Pie gadgets

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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.