Today’s pie didn’t get started until 3:30 in the afternoon. This morning, the kids and I went with some friends to the Atlanta Botanical Garden. If you live around here, you really should go. Beautiful flowers, plants, and trees–and in October, scarecrows! We had a good time and the weather was only slightly warm–a perfect fall day in Georgia.

I chose lemon chess pie because everyone in our house–especially my husband–loves lemon. It also didn’t hurt that it was a very quick recipe–45 minutes from start to finish, including cook time.

I found the recipe in the cookbook from my church growing up in Richmond, Virginia. It has several recipes of my mom’s and one of my Dad’s (that yummy Taco Pie) and lots of others from church ladies I knew growing up. This one was from a lady named Karen Williams. Thanks, Karen! This cookbook is special to me because I can read through it and recognize so many names of people who really did impact my life in a positive way. Marsha Perkins taught me to play piano. Mary Beth Askew and her husband taught my Sunday School class when I was very small. I specifically remember playing a game to a song in Mrs. Askew’s class… If you’re wearing a red dress, stand up! If you’re wearing a red dress, stand up! My mom doesn’t know it, but I wanted to wear a red dress every Sunday–just so I could stand up first. Charlotte Ganzert played the piano at our church for years–and she’s my sister’s mother-in-law. Robin Atkins works in the church office. Barbara Burruss worked in the church library. Sue Seay’s daughter, Cathy, and I were baptized on the same day. Sure, these people may have good recipes, but they also have good lives. The reason? They invested in others. Thank you, church ladies. You’ve helped to make me who I am today.

I used a quick crust because I had one, although I do intend to spend a morning in the near future making extra homemade crusts. I just really like how they hold up. The recipe has sugar, eggs, flour, salt, milk, and lemon juice. Now, the recipe called for “the juice of two lemons.” So I just put 1/4 cup of that kind you keep in the fridge. OK, OK, sue me. I don’t own a juicer and I don’t want to. Just too lazy to chop and squeeze or whatever. We’ll see–I’m sure fresh juice is better, but…whatever.

The pie came out just fine in exactly 40 minutes of baking. I left it on the rack for a couple of hours. Once again, it came out in a nice triangle. I don’t know why that matters so much to me, but it does. And…I thought it tasted really good. Especially with whipped cream. 

Sidebar:  there have been a couple of “situations” in my kitchen to take note of. The first one is this:See that burnt stuff on the bottom? I’m surprised you can’t smell it from wherever you are. Burned blueberries. Note to self: put fruit pies on a cookie sheet to avoid messy spillage. In the meantime, I’m cooking with the fans going and the front screen door open, because I don’t want the smoke to set off the fire alarm. Luckily, my lemon chess pie did not taste like fire.  Gotta figure out that self-cleaning feature on the oven.

The second situation is this: my hand mixer is tired. It’s 15 years old, and it doesn’t like to eject the beaters. It kinda makes a troubling rattly sound as it whirs in the bowl. So I think I’m gonna buy a new one very soon. I will keep you posted.

Tonight, I had to send a number of pleading text messages to my in-laws, who live up the hill from us. I had three–count ’em–THREE different pies that needed to be eaten. They were happy to help out. So glad to have helpful neighbors!

There are 27 days to go until I turn 40. Not even a whole month. Yee haw!

Well, the day has arrived. Today I made my first homemade pie crust. Today was the day for two reasons. #1: it was just time. #2: Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, died yesterday. I must tell you how inspired I was to read about the accomplishments of this man. When I looked at my pile of ingredients and realized that I had been intimidated by them–just because it was something I hadn’t done before–I just felt silly. After learning about all the innovative and amazing things that Steve Jobs shared with the world, I offer myself (and you, if you want it) this advice:

Not doing something just because you think you’re not “the sort of person who does that thing” is dumb. Just do it. Sort yourself out and do whatever sort of thing you want to do.

So I did. And now, I am the sort of person who makes pie crusts from scratch.

I used Ina Garten’s (the Barefoot Contessa)  crust recipe. Now, Ina happens to be my favorite chef, and I watch her show every day. If I miss it, I’ve got it recorded on the DVR. The woman can cook, she makes a mess, and she always has fabulous friends to help her eat the delicious food. Besides that, she LOOKS like she actually eats the food. If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s a painfully skinny cook–it just makes me suspicious.

I’ve watched the woman make the crust tons of time on TV, and of course she makes it look easy. You know what? It wasn’t too bad. I used my food processor (a gift from my mom last year that I’ve only used one other time because I’m just plain lazy) and I was armed with printed step-by-step directions.

A couple of things were very specific. Use very cold butter and shortening and ice water. I did. I chopped up the butter, although my little cubes of butter were not as pretty as Ina’s because of my always-put-knives-in-the-dishwasher disorder. So, you just put the flour, sugar, and salt into the processor and pulse it a few times. Then you add the butter, shortening, and ice water. Then you pulse it a few times until it starts to make a ball–which it did! I dumped it onto a floured surface and rolled it out with my new rolling-pin. 

So now to the filling. Recently, a friend of mine’s son asked what kind of pie I’d made for a certain day. She replied with a certain flavor, to which he exclaimed, “Dangit! I want some blueberry pie!” She chastised him, but I laughed to myself. Sometimes, you just wanna say what you want. Happens to me all the time. So…I’m making blueberry pie, and I fully intend for that sweet kid to have a slice or two if he wants it. I used frozen blueberries, which The Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook said was just fine. I added some sugar and a little bit of flour and dumped it all into the crust. 

I rolled out the top crust, which worked pretty well. The hardest part was getting the top crust “stuck” to the bottom one. Again, my crimping needs work. Truthfully, though, I’ve never really heard anyone gripe about crooked crust if the pie tastes good.

Lastly, before putting the pie in the oven–on the bottom rack this time, and with the crusts covered for the first 50 minutes–I marked it with a B. B is for blueberry–and it’s the first letter of the name of the sweet kid who wanted the pie in the first place. So here’s how it looked after it came out of the oven. And even better to behold–look at the slice! A real triangle! After I post this, I’m gonna taste that slice with some ice cream. I’ll let you know how the crust tastes. But I gotta say I’m really impressed with how it looks.

 

 

 

 

One last awesome thing about today–a dear friend of mine showed up with this note and a pie–for me! Awesome!

The pie was delicious–my son let me have a bite of his. It was a peanut butter chocolate pie.

That chocolate part in the center–that’s melted HERSHEY bar, y’all. It’s a refrigerated pie, and that chocolate hardens into a delicious contrast for the gooey peanut butter stuff. Yum.

The best thing of all about this thank you pie? It was my friend’s first pie EVER. She’d never made any pie at all before. You’d never know it though, because that pie was delicious. But now, she’s the sort of person who makes delicious pies. Who knew?

Today, I had to make a savory pie. The thing about having sweet pies around all the time is this: you eat them. So I thought I’d make an Italian Sausage Pie for our late lunch. We all slept late, which was heavenly, and ate a late breakfast. So it was fine that we didn’t end up eating this pie until about 2:30.

I cut up some sausage links I had in the fridge. They weren’t technically Italian sausage, but I used sauce that had an Italian sausage flavor, so it didn’t really matter. Into a deep pie dish I put the following: sauce, whole wheat penne pasta (cooked), browned sausage pieces, and mozzarella cheese. On top, I put Bisquick batter mixed with garlic salt and more mozzarella cheese. I baked it all in the oven at 450 degrees for about 30 minutes. You really do have to keep testing it until a knife comes out clean, or else the topping will be doughy.

It got toasty brown, and it smelled really good baking. Three of us ate it for lunch, and everyone liked it. Turns out, you can put Bisquick on top of pretty much anything, and it’ll taste good. If I changed anything, I might’ve made the topping more garlicky and less thick. I’ll bet that adding more milk would thin it out just right.

Tomorrow, it’s back to sweet pies, so stay tuned.

Yep. That’s what I named it. As in, “Whoopsy! It’s 9:00 and I forgot that I haven’t baked a pie today!” We drove eleven and a half hours home from Virginia today. Don’t ask me why a nine and a half hour trip took eleven and a half–it just did. So my pie making time–and energy–was cut short. So here’s how I made today’s pie:First of all, I pre-baked my crust on a lower rack than I’ve been using. My mom said this weekend that she always uses the lower rack–makes for a crisper crust–so we’ll see how that goes for a few pies. After it baked for 10 minutes, I took a hot bath while it cooled on a rack. It was good to wash off that road trip.

Then, I mixed the following with a hand mixer:

4 oz. cream cheese (should have been room temperature, but wasn’t–WOOPSY)

1 box of vanilla instant pudding mix

1 1/2 cups of milk

I beat it for “a while” on high-speed to try to get those little lumps out–I’m tellin’ ya, cream cheese just has to be room temperature, but it did ok, I guess. Then, I dumped the filling into the pie shell. Lastly, I added Nilla Wafers to the edge and then crumbled a bunch on top. Could not have been any easier. The whole process (minus the time for the hot bath) was about 20 minutes.

Here’s the finished pie. I put it in the fridge and am looking forward to trying it tomorrow. That glass of wine in the background is optional. If you choose to drink and bake, just make sure you don’t get yourself into too many WOOPSY situations…

Lastly, I want to share a picture from our weekend. Here’s our family headed  UP the hill of a roller coaster. Notice everyone’s faces…

There’s no doubt we’re having fun. I have to admit that my son’s face (the small brown one) sums it all up for me–30 days ’til I turn 40, and even though my eyes are squeezed shut with anticipation, I can’t wait to throw up my hands and yell all the way down the hill!

Today, my Mom showed me how to make Ed Deale’s Chocolate Silk Pie, which is a Reid family favorite. Mom used to work with Ed Deale, and I didn’t know him, but we’re all grateful for his pie recipe. Of course, Mom already had all the stuff on hand, and it only took about 10 minutes to prepare the pie (would’ve been quicker without me, I’m sure!) and 30 minutes to bake. The recipe makes 2 single-crust pies, and Mom said even though she’d tried to fit it into one shell, it just didn’t work that way.

Mom showed me how she prepares pie crust. Her crimping was rhythmic and even–the woman’s made hundreds of pies–and my crimping….well…wasn’t. Anyway, we got the two crusts ready and started working on the filling. I like this part, because everything goes into ONE container–a blender. After a week of making pies, I have used up a serious amount of bowls and dishes, so one blender is a good thing.  We dumped everything in (see recipe below) and Mom blended it for just a few seconds–couldn’t have even been a minute. The she did something smart. She poured the filling into the crusts which were already in the oven. If you could see how liquidy the filling is, you’d understand why. Then the pies baked for 30 minutes exactly.

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s the recipe for Ed Deale’s Silk Pie:

7 tablespoons of cocoa

2 1/2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 1/4 cups evaporated milk

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 stick of butter or margarine, melted

 

Blend all ingredients together in blender and pour into 2 (it MUST be 2) pie shells (not deep dish).

Cook EXACTLY 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Remove while filling is still shaky. Cool. Enjoy!

Here’s a shot of the finished pies. We’re taking one to my brother, Butch, and his family this evening. Then we’re all heading to the Virginia state fair. It’ll be a chilly fall night, and  I’m looking forward to funnel cake and the pig races, and this year…I’d like to see who took first place on the pies!

This weekend, we’re visiting with my Mom in Crewe, VA. It takes about 10 hours to get here. On the way, we stopped to visit some great friends, so we got in around supper time last night. My mom fixed us a supper of Brunswick stew and graciously helped me whip up a pie. I was really tired, but she had stuff around–in the pantry–so we just made this one: an apple pie with a crumbly crust. She had frozen pie crusts (first time I’ve used those), and in order to have a top crust, the package claims that you can simply turn a second crust over on top of the filling and, after it thaws a bit, crimp it and bake it. Wellll…..not exactly. But thanks to desperation and Mom’s ability to turn nothing into something, we just crumpled the crust up with cinnamon and butter. Turned out pretty good. I didn’t taste it ’til after breakfast this morning, so it was cold. It held together well, but I drew the definite conclusion that I like warm pie much better if it’s a fruit pie. One really good thing about last night was getting to enjoy my first fire of the fall. Fall just kind of snuck up on us, and the fire felt really good while we waited for the pie to bake.

Today, we went to King’s Dominion, an amusement park in Doswell, VA. I knew how tired we’d be (MAN, am I tired) after we got back, so I decided to make a breakfast pie this morning–that way my pie committment would be fulfilled early. Once again, Mom came to the rescue with eggs, sausage, cheese, and another frozen crust. We made a sausage pie. It turned out all right–my husband really liked it. I wasn’t thrilled with the texture–a little too custardy for me. The reason was that the recipe called for a WHOLE PINT of half and half. It was so liquidy going into the oven that we had to put it on a baking sheet, and I really had my doubts about whether it would ever get solid, but it did.

Tomorrow, Mom’s going to share one of her pie recipes with me–one that all the grandkids ask for. You’ll have to wait and see what kind of pie…I’m glad I could count on her pantry to rescue me from pie making emergencies!

So we had a good time at King’s Dominion, even though it was cold and rainy. We’re all looking forward to a good night’s rest and some sleeping in tomorrow.

32 days ’til 40. Time flies when you’re having fun!

 

You know how sometimes a certain thing just reminds you of a person? Every time I see or hear the word snickerdoodle, I think of my friend Denise. The reason is this: that woman makes the best dang snickerdoodle cookies you have ever tasted. So I made her a snickerdoodle pie.

Denise and I have known each other for a long time. I taught her twin sons in kindergarten and later helped tutor them at home. But mostly, we were just great friends. Our kids had fun playing together–our daughters were in kindergarten together–and we liked hanging out. She’s someone I’ll always remember as being trustworthy, kind and giving. Always caring more for others than herself. And that’s rare these days.

The woman can really cook. She’s taught her kids (5 of ’em, and they’re terrific) to cook, too. I never tasted anything from her house that wasn’t delicious.

Denise and her family moved several years ago when her husband changed jobs. Even though I haven’t done a great job of keeping in touch, I sure have missed her. The great news? Facebook has helped us keep up a bit. The even greater news? I’m gonna see her tomorrow! We’re driving up to see my mom, and on a whim, I contacted Denise to see if she’d be home. She will be, so we’re making a stop in North Carolina. We can’t wait to see our old friends and how much their kids have grown. So to celebrate, I looked up a recipe for Snickerdoodle Pie. It goes into a regular crust, except you sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on the crust before you put the filling in. This pie recipe was one I found on the internet, so the directions were a little tricky. Lots of ingredients–3 kinds of sugar! After the crust is ready, you mix up a batter-like stuff and put it in the shell, but the BEST part is the syrup that you make to poor on top before you bake it.

The syrup has corn syrup, butter, brown sugar, and vanilla. It is super delicious. I resisted licking the pot clean.

You pour the syrup on and bake it for about 45 minutes. Then it has to cool for a couple of hours before you put on the tasty cream cheese glaze.  I had the opportunity to taste the pie this afternoon, because I made two of them. The best thing about tasting the pie is that I got to share an afternoon with my good friend Cheire–who DEFINITELY deserves a pie. She has been my friend for about three years now, and since they don’t really make a trophy for that, I guess a pie will have to do.  She and her two sons came over this afternoon, and Cheire and I ate pie, drank coffee, and talked while our boys played. She declared the Snickerdoodle Pie to be great for breakfast with coffee. We both found it to be very rich. SWEET.

So I guess today’s pies are all about friends. What’s that cheesy, but true Girl Scout rhyme?

Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other’s gold. 

If that’s the case, my treasure chest is full! I’m so thankful for the good friends in my life. I’ll never be able to thank them for all the love and support they’ve given me. But I can make pie, and I feel blessed to share it with two of those friends in the same week!

Last night I made this Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Pie after I got home from my daughter’s chorus concert. I had to drop by the store first because I was about out of eggs and pie crust stuff. Can’t let that happen. So I didn’t begin baking until about 9:00. Both pies I made were baked, cooling, and cleaned up by 10:00. So they were definitely what I classify as easy pies.

I have to admit that I made them because I was grateful–and relieved. I don’t know how many middle school chorus concerts you’ve been to, but they vary widely in both presentation and behavior. Well, I’m here to tell you that those kids sounded AWESOME. And I’m not just saying that ’cause I love my kid. It was obvious that the chorus teacher had worked really hard with the kids. I could tell that my daughter was proud of her work–and it had paid off! So I made this Reese’s Peanut Butter pie for the chorus teacher. I’m taking it to her this morning with this note. I couldn’t resist a pie card. After being a teacher for many years, I know that they get lots of complaints and not a lot of thanks. So I’m bringing some yummy thanks today to the chorus teacher. If you’re reading this and you’re a teacher, too, then I say, “Thanks!”

A note or two about this Reese’s pie. I had some extra filling, so I took a little ramekin full up to my husband, who was working late. To give him the full effect, I stuck an extra peanut butter cup in there. He was glad for the treat and declared that it was delicious. Another thing–the graham cracker crust (store-bought) was kinda crumbly. So I hope taste wins over organization. I’m hoping a pie with candy in it makes people feel forgiving. Lastly, if you think this pie looks yummy from the top, you should know that there is ANOTHER layer of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups under that filling stuff. Decadent.

If you read yesterday’s blog, you know that I promised a pineapple coconut pie. Well, after I made the peanut butter one, I was still inspired, so I decided to bake the pineapple coconut one for the office staff at the middle school. I mean, I’m going inside anyway, and those people need some thanking, too. So I whipped it up–preparation was only 5 minutes, and baking was 45. It smelled terrific and turned out solid-looking. Hope they’ll enjoy it. It’s the last day before fall break in our county, so I know they’ll need help surviving this Friday!

So today marks 34 days until my fortieth birthday, and I’ve just about lost track of how many pies I’ve made. So far, here’s the list:

Peach Pie

Banana Cream Pie

Apple Crumb Pie

Chocolate Creme Pie

Jack Daniels Chocolate Chip Pecan Pie

Peanut Pie

Pumpkin Pie

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Pie

Pineapple Coconut Pie

That’s NINE pies in 6 days. My kitchen’s in high gear and my tummy’s full, but BOY am I having fun.

Today was my last day at work. I’ve been a preschool director for over 3 years, and since our house is on the market, I resigned my position so that there would be a smooth transition for the school. I’ve been transitioning out for several months, and today, the last day is here. It’s been a huge blessing working with wonderful ladies on the staff, and it’s so rewarding to do things every day that impact children and families. I’ve learned so much from my time as director, but I know it’s time to go. This is the longest I’ve stayed at any job–guess I have sort of a short attention span.

I decided to make some pies last night that I could take in to work today. Before I tell you about those, I wanted to share a bit more about yesterday’s whiskey pie. Our friend came by to pick up his pie in the evening, and thankfully, he said I should try a slice. I didn’t hesitate to try it, and I have a very good report. First of all, the pie came out in a pretty good slice. Here’s a photo:Secondly, the thing tasted so good that I kept making yummy noises. The Jack Daniels really did enhance the flavor, and we all know that chocolate never hurt a pie.

On to the other two pies–that makes for THREE in one day (pie-makin’ fool!). I made two super-fast pies. One was called a peanut butter pie , although I think it should just be called peanut because of how it looks. It was from my Easy as Pie cookbook, and the ingredients were very simple: peanut butter, peanuts, sugar, and a few other things. It smelled so good while it was baking, and I can’t wait to taste it.

The next pie I baked was a pumpkin pie. The main motivation was that I had the stuff already AND that I needed to take two pies in order for everyone to have a slice of something. It was even easier than the peanut butter pie. The recipe was on the can. I’m a fan of canned pumpkin. Once, when I taught second grade, I made a pumpkin pie with my class FROM SCRATCH. Starting with a real pumpkin. It was really hard work, especially with 20 eight year olds and a convection oven. They had fun, though, and the pie tasted OK.

Today’s pumpkin pie was really happy-smelling in the oven, and it reminded me that Thanksgiving is not so far away! It also made me check the fridge for Cool Whip. Whew. I’ve got it. LOVE, love, love whipped cream on pumpkin pie. And not just one of those sissy sized “dollops.” I need at least a WAD or maybe even enough to cover my whole slice. And for me, no canned whipped cream, only Cool Whip in a tub. Just my preference.

I hope everyone enjoyed those pumpkin and peanut pies on our last day together. Sniff… I received some lovely cards and gifts from my coworkers and friends, and they all pitched in to make me a Mexican feast! So much delicious food! Thanks guys!

I got to taste both of the pies. I enjoyed both, but a lot of people really seemed to like the peanut pie. It was moist and salty and sweet all at the same time, and it struck me as the type of pie I’d love to have with coffee. Both pies were excellent with Cool Whip.

Since I made these pies last night, I’ll need to make one for today. That  one’s gonna be pineapple coconut pie. I’ve got to take something to my daughter’s chorus concert tonight anyway and, surprisingly, I happen to have both coconut and pineapple around.This one’s in the Easy as Pie book also, so I’m expecting it to be just that. You’ll get the report tomorrow on how the coconut pineapple turned out.

35 days to go, and my pants are already tight. 🙂

 

Today I started off by shopping for this important ingredient. Now, I confess that I do enjoy a whiskey sour from time to time (extra cherries, please–and by extra, I mean at least 5); however, today’s purchase was for two valuable tablespoons of flavor in a Jack Daniels Chocolate Chip Pecan Pie.I found this recipe in my PIE cookbook that I ordered from Amazon. It was pretty easy to make. The most time-consuming part was pre-baking the crust. I followed the instructions in my book (this guy believes in crispy crusts and almost always recommends partially pre-baking a crust), and the pre-baking took 30 minutes in all. I even had to use my pie beans to weight down the crust and poke holes in the crust at just the right time. This pie took THREE different oven temperatures to complete.

Today’s pie is for our friend, Jay. He grew up around here, and he’s very involved in local theatre–my husband loves the theatre, and even though I didn’t see shows before I was married, I’ve become a big fan of the stage in the last 15 years.

Anyway, Jay has directed and produced several shows over the years, and he’s won many awards for his work in the theatre. He’s also a talented actor. Every show that I’ve seen has been excellent, but a favorite of mine that Jay directed was The Great American Trailer Park Musical. The singing and acting were fabulous, I laughed so hard I cried, and I went back to see it a second time. I mean, who can resist hits like “I’m Gonna Make Like a Nail, and Press On?” Jay’s got a lot to be proud of, and his support of the arts in our community deserves thanks. So Jay…thanks! This pie makes me think of you because it’s southern, sweet, and–with that Jack Daniels in there–it knows how to have fun. Well, it was a good baking day, so the pie’s finished before 2:00. Jay’s not supposed to pick it up until 6:00. I sure hope there’s some left when he gets here. Y’all should smell this thing. I’m considering making up a story about how everyone gives me the first slice or something. Hmmmmm…..OR I could just give him this pie instead:After all, I didn’t say what KIND of pie it was….

Well, according to my countdown app, there are 36 days until the big 4-0, and my house has never smelled so good!