Hand Me a Pie

I love getting fresh garden treats from our CSA at Almost Urban farms. Even though I do silly things like plant my own zucchini, beans, and potatoes and at times get overwhelmed with too much of a good thing, I still love it.  Some times I feel inundated with the dark leafy greens....there I said it. I love garden fresh veggies, but get tired of kale, Swiss chard, lovage, beet greens, and even plain old lettuce.  I'm not a huge salad lover.  The Boy loves sautéed greens and creamed greens but Hubby isn't a fan of cooked greens.  I like them mixed in with salads, but I can only eat so much salad.

What is a girl to do? Well, first off, I'm always on the hunt for new ideas, second, I seem to have a back log of magazines with recipes in them....soooooo it is that I happened upon a recipe for Kale and Spinach hand pies in the January 2013 edition of Chatelaine magazine.  It is a spanokopita inspired hand pie with feta using a pastry dough instead of phyllo. Of course I didn't follow the recipe....do I ever? 

Greens and spinach hand pies 

Pastry

1/2 cup cottage cheese

1 egg yolk

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup butter, cold and cubed

Break out the food processor for this one.  Give the cottage cheese and egg yolk a whir with the blade.

Add the flour, salt, and butter.

Pulse until a ball forms.

Divide into 2 even portions, roll into rectangles, wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for about 1 1/2 hours.  This is a soft and squishy type of dough. You should still see tasty bits of butter through out it.

While the dough is getting its chill on, heat up a large skillet and wash up some dark leafy greens and get your ingredients ready. This time I used:

A handful of kale

A bunch of Swiss chard

Beet greens from 5 or 6 medium sized beets

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 tbsp oil

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

A healthy grating of nutmeg

2 tsp chopped fresh dill

1/2 cup feta, crumbled

Wash your greens how ever you normally wash your greens, remove any large and tough ribs from the greens. Chop them all up into bite size pieces. (I hate biting into something and having a long string of greens pull the rest of the filling out.)

Sauté the onion until soft (some garlic would be a great idea here too!)

Add in the hot pepper flakes, greens, and grate in the nutmeg.

Continue to sauté until the green are wilted.  Set aside to cool.

Once cool, drain any excess liquid and stir in the feta.

Now you are ready to rock n roll and assemble.

Pre heat the oven to 375F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

The amount of dough should get you 10 rectangles approximately 6" x 5", give or take.  Mine never turn out the same size.

Lightly flour the counter and roll out the dough and cut into 10 somewhat even rectangles.

Divide your greens into 10 somewhat even portions.

Scoop 1 portion of greens onto the middle of each rectangle and fold the pastry in half (short end to short end) to enclose the deliciousness inside pressing to seal the edges. Crimping with a fork makes a nice pretty edge....

Brush the tops with an egg wash and use just the tip of a sharp knife to puncture the tops of the pies to vent the steam.

Pop into the oven and bake. For about 25 minutes or until golden brown.

These were wonderful!  The pastry was flakey and easy to work with.  The Boy enjoyed leftovers direct from the fridge when he came home from work, or before work, or before bedtime....

Until next time, stay warm and eat well.

An Apple Galette to Remember.

This goes out to each and every hero everywhere.

This song is a personal favourite of mine.  It always makes me pause to remember those we have lost and those who still fight. (The Highway of Heroes is a stretch of highway 401 in Ontario and happens to be the route our fallen soldiers are taken when they arrive home.  People gather on the bridges along the Highway waving flags and signs to honour the fallne.) It never fails to make my eyes well up.
 
September 11, 2001 will forever be etched in our minds.  It is the focus of the "Where were you when" questions of this generation.  I remember where I was, and I know you do as well.  I was working in a grade 7 classroom in which the teacher had stepped out for a minute.  When he came back, he poked his head in the door and asked "May I speak to you for a minute?". I stepped to the door and he said to me "A plane just crashed into the World Trade Center!" I stood there perplexed, taking in the statement.  I think everyone that day instantly craved more information.  What happened? Why did it happen? Are people okay? What we going to do?

The next few days were spent glued to the TV news, reading the papers....The reality of it all was so overwhelming. How could something like this happen?

Today's memorials on TV have been just as emotional to watch. The memories, the thoughts, the hopes that people have been able to move on, recover, and live.

I know how emotional I became just when we visited New York in 2008.  Just being at the site brought on so many emotions.  As I read through some blogs today, all of them had lovely words of remembrance as well as stories.

Each of us does something different to remember and honour those affected by the tragic events of 9-11.  Marla over at Family Fresh Cooking has great idea for those of us who bake.  We bake to remember is a great way for bakers to read and share their thoughts and stories about 9-11.  We also get to link up our post and see other posts of what everyone has put together.



Today was a busy day but lucky for me I had some pie dough in the freezer.  I also had a couple of granny smith apples hanging around....hmmmm....how about an good old apple pie?

1 pie crust of your choice.
2 granny smith apples
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup flour (or 2 tbsp corn starch)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 egg
1 tbsp water

Peel and slice the apples.  Mix in the brown sugar, cinnamon, and flour and set aside.

Sprinkle some flour on the counter and roll out the pie crust.  Transfer the crust to a baking sheet.

Tip the apples onto the centre of the crust and fold up the edges so they come over the top edges of the apples.

Beat the egg with the water and brush this egg wash on the crust.

Bake in a 400 F oven until the crust is golden and the apples are cooked.

(I think next time I will remember to add some dabs of butter to the top of the apples).

I had some left over pie crust....hmmm......I rolled it out, cut it into strips, gave them a few twists, brushed them with egg wash....then sprinkled them with cinnamon sugar......bake at 400 for 15 minutes....oh my!!

Delish!!

I bake to remember.  Enjoy your baking with your loved ones.

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

If Sin Was a Pie, Then this Pie is The Biggest Sin EVER

Happy Bacon Day!!

Yup! That's right...this pie has bacon on the top of it....yes, it is an apple pie.  Yes, it tasted so good, it was sinful!!  I needed something a little sinful so close to the end of summer...

Tuesday will be my first day back at work...my summer is over and a new school year begins.  No more sleeping in, no more staying up late, no more fun...no wait, that's not right.  Fun is always to be had, sleeping in and staying up late will happen on the weekends! All is good.  This week was much better than the week before.

It was a busy week!!

• The show "Wicked" was in town, and it was just that, Wicked!! Amazing!!!

• Trips to the gym, Cost co, and just plain getting ready for the back to school season....felt busy, but good.

• The Boy and I made perogies (with a cheddar bacon potato filling). He did a fabulous job pinching perogies.  Although I don't think we got as many in the freezer for fall as I wanted.  Many perogies fell into his mouth as soon as they were boiled! I am surprised he didn't burn his mouth! We had fun and they tasted great.

• BBQs went on sale at Home Depot so we upgraded.  You know, from no BBQ to one so big it is like challenge to see just how much food I can fit on the grill.  We are working on some ribs for the inaugural BBQing.  The Boy helped with the ribs as well.  I think my kitchen job is in danger!

Now on with the sin....It felt so sinful just thinking of making this pie, never mind actually baking it.  I originally got this idea from Karen at Tasty Trials.  I had bookmarked this recipe when she first posted it and National Bacon Day seemed like the perfect time to try it out.  Now I didn't follow her recipe exactly, I mean how many of us actually do follow the recipe?  Karen is much like me and usually forgoes recipes.  Recipes are really just guidelines.  Once you know the methods, you can change it up.

Sin is In Apple Bacon Maple Pie

Printable recipe here

Pie crust of your choice (homemade or store bought)

14 slices Bacon (10 slices for the top weave and 4 to cook and crumble)

reserved bacon grease

8 granny smith apples

Squeeze lemon juice

1 tsp cinnamon

½ cup maple syrup (give or take)

¾ cup brown sugar

½ cup flour

¼ cup white sugar

springform pan (or a deep dish pie plate)

Roll out a thicker bottom pie crust than you normally would. (you want a substantial base for all the apples and bacon.)  Chill the pie crust until ready to use.

On a piece of parchment, construct a weave of bacon.  Place in a cold oven and turn oven on to 300F. Let the bacon weave bake away until slightly crisp but not overly crispy as it will continue to cook on the top of the pie.

In a large fry pan, fry the last 4 slices of bacon until crisp. Be careful not to burn the bacon or the pan. Drain the bacon on paper towels and cool.  Save the bacon fat in a bowl for later.

Peel, core and slice your apples.  Toss with some lemon juice.  Mix with the brown sugar, cinnamon and flour.

Add the white sugar to the hot pan with the bacon grease and tasty bits to start the caramelizing process.  Add in about ¼ cup of maple syrup.

Tip the apples into the pan and cook until caramelly and thickened but you don’t want the apples cooked through.  Let the mixture cool.

Crumble the four slices of bacon and mix in with the apples.

When the bacon weave is cooked, but not crisp, remove it from the oven and place it on paper towels to drain.

Remove the pie crust from the fridge and brush the entire surface with bacon fat.

Pour the apples and syrup mixture into the crust and bake at 400F for 20minutes.  Check the pie, if the edges are over browning, cover with foil and bake another 10 minutes.

Top the pie with the bacon weave.  Brush the bacon with 2 tbsp maple syrup.  Bake for 10 minutes.

Remove pie, brush bacon with more maple syrup, reduce oven temp to 300.  Bake for another 10 to 12 minutes.  Remove the pie, brush again with maple syrup and bake for another 12 minutes.

Resist eating the pie until it has cooled somewhat... you don't want to burn your mouth!!

Serve while in the company of good friends!
I am not going to lie to you....this was absolutely divine!!! Discussion actually touched on the topic of 'too much bacon' (if you can believe it).  Suggestions were made of perhaps a litte extra bacon in the pie and no weave on the top....as nice as the weave of bacon looked, it was a LOT of bacon!  The caramelly/maple goodness went sooooo well with the bacon. This pie is a must to try at least once!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!!

I Can't Believe We Ate The Whole Thing Peach Pie

 
Disappointments happen all the time. One minute you think you have a gorgeous crop of tomatoes.

Then you take a closer look and find this.

Bottom rot!! ARRRRRGGGGGG!  At least we can still use the top part of the tomatoes....SIGH

Have you ever had one of the weekends that was just one disappointment after another? We just had one of those weekends that just spilled out onto Monday.  Nothing seemed to go right.  The Boy didn't make the baseball team he tried out for, we came back early from the Little Cabin due to a malfunctioning water pump, the car needs a bunch of work and we have a sick cat to top it off. 

Oh, and Canada lost a wonderful man today, NDP leader Jack Layton passed away in the wee hours of the morning.  It is a sad day for our nation. You can read Mr. Layton's last letter to Canadians here.  He always had a way with words. 

Needless to say, we are feeling a bit down.  How to cheer ourselves up???  Well, a movie with lots of explosions and shooting helps....you know what else helps??

Bacon.  Bacon always helps.  We made BLT sammies for lunch today....let me tell you, they hit the spot!!

The Boy even made some scrambled eggs to go with the sammies!

Now, my whole weekend wasn't a complete bust.  On Sunday I baked a pie! I don't bake pies too often and I am always nervous about how the crust will turn out.  This pie turned out absolutely fabulous!!! How fabulous you ask? Four of us ate the entire pie....the boy had 3 pieces....after a full on steak dinner.....need I say more?

On The Fly Peach and Strawberry Pie
Printable recipe

For the pastry:
4 cups flour

1 tsp kosher salt

¼ cup sugar

1 ½ cups butter

1 cup ice water (you most likely won’t need the entire cup)

For the filling:
5 -6 peaches
1 cup sliced strawberries
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp corn starch
squeeze of lemon juice

1 egg, beaten to brush the pastry

Put butter and water in the freezer to chill

Mix the flour, salt, sugar together in a bowl

Grate frozen butter with cheese grater to get lots of small bits of butter to mix in with the flour.  It should resemble coarse crumbs.

Pour ½ cup of ice water into the butter flour mixture and mix quickly to keep from warming the dough.  Add more water 1 tbsp at a time until the dough comes together when squeezed. 

You don’t want the dough wet...kind of like a biscuit or scone dough.  Tip the entire mass of doughy crumbles onto the counter.  Fold the mass over onto itself, pressing flat each time and turning.  You will quickly see the dough come together and see the layers of flakey goodness you are creating. 

Divide the dough into 4 equal portions.  This will give you 4 single crusts or 2 double crust pies.  Wrap and freeze the dough you won’t use for another time and wrap and chill the dough you are using for a good ½ hour.

Cut an x on the bottom of the peaches just through the skin.

plunge the peaches into boiling water for 1 minute then plunge them into ice water.  Using a paring knife and starting at the x incision, peel the skin off the peaches.  

Slice into the peaches around the pit, twist to remove the peaches from the pits and slice the peaches.

Toss peaches with ½ cup of sugar, 2 tbsp cornstarch, and a squeeze of lemon....add sliced strawberries.

Roll out one pie crust and line the pie plate.  Brush the bottom crust with beaten egg. (This keeps the bottom crust from getting soggy).  Tip in the peach/strawberry filling.

Roll out the top crust.  You can cut the crust into strips to make a lattice top if you’d like.  

Add some spots of butter to the top of the fruit.

 Cut the edges down, crimp the edges, and brush with beaten egg.

Bake in a pre heated 425F oven for 10 minutes.  Reduce heat to 350F Bake for 30 to 40 minutes more.  If the edges get over brown, cover with tin foil and continue to bake until done.

Allow to cool to warm before serving and make sure to serve with vanilla ice cream or vanilla frozen yogurt!

Seriously, this was so tasty, I am making it again for a dinner guest this week! 

Until next time, stay warm and eat well.