits and nuts and is the start of spring, which was sort of funny when it was 20 degrees out yesterday. In particular I always think of almonds because of one of the more well known songs for the holiday about the flowering of the almond tree. I have always associated the holiday with eating the Shivat Haminim or Seven Species of Israel. These include wheat, barley, pomegranate, grape, dates, figs and olives. Next year I fully intend to try to make a pie or pies that incorporate all of these, but for this year I stuck with two pies: Pomegranate Berry with an almond crumble top, and Apple Grape.

Pomegranate Berry Pie Filling
3 Tbs Pomegranate Juice
6 cup mixture of raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and strawberries
4 Tbs Tapioca
1 cup of sugar

Almond Crumble Topping
1 cup of flour
4 Tbs butter
1/2 cup of slivered almonds
3 Tbs of brown sugar

Normally I would melt the butter to combine but this time I just worked it in with my hands like I would the pie dough itself.

Apple Grape Pie Filling
4 Golden Delicious Apples
2 cups of sliced green seedless apples
1 cup of sugar
3 tbs of corn starch
1 tbs of tapioca (because it was all I had left!)

Goodbye Dollhouse

2010-01-31T19:46:00.004-05:00

I started making pies regularly for gatherings to watch Joss Whedon's Dollhouse. For the final episode of Dollhouse I combined some favorites and made Peach Berry Pie. The filling includes blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries and peaches. I cut the vents in the shape of the Dollhouse sleeping pods. Though the show over the last two seasons had ups and downs I will miss it and the opportunity to feed pie to people.

Lentils and Pie Oh My!

2010-01-23T21:43:00.003-05:00

No, its not a lentil pie. Although that is an intriguing idea to file away.
Last weekend I went to visit a friend in New Haven and we made a curried red lentil recipe that she had from a friend and it was fantastic.

Of course no weekend would be complete without making a pie. We didn't have a lot of time so went with a store bought crust and instant pudding but added a layer of melted peanut butter before putting the pudding in the crust and letting it set in the refrigerator. The lesson of the day however was that if you are going to melt peanut butter in the microwave make sure to do it in stages and mix it up. Otherwise the peanut butter will burn on the inside. Burnt peanut butter strangely smells almost exactly like burnt popcorn and that is a smell I could do without in my life.

Curried Lentils
Florence Minnis

9oz split red lentils (about 1 cup)
2 medium onions chopped
3oz butter (very important for flavour)
6 cloves garlic sliced
1 medium carrot grated (though I just slice mine)
2 teasp. whole cumin seeds
1 and a half teasp. whole black or yellow mustard seeds
3 teasp. ground tumeric
1 can coconut milk
4-5 slices fresh ginger
140z chopped ripe tomatoes (or a can but some fresh tomato good for texture)
juice of one large lime or 2 small ones
handful chopped fresh coriander
salt and pepper to taste

Fry onions in half the butter, add half the garlic, carrot and whole spices and cook for 5 mins. Stir in tumeric. Cool slightly. Tip in lentils, 10fl oz water, coconut milk, ginger, tomatoes, salt and pepper. Simmer for 30-40 mins. In separate pan, melt the rest of the butter and add the rest of the garlic, fry for a minute or two, and then tip into the lentil mixture. Add lime juice and coriander and leave to mellow for ten minutes. Remove the ginger slices. Serve warm, not hot, with rice and/or naan bread.

National Pie Championship?!?!?!?!

2010-01-20T17:44:00.003-05:00

Apparently there is a National Pie Championship in April.
I may have to attend.

It will mean a lot of practice pies and I will need some willing volunteers to consume them. Also a pie fund jar to donate to the purchase of butter. Costco flour and butter run here I come.

Also of note is that January 23rd is apparently National Pie Day, although the nerd in me rebels and says that should be March 14th.

Spinach and Mushroom Lasagna

2010-01-16T17:57:00.000-05:00

It's been a long time since I've made a lasagna and I wanted to do one without tomato sauce. I also had some goat cheese in the fridge that hadn't been used in the macaroni and cheese from the other day. I actually should have used more of it to give a bit more of a goat cheese flavor than I ended up with, but it worked out well anyway.

Spinach and Mushroom Lasagna

9 cooked lasagna noodles
1 package frozen spinach, thawed
15oz of Ricotta
3 oz of goat cheese
1/2 a package of crimini mushrooms
1 oz dried porcini mushrooms (soak for 1/2 prior)
5 large shitake mushrooms
2 tbs butter
1 egg
2 cups white sauce
2-3 chopped plum tomatoes
mozzarella cheese to top

1. Saute the mushrooms in the butter
2. Mix mushrooms with ricotta, goat cheese and egg
3. Layer 3 cooked lasagna noodles on bottom of a greased 9"x13" pan
4. Spread 1/2 the spinach over the noodles
5. Spread 1/2 of the ricotta and mushroom mixture over the spinach
6. Add 3 more cooked lasagna noodles, pour 1/2 white sauce over the noodles
7. Add rest of spinach, then ricotta and mushrooms
8. Add layer of chopped plum tomatoes
9. Layer remaining 3 lasagna noodles on top.
10. Cover with remaining white sauce and thin slices of mozzarella cheese

Bake 30-40 minutes at 375.

Apple Cherry Pie

2010-01-16T13:39:00.003-05:00

I made a cherry pie once. I vowed not to do it again until I had a cherry pitter as the last event had resulted in cherry juice all over my whole kitchen, self and dog.

For Chanukah I received a cherry pitter and for the first time since then cherries were on sale so I decided it was time to try again, in honor of the penultimate episode of Dollhouse. Only this time I added apples. I liked the apple cherry combination a lot more than just the plain cherry pie. I like cherries, but I think I like them better as a combination ingredient with other fruit. I had debated about adding blueberries into this mix as well and I think in the future I might try that, but sadly they were a bit pricey this week. The cherry pitter might be my new favorite kitchen toy. I have one made by OXO and using it gives this very satisfying punch to each cherry to push the pit out, sort of like using a leather punch. Someone needs to create one with an automatic cherry loader that would work like a machine gun. The best part of course is that the mess was all self contained.

I had the worst pie crust failure I've had in a long time on this one. I realized in the middle of pie making that I had no cold water in my kitchen and that threw off the timing and temperature of the water I used in making the dough. When it came time to roll it out I managed to get one decent crust out of the dough, but gave up and went for pastry shapes on top. It still worked out to a pretty pie though. The water is still not fixed a day later and the lesson here is always check that before you start cooking and more importantly never ever rent an apartment from Vantage Management if you can avoid it.

The filling is made up of 1 1/2 lbs of cherries, 3 large granny smith apples, 2 Tbs of tapioca, 1 cup of sugar, cinnamon and a few dots of butter.

January 29 will mark the last Dollhouse episode and assuming nothing else comes up, I'm planning the finale of Dollhouse and Pie as well. I started making pie partly for company who came over to watch the first early episodes and I've continued through most of both seasons, so now I'm faced with coming up with a suitable parting pie. It might have to feature red splatter in keeping with the latest few episodes.

Ignoring the New Year's Resolutions

2010-01-14T22:42:00.005-05:00

While most people are jumping on the eat healthy and get in shape band wagon, I'm making my first real post in the new year about what might be the epitome of an unbalanced meal: macaroni and cheese and pie. The pie is a pear and strawberry pie.

The macaroni and cheese was inspired by clearing out leftover cheese in the fridge.

Recipe:
16oz box of elbow pasta, cooked
3 cups of white sauce
3 cups mixed of Gruyere, cheddar, mozzarella, and Parmesan
Top with 1/2 cup of buttered bread crumbs (this time I tried Progresso's herbed panko)

White Sauce:
6 Tbs butter
6 Tbs flour
3 cups milk
salt and pepper to taste

Pear & Strawberry Pie Filling
5 ripe pears peeled and sliced
approx 3/4 of a lb of strawberries sliced
3 Tbs tapioca
3/4 cup of sugar

Winter gift giving holiday season sum up

2010-01-04T21:02:00.004-05:00

Despite it being baking season for most people these past few weeks, I've been taking a bit of a break and working on polishing off a lot of pantry staples that needed to be used up.
Winter gift giving season did however leave me with some new toys to play with in the upcoming year. I've got a new silicon baking mat that I used for the biscuits the other day and can't wait to try with cookies. I also got an ever important cherry pitter so that the next time I decide to use fresh cherries my kitchen doesn't resemble a war zone.
My cookbook library was also increased with a great book on tarts: Janice Murfitt's Savory to Sweet Pies & Tarts and Ken Haedrich's Pie. This last one includes 300 sweet pie recipes. It clocks in at a hefty 600+ pages. I don't think you'll be seeing a Julie/Julia attempt to get through it in the course of the next year, but I'm very excited about trying some of the pies and tarts in both books during the coming months. The dog is excited too as he's always hoping for leftovers.

Weekend off means tasty home cooking

2009-12-27T21:12:00.005-05:00

Chocolate Eggnog Pie - I'm afraid to post how easy this recipe is, but the filling is just 1 3/4 cups of eggnog in place of milk on the instant chocolate pudding/pie mix. The crust is made from Famous Amos chocolate sandwich cookies with the cream scraped off. I wanted to make my own chocolate cookie crust for the first time and most recipes call for chocolate wafers. Chocolate wafers at my grocery store run $4.79 for a box that would barely make enough to cover the pie dish. I thought about using Chocolate Teddy Grahams (3.79 for a much bigger box) but then saw the sandwich cookies and decided to improvise. As a bonus I had left over Oreo knockoffs.

I also made a Potato Leek Soup that came out very well.

Potato Leek Soup (recipe adapted from The Irish Heritage Cookbook)
6 medium potatoes peeled and cubed
2 medium leeks
1 onion
2 celery stalks
4 tablespoons of butter
2 bay leaves
salt
pepper
parsley
5 cups chicken stock
2 cups skim milk
1/2 cup (approx) heavy cream

1. Saute the leeks, potatoes, onion and celery in the butter in a large pot for about ten minutes.
2. Add the spices, stock and 1/2 a cup of the milk, reduce heat, cover and let cook until vegetables are tender. About 30 minutes
3. Discard the bay leaves, let soup cool for 15 minutes. Blend in batches using a food processor or blender.
4. Return to stove and add remaining milk and heavy cream.

The soup goes really well with buttermilk biscuits. I went with the first recipe from Google found here. Tip of the day: If you don't have a round biscuit/cookie cutter use a drinking glass. I learned that one making hammentaschen with my mother.

Happy (slightly belated) Chanukah!

2009-12-22T00:33:00.003-05:00

I went home to Maine for a few days of Chanukah and there was occasion for pie. I made two apple blueberry pies. This was the first time I had worked with frozen blueberries before. They worked just fine, which means it is probably time to get over my need to only use fresh berries. The fillings is approximately six medium sized Cortland apples and 1 cup of frozen blueberries with 1 cup of sugar, 2 tablespoons of flour and 2 tablespoons of tapioca. Unfortunately the filling did bubble over a little bit which made the overall pie less pretty, but I was happy with my dreidel cutouts.

Dog Sitter Pie

2009-12-17T12:46:00.000-05:00

I made a plain apple pie for my dog sitter for while I was away. It tasted good, but I guiltily present the laziest pie edges ever:

What can I say....I made it after a very long week and I still had packing to do.

Savory pies are great and all, but bring on the snickerdoodle pie

2009-12-12T01:08:00.006-05:00

Friday was the first night of Chanukah and I celebrate by doing my once a year latke frying. I also made pie. Two of them. The first was a simple chicken, mushroom and leek pie. I had a leek and mushrooms to use up. The filling is sauteed chicken, mushrooms (half white button, half crimini) and one medium sized leek. I sauteed the leeks and mushrooms first then put them aside to cook the chicken. Then I let it all cook together for a bit in the pan. I added a tiny bit of milk to the mushroom and chicken juice in the pan and some flour to thicken everything up. I used some leftover fresh sage as well as some salt and pepper.

Earlier this week I'd seen a recipe and pictures for Snickerdoodle Pie go up on one of the baking blogs I read regularly - Baking and Mistaking. I thought the idea was fantastic. I played the peruse the internet recipes game and decided to instead of following the more frequent cake like recipe to go with what more of a custard recipe. I used this one. Now I think I may have to make a whole lot more custard pies. If I did this one again I think I'd put cinnamon into the actual custad part instead of just sprinkling cinnamon sugar on top.

Next up while it's in season...Egg Nog Pie.

Thanksgiving: Dessert

2009-12-12T00:43:00.004-05:00

The last three pies from Thanksgiving.
Cranberry Apple

This was again a plain butter crust, and the insides are just granny smith apples, fresh cranberries, sugar, and tapioca to hold it together. I used a little extra sugar than I normally would in a fruit pie. I believe it was about a cup and a half. I did not use any regular pie spices. This was all about that cran-apple flavor. I got to use my new food processor for the first time on this one. When I bought the bag of cranberries I had sudden flashbacks to the horror that was depitting cherries and the mess it made of my kitchen. I knew that I couldn't leave the cranberries whole in the pie. Luckily, my new Kitchen Aid chopped the entire bag in less than 20 seconds. True I had to then clean it, and that is never fun, but I think the trade off to not have to slice or crush a bag of cranberries and end up with juice everywhere was well worth it.

Sweet Potato and Pumpkin Pie.
I didn't make this one. In general I don't much like either sweet potato pie or pumpkin pie. As those go this was however quite good. It was made by the lovely Marci.

Chocolate Raspberry Pie

This one was a joint effort with Marci. I made the crust which was a baking experiment. I'd place it as a moderate success. It's a chocolate butter crust. I took the normal ratio I use for a single pie crust (1 cup of flour - 1/3 cup of butter) and replaced 1/4 cup of the flour with cocoa powder. The crust was baked for about 20 minutes using beans as weights to keep it from bubbling up. The filling comes from here.

FILLING:

10 oz. pkg. frozen raspberries
1/2 c. softened butter
2 eggs
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
1 c. whipping cream
1/3 c. sugar
1/2 c. raspberry jam

Thaw raspberries and reserve juice. Cream together butter and sugar. Stir in chocolate. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat mixture for 3 minutes after each addition. Fold in whipped cream, berries and jam. Spoon mixture into the crust, making slightly raised crust. Chill for 2 hours.
Decorate the top with fresh berries or whipped cream.

It actually took a while for me to find a recipe that looked good for a chocolate raspberry pie. I think if I did it again I might experiment a bit more and rely a little less on the jam which stuck out a little bit especially the next day. Also, be sure to let it chill. We missed that step on Thanksgiving so it was a bit too pudding like. It was perfect the day after Thanksgiving.

We served all of these with a rum infused whip cream that was really excellent, especially with the cranberry apple pie.

More Thanksgiving...

2009-12-09T22:00:00.006-05:00

Academic life got in the way of posting more pie photos, but here are some details on the rest of the savory pies from Thanksgiving.

Turkey, broccoli, stuffing pie

This might have been the easiest pie I made, but also one of my favorites. I sauteed the turkey breast at the same time as for the other turkey pie. I used store bought stuffing for the top and a regular butter crust for the bottom. The filling is made up of sauteed broccoli, garlic, the cooked turkey and a can of store bought gravy. I imagine the whole thing would improve if you made the gravy and stuffing from scratch, but for a quick pie this was really good.

Corn Pie

I don't know why but I really wanted to make a corn pie. I think its because Thanksgiving has always included buttered steam in the bag corn. This recipe calls for a cracker crust, which gives me hope for attempting cookie and graham cracker crusts in the future. Recipe can be found here.

Brussels Sprout and Leek Quiche
I adapted this recipe from here as follows:

1 tablespopon butter
1/2 chicken stock
1 leek chopped (white and green parts)
1 pint of Brussels sprouts
2 garlic cloves minced
2 spring onions chopped
1 Tbs herbs de provence
approx. 5 oz. of chive and onion cream cheese
1 cup Gruyere cheese
6 eggs
salt
pepper
1 butter pie shell

Combine first seven ingredients in a pan and saute until tender. Let cool and then stir in cream cheese. Add grated cheese, eggs, salt and pepper. Pour into unbaked pie shell and cook for 40 min at 375 degrees.

The whole thing was baked in a silicon tart pan which worked beautifully this time and let me slide the quiche out and put it on my pretty cake stand.

Dessert pie descriptions soon!

We interrupt your regularly scheduled pie...

2009-12-02T00:16:00.001-05:00

to let you know that at long last I've finally posted some items in my Etsy store.

Please visit Secret Song Designs and check it out!

More pie tomorrow...

Thanksgiving: Turkey Pie with Chive Mashed Potatoes

2009-11-29T15:52:00.004-05:00

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!

2009-11-26T22:34:00.003-05:00

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

2009-11-25T08:25:00.000-05:00

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

2009-11-22T16:00:00.002-05:00

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?

2009-11-10T20:56:00.009-05:00

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

2009-11-07T20:44:00.003-05:00

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...

Bed Bath and Beyond is a dangerous place...

2009-10-27T21:24:00.002-04:00

I'm slowly restoring from the bed bugs which means more pie will happen soon. I'm thinking about doing a series of apple pies while they are still mostly in season. However, in the meantime I've been busy spending way to much money at Bed Bath and Beyond. Their clearance section has been providing me with too many opportunities to buy things I probably didn't really need. A couple of weeks ago I got a tall cabinet with glass doors that now that I've assembled it has proven perfect for holding my two tea sets. Yesterday though, I went in for a new dish drainer, and came out with two new glass pie plates, a new 9x13 and a 7x11. They were on major clearance, about $3 each, and that's nearly cheaper than buying disposable ones. Plus I didn't have a 7x11. Of course where I'm going to put them I'm not sure, but I guess that is why I'm cleaning the kitchen.

Bed Bugs

2009-10-15T21:18:00.010-04:00

I'm sure it comes as no surprise that I am taking an anti-bed bug stance. In fact my dislike of being bitten by the critters has led to several months of trying to trap one so that I could finally have proof to force my land lord to send in the exterminators. Part way through September somewhere around five in the morning, I finally achieved the goal of forcing a bug into a ziploc bag. And that then led to the horribleness that was preparing the apartment for extermination. Mostly this involved hours and hours of putting nearly every item I own in plastic bags after first putting it through the dryer, vacuuming it, or wiping it with alcohol. Then I had to live with it like that for the three weeks between extermination treatments. I give you the pictorial tour of my apartment and belongings.

This is the bedroom pile from front and back.

The precarious living room pile:

The stuff from my kitchen so that they can spray those cabinets too:

And finally my bathtub filled with every stitch of clothing and bedding I have:

I don't remember how many trips to the laundromat I made. Since the first treatment I have cleared the tub, but now all those bags are all over the apartment with the rest of the piles of things. I also probably threw out twenty or so giant bags of stuff.

In six more days hopefully this whole experience will be over. The dog and I can't wait. He still doesn't know what hit him and why he has to jump over bags to try to get anywhere. And then I can go back to cooking and baking and being generally domestic.

The lengths you go to bake...

2009-10-12T11:54:00.004-04:00

My apartment continues to be all packed up due to the bed bug extermination process, and let me tell you three weeks of living out of ziploc bags is a bit stressful. Since baking helps de-stress me I decided to descend on a friend's kitchen and bake piles of cookies to take in to the crew that's working on an enormous show right now at the theater. I decided on three different kind of cookies. A gourmet double chocolate chunk that I've made before, and two new recipes - peanut butter chocolate chip and strawberry pie bars.

The double chocolate cookies come from a recipe from one of my favorite places in the world...the bakery at Disneyworld. The recipe can be found here. In the past I've made them with peanut butter chocolate chips or caramel chocolate chips. This time I used semi-sweet instead of chocolate chunks. I like the combination of flavors better than the straight chocolate.

The peanut butter chocolate chip were the first batch I did. Sadly they suffered a bit for that. It's the first time I've made a peanut butter cookie, and it was also the first time this oven had probably been turned on in at least two years. After the dust burned off (setting off the fire alarm...sorry about that!) I was mistrustful that they had cooked all the way through, so the bottoms ended up burned. The top was crunchy and while still tasty I prefer my peanut butter chocolate chip cookies a bit chewier. The recipe came from the first hit on google for them.

The last cookies turned out the best I think. The recipe came from one of my favorite baking blogs Baking and Mistaking and she adapted it from an Anita Chu recipe. I altered it a bit further because I had two small jars of seedless jelly in my fridge. One was actually strawberry and the othe blackbeerry. So half the bars are one and half the other. Though a few in the middle are a mix. I'm not sure there's all that much difference between making these and making a pie though. But they sure were good.

Really McCormick?

2009-10-07T22:58:00.003-04:00

I'd like to take this opportunity to rant about laziness. I've used my fair share of time saving things in the kitchen. I also grew up with lots of meal that included quick items like prepackaged rices and noodles, chicken nuggets, etc. But this goes too far.

I went to the Stop and Shop in Long Island City in order to buy more trash bags and ziploc bags for the great bed bug extermination of '09. I wandered the aisles absorbing a bit of that suburban supermarket feel that I miss and I can't get in any of the three supermarkets I can throw a rock from my apartment window and hit. I like to go through the deli section and the enormous frozen food section and indulge in the fact that everything is clean, there's no funny New York City supermarket smell and there are actually options for each item. But then....then I came across this:

Really McCormick? Apple Pie Spice? People are that lazy that they can't mix their own cinnamon and nutmeg? Looking at its product detail it also includes allspice, but even three spices doesn't excuse this. If you're taking the time to bake an apple pie, I should hope that you can handle mixing a few spices. Are there enough people who need to save the 20 seconds it takes to throw in extra spices out there buying this product? McCormick describes it as "A blend of aromatic spices typical of apple pie seasoning" and in case you're wondering it has no nutritional value.
According to their website if you're interested in Apple Pie Spice you might aslo be interested in "Ground Cinnamon", "Ground Nutmeg" and "Pumpkin Pie Spice". Of course Pumpkin Pie Spice for those keep tracking is the same as Apple Pie Spice with the addition of ginger.

Also....$4.99? Are you kidding me? I bought probably a pound of cinnamon at the Indian grocery store in Jackson Heights for $3.00!

Thanks all the same McCormick, but I'm willing to take the effort when I bake to actually create my own spice mixture for my pies.

Impulse buy

2009-09-24T00:10:00.004-04:00

So sadly there may not be new pie for a while as I battle a bed bug infestation. Though an exception may be made for the Dollhouse premiere on Friday if I can convince people to come to the war zone. On my quest for bed bugging prep supplies on the way home today I stopped by that mecca of domesticity the Container Store and impulsively bought a pie saver. I'm excited by the prospect of putting pie in it and then being able to stack things on top in the refrigerator. It bills itself as a green replacement for covering pies with aluminum foil and a money saver no less. I think I've still yet to spend $10 on aluminum foil to cover pies, but presumably someday I'll get there.

I still haven't found a single pie slice piece of storageware. I really want one. Apparently tupperware used to make one but not any longer. While I know I could just put a pie piece in a rectangular dish, I'm fascinated by the idea of a pie slice shaped dish. If you ever see one, let me know.

Rosh Hashanah Pie

2009-09-21T22:33:00.004-04:00

The last time I was in Maine my little brothers had been begging me to bake a pie. This time I indulged them and made an apple pie in keeping with it being Rosh Hashanah. I thought about using honey instead of sugar but the boys wanted a traditional pie. I used the bit of leftover pastry dough that I had to make a little pastry apple in the center of the pie.
All in all it was a good trip home for the holiday and a very tasty pie.

Other apple things eaten included an apple cake and some fabulous apple crisp ice cream from Beal's.

Unmentionable Pie

2009-09-10T19:46:00.005-04:00

My book club met this past weekend to discuss Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and in honor of it and since I was hosting I decided to bake of course. I made the fruit tarts in the previous post, but decided that I needed something thematically appropriate for our gathering. Incidentally Jane Austen is greatly improved by the addition of zombies and ninjas. The zombies are known as "unmentionables". I decided to take all the remaining fruit in my fridge and mix it up into "Unmentionable Pie". I figured it would be vaguely reminiscent of the mix of zombie body parts.

The filling is made up of apples (which I did buy for this purpose), peaches, grapes, strawberries, raspberries and kiwi.

In addition I also made a vegetable pie using cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, string beans, potato, a bit of cream, cheddar cheese and some broth. A variant of unmentionable pie as it also cleaned out parts of my fridge.

Green and Red fruit tarts

2009-09-07T19:06:00.001-04:00

In an effort to branch out from pie and to use my new silicone tart dish I decided to make fruit tarts. I also felt the need to buy several small tartlet dishes and a medium sized one, so I made lots of fruit tarts. It was only when I started to assemble them that I realized I had a color scheme going on. I was impressed with how easy the tart shell was to pull out of the silicone, but I did feel like the sides sank more in that dish than the other metal ones. Still, though the edges didn't turn out perfect the pastry cream came out well and they were tasty and pretty.

New toy means more Pie.

2009-08-30T21:56:00.007-04:00

I bought my first (and quite possibly last) piece of kitchenware from William Sonoma last weekend after Crate and Barrel failed me by not carrying a pastry cutter. In honor of my new toy (and the continued sale on peaches) I made blackberry peach pie. Since I was already baking and had some cream to use up I also made cream scones which you can see behind the finished pie. There's even a hungry dog eying them in the background. I made the crust with milk instead of water this time and can't actually say that there was much difference in the taste although the dough itself handled a bit differently. Also I added both tapioca and corn starch and the pie juices thickened much better this time around. Some of that may also have been that I actually let this pie cool before slicing it.

We grow things!

2009-08-29T21:05:00.007-04:00

I've never managed to successfully grow anything. It probably doesn't help that among other things I'm allergic to grass. Every now and then though I get struck with an urge to try again so a month and a half ago I pulled all the weeds out of the window box I bought a few years ago during my last "let's grow things" phase. (That one was spoiled by a cat who liked to sit on the herbs I planted). I planted some butter crunch lettuce and like magic it grew!
Isn't it pretty?

For good measure I've also got some basil

And together they help to make really tasty pizza:

This was topped with pesto, provolone cheese, heirloom tomato, mushrooms, butter crunch and arugula and a bit of parmesan cheese. It was an attempt to replicate one of the flatbreads from the California Grill during the last Disney World trip and if not exact, it was still really good.

So what if it's hot out, let's make creamy peach pie.

2009-08-18T00:38:00.003-04:00

Tonight was creamy peach pie night. This is the first one crust pie I've made and it came out fabulously tasty. The filling is made up of 3/4 cup of heavy cream, six peaches (on sale for $0.88 a pound!), cinnamon, nutmug, 1/2 cup of sugar and 3 tablespoons of flour. The crust was baked for approximately 5 minutes prior to adding the filling in and then the whole thing was baked for about 40 minutes at 400 degrees. The best part was that the peaches stayed nice and firm and didn't become mushy.

It was incredibly hot out today here so baking both pie as well as pizza and stuffed mushroom (more on those later) was perhaps not the brightest idea in the world, but hey I signed up for my first grad school class so celebratory food and wine was in order.

A New Toy

2009-08-15T18:18:00.005-04:00

I've been in Maine for the last week and bought a new toy while I was there:

Now I just need to decide what I should make it in it first. I'm leaning towards a fruit tart.

I do think it is a bit of a shame that I didn't get to make pie while in Maine. My little brother's desperately wanted me too, but unfortunately there weren't enough blueberries left from when they went berry picking. That and I was too busy enjoying ice cream. There is no where in the city to get ice cream as good as any of the three places you can walk to from my house in Maine. I hear there might be good ice cream in Brooklyn, but ice cream shouldn't be something you have to plan out in advance. I had Cookies and Cream, Blueberry, Peppermint, and Peanut Butter ice cream. I wonder if you could make ice cream with chunks of pie crust and berries.

In other news about a week ago I was tipped off to someone blogging about making a pie a day. I can't even begin to imagine the amount of butter that would take.

And lastly, the food porn alone makes Julie and Julia worth seeing. There's nothing like sitting in the fifth row of the movie theater staring as scene after scene of tasty concoctions go by.

Apple Pie Milkshake

2009-08-02T22:12:00.004-04:00

I went for dinner last night at Stand down on 12th and University Place. There was a tasty burger and fries but most importantly there was an apple pie milkshake. I've seen a lot of milkshake flavors before but not this one. So obviously given my current pie fetish I had to try it. And it was mighty tasty. In fact if I could drink that every day I'd be one happy camper...also the size of a whale but that is a different issue. However while the apple pie milk shake was an amazing combination of whipped cream, ice cream, apple pie and cinnamon it leads me to want to make all kinds of pie shakes. Of course this means that I need to get a blender in addition to the food processor I want. But for triberry pie milkshakes I think that will be worth it.

The Further Value of Tools

2009-07-20T20:05:00.005-04:00

The lesson learned this weekend is to never ever make a cherry pie without first investing in a cherry pitter.

I opted to go for the simple standby of Betty Crocker's cherry pie recipe.

This calls for six cups of pitted cherries if you are using fresh ones. I wasn't actually sure how many cherries six cups would be so I guessed. I ended up buying about three and a half pound of cherries which was the perfect amount actually to fill my pie dish.

Having gotten the cherries home it was time to pit them. I have never pitted cherries in my life. I figured the internet that keeper of all secrets would have the answer for how to easily take the pits out of cherries. In fact there are a multitude of different suggestions for how to do this without an actual cherry pitter. While I'm sure that some people may find these suggestions helpful, I failed at each and every one. First I tried a paring knife then I tried a method where you press down on the flat part of the cherry and it is supposed to split open. I got out a paperclip which according to many of the internet sages is the best way to do it. Thankfully I was making pie and not trying to keep the cherries whole because the process I end up with was just ripping them open and pulling the pits out. Every website I looked at did warn that this was not going to be a process that could be done without mess. Boy were they right. By the time I got through all of those cherries my arms were covered nearly up to my shoulders in cherry juice, my flip flops and feet were covered, the dog had licked up more cherry juice from the floor than I want to think about and there were cherry stems everywhere. I stopped keeping track of how long it took me to pull all those pits out, but it was way longer than I have the patience to do again.

Of course since I have next to now counter space whatsoever all of this had to be cleaned up before I could roll out the pie dough. That was quick and easy this time and I opted for a real lattice top this time around.

And after the pie came out of the oven it turns out it was quite tasty. I'm still not sure how I feel about the texture of the cherries and next time I might actually chop them up smaller. I'd also add more flour or corn starch as it was still a bit too juicy of a pie. If I decide to do it again it will be after the purchase of a cherry pitter.

In Which We Start to Learn the Value of Tools

2009-07-19T11:44:00.005-04:00

Cherries are in season and cheap at the fruit and veggie place near my apartment so I decided to make a fresh cherry pie. This is somewhat strange as I don't actually like cherries all that much. On the other hand I do like cherry flavored things, and I remember that I used to like the cherry pie filling that came from a can when I made hamentaschen as a child. Plus I've decided its time to branch out a bit further with the fruit pies.

I decided to run errands before the pie baking and so spent the afternoon at Target ostensibly to buy dog food (which I did, and hauled the giant bag back on the bus) but as with any trip to Target I get inevitably drawn to the kitchen and home sections. On this particular trip to the Back to School section (which does seem a tad bit premature to be thinking about since it is only mid-July) had opened up and I spent time with the office supplies and indulging my nostalgia for Trapper Keepers, Lisa Frank and new boxes of Crayloa crayons, but I digress.

The kitchen gadget wall can occupy for if not quite as long as the one at Crate and Barrel, at least quite some time. I'd been idly thinking about actually getting real baking tools and I was eying the pastry blender. Up to this point I've been cutting butter into the flour for the pie crust with my hands. Now the nice thing about that is that it makes it really easy to be sure you're getting to the right consistency and also there is a theraputic element to squashing chunks of butter with your fingers. However given that I have tendonitis problems in my hands this does sometimes get a bit painful. I was pretty determined to not spend any unneccessary money at Target so I walked away. Then I saw this on the clearance shelf, so for $3.48 I now own a pastry blender. And when I went to make the pie dough, it was so easy and so quick, I might rethink my desire for a food processor.

So this is my new toy:

What I should have also bought was a cherry pitter...but that is a story for another blog post.

Smile, It's Pie

2009-07-12T21:53:00.008-04:00

I meant to make a smiley face, but it looks sort of like angry sadistically grinning pie, but oh well.

I had to use up the pastry dough that was in the fridge from the last pie I made otherwise it would have gone bad. Steak was on sale, so I thought I'd use up the mushrooms and celery in my fridge and make a steak and mushroom pie. Last time I did a steak pie I used Guinness and roughly followed Jamie Oliver's Steak Guinness and Cheddar pie recipe. It was pretty good, but on the whole I don't actually love the flavor of Guinness even in cooking. So this time I decided to make up the pie recipe.

So more or less:

Brown about 1/2 lb of steak with 1 small leek and 1 shallot in a tiny bit of vegetable oil and garlic
salt and pepper
2 stalks of celery
approx. a package of white mushrooms (I finished the one in the fridge and used about three of the supersized mushrooms that came in the package I bought today, I think I'll stuff the rest of them).
I added some frozen pea and carrot mixture along with water and some Israeli mushroom soup powder.
Fresh rosemary and thyme
Thicken with flour.

Look at that lovely pie filling cooking away.

Unfortunately over the course of pie making I could feel myself getting that awful feeling in the back of my throat that means I'm getting sick. So even though I also made some lovely roasted red potatoes I couldn't really eat very much. But now there's pie in my fridge so hopefully I'll get to continue enjoying it, because pie is like chicken soup. It will make you healthy. Really.

Happy Independance Day!

2009-07-04T23:27:00.005-04:00

So after my pie posting frenzy, I'm now more or less caught up and can post pie and other domestic projects as they happen.

I had friends over for pie experimentation tonight. Since I had ground turkey in the freezer I wanted to use, I perused the internet and decided to make my own variant on turkey meatball pie. Let's state for the record that even though this may use ground turkey instead of ground beef it is in no way healthy for you.

I made a simple butter pie crust recipe and doubled it so I have dough in the fridge to make more pie later this week. For those keep tracking that means 1 1/3 cups of butter (for the four pie crusts) and 4 cups of flour. Plus a bit of water. The turkey meatballs I made with ground turkey, salt, pepper fresh thyme and one egg. Then I fried them in butter. (I told you it wasn't healthy). After I added fresh celery and mushrooms and frozen peas, carrots and pearl onions. Some heavy cream to add to it, water and some more spices (rosemary, more thyme, parsley). Then I cooked the whole thing for about 40 minutes. I should have thickened the filling a bit more than I did, but it was still pretty tasty. I think next time I'd stick to traditional chicken pot pie, or maybe just use the ground turkey loose instead of going to the trouble of meatballs.

In the meantime I also made chocolate chip cookies. I would choose to bake on a hot day. Thank goodness for the air conditioner!

But the best part of making pie today was that I got to use both my new stainless steel measuring cups that I got yesterday and the pie server I picked up. I leave you with this obvious statement: It really is much easier to serve pie with an actual pie server and not a steak knife.

A first attempt at a lattice top

2009-07-04T23:17:00.003-04:00

June 30, 2009
I went the easy route and didn't actually thread the lattice top, but it's a tasty Tri-berry pie none the less!

The next day at work we had pies from The Little Pie Company. Now I haven't had their pies since before starting to make my own. I tried their key lime, blueberry, and their mixed berry. And I have to say I was comparatively disappointed. Now I don't know much about key lime pie, so I can't comment much on that, though I would like to try some others in the future. The blueberry pie was rather bland. The blueberry filling just sort of lacked flavor. The mixed berry filling was good. And I maintain that its just about impossible to make sticking a bunch of berries and sugar together taste bad, but on the whole it was the pie crust that didn't excite me. I think I'll take homemade any day.

Pies for Special Occassions

2009-07-04T23:03:00.007-04:00

June 16, 2009 - Take your Pie to Work Day - So maybe not an official holiday, but I'd promising everyone I'd bring in pie. I brought in two nectarine raspberry pies.

May 2, 2009 - Kentucky Derby Pie Day - Horse heads on everything. Dinner was an old fashioned chicken pot pie and dessert was chocolate pudding pie (which I bought the pie crust for..but someday I'll try one!). Dessert goes to show that a cake decorator I will not be, but the peanut butter chocolate kiss horse was tasty!

March 14, 2009 - Pie for Pi Day - made with 3.14 kinds of berries.

Some Early Pies.

2009-07-04T22:38:00.008-04:00

For a while I had a really good streak of weekly pies going early on...
February 27, 2009 - Steak Guinness and Cheddar Pie and some roasted potatoes.

February 22, 2009 - Apple Blackberry Pie - I like apple pies better when they are dressed up with other things.

February 15, 2009 - The first of several Dollhouse and Pie events. This time it was Chicken mushroom leek pie. There was also a broccoli cheddar but it was both less tasty and didn't photograph well.

January 29, 2009 - A successful slice of Tri-berry pie.

January 18, 2009 - Steak and Mushroom Pie.

We start with Pie.

2009-06-30T21:35:00.000-04:00

Pie is tasty.
I didn't actually come to this conclusion until about a year and a half ago. I'm not sure why because obviously...pie = yum. But better late than never!
I've spent the winter and spring and now that it is finally summer (even if it won't stop raining) so I'm going to start out by presenting the various pies.

The backstory is that I had never really baked before. Occasionally I'd made cookies, but to be honest half the time they came out of the premade roll of dough. I have a friend who makes amazing baked things, but she doesn't make pie. So when I decided it was time to learn to bake, I figured pie was going to be where I start. I wanted a project. Not that I don't have enough open projects (which hopefully as they are finished I'll post here) and pie is intimidating. But if housewives of old could do it, there's no reason I couldn't. Even if my kitchen is smaller than most people's walk in closets.

I think that the very first pie I ever made was back when I was in middle school and my youth group went apple picking and then baked pies. My only real memory of this event was that they didn't have enough rolling pins and that I was such a klutz that the glass I was using to roll with rolled on the floor and shattered. Perhaps not an auspicious start.

This past fall my friend Jason invited me out to go apple picking with his sister who was home from college and wanted pie. I missed out on the apple picking but had a great time making pie filling. We used pie crusts from the refrigerator. They are tasty too.

Once I decided I was going to do pie at home I took baby steps towards my own homemade pie crusts. First was the refrigerated already rolled out crusts. Then I moved on to "pie crust in a box - just add water". Then I started experimenting with crusts from scratch.

So the next few posts will be about pie as I present to you some of the pie experiments of this year.