Better Late Than Never…

26 Tuesday Nov 2013

Posted by jessica@peace-of-pie in Apple Pie, Mixed Fruit Pie

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I made another round of Pies-in-Jars today!

Due to certain circumstances, some of which are explained in this post (the rest can be chalked up to the fact that I take a long time to get around to doing things), I hadn’t yet been able to send my official domestic and international testers their Pies-in-Jars that I’d promised them back in April.

But thanks to my school’s week-long Thanksgiving break (for which I am truly, deeply, thankful) I was able to bake, box, and ship the belated little goodies this morning. Phew!

(I should probably mention that we didn’t get a new dog. Rags is just visiting for the holiday week while his mom and dad celebrate their first anniversary in Cancun. The best things about Rags are how much he loves to cuddle and how much he looks like a stuffed animal. Or a mop, come to think of it.)

I used the Five-Spice Pear-Apple Pie recipe from Pie and then just divided it up into my little jars…I ended up with enough filling to make nine. I had leftover crumb topping and used just slightly less than two single pie crusts.

Here’s what the pies looked like straight out of the oven. Super tall and bubbly! They settled down some within a minute or two of resting. I got the lids on, no problem, and tried my best to wipe the sticky off the sides.

Oh. Oops. It’s supposed to be Pear-Apple Pie…meh.

And now, most of these jars are winging their way through the postal offices of the country/world. We await news of their arrival and sincerely hope that they have smooth landings. Stay tuned!

Bear Lard Pie

18 Monday Nov 2013

Posted by jessica@peace-of-pie in Berry Pie, Original Pies, Summer Fruit Pie

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

bear lard, blueberry, pluot

The story continues at the end of August. (We’re catching up, slowly, we are.) It was a Sunday. I flew back home from a trip to Pennsylvania and New Jersey and landed at about one in the afternoon, California time. I already had friends in town; they’d beat me. About an hour later, Emily and I were heading three hours into the desert to pick up Matt, Paul, and Amanda; they’d finished hiking the John Muir trail the day before. Destination: Lone Pine.

(This is Emily. We took her to the Pacific Ocean for the first time later in the week, and she was really cute about it.)

We drove through some incredibly boring stretches where we said to ourselves why would anyone live here? And we also saw a farm proudly selling multiple kinds of jerky, stunning red rock cliffs, and a desert thunderstorm, which was eerily beautiful.

Everyone was tired when we got home. The washing machine got to work, and in the meanwhile there was a funny period of time where everyone wore Levi’s clothes.

Along with showers, clean clothes, and sleep, the hikers needed one more thing to complete their recovery process: food. Pie.

To go along with the wilderness theme we’ve got going on here, I had recently acquired a jar of bear lard from Northern California. I won’t get into the nitty gritty details…in fact, I don’t even know them. Just know that if someone asks you, hypothetically, if you would use bear lard in a pie crust, and you say yes, you can safely expect that the situation won’t be hypothetical for long.

I hadn’t made lard pie pastry before, due mainly to the fact that I don’t really trust whatever kind of lard can be bought at the supermarket.

I guess that kind of mentality is exactly how I end up with products made from bears.

Not to be gross, but the smell of the stuff when I opened the lid of the jar was a bit disconcerting. Like, yeah. It smelled strongly like an animal. Which I suppose makes sense. I made everyone else smell it, and I couldn’t get a consensus on whether or not to use based on smell alone. But, lest this bear die in vain, I decided I needed to carry on. I’m glad I did. Not only did the smell and taste disappear entirely once the pie was baked, but the crust was incredibly soft and flaky. Quite different from the results of using butter, but in a very pleasant way.

I didn’t use a recipe for the filling in this pie; I had lots of pluots from my in-laws’ tree (along with bear, another truly Californian ingredient) and mixed them with blueberries.

I wish my back patio could always look like this.

Love in a Crust

07 Thursday Nov 2013

Posted by jessica@peace-of-pie in Uncategorized

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

apple, charity, giving, Haiti, sharing

Hi friends.

November makes me happy because I’ve been overhearing a lot about giving and gratitude and looking for ways to share what we have with others. That’s really wonderful. Let’s keep it up all year long!

I haven’t posted in a little while, as you may have noticed, but I have a better-than-average excuse. About a month ago, a friend asked me to put together a small “book” about pie in order to help raise money at a fundraiser for this amazing organization, the Christadelphian Meal-a-Day Fund of the Americas (heretofore referred to as Meal-a-Day). Meal-a-Day focuses on “doing good works in the name of Jesus” and is involved in many projects throughout the Western Hemisphere. (Click here to find out more.) In particular, this fundraiser will benefit a primary school in Haiti which is completely funded by Meal-a-Day.

Here are a few things you may not know about education in Haiti. (I didn’t.)

Only 67% of primary school age children are enrolled in a school.

Only about 53% of Haitians are literate.

90% of schools are international private schools or are run by churches. (That means only 10% are public.) Many children never have the opportunity to attend school at all. And, of course, the situation has only declined in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake.

“Currently, about 200 preschool-6^th grade students attend this primary school. This fundraiser will aid the school is many ways: providing salaries for teachers, feeding the students a nutritious meal each day (usually the only daily meal they regularly receive), keeping the lights on longer, and equipping the school with the supplies and resources to continue to grow as a beacon of hope in the community. The school is open to students in the community. Although not required, about 70% of the school’s students go to the church on Sunday. The school is becoming a well recognized place of spiritual refuge that educates and empowers local children, who otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to get an education.”

Since I truly believe that making pie is all about sharing anyway, I came up with a little book about how to make pie-it’s got lots of tips and tricks that I’ve heard or read, pictures of some pies I’ve baked, and a completely original recipe for Caramel Apple Cider Pie. All proceeds will go towards the primary school in Haiti. If you don’t live in New Jersey or aren’t available on the 16th of November, you might not be able to attend. That’s alright (however, you’re going to miss out on some great homemade pie that I happen to know will be ending the dinner. And no, I’m not making said pies and flying them across the country. But there will be great pie, all the same.) If you are interested in making a donation to Meal-a-Day, I would be SO happy to say thank you by sending you a copy of “Love in a Crust” (that’s the working title, at least.) I’ll post more information when the book(lets? I still don’t know what to call them) are formatted and ready to go, and November 16th has come and gone. For now, if you could leave a comment letting me know you’re interested, I’ll have a better idea of how many copies to print. And I will be much obliged.

For those of you who actually live in New Jersey, please support the “Help for Haiti Banquet” on Saturday, November 16th. The banquet will take place from 5:00pm to 7:30pm at 322 South Morris St., Randolph, NJ 07869. The evening will include dinner, musical performances, and a presentation about the wonderful progress the Christadelphian Meal-a-Day Fund has seen in the Haitian school and ecclesia over the last 3 years. All are welcome to attend. Tickets will be $10 per person. All proceeds will go to Christadelphian Meal-A-Day Fund of the Americas.

The Secret Life of Pies

06 Sunday Oct 2013

Posted by jessica@peace-of-pie in Berry Pie, Original Pies, Summer Fruit Pie

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

berry, blackberry, blueberry, peach, raspberry

I mentioned in my last post that there is often not enough pie to go around at the Camp. And it’s true. If I had an abundance of time and fruit trees, I’d feed pie to everyone every day. Since the sad truth is that I cannot produce pies at this rate, the distribution of available pie sometimes turns into a rather covert affair, including late night rendezvous, fork-fights, and sometimes even bribery.

I was lucky enough to get to stay in my friends Rachel and Vinnie’s cabin during Operation Onesimus again this year. For more explanation on what that is, you should jump back to this post from last year regarding the Onesipies. I once again faced the same challenges to pie baking, including the lack of a proper rolling pin (see above.)

I didn’t follow a recipe for either of the pies featured in this post. This first one featured a combination of delights from the local farm…blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries. (The rolling pin was from the farm too and was also a delight when mixed with sparkling water and limes, for the record.)

Can I just say that it is extremely difficult to keep pie crust from browning in a very tiny and very hot oven? And can I also say, I’m getting pretty proud of my lattice-weaving abilities. A little crooked, yes. But steadily improving.

This pie was also largely berry-based, but had a healthy helping of white peaches in it too.

I got fancy with the top crust here and grated it with a cheese grater, the way Ken taught me how to when I made his Rainier Cherry Pie.

This is Rick Szabo. Pie is his self-proclaimed favorite thing.

True love.

I guess the secret’s out now. Onesimus attendees, you now know something that you may have suspected and feared already…namely, that your teachers and cooks don’t go to bed early. They stay up and eat pie. Without you. Sorry about that.

(Hey, at least now you know so that next year you can try to sneak into the secret pie parties…right?!)

(Warning: the picture below may contain graphic violence.)

Suffice it to say that this pie did not survive the night.

Now, let’s turn our attention to Mr. Grated Crust. He was being enjoyed a sneaky slice at a time by various friends and relations.

Sometimes when you leave part of a pie in your cabin, you come back to find that it has greatly diminished in size. In this instance, the pie thieves left a thoughtful payment of pocket change wrapped in a paper towel, placed neatly in the then-emptier pie pan.

What kinds of things have you done to get your hands on some pie?

Just Peachy

04 Friday Oct 2013

Posted by jessica@peace-of-pie in Summer Fruit Pie

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

peach, peach butter, sour cream

I had a really, truly fantastic summer. I did so much straight-up living. What I’m doing now, the writing and reflecting, always takes a back seat in the summer. I’ve grown to realize that’s okay. One thing I’m working on right now is not doing things just to do them, but to make the most of the jam-packed satisfying times when they present themselves and catch up on the to-do list (i.e. WRITE BLOG POST) in the quieter and more lonely times.

Two key elements of my summer were:

1) the Camp

2) pie

You may ask, “What camp?” There is no way to describe it. It’s just “the Camp.” It’s where I have spent every Sunday and at times other days of the week for most of my life. I have learned a lot about God there. Among other things, this summer I got to teach a hilarious bunch of three-year-olds about Jesus and his miracles of healing…what a great way to spend a week.

My cousin’s house borders the Camp and luckily her family is not averse to me using the kitchen for Pie-Making Purposes during the summer. The first Camp Pie of this past summer was Peachy Peach Butter Pie with Sour Cream Topping. What a fun thing to say. I think I went around the farmer’s market where we bought the ingredients saying “Peachy Peach Butter” and permutations such as “Peachy Peaches” basically nonstop. I think I also sang that “Moving to the country, gonna eat a lot of peaches” song for a while too. Just for good measure.

Making Peachy McPeach pie is a team effort. (We made two of them actually, cause there’s never enough pie to go around.) My best friend Maggie peeled and sliced the peaches like a champ.

In the meantime, I made the crust with one of my all-star helpers, little cousin Ava. She helped me make Sweet Corn Pie last year when she was so much littler! Ava is growing up into a very smart and sweet girl. And boy, does she love to bake. Making pie with Ava is becoming one of my favorite summer traditions.

So I’m kind of hoping you figured this out already, since the pie title’s got peaches and peach butter in the name; there is indeed actual peach butter in the filling along with the peaches. Alstede Farms makes their own peach butter–same farm we bought the peaches from. Fresh Jersey peaches all squashed and spiced in a jar. Mmm mmm mmm.

Exhibit A: The cooked pie in the topless state.

Exhibit B: Brad and Kathleen, some top quality peeps, with the topped-up version of Peachy Peach.

Stay tuned: more Camp pies coming soon!

Small Packages

20 Friday Sep 2013

Posted by jessica@peace-of-pie in Berry Pie, Mini Pie

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

berry, mini pies, orange, pie-in-a-jar

Okay. Get ready. There’s a lot going on in this post.

Main topic is: Mini Pies. Pies-in-Jars. Back in March, I did this post where I talked about how I’d recently fallen in love with the concept of pies in jars and had made some for a bake sale and they were fabulous and adorable. I told you all to leave comments and I would randomly choose a few to ship pies to. Then, back in April, I announced who those lucky few would be.

So I made them. I made these mini pies. The last time I made Pies-in-Jars, I made up the recipes. Not this time. This time I used Ken Haedrich’s Orange-Berry Pie recipe. (I have to say, I’ve gotten into a terrible habit this summer. Once I realized that I could make pretty great fruit pies without following recipes, I started getting creative all over the place. You can imagine that this does absolutely no good in helping me towards my goal of baking all 300 pies in Ken’s book.) Never fear. I went back to my book on this one. I just slightly altered it by turning it into multiple little pies- one destined for Thamar, one destined for Eric, and one destined for Jen.

I used a regular pastry crust, which I slightly rolled out and then basically pressed it into the bottom and up the sides of the jar.

Holes: they happen. It’s no biggie. Just patch them up with your fingers.

Before I started making these pies, I found out a bit of an ironic situation had come up. My international tester (Jen) was heading to the USA for the summer, while my domestic tester (Eric) was heading to Brazil. I’m told the postal system in Brazil is kind of a joke. I knew I’d be away for most of the summer myself, so I went ahead and made the pies, planning on freezing Jen and Eric’s unbaked.

Putting a crumb topping on Pies-in-Jars is great because there ends up being a high crust to filling ratio in the jar situation. So it’s nice to have something besides more crust on top.

These three got baked right away, while the other two aforementioned went straight to the freezer to await the return of their owners to their respective places in the world.

I mentioned these labels before in my original Pie-in-a-Jar post and this time I actually used them. Shout out and thanks to LollyChops!

Adorbs.

I packaged this little friend up with some bubble wrap and a box and probably took other precautions I have forgotten about now.

This was Thamar’s email to me the following week:

Dear Jess,

More pie photos!

We were so eager to eat the pie that we forgot to take a picture of ourselves with the pie! We paired it with a local vanilla ice-cream and it was delicious!

We had lightly covered the pie with tin foil and then warmed it in the oven at 350F for 30 minutes (I had put it in the refrigerator for a day after receiving the pie). Perfect pie for two!

Thank you again for such a lovely surprise! It was just what we needed!

Love,

Thamar

You are wondering how this story ends for the two pies in the freezer. Jen and Eric, you will still get pie, all being well, but it will not be those two. A few weeks ago, something tragic happened to some of my best friends. It was (and is) the type of thing that there are just no words for. There was (and is) no way to talk about it. There only was (and only is) shock and disbelief. I am bad at talking in the best of times, and so when I had the opportunity to make a meal for these friends (because, strangely, we still need to eat) and they asked if there would be pie involved, the best thing I could think to do was pull these jars out of the freezer.

Even when the small things I can offer (hugs, tears, pie) seem so ridiculously inadequate, I am glad to have something to offer all the same.

Urth, Mint, and Pie

31 Wednesday Jul 2013

Posted by jessica@peace-of-pie in Berry Pie, Custard Pie, Pie Destinations

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blueberry, coconut, Urth Caffe

Just throwing out a plug for LA’s Urth Caffe, best known for its amazingly delicious coffee (not being a big coffee-drinker myself, I’m taking the word of others on that. All their coffee also happens to be organic and fair-trade…you can read about their standards here. I did a bit of investigation at Urth, as I sometimes feel it is my duty to do, and discovered that their coconut custard pie is nothing short of pure bliss. Honestly. Best coconut pie I have ever had, hands down. And I’ve had a few.

Ooh and then there’s this little guy. A mini blueberry pie that my Kiwi friend Josh ordered. Helloooooo.

Josh, show us what it looks like inside.

Yes, yes. There are definitely blueberries in there.

Urth also has amazing tea lattes, a commodity hard to come by. This is a Moroccan Mint latte made with almond milk. Levi said, “That looks like grass.” Yeah, yeah. It tasted better than grass. Looked prettier too.

In conclusion: Check. It. Out.

*Locations: West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, and downtown.

Summer Solstice

30 Tuesday Jul 2013

Posted by jessica@peace-of-pie in Apple Pie, Mixed Fruit Pie, Original Pies, Summer Fruit Pie

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

apple, lemon, Minnesota, orange, pear, rhubarb

On the afternoon of the Summer Solstice, Grandmother was taking her well-earned daily nap, Aunt Sarah and cousin Matt were swimming off the dock, and Levi and Uncle Joe were shopping til they dropped at Gander Mountain. Granddad and I worked on a puzzle and made this pie. He has Alzheimer’s and doesn’t remember much of anything these days, but I think baking is a relatively familiar territory for the following reasons.

1. He has eaten possibly hundreds of my Grandmother’s delicious pies (blueberry and apple are the best kinds.)

2. “Grandfather bread” is a term used in my family to refer to the amazing bread he used to make every week in his bread machine. Grandmother has since taken over the breadmaking (Zante currant is the best kind.)

3. He used to be a research chemist, and what is baking, really, other than edible chemistry? (Post-Its and Scratch and Sniff were some of the best projects he worked on.)

I told Granddad that we were going to make an “Experiment Pie,” meaning that I had no recipe to follow. He laughed and stirred the filling: rhubarb, an apple, a pear, a little bit of pomegranate-lime juice, a squeeze of lemon juice, lemon zest, orange zest, powdered ginger, and nutmeg.

Butter pats go on top, because more butter is more better.

That evening–the sun didn’t set until ten–there was a Summer Solstice feast of epic proportions at the cabin.

There was a strawberry jicama salad from neighbor-friend Jackie.There was a pile of crispy walleye and bass straight from the St. Croix.

And to top it all off, we enjoyed a trio of pies (Experiment Pie, the Nectarine-Lime Pie of yesterday’s post, and a Grandmother Marie Apple Pie).

Cabin Pies

29 Monday Jul 2013

Posted by jessica@peace-of-pie in Summer Fruit Pie

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

lime, Minnesota, nectarine

Minnesota is among my top favorite states in the Union, and my aunt and uncle’s cabin on the St. Croix river is among my top favorite places to hang out. Levi and I have been able to go every summer for a few years now and in between all of the fishing and Adirondack-chair-sitting, I always manage to find time to bake a pie or two.

Upon arriving at the cabin this year, I was disappointed to learn that due to the winter having been long and cold and the spring extremely rainy that the growing season was well behind schedule. I came hoping to make pies with Minnesota-picked currants and raspberries, but not even the strawberries had ripened yet. I heavy-sighed for a while and then went forward with some plan B’s.

Luckily, Trader Joe’s was good for a crate of delicious, juicy nectarines and the Marine-on-St. Croix general store carries limes. (If you ask me what my favorite fruit is and tell me I absolutely must decide on just one, I usually go with the nectarine.) The recipe I used here is called No-Peel Nectarine-Lime Pie. Funnily enough, I made this pie already–four years ago. It was one of the only pies from my cookbook that I tried before deciding to bake every pie in the book…therefore, it had not yet been properly documented or included in the official count of pies. Now it’s rolling in, finally, at number 109.

This pie has a lovely streusel topping which balances the lack of sweetness in the actual pie (only a little over 1/3 cup of sugar is used in the filling.)

Besides the limes, there was another purchase I felt necessary to make at the general store. I often kick around the idea of having a summertime pie operation based in Marine, and everytime I see a bit of competition pop up, I do some sampling to find out what I’m up against.

A line of mini-pies all flavored with a different form of booze? Genius. I’d give these an A+ for concept, B for taste.

Watch for another post tomorrow containing more cabin pie-making adventures!

Baby Pies

28 Friday Jun 2013

Posted by jessica@peace-of-pie in Berry Pie, Chocolate Pie, Mini Pie

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

chocolate chips, mini pies, raspberry, strawberry

In the recipe for Little Preserves and Finger Pies it was suggested that these pies are great for kids to make. Well, heck. Mine turned out oozy and lopsided enough to really make me wonder what they would look like if they were made by children.

Mostly, I think my problem here was greed. The more raspberry or strawberry preserves and dark chocolate chips in each little pie, the better….right? Wrong. Once the jam oozes out the rim, it’s like the kiss of death. That jammy spot will never again seal up properly. Luckily, looks don’t have much to do with taste.

I had to tone down the amount of filling just a tad from what the recipe suggests in order to be able to seal these little babies up. Speaking of little babies, these pies were destined for a very special event…my good friend Erin’s first baby shower! One of my favorite things about my pregnant friends (and by favorite things I mean things that really make me laugh) is how hungry some of them get. Erin is a quality example of this. She basically doesn’t ever stop eating these days.

(Love you, Erin!)

Something fun about these pies is that when they’re still warm, you get to roll them around in powdered sugar. Then they look super delectable.

Here they are with all of their other sugary friends.

Here are me and Erin and her baby girl enjoying some baby pies. Can’t wait to meet you, little one!

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