5th Annual Portland Thanksgiving in March!

So I know it's March and 81 degrees here in D.C., but before we slip too far into warm weather and the end of storage crop season, I first want to show you some pics and share some recipes from last year's Thanksgiving! There was a bit of a stall in getting the photos, but it was well worth the wait, as they were taken by my talented photographer friend Maria (MAV) of 3191 and More & Co.

Though I was not able to make it to Maine for the 2010 Thanksgiving, last year marked my 5th year spending Turkey Day with the Portland crew. It's always the best of times, with music playing, record shopping, and food making, and this year my friend Jamie (of Nothing-in-the-House plate lickers club fame), was in on the fun.

I assembled the crust in Maria's beautiful kitchen on Wednesday, while she prepped the cookie tray. I love being in the kitchen with and working alongside this lady (remember the apple galette I made last time I was visiting?). On Thursday morning, after a midnight trip to the 24-hour L.L. Bean headquarters the night before, Jamie and I made the pies. We settled on a drunken pumpkin bourbon pie with marscapone cream (adapted from Tartlette) and a Maine blueberry-cranberry pie (with frozen Maine blueberries Maria had picked in the summer, and fresh Maine cranberries). The recipe for the drunken pumpkin bourbon pie is as follows.

Drunken Pumpkin Bourbon Pie with Mascarpone Cream
Adapted from Tartlette 

Ingredients for pie:
Nothing-in-the-House pie crust recipe, halved
2 c. canned pumpkin purée (for why I often use canned pumpkin instead of fresh, read here)
3 eggs
1/2 c. light brown sugar
1 c. heavy cream
2 Tblsp. bourbon
1 Tblsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. sea salt
2 Tbslp. molasses
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. cloves
1/4 tsp. nutmeg

Ingredients for mascarpone cream:
4 oz. marscapone
1/4 c. honey
1/2 cup heavy cream, whipped until soft peaks form
Roasted pumpkin seeds (for garnish, optional)

Directions for pie:
1. Prepare Nothing-in-the-House pie crust. Chill dough for at least one hour. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Then roll out single crust and fit into a greased and floured 9-in. pie pan. Flute crust decoratively (I tried out a braid and I liked it!).
2. Place pumpkin purée in a large bowl. Add eggs and brown sugar and mix with a Kitchen Aid or handheld mixer. Add remaining ingredients and blend until mixture if fully combined and fluffy. Pour filling into pie crust and place in oven. Bake for 15 minutes at 375, then reduce heat to 325 and bake for 45 minutes or until filling only slightly wiggles in the center when nudged. Let cool and keep at room temperature or chill in the refrigerator if making ahead.

Directions for mascarpone cream:
1. In a medium bowl mix (by hand or with a mixer) together mascarpone and honey. Gently fold in whipped cream. Scoop on top of baked and cooled pie and garnish with roasted pumpkin seeds! Enjoy! 

Dang, this is a great pumpkin pie (you know it's good when it's got molasses, brown sugar AND bourbon!) with a good amount of spice that adds flavor without being too overbearing. I don't think I'll ever make another pumpkin version. For the Maine blueberry-cranberry pie, I essentially followed this recipe, but with the berries instead. 'Twas also quite tasty, and with the tartness of the cranberries, similar to a blueberry-rhubarb pie (one of my favorites), yet seasonally and regionally appropriate.

After dinner and some music playing, we set up our dessert buffet, which featured a cookie tray by Maria, a walnut torte by Robs and Tals, two varieties of chocolate-pecan pie, and various other treats. Afterwards we retired to the living room for more song-singing, joke telling, and an awe-inspiring dance performance by 3-year old Miles. You can see and read more about our Thanksgiving via MAV's blog 3191.

Big thanks to MAV, CDR, RTS, Robert, Talya and Jamie for being awesome hosts and all-around rad people. Looking forward to my 6th Portland Thanksgiving, which is now only 8 months away!

4th Annual Portland Thanksgiving

Here it is boxing day and I have not yet posted about pies from Thanksgiving! Here they are, presented in rhyming couplets...

For the 4th year in a row to Portland I did go,
Well, let's get this straight, it is really SoPo.
Though it took 13 hours through great traffic trials,
It was well worth the trip to meet sweet baby Miles.

I opted to make apple cranberry pie,
The recipe for which Laura Dove won the Washington Post prize.
I used the ingenious apple core-cut-skin machine

cut out circles of crust and brushed on an egg sheen
After fire, singing, and dinner we set up our pie bar,
A dessert buffet of the highest par.Talya's pie was the richest chocolate diner
The recipe from Mav's friend Martha (a fabulous cook, though a bit of a whiner)
Jamie made a pumpkin, with no use of can
Mav's dessert was one of ginger--the bread, not the man.
Along with the apple cran, I added a pie of maple,
Which may well become a Thanksgiving staple.

At this bar, Talya couldn't believe her sight

It fueled Saiyid's ocean swim on that cold November night
And made Mav want to just take a big bite!Oh, what fun times this crew does create,
And so much pie for one little plate!

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:

Apple Galette at MAV's

For the past five years I have gone to Portland, Maine for Thanksgiving. This year, though, my friends Diane & Jorge got married there in late-October, so I made my trek a month early.

I stayed with my friend Maria (MAV) who writes the beautiful 3191 blog. After she picked me up from the airport, we hit the Rosemont Market for some lunch and ingredients, and then both settled into her apt/studio and got to work. She was printing cards on her letterpress and I was set up in the kitchen to make a galette.

See this and more of her photos here

She recommended a recipe from David Tanis' cookbook "A Platter of Figs" for a rectangular apple tart. I followed his recipe, with some adaptations, like using half whole wheat pastry flour and leaving the apple skins on. My recipe is as follows:

Apple Galette

Ingredients
Nothing-in-the-House pie crust, with 1 c. all-purpose flour and 1 c. whole wheat pastry flour

8 medium apples of similar size but various varieties

1 c. sugar + extra for sprinkling

1 c. water

Directions
1. Make crust as per the directions and refrigerate. Meanwhile, core and slice apples as thin as possible. Reserve the cores for the glaze.

2. For the glaze, combine cores, sugar and water in saucepan and simmer until thickened. Strain and reserve. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

3. When the glaze is finished, roll out the dough in a rectangle on parchment paper. Transfer the parchment paper and dough to a rectangular baking sheet, and place apple slices in 5 rows over the crust. Leave a little crust around the edges to fold over the sides. Sprinkle sugar over the apples and bake for 45 min. Before serving, reheat the glaze and brush over the apples.

After we finished our work for the day, Maria and I had ours with a dollop of vanilla ice cream, but we thought it would also be delicious with a slice of aged, grainy gouda! This recipe is super simple and really showcases the fruit.

Though I am already missing Thanksgiving deliciousness, outdoor fires, and folk-freestying with the Portland crew, our October reunion in Maine was pretty spectacular. It was peak fall color time, I witnessed and celebrated the marriage of two favorite people, with even more favorite people, and just at the moment that the galette came out of the oven, there was a double rainbow, visible from Maria's apartment! For real no joke!

Maine (& MAV) = Magic. Miss you guys.

Welcome to Maine Pie

A few days after Thanksgiving I visited Derek and Robyn at their lovely seaside Portland home for some Christmas decorating and welcome-pie making for Artie, who was moving to Portland that evening. We decided to go with a rustic tart-tart of Bosch pear and cranberries, with not too much sugar, a bit of cinnamon, and a whole wheat (pastry flour) crust.For the crust design, Derek used his fine cartographic skills to cut out an outline of the state of Maine--complete with islands and practically perfect lettering. While it was baking, we joined Robyn in the dining room to string cranberries for the tree and watch at the window for Artie.When he finally arrived in his new state, we whipped up some cream and entered the Pie Enjoyment ZoneDerek and Robyn in the PEZ
Maine pie: The Way Life Should Be

Persimmon Pie for Marcie

I can't get enough of this orange color, which happens to match my wallpaper!

I haven't posted for a while. It's not that I haven't been baking pies...there was a Kentucky peach in August and a North Carolina apple in October (not to mention all those pies I made in Maine last spring!) of which I am still awaiting photos. And I can't wait to show you the beautiful pictures my friend Maria took of the apple galette I made when I visited Portland, ME last month (in the meantime, check out her lovely blog here).

But today I ran into my ever-inspiring professor and thesis advisor, Dr. Marcie Ferris. She mentioned that she checks Nothing-In-The-House every day and noticed I was overdue for a post. Yikes!

She's right. On top of that, the New York Times was boasting the *NEW* hipness of pies (new?!) just yesterday. Those two little nudges prompted me to take action.

More!

So I got home today to find that one, just one, of the persimmons I picked from a not-so-secret tree in Durham was very ripe. Almost too ripe. And the others are not quite there yet. So a personal persimmon pie it was.

The 1 persimmon gave me about a 1/4 c. of pulp, just enough for 3 tiny tarts. Here's the recipe I used. I reduced it by 1/4, but I'll give the proportions for a full pie here.

Persimmon Pie

Ingredients:
Nothing-in-the-House pie crust
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
2 cups half-and-half or milk (I used soy milk)
1 cup persimmon pulp
2 Tblsp. melted butter
dash lemon zest

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Combine all filling ingredients. Pour into unbaked pie shell. Bake for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for 30-40 minutes more. Cool and serve with a dollop of whipped cream or perhaps some coconut bliss ice cream?

You can't see it really, but I marked it with a "P" for persimmon. or professor.

It doesn't look like much-- I wish it retained the bright orange color of the flesh, once cooked-- but it sure tasted delicious. Next time I might up the ratio of persimmon pulp and add a dash of fresh ginger.

Also, while you ruminate what pie(s) you be making this Thanksgiving, jam my favorite pie song of the moment, "Mighty Fine Pie" by Endless Boogie. It's a rocker.

Nothing-in-the-House First Annual Gift Guide!

I know I still haven't posted about our Thanksgiving pies (though you can see some pictures of the day on the host MAV's blog here), but I've been admiring holiday gift-guides out there in the blogosphere-- Lottie and Doof, Tomboy Style, and Well Spent to name a few-- and thought the pie blog should have one too. 

Here's Nothing-in-the-House first annual gift guide--for the pie baker on your list.

First for some literature...

1. Pieminister cookbook by Tristan Hogg and Jon Simon, $22. I discovered this new cookbook when perusing the fine selections at Rabelais cookbook store in Portland, ME. The authors, Tristan and Jon, started a small pie shop in Bristol, England in 2003. Their company has since exploded, and pieminister now has multiple shops and sells at markets across the UK. I've been exploring British pies (which may mean having to start eating meat?!) lately, and this book is on the top of my own Christmas list.

2. Bike Basket Pies Recipe Booklet by Natalie Galatzer, $12. I found out about Bike Basket Pies simultaneously--from my friend Valeda in San Francisco, and when Nothing-in-the-House joined Twitter (follow us here @housepie!). Though Natalie has since moved on from her bike-delivered pie company, she wrote this adorable pie recipe booklet to commemorate her two year run. I can't wait to get mine in the mail, and we'll be featuring an interview with her here soon.

3. PIECRUST Magazine: Sugar & Salt, $7. You may have read our interview with PIECRUST's founders Megan Collins and Lauren Cardenas a few weeks ago. Though the content of their handmade letter pressed literary and art magazine is not limited to pie, they use pie crust as a concept-- a foundation for creativity. Keep up to date with news about future issues here.

4. Pie Contest In A Box, by Gina Hyams, $9. Gina, the author and creator of Pie Contest In A Box contacted me through her delicious pie site, Pie Takes the Cake . She asked if she could do an interview with me about the pie blog, AND asked if she could send me a promo copy of the Pie Contest-- yes, please! Though I am more into communal baking than competitive baking, this would be a great way to get kids or your friends into pie-- and this box provides everything you need, from ribbons, to scorecards, to labelling flags, and a cute hand book full of interesting pie tidbits.

Now for some supplies...

5. Rectangular tart pans, $9-$18. I'd been seeing a lot of beautiful rectangular tarts all over the food blogosphere (here, here, and here are a few examples). So I ordered some on Amazon (and tried them out with this ginger lemon & bourbon orange tart a few weeks ago) but lots of companies seem to be riding this tart trend--the one pictured is from Wiliams-Sonoma.

6. Pastry scraper, $2-$10. My housemate and fellow Tart Kari (of Tarts by Tarts and Tanglewood Baked Goods) has a pastry scraper in our baking drawer, and it's become one of my favorite tools of the kitchen--I'm not sure how I managed without it before. Great for chopping pastry, positioning crust, and scraping dough off of counter tops. An must-have for the pie baker on your list--the one pictured from Chef Tools.

7. Vintage Tupperware pastry mat, $9-$20. Nothing really says pie baking to me like this era Tupperware rolling mat. My mom and grandma both have them and always use them to roll out any dough that needs a-rollin', be it crust, biscuits, or cookies. Though any mat will do the trick-- providing a clean work surface and crust-size guidance-- I'm partial to this one for mainly nostalgic reasons. I got mine from a friend, but they are available on Etsy, Ebay, and likely your local thrift or vintage shop. 

Some artful supplies...

8. Herriott Grace hand-turned cherry rolling pin, $70-$80. Yes, alright, that's a lot for a rolling pin, and granted, mine was a very very sweet and unexpected gift from my dear friend. But hear me out. Herriott Grace is the company of Nikole and Lance Herriott, a father-daughter team who live 3,400 km apart from each other. After years of Lance sending his daughter hand-carved spoons in the mail, they decided to launch their small business. More functional art than ordinary kitchen tool, this rolling pin is beautiful solid cherry, has a heavy weight, great feel, and will last forever.

9. Double-decker Amish pie carrying basket, $45-$70. My parents got me one for Christmas a few years ago from our local Amish market and it is one of my favorite things I own (mine is very similar, pictured here). Perfect for carrying not just one but TWO pies (or other dishes) to a potluck or party--there's a tray that fits inside so you can stack them. Beautiful crafted--mine is signed by the woman who made it-- Loretta Miller.

And some supplying art...

10. Measurement poster by Hatch Show Print, $12. Last on our list is this very useful letter-pressed poster by Nashville's famous Hatch Show Print, available in black online and in an array of color at their shop. With its list of useful measurement conversions, its perfect for any baker's kitchen. Just need to get mine framed (its light blue) and it will be hanging next to our sink.

Hope you can find something useful for your favorite pie baker, or to put on your own list! And never underestimate the power of a gift you make yourself...even pie bakers like to get a homemade pie sometimes!

Creative Crust on a Cranberry Pie

Freestyle-folking with Talya!(notice amazing appetizer spread, as well as pumpkin and blueberry pies)

For the second year in a row I spent Thanksgiving (the best ever!) at Robert and Tayla's in South Portland, Maine. There were drinks and folk freestyling (a very special song about Nicholas Cage), walks on the beach and to the local record store, exquisite corpse poetry and rap performances, art projects and pie-making, and an art project and pie-making combined: I made a cranberry pie (see here for recipe--the only adjustment I made was the addition of finely chopped fresh ginger) and Clark designed and created the abstract lattice crust which I then brushed with egg and sprinkled with sugar. The result was fantastic! Not only was the color of the cranberries and cool-shape crust beautiful, but it tasted delicious--and many of us didn't even think we were that crazy for cranberries!

Here are some photos of the process (by Chiara):

Flouring the rolling pin to roll out the top crust. notice sweet apron--a gift from Robert & Talya. This step of the process is what prompted Sayid to say "I didn't know pie-making could be so erotic."

Clark and cranberry pie

Designing the crust

Ready for the oven!