Thursday, November 22, 2007

Hey There, You, with your feet in the Pies!


I remembered one of the first pumpkin pies I ever made, long ago in Portland, Oregon. I left it on the counter. When I came back in the kitchen, my little kitten was standing in it.

I've had equal success with the pies I made today.

  1. Pie crust number one-- don't know what I did wrong but it just crumbled into a zillion pieces and I threw it away.
  2. Pie number two-- pumpkin pie. I know I included the sugar, and everything looks okay with this one, but Jon told them I'd bring two pies, so
  3. Pie number three-- blueberry pie. Last summer I learned a way to make this pie with maple syrup and fresh blueberries from the James Beard cookbook. The crusts rolled out really nicely. I only had frozen blueberries, and didn't realize that meant hot black smoke would roll out of the oven as the blueberries turned into wet stew and dripped into the fire. Although it looks nice on the surface, I know when you cut into it it will be a wet drippy mess. So on to:
  4. Pie number four-- butterscotch meringue. Never tried this one before. Had to bake the crust first, and it came out with mighty craters, but they were covered up with the beige pudding-- somehow butterscotch has a much prettier color when it comes from a mix. But I heaped the meringue on it, and it looks... okay... and the spoon licking was good. If there had to be another--
  5. Pie number five-- I'd have to make it out of beef broth and clams, because that's about all that's left in the cupboard!
Hope your cooking was more successful! We're eating at five.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I half intended to do a pie, but found myself craving ice cream and cookies, so I did that. Cookies from a mix, burned my hand while picking the tray out of the oven and threw them back toward the oven, a good throw. Lost one cookie, a few crumbled, but good for cookies from a mix. Oyster casserole pretty good, with dark beer, forget the wine. 4 pies? Child, you have stamina. I'm in awe of your perseverance. If it's good on the spoon, it's good. Never mind the appearance.

Linda Davick said...

A funny post ... but the pies look delicious. Which tasted the best? Can you believe I forgot to make a pie for the 2nd year in a row--even after reading your post earlier? I went to Safeway tonight and got ingredients. I'll make it tomorrow. All I wanted to do was work on the Flash header. (Speaking of feet in pies, the feet below are hilarious).

Anonymous said...

You can tell I made my pie crust: it's a bit tough. (I try to do lowfat...big mistake.)

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

That's one frustrating pie bake. I might have given up at pie one and bought with a pre-fab grocery store version. You have stick-to-it-ivity, Sally.

Sally said...

Oyster casserole sounds intriguing. What's that?

We had a great dinner and much fun too. The husband cooked everything and was an awesome cook. Highlights were jalapeno cranberry sauce, garlic mashed potatoes, and whipped sweet potatoes baked in scooped out orange shells with candied pecans on top. That one was visually beautiful too. There was a nice corn pudding and many other side dishes. Rather extraordinary assortment in fact.

The turkey was also fine and I was so stuffed I didn't try the pies, but Jon told me the pumpkin pie was good, the only one he tried. You can't tell that the blueberry is weeping blue on the counter in the picture.

Namowal, there was no grocery store option. It would have been a 2 1/2 hour drive. The thing about pies is, you need to bake often if you're going to do it right, and I hadn't done it in a long time.

This party was quite jolly. We played a silly card game at the table after dinner. There were all ages present, and their two young sons were particularly bright and charming.

Anonymous said...

http://www.shorpy.com/
Vintage photo site has Thanksgiving 1911 maskers images. The full size views are so fine, and the Halloween aspect is new to me... Oyster casserole=scalloped oysters---baked within layers of buttered crumbs and cream. None of us are mad for turkey. Oysters do the trick. I love the idea of the orange/sweet potato dish. I'm glad yours was a good gathering, with games other than football. That is ideal. As were your pies, I'd be willing to bet.

Sally said...

Katy, Such beautiful photos at the site you mention. thanks!