This has been one of those crazy weeks where it feels like no one in our house has really rested for a single minute. Between work, school, church, and other activities, we have gone full speed ahead. Because of this, we’ve eaten out a few times, and we’ve also had several “fend for yourself” evenings. People have been living off of cereal, Nutella on bread, and other things one can fix in a hurry.

Today, as we cleared the dust and surveyed the situation in our fridge, I found some forgotten items that I just couldn’t stand to waste. Frankly, that’s how many of the meals I make get started–just using what I have. I found grapes and strawberries, three peppers, half a bag of spinach leaves, and a couple of small hunks of cheese. The peppers in particular needed to be used RIGHT NOW, so I decided to make a Veggie Pie.

There was a time when I just threw stuff away. I just got annoyed that I waited too long–too late–to make something good of what we bought. It was frustrating to spend money on stuff and waste it. Now, I try to scan the pantry and fridge once a week or so to see what’s there. Usually, a little creativity makes the most of any ingredient I may find.

Today, I chopped up two of the three peppers (one really was a bit too late–sorry, red pepper) and sautéed them with some butter, onion, and spinach leaves.I think they cooked for about 10 minutes on the stove top. Cooking them a bit before they go in the pie keeps them from being too bitey and lets out some of the moisture that could make the pie squishy.

I preheated the oven to 400 degrees and lined the pie crust with a sunny circle of orange and yellow peppers. Then I added the spinach with onion. Next, I added pieces of two kinds of cheese: cheddar and Asiago. All that was left was to make the “stuff” that holds the pie together.

That “stuff” was three eggs, 1/2 cup of milk (you can use 1/2 and 1/2 or whatever you have), and two teaspoons of dried basil. The pie baked for 40 minutes or so on the bottom rack–when you make eggy pies, cooking them on the bottom rack really helps the crust get done.

It was a beautiful, sunny day in Connecticut today, and I was so happy filling the crust with those sunny peppers and the satisfaction of using stuff up. On top of the peppers, I loved “using up” today with things I loved: kids playing outside, sitting in the sun, catching up with someone on the phone, laundry, and pie.

It wasn’t too late for the stuff in my fridge, and for that, I’m grateful. Don’t get me wrong–sometimes, we all miss out on opportunities. There are things we just can’t go back and use, or do, or say.

But it’s not too late for today. Use it up! Make the very most of every tasty moment.

 

 

Hello, Strangers! It feels that way kind of–not writing about pies in a long time. Tonight, though, it was this pie plate that brought me back:

 

It’s the empty dish after a yummy supper of Cheeseburger Pie. It’s an easy old recipe that’s been on the back of the Bisquick box for years. Here’s what you do:

Brown a pound of ground beef (I guess you could use ground turkey if you do that) with some chopped onion.

Spray a 9 inch pie plate with non-stick spray. Dump the cooked meat in there.

Add cheddar cheese–or whatever cheese. I used a cup of white cheddar.

Mix together 2 eggs, 1/2 cup Bisquick, some salt, and a cup of milk. Dump it on top of the meat and cheese.

Bake for 30 minutes at 400 degrees.

It works every time and everyone in my family ate it.

What really got me tonight was the empty plate.

As I was putting it in the dishwasher, I thought, “Well, shoot. I could’ve taken a picture of that pie. Or a slice. Or something. Should I have written something? Oh well–gone too fast.”

It was too late.

The chance was gone.

So I photographed the empty plate and sat right down, convicted by the lesson it taught me.

Just this afternoon, I was telling someone I know–someone who was a little discouraged–that they should look at this day as a gift. Even if it’s not what you planned, it’s still a gift. And I was saying it to myself, too, because before you know it, the plate’s already empty. The chance is gone. The day is over.

I want to ask myself each day, “What did I do to show appreciation for this day?”

And how many days have I forgotten to be thankful because I was annoyed or irritated or busy or grumpy or complaining or something else that just didn’t matter? Too many.

Everybody says it’s so important to plan things in life. And I guess it is, but remember the old saying,

Life is what happens when we’re busy making other plans.

So if you, like me, are saying to yourself, “Everything will be great when….”

When I get the job

When we get the house

When we go on that trip

When they graduate

When we pay that off

When I finish this work

If you’re saying some of that stuff, be warned. Today will be gone before you know it.

So instead, make different plans.

Plan to notice all the stuff you’ve been missing. Plan to really taste the pie and say, “MMMMMM” way too loud. Plan to remember exactly what someone’s laugh sounds like. Plan to sit closer to people you’ve been sitting far from. Plan to say thank you. Plan to look people in the eyes long enough to see what color their eyes are. Plan to boost someone’s self-esteem. Plan to look out the window and keep looking till you see birds and squirrels. Plan to hold hands with someone. Ask someone to tell you a story you’ve already heard, but you know they love to tell it. Plan to hug someone long enough to feel their heartbeat. Plan to sing. Plan to live in the RIGHT NOW.

Because it’s a gift. This day. This moment. It’ll be gone before you know it!

 

 

Well, pie lovers, I’m reporting to you from one of the most beautiful days of a Connecticut summer–high of 80, low of 55, sunny and breezy. Yes, please, I’ll take 20 or 30 more days just like this one. In other sunny news, the last pie I baked–blueberry–was devoured straight from the dish, according to our neighbors. They brought back the plate with these beautiful and delicious tomatoes. How kind!

The smell of them brought back the best memories of my Dad, who grew tomatoes that were the very best. I’m thankful this neighbor’s gardening skills are a close second.

I’m making my way down our street with neighborly pie-ness, so I chose the young couple diagonally across the street as the next pie winners. They’re very friendly, and they’re often out walking one of their two dogs. The exciting news in their home–they just got married! They’re only a few days back from their honeymoon in Hawaii. Now that I’m almost done being jealous of that, I plan to take them a tasty little congratulations present. 🙂

I was excited to start on this particular pie-venture, because I tried something new:

hand pies.

 

When I sold pies at the Farmer’s Market in Georgia, there were several times when folks requested hand pies, but I just never got around to it. Today was the day. I used store-bought crust cut into circles with my new biscuit cutter. My husband requested cherry, so that’s what filled each little pie.

It’s a delicate task to determine how much filling should go into each pie. It’s a lot less than you may think. When I sealed each pie around the edges with the tines of a fork, some of the filling was already trying to escape. Even more snuck out as they baked. Interestingly, the pies only took a few minutes less than a whole pie–about 35 minutes at 375 degrees.

While I was working in the kitchen, my awesome teenager created something really cool. It’s a piece of Paper Pie. I’m gonna use it as a bookmark. 

I love the hand-painted crust and the fantastic detail on the fruit. Love that kid. Can’t wait to try my bookmark in the book I’m reading.

 

Anyway, I decided to also try some apple pies.

Even though I have plenty of apples around–granny smith and red delicious both–I really only needed ONE apple to make three little pies. I’m tellin’ ya, they just don’t hold a lot of filling. I love this photo of the two apples side by side. Some bakers don’t like to mix varieties of fruit in pies–I am the opposite. I think mixing things up keeps life (and pies) interesting.

Take marriage, for example. People are different–like these apples–but underneath the “peels,” they are just alike enough. No matter what the outside of folks looks like, they are similar enough inside to make something delicious together–IF you add a few things: sweetness, effort, time, and sometimes–a little heat.

And isn’t love delicious?

I think so. Seventeen years ago, my husband and I were making the final preparations for our wedding day–August 24. We were different from one another, to be sure, but we were in love then, and we are now. Seventeen years worth of sweetness, effort, time–and sometimes a little heat–has made for a delicious marriage. I wouldn’t change a single thing.

 

So to our newlywed neighbors, we wish you sweetness and joy and just the right amount of everything in the recipe of your marriage.

 

 

Most especially, we wish you so much love that it sneaks out the sides.

Congratulations!

 

In less than 48 hours, we’ll be on our way. We’re moving almost 1,000 miles away.  Our stuff is all packed up–well, almost, and our house looks a little like this:

 

This is the inside of a doll house that my dad built for me when I was about 5. It is a replica of the house where I grew up: 1818 Leslie Lane, in Richmond, Virginia. I’ve always loved the details of the house–the matchstick windows, the hand-carved brick on the outside, the yellow-ish seventies carpet that ran throughout the house. Even the little closet under the stairs is a tiny copy of the one where my sisters picked on me and shoved me in there with the vacuum cleaner once. No hard feelings, guys..really 🙂

When I lived on Leslie Lane, it was hard to imagine living anywhere else, and I didn’t until I went away to college. I had a couple of other apartments after college in Virginia, one housemate in Georgia, and I was even lucky enough to live with my in-laws while my then-fiance finished up his final year of college.

After we got married, we lived in a tiny apartment in the basement of someone’s home. Some “ONE” doesn’t really describe it so well–the people had EIGHT children. It was noisy pretty much all the time, and it seemed there was always someone breathing on the other side of the door connecting to our place. But it was home, because I was with the one I loved the most.

After about 8 months, we bought a little house in Powder Springs, Georgia. We were blessed to live around the corner from a dear friend of mine, and we had some great neighbors. At that house, our sweet daughter joined the family, and my Dad planted a maple tree in the front yard on her first birthday. There were more of us to love–and it was home.

A few years later, we moved to Conyers, Georgia–next door to my husband’s parents. It is here that we’ve lived for the last 12 years. Here is where we celebrated birthdays together with our children’s friends. Here is where our precious son joined our family–all the way from Guatemala. There were hard times, too. Here is where a dear friend gave us a maple tree–just like the one my Dad had planted years before–that we planted in our backyard after he died. We can see it from the kitchen window, and one day, it may cast a shadow on the playhouse he built for our kids–and on the swing set my father-in-law built.

Here is where a turkey knocked with his beak on the glass of our front door–he thought his reflection was going to steal his girlfriend. Here is where our kids learned to ride bikes, use pogo sticks and skateboards, listen to coyotes at night, and to be very still when watching deer and birds.

Here is where my son lost his first tooth, and where my daughter told me about her first boyfriend. In this home we have sung and laughed and prayed and danced and clapped and cried and grieved and rejoiced together.

Here is where I taught myself to make pie. Here is where I have made several HUNDRED pies in the last couple of years–each one a delicious contribution to somebody’s life–mostly mine. 🙂

And today, I made The Last Pie of Honey Creek Road. It was nothing elaborate, because we’ve packed up so much stuff that I had to go buy a whisk and a bowl. I had a graham cracker crust in the pantry, along with the other random ingredients we’ve been snacking on for the past week. In the bottom of it, I dumped some white chocolate chips and attempted to melt them for a few minutes in the oven.

They did not exactly melt, but instead took on the look of toasted marshmallows. Hmmmm….we’ll see how that goes. Anyway, I let it all cool for a few minutes and then added chocolate pudding mixed with Cool Whip. Do not ask me how much of anything I added, since the measuring cups have been packed for days.

I added that yummy pudding stuff on there and then decorated the top with a few white chocolate chips and the last of the Cool Whip squeezed from my favorite pastry tool: a zipper baggie. So here was the result:

I just ate a slice of it, sitting alone in my office upstairs. The slice was messy and disorganized, but it tasted great. Much like our life here, it was full of love and flavor, and I don’t have a single regret about how it turned out.

Yes, here is where we have lived, and after Saturday, we’ll live somewhere else, but we will be together. We will laugh and love and dance and pray and celebrate and cry and sing and work and play–together.

And wherever we are together, we are home.

See you soon, pie lovers, and I sure hope Yankees like to eat pie!

Today has been one of the best rainy days in a while. My kids are on spring break, and since my paying  job is in education, I am too. My mom is here visiting from Virginia for a few days, so she was here to enjoy this day with us. The temperature only reached about 45 degrees today, and it rained ALL day, so it was perfect for staying indoors.

The day started with a fire in the fireplace and lots of peace and quiet. My children stayed up way too late last night, so they slept in for a long time, and it was nice to sit with mom and enjoy some coffee in the quiet. Hours later–as we sat happily in the same chairs–we were flipping through magazines and cookbooks and talking about recipes. Mom happened upon a recipe in Where Women Cook, a gorgeous publication to which I subscribe, for Vicky’s Tomato Pie.

Look here to see their beautiful website:   http://wherewomencook.com/

I took a quick inventory and realized we had all the ingredients. It’s a delicious combination of tomatoes (I used grape tomatoes cut in thirds because I didn’t have any big ones), onions, basil, and cheeses cooked up in a pie shell.

I started out with a regular store-bought crust, but in my excitement, I forgot all the rules about pre-baking pie crust. If you stick a “naked” crust in the oven without any pie beans or pie weights, you’re not gonna get a fillable pie crust. See photos below. 🙂

I laughed for a moment and hatched another plan. I took another crust out of the fridge, found another pie plate, and set the “faulty” crust aside to cool. The second time around, I remembered to add foil and pie beans, and the crust baked beautifully for 12 minutes. Then I added all the yummy stuff.

 

 

 

 

 

First were tomatoes. Like I said above, I didn’t have any big ones, so I used little grape tomatoes, which worked just fine. After that, a layer of chopped onions. I’m not a very good chopper, but I really like onions, so I didn’t care how big they were.

After the onions, I added this incredible mixture of shredded cheddar, mozzarella, and mayonnaise with some dried basil (Vicky uses real basil leaves, which is probably better, but I didn’t have any). That yummy, cheesy stuff goes on top of the veggies. On top of that (as if there wasn’t already enough awesomeness) goes parmesan cheese. Then into the oven to bake for about 50 minutes.Out came this fantastic, brown-topped Tomato Pie. It sliced beautifully, and we each had TWO slices. So delicious! Hats off to Vicky. Your pie rocks! 
While we were eating the Tomato Pie, I  popped my backup plan into the oven. I had some fresh blackberries in the fridge. I added a little sugar, heaped them on top of that faulty crust, and put it back into the oven for 20 minutes. The result was Crust-fallen Blackberry Tart, one of the most delicious accidents to come out of my kitchen in a while. 
All in all, this lazy, rainy day was a success. 2 pies later, I’m hoping for more rain soon!