Shelf of Pies

By Wayne Thiebaud, c. 1960. Read more about his work on Artsy.

Panama Red's Homemade Pies

From somewhere in Wyoming. Sent in by my dad. See more of his photos here.

A Rustic Cottage and a Rustic Tart (with Wine-Soaked Figs)

Zenobia!

A few weekends ago, I ventured north, up to the Catskills, where I met my friends Diane, Becky, and Ryan in this rustic cottage, aka Zenobia, for an artists' retreat/non-NELP NELP (we have all taught there together, but not this year). The other three were staying for the week, but having just started a new job in D.C., I could only be there for le weekend.

Me, spreading pyllo for spanakopita, Becky at the stove

On Saturday night, Becky and I took on dinner-- a pie night, of sorts-- with spanakopita and roasted asparagus and butternut squash with pecans on the savory side of things, and a rustic tart-- to go with our rustic cabin-- for dessert.

Alice Bradley was the principal of Fannie Farmer's School of Cookery

Initially I just set out to make a strawberry-rhubarb rustic tart, but as Becky and I were chopping vegetables, Ryan read to us from this book-- The Alice Bradley Menu Cookbook, from 1937. Alice organized her cookbook into menus for 3-meals a day for an entire year!

As Ryan read over a menu that included a fig tart, we got to thinking...we had some dried figs in the house, and thought they'd make a nice addition to the strawberry and rhubarb. Since we were in the woods, sans internet, I had to approximate a recipe, but here is basically what I did...

Strawberry-Rhubarb and Wine-Soaked Fig Rustic Tart

Ingredients
Nothing-in-the-House pie crust, halved
2 c. strawberries, hulled and sliced
2 c. rhubarb, chopped
2 c. (or approximately 6-8) dried figs
1/2-1c. red wine
1 c. sugar
3 Tblsp. cornstarch (can use arrowroot)
1 egg, beaten
1-2 Tblsp. Turbinado sugar (for dusting)

Directions
1. Soak figs in 1/2- 1c. red wine for at least one hour. Meanwhile, prepare half of the Nothing-in-the-House pie crust as per the directions. Chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

2. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. When figs are adequately soaked, chop them, and combine with chopped rhubarb and sliced strawberries in a medium bowl. Stir in 1 c. sugar and 3 Tblsp. cornstarch. 

3. Roll out pie crust into a 10-11-inch circle on a cookie sheet. Scoop filling onto the center of the pie crust. Spread, leaving a 2-in. border. Fold edges of pie crust over filling. Brush and seal with an egg wash. Sprinkle Turbinado sugar over the entire tart. 

4. Place in oven for 10 minutes at 425, then lower heat to 375 and let bake for approximately 30 minutes longer, or until crust is golden brown and filling starts to bubble. Serve with vanilla ice cream or homemade whipped cream.

Play Bananagrams while you wait for the tart to bake!

The finished tart was incredibly delicious, particularly with the addition of the seeded figs. I'd call it a new favorite. More importantly, it was so nice to be back in the kitchen, reading books, and making jokes again with these three smarty pants.

It's about that time of year...

To go berry picking for your summer pies, tarts, and jams! It's still strawberry season in the North, and on to blueberries in the South. Raspberries, black raspberries, and blackberries will be ready soon.

The pictures above are from the Oregon State University Archives, and feature berry pickers on Oregon "victory farms" in 1946.

*Top: "Kneeling is Stanley Boyer -- one of the best strawberry pickers in the Portland area. His record was 21 crates of strawberries in a 6 hour day."
*Middle: "Joan Renner, 15 years old, from West Linn, is transferring blackcaps from her picking carrier to a crate on the John Phillips farm in the Carus community of Clackamas County."
*Bottom: " Portland Victory Farm Volunteer raspberry picking platoon at lunch at a farm near Troutdale, Oregon."

Happy summer solstice and happy picking!

Strawberry Pie

With the farmer's markets overflowing with fresh, juicy strawberries, I couldn't resist the urge to buy a few pints and make a strawberry pie.

My last attempt at a strawberry pie was last summer. I was making the pie for a party and left it in the refrigerator to chill as guests arrived. When I went to take it out a few hours later, a piece had been cut out (a pie bandit!) and the filling had spilled into the space. Though delicious, the pie had not set very well, but I never knew if the recipe or the pie bandit was to blame.

This year, I used a slightly different recipe and kept friends far from the fridge as the pie chilled. And guess what? It set! And it was bursting with fresh strawberry flavor.

Strawberry Pie

Ingredients:

1 9-inch pie crust, baked

2 pounds fresh strawberries, rinsed and hulled

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch

1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice, freshly squeezed

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 envelope unflavored powdered gelatin

2 tablespoons cold water

Slice about 3 cups of the strawberries into quarters. Either crush the berries with a fork or process in a food processor until mushy. You should have about 1 1/2 cups crushed berries. Place the crushed berries in a saucepan over medium heat with the sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice and salt and stir to combine. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally until the mixture begins to thicken slightly, about 5-7 minutes.

While the mixture is cooking, soften the gelatin in the cold water and set aside.

Remove berry mixture from the heat, add the softened gelatin and stir until the gelatin has dissolved. Set aside to cool to almost room temperature.

With the remaining berries, set aside the most attractive ones and slice in half (these will go decoratively on the top of the pie). Cut the rest into quarters and fold them into the cooled mixture. Pour this mixture into the baked pie shell then arrange the halved berries on top. Chill in the refrigerator until set, at least 2 hours or overnight before serving.

Adapted from: Sing For Your Supper

Putting Meringue on Lemon Pies

A 1940 U.S. Forest Service photograph: "CCC enrollee baker Toivo Maki is putting meringue on lemon pies which he baked for the enrollees at the Gegoka CCC camp, Superior National Forest, Minnesota."

Find out more at Oregon State University's digital collections.

Koffee Kup in Hico, TX

Images of Hico, Texas' Koffee Kup and their pecan pie à la mode sent in my Brodie, forever holdin' down the Nothing-In-The-House TX fort. Perhaps all an attempt to get me to come visit?

Pie Takes The Cake Interviews Nothing-In-The-House!

A few months ago I joined the Church of Pie group, a collection of folks dedicated to pie, on Facebook. When I posted our Pi(e) Day video, Gina Hyams, author and owner of the sweet site Pie Takes The Cake contacted me and asked if she could interview me about Nothing-in-the-House. I spoke about the origins of the blog and my love for pie, and sent in a few photographs. It turned out so nice! Check it out here.

Gina also sent me a review copy of her adorable Pie Contest In a Box. I'll be writing about it here as soon as I can round up some contestants, judges, and audience!

English Country Pie

I try not to stray too far into pie-themed tangents here, but Fairport Convention is one of my favorite bands, Dylan ain't too shabby, and y'all know how I feel about pie...

Rhubarb Tart at Rachel's Bread

My grandma Georgette at Rachel's

It is a Hilliard family tradition to frequent Rachel's Bread in Goshen, Indiana on Saturday mornings. Rachel's is the French/Belgian-inspired bakery of our friend Rachel Shenk. She used to sell bread out of her home kitchen, but has since established a full-on boulangerie adjacent to the Goshen Farmers' Market, and has acquired a loyal following.

My parents enjoy their frittatas

I came home this weekend to surprise my grandma on her 80th birthday, so on Saturday we headed down to Goshen for some of Rachel's frittatas, croissants, baguettes, and yes, tarts.

Rachel's rhubarb mini tart!

I got this delicious rhubarb mini tart-- diced rhubarb with sugar on a thick pâte sucrée. The thick, doughy and sugared crust--a perfect compliment to the tart rhubarb-- persuaded me to get to work on my own pâte sucrée; I never thought it was necessary before. I have some recipes to try, but if you have a good one, do let me know. I'll have to wait until my next visit home to compare it to Rachel's...

Royers Pie Shop in Round Top, Texas

Submitted by Nothing-in-the-house correspondent Brodie from Austin, TX

Vegan Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie!

Post contributed by my friend Justin in Baltimore...

Making vegan pecan pie is easy! I recently made my first, a chocolate bourbon vegan pecan pie, with great results, as pictured. I read a bunch of recipes, and followed along loosely with the three listed below to get an idea of measurements and ingredients:

Vegan Baking Recipe

American Food Recipe

Cupcake Punk Recipe

The basic idea is to make a sticky, sweet liquid mixture, combine that with about 2 cups of pecans that you've toasted in your pie crust, and bake at 350F for about 35 minutes.

If you're looking for a vegan pie crust recipe, I can recommend 1c all purpose flour, 1/4c water, 1/2c (or 4 oz) non-hydrogenated margarine or vegetable shortening, and a pinch of salt if your margarine isn't salted. Work that all together, put it in the fridge for a while, covered, if you have time, and roll it out when you're ready. For this recipe, you can pre-bake your crust and toast your pecans at the same time. Line your pie dish with your crust, then pour in the pecans, and put it in the oven at 350F for 15 minutes or so.

Choose a mix of sweeteners such as maple syrup, agave, corn syrup, molasses, brown sugar and water, brown rice syrup or whatever else you have on hand. Combine these in a pot with a little vanilla, a pinch of salt, 3 tablespoons or so of bourbon if you like, and heat over low heat for about 5 minutes, stirring. Add a little corn starch at the end, then mix in your pecans, put it all in your pie crust, and bake it! If you want to add chocolate, put in some broken up pieces of baking chocolate or dark chocolate chips or a broken up bar right before you bake the pie.

Gone for PIE

This note--a relic of Pi(e) Day-- still hangs on the wall of my friends' record store, All Day Records, in Carrboro, NC. I like that.

Rustic Blood Orange Tart with Cream Cheese Crust

Spring is in full glory here in Chapel Hill, which brings with it a few things...terrible allergies and a desire to eat fruit, among them. My fruit kick has included a lot of blood oranges recently. They're so vibrant and variegated in color, have a tart little kick, and are delicious with sweet or savory accompaniment. I've been eating them a lot in salads with mixed greens, avocado, goat cheese, almonds, and maple syrup vinaigrette.

While browsing recipes on Smitten Kitchen a few weeks ago, this recipe for a "flaky blood orange tart" caught my eye. I like tart recipes like this that are very simple and really showcase the fruit, without the need for much added spice or sweetener.

My dad was passing through town and requested some pie, the monthly Old Time Jam I coordinate was coming up, and I had a bunch of individually wrapped butter and cream cheese packets leftover from the North Carolina Folklore Society Annual Meeting-- All good indications that it was time to try out this blood orange tart, with some variations. Here's the approximate recipe I used:

Rustic Blood Orange Tart with a Cream Cheese Crust 
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients 
1 cup flour, plus more for dusting
1/4 cup plus 2 Tblsp. raw Turbinado sugar
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
5 Tblsp. salted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces and chilled
4 Tblsp. cream cheese
3 Tblsp. ice water
8 to 10 blood oranges (I only needed 6)
1 large egg yolk mixed with 2 Tblsp. of water

Directions
1. Whisk 1 cup of flour with 2 Tblsp. sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the 4 Tblsp. of cold butter in sliced pieces and cream cheese and cut into flour mixture with a knife and fork or pastry cutter. Sprinkle the dough with the ice water and combine until pastry can be formed into a disk. Wrap pastry in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.

2. On a floured work surface, roll out pastry to an 11-in. round, about 1/4 inch thick. Transfer the pastry to a parchment paper–lined flat cookie sheet and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, peel the blood oranges, removing all of the bitter white pith with a knife. Thinly slice 2 of the oranges crosswise and remove the pits. Transfer the orange slices to a plate. Cut in between the membranes of the remaining oranges, along section lines. You will need 1 cup of sections.

4. Arrange the orange sections on the pastry, leaving a 2-inch border all around. Sprinkle 2 Tblsp. of sugar over the oranges. Thinly slice the remaining 1 Tblsp. of butter over the oranges. Fold up the pastry over the oranges, leaving most of the oranges uncovered. Brush the pastry with the egg wash and sprinkle lightly with 1 Tblsp. of the sugar. Arrange the orange slices on top, leaving a 1-in. border of pastry all around. Sprinkle the remaining 1 Tblsp. of sugar on top. Freeze the tart until solid, at least 4 hours or preferably overnight.

5. Preheat the oven to 375° and position a rack in the center. Place a baking sheet on the rack below to catch any drips. Bake the tart directly from the freezer for 1 hour and 15 minutes, until the fruit is bubbling and the pastry is deeply browned. Let the tart cool completely. Serve with salted butter caramel sauce, if so desired. Recipe here.

I brought the tart to the Old Time Jam at Nightlight and shared it with friends there. Unfortunately my dad couldn't make the jam, but I did save him a slice and handed it off to him at lunch the next day.

Two Pi(e) Day Straggler Photos

I just got a roll of film back with some Pi(e) Day photos. Only two, actually, because I was so busy preventing the masses from slicing in to the pies before we had SUFFICIENTLY DOCUMENTED THEM (just kidding) and keeping things running smoothly all while trying to chat with old pals, meet new pals, and play music that I didn't have time to take any more. The downside of event planning, I suppose. I did have a lot of really great help though, which made it so much easier, and thank goodness Ashley volunteered to photograph and document.

ANYWAY. Here's the two photos I took. One of most of the half-eaten pie spread...


and another of some pals in the Pie (and beer) Enjoyment Zone...


Kelly, Neale, Cath, and a camera shy James.

I think that should be all of the Pi(e) Day-related posts, until next year...

SEEDS Pie Social

SEEDS, a non-profit community garden in Durham, NC is hosting their Pie Social and Skill Share Auction this coming Sunday, April 10th from 2-5 pm. A suggested donation of $10 gets you up to 4 slices of pie and goes to the Durham Inner-city gardeners. Find out more about SEEDS and the event on their website.

I'm aiming to get a thesis draft set off to my advisor this week so that I can attend! Hope to see y'all there.

Two "Chicken" Pot Pies and an Apple Tart

Last week my friend Jon made some delicious chicken and "chicken-less" pot pies and shared it with some friends and I for dinner on a rainy spring evening in Carrboro. The chicken-less pie (above) had quorn patty chunks and the chicken pie (below) had gen-u-ine chicken (and an overflowing crust).


Both pies had the same vegetable ingredients of pearl onions (an excellent addition), peas, corn, carrots, and potatoes in gravy. The folks who tried both said they couldn't really tell the difference between the two.


I contributed a free-jazz apple tart I made, drawing from a combination of past attempted apple tart recipes.


The recipe I made up was approximately as follows:

Free-jazz apple tart

Ingredients:
3 tart apples, cored and very thinly sliced
1/2 c. homemade apple butter
1/4 c. homemade apple-rosemary jelly
juice of 1/2 lemon
raw sugar for sprinkling
nothing-in-the-house pie crust recipe, halved (bottom crust only)

Prepare crust with recipe found here. Refrigerate. Core and thinly slice 3 apples and place in a bowl. Squeeze juice of half of a lemon over the apples and stir. Roll out dough and place in a greased and floured tart pan. Spread apple butter on crust and place apple slices in concentric circles over the apple butter. Sprinkle with raw sugar and bake at 375 for approximately 35-45 minutes. Cool. When tart is still warm, heat apple-rosemary jelly and drizzle over the tart. Slice and serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

I brought the tart over in the double-decker Amish pie carrying basket my parents gave me for Christmas last year.


After a full-day in the library working on my thesis, this pie dinner was just the perfect treat.

St. Patty's Pie

Sent in by my friend Emily O. on March 17th.

Our "Revolution is Round" in Zenchilada!

A few months ago, Ronni Lundy, author of Shuck Beans, Stack Cakes, and Honest Fried Chicken and Southern Foodways Alliance Lifetime Achievement Award winner, asked if my friend Lora and I would contribute an article on Pi(e) Day to Zenchilada, the online culinary magazine Lundy edits with Patricia West-Barker. We wrote the piece as two friends in conversation and used pie as a lens to discuss our ideas of female friendship, tradition, and the domestic arts, all topics we often talk about when we are baking and cooking together in real life.

Zenchilada also used three of the recipes we used in last year's Pi(e) Day-- lemon goat cheese tart with blackberry preserves, avocado pie, and pimento cheese and tomato pie-- as featured recipes in the journal. Wow, they look good when made and photographed by their professional chefs, food stylists, and photographers!


We are so honored to have our words and photos featured in the Winter 2011 issue of Zenchilada. You can read the entire article and photographs here and see our recipe pages starting here. And while your at it, read the rest of the issue. It's excellent and delicious!

Friends of Hoosier Mama

Hoosier Mama Pie Company in Chicago, where our friend Abra works and where Heather and I stopped in for a visit on New Years Day 2010, listed us as a friend/"pie fanatic" on their website, and tweeted about us. Sweetness!

Chicagoans and Chicago visitors, don't miss Hoosier Mama for a delicious (not to mention massive) slice of fresh pie and cup of coffee in this adorable little West Town pie shop.