We won't go until we get some

Every year I see those fresh figs on the grocery shelf and wonder if I can make some kind of pie that no one has ever heard of. I love fresh figs. I have tried maybe six recipes I read on different cooking websites and the craving is never quite satisfied.  Today I trusted my instinct and made a figgy goodness that reminds me of my favorite discontinued Bath and Body Works scent, brown sugar and fig. Quartered the bucket of figs, about three cups, tossed them with fresh lime squeezings and waited while the lime did its job. I lovingly tucked those figs in my favorite cast iron skillet, and doused them with Courvoisier and a fist full of brown sugar. I only cooked them for five minutes because I didn't want the freshness to go out. I folded them into a batch of organic vanilla pudding and there was a ribbon of dotty pink love following every trace of my rubber scraper. Chilled in my favorite flaky layered crust. Voila. Bring us a Figgy Pudding, and bring it out here! We are going to eat this outside & sing christmas songs while we do it! Won't we? Friends? You do want to sing? Right...
ps. you should know figgy pudding is actually cake with boozy fruit, but pie with cognac figs is a vast improvement in my opinion.

Hungry Eyes

Here is a smattering of the Pie Pictures I took thinking I would post all about them, but am only now uploading. Feast your eyes.

fresh strawberry mint

 Independance Day Cherry, and Strawberry Rhubarb

This fresh Fig pie was nonsense good, I poured a vanilla bean custard over top of them. 

Sister In Law Mile High Apple Pie

Blackberry Crisp, we picked these ourselves!

Unfamilliar but not un family

Today the 10th of August a very dear friend has the occasion of "First Day Of The Rest Of Your Life" and so we shall mark this date with a Pie. This woman is entering in to uncharted water, a new and strange chapter, a land where no woman has gone....well okay, some of you have been here before, but nonetheless she is brave and fierce. Our hero requires a Pie that is as new and innovative, as unfamilliar as the journey she embarks upon...I present Apricot Rosecream Tart.
  "Gasp! What! Did I hear correctly? She didn't say..."
Yep. Ginger colored fruit with Rose flavored whip cream. And its on a tart crust I have never tried before. It may be a disaster, but I feel confident that it will be delectable and comforting.  Even though you have never eaten it, you will feel right at home with it. You will want to invite this pie to all your gatherings. Guess what else, the fruit in this tart was in the discard pile-half price cause its past its date.
  "Aren't you afraid?"
Not at all. I'll be sprinkling fairy dust on top and so all will be well with the world. If you have the honor of sharing this tart with this darling woman please make comments about how it is received by your mouth. Everyone will be wondering.

Friday the 13th of May

The grand pie event of the year was the wedding of a very dear friend to another very dear friend.  Those two ingredients make for a sensational pie occasion.  It was potluck pie and I tried to just make two, but I made a few.  Someone very sensible suggested that we bake our potluck pies together, this is how I came to feel that my pie contribution was up to par.  Late in the evening we began crafting our tarts and gallettes and crisps and crumbles and pies.  When we retired from the flour and fruit and cream my table was aglow with six warm pies, all cleverly named.  Among them was "Don't judge a peach cobbler by its chops" hot peaches covered in spicy cobbler topping in a ten inch cast iron skillet, "you're the key to my lime pie" as the name suggests, "cherry chocolate devotion" which features fresh Willamette valley cherries slow cooked in pinot noir and vanilla bean atop a chocolate ganache pie.  There was a sweet tart shell with strawberry & mascarpone & ice wine reduction sauce.  Asian pears on puff pastry and some "just between us" filling.  The spread was  magnificent, mom's apple pie being a clear favorite.  If you have pictures of these pies please share them, it was such a frenzy that I failed to photograph much at all.  These are the events a pie lover lives for, and the sweet friends to share such goodness with are priceless and irreplaceable.  I know its hot, and summery, but stay up late and turn the oven on and bake something to share with your loved ones today.  If you feel that you have nobody to bake for, do it for you, you will find it just as delicious.

Two Pie Sunday

So for the holiday known as Easter i was invited to a feast, and guess what they asked me to bring?  As you may have suspected, i couldn't decide between the two in my mind and so i made both.  Lavender Lemon, and Coconut Cream.
As you can see the lavender lemon was a tart really ( i often prefer to make pies in tart pans partly because my other pie dish is so deep, and partly because i love crust)  This crust was especially delicious as it was made with lavender sugar and real butter, a sticky mess that was more of a cookie dough "pat-in-the-pan" crust.  After the baked crust came out of the oven i sprinkled it with a pinch more of lavender sugar, for good measure. (are you still asking yourself what happened in sentence four where the pie maker of this blog revealed that she only has two pie dishes?  well i have three, one i keep at my boyfriend's house...and i'm working on it okay, get of my back) i proceeded to pour hot lemon curd into this lavender primed crusty business. ( i did in fact add some cream and lavender sugar to the curd as it cooked, cause it seemed right.) After it arrived at the feast i whipped up some cream with lavender sugar in it and topped the pie/tart.  (its true that the host of easter dinner did not mind me using her whipper to whip some cream, because she knows a good pie needs JUST whipped cream)

Regular crust, regular pie dish for coconut cream.  "pie maker, by regular crust do you mean shortening and flour and salt and water?" yeah, i do. But i looked that crust in the eye as it sat there cooling, longing to be filled with coconut goodness and i said "how about some chocolate brushed about you" it nodded in the way pie crusts so often do.  And so it was, this easter pie had a hidden chocolate bottom, if you look closely at the image you will see that i brushed it too far up the sides and the filling does not cover  it.  I'm not worried about that, are you? Do you want the recipie to the filling?  Its really really the best ever?  okay, i will give it to you.
1/2 c shredded coconut toasted
1 c whole milk
3/4 c coconut milk (not water)
3/4 c granulated sugar
1/2 t salt
1/4 c flour
3 T cornstarch
1 whole egg plus 1 egg yolk
2 egg whites

(thats 4 eggs total folks)1 T butter

1 t coconut & vanilla extract

1/2 t almond extract

1/2 c whipped cream

In a bowl, combine milk, 1/4 cup coconut milk, 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 tsp. salt. In a heavy bottom saucepan, bring mixture slowly to a boil.
Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, pour remaining 1/2 cup coconut milk. Stir in flour, cornstarch, 1 whole egg and the egg yolk. Beat until smooth.
To temper the eggs, pour about 1/4 cup of the boiling mixture into the beaten egg yolks; then gradually pour the egg yolks into the boiling mixture, whisking all the while. Continue to stir until the mixture has thickened (mixture will coat the back of a spoon), it will happen quickly.
Remove the filling mixture from the heat, stir in the butter and flavoring extracts. Gradually add remaining sugar to egg whites while beating until peaks form. Gently fold beaten egg whites into the hot mixture and beat only enough to combine.
Pour filling into the baked pie shell. Generously and evenly top with more whipped cream, and  then sprinkle coconut over the top. TA DA!
get in your kitchen and tell me how it goes.

Sweet new chapter, 6 minute walk

It took three days in my new place to get around to pie making. I was inspired to use fresh raw blackberries because its spring and cooked berries just sounds like winter.  I macerated them in Chambord for about an hour, squashed them up and sprinkled them with plain unflavored gelatin.  I pre-baked the pie crust in a tart pan, and while it was still hot I gently placed chopped Ghiradelli milk chocolate chunks all over the hot tart bottom. After it melted I spread it around to a thin layer across the bottom only.  The best parts are to come. The tart spent some quality time in the tiny kitchen windowsill with an evening breeze to cool it off, this is the same kitchen window that I hung curtains I have been saving for ten years in.  The blackberry mixture cascaded into the cooled chocolate brushed crust and went into the fridge to set.  I hand whipped some cream with a little vanilla to go with it.

I sat with two and a half of my roommates for supper and played silly games around the table.  (roommates girlfriend is the half roommate, and she is so delightful) As they were headed out for a night on the town I detained them just briefly to serve this "Walk Downtown Whenever I Want" pie.  After they left I secretly served myself seconds.  One of my favorite pies to date.  When my sweetheart closed his bar and came over to put his feet up and visit with me, I served him a slice too.  That pie warmed my new house right up.  Its a great house, a nice community of folks to come home to, and a lovely kitchen to bake in.  Stop by whenever you want, but just cause my car is there doesn't mean I am because sometimes I walk downtown...if I want to.

The time has come

It is now 3 days until April, and as luck would have it (if anyone still believes in luck) i am in transition to a new home.  i will of course christen this home by baking a pie in it.  When i first moved into my current home i baked a cherry pie before unpacking any boxes.  The only way to find out if a house will in fact become a home is to put something in the oven, and if your like me that something will be pie.  i believe in the power of pie to draw people together, and to call to life our inner instinct to thrive.  Pies have been known to promote peace, harmony, romance, and truth speaking; to inspire music, dance, and rest.
With this blog i hope to bring all those things to you (by some miracle) without you tasting any pies...rest assured all pies involved in this writing are real and have been fed to actual people, some of you lucky readers will have been the recipient of these.  I will chronicle my pie making adventures over the next nine months, including a tally of how much money i spend on pie baking.  It is my goal to get you in your kitchen and build a lasting relationship with your oven, make you think outside the pie box, and show you how pie can change the world one mouth at a time.
do you have a favorite pie?  do you have a suggestion for the first pie i warm my new home with?
what has pie done for you?