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December 2015: Cooking In California

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It might be more accurate to call this Cooking For California, since the story starts in Seattle, as I try out a few new recipes and practice a few old ones.

Specifically, one of my friends specifically requested deep-fried stuffed jalapeno for our traditional New Years Eve party. (Which she calls “jalapeno poppers”, and I lovingly misinterpreted as “jalapeno popplers“.

Not only that, but it’s tradition for my to cook dinner for my family every time I visit, a tradition that was broken once only because… well, you know… And between my Chef Watson stuff and my Ingredient Challenges, I had a lot of new material I wanted to try on real people. (I ended up going with some Chef Watson winners for my family dinner.)

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Cookie Crust Pumpkin Pie 2: The Pumpkining

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Hey humans! So you know how last year, I made a pumpkin pie with a no-bake filling in a cookie crust? Well, I tweaked the recipe a bit, added more sugar (because it wasn’t sweet enough), reduced the cloves (because it was too clove-y), and overall tweaked the recipes. And I also discovered that they do sell butter-flavored shortening in tub form, although you might have to check larger safeways, possibly maybe even Whole Foods. And butter-flavored shortening prolly made a big difference this time.

And I like what I got (and so did my Thanksgiving cohorts), so I figured I’d share the recipe with you this time.

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Pi Day 2015

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(Photo courtesy of Joy)

For those of you who don’t know about Pi Day, March 14 can be written as 3.14, which is pi. Therefore, March 14 is Pi Day. Also, pi sounds like pie, so we celebrate Pi Day by eating pie. But wait, there’s more. This year, Pi Day falls on a Saturday. So I figured, all the stars are aligned, and this year, I’m going to bake a pie and have a pie eating party at my place. Fruit pie or savory pie? Why not both? It’ll be a Double Pie Pi Day, a Pi Day Pie-thon, if you will.

For the apple pie, I started with the crust and filling recipe from Sizzleworks, and eventually, I made enough tweaks to the apple pie filling that I’m willing to call it my own. The chicken pot pie recipe, though, I was inspired by an Emeril recipe from a long time ago, but I re-wrote the recipe from first principles and my own preferences. The only thing it has in common with Emeril’s recipe is they both have shiitake mushrooms.

In the traditional manner, I’ll show you the recipe(s) first, after the cut, then jump into the write-up.

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No-Bake Pumpkin Pie with a Cookie Crust

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(Photo courtesy of Joy.)

Thursday, November 27, 2014 – It’s Thanksgiving. My friends know I bake epic-level desserts. They also know I have a knack for cookies. So of course, I revive the cookie crust pie. Except instead of a chocolate filling, I go for a pumpkin pie filling.

(Side note: cookie crusts were relatively obscure when I started making them in 2012. Now they’re pretty common. It kinda annoys me. I guess I’m a food hipster.)

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