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.

Week #4 September 20 - 26

I lied. I still had one pre-make crust, and didn't want it to go to waste. So I used it on my pie this week. I am in a job where I am constantly rotated throughout the country performing different rotations. Although exciting, it has thrown my fiance Sandy and I a hurdle in terms of our relationship. I've been lucky enough to be located by her for the last eight months, and was told that I would be leaving at the end of this week. So last week, I wanted to make her a special pie, because she might not be able to sample them for a while. I chose to make a chocolate peanut butter pie for her, because it is her favorite dessert combo.

I am trying to use more "whole" ingredients in my cooking. Not only in pies, but also in life. Who needs high fructose corn syrup in your bread? Not me, that's who. So many of the recipes for chocolate peanut butter pie involve cool whip. I had to search a little before coming upon this winner.

This called for the crust being blind baked. This means that the crust is baked prior to having a filling added. It helps cook the crust, and make it not soggy. What was nice with this recipe was that it called or peanuts being pressed into the bottom, for some additional texture and flavor.



Overall the pie turned out to be a big surprise. I didn't expect to like it that much. I'm not a huge fan of the pb & c combo. But the pie wasn't as rich as I thought it would be, and was actually pretty light. It also had more of a peanut butter taste as opposed to chocolate.

Week #3 September 13 - 19

I still have an abundance of apples, so I knew going into this week that I wanted to make a pie that would use some of these apples. Just by chance, I thought about making an apple and pear pie. A google search later, and I had a recipe to use.

I was invited to a friend's family's house on the ocean this weekend. I made the pie knowing it would be my friends' first experience with this yearlong pursuit of mine. I was slightly nervous, but they all seemed to really enjoy it. Everyone was supportive of my endeavour. My friend John has become quite the photographer, and took some nice pictures (of both the pie as well as our weekend in general).



The spiced apple and pear pie was very appropriate for the weekend. On the one hand, there were the pears, a nice summer fruit. Not to be outdone, the apples, the perennial king of fall were also in there. Just like this past weekend was beautiful and warm, everyone knew fall was just around the bend.



In the past, I had almost always been using a pre-made crust. This will be one of the last times that I do. I know they are easier, but they just aren't as good. My friend Victoria was very adamant about making sure I make my own crust in the future. And to please her, as well as myself, going forward I plan on it.

Week #2 September 6 - 12

This week I decided to take turn, and make a pie that I had never made before. Although I should probably get used to making new pies. I've made plenty of chocolate pudding pies. But I wanted a variation, so I made a chocolate banana pie. Here is the recipe I used. Note that I did not use pecans.

It depends who you ask to determine how it turned out. I thought it was sweet. Sandy (fiance) really enjoyed it. As did my parents. My roommate Kenny enjoyed it as well.



There is a layer of cream cheese sweetened with confectionery sugar, that really gives it some sweetness. Also, the directions say the pie should sit for a day before serving. I would say that it should sit for two days before serving. We found it tasted better eating it two days after making.