Week #11 November 8 - 14

It has become commonplace for me to make two pies per week. Even though it is more work, it's good to refine my skills in the culinary art that is pie-baking. Also, because there is a stampede when I bring in the pies to work each week, two are basically needed to feed the natives. For my new pie this week, I made an oatmeal pie. I'm a big fan of oatmeal, and just wondered if there would happen to be an oatmeal pie. When I saw that there was, I figured it would be a good pie to make.

Described on some recipes as the "poor man's pecan pie", I can't really comment if it was a poor man's pecan pie because I don't really enjoy pecans. But what I can comment on is that it was a great pie and definitely a keeper. It had a nice cinnamon flavor, and was custardy inside. This can be from the corn syrup I used. Here is the recipe.

The other pie I made was the apple-cranberry pie that I made last week. This week I took the ambitious step of trying a lattice crust. Overall it turned out well. I can't say it was the best looking pie, but I'm confident that with more practice, I'll get better at the lattice crust.

Speaking of crust, I also tried using half Crisco instead of butter in one of my crusts. Turned out well. I'll give more feedback when I try more variations of the crust.

Lastly, a friend of mine, Jenna, that happens to be a phenomenal chef has been posting about her experience as a camp cook. Here are a few of her rules that I think most people should think about when eating/cooking/dealing with food. I noticed this week that my pies aren't made quickly. I think that's a good thing, and something to remember. Good, wholesome food takes time to prepare.

Here is the excerpt:

- Food should be homemade, as much as possible. We will know exactly what goes in it (ingredients we can pronounce!) and equally important, we will be a crucial part of the process. This connects us physically and spiritually to our work and gives one a sense of humble pride in work well done.

- Food should be whole and fresh. It’s no nutritional secret that the more fresh and the closer to whole our foods are, the greater the benefit to our health. Included in this I wanted to reduce the amount of sugary offerings (bug juice, some desserts, etc.)

-Operating sustainably. We composted some items already, but the kitchen had a lot of room for improvement in terms of producing food that could be composted as well as controlling leftovers and waste overall. In addition, it was important that we think about global sustainability in terms of choices and purchases, so cooking less meat and choosing a natural foods distributor.

PS - I forgot to take pictures of my pies this week.

Week #10 November 1 - 7

I bought way too many cranberries this week, and being as it was my 10th week, I decided to double down and make two new pies.

Pie #1 was an apple cranberry. Here is the recipe. This was a great pie. It was my first time cooking with cranberries, and it gave the pie some tartness, without too much bite.

Pie #2 was called a Nantucket Cranberry Pie. Because I'm a fan of most things New England, I decided this would be my second pie. This pie didn't call for a crust, but I decided to put one on. It was good, but I think it felt more like a cake than an actual pie. I also added some orange zest, to balance out the tartness in the cranberries.

Week #9 October 25 - 31

One of my favorite cooking websites is called www.chow.com. I've gotten at least a dozen solid recipes off of their "Basics" cooking section. This week, I searched for a pumpkin pie, and lo and behold, they a recipe for it.

A very basic, but overall decent pie. I didn't have ground cloves, so I sprinkled ground ginger instead.

Served it with fresh whipped cream, of course.



And on another note, Phil and I went to Honeypie in Milwaukee last week. Ended our meals with some decent pie.



I had the mixed berry on the left. It was decent, but tasted too much like a nutra-grain bar for my liking. I like a double crust opposed to a crumble top.

Week #8 October 18 - 24

This week I made two pies because it was my last week at my current office after being there for nine months. An advantage or some would say disadvantage of my job is that I travel through rotations in different areas of the country. I'm currently in Milwaukee, WI. It's a real great city, but I've been missing my Sandy a lot.

Back to the story, I made a cinnamon chocolate angel food pie as my new pie of the week. I was looking for a pie with cinnamon and chocolate. Here is the recipe.

What made this different from other pies that I had made was that there was a layer of meringue on the bottom. I'm yet to make a pie with meringue on top, so needless to say I wasn't exactly thrilled about trying this out. I couldn't get it thick enough, but decided to try baking it in the oven for the time it called for. It basically exploded. But, it did go down. Then I added the other layers.



I actually didn't get a piece, because it went too quickly. But, all of my coworkers really enjoyed it. The other pie I made was the spiced apple and pear. Another hit. Made me feel good that people appreciate it so much.

Week #7 October 11 - 17

There has been a few weeks break in the blog. However, I have still been making my pies. I tried to switch it up during week 7 and make a savory pie. I decided on a tomato pie. Overall, it was pretty decent, but I felt like it was lacking something. Here is the recipe.




This picture is before the cheese/mayo mixture is put on top. The bacon gives it some body and flavor. But I think that in general, this pie needs to be eaten with something, perhaps a soup or salad.



More to come soon.

Week #6 October 4 - October 10

Where I work, we have a weekly potluck lunch each Thursday. People that are interested sign up to make lunch for others that take part. This past week it was my turn. I made two soups: apple, cheddar, onion (veg) and pasta, chickpea, and sausage. Both turned out great. I also made two pies: the chocolate peanut butter and mixed berry.

Holding true to my promise to myself, I made the crusts for both pies. I found a recipe on chow.com, which is a great resource for recipes and food topics on the web.



The dough was easy enough to make. And I blind baked the crust. Because I was already making a custard/chocolate style pie, I wanted to make a fruit pie. I decided on mixed berry, because I was in Aldi, and saw some frozen mixed berries.



Overall, a success. Everyone enjoyed. I served it with fresh whipped cream. I'll post the recipe when I find it. One thing that I noticed was that the filling was more liquidy than I would have liked.

Week #5 September 27 - October 3

I have a co-worker that recently put in his two week notice. A good guy, that will be missed from my department. I believed him when he said it was the hardest decision he had to make in a while. Regardless, I asked him what his favorite pie was that I could make for his last day. He gave me a few options, and the best one for me to make was a key lime.

Normally, I would wait until next spring to make a key lime. It is easily one of my favorite pies. I've made it before, but always the easy cool whip version. Not this time. My first time making the true egg yolk, real whip cream version. The one thing I couldn't get was true key limes. I intend to make this pie again with true key limes. Here is the recipe I used.

But it was my first attempt at a homemade crust. For this pie, I made a graham cracker crust.



Instead of fresh key lime juice, I used bottled lime juice. Not ideal. But it's the way it is. True key lime pies are actually a custardy yellow, due to the egg yolks that get beaten with the sweetened condensed milk. What is nice with this version is the fact that there are layers of key lime goodness, with whip cream on top. With the cool whip version, it is all combined into one.

So I made the pie on Thursday night, which has become the typical night I make pies. But my co-worker wasn't to be at work on Friday. I'm not sure the whole story, because I was away recruiting on Wednesday and Thursday. All I know if that his last day ended up being Tuesday. So as silly as it sounds, I wasn't as excited to make it, knowing that he wouldn't be able to try it. My co-workers all enjoyed it. Here is a picture of the finished product.