When Friends Come to Visit

19 Monday May 2014

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

Tags

chicken, chicken and mushroom pie, chocolate, coconut, dark chocolate, macadamia, mushroom, San Francisco, savory

It’s really great when friends come to visit. It means that we can do fun things such as: run around San Francisco for a couple of days.

San Francisco’s a gorgeous city, no doubt, and we loved being there with Nathan and Nic. It’s not like we get to see them often–they live in Australia, after all. We just met Nic last year, when we met up and similarly ran around Salt Lake City (you can read that post, “Guilty Pleasures,” here. You should, it’s a good one.) Nathan we’ve known for quite a while now, and we still like him, so that’s good. People often ask me how come I have so many friends who live all over the world, and it does seem strange at first, I admit. But I know exactly why these friendships work and why they are so good; it has to do with Jesus.

If you ever want to know more, just ask.

Whilst running around San Fran, Nic and I stumbled upon this delight of delights. A chocolate factory! I sagely decided to purchase some chocolate baking discs, as I thought that we would probably be able to make use of them in a pie. (I was right, as you’ll see later on.) Tcho is pronounced with a long O, by the way. For a while I was thinking “Tcha”, like what the first syllable of the word “chocolate” sounds like, but pretty sure that it’s “Tch-oh.” You can read about one of the coolest aspects of the company here.

Nic is quite a cook and baker. A fun fact is that she has also acquired a copy of the Pie cookbook (by way of me and another willing Aussie traveler) and has made a few of the recipes on her own over this past year. This is more of a feat when you take into account the fact that all the recipes are written using American measurements, so I applaud her for her efforts. We were excited to get back home and start pie-ing it up.

One night, Nic showed me how to make a chicken and mushroom pie. I’ve ranted on this before, but, truly, we Americans do not eat enough savory pies. Not even close to enough. Cause they are delicious times a million.

Someday I’m going to try making my own puff pastry. Or maybe that’s a lie. Either way, it didn’t happen on this particular night, but I have no qualms about store-bought puff pastry until they discover a less time-consuming way to make it at home. I think it takes approximately seventeen hours and pounds of butter. Ain’t nobody got time for that.Here’s the finished product, all warm and flaky and lovely. Leave a comment if you’re interested in making a chicken and mushroom pie yourself and I just may be able to share the recipe.
Even Obi suddenly appeared at the table when he smelled the pie. What a little sneak. *Disclaimer: We do not actually feed our dog at the table, nor we do let him drink wine.*

Now let’s turn our attention to dessert. Remember those Tcho baking discs that came home with me from San Francisco? They made an excellent addition to Macadamia-Chocolate Chunk Pie.

Can anyone tell me why macadamia nuts are so delicious? Is it just all that good fat? The rich, buttery flavor? I have no idea, but there is a lot of attempted self-restraint that goes on when I have an open bag of macadamias around. It’s a massive struggle that looks something like this:

Me: I only need one and a quarter cups of macadamia nuts for that recipe, and I bought two cups. I’ll just have one small handful.

Me: Well, just one more small handful. That’s fine. Then I’ll clip the bag and put it away.

Me: I still have enough left for the recipe, so who really cares? I’m going to take out the bag and have only a couple more. Then that’s IT!

The end result of this pie has a texture that’s sort of half like a nut pie (pecan pie is what I’m sure we’re all the most familiar with), thanks to the egg/corn syrup/brown sugar base. It’s also half cookie-like, with lots of chopped macadamias, chocolate chunks, and coconut flakes. There are a lot of goodies in there.

When friends come to visit, it’s really nice to cook and bake and enjoy each others’ company. And unintentionally wear lots of maroon and take Apple Photo Booth shots of yourselves, as it turns out.

Hopefully it won’t be too long before we are reunited. Australia 2015? Sounds great to me.

When Life Gives You Key Limes…

05 Monday May 2014

Posted by jessica@peace-of-pie in Cream Pie

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

graham cracker, key lime

…it’s probably time to make some key lime pies.

(“Life” in this case takes the form of our friends Will and Renee, who have an overabundant key lime tree–thanks, guys!)

Here are the steps.

1. Realize that this big tree-carved bowl full of limes complements what you happen to be wearing. Take a series of artistic selfies entitled “Girl with Limes.”

Step Two: Juice roughly a thousand key limes (okay, probably forty) by hand with a press juicer. Be thankful you don’t currently have any paper cuts or hangnails, because the job would be a whole lot more painful if you did. This step will take you roughly forever (okay, probably half an hour.) If you have an electric juicer, by all means, please do that instead. It would be infinitely more logical.

Step Three: Freeze the extra juice, which you will end up with if you are gifted this many ripe key limes at once. I only made one key lime pie on this particular day, but the beauty was that I was able to freeze enough juice cubes to make two more exquisitely fresh tasting key lime pies about a month later. I like freezing citrus juice in ice cube trays because the smaller units are easier to defrost.

Step Four: Make a homemade graham cracker crust. I think I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating. Homemade graham cracker crust is delicious; store-bought graham cracker crust is an edible container which isn’t necessarily bad but definitely would never be described as delicious. I wanted this Joe’s Stone Crab Key Lime Pie to be absolutely delicious, since I had already spent a good amount of my life squeezing the key lime juice that was to go into it. So, it had to have a homemade crust. The graham cracker crust recipe in Ken’s book is a quick mix of graham cracker crumbs, brown sugar, salt, and cinnamon with melted butter to bind it together. Once you’ve made one homemade crumb crust, you’ll never go back. Some things in life are a lot more work for a little payoff (aka hand squeezing a bunch of key limes instead of using already-squeezed key lime juice) and some are a little more work for a huge payoff (aka making a graham cracker crust by hand instead of buying one.) I think I’ve made my point, so I’ll move on.

When making a graham cracker crust by hand, once you’ve got a bowlful of damp crumbs, you can just dump them into your pie plate and use your hand to pat it into shape. I usually try to make the crust go up the side of the plate just to the line I think the filling will go up to, though I often mess up and make the sides go nearly all the way to the very top of the plate. I mean, I don’t think it’s a super big deal either way. You just definitely want the crust to go at LEAST as high as the filling will. It definitely makes sense to err on the side of making the crust a bit too high. IMHO.

True to form, I left off taking step by step photos after forming the crust. So, Steps Five and Six, if I were to have included them, would have covered the blending together of the filling and the pouring of the filling into the gently hand-molded crust. We find ourselves now at Step Seven: Eat your delicious key lime pie. You’ll know it’s the real thing because it will have a serious tang to it. It will be creamy, even more so when freshly-whipped cream is dolloped on top. It will be so, so good.

Step Eight: Put your scarf on your head and smile for one more selfie, cause you’re DONE and you’re thinking about how much key lime juice still awaits you in your freezer.

P.S. You guys caught me again. It’s not key lime season in California’s May. It’s key lime season in January. Shhh…don’t tell anyone how slow of a blogger I am, okay?

“So, this was Christmas…

09 Wednesday Apr 2014

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

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

chocolate, Christmas, christmas eve, cream, fig, meringue, pear, pine nut

…and what have you done?”

Not kept my blog up to date, that’s for a surety.

Let’s not dwell on the fact that these pies were made at Christmastime. Just ignore Levi’s “Merry Christmas, Ya Filthy Animal” sweater in the picture below, which was supposed to be a selfie with a pie (the pie was in the basket) but instead you can just see Levi and I, so I guess instead of a piefie, I ended up with a spousie.

Also, please forgive the fact that nearly every picture below, taken while putting together the astonishingly beautiful Pear and Fig Pie with a Pine Nut Crust, shows off my glittery holiday manicure.

This pie is made with dried figs, which I don’t love half so much as the fresh figs that my Great-Uncle Benny somehow grew every summer in his concrete backyard. Still, the combination of fig, pear, honey, and pine nut is really a delight.

Trader Joe’s should pay me for all the advertising I do for them. HONESTly.

To make the crust, just roll out a standard crust and then sprinkle the pine nuts over the top and gently press them in, your fantastic fingernails guiding the rolling pin.

When glazed with milk and sugar and baked, this pie truly looks like a masterpiece. Studding the top crust with nuts would be a fun trick for a variety of pies…just keep an eye out for burning and be prepared to tent the pie with aluminum foil for part of the baking if needed.

So here’s something that happens often. (As in, every time I make more than one pie at a time.) I do a swell job documenting the process of whatever pie I start first. Then, by the time I remember that I still have a whole other pie to make and it’s probably past my bedtime already, I don’t bother with all the pictures and just take one token one of the finished product. I have way fewer pictures of this Chocolate Cream Pie with Cinnamon Meringue.

Point to ponder: Is that what’s going to happen when I have two children…?

Let it be known; this was MY FIRST EVER MERINGUE. I kid you not. I’ve been making new pies for going on five years now and I’ve never made a stinkin’ meringue before. And look how purty it turned out. I’m such a proud mama.

Pies, Pies, and More Pies

08 Saturday Mar 2014

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

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

apple, blueberry, Christmas, ginger, honey, pear, pie-in-a-jar, raspberry, travel

It’s March already? You’ve got to be kidding me.

Let’s get down to business. First of all, I would like to announce that the Five-Spice Pear-Apple pies I mailed out during Thanksgiving week made it safely to their destinations.

Ironically, I’m pretty sure that standard mail to Australia is faster than priority mail to Georgia, Illinois, or Virginia. What in tarnation?! Lesson: The United States Postal System is an abject failure.

Eric Lange, my official domestic tester in Virginia, sent me this lovely ditty after receiving and consuming the pie:

“O Apple-Pear 5 Spice

You are so good and nice

You make my taste buds sing

You are the greatest thing!

A brown box in the mail

Delivered, without fail

A complete, delish pie

I was one lucky guy!”

Eric, you are the greatest thing.

Following that mini-pie episode, I embarked on another of epic proportions before Christmas, making about 30 pies to give as holiday gifts to the wonderful and devoted teachers I work with and some of my faraway family in New Jersey and Georgia.

Just one of the fillings I used was a recipe from Ken Haedrich’s book: All-Pear Pie with Maple and Candied Ginger. I’d been meaning to try this pie for so long (it’s one of my cousin Carly’s favorites, and she gave me the cookbook so she ought know). Funny thing is, I didn’t gift myself one of these pies, so I’ll be no doubt re-doing this recipe so I can actually have some. (I did have one bite of a friend’s, to be fair. But it wasn’t enough.)

The next two fillings were my own made-up combinations. Here’s the Cran-Apple Spice; I love how beautiful the fresh cranberries are and the sourness they bring to the table. I choose sour flavors over sweet every time and I have to say that I thought this pie was a win-win combination of both.

And here is the Honey-Apple-Raspberry filling, looking like a bit of a mess. But yum.

Mini-pie manufacturing is no piddling job. By the time you make multiple batches of crust, a few fillings, crumbs for the topping, labels for the tops…you’re looking at a long night.

The three pies below traveled not by car, not by mail, but by carry-on. This conversation happened.

TSA agent: I’m going to have to re-run your bag, miss.

Me in my head: Crap.

TSA agent: What are these?

Me: They’re pies….in jars.

TSA agent: Pies in jars?? That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen!! (Calls other TSA agents to marvel over the coolness that is pie-in-a-jar.)

TSA agent: I think I’m going to have to keep one of these…*laughs*

Me: I’ll make an extra one just for you next time I come through *smiles*

Would this have happened at any other time besides Christmas? Doubtful. But I loved it.

While we’re on the subject of mini pies (which, as it turns out, is more often then not…) for the third year in a row, I had the opportunity to contribute pie to a bake sale supporting my students. (Last year I sent this batch of minis…the year before I had not yet perfected the art of sending pie traveling and sent two whole pies to be sliced and sold.)

I made another Honey-Apple-Raspberry filling (since they had been pretty popular the last time ’round) and a Blueberry-Pear filling with cardamom and maple syrup, both my own recipes. I think I have figured out a pretty exact ratio for mini pie filling; the amount of filling that would fit into one largish normal pie fits roughly into nine jars. Okay, perhaps “exact” isn’t the right word, but it’s a helpful rule to follow. So the filling below made 18 mini pies. And the filling overflowed, so I really could have done 19, or 20.

This was the first year I was able to see the bake sale in person (and I forgot to take any pictures, wouldn’t you know!) By the time I got there, the sale had been going on for perhaps two hours and most of my pies were already gone. I hope they were thoroughly enjoyed. Thanks so much to those who bought them or supported the Palm Springs bake sale in any other fashion. Over $1600 was raised for the Christadelphian Heritage School!

As always, thanks for reading. I’ll leave you with a reminder…PI DAY IS NEXT FRIDAY!

$122 - i math math-jokes pi$

Let me know if you’re planning on celebrating.

Festivities

23 Thursday Jan 2014

Posted by jessica@peace-of-pie in Chocolate Pie, Nut Pie, Pumpkin Pie

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

chocolate, cranberry, cranberry sauce, pecan, pumpkin, sour cream

Today is National Pie Day (not to be confused with Pi Day, March 14th). I didn’t bake today. I didn’t even eat a piece of pie today. That being said, I like to think I embody the spirit of National Pie Day a good deal in my life; I’m not feeling too guilty about my lack of celebrations.

In fact, I did one good pie deed today…I delivered a Pie-in-a-Jar. Did any of you “celebrate”?

In honor of the holiday, I wanted to share with you the pies I baked for Thanksgiving (my favorite holiday) this past fall.

The Triple-Layer Pumpkin-Chocolate Pie is pictured below. 1. Empty crust 2. The first layer, cheesecakey pumpkin filling with chocolate mixed in 3. The second layer, the same pumpkin filling without chocolate added 4. A tangy sour cream topping to finish it off.

Here’s what it takes to make a Jellied Cranberry-Pecan Pie.

Have a happy weekend!

Eat Your Squash

20 Monday Jan 2014

Posted by jessica@peace-of-pie in Pumpkin Pie

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

butternut squash, five-spice

For the last two years, Levi and I have belonged to a CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture) program. Each week that we’re home we pick up a box of locally-grown produce and try to figure out how to consume it all. Some of the vegetables we get leave us scratching our heads. Celeriac? Romanesco? Kohlrabi?! They look like aliens. In the fall and winter, we don’t often get typical pie fruits like apples or pears. At least in summer the berries are plentiful, and I’ve been known to make pies out of such unlikely vegetables as carrots and parsnips!

Every now and then I will get something in our CSA box that’s perfect for a pie. Butternut Squash, for example. The nice thing about squash as opposed to pumpkin in a pie is that the flesh is a bit firmer and denser. Pumpkin can be slightly watery (especially if you aren’t using a specifically pie-oriented variety.)

Five-Spice Winter Squash Pie obviously contained enough Chinese Five-Spice powder to taste; interestingly, so did two other pies I made this fall (Five-Spice Pear-Apple Pie and Green Tomato-Cranberry Pie). It’s an unlikely ingredient that works well, and I foresee adding it to other types of pie in the future.

This may be the first (and last) time I’ve ever copy/pasted something directly from Wikipedia on my blog, but here is the actual breakdown of typical Five-Spice powder. Just in case you are super nerdy like me and wanted to do some research on the various components. I think I’m drawn to it mainly because of the fennel/anise aspect of things. Definitely one of my favorite flavors in life.

Star anise (bajiao, 八角)
Cloves (dingxiang, 丁香)
Chinese Cinnamon (rougui, 肉桂)
Sichuan pepper (huajiao, 花椒)
Fennel seeds (xiaohuixiang, 小茴香)

One of my favorite things this past fall was Ace’s Pumpkin Hard Cider. In my mind I thought for so long it was actually made from pumpkins, and then I realized it was just apple with spices and pumpkin flavor. Still, a delicious accompaniment to any “pumpkin” pie, like this masquerader.

We were having dinner with some friends. I said, “I’m bringing a Butternut Squash pie.” She said, “Great! I’m making a Peach-Blueberry Cobbler.” There were only four adults eating. This is a good kind of friend.

Kids love “pumpkin” pie and double desserts.

I don’t mind, myself.

A Beautiful Mess

16 Thursday Jan 2014

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

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

chocolate, coconut, cream, graham cracker, Jenny and Tyler, pecan

Okay…if Green Tomato Pie didn’t get you too excited…from the poll results it looked like about 30% of you had serious doubts…maybe this one will.

The Hammett House Famous German Chocolate Pie. I’ve never been to the Hammett House Restaurant (namely because it is in Oklahoma) but I get good feelings about it. Really good feelings.

First let’s just take a look at the way the coconut and pecans are being folded into the chocolate cream filling here…it’s a thing of beauty. Literally, this picture makes me drool.
As if the homemade graham cracker crust and luscious chocolately filling weren’t enough, the pie gets topped with chocolate whipped cream with more pecans and coconut mixed in. It’s almost too good to be true.

The end result just looks like a mess. A beautiful mess. It’s also MONSTROUS in size. The hugest pie you will probably ever encounter.

It tastes even better than it looks.

We got to share this pie with our friends Jenny and Tyler, who are not only lovely people but some of our favorite musicians. Check them out here if you haven’t listened to their music before. You may remember that J&T did a house show at our place back in March, so we felt pretty lucky to get them back for another one only about half a year later. I think it has something to do with the pies…

Thanks again, guys. It was a beautiful night. But no more pies unless you bring baby Jane next time. 😉

Resourceful Pie

11 Saturday Jan 2014

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

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

cranberry, five-spice, green tomatoes, maple

Do you know what these are?

How about now?

Do they look like something to be put in a pie? (Say yes.)

I really, really hate waste. It’s one of my least favorite things ever. Levi likes to play this game with me where he says, “What if you had to choose between throwing out a full plate of (insert a delicious food here) or have someone give you $20?” And then he just ramps the price up until I finally agree to throw the hypothetical food away. It’s a really annoying game. The point is, it usually takes about $100 (depending on what the food is), where thereby proves my original point (that I hate waste).

Because I hate waste, I do weird things including but not limited to: saving rose petals from bouquets of flowers for making homemade rosewater, refilling shampoo bottles with dish detergent and olive jars with castile soap (much to my household’s confusion), making green tomato pie.

That’s what those are, if you hadn’t guessed yet. Well, tomato season was over, and there were a few cupfuls of tomatoes lingering on the vine that certainly weren’t going to turn red. What was a resourceful girl to do?

Luckily Ken Haedrich provides not one, but TWO recipes for Green Tomato Pie in his cookbook. I’m not the only crazy one around here.

Alright, now that you’ve gotten over your initial shock…doesn’t the filling actually look pretty in the bowl, with the contrasting green tomatoes and red cranberries?

Oh yeah, and I used bear lard in the crust. I guess that could also be classified as one of those weird/resourceful hunter/gatherer things I do.

But before I had the chance to bake this pie, there was a slight mishap in which Obi ate three-quarters of a dark chocolate bar and I had to rush him to the animal hospital instead of watching football and eating pie like I was kinda planning on. The Giants lost that game anyway. It figures.

When Obi had finished running into walls (apparently how he exhibits “chocolate toxicity”) and gobbling down his white rice and bland chicken breast, I baked the pie and then took great pleasure in feeding it to various friends and making them guess what they were eating. And hey! They liked it.

Kind of makes me want to start quoting Dr. Seuss…

“Say! I like green tomatoes and crans! I do! I like them, Jess-I-am!”

Pie Man

10 Friday Jan 2014

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

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

pluot, raspberry

Jess went back “home” to New Jersey for a weekend. An unfortunate coincidence was that this was the same weekend as our Church’s Dessert Bake-Off. All our friends assumed Jess would dethrone the reigning champ with one of her pies. They breathed a collective sigh of disappointment/competitive relief when word got ’round that a Pie would be missing.

Jess decided that instead of not entering a pie, why don’t I, the Pie Man to her Pie Woman make one.

Jess is a woman that is profuse with consistently fantastic ideas, so, I dutifully followed her suggestion. The Dessert Bake-Off would have a pie from a Gelineau after-all.

I have seen a few pies made in my life (like, 120 or so) so, I was clear on the basics. From one layman to maybe another, here’s the step by step for us the NORMAL, casual, pie bakers.

Crust Into Dish…. Okay, crust isa hard part, and to be honest with you, Jess made that part for me ahead of time. I am only one man.

Sugar on Berries, Makes ’em good.
Surround the sugared berries in a cloud of a starch.

Pitch that happy family into the crust.

Cover the fruit with some more carbs.

Bake until it looks like you may not be able to resist eating the whole kit and caboodle.

I was happy with how it came out, and wished it luck at the competition.

(Note the sage and discerning Judge in the background).

The Man Pie came in second place!

Love Feasts

27 Wednesday Nov 2013

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

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

blueberry, holiday, pluot, vegan

Thanksgiving is tomorrow! (As if you didn’t know…) It’s always been my favorite holiday, and not only because it’s practically synonymous with pie. I’m going to be trying my hand at two new recipes from Ken’s book later this afternoon; Jellied Cranberry-Pecan Pie and Triple-Layer Pumpkin Chocolate Pie. I’ll be sure to post pictures soon.

Ken also just posted a recipe for Maple Pumpkin Pie on his blog, so make sure to check that out if you’re planning on making a pumpkin pie for tomorrow’s feast but haven’t yet settled on a recipe. Oh, and if you’re baking Thanksgiving pies of any sort, leave a comment and let me know what you’re making!

I wanted to share some pictures from my last “holiday weekend” back in early September. We still had lots of summer visitors over Labor Day, which was fantastic.

Even my dad came out for his first visit to Simi Valley! Our Labor Day weekend activities included hiking, sea kayaking, and mini golfing. The weather was beautiful and the views from the mountaintops were too.

Dad was able to share some of his thoughts at our church service on Sunday morning, on praise, joy, and creation. Here’s a really cool picture a friend drew during his talk which sums it all up. I am thankful to have a dad who always has uplifting thoughts to share and who is focused on things like love, beauty, and peace. In fact, the title of my blog was his idea. Snuck “peace” right in there.

(It’s Sweeny. Not Sweeney. Just for the record.)

On Sunday evening of Labor Day Weekend, before Maggie and Sara and Mike were leaving for the airport, we ended up cooking quite a feast and it felt more like a summery Thanksgiving than anything else. We were feeling particularly thankful for all our blessings. Maggie is vegan and often uses the phrase “vegan love feast” to describe a particularly joyful, delicious meal. Our feast that night was mostly vegan…except for all the grilled chicken we made for all the non-vegans who were partaking. But it was still a love feast.

I made a pluot-blueberry pie filling, just like I had made for Bear Lard Pie, but obviously didn’t use bear lard in the crust. That would have really killed the whole vegan thing. No butter, either.

Ruth and Bethany came over and Bethany was so helpful with her brilliant pie-stirring skills.