Project Pie: Week 3-Custard Pies

Chapter 3 is custard pies…examples would be pumpkin, pecan and my choice Butterscotch Custard!

I Tried to tackle their crust again…this time following the directions, like Adam did. And well it still didn’t turn out as nice as his.

I did get to use my new pastry mat; something I’ve wanted for a long time. And we ordered a pastry cutter so that should be her in time for next weeks pie.

Anyway… I was supposed to Flute it high…and that didn’t turn out so pretty. But it was better than the first weeks crust.

Then you mix the 3 ingredients and pour it in the shell. Easy peasy.

I baked it for 25 min with the crust covered then 25 with out it covered.

When the timer went off it still looked liquid in the center so I cooked it another 8 min.

After it finally cooled Adam and I were able to dig in for a late night pie treat. Oh and I whipped up some crème by hand.

The pie was still slightly warm and we both gobbled it up. Adam said it was better than the blueberry pie. I thought it was very good, but it wasn’t too butterscotchy, more of a custard flavor. Maybe I should have added some butter rum schnapps .

The next morning Adam and Charlie split a piece for breakfast (and I took one to work) Once it was chilled it had a better consistency and tasted sweeter and less eggy than it did warm. So I would recommend letting it fully chill.

Next week: Refrigerator Pies and Adam’s choice. I’m hoping he goes raspberry.

Tuesday Schmoozday.

Yesterday was a bit stressful.

I had some unnecessary anxiety then I added to to it with more unreasonable ridiculous thoughts.

But by the time I got home from work and Adam stuffed me full of NY Strip, I had some wine time and I was good.

Then Charlie woke up at 4:30 A.M. I tired to ignore her…I buried my head under my pillow. Go back to sleep I willed her. But I had to pee. So I got up…and she was still crying.

I did what any mom would do, I went in there and soothed my child. But it was now close to 5 am. I was wide awake and it seemed so was she. So she came in our bed.

I’m not sure if she slept anymore, I think I did for a hot minuet.  When my radio went off at 6:30 she said “OO!” And then started bobbing around dancing sitting up in bed. It was kind of cute, but I turned it of and wished for 30 more minutes. They didn’t come.

But 7 did and I pulled myself out of bed and got ready for work. Every one was all smiles and I was only a few minutes late leaving. Adam and Charlie walked me to the door, we said our goodbyes and as I was closing it Adam said “uh Steph, I think you dropped something” As I looked down I saw my English muffin (my breakfast) being gobbled up by the dogs.

I guess it slid off my stack as I gave out kisses…so I trucked back inside and made another one as I was fuming that the dogs ate my breakfast.

I’m thinking the day can only improve from here…I hope I didn’t just jinx myself.

Project Pie: Week 2

I want to start off by saying my husband made his first ever pie over 4th of July this year. He made a key lime pie with a gram cracker crust. It was very good.
This week it was his turn to pick and make the pie. Chapter 2 is cream pies and I knew even before he started browsing which one he’d choose: Coconut Cream pie.

He started by making the crust, using the same recipe I did last week. The only difference, he followed the directions to a T, something I guess I didn’t. Note: this was the first time he had EVER made a crust. (other than that cram cracker one-but that doesn’t count)
Ok prepare to be amazed…look at my husbands crust.
First off his dough was a much better consistency than mine and second he used a fork to mix where I used a food processor. (and he used his moms rolling pin)

Then he did this fancy thing where he wrapped the dough over the pin for an easy transfer to the pan. (I guess that was in the directions..)

Then I had to tell him to flute the edges.

It’s Shut the Front Door perfect. I have NEVER made a crust that pretty. I went and slit my wrists, no I didn’t…I watched in amazement as he made the rest of the pie.

The next step was to make the filling.

Once it thickens you add the eggs and coconut and that’s when the house starts to smell amazing!
Then you pour the hot mix in your pie shell.
The next step is the meringue.


Then sprinkle with coconut and bake.
It came out perfect!
The only bad part was that it had to cool…then chill! So we weren’t going to eat any until the next night. Booo hoooo

Finally when it came time to cut into it it was everything you wanted it to be. ohhhhh sooooo goood! Worth every calorie (I’m guessing between 350 & 400 a slice.)

Even someone who didn’t want to eat her dinner liked it… a lot!
I would definitely make this pie again, or a have Adam make it. It would be great to bring to a party to impress all your friends, make for special occasions to show someone you really love them or to eat alone when you’re feeling blue, share with someone you love or raffle off to raise money for cancer. This pie is all of that folded into a sweet creamy dream. ahhh I can’t wait to have another slice!

Hump Day Photodump

Happy Wednesday! This week is flying by-Thank goodness.

The big event the past week was Adam playing in the USA Ultimate National Masters Tournament. Now to clarify Masters is because they’re all over 32. I’m not sure if it’s like that in other sports, but it is in this instance. Anyway, they played great! It was the first time this team had made it to nationals. And they went all the way to the finals and lost by 1 point. But they still got their silver medals!

And now to the rest of our week…

Someone is growing up to fast…And dressing like a teenager…

Her hair is coming in nice in the back…still a bit slow in the front. I just can’t bring myself to de-mullet her and cut off these curls.As seen on Facebook, she has a blast making pop corn! pictures can’t capture how excited she was!She built quite a few castles with her blocks and I was very impressed with the design. symmetry and everything!

I know she’ll want a play kitchen soon (she loved the one at PYC) so I’ve started saving kitchen items so she can fill her cupboards.

Oh Rody. If only this blow up donkey/horse could talk. She bounces and throws and carries him around. Such happy times with Rody, even when she falls off and bumps her head!

And finally…look at our pineapple!! You can’t tell scale in the picture, but it’s pretty small and soo cute!

Adventures in Single momville

This past weekend Adam was gone 3 nights for an Ultimate Tournament. It was the first time ever that I was alone overnight with Charlie, the champion sleeper and worlds best baby. That is until her daddy is gone and she’s got 12 molars coming in. The first night (thurs) was pretty rough. She was up at 10:30, 2 and 5. Each time it was an hour. She wanted to play or climb on top of me or eat or anything but sleep.

3 am reading…oh joy.

The next night wasn’t as bad since I gave her some Motrin around 2:45 (the first time she woke up) then not again until 6. But each time she would be screaming..and she’s always a greet you with a smile baby. Saturday night I gave her the Motrin before bed and she slept until close to 6:30! All I have to say is when I had a baby I had so much respect for all the single parents out there…..I had so much help…and I really didn’t know how they did it. Now I have even more respect! that stuff is hard. hard. hard. hard. God Bless you and your sanity. You single parents are rock stars in my book. I was so happy to have Adam home Sunday night. And have Charlie sleep all night long. She’s still teething and having some night time issues, but we’re praying those giant boulders break through soon and give all a good night sleep!

Now the other side of being with out Adam is our other “children”, Jordan and bruiser. Adam is the one who walks them in the morning and at night. I will walk them after work (after Charlie goes to bed) if he is working late. But with him gone I had to do all three shifts…with a toddler. I’ll admit l let her go out in a just a diaper a couple times. Classy.  Back to the dogs. They sleep in our room, but with Charlie causing all this ruckus the door was left open and they were out in the house for most of the nights. I believe Jordan slept on the couch since there was evidence of hair and (gross) dried blood from her old dog eye. And I was pretty sure bruiser was the one that got into the trash and strew Kleenex all over the room. Well I thought it was him until I took them out Saturday morning.

Stop reading now if you are eating.

Stop reading now if you are easily grossed out by the word dingle berry.

So Jordan was doing her business, for the second time that trip, and she was having some issues squeezing the last one out…and it was a big one. Wanting to get back inside I sucked it up took my bag and helped her out. Only thing was once the poop was out that wasn’t all that was there! I pulled out about 6” of this white tube like thing before it finally came free. OMG her intestines I thought!! But then I closer look I realized it was like a tightly twisted piece of fabric…it was an entire Kleenex…digested and pushed through her intestines and attached to her shit.  Once again single parents I don’t know how you do it. 

After that I made sure both dogs were locked in the room and the trash was put high up. I can only do that once…next time I think I may puke. 

So that in a nutshell was my weekend, well that and watching Adam come in 2nd at Nationals! I survived and I could probably do it again if I had to, but I really really don’t want to.

Project Pie: Week 1

For our first pie we chose to go with a blueberry recipe (my favorite pie) since blueberries where on sale and we forgot to look up a recipe before we went to the store.  So the recipe we chose from the 3-4 blueberry options was: Glazed Blueberry Pie.

Note: I make a very good blueberry pie from a recipe I found a few years ago. I always make my own crust from a super easy recipe and it always turns out perfect. So this pie had a lot to live up to.

First up I tried their crust recipe. This was a single crust pie so I only needed to make and roll out one. Their recipe called for shortening or lard…I ALWAYS use butter, but Adam said “try it there way”. Well I did and I’ll never do it again. I couldn't roll that thing out for the life of me and in the end this is what I ended up with…

I had to really paste the thing together to fill the pan. In the end it came out ok, not pretty, but it would do.

This recipe had a lot of cooling between steps, so it’s definitely not a quick go to whip up a pie recipe. I had to wait for the crust to cool and the cream cheese to soften before spreading it on the bottom only to let it re-cool. Finally I added the blueberries.

Not cooked or anything, just raw… (If I were to do this again I would have either used less berries here or tossed them in the with glaze for a moment.) The last step is the glaze. It’s pretty straight forward. Only “tough” part was straining the berries, if you can call it tough.

Then you mix the juice with sugar and cornstarch to make the glaze.

When it thickens you pour it over the berries in the pie. And then let it chill some more.

Finally around 8 o’clock we finally had a piece of pie. (a good 4 hours after I started)

It was good, not great. And it was not better then my blueberry pie by a long shot. I think the raw berries were a little odd. But I did like the idea of the cream cheese on the crust. Towards the end of the week the crust was a bit soggy, but it was still good.

Up next is Cream pies. I’m going to let Adam pick it out. I’m really hoping he picks peanut butter…but I have a feeling it will be coconut. Hopefully he’s not to tired Sunday night after his tournament to whip one up!