3.14

dallas folks celebrated pi in a big way. i made a pinto bean pie (thanks for suggesting it emily and homesick texan). check the pictures here.

Pi Day (3.14): Washington D.C. Outpost

On Pi Day last Saturday, we here in the Nothing-in-the-House Washington D.C. outpost celebrated with a rainy day-long pie making extravaganza. Danny generously gave Matt and me the run of his well-equipped kitchen (not to mention his breezy apartment including a great record collection and turn tables)for our pie production. By the evening, we had produced 3 pies, an extra crust (for the peach pie featured below), and a crumble composed of leftover ingredients. They were as follows: The MVP (Most Valuable Pie) of the day: Key Lime, using Martha Stewart's recipe. Matt tackled the day's oddball pie--a sweet Pinto Bean Pie, using this recipe from the great blog, Homesick Texan. The protein-full filling was supported by Nothing-in-the-House's standard crust(at right.) We substituted some maple syrup for brown sugar, and next time, I might advise using all syrup to cut eliminate refined sugars. For our classic selection, we went with Apple Pie(using the linked recipe, but with cornstarch instead of tapioca, and sans pre-cooking apples), but switched it up, by making it a DEEP DISH in a glass pyrex bowl. With the leftover apples and graham cracker crumbs from the key lime pie crust, we made an apple crumble, which Matt ended up "stuffing" in the pocket of the deep dish apple (that crust and fruit separation that apple pie is prone to) for a apple-crumble-stuffed-deep-dish-apple-pie. Take that tur-duck-in! We enjoyed the pies after a pasta, salad, wine, and empanada (more pies!) dinner with Danny (who also took these beautiful pics), followed by a bit of mandolin.

(Preserved) Peach Pie

Last night my friend Layne and I made a peach (with perhaps some nectarine mixed in) pie with fruit he froze last summer. We drained about 2 quarts of peaches (they were frozen in their own juice) and added ginger and cinnamon--it really didn't need any sweetener because the fruit was so sweet already! We put the peaches between the nothing-in-the-house standard crust recipe, making an extra-thick edge, and baked for about 15 minutes at 425, then reduced to 375 and baked for about 30-35 minutes more.
All the deliciousness of summer in early spring!

Birthday Meat Pie at Pretty Boy Reservoir

The Baltimore nothing-in-the-house contingent is keeping the spirit alive with al fresco birthday meat pies. Jamie reports via e-mail:

went to prettyboy reservoir yesterday with anna bob and adrienne to celebrate b-days with champagne and a meatpie. it was awesome.

A truly excellent savory pie was consumed. The sharp cheddar was the key.Sunset was nice too.

Greg Makes Pie... And It's Good

On Thursday, Greg made an apple pie, following the recipe from Angelica Kitchen cookbook with a butter for oil modification. This recipe is a good one for those seeking a rustic, wheat-and-maple flavor without the cane sugar. Greg was so amazingly precise and careful with all the chopping, measuring, mixing and rolling that it took him a long time, but he enjoyed it and produced a delicious, tender and flavorful creation. His friend, Ryan, was there, hanging out while he made it. I was lucky enough to come home and see it getting put together. Even the slashes on the top look like Greg made them to me, which of course, he did.


I also made two 30 second raspberry-blueberry tarts with some of the leftover dough, heartshaped. You can tell they were me because look how sloppy they are. But they were good to taste, too!


We then brought the pie over the Meghan and Gahlord's, where we enjoyed an evening of pie, cookies, laughs and crafting.


Meghan in the PEZ


Allaire and me in the PEZ

On Friday night, Greg and I re-entered the PEZ with friends, Chris and Ryan, enjoying pie with Vanilla Coconut Bliss, a great fake ice cream product with no cane sugar and a must try for those of you who don't do dairy, soy or refined sugs or who like coconut.