3 Nights of Blackberry Desserts

During my last week at Rokeby, Howie discovered a plentiful blackberry bramble behind the white house. It was probably the most fruitful berry patch I have ever foraged from, and the fruits of our labor yielded 3 nights of blackberry desserts. First we enjoyed a blackberry-ginger cobbler.
For the biscuit topping I used a recipe for "Yankee Biscuits" I got from Clara. It is as follows:
Yankee Biscuits
3 c. flour
2 Tblsp. sugar
2 Tblsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1 stick cold butter
1 1/2 c. cold milk

Combine dry, cut in butter until consistency of cornmeal & peas. Add milk, stir gently. Place on floured board and knead 14 times. Roll out into 1-inch. Cut and bake for 15 minutes in 425 degree oven.
I just rolled out the biscuit topping, and placed it on top of the blackberry filling, which I had poured into a cake pan. We enjoyed it a la mode, after Louis' delicious fish stew. The second night, I made a blackberry rustic tart, topped with Sam Comfort's honey from Anarchy Apiaries. It was basically a pie with a thrown-together/less-artful crust. And for the last night and a Big House-Yellow House Cookout with guest Diane Cook, I made a blackberry-ginger pie, washed with a brilliant orange egg from the hens of Shoving Leopard farm. The fillings of all three were riffs on the recipe used here, with ginger or honey added. Eggwashed and baked, with a poem...
Blackberry Pie
by Jennifer Rae Vernon

is kernels of juice
blue, mom makes it do
magic heat to vanilla ice cream
purple dream

there were many nice things,
the corduroy pinafore
the daily notes in lunch sack
of a smiley face and curly cue hair
your mama loves you, and do great
with a thermos of homemade soup

dad too, he rocked me on front porch
after seven yellow jacket stings
i howled through the valley
in baking soda paste
while he sang, in the big rock candy mountain...

but just like grandma vernon always said
don't bother doing anything nice for your children
they'll only remember the bad things, anyway
like when she tethered my dad
to the front yard tree
so he could play when she was at work

was that bad? a ruined childhood?
bless her heart
and pie too, is sometimes
tart

Pie for Breakfast by HOME ITEMS

There once was a band-turned-creative collective called HOME ITEMS composed of 7 gal-pals in Burlington, Vermont. We like to make noise and music with domestic items and write and sing songs about food, the kitchen, and various other feminine/feminist topics. A while back, we wrote a song (lyrics by Michelle) called 'Pie For Breakfast,' (original post with lyrics here) about invigorating the New England tradition of enjoying pie in the morning. We recently re-recorded it and made this video so we could post it here.

  

Please enjoy and help us bring back the tradition!

P.S. I'd like to give a shout-out to our new fan/pie friend Michelle who posted about Nothing-In-The-House on her awesome "Blah Blah Blah Blog" here!

Blueberry Pie on the 4th of July

The 4th of July kicked off my summer month of farming, baking, berries, and friends at Rokeby. Matt arrived by train from the city the night before, and after a morning of weeding in the garden and burritos at Bubby's, the 4 of us headed to Grieg's to pick a bucketfull bounty of blueberries for the evening's pies and the buckles and ice cream to be made later.

After a few rounds of bags, a few rounds of beers, and lying in the grass, we set to make the pies before the fireworks started. Matt wanted to try his hand at the crust (using the recipe at right) and I tackled the filling.

Here's the approximate recipe I used, for 1 pie: 

 Combine the following:
At least 6 cups fresh berries, washed and de-stemmed
3 Tblsp. corn starch or arrowroot
1 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. lemon zest
1/4 tsp. salt
Splash of lemon juice
 
Pour into bottom crust, and cut a lattice top (HINT: use a ruler or some other guide so your strips are approx. the same width), wash with a fresh and golden Shoving Leopard Farm egg! Bake for 10 min. at 425, then reduce heat to 350 and bake 35-40 min. longer until crust is golden and flaky, and filling is bubbly. 

We put them in the oven, and went up the dark spiral staircase to the tower, to watch the fireworks from various towns across the Hudson. We all saw a ghost on our descent.

Then we celebrated the birthday of Marina, France, and the USA in the PEZ.

A new farm and cherry pie.

This is a story of two friends, a whole lotta manual labor,
and a dream of growing delicious, organic goodness.

Abra and Jess have started their dream and oh my, how they are succeeding. They are currently growing multitudes of produce and selling it both at local farm markets and to various restaurants in Chicago. Bare Knuckle Farm is on its way!


The last weekend in July, Bare Knuckle Farm hosted its first annual work weekend--a gathering of various friends and ne'er-do-wells who rolled up their sleeves to paint a barn, build a permanent herb bed, weed (and weed and weed and weed), feed chickens and geese, haul rocks from Lake Michigan to be built into an outdoor oven. Despite a few rain clouds and the necessary breaks for fun, a lot of work was accomplished--really!


But let's remember that this is a pie blog, and as such, we must eventually bring this story around to pie. Well, the produce itself is situated on an old farm that houses lots of other deliciousness--like these beautiful cherry trees.


One resident pie baker insisted that we pick a few to make a pie. Twist our arms! We got busy picking, then Jess sat down to pit them all.

That man is a cherry-pitting machine! After that, Jill worked her magic. Flour flew and fingers kneaded, and after sitting a spell in the oven, those babies were baked to perfection.


Of course, we had to wait for them to cool a bit--oh, the torture! That gave us time to play the best.party.game.ever! (Tie breaking round to be held at the Bare Knuckle Farm's second annual work weekend in 2010.) Despite the intensity of the game, the smell drove us to indulge in pie before too long. Jill was so kind as to dish it up with some vanilla ice cream. The perfect combination of sweet and tart, with a wonderfully crumbly crust.


Abra, Jill, Mary, Sara, Anika, Jess, and Erik in the Pie Enjoyment Zone (PEZ).


In our pie-induced stupor, we decided we needed to show the PEZ from another angle.


But really, there's no better indication of the success of a pie than the Breakfast Test.


And it passed that one with flying colors.

Thank you for two delicious cherry pies, Jill!
And thank you, Abra and Jess, for starting a great new tradition.

NELPie Cart ChaCha Line

All was quiet in the dining hall. The 6 tables were set with 9 places each and laid with a letterpressed menu for the evening's banquet, which foretold of savory wholesome dishes and good nutrition. Through the paned windows, the western light cast its glint from across the lake, which was serene and glassed at this hour. The only sound was the faint din of the breeze upon the hinged door, for all the students were bathing in their last moments on the docks and cliffs of Wohelo. When suddenly, HARK! a clamor of tin and aluminum, foot and floor, wheel and ball-bearing, erupted from the kitchen, an uproar that could only be that of chaotic celebration and fruity and heavily-sweetened concoctions! Whatever could this disturbance be, but none other than...THE NELPie CART CHACHA LINE!!!!

Sure to spoil savory suppers everywhere by pairing provocative dancing with provocative dessert, the NELPie Cart and its chacha devotees boasted 11 fresh (made that day) and homemade pies:

Crustless Coconut Cream (Obama family recipe) Pie
Banana Cream Pie
Sweet Potato Pie (rectangular!)
Mixed Berry pie
2 Wild Maine Blueberry Pie (Blueberries from Stoneset Farm)
2 Mixed Berry Rustic Tarts
Mixed Berry Pie
Raspberry-Blueberry Ginger Pie
Chocolate Pudding Pie
and a Vegan Avocado Pie

The Vegan Avocado Pie (also raw) has been a favorite of mine for the past year for its lightness, flavor, and ease. I've made it a lot but have yet to blog it. The recipe is as follows:

Vegan Avocado Pie

Ingredients
1 packet graham crackers
1/2 c. Earth Balance (for vegan), unsalted butter (for non-vegan), melted
Cream from 2 cans coconut milk
1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. lime juice
1 ripe avocado, mashed
1/4 c. confectioner's sugar

Directions
1. In a food processor, place the graham crackers, and pulse until crumbs form. Add the melted butter through the feeding tube and mix to combine. Press into the bottom of a 9-inch pie plate.

2. Meanwhile put 1 can coconut milk into the fridge. After 1 hour, open, and spoon the cream from the coconut water.

3. Add sugar, lime juice, and 1 ripe mashed avocado to the coconut cream. Mix until incorporated and pour into graham cracker crust.

4. Refridgerate one hour until set. Top with mango/kiwi for decoration. If desired, mix another can of coconut cream with 1/4 c. powdered sugar to use as "whipped cream." Enjoy!!! Crust can be made with crushed pistachio, if desired. Agave nectar can replace sugar, for a healthier sweetness.


After the NELPie Cart Dancers wove their kickline through the tables, summoning all NELPers from their cabins and beehives, tempting them from their whole sprouted grains and and beta carotene, they lined up their wares on the table, and served them with a devilish dollop of whipped cream. Just what it did to those NELPers...well, the photographs (by J. Budd and Laura L.) speak for themselves...


Watch out! The NELPie Cart may be coming to ravage a dining hall and ruin an appetite near you!

Folkways Pie

I made a 'Folkways pie' to share with the staff on my last day as an intern at Smithsonian Folkways. It was a classic apple (with a touch of cranberry) pie. The sun in the background is a riff on the Smithsonian Folkways logo. As became my adopted joke motto--for style, wardrobe, music and food--when I was there: "Is that Folkways enough??!?"


If you are unfamiliar with Smithsonian Folkways, get familiar. Folkways Records was a record label started by collector, Mo Asch, in 1948. He put out a varied and eccentric collection of American and International Folk music, World music, spoken word, soundscapes, instructional albums, nature sounds, etc. Some favorites include Michael Hurley's first album First Songs, Shirley Collins' False True Lovers, Richard Lerman's Travelon Gamelon: Music for Bicycles, Jim Nollman's Playing Music with Animals, and of course, the Harry Smith Anthology of American Folk Music. In 1987, the Smithsonian bought Folkways, adding their moniker and support of the national museum, and they have continued to uphold Mo Asch's mission as well as put out some excellent new albums and old archival materials.

Plus the collection of almost 3,000 albums contains some great songs about pie!:
-Pumpkin Pie by Joe and Odell Thompson
-Custard Pie Blues by Sonny Terry's Washboard Band
-The Preacher and the Slave (Pie In The Sky) by Cisco Houston, Joe Glazer, and Pete Seeger
-No More Pie by Ella Jenkins
Even a poem:
-Calico Pie by Edward Lear

Golden Birthday Pie Party Potluck!

On April 26th, my 26th birthday, I drove up to Stoneset Farm, the home of my friends Nathan & Clara and their young daughters, Eleanor and Magpie, in Brooklin, Maine. They had organized a beautiful pie potluck party for my birthday and the birthday of their friend Fred (the day before). I arrived (with a pear-ginger pie in tow) a little late, to this dreamy scene of a picnic table full of delicious pies (at least 10), dear friends, kids and dogs running about, the start of spring on the farm, and a new little baby Magpie (how apropos) to meet.
 The pie table--note Eleanor's little custard pie in the red dish, and Alison's amazing leeky cheese pie (leeks and all the leftover cheese in her house.) Some other favorites were Clara's (she also took these lovely photos) custard pie with eggs from their chickens, a spinach mushroom eggy pie, a banana cream pie, and a wild Maine blueberry with a few strawberries pie. The spread made for quite a colorful and copious plate of pie and by the end of the afternoon, EVERY pie was completely gone, leaving us wondering how many more pies would we need to add for there to be any leftover? We followed the pie with some fiddle tunes and swinging. I'm so grateful to Nathan and Clara and their friends for making my golden birthday so special--I can't think of a better way to have spent the day. Thank you!

How To Make Apple Pie and See The World

Last winter I taught a week-long class for 1st &2nd graders entitled, "How To Make Apple Pie and See The World" (title taken from this book) at Mt. Vernon Community School in Alexandria, VA. We sewed oven mitts, made baker's hats with apple prints, read about life cycles of apples and dairy, illustrated a family food tradition, learned pie fractions, and of course, made and ate a delicious apple pie. We also wrote our very own pie song. Here's the song the class composed, accompanied by a picture of our pie:

 

Two of the students were so excited by our pie melody that they wrote an additional song, inspired by Neil Young's "Love Is A Rose," which they knew from a children's cover album. Here's their version:

Let's bake a pie right now.

Is the Whoopie Pie a Pie?

Though I have spent a good deal of time in Maine and grew up in Amish country, I didn't pay whoopie pies much heed until one of the reference librarians at the American Folklife Center came in with this New York Times article, raving about the sandwiched dessert. After a long discussion with her on the merits of the whoopie, its history, and the difference between a whoopie pie and a moon pie, I figured it was my obligation as an aspiring folklorist and pie enthusiast to give these traditional treats a whirl and investigate the question: is the whoopie pie indeed a pie?

I followed this recipe from the Times article, which happens to be from Zingerman's Bakehouse, a favorite Ann Arbor haunt. The cakes were indeed dry and not-so-sweet, which I thought was perfect, especially considering the OBSCENE amount of butter called for in the filling. Next time I would cut down on the butter, because when I put the whoopies in the fridge, the filling congealed in a not-so-appealing way, more reminiscent of biting into a stick of butter than not.


Since baking these whoopies once in Alexandria, with expert tasters Abby and Jake, and again at NELP in Maine, I tried a pumpkin whoopie (which I prefer to chocolate) at the Dutch Country Market in Laurel, MD and a brownie whoopie, homemade by a pair of little girls at the Bowdoinham, ME Farmers' Market. Both were excellent.


So is a whoopie a pie? Recipe-wise, it seems more like an inverted cupcake to me, but it does utilize the basic pie structure of filling surrounded by 2 doughs. But in the end I find the question negligible--no big whoop(ie).

Recital season in Santa Barbara...

Hey pie people :) So Emily, you met my friends Bridget, Calisa, and Shannon. Well basically the month of April and so far May I have felt like the husband of three manaically emotional pregnant woman because they all are finishing their MA degrees and doing their recitals. Two down, one to go... But what calms the nerves like nothing else? That's right: pie. So for my room mate Bridget's recital, I was commissioned to make pies. I wasn't given much direction, except not to make anything "weird," so I decided to step up to the plate and try my hand for the FIRST TIME EVER at making my own personal favorite. And so you see me, after a long afternoon of careful preparation, proudly displaying my first Black Bottom Banana Cream Pies. Does anyone else love this pie as much as I do? It's about as bad for you as you can get, but hey, let's first come to terms with the fact that I guess this is a PIE BLOG... Anywho, a friend of mine who made two cheesecakes for the reception decided we should have a little friendly competition and see who made the more kickass dessert, and at the end of the night he approached me and conceded defeat. I have to admit they were a hit -- I was bursting with pride :) As far as the recipe goes, I'm not posting it or anything only because I feel like if you just get the layers right (crushed graham or nilla crust, sliced banana, vanilla pudding or custard, whipped topping, bam) it's somewhat idiot-proof and most recipes are basically the same. I URGE EVERYONE TO MAKE THIS PIE MORE OFTEN. It will win you friends, basically (and only occasionally lose them for you -- my buddy approached me at the reception and lambasted me for my choice. But when I apologized and said I would make whatever his favorite pie was anytime and asked him what it was, he replied "banana cream pie." I asked him what the problem was in that case, and he answered "I'm violently allergic to bananas!" Sorry, John.)

Guest Submission: Cherry-Hobo-Campfire Pie with Serendipity Shavings

The epic tale of this pie begins with an act of faith: my housemate announced that we would be having an inter-house Easter potluck/bonfire and that we all ought to make something. I'd never been to an Easter dinner before, and that fact may or may not have had something to do with the decision to make a pie, my first ever. We happened to have some canned cherries lying around the kitchen, and I went to the Bestway in search of some butter (and also to Pfeiffer's for a bike tube, but that is unrelated).

I've made lots of food and food-like things before, but never pie. I don't feel biased against pies--I happen to enjoy them very much. I just tend to make more food-for-the-week stuff, like soups. But for whatever reason, the spirit had moved me, so to speak, in the direction of a cherry pie.

I was raised Jewish, and the people who raised me Jewish live in Florida, so there was no religion or family to distract me from this pie.

Given that this was my first pie, I was very nervous about the crust falling apart. I've heard the horror stories. I checked a couple cookbooks and the general consensus is that the ingredients have to be really cold before rolling them out onto a pie tin. I thus spent as much, if not more time refrigerating the crust ingredients before starting than I would baking the pie. I heated the canned cherries with brown sugar and a thickening agent. I put the latter on top of the former, refrigerated it again just to be sure, and then baked it on 400F for 50 minutes.


At some point in this process my housemate told me that, in fact the Easter potluck had been canceled due to lack of neighborly interest, but we'd probably have the bonfire later on.

At 6:28:46 in the PM I sent out a text message about this resurrection-themed bonfire. A few minutes later I received a call from the host of this blog, although at the time I did not know that this blog existed. Emily said "word on Irving street is that there is a bonfire at your house!" I said "yes, and I made a pie." To which Emily said, "no way, did you know I have a blog about pies?". To which I said "well, it's my first pie ever so it probably isn't worth blogging about." To which, of course, she said "woah I have a whole section about first pies!"

A gang assembled in my backyard after sundown. Pie was consumed hobo-style, which is to say, passed around a campfire, eaten directly from the tin with a single shared fork.

My coincidence of having made a pie for a pie-blogger (and subsequently writing for her blog myself) was dwarfed by other serendipitous and auspicious events. Emily, it turned out, had a friend in common with Isabel, and they phoned him from beside the campfire. It was also revealed that when Iga moved to DC, her best friend Jimmy gave her the phone number of my friend Jordan, who was also present at the bonfire and pictured next to me in the photo above.

I am happy to have discovered this blog, the connections between the people described herein, and the fun to be had from piebaking.

-Sam

3.14

dallas folks celebrated pi in a big way. i made a pinto bean pie (thanks for suggesting it emily and homesick texan). check the pictures here.

Pi Day (3.14): Washington D.C. Outpost

On Pi Day last Saturday, we here in the Nothing-in-the-House Washington D.C. outpost celebrated with a rainy day-long pie making extravaganza. Danny generously gave Matt and me the run of his well-equipped kitchen (not to mention his breezy apartment including a great record collection and turn tables)for our pie production. By the evening, we had produced 3 pies, an extra crust (for the peach pie featured below), and a crumble composed of leftover ingredients. They were as follows: The MVP (Most Valuable Pie) of the day: Key Lime, using Martha Stewart's recipe. Matt tackled the day's oddball pie--a sweet Pinto Bean Pie, using this recipe from the great blog, Homesick Texan. The protein-full filling was supported by Nothing-in-the-House's standard crust(at right.) We substituted some maple syrup for brown sugar, and next time, I might advise using all syrup to cut eliminate refined sugars. For our classic selection, we went with Apple Pie(using the linked recipe, but with cornstarch instead of tapioca, and sans pre-cooking apples), but switched it up, by making it a DEEP DISH in a glass pyrex bowl. With the leftover apples and graham cracker crumbs from the key lime pie crust, we made an apple crumble, which Matt ended up "stuffing" in the pocket of the deep dish apple (that crust and fruit separation that apple pie is prone to) for a apple-crumble-stuffed-deep-dish-apple-pie. Take that tur-duck-in! We enjoyed the pies after a pasta, salad, wine, and empanada (more pies!) dinner with Danny (who also took these beautiful pics), followed by a bit of mandolin.

(Preserved) Peach Pie

Last night my friend Layne and I made a peach (with perhaps some nectarine mixed in) pie with fruit he froze last summer. We drained about 2 quarts of peaches (they were frozen in their own juice) and added ginger and cinnamon--it really didn't need any sweetener because the fruit was so sweet already! We put the peaches between the nothing-in-the-house standard crust recipe, making an extra-thick edge, and baked for about 15 minutes at 425, then reduced to 375 and baked for about 30-35 minutes more.
All the deliciousness of summer in early spring!

Birthday Meat Pie at Pretty Boy Reservoir

The Baltimore nothing-in-the-house contingent is keeping the spirit alive with al fresco birthday meat pies. Jamie reports via e-mail:

went to prettyboy reservoir yesterday with anna bob and adrienne to celebrate b-days with champagne and a meatpie. it was awesome.

A truly excellent savory pie was consumed. The sharp cheddar was the key.Sunset was nice too.

Greg Makes Pie... And It's Good

On Thursday, Greg made an apple pie, following the recipe from Angelica Kitchen cookbook with a butter for oil modification. This recipe is a good one for those seeking a rustic, wheat-and-maple flavor without the cane sugar. Greg was so amazingly precise and careful with all the chopping, measuring, mixing and rolling that it took him a long time, but he enjoyed it and produced a delicious, tender and flavorful creation. His friend, Ryan, was there, hanging out while he made it. I was lucky enough to come home and see it getting put together. Even the slashes on the top look like Greg made them to me, which of course, he did.


I also made two 30 second raspberry-blueberry tarts with some of the leftover dough, heartshaped. You can tell they were me because look how sloppy they are. But they were good to taste, too!


We then brought the pie over the Meghan and Gahlord's, where we enjoyed an evening of pie, cookies, laughs and crafting.


Meghan in the PEZ


Allaire and me in the PEZ

On Friday night, Greg and I re-entered the PEZ with friends, Chris and Ryan, enjoying pie with Vanilla Coconut Bliss, a great fake ice cream product with no cane sugar and a must try for those of you who don't do dairy, soy or refined sugs or who like coconut.