Pie Man

10 Friday Jan 2014

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

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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

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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.

I even glazed the pie with coconut almond milk, which was very vegan of me.

While the pie baked, Obi and Bethany passed the time by striking similar poses on the couch.

Black-Eyed Pea Curry, Raw Pad Thai, and Edamame Hummus. Yum!

I could literally compile an entire photo album of pictures of dogs (mainly Obi) looking longingly at my pies.

Strawberry coconut milk ice cream, anyone?

Enjoy your love feasts tomorrow. Happy Thanksgiving!

Bear Lard Pie

18 Monday Nov 2013

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

≈ 2 Comments

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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.