Category Archives: Pies

A long time ago we’d found these terrific little individual serving glass pyrex dishes at the Dollar Store of all places, and the other day I got to use them for the first time when making a couple of mini apple pies! (I would have made a regular pie, but we only had three apples in the fridge – besides – what a good ready-made excuse.)

I cut our apple pie recipe in half, and also cut our pie crust recipe in half. I also have to admit that this is the first time I’ve actually made a pie crust from scratch! John’s made them from scratch, but I’ve grabbed the pre-made crusts in the past. But after doing this and seeing how easy it is, I’ll probably hardly EVER use the pre-made crusts again.

The final pies came out really cute, and just like a regular apple pie, although the ‘individual’ portions were pretty big, but we got over it.

One more point: as you can see in the photo, I sealed the edges of the pie like normal, but tucked the edges back in a bit since I didn’t want them to get dried out or burned. Wallah!

[Tags: food, dessert, apple pie recipe, thanksgiving, baking]

When I saw the 2.5 lb container of fresh blueberries for 5.99 I looked at it sort of lovingly and thought, “I could make a blueberry pie.” I’ve never actually made a homemade pie. Kristen usually is in charge of pies, while I’m normally in charge of grilling and making omelettes. When I worked as a cook, our pies were made with canned fillings, so there was no help there.

I did go the easy route and went with the pre-made pie crust. I’ve actually made my own pie crust before, for Shepherd’s Pie, but since I was starting this pie in the evening, I wanted to move things along.

It took all of thirty seconds for us to find some basic blueberry pie recipes on the web and tweak our own variation. Putting the ingredients together was a snap, and we have enough blueberries leftover for sprinkling on breakfast cereals, mixing in yogurts and possibly sharing with the local wildlife.

Kristen guided me through the proper method of sealing the two pie crust halves. When I made my Shepherd’s Pie, the edge was a bit on the crusty side. The baking took longer than we expected, about an extra half hour, but the results were delicious. This is the first homemade blueberry pie I’ve ever had and it beat every store or restaurant pie I’ve had hands down.

Hopefully, we can catch the other berry families on sale and live on pie for the rest of the summer. Oh, and click here for the blueberry pie recipe we used.

[Tags: food, baking, blueberry, pie, dessert]

We’re having an early Thanksgiving this year – tomorrow actually, as John is working on Thursday. I made the apple pie this morning (Just assembled, not baked yet.) and every time I make one I think, “This is so easy, I should do this more often!” and then promptly forget again. I use Granny Smith apples because I like the tang; they are also my ‘eating’ apple of choice too. (Although I also like MacIntosh and Cortland, but the latter seem to be only an Upstate New York thang and I can’t find them out here on the West Coast.) The squirrels and rabbits and raccoons are going to get a treat too, as I’m tossing all the peelings and cores over the fence. They’ll be completely gone by tomorrow morning, easy.