Allo?! Pie: More from the NELP Kitchen

allo?! pie

Mary stands guard

Miss Pothole's Pie Programme (to be read with a just-fake British accent)

NELP pie, strawberry rhubarb

During my stay as the pie boulangere in- residence at the New England Literature Program in Raymond, ME this Spring season, I had the occasion to bake numerous pies whilst schooling several young protegees in the art of the tart.

One such protegee, Miss Streethsign

Though it was often difficult to beg them to stop gossiping and remain on task, their beginner's attempts turned out quite splendidly.

Voila...

Heart pie, blueberry

WTF lol pie, strawberry rhubarb

Emoticon pie, blueberry rhubarb= bluebarb/rhueberry

INDEED!

For further inquires regarding Miss Pothole's Pie Programme, remit correspondence to
Miss Pothole's Pie Programme
4 & 20 Blackbird Lane
Christmas Pie, England UK
9904PIE

With fond regards and warm pies,

Miss Emily Pothole,
ENJOYING LIFE!

Texas Pies...

So this is my first official post to this sweet blog! Above are 2 pecan pies made with caramels instead of Karo syrup baked by the lovely Tish for a dinner party. And this is a berry crisp that I made just for us to nibble on at work. Does a crisp count as a pie? Hmmm...

Saturday Dinner Pie

Mandy, Greg, Matthew and Ginevra came over for veggie pot pie tonight. This photo is from its soupy state, fresh from the oven. It did set after it cooled, but even wet and sloppy, it still tasted great. I made it in my extra-deep dish, so there was plenty of extra filling...and leftovers for tomorrow!

The great thing about savory pies is that they are a complete meal in one dish! We drank wine and had vegan cookies (made by Mandy) and Tulsi tea for dessert.

Here's my approximate recipe (I kind of freestyled it):


Veggie Pot Pie
Saute in butter:
1 small rutabaga
6 red potatoes
1/2 celeriac
2 carrots
1 onion
1 bag frozen peas

Add garlic, thyme, pepper, and salt, plus enough veggie stock to cover the veggies. Bring to boil, then simmer to evaporate stock (most of it). Make a roux/gravy with butter and flour. Add garlic, thyme, 2 leeks, and heavy cream until a bechamel/gravy sauce is formed. Combine with veggies, and ladle into pie crust. Bake for approx. 45 minutes- hr. at 350 degress F.

Pi Day (3.14): Dallas Outpost

Our Dallas, TX correspondent Shannon sent these lovely pics of her Pi Party.

sour cream pear pie

Shannon's meat pie

Christy's amazing buttermilk (shoo-fly) pie!

Dallas pi(e) party people in the PEZ (Pie Enjoyment Zone)

I'd say it's time to invite Shannon to be a Nothing-in-the-House contributor! Wouldn't you?!

Dede's Savory Pies

Jamie just sent me this e-mail about his latest great pie experience...

oh man
we made the best savory pies the other day!!
my friends build a "brick oven" outside and we cooked em up in there.
oh man

the pies were of two varieties:
AMERICAN pie
and CURRY pie

both were vegan (my friend justin ruined the fun for the rest of us)
but were so tasty that i couldn't fault him this night for his overly
ascetic habits.
one pie picture should be included with this email, but more are
available at www.flickr.com/photos/annamessing

hope all is sweet and savory with you!

JAS

a subsequent e-mail added more detail...

crust used a product called "BUTTERY STICKS." it might have been made by earth balance. can't remember though. the crusts were actually excellent. the innards were, potatoes, carrots, onions, seitan, garlic, green onions, for both, and the seasoning was adjusted to render each either "AMERICAN" or "CURRY." a pie in my eye!

(Pie Enjoyment Zone)

Pecan Peace

A blustery afternoon in Brooklyn, a warm house, good friends, later lunch and impromptu peace pecan pie a la Chris. Perfect.

Pie Enjoyment Zone

Holly Made a Pie!

My friend Holly made an apple pie--using the Nothing-in-the-House recipe from the October 2006 post--for her best friend Allison's birthday party.

Yumm!!

Beautiful Dallas Buddhist/Christmas Pies!

Made by Stacy's friend Shannon's mother-in-law for a party at the Buddhist Center in Dallas.

Karma Cloud

Christmas Pie

What beauts!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TIDINGS TO ALL! Oh the pies we can create in 2008!

Let's Talk About Root Crops...

Veggie Pot Pie

For a Christmas dinner side dish, I made roasted root vegetable/goat cheese packets (wrapped in phyllo dough), adapted from the Williams-Sonoma cookbook, Cooking from the Farmer's Market. They were a big hit, but I had a lot of roasted root veggies left over, so we put them into pot pies! I made a veggie pot pie, and my parents made a chicken pot pie. 

The roasted root veggies included:
1 yellow onion
3 leeks
3 turnips
1 rutabaga
4 potatoes
3 parsnips
4 carrots
You could also use 1 bulb fennel or 1 celeriac, though they didn't have it at the grocery store!

Marinate in olive oil and sprinkle with thyme, rosemary (or herbs de provence) and salt and pepper. Let sit until pie crust and gravy is ready.

Veggie gravy:
Make a rue with butter and flour. add veggie stock and thyme & rosemary or herbs de provence.
Put root veggies into the pie crust and mix in gravy. add top shell and bake for about 45 minutes at 350.


ENJOY (with white wine and a fireplace, if possible)!

Christmas Pie

From wikipedia: Christmas Pie is a village, in Surrey, England. Named after Christmas Pie Farm (1823) a name probably associated with the Christmas family that is mentioned in 16th century records.

What kind of Christmas pie will you be making?

Pies Oh Mies, By Marina

Louis with a tart

For the Tivoli Craft day last weekend, I baked and sold some pies and tarts. The pies were Apple Green Tomato, and the tarts were Apple with Almond Cream... so scrummy both.

 

Pies in the oven

I got one lovely testimonial from a lady the day after she bought the Apple Green Tomato pie "We had your pie for dessert last night and it was delicious! (in a whisper) I even had some for breakfast." Sophia's choice quote was "Pie is always good in a pinch."

Alen Newman with pie

Also, before the craft fair I went to the bakery to buy some pie boxes, and Mikey said I should sell them for $12, or $2.50 per slice. When Sophia went back on Sunday to get two more boxes, Mikey asked how much I was selling them for, she said $12, and that they were selling fast, and he - very uncharacteristically - got very excited saying "Yes! Good for her! Right on!" and such and such.

The Pie Stand

HOORAY FOR PIES!

Jill's Thanksgiving Pies

Apple

Pecan (with maple)...her first attempt!

Portland Pies: Thanksgiving 2007

apple and maple pie, fresh from the oven

For the third year in a row, I spent The #1 Pie Day of the Year (Thanksgiving) in Portland, ME with Robert & Talya and the Portland crew. The first year I made a maple walnut pie, last year I made a cranberry pie, and this year I baked two: a maple pie and an apple pie. Talya made a delicious pumpkin.


The apple pie was pretty standard...I used Northern Spy apples and improvised the filling--brown sugar, a bit of flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and lemon juice. For the crust decor, I cut out and added a turkey with my turkey cookie cutter.

I got the recipe for the maple pie from Epicurious, but modified it just a tad. Here's the recipe I used: 

Maple Syrup Pie 
Ingredients: 
Pie crust 
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup heavy cream (I used 1/2 half and half, 1/2 whipping cream)
1/3 cup pure maple syrup, grade B
2 teaspoons unsalted butter, melted

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Roll out crust and place in pie dish. I used a turkey cookie cutter and placed cut-out turkeys all around the perimeter of the crust.
3. Whisk together brown sugar and eggs. Add cream, syrup, and butter, and whisk until smooth. Pour filling into pie shell.
4. Bake pie until crust is golden and filling is puffed and looks dry but still shakes, 50 to 60 minutes. Cool, Enjoy!

We topped ours with whipped cream. The pie is already so sweet, I would recommend not sweetening the whipped cream.

Everyone LOVED this pie, which was a pleasant surprise! Next time I'd like to try making it with all maple syrup and no brown sugar.

The dessert table, with the maple and apple pies and Talya's amazing Ukranian cookies. The pumpkin pie was on the 2nd tier of the dessert table!

High on pie, we made up a little song about them:

Dewald Thanksgiving 2008

This year's Seamonster Thanksgiving was totally fun with 7 seamonsters sharing Thanksgiving dinner and 9 seamonsters sharing drinks and dessert. We all got a little goofy on beer and heaping plates of outrageousness, and Meghan passed out again, after a full day at work in the kitchen, waking up to find all the food put away and the house quiet. Well, sort of quiet. Highpoints include EVERYTHING - mashed potatoes, stuffing, squash-apple-cheese gorgeous, turkey, sweet potato-apricot amazingness, rolls, salad, brussel sprout-fennel, a complete line up of delicious drinks, including Meghan's homemade wild grape nectar, and of course, PIES!

Many of us were way too full to fully enjoy pies, but Greg and I did manage to save pie-shaped wedges of stomach space ("pie holes" if you will) in which we delicately slid multiple pieces of pie each.

Meghan won the day with 3 pies, including these two dueling apple pies. One had Dutch heirlooms (on the left) and the other had French heirlooms (on the right). I went for the French, and the pie was perfect.


The pie line up also included a pumpkin pudding pie by Greg which was a little runny this year but absolutely the sweetest tasting thing imaginable. Meghan rounded out the pie bar with a Japanese squash pie, which was unbelievably good with a subtle flavor and great texture and beautiful sheen.



And what's for breakfast? Pie, of course! And for lunch? Apple-squash-cheese gorgeousness and turkey sandwiches!
Thank you, Meghan, Gahlord, JT, Rachel, Rachel, Greg, Tanner and JB! Thank you, farmers and bringers of food! Thank you, plants and animals! Thank you soil, rocks, wind and water! Joy to all!

Da DEEP Dish

A few weeks ago some friends and I made our way to Rokeby for the Superior Concept Monsters puppet workday--to help build puppets for the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade and to make food for the people who help build puppets.

Sara, Heather, and I were on kitchen duty, and in one mad hour of aproned girl talk, loud dance music, and cooking, whipped out a chicken pot pie, vegetable pot pie, chicken stew, chard, salad, and apple pie. Since both pie plates were being used for the dinner pies, the apple pie had to be made DEEP dish style. The deep dish, folks, is not a poor man's pie. It requires plenty of heaping fruit.

But the deep dish= deep delish= deep daze. just ask Brodie:



Unfortunately, no pictures were taken of the savory pies.

Summer Memories of Peach Pie

Texas girl with a peach pie

Awhile back (during the height of peach season) I made a peach pie for Stacy and Chris' going away party at Shelburne Farms. To make the crust, I cut out little hearts with a former-home items cookie cutter, and arranged them in concentric circles around the top. I like the effect!

Indiana Fall: A story in One Act

Last weekend, Michael and I paid a long overdue visit to Elkhart. Thanks to Emily's insistence that we re-live her childhood, we found ourselves traversing the back roads of Indiana in search of an old apple orchard. And then, gold:









Or so we thought. The late frosts this spring and lack of rain this summer have left parts of Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan shy on apples. Jacqueline was comforted by the gourds we found for sale, but Michael was inconsolable.




After we knocked on the door of the old house, however, and J reacquainted herself with the Eberlys, we were told to scavenge for whatever we could find:








In the midst of our frolicking, Don met us with a WWI-era shotgun (and his dog, I think from the same era). In jest, of course--or so he claimed. Walking through the orchard, we heard stories of elephants, crooked politicians, and hardy hibiscus.










The stories continued into the barn, where Don supplemented our meager fruit supply and sent us home with wishes for a delicious evening.

Jacqueline's pie did not disappoint.