The Pie Project

They would probably use corn. Maiz makes Guatemala go 'round (and accounts for approximately three million tortillas per person, per meal). Why is this on my mind? Because I'm going to Guate tomorrow, for ten days! Morgan has never been and I'm excited to show her around a bit. I worked on a coffee farm there, back in my Watson Fellow days ('03-'04) and have been back twice. Me encanta. We'll hit up the world's most beautiful lake, some highland towns, the colonial cloud city Xela, and my favorite coffee farm on the planet , ending up in ritzier Antigua for New Year's. I'll bring a notebook and a few t-shirts and not much else - hooray, simplicity. Okay, I'm bringing underwear, a fleece, and deodorant. But you get the idea. Anyway! If Guatemalans did make pie, they might also go for squash. It's one of the three sisters, after all, a New World staple. Making a pumpkin pie from scratch is an earthy, gooey experie nce that results in THE BEST p...

Yes, yes, yes. More, please. This peanut butter pie from Joy of Cooking was so utterly delicious I had to stop myself from eating the whole thing. I've always been a chocolate/peanut butter person, from my childhood obsession with Reese's Cups and Pieces to ... still obsessed. Well, I've graduated to the occasional spoonful of organic peanut butter with a few dark chocolate chips on top. I don't buy Reese's anymore because I'm afraid they'll make my teeth fall right out of my head (I will eat them at Grandma's - but that's because she keeps them in bowls all over the freaking counter. What's a girl supposed to do?) This pie was luscious and just sweet enough, somewhere between fluffy and creamy, with a crowning layer of shivery good chocolate. It sounds like a kid treat but it's perfectly respectable for adults, as evidenced by the rate at which my mom and friends devoured it. The homemade graham cracker crust adds a nice nutty texture. I wou...

Dilemma: which pie to eat between holidays? Answer numero uno: coconut cream. If you need a little respite from the apple/pumpkin parade, go tropical. The same could be said for your vacation plans - take a break from the family, go to the beach? M and I are doing a trip to Guatemala at Xmas. Not the beach, exactly, but decidedly not-winter. I can't wait! The semester is whirling to a close and I'm exhausted and hoarse and don't want to talk about it. Though I shouldn't take it for granted, as next year at this time I might be lusting after grad school from the confines of a cubicle. Nooooo...say it ain't so. This is a bit of an Obama tribute, a few weeks late, since he ordered a slice at that campaign stop diner in Ohio. I'm not a huge coconut fan, unless they're the cold green kind sold at Mexican roadside stands, hacked open and stuck with a straw, but I liked this pie. It wasn't quite amazing, mostly because coconut does not achieve amazing status in...

I'm willing to experiment once I'm comfortable with the basic formula; that's as true in cooking or exercising or TV show watching as it is in my writing or teaching. Today I'm thinking about what fun group project I can subject my comp students to: possibly the creation of happiness surveys, then the design of ads for happiness, nothing product-based. Hmmm. (It's our critical media literacy unit). Anyway, in the same creative spirit, here's a new twist on a classic. I love key lime and so I thought: why not use the same outline, but with orange juice? After some internet digging I found recipes for "sour orange pie," using - you guessed it - sour oranges, which I couldn't find. So, I mixed about 3/4 fresh o.j. with a 1/4 lime juice, and voila: sweeter than key lime but more acidic. This pie is zippy and bright and has some flair. I recommend it for surprising your dinner party pals. With a generous layer of chopped strawberries on top, it looks m...

I'm celebrating my b-day morning with the window open to the rain and Nanci Griffith playing in the kitchen. The cool damp air and the music remind me of home and I would like to thank my family for growing me up and instilling in me the appreciation for treats. And for just being wonderfully loving, flawed, funny, and ever themselves. I miss them, though I've got great peeps here, too. Tonight it'll be margaritas and tres leches for my adult Texan life. As a kid it was either cake with Cool Whip frosting or whatever I requested, such as pineapple upside cake, which was not as delicious as the name promised, or pumpkin pie, which has never failed me. Hence, here's my tribute to the perfect birthday pie. (Click on the photo for a close-up of creamy goodness). I made this pie to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving with friends this weekend. Who knew they had T-giving a whole six weeks earlier? I think I need to celebrate it from now on. After all, I grew up close to Canada. Y...

Your daily dose of potassium is hiding underneath here... I hate to say it, but there's not one. A pie diet, I mean. I guess I could stop baking them altogether, but really, writers are not rational thinkers like that. My id loves pie. I will keep making it. I've got to have motivation other than my tastebuds, though. So this banana cream pie was an exercise in restraint: I baked, whipped, layered, and sent it out the door intact. It was hard! I kept thinking, I should taste it for scientific purposes. I've never made a banana cream before. Etcetera. But in the end, I didn't touch it. I survived. I did get compliments from the eaters, who said it was like "the most delicious banana pudding you ever ate," plus a graham cracker crust. The custard bit was hardest; I might not have cooked it long enough. It never quite gelled, despite hours of refrigeration. Still, what's not to love about homemade vanilla pudding and ripe, sweet bananas? Comfort food, for sur...

I am unreasonably emotional about the gymnastics last night - Alicia Sacramone, my favorite, fell twice and looked ready to cry. She said after it was her fault they didn't win (though the numbers say otherwise), and I teared up myself. I know how it feels to be your own worst critic. And that situation is pretty much my nightmare - you work hard for something for so long and just when everyone's watching, you mess it up. I guess it's like getting terrible reviews. It'd be worse, I suppose, to never make it at all - to never pursue your passions. High risk, high reward, huh? I can't help making all these parallels to the writing life. Not that throwing yourself into the MFA is the same as trying for an Olympic medal. The odds might be similar, though, if you're talking good publication. Which brings me around to what I'm always telling myself, that success is relative, that success has to be internal just as much, if not more, than external. I saw Joan Didio...

I'd always looked down on cream pies - at our house we were fruit pie purists, and I only saw cream pies at chain restaurants, drooping under too much Cool Whip. Then I made key lime pie (custard, I suppose, but cream pie-ish) and my tastebuds were opened. Cream pies made from scratch are de-LICIOUS. Oh my god. Silky and decadent without being too sweet. And they're not hard, though there are a few more steps than with fruit pie. I've made this J.O.C. chocolate cream twice and like it best with whipped cream and a butter crust; graham cracker would probably be good too. Oh, and I added a secret strawberry layer. There must be a metaphor in that, but I slipped them in because my friend requested chocolate mousse with strawberries, and this was as close as I could get. Classic Chocolate Cream Pie 1 single BAKED pastry crust (or crumb crust) Whisk in a medium saucepan (no heat yet) 1 cup sugar 3 tablespoons cornstarch 1/4 tsp salt Add gradually (still no heat) 2 1/2 cups whole...

This is my blog about pie, otherwise known as the pie blog, otherwise known as my #1 reason to eat too much buttery crust and not do my work. But I think it's good for me, anyway. Writing a pie, baking a novel: Simple ingredients, complex effect. Occasional disasters sometimes taste good. It’s time to expand my pie horizons, revisit old flames, procrastinate with flour, experiment. Fruits. Custards. Chess. Meringue. Peanut butter. The Joy of Cooking and I (and recipe makers of all kinds) are going head to head every week. Or hand in hand, I hope. You think pie is for old ladies? Neo-fifties housewives? Refined, Paris-visiting, cookbook-writing foodies? Sure, and more power to them. But it's time for a pie revolution. Pie is equal opportunity. It’s feminist, socialist, progressive, hip, down-to-earth, sustainable, and always lovable. It will not be labeled. But it will be…okay, I have to say it: eaten. So, welcome! I can't promise the shiniest food bloggiest blog of all the ...