#24 of 365 - National Pie Day

January 23rd is American Pie Day and Erin's father's birthday. Long story short, I ended up in the ER whilst trying to make an apple pie for his birthday celebration one year long ago.

Yesterday, being American Pie Day, I wanted to make a pie, since there was no fresh fruit and little in the way of frozen fruit, I decided to made a savory quiche. I used the leftovers of the pot roast, we had had earlier in the week. So, how do you make a pie for American Pie Day when your only pie tin is in the back of Curtis' Red Beast (that would be his truck)? To that end I made a pie for our supper in a glass casserole dish.

After all, what is a quiche, but a cheese pie? I therefore, got out my trusty Joy and looked through the recipes for quiche. In the end, I used two recipes from the Joy for our pie, Pate Brisee for the crust and the Cheese Pie recipe for the filling. It turned out pretty yummy. If I hadn't been too lazy, we would have had crudite of cauliflower, carrots and green peppers to go with, but I didn't want to go to the effort, but this would be a great complete meal with a green salad and/or raw veggies as a side dish.

Dipping the 1st Shawl of 10 in 2010 - #8 of 365

As many of you are aware, I belong to a social network for fiber fanatics called Ravelry. It is a major enabler in my fiber habit and passion. There is a group for ever one, everything and every interest, sometime more that one. I joined the 10 Shawls in 2010 group and cast on my first shawl on New Year's Day. Here is the finished shawl.

I wanted a working shawl, as it were. As you can see, I can cross the front tails and tie them to the back so that the tails are out of my way when spinning or doing some such other activity.

















For instance, I could have been wearing my new shawl whilst I was dipping the candied orange peel and pretzels in chocolate this morning...

Tangerine Dreams and Candied Orange Peel - #6 of 365

Candied Orange Peel (or any citrus peel) is something my Mum made every Christmas. However, she made us all crazy with her preparations as she did too much. I haven't ever made this before, but I have been missing it, so I decided that I would since we had the oranges to hand.



Simple syrup and orange peel, boil, boil, boil. Easy peasy and yummy too. I shall dip these in dark chocolate after they have set.



I am wearing this scarvelette which is loosely based on Ysolda Teague's Damson. I have chosen to call this scarvelette, Tangerine Dreams for obvious reasons.

Christmas Baking or How to have Your Cookies and Eat Them Too!

Thursday, I spent the day making my version of Martha Stewarts' shortbread recipe from her Christmas Book and the Chocolate Chip Quick Oatmeal cookies from the Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer. Then, I made the ganache and dipped the Bavarian style pretzels yesterday. I then spent the rest of day putting together the Christmas cookie plates for my friends and post person and thinking about how I am happy to be baking but not so happy to eat all the results. Christmas baking solves for my heart and gift giving of them solves for my waistline. I didn't take pictures of the cookies but I did take pictures of the pretzels.

Next up, a gluten free cookie for my friend, Sheila, who has Celiac Disease. Going to try out dried cranberry and coconut macaroons.

The Joy of Waffles

Most of my friends have heard me sing the praises of Yam Waffles for a very long time. Erin and I bought some Garnet Yams at the Sunflower Farmer's Market the other day in anticipation of having these waffles for supper sometime this week. I discovered the recipe for Yam Waffles in the Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer about nine years ago and have been a happy waffle maker ever since.

These are made with regular flour as opposed to cake flour which most from scratch waffle recipes seem to call for. Since I had no cake flour when I decided to make waffles that day, I went to my go to cookbook, the Joy. Since I always have regular flour of some form to hand and rarely, if never, have cake flour, I was delighted to find this recipe. We like these waffles so much that I now own three waffle makers and have at least two going at once so everyone can eat at the same time. Clever Mum that I yam...

This recipe has been made with acorn squash, canned and fresh pumpkin, sweet potatoes as well as the yams, both canned and fresh. I have also made this recipe with whole wheat flour as well as a mix of unbleached and whole wheat flours. I have added, at times, chopped candied ginger, toasted pecans, mini chocolate chips and/or crumbled bacon to the batter as well. We happen to prefer the yam or squash kinda chunky, but pureed yam and squash works just as well. This is a great way to use up that leftover sweet potato casserole on the morning after Turkey Day, by the way. Usually these are served with butter and REAL maple syrup from Vermont, but I happen to have wild blueberry sauce to the ready this evening for mine. Yum!

I can't sing the praises enough of the Joy of Cooking. Everyone should have a copy in their cookbook collection as it will get you through just about anything. It is also a great resource for the substitution of missing ingredients. I also find new ways to prepare just about anything.

My sister's copy of the Joy is called the Treasure. It has no covers and falls open to the pages of the family favorites (the pages are also spattered with brownie, pancake, and various other batters from baking with the children). Mine is starting to look like the Treasure as I use it at least once a week, if not more often. As a matter of fact, the cover has been taped back on at least twice now. I am also in search of a copy of the same copyright date to give to Erin and Guy as a wedding gift. It was a request, as Erin is not so fond of the newer editions (nor am I for that matter). I mean why waste space that could hold a good recipe to tell us how to make our own tofu? Every grocery store carries tofu these days and it's SO much easier to pick up a container of it then to go through the process of making it. That's how great this book is, depending on the copyright version, the how-tos are/can be fascinating.