Note to DH's and us too

Kathy, I have never in my life made an acceptable pie crust. I hate doing it and I think my attitude just makes the crust either fall apart or turn into cement. As a result, I buy the crusts in the cold case, ready to unfold and put into a pie plate. Then I make my pies from scratch the way I like to. I don't make pies or cakes or cookies often. DH is trying so hard to eat healthy and stay trim and fit. But at Thanksgiving I make two pumpkins and for Christmas I make one batch of cookies and one other treat. This year it was pecan pie from scratch, made with walnuts rather than pecans. Yum. But no rolling out pie dough for me. You might like making your pies again, using the ready made crusts so you don't have to hurt your shoulders. Save yourself for quilting!

Hugs, Sunny

The only reason I wanted bought pies this time is because I was just to tired and hurt to much to make them from scratch.

I hear you there, Kathy. I ceded all the cooking for Thanksgiving and Christmas to DH and sons except for the pies (three total, two pumpkin at Thanksgiving made at the same kind because Costco only sells the gigantic can of pumpkin) and the walnut pie for Christmas. This is a hard task. I am a control freak and like things done my way. But you know, they did a great job and they were quite proud. DH 1 has now become the go-to guy for all mashed potatoes in the household. DH 2 is a pretty good cook. He likes to eat and usually those of us who like to eat realize young that we better like to cook, too. I am glad the holidays are over for another year. Too many expectations and too little control of the world in general. Now we can all take a breath, get somebody else to put away the tree stuff and start thinking about Spring. I know it's months off yet, with the coldest part of winter ahead, but the sun is coming back our way and just knowing that gives me a great lift.

Sunny

Actually, pie pastry is very simple to make, and takes very little effort! The more you roll it the tougher the crust is. Right after college I got a job working in a state mental hospital doing activities with the patients. A very sweet and completely nuts little old lady taught me to make pie crust, and now mine is so good -- very light and flaky -- that my pies are in great demand for church dinners! The key is to handle it as little as possible.

Actually I was taught very young that the trick to good pie crust is to handle it as little as possible. So I buy it in a box, unroll it gingerly from the cellophane and ease it onto the pie plate with forks.

;-)

Sunny

I can play the pie crust game from every direction. My best favorite good trick is this. Heat you oven to 300° more or less. Put a cookie sheet in the oven to get warm. Put the pie crust on a lovely pie pan/dish of your own. The tacky, store-bought aluminum foil one will not do. We're trying to look home made here. Take a pastry brush (if you have one) or just your fingers and paint the pie crust with a beaten egg white. Put the painted piecrust (pastry, if you will) in the oven on the warmed cookie sheet for about 5 minute. Remove. Viola / Voila! The egg white will act sort of like varnish and keep the pie crust from getting a case of soggy bottom when you put the filling in and bake. And - a recent lesson from our precious Alton Brown: let a pie cool for at least 5 hours for all the magic to happen and a filling to set. In '08, my pecan pie turned to syrup, we cut it too soon. AB is one smart cookie. Polly

Yes I must think about spring - I still have some tulip bulbs to plant - things just got in the way or it rained/snowed/froze whenever I did have time. Its dreadfully late to plant them now, but I'm sure they will come up eventually.

Thats the first job as soon as the visitors leave - if it doesn't rain/snow/freeze!

Sally at the Seaside~~~~~~~~~~~~~uk

Sunny wrote:

My DH makes AWESOME mashed potatoes. He makes huge bowls of them and I freeze what is left, if any.

I am lousy at pie crusts. But I can make breads and sweet rolls and cookies and cakes and candies to die for. I think of crusts as something to hold the filling in, so they are just a container. So... I buy the pie crusts ready made or just skip the crusts and bake the filling in the pie pan. But then pie is just something to hold up a mountain of whipped cream. I think I'll go directly to the whipped cream and just skip the pie! LOL

Leslie & The Furbabies- still freezing cold with snow flurries in MO.

i think you should run a 'quilters pie retreat' at your place, Taria. teach us all how to make crusts like you make. we could bring the filllings and eat ourselves into a stupor. we need sustenance to make quilts. i reckon pies fill the bill nicely. not the right weather now so gives you time to figure out the logistics of such a happening. j.

"Taria" wrote ... Too bad we aren't close enough to swap candy for pie crusts. I do it all but candy although your caramels made me a success at least with those. : ) If you taste a good flaky crust you would know their potential! Taria

"Leslie& The Furbabies >I am lousy at pie crusts. But I can make breads and sweet rolls and

I made 6 batches of those fantastic caramels last week. I don't have a single one for myself- all were spoken for before I started! But I did 'force' myself to do a lot of test tasting and I just had to eat the ones that came out too crooked when I cut them into pieces... right? LOL

Leslie & The Furbabies in MO.

Taria, my sis is a professional chef -- graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in NY State. She says the finest pie crust on earth is made with pure lard. Not butter, not shortening, pure fresh pig's fat. I can remember my grandmother making crusts and biscuits with lard. I think I can remember somehow the luscious smell more than the taste, even thought it was soooooooo many years ago. Maybe someday I will try that. But my household is calorie averse. My husband really isn't happy if there are sweets or cakes or pies or other unnecessary carbs around so I try to limit my baking (and I'm really good at baking) to just once every few months or less. I'm not sure I would trust myself to have lard in the household left over from making my single pie crust. Heh, I do love good Mexican food and lard mixed with Masa Harina is the basis for some of the best in the world.

Sunny

Gosh, Taria, I'll have to disagree with you about using oil in pie crusts . I use canola oil. The trick I learned is to roll it out between two sheets of wax paper.

[ Lay the bottom wax paper going the long way in one direction, put down the crust, and lay the other wax paper going in the other direction. so that you end up with the wax papers making a square in the center!]

Roll the dough to the edges of the square part -- well, to make a circle, you don't roll it all the way out to the corners - just to the flat sides. Take off the top sheet, turn the dough/bottom wax paper over and put it on the pie pan. Gently press down. Then gently peel off the 2nd wax paper sheet. Voila! ME-Judy

I've done them that way, they just are not the wonderful flaky crust that make a homemade pie is so good. I think I need to do a taste judging on all the pies I am hearing about. Just send them and I can give a good review. I am as good an eater as I am a cook! Taria

Yep, lard makes a flaky wonderful crust. So what do you think the cardiologist would say about that? LOL I was pointing out the lard in the grocery the other day to dh. Hard to believe folks still eat that way but I guess they do. Taria