Just a reminder (because I always forget) that we Sprung forwards for Daylight savings time last night, just so nobody winds up an hour early...

Hi,

Call me fickle ... I saw gastrognome is not making Concord Grape Pie. I will bring a grape pie, instead or in addition to peach pie. I have to hit the kitchen now to make anything happen.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:Call me fickle ... I saw gastrognome is not making Concord Grape Pie. I will bring a grape pie, instead or in addition to peach pie. I have to hit the kitchen now to make anything happen.

Cathy, I am making the grape pie (in addition to the savory pie). So we will have 2!

Just a reminder (because I always forget) that we Sprung forwards for Daylight savings time last night, just so nobody winds up an hour early...

Seriously, I'm just getting started so if you show up early, I'm putting you to work.

edited: Wouldn't that mean people would show up an hour late? Daylight savings time is confusing...

gastro gnome wrote:

Cathy2 wrote:Call me fickle ... I saw gastrognome is not making Concord Grape Pie. I will bring a grape pie, instead or in addition to peach pie. I have to hit the kitchen now to make anything happen.

Cathy, I am making the grape pie (in addition to the savory pie). So we will have 2!

Oy! I thought you gave up on that when I saw the savory pie only on the list. We will be like two girls showing up at the Oscars in the same dress.

I'll bring a jar of pickles to compensate.

Regards,

With your experience making pies, I'm guessing there won't be much of a comparison.

Cathy2 wrote:We will be like two girls showing up at the Oscars in the same dress

To painfully extend the analogy: after looking at my bottom crust, my girl might be nude from the waist-down.

Looking forward to the pickles!

figmolly wrote:

Just a reminder (because I always forget) that we Sprung forwards for Daylight savings time last night, just so nobody winds up an hour early...

Seriously, I'm just getting started so if you show up early, I'm putting you to work.

edited: Wouldn't that mean people would show up an hour late? Daylight savings time is confusing...

Sadly, I spent about 15 minutes trying to google an accurate answer for that because my own brain won't do it...

gastro gnome wrote:With your experience making pies, I'm guessing there won't be much of a comparison.

Cathy2 wrote:We will be like two girls showing up at the Oscars in the same dress

To painfully extend the analogy: after looking at my bottom crust, my girl might be nude from the waist-down.

Looking forward to the pickles!

We all have our off days: I was playing on the computer when I should have checked earlier on the crust. A bit of foil would have easily prevented the crust from getting so dark.

We will have a great time in any case.

Regards,

Mhays wrote:

figmolly wrote:

Just a reminder (because I always forget) that we Sprung forwards for Daylight savings time last night, just so nobody winds up an hour early...

Seriously, I'm just getting started so if you show up early, I'm putting you to work.

edited: Wouldn't that mean people would show up an hour late? Daylight savings time is confusing...

Sadly, I spent about 15 minutes trying to google an accurate answer for that because my own brain won't do it...

Today's 2 pm is yesterday's 1 pm. Anyone who didn't change their clocks will arrive an hour late.

Regards,

Oh good, we're all having crust issues. Mine were a dismal failure (apparently my "peas" were not small enough) so they both will have graham crusts. If either of them work at all, since they're new recipes...oy. Enjoy my pudding, folks!

Boy did I eat too much pie. But oh, it was all such wonderful pie. What a fantastic assortment from the passionfruit meringue to the Elvis to the joyous excess of two Concord grape pies. And the wonderful Tuscan soup and empanadas, and phyllo triangles that helped temper the sugar shock. Thanks again to Justin and Molly for the idea and for hosting and to everyone who brought such delicious treats. Happy pi/e day all!

Here are the pictures I took. I missed some of labels. Let me know if you can fill them in. http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobthewond ... 621521968/

And a sample of some of the nicer pictures...

Phew! Thanks to FigMolly and FigJustin for opening up their space and so graciously hosting this event - I can't say that an event has ever been nearer or dearer to my heart. We are all trying to sleep off our delicious pie and soup exhaustion. I am looking forward to seeing everyone's photos - Llama, I think those are, top to bottom, BR's passionfruit meringue pie, Cathy2's Cathy2 grape pie (as opposed to gastro gnome's Cathy2 grape pie,) and the Hays family Pi-neapple rhubarb pie.

I do hope that there will be recipes posted for all the delectable treats; I did post mine here and here (well, and here. I realized we were short 14 hundredths of a pie in our offerings.)

Sparky (who had a fabulous time) left with this thought, obviously thinking of BR's delicious passionfruit meringue pie "Why did the elephant paint the bottoms of his feet yellow? To hide upside-down in the custard, of course! - did YOU see an elephant in the custard? Well, DID you?"

Terrific pie and terrific company! Oh, and terrific soup. I keep thinking "my favorite was the ..." but then I think of the others and I can't make up my mine. I'm already looking at the recipe for the Moorish chicken and nut pie. So many great pies to choose from. Sparky has the coolest science project I've ever seen (and I've judged many a science fair). Thanks for hosting Molly and Justin!

Molly & Justin: Thanks so much for hosting . . . what a great idea and a generous contribution of food and location.

Just when I thought I had tasted my favorite pie (or pie-like item), I tasted something else which made me reconsider. At the end of the day, all I can say is that is that I had some really great food. And ohhhhhh . . . Steve's soup . . . I still can't get over how good that was. And so many types of pies/tarts/etc. which I have never tried, and so many varieties of crust.

All in all, great food, great company and a perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Stellar LTH event as always. I actually fell asleep for a second at a stop light on Ashland. Seriously. Delicious sweet and savory pies and Steve's soup was a great base

since I have no idea yet how to post it any other way, here are my filling recipes for the empanadas (the crust is from Epicurious--just googled empanada dough and there it was--and I stuck to it exactly because dough scares me ) I did bake these for about 20 minutes at 400 instead of frying and added baking powder per the suggestion of one of the recipe commenters.

Big disclaimer here: Except for dough, I DON'T MEASURE WHEN I COOK but I'm pretty accurate at eyeballing so if something's off here, my humblest apologies

Chimichurri Beef: Saute 1 cup of chopped onion and a few cloves of chopped garlic with 1lb of ground beef (I used ground round) and a good splash of olive oil. Season with cumin, salt and pepper. While the meat cooks, combine a cup of cilantro, a few more cloves of rough chopped garlic, a couple of green onions, 1 small or half of a large jalapeno (or the whole pepper if you like it spicy), juice of 1 lime, and a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a food processor until smooth. Add puree to the beef along with 1/4 cups of tomatillo salsa and simmer until liquid reduced. Can add a few shakes of Wondra to thicken if the mix looks too wet (don't want it to leak out of the pocket!) Refrigerate until completely cool.

Chorizo Shrimp: Saute 1 cup of chopped onion with 1/2 lb of good chorizo (the loose kind). Once browned, add in 2.5 cups of chopped raw shrimp (about 12-14 shrimp), 1/2 cup of olive jardiniere or equivalent amount of chopped green olives, red chilis, celery and olive oil) and s & p to taste. Refrigerate until completely cool.

Spicy Chocolate Banana: Mix 1.5 cups of (over)ripe banana puree with 1 bag of melted semi-sweet chocolate chips. Season with cumin, allspice, chili powder, cayenne pepper and cinnamon (about a 1/4 teaspoon of each but i didn't measure so start small and work your way up, depending on what you like).

Honey Apricot Almond: Combine a 1/2 lb of dried apricots with a cup of almonds (I used sliced b/c that's what I had on hand) and a few tablespoons of honey (I just squirted until it tasted the way I wanted it to ) in a food processor until it forms a "crunchy" paste (meaning not a puree exactly). Added a good splash of honey grappa at the end for a bit of tang.

This event was a lot of fun. After some meet and greet and a bowl of soup, some self-starved LTH'ers got right to work disassembling and consuming mass quantities of pie. Perhaps they were channeling this individual.

A testament to the sheer variety: I wasn't even able to try all of the savory pies - and they were in the distinct minority. I count at least 16 round, edible objects (all pie-ish, if not technically pies) from memory, but I'm sure I may be missing one or two. And since this was a day ostensibly in honor of a ratio, Pi Day featured an insane ratio of 0.941176 pies/person. Given a long enough time, I am sure this might prove to be the perfect pie/person ratio, but in the 2.5 hours we spent grazing, even this intrepid bunch of eaters was overwhelmed by pie. And there was soup and ice creams and great milk to wash it down with.

A few notes:

- If you had asked me a week ago, I'd have never have been able to tell you that a concord grape pie existed, let alone making one myself, or trying two in one day!
- As you can see above, BR's tart just looked stunning
- I think we can close the book on Elvis. If he were still alive, he would have showed up today after MincyBits took his favorite sweet and savory sandwich and made it into a delicious sweet & savory pie.

My palate is still too full of pie to make sense of it all, but I had a lot of delicious today. I couldn't imagine a better celebration. Thanks to the hosts, to the bakers/cooks, and for the company.


Recipes:
I linked to the Von Bremzen recipe from The New Spanish Table upthread, but here it is again. I pretty much followed it to the letter. It might also be good with non-profanity-laced phyllo if anyone were so inclined.

The concord grape pie was pretty much cribbed directly from Cathy2's post here, although I cut out the extra 2 tbsps of sugar, brushed it with an egg wash and sprinkled some turbinado sugar on top. I also used a bit too much thickener. I used instant tapicoa instead of corn starch. The puree was very liquidy when thawed and I didn't trust the 2.5 Tbsps to get it done, so I probably used something like 3 1/4. I will never doubt the power of cassava again as the fruit firmed up considerably. If you like a little fruit movement when you cut into a slice (I do), use less. I used SmittenKitten's all-butter pie crust with considerably better results than the first time I tried it (I think the key is to keep some large chunks of butter in that dough).

I am ponderously full of soup, pie, and ice cream - still! Everything was truly delicious - not one in the bunch that I wouldn't devour again, given half a chance. Sweets, savories, and the curiously in-between Moorish Chicken Pie; all fantastic! Great food, great company, and big thanks to Molly and Justin for hosting.

Recipe sharing is a lovely idea - I'm happy to contribute my Elvis pie, as simple as it is.

Crust:
1 pack Oreos, filling removed, crushed finely
1 stick butter

Preheat oven to 350. Melt butter, combine with Oreo crumbs, pat into the bottom of a deep dish pie pan or springform and up the sides and bake for 15 minutes. Allow to cool while preparing the following components.

Bananas:
5 bananas, sliced
1 Tbsp butter
3/4 C dark brown sugar
2-3 oz dark rum (I used Black Seal 151, as I was out of the normal stuff )
1 tsp lemon juice
1/4 C cream
a healthy pinch of salt

Melt the butter in a wide pan and add the bananas. Cook over medium heat until they begin to soak up the butter. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Allow to bubble away for about 2 minutes, then remove from heat to cool. Spread onto the bottom of the crust.

Peanut Butter Fluff:
8 oz cream cheese
1 1/2 C powdered sugar
1 C creamy peanut butter (preferably one that is exceptionally peanutty-tasting - Smuckers Natural fits the bill for me)
1 C milk
a pinch of salt
2 C heavy cream, whipped with 1/4 C sugar

Cream together the cream cheese and powdered sugar. Add the peanut butter, milk and salt (carefully; it will splash) and mix until well-combined. In a large bowl, fold the sweetened whipped cream into the peanut butter mixture. Spread this atop the bananas in the crust. Chill for AT LEAST 12 hours; 18 is preferable. Seriously, this one seems to take a day to set up properly, as we all discovered to my dismay.

Bacon Crumble:
1/2 lb really good bacon (I used a delightful cinnamon bacon I purchased from Fumare in the French Market)

Cook until crisp and delicious. Sample a few bits and then chop coarsely. Sprinkle atop the pie just before service.

And there you have it; I hope it is enjoyed again and again - by those without a serious heart condition, at any rate.

A big thank you to the FIG's and everyone else who attended and brought what had to be one of the most delectable selections of pie ever assembled in a single location. Here are some pictures. If I've labeled anything incorrectly, let me know.

Butternut Squash and Goat Cheese Pi(e)s


Eggplant Feta Pi(e)


Quiche


Savory Empanadas


Moorish Chicken Pi(e) (Proving once and for all that Pi are square)


Walnut Pi(e)


Sparky's Science Fair Experiment (Excellent with soup)


Mathematically Correct Pineapple Rhubarb Pi(e)


Mathematically Correct Caramel-Nut Pi(e)


Chocolate Cream Pi(e) Assembly


Passionfruit Meringue Pi(e)


Hawaiian Chocolate


The Elvis (Thank you verry much!)


Dueling Grape Pi(e)s


Lemon Tartlette


Pineapple Coconut Pi(e)


A Selection of Pi(e)s


Aftermath

That was such a fun afternoon, and I had such a nice nap when I got home. Thanks again to the Figs for hosting and stuffing us so. That whole milk was much appreciated.

I'm ashamed that I could only get 1/4 of the way through and missed an awful lot of tasty. But hats off to the Eggplant Pie, Chocolate Cream, Elvis, Chorizo Empanada, Lemon Coconut, Lemon Tart, and Cheese Pie. Sorry I missed that Passionfruit Tart!

Here are my recipes, both from Pillsbury's Best of the Bake Off, copyright 1959 (now held together with duct tape):

Hawaiian Chocolate Pie (best of class winner Don W. Edwards of Lincoln, Nebraska)
One Crust Pastry, docked and baked in 9" tin (dismal failure, I replaced with basic graham crust)

1 1/3 cups sugar
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups milk
3 slightly beaten yolks
2 tbsp butter
2 tsp vanilla
No. 1 can crushed pineapple, drained (1 cup)
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted
3/4 chopped nuts (I used walnuts)

Combine sugar, flour and salt in large heavy saucepan. Add milk gradually; mix well. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly; cook over medium heat until thick.
Blend a little hot mixture into yolks; return to hot mixture. Cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Blend in butter and vanilla until butter is melted. Divide in half.
Stir pineapple into one half. Stir chocolate into other half. Cover and cool to lukewarm.
Sprinkle half of nuts over pie shell.* Spoon in half of chocolate mixture. Cover with pineapple mixture. Top with remaining chocolate mixture and sprinkle with other half of nuts. Cool completely.

*I sprinkled them over the top of the pie instead.


Coffee Cream Pie (senior winner by Mrs. R.F. Carter of Pascagoula, MS)
This actually turned out pretty good, however ugly. I had it for breakfast so I could wake up. It was a waterlogged mess when I brought it to Pi Day so I left it in the car, but after an overnight stay in the fridge, it firmed up enough to cut. I still don't understand why you top with meringue and bake; I should have just topped with whipped cream. Live 'n' learn.

One Crust pastry, 1 tsp instant coffee added, docked and baked in 9" tin
1 cup sugar
3 tbsp flour
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp instant coffee
1/4 tsp salt
1-1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup evaporated milk or light cream
3 beaten yolks
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup pecans, chopped

Combine sugar, flour, cornstarch, instant coffee and salt in large heavy saucepan. Blend in milk, evaporated milk, yolks and vanilla. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thick. Stir in pecans. Cover and cool. Turn into pie shell.
Prepare 1 recipe meringue; spread over filling to edges. Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes.

I believe Cathy2 asked about the prizes for these competitors. According to the intro: "Everybody wins; the finalists all take home the GE range and mixer they use at the BAKE-OFF. They all find they have won a place of honor among America's best cooks. The honor roll is here and so are the recipes—the 1,000 best."

gastro gnome wrote:...my girl might be nude from the waist-down...
Looking forward to the pickles!

This sounds like quite a party. Sorry to have missed it.

Here are the recipes for my cheese pies (eggplant feta large pie and phyllo wrapped butternut squash, goat cheese and pistachio small pies).

1. Eggplant pie (Boreka) adapted from Claudia Roden's Book of Jewish Food
Crust:
Combine 1/2 cup warm water, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 1/2 t salt, 2 cups flour to form dough
Filling:

Recipe called for 1lb of eggplant but this didn't fill the pie so if I made it again, I would use the following proportions:
Broil 2 lb eggplant until soft (rotating every 5 minutes or so). Remove skin, set in colander to drain about 10 minutes, chop to make a puree-like consistency. Combine with 1/2 lb feta, 1/3 lb Gruyere, salt to taste (if needed), pepper.

Assembly:
Roll out 2/3 of pie dough for bottom crust, 1/3 for top crust. Place bottom crust in pie pan, add filling, top with top crust, pinch to close. Brush with egg wash. Bake about 50 minutes at 375.

2. Butternut squash phyllo triangles (Also called 'Oh s%$#&, my eggplant pie isn't turning out, what can I make with phyllo pies')
1.5 lb butternut squash-medium dice
Olive oil
Red pepper flakes
Kosher salt
4 oz goat cheese
1/2 cup toasted pistachios
1/2 cup sliced shallots sauteed in olive oil until golden brown
1/2 t Ground coriander
Salt
Pepper
8 sheets phyllo (covered with a towel to keep from drying out)
Butter

Combine squash with enough olive oil to coat lightly, about 1 t each of kosher salt and red pepper flakes. Roast at 400 for about 25 minutes. Combine with remaining ingredients (besides phyllo). Melt 3 T butter and combine with 3 T olive oil. Brush one sheet phyllo with butter/oil, cover with second sheet, brush second sheet. Cut phyllo sheets into 1/3s lengthwise to get long strips. Place about 1.5 T of filling on end of strip of phyllo and flip forward, then corner to opposite side then forward...to form triangles. Brush finished triangle with oil/butter. Repeat with remaining phyllo. Bake at 350 for about 15-20 minutes until light brown.

Thanks to everyone who showed up! I always want to host more LTH events and this was why - so much good food and good conversation (not just about food, mind you, I believe male strippers came up too!).

Because I had a bachelorette party the day before I took shortcuts on my pie submissions and my ice cream didn't have time to firm up quite enough (it seems like we were all members of the last minute crowd), but all went fairly well.

My mushroom goat cheese quiche was a combination of mushroom mix (leftover from a Saturday party, used for mushroom bruschetta), eggs (6), yogurt (Fage 2%), milk, and chevre, baked in a vodka pie crust (minus sugar). Normally I add a little cornmeal to vegetarian quiche, but this crust was already made and in my freezer so I deemed it "good enough." I will ask Justin for a "recipe" for the mushroom mix and post it later.

My lemon tart had a butter cookie crust (equal parts butter and sugar, zest from one lemon, flour - twice as much as sugar, and an egg). Pressed into a springform pan and baked (a little too long - oops). Then cooled and filled with a lemon cream from Tartine, by Elisabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson (Confession - I had my intern make this as I was doing ice cream).

I made vanilla ice cream (really cold soup) and apricot pistachio ice cream from Dave Leibowitz's Perfect Scoop. They're frozen now -anyone want to stop by?

Well, your soft-serve apricot was quite interesting!

This is always during my fast. <sigh>. Maybe next year there will be an evening event so I can break the fast with pi .

It looks delicious.

I don't think anyone would object to having Pi Day II - which would be spelled how, exactly? 3.142?

I object to very little when it comes to LTH and food events

My only suggestion is that we start a corresponding exercise group--walking long distances to GNR's carrying packs containing heavy cookbooks perhaps???

Just talk to Helodali or happy_stomach:
www.forkandtheroad.com

Pie Lady wrote:Just talk to Helodali or happy_stomach:
http://www.forkandtheroad.com

PERFECT!! Thanks!

I posted the recipe for the passionfruit meringue tart here.

As we were leaving yesterday and I was packing up some of the leftover tart, Cathy2 offered me a little extra concord grape pie and I passed it up and commented on how I'd probably throw the rest of the passionfruit tart away today. I was just all pi-ed out! Well, wouldn't you know that I found myself craving some more concord grape pie today (thanks to gastro gnome and Cathy2). In fact, I wouldn't have minded doing a full round 2 today and I should have loaded up a bit on the leftovers.