Lazy pie

I've never really been a fan of pie. Not even of eating it. Cooked fruit seemed weird to me and I avoided it. Chocolate pie? Yes. Apple pie? No, thank you so much, but I'm stuffed.

This attitude slowly started to change when I began making my own pastry with my mother-in-law's failsafe recipe. Now I didn't have to remember to buy pie crust if I wanted a last minute dessert which was nice. Then this year, I had bags and bags of apples from my in-laws' apple tree and I took the plunge. I made pie after pie after pie after turnover after pie. And it turned out that I do like pie. It's still not chocolate cake, but it's a respectable dessert.

But of course, this isn't about apple pie because I didn't take any photos of that. This is instead about lazy pie. If there's one thing better than pie, it's lazy pie.

I happened to have extra pastry that I had frozen after my last pie making extravaganza, but of course, you can just use a regular pie shell as well.

This recipe is mine, but the idea is from this amazing book that has quite literally changed my life since I found it in London Drugs in Calgary many years ago. I bought it on a whim thinking it would be a beautiful coffee table book, and I've actually made so many of the recipes. Home Baking by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid; I've used it so much I didn't even have to look up their names. They call it Free Form Fruit Galette, which is a really fancy way of saying lazy pie.

Flexible ingredients but here they are anyway, with the instructions.

So grab your leftover pastry (or your pie shell) and let it thaw to room temperature.

Roll it out (carefully now, for those with a pie shell) until it's about an extra inch beyond your pie plate.

Prick the pastry with a fork, then sprinkle on a teaspoon or so of sugar.

Add about 2 cups of fruit. Your choice. I used 4 wilty strawberries, 3/4 cup frozen blueberries, a handful of dates (chopped) and an overripe bartlett pear.

Fold the pastry back over your fruit, leaving a generous hole in the middle. Spinkle another teaspoon or so of sugar on top of the pastry. Bake in a 350F oven until bubbly and golden, about 35-40 minutes.

Let cool slightly, then serve with ice cream or greek yogurt.

Seriously, laaaaazzzzy pie. So easy.

This photo is of the last piece (since gone) of yesterday's lazy pie.

Blackened Tomato and Chipolte Salsa

It's harvest time which means that I have been making sooo much food for the freezer or preserving somehow. I have tomatoes up to my eyebrows, so I've been on the hunt for great new recipes to use them all.

In a very rarely used book called "Whole Food" by Jude Blereau, I came across this recipe which I thought was perfect because I had the following random ingredients:

tomatoes
chipolte peppers in adobo that I opened a while ago, froze, then thawed thinking it was tomato paste (note to self: start identifying items prior to putting them in your freezer)
fresh apple juice from all the apple pies I made the other day

And I like salsa. And it gives me an excuse to buy tortilla chips.

Makes 2 cups

6 ripe tomatoes
1-2 fresh red chilies (I used three from our garden. Another random ingredient needing attention due to copious quantities)
3-4 garlic cloves (I used 3)
a full medium chipolte in adobo, pureed or minced
2 tsp of fresh apple juice

Blacken your tomatoes and chilies on the bbq over a nice hot flame. Make sure you really blacken them, especially the chilies, because they are a pain in the ass to peel if the skin hasn't blistered from the flesh. Remove to a bowl and cover with a plate. Or steam them a way that works for you, I find baggies work well too.

Roughly peel the tomatoes and chili. I mostly seeded my tomatoes too since I'm not a huge fan, though I kept the seeds from ONE chili for some heat.

Place your tomatoes, chili and garlic in a food processor and purée. Turn into a frying pan over low-medium heat. Add your chipolte and apple juice and simmer for about 15-20 minutes stirring occasionally until the salsa begins to thicken and turn a nice, deep red. Check for taste, adjust with more chipolte or apple juice as necessary and reduce further if needed. I simmered for about 25 minutes until it was the consistency I wanted. It'll further thicken as it cools as well.

Serve with chips. It tastes like a creamy tomato-y sauce right off the bat, then it deepens into a gentle 'mmm' of heat, then finishes with a pow of heat. It's addictive, I'm going to go eat more right now.

And no photos because I'm not organized. Sorry!

Honey Buns

So I've decided to stop beating myself up over not posting and here I am today with a recipe (but no photo, sorry!) for Honey Buns.

This is a KM first since I made up this recipe! I'm so excited that it worked and rose and not only that, but turned out soooo delicious! I used whole wheat flour, but you could use any mixture of whole wheat or white. Little M who is just starting to really put words into action said, "Mmmmm! Nom Nom Nom" when I gave him some, so it works for kids too.


Honey Buns

1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast (traditional)
2 tbsp honey
1 cup hot water
1/4 cup olive oil

Mix in a measuring cup and let sit until frothy. Mix if it isn't foaming.

2 1/2 cups (plus extra) whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 sprig of rosemary (optional), finely chopped

Mix in a large bowl.

Add your yeast mixture and incorporate more flour as necessary to make a smooth dough, kneading all the while. Once you have a springy dough, cover it in about a tsp of olive oil then place it back in your bowl and cover with a tea towel. Place in oven with oven light on, or other warm, still place until doubled, about an hour.

Punch down and shape. (I made buns, but you could do whatever). I made 8 large-ish buns and put them in a glass 9 inch pie plate (greased with olive oil) to rise. Let rise until doubled, about an hour to an hour and a half.

Pre-heat oven to 350F, and bake for about 25-35 minutes, depending on the shape.

These came out of the pie plate easily after resting for a few minutes, so don't try to tip them out right away. If you were making loaves in normal bread pans, this would probably make about a loaf and a half, so either cut down the recipe, or double it if you want nicely risen loaves.

Tomato Basil Tart

This is one of my absolute favourite meals in the whole world. Yes, it's a bit hyperbolic, but it's soooo good, covers at least a couple of food groups and can be made with only a few ingredients.

I shamelessly stole this from Christine Ingram's Vegetarian and Vegetable Cooking.

Tomato and Basil Tart

Ingredients:

1 9-inch frozen pie shell
5 ounces fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced (about half a ball)
2 large tomatoes, thickly sliced
handful of basil leaves
olive oil
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
salt and pepper

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 400F and cook your pie shell for 10 minutes until just starting to turn golden. DO NOT OVERCOOK! Turn the oven down to 350F.

While your shell cools, slice everything. Now, with the garlic. Have you seen Goodfellas? Well if you haven't you should, but that's another discussion. Please see the photo below:



This is how thinly you should slice your garlic. It should be translucent, but not tearing. If you slice it too thin it will become crispy and burnt, if it's too thick it won't roast the way you want it to.

Okay, tangent aside.

Your crust is cool now, yes? Layer your mozza all around. Don't worry if you missed a couple spots, as the cheese melts it'll fill the crust. Then layer your tomatoes around. Then, dip your basil leaves and garlic in olive oil and place on the tomatoes. Drizzle a generous amount of olive oil on top, then grind some salt and pepper over top.

It should look like this:



Now, bake that sucker for 40-45 minutes until the tomatoes are dark red and fully cooked.

Of course, yesterday was pure kid-crazy-chaos and I forgot to take a photo of the final product. Sorry!

Granola Chews

I make these all the time, at least every month or so. You can eat two or three as a snack and feel like you've actually eaten something. They give you energy and they're the perfect sweetness. The best part is that you can endlessly change the ingredients based on what you have on hand. You also don't really need to measure, which always gets points from me. Lately I've been using a 500g (2 cup) jar of natural peanut butter. I use my mixer to incorporate the oil because I'm d.o.n.e. trying to mix in the oil with a butter knife. If anyone has figured out a trick to mix it without getting the oil all down the side of the jar, then on the counter, then on the tap as you try to clean it off, kudos to you. I just say to hell with it, and dump it all in my mixer and beat it until smooth.

I've found that the best peanut butter to use with these is the Kraft All Natural peanut butter. If you use sugar added peanut butter you'll be left with puddles of peanut butter at the bottom of your muffin tins.

Granola Chews

Ingredients:

1 c. natural peanut butter
1/2 c. maple syrup OR corn syrup OR honey etc.
4 eggs
2 tsp. seasoning (cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin pie spice, whatever you want)
5 c. granola type cereal (I've had great success with Kashi granola, Go Lean and Go Lean Crunch. Just regular no name almond-raisin granola works well, though it's a bit sweet)
1 1/2 c. cranberries, or any dried fruit cut into bite sized pieces (you can sub part of this portion for seeds or nuts too)

Directions:

Dump everything into your mixer and stir until combined.

Portion out into 24 muffin cups. Bake at 250F for 45 minutes. When you take them out they should be just a bit cake-y when you bite into one. Yes, that means that as an official part of this recipe, you must take a bite upon completion. You're welcome.




Yeah, it's that easy. And good for you. And delicious. I'm telling you, make it happen. These freeze really well too, so I have a bunch in the freezer for those times that I haven't had time to make them fresh.