Margarita Bay

28 Friday May 2021

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

Tags

frozen, icebox, margarita, strawberry, travel

Well hey friends! I’ve been sitting on this story for a little too long. Almost seems appropriate though, because this is DEFINITELY a warm weather pie that I’ll be sharing with you today. It featured at our family vacation in San Diego in March, and if you’ve been to San Diego, you know it’s practically summer year-round there. But, for the rest of us, at least in the Northern Hemisphere, summer is just now truly approaching. So if you feel inspired to try making this pie by the end of this post, I would strongly encourage you to do so. I already can’t wait to make it again.

You may already have guesses as to what kind of pie is forthcoming here. But I’m going to drag out the guessing game a little longer. Your first visual clue is a graham cracker crust. (Pictured with other necessary ingredients of a great family vacation: stickers, virtual Sunday School crafts, and cribbage.)

And now…wait…what is happening here? Is this post about a pie or a cocktail?

Well, my friends, that is a trick question. For the pie in question is the Manchester Highlands Inn Strawberry Margarita Pie and if there was ever a cocktail in pie form, this would be it.

Step One: prepare two cups of juicy, sugared strawberries. While those are, I believe the exact word would be “macerating”, get out your food processor that you seem to always travel to Mission Bay, San Diego with lately and add the following: condensed milk, tequila, triple sec, fresh lime juice. Once the sugar has finished its work on the strawberries, those get popped into the food processor and everything gets blended into a nice smooth pink concoction.

After the strawberry filling chills for a time, it gets folded together with freshly whipped cream, then frozen. More fresh strawberries and some mint leaves adorn the top. Ain’t it purty?

Enjoy this pie around a firepit, if it’s not *quite* summertime yet.

This dessert only appealed to a portion of our family members, leaving me with almost half a pie that I cared not to waste. So Levi, who is supportive of my ways, agreed to go to the convenience store for some paper plates so he and I and Matt (always around for pie adventures) could tromp around the vacation-y Mission Bay neighborhood and ask strangers if they would like a slice. We shared with the following people: a couple about to go on a little nighttime walk who immediately went back inside to store their pie in the freezer for a post-walk treat, an extremely pleasant city worker named Armando who introduced himself to us as we were walking away, and a group of beachfront merrymakers who were very pleased to have some Strawberry Margarita Pie to go with their hookah.

Pie Peddling.

And I’ll leave you with a few photos of precious family time/chaos. Kids make life so much more…exciting? Squirmy? ❤

The Calm After the Storm

26 Tuesday Jan 2021

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

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Tags

apple cider vinegar, blueberry, cherry, maple syrup, orange juice, strawberry, travel, vinegar

The third week of January 2021 was a Rather Blustery one as Pippa and I would say (we’re big Winnie the Pooh fans around here). On Tuesday the 19th, the volume of the wind rose to an all-day and all-night howl. We spent the day watching our neighbor’s roof blow off a shingle or five at a time (ducking out to help clean up, too!) and were without power for over 24 hours. A tricky bit in all this was that we were going out of town from Wednesday to Sunday, and never got power restored before our departure time. A big thanks to friends who lent a helping hand through all the logistics of that situation… “Hey, can you go to my house and run the garbage disposal?” That kind of thing. Our friends are the real ones.

In retrospect, there was more we could have done to save our food, but, weird times, you know. Bottom line is, we ended up having to throw away the contents of our fridge and some of our freezer. The saddest loss there was the Meyer Lemon Gelato that Pippa and I made for our first “Ice Cream Monday” of the year. More on that in a future post; Pie and ice cream are such clearly related topics that I do plan to regularly share our 2021 ice cream escapades with the Peace of Pie audience.

Our destination this time was Cambria, a gorgeous coastal town about four hours north of Los Angeles. Over the last ten years, the Central Coast has become one of my very favorite places on earth and is a favorite vacation spot for both Levi and I. It’s even more fun seen through the wondering eyes of a nearly-three-year-old. God’s beauty. Pine trees, the ocean, playful otters, shiny gorgeous creatures in tidepools. We were blessed with one extremely sunny and warm day in which we kayaked out into the calmest Morro Bay I’ve ever seen. Pippa was a ball of delight in her little pink-and-yellow life jacket.

Back to the pie(s). We didn’t really intend to bring multiple coolers of food (and I didn’t really intend to make two pies in four days), but between us and Levi’s parents (who had also lost power overnight) we arrived at our vacation home with defrosted bags of frozen cherries, blueberries, and strawberries. The solution was fairly obvious.

Let’s give this one the descriptive name of “Frozen Berry Windstorm Pie”. And here is a very cute pic or two of Pippa and her Nana sniffing said Windstorm Pie. A bit of oaty streusel on top completed this dessert. I’d packed the oats for Pip’s breakfasts but they sure came in handy here!

I was more prepared than usual to whip this pie up than I normally would have been outside my home kitchen. I had packed a rolling pin, pie dish, and pastry ingredients, with the intent of crafting a French Canadian Walnut-Maple Syrup Vinegar Pie. This pie immediately follows Sugar Pie in the Pie cookbook; readers may remember that Sugar Pie was the latest addition to the Pie Gallery (made and eaten less than a month ago, for Christmas 2020) so it’s cute that these pies get to be next to each other in my gallery as well as in the cookbook. It’s the little things…

Have you heard of vinegar pie before? Aside from this recipe, my knowledge of vinegar pie largely comes from the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. Pippa and I have recently been enjoying the “My First Little House” series, which are beautifully illustrated picture books based on the original works. There’s one book where Almanzo goes to the County Fair and the favorite page (like mother, like daughter, I guess…) is of Almanzo eating his heart out in the dining hall, where all the ladies from church are serving a plethora of pies – Vinegar Pie among them. Pippa remembers bits and pieces of what she’s read and regurgitates phrases during play, so it would not be an unusual occurrence to overhear her, for example, setting up a “birthday party” made of bubble wrap and play food and telling her stuffie “Pomegranate Cat” to eat some “Vinegar Pie”. Every day is a new adventure around here.

By the way, you really can’t taste the vinegar. There is an acidic kick to the pie (which contains 1/4 cup orange juice in addition to the couple tablespoons of apple cider vinegar), but it really is just there to offset the sweetness and provide a more well-balanced flavor. So, don’t be deterred. It’s lovely…if you enjoy maple syrup (who doesn’t?) and walnuts (less of you, probably). My father-in-law is a huge walnut fan, so I timed this pie to occur at least near-ish to his birthday (which is next week, but he believes in a long birthday season).

Here’s something funny. I have never been the *best* at posting about pies immediately after baking them, so I don’t know that this has happened before…but after I put that last picture in, I remembered that I still had about one sixth of this pie remaining in the fridge, and I went and helped myself to a slice. Yep, there’s that citrus tang in real time. Delightful.

Action items from this post:

Get yourself outside and maybe somewhere near the ocean, if possible. It’s good for the soul and I know our souls are weary these days.
If you’re interested in trying a vinegar pie (you might even have all the ingredients in your pantry already!) here is a similar but slightly different recipe from Ken’s Pie Academy website: Maple Walnut Vinegar Pie. I’d love to hear if you decide to make one yourself!

Quarantine Pie: A Story Told Through Correspondence

28 Wednesday Oct 2020

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

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

cherry, maple, peach, strawberry, travel

Part One: An email from Jess to Matt

Mr. M. Drabenstott —
It has come to my attention that you are secluded in a lonely yet beautiful cabin in the Quebecois wilderness and are in need of immediate advice regarding the making of a pie, which, it is presumed, you and only you will be consuming. In addition, your access to provisions is ample but limited; any single recipe I would share might not be able to be followed with precision. I shall hereto set out to provide some guidelines and advice in straightforward and simple language in order to assist you in eating* your quarantine pie as soon as possible, leaving you with a copious amount of time for academic pursuits, Fortnite, and private poetry readings and recitations. *(Rather, beginning to eat, as this pie will last several days, excepting an an act of terrible gluttony.) Please do not hesitate to seek clarification on any of the details below through the medium of text message if assistance is required during the creative process. I am unsure what has possessed me to write this paragraph in such a formal tone. However, if it has provided one extra ounce of amusement to your solitary day, I harbor absolutely no regrets.

Your loving friend,

Mrs. J. Gelineau
——————–

Pastry: Totally just use your pre-made pastries if you have them. If you’d prefer to make your own, this is a very simple recipe that can be made, then immediately rolled and put into a pan. (Most other pastries, which use butter or shortening, require refrigeration). I prefer to roll pastry between two sheets of wax paper, if you have it- it makes it easy to peel off one side once you’re done and lift and invert the whole thing over the pie pan. Otherwise, lightly flour your surface and rolling pin.

Louise Piper’s Oil Pastry: Combine 2 cups all-purpose flour and 1 tsp. salt in a large bowl. Measure 1/2 cup vegetable oil and 1/4 cold milk (not skim, but whole or 2% is fine) in the same glass measuring cup (if you have one) without mixing the two, then dump it all at once into the flour mixture. Mix briskly, the dough will pull together into a ball. Divide the dough in half, this makes just enough for a double crust pie. You can go straight to rolling out the bottom crust for your pie. If you don’t have a rolling pin, an empty wine or large beer bottle works well. 😉

Filling: I heard you say you have cherries, strawberries, peaches, and one other fruit which is escaping me (blueberries?). I assume you have a standard size pie dish (9 inch). Basically you want to do about 5 cups of fruit unless you’re using strawberries. Those bubble up so much that you probably would want to stick to 4 cups of fruit total or you might have a huge mess in the oven. So add your fruit to a bowl. Peach/cherry is one of my current favorite combos but any combos will be yummy. 🙂 If you have a bigger dish, you can go up to 6 cups of fruit. Add between 1/3 and 1/2 cup of sugar depending on the size of the pie, and 1-2 tsps of lemon juice (if you have it? Or lime, or orange…! Something citrus!) If you have a lemon, a little zest in the filling is nice too. Also can’t go wrong with 1/2 of cinnamon and a sprinkle of nutmeg if you happen to have those things. A little vanilla is nice in peach pies. Combine all of this and let it sit for 10 minutes until you can see visible juices in the bottom of the bowl. Then add to the bowl 2 tablespoons and another spoonful of sugar (premix those in a separate little bowl). Mix until the cornstarch mixture is well incorporated into the fruit. Pour filling into pie crust lined baking dish. Add several small pats of butter scattered around the top of the pie. (Oh- and if you don’t have cornstarch, you could use flour in its place. Maybe 3 TBSP instead of 2…)
Top crust: Get a little bowl of water for your fingers ready. Roll out the top crust. Dip your fingers in water and run a little bit around the edge of the bottom crust, then invert the top crust over the whole pie. Trim the excess pastry to be flush with the edges of the pie pan, then press all around the edges with a fork to bind together, or sculpt together in a ridge. If you have extra pastry, make the shape of a whale and pop that on top. Prick the top crust with a fork several times, including at least once or twice near the edge of the pie. That’s where you will look for bubbling to check doneness – thick juicy bubbles are what you want. If you want, you can sprinkle or brush the top of the pie evenly with milk and a little bit of white sugar.
Baking: Bake at 400 F for 30 minutes, then rotate the pie 180 degrees so that the part that was facing the back of the oven is now facing front, turn down the temperature to 375 and bake for about 25 more minutes- but start checking earlier for those bubbles, and a golden top crust. Every oven is different!

It would be totally awesome if you could do a guest post with some pictures of your pie escapade on The Peace of Pie. Let me know if you’re keen.

Part Two: A Series of iMessages from Matt to Jess

Matt’s quaran-pie journey begins.

I couldn’t find any pie pans lying around the cabin, so I settled on a casserole dish.

(Which I would later discover has the capacity of 4 pie dishes….)

Per your reco, I mixed frozen peaches and cherries into a bowl. I added few splashes of maple syrup, a pinch or two of cinnamon, some lémon zëst, and of course, a squirt of citrus. (Grapefruit sounded fancy at the time).

As I poured the milk into the oil for the crust, I couldn’t help but think fondly of the lava lamp that I had throughout middle school.

In the absence of a rolling pin and a wine bottle, I used a bottle of Woodford Reserve (would definitely recommend!) to iron out my Pangaea-esque shaped crust.

After adding a few strawberries to the top for a little ‘je ne sais quois’, I scurried to the forest to find some fallen maple leaves, which I used as stencils to create an aptly carved ‘Fall Canadian Foliage’ topper.

Pretty much nailed it.

Shamelessly, I’m already half way finished.

A Bit of Backstory:

Peace of Pie readers may remember my friend and pie hype man Matt from previous posts such as this one. An American currently living in Canada, Matt spent the summer months back in the U.S. of A and thus was required to quarantine for two weeks upon his October re-entry. A classy fellow, Matt chose to make the most of this time by renting a beautiful wilderness cabin in which to work, hold solo poetry readings, and, of course, bake the delightful pie you’ve just read about. Matt is now healthfully back in his primary Canadian residence, and I feel like I’ve just written an author bio for a book jacket. Cheers!

Dynamic Duos

31 Monday Aug 2020

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

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

chess, chocolate, cornmeal, travel

Once upon a time, there were two babies named Pippa and Milo. They were the best of friends.

When Milo read books, Pippa read books. When Pippa cuddled her baby, Milo cuddled his baby. When Milo said, “Time to eat!” Pippa said, “I’m all in.”

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Pippa and Milo both like sweet treats. Pippa’s mama is a pie baker, and Milo’s parents have an ice cream maker. When their families stay together, decadence ensues.

Here’s Milo blessing the pie pastry for this Fancy Chocolate Chess Pie.

Milo’s dad doesn’t bake pies too often, but he has made two kinds of pie, one of which happens to be Chocolate Chess. This isn’t as coincidental as it sounds – Milo’s family lives in Virginia, and Chess Pie was born and bred in the South. The other pie Milo’s dad can make is a PB & J pie. Pippa’s mama thinks it is a very unfortunate omission that there is no recipe for a PB & J pie in her cookbook, and might just have to try making one soon anyway.

Here is a picture of many egg yolks that put the Fancy in this Chocolate Chess Pie.

Pippa’s mama couldn’t remember if she had made this pie before. She thought she hadn’t, until just now, when she was browsing the “Chess” tag on her own website and stumbled upon a post from 2013. Now she remembers that this was Pie #99 in her gallery and she can’t count it again. Too bad, cause this would have been a fiiiine looking image for the pie gallery. But y’know, no real regrets. It was delish again, seven years later, eaten with different folks.

Milo’s mama used a Salt and Straw Ice Cream Starter Kit (link here but it looks pretty much unavailable anymore which is sad and disappointing news for all of us) to make absolutely delicious Freckled Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream. The two decadent desserts were enjoyed side by side one evening; a slice of pie followed by a bowl of ice cream. Don’t worry, Pippa and Milo got to taste-test the ice cream at lunch the next day.

P.S. Pippa’s mama now owns an ice cream maker also. She’s written about her love for Salt and Straw Ice Cream before. If S&S ever starts selling Honey Lavender Starter Kits, you all know what she wants for her birthday for the rest of her life.

The End.

Christmas in July

21 Tuesday Jul 2020

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

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Tags

apple, chiffon, chocolate, dutch apple, holiday, peanut butter, sour cream, travel

Hello friends!

I’m writing to you today from the state of Virginia, where current temps and humidity are combining to make it feel like 108 degrees or so. Swampy is a word I’d use to describe the feeling upon departing from any air conditioned building. That being said, super happy to be here, and also looking forward to going to another swampy state (Georgia) in a few days. Just remember, fellow Northern Hemisphereans, it’s winter somewhere. Somewhere like Australia.

Flashback to….December 2015, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The hottest Christmas day I will probably ever experience. We were staying at our friends Nathan and Nicole’s house and it was so fun to share a warm back patio “Summer Supper” (a reference to one of P’s favorite books) in lieu of the more cozy indoor meal I typically associate with the Christmas season!

Nic is a fellow pie maker and owner of the Ken Haedrich pie tome. As part of the *many* delicious menu items she had planned for the Christmas meal, we baked not one, but two of Ken’s pies. Below left: Pennsylvania Dutch Apple Sour Cream Pie, and right, Black Bottom Peanut Butter Cloud Pie. Far right, Nic’s cute daughter Indianna. (Between us collectively, three babies have arrived in our families since this photo was taken. Goes to highlight how far back this story got stuck in the pie history bottleneck. It’s been added to its rightful position as Pie #138 in the Pie Gallery!)

Here’s a little close-up of our starlet:

And then, a slideshow of Christmas morning pie and luncheon preparations for your viewing enjoyment:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Captions for several of the photos in the above slideshow:

Black Bottom. A fancy term for, spread some chocolate in the bottom of that pie crust please.
When you’re baking in Australia from an American cookbook…you gotta break out that kitchen scale!
California walnuts (for the Apple Pie) and Australia peanuts (for the Peanut Butter Pie), aww, it’s a metaphor for friendship!
Note to self (or Levi if he’s reading this), one of those fancy nut choppers might be a necessary Gelineau kitchen tool…
If you’re wondering where the “Cloud” in Black Bottom Peanut Butter Cloud Pie comes in, just pause the slideshow for a moment on the image the peanut butter filling pouring lazily from the mixing bowl. Light as a cloud, my friends, light as a cloud.
Graham crackers? Australians have never heard of ’em. Try some good old Arnott’s Shredded Wheatmeal biscuits in your next homemade graham cracker crust! (This particular pie calls for peanuts in the crust in addition to in LITERALLY EVERY OTHER PART OF THE PIE. 10/10 would recommend to your favorite peanut lover.)
Wait a second…those pictures are not of pie! But, goodness me, doesn’t all of that food look divine? I’m just over here trying to show that Nic is the next Donna Hay. Only my Australian friends will get that but it’s totally fine.

Other bits and pieces:

Nic and I have been talking pie for many years now, and she has even shared a savory pie recipe on this blog before, in the post linked here: A Recipe from Nic.
Here’s the story of my first Pennsylvania Dutch Apple Sour Cream Apple Pie: Pie and Music

Sending love to each one of you out there having a hot, cool, chilly, or any kind of beautiful July day. ❤

Heartdepths

30 Thursday Apr 2020

Posted by jessica@peace-of-pie in Apple Pie, Berry Pie, Pear Pie, travel

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Tags

apple, berry, Chile, home, South America, travel

Three Aprils ago, a pie was born in Santiago, Chile. Some pears and some apples lent themselves to the creation, along with, I believe, some blueberries and strawberries, and perhaps another odd fruit that I’m forgetting.

This feels like another lifetime now, in several ways. During our visit to Chile, we probably pinched ourselves daily, saying “WE’RE IN CHILE!” And yet there wasn’t anything terribly surprising about it, not for us; affluent, educated, healthy, non-parents. We marveled at our ability to go to sleep on an airplane and wake up halfway around the world as often as we did it; we marveled that it was…well…easy. Whether or not it should have been. It was just so easy. And now?

It would be easy for me to get caught up in wondering what is next. If we’ll ever leave the U.S.A. again in this lifetime. If so, when. My toddler has been to Spain. She’s been to Canada. Mexico, twice. Traveling feels like part of our nature, and there are places in nearly every continent of the world that are deep deep down in my heart. It is a blessing, a blessing that sometimes makes my heart ache and that I’ve never wanted to trade for anything.

Last night, I was listening to a friend go live on a social media platform. She talked about a perspective she has been trying to take, in light of all the uncertainty we’re entering Summer 2020 with. She shared that, instead of focusing on her sadness at very likely missing out on quality time with family and friends at a beloved second home of a campground, she is trying instead to focus on being grateful that she has something to deeply miss.

In other words, when we have those strong feelings of missing something or someone, it’s a sign or indication that those things are planted very solidly in our heartdepths. And that, in and of itself, is something to be profoundly grateful for.

Tonight, then, I poured a small glass of port and sat down here at my laptop to share with you a few photos of this trip to Chile that we’ve been reminiscing about QUITE a lot recently. Just thinking about it brings me such joy. We coordinated our travel with our friend Matt (who now lives in Canada), were visiting our friends Shaye and Andrew and Brydyn (who are all from New Zealand), and made a new friend, Rosie (who, along with her husband, just made it to her new temporary home in Bolivia before the borders closed due to COVID-19).

These are just some really home-y photos. I have photos from Pablo Neruda’s house, from Santiago’s incredible restaurants and wine shops, from mountaintop monuments, the beach, the Andes mountains, a nearby pottery village. But that’s not where we are right now, physically and mentally. Do you know what I mean? The memories of those adventures feed my soul, no doubt. But what I’m pulling out from my heartdepths right now are not tourist destinations. I’m pulling out feelings of togetherness. I’m pulling out memories of beautiful home cooked meals and a round of Pisco sours and a cat sleeping on a dining room chair and KIDS that keep us all in a state of delight.

As we’ve been singing a lot with Pippa: I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart.

Down in my heart to stay.

Old Favorites

01 Sunday Dec 2019

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

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

butternut squash, holiday, maple, pecan, pumpkin, Thanksgiving, travel

Dear friends,

I have new stories to share. Stories about olive harvesting with toddlers and bison lard pie crusts. Stories about champagne grapes, Minnesota fall fruit bounties, family bonds (biological and otherwise), fake Instagram celebrity chefs, first birthday parties, National Park excursions. We’ll get there. For now, suffice it to say: I hope you all had a very happy Thanksgiving, and I’m eager to know what pies you ate this weekend. Please tell me in a comment on this post!

We just got back from visiting my parents in Georgia for Thanksgiving, and I am not ashamed or embarrassed to report that we ate at least one piece of pie per day for six days in a row (four pies to four adults and one baby, so, a pretty reasonable ratio). This time I didn’t knock out any new recipes from Pie (Ken Haedrich’s exhaustive cookbook, which I’m baking my way through; you can see my progress in the Pie Gallery). I chose instead to revisit a few old favorites.

Maple Pecan Pie: Maybe because my dad’s always been partial to a pecan pie, this is the third Georgia Thanksgiving that the Maple Pecan has made an appearance; I’ve also baked this one for my work team, to much approval.

Five-Spice Winter Squash Pie: Butternut squash available from the garden made this seasonally-appropriate pie an obvious choice. And a word about five-spice powder; seriously an underused and underrated ingredient, in my opinion. I just love the little licorice shout out (fennel and star anise are two of the five spices). I say that as someone who loves all things licorice, but for those of you on the other side of the licorice fence, fear not; the flavor doesn’t seem to be strong enough to chase away licorice haters (after all, cinnamon, cloves, and pepper round out the blend).

That’s two, but I did mention a total of four pies earlier. My mom made an apple pie with an olive oil crust earlier in the week. We also enjoyed a pumpkin pie (pictured above) made with a recipe from my great-Aunt Sally, who we recently said goodbye to. The traditional apple and pumpkin pies alongside the slightly more jazzy pies mentioned above made for a very well-rounded line-up.

Happy holiday season to all, and don’t forget to share what kinds of pie made your Thanksgiving lineup in the comments! Talk to you soon.

Vine and Fig Tree Pie

03 Thursday May 2018

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

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

fig, grape, olive oil, travel

Today is my best friend’s birthday! While we aren’t able to celebrate together in person this year, I’m having a great time looking back at some beautiful memories from her 30th with us last year (hashtag Maggie’s West Coast Birthday Weekend #MWCBW). California’s Central Coast has grown to become a place close to my heart for the wildflowers, the gnarled Live Oaks, the morning mist, and the sometimes sunny oceanside afternoons, and we were so blessed to have the opportunity to celebrate Maggie against that backdrop. In honor of May 3rd, I’m sharing my favorite photos from a magical few days one year ago in which Levi, Maggie, inner circle friend Wendy, and I attended the Cambria Ollalieberry festival, drank rosé on Gaviota Beach, sung from booklets made for the occasion around a campfire (and outside a tipi), witnessed strangers’ bachelor and bachelorette parties collide at a sour beer pub in Morro Bay, picked samples of aromatic wild plants while trying not to get blown off the cliffs at Montaña de Oro state park, enjoyed the kitties, doggies, horses, chickens, and parakeets on our AirBnb host’s Arroyo Grande acreage, and just generally basked in the delights of long and real friendships.

Maggie and I made a Grape and Fig Pie to bring with us on our glamping* trip. The olive oil crust we decided to use in order to make the pie completely vegan for our friend Wendy was a plot twist that turned out to really enhance the strong Mediterranean flavor of the pie and I would make this change again without hesitation. A few other notes about this pie: it’s made using dried black mission figs but fresh grapes, and is recommended (by Ken, officially, as well as by myself) to be served with sweetened mascarpone cheese (recipe also from the Pie cookbook).

Here, then, are a few photos of the pie, and many more of #MWCBW. Maggie, have the best 31st ever! You know how much I love you.

*If you’re intrigued, I can’t recommend visiting Ben and Laura’s property enough. Here is one of their AirBnB listings!

The Sweeny Family Gives Thanks

28 Sunday Jan 2018

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

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

cream, holiday, honey, lemon, travel, walnuts

Here is the original Norm and Marie Sweeny family, some years ago, bundled up for the snow and clearly in their element.

In 2017, the Sweeny family celebrated many milestones including Grandmother’s 90th birthday, Aunt Susan’s 60th birthday, Mom and Dad’s 30th anniversary, Alex and Levi’s 30th birthdays, and Matt’s 21st birthday. We were happy to be able to gather in Illinois to share a Thanksgiving weekend of celebrations together!

The family has grown over the years, as you can see…the photo below is even missing 4.5 grandchildren/great-grandchildren who couldn’t make the trip out from California.

Although many delicious desserts and savory items were made and consumed as part of the festivities, for the purposes of the blog I will naturally focus on the pie I baked for Thanksgiving: Maria’s Double Crust Walnut Pie. This pie is unique on several accounts, but, like many good things, begins with a bunch of butter.

Maria must be a special lady, because she has a special pie crust recipe in Pie to be used with this very special and delicious recipe: Maria’s Shortbread Pie Pastry. It contains much more sugar than a typical crust, as well as an egg and lemon zest. In fact, the crust has about the same number of ingredients that the pie filling does. Due to the egg, the crust has a heartier, sturdier texture than average.

Part of the uniqueness of this pie is that is meant to be baked in a springform pan. However, my aunt did not have a springform pan at her home (nor do I have one at mine–we’re more of a pie than a cake family clearly) so I slightly adapted the plan and used a deep dish pie pan. The recipe gives direction to add “ropes” of dough to the inside of the pan as pictured before pressing the dough flatly up against the sides of the pan. As far as I could tell, this just served to form a thicker pastry around the edges and hold the pie together more concretely. And the crust is such a delicious and important part of this dessert. I think it’s a good move.

The pie filling is made from walnuts that get boiled with sugar and water and added to honey and cream. Nothing to object to there. The top crust is brushed with an egg glaze, and the final result is drool-inducing.

If there was such a thing as Baklava Pie, this would be it. (Confusing picture below, that’s pumpkin pie on the plate there, also delicious, just not matching.)

In this shot here you can see the true decadence of the filling.

This pie is one of several to date that fall into the category of, “I don’t care if I still have roughly 150 pie recipes left in my cookbook and I probably won’t finish this project until I’m 53, this is a pie I would make again and again because it’s just that good.”

I’m sharing a few more pictures from the Sweeny family Thanksgiving weekend below. Enjoy and have a beautiful week!

Thanksgiving Feast

Cousin Alex’s Bacon-Wrapped Duck

When you turn 90 you get two cakes.

A little help with the candles!

Unwrapping a birthday birthstone gift.

Matt, the Jenga Master.

Adventure Awaits

21 Thursday Dec 2017

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

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

raspberry, red currant, travel

Dear Friends,

It has been a while, and I have so much to share. This post will be a little longer than usual, will contain more photos than usual (Iceland is just too beautiful) and even contains some exciting life updates, so please do stick around if you have a few moments to spare. As always, thanks for visiting.

I can’t say that I went on a four-day trip to Iceland planning on baking a pie there. It happened something like this.

Levi and I flew to Iceland and met up with Maggie and José. It felt like the dead of night when we landed at 4:00 am and the sun wouldn’t rise until nearly 10. We sort of functioned (and I sort of napped) until the Laundromat Cafe in Reykjavik opened up and served us pancakes.

The rest of the day is a blur of alternating sleepy road tripping (thanks to Levi for being our non-sleepy driver) and cold, windy, breathtakingly beautiful scenery breaks. I’ll include several more photos at the end of this post. In the meantime, would you just look at these horses?! ❤

One of our missions for this first long day was to stock groceries, mainly breakfasts for the next several days at our AirBnB. I went to peruse the fruit selection in the store, thinking perhaps that a pie might be feasible…maybe an apple pie, something really simple…and that was when I saw these beauties.

At long last, I had found the elusive fresh red currant! I knew instantly which pie I would make. It was one that I’d had my eye on during many summer visits to Minnesota, where it seemed like the currants at the local farm were always either almost ripe enough, or the growing season had just ended. A massive frustration in my pie-making career…and now, the red currants had found me–in Iceland, of all places! It was time to make New Hampshire Raspberry and Red Currant Pie.

The team helped me to assemble everything else I would need, including a lemon, red currant jelly, raspberries, and Icelandic butter. (As an aside, I could write an entire blog post just about how good Icelandic butter is.)

Pie-making commenced the following morning with berry-sorting and pastry-forming. It was a Monday, and I was just over ten weeks pregnant with our first baby. Until I hit the ten-week mark on the day before we flew to Iceland, I’d been struggling pretty hard with nausea, exhaustion, and lack of motivation to do much of anything, let alone bake a pie. Given that context, this experience, and really the whole vacation, felt like a small – no, a large – miracle. I was so grateful.

I’m fifteen weeks pregnant now, due in mid-June, and my belly isn’t quite as tiny as it is in the photo above. As our baby grows and I talk to her/him more and more I am also growing more and more excited for the adventure that awaits. I look forward to showing this new little person how beautiful the world can be, how to have faith when things are scary, and how much they are loved–by Levi and I, by our incredible friends and family, by God the Creator and Jesus the Savior.

(Insert sappy family photo here.)

(I also can’t wait to tell baby about the great adventures they had in Iceland while still in the womb. Seriously. This baby is well-traveled already.)

Okay, back to pie.

José had never made a pie before and was a devoted sous-chef/student throughout the making of the red currant pie. We still haven’t quite determined the best Spanish word for pie, so we went with “pastel”.

While this recipe calls for a cream cheese pastry (and I do love Ken’s cream cheese pastry), in order to cut down on ingredient waste and grocery shopping bill I decided to use only the decadent Icelandic butter I spoke of earlier. I have struggled in the past making pie crust in other countries, as I find the flour and fat often don’t combine the way I’m used to with U.S. products, and I sometimes find myself with an overly sticky pastry. This time, the dough turned rock hard (it had been in the fridge during the day while we were out tromping around glaciers) and wouldn’t thaw enough to be rolled for about an hour. #icelandproblems

José has been writing “Amigos 2017” or some variation of this on cakes all year and I think he was excited to be able to write it on a pie for the first time. “Amigos J, L, M, J”. Unsurprisingly he put himself last. He is that kind of a person.

This sounds too poetic to be true, but after we chilled the finished pastel in nature’s icebox (our deck) for about half an hour, we ate this perfectly sour-sweet treat under the green glow of the Northern Lights. It was a night I will never forget for as long as I live.

I always say that pie is for sharing, and it’s definitely for sharing when you’re only baking for 4.1 people. We left a large slice for our AirBnB hosts and I was even able to wrap up a few pieces and smuggle them back to Chicago, our next stop, where we celebrated Thanksgiving with my family. Everyone was able to have one or two bites!