The Pie Project

I'm not feeling up for pie. I think all the creative cooking energy is being sapped by my students and my work. I know. It's a pie blog, right? Maybe there's a time for dessert, and a time for ... health food. Or maybe it's the weather. Houston in late January is more about margaritas and chips, beer and samosas. It's me pounding through classes, thesis, trivia night, art museum tours, stories, plays (that's a nice little list, right? I shouldn't complain. It's a bourgeois life). Taking in some family drama. Trying not to get bronchitis or procrastinate with cable. That said, here's one cloud-like tropical concoction that is a pie but somehow doesn't quite fit my idea of pie. It's so...spongy. Voila, passionfruit chiffon! A Hawaiian delicacy, I'm told. I could only find frozen passion-orange concentrate, which I have to say, gave the pie a distinct popsicle flavor. I'd look for the real juice next time - maracuya, lilikoi, passionfrui...

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...