Recently in Pie Category

It has been quiet on the blog, perhaps a reflection of the dreary February weather we have endured. Not that we should complain, the snowfall was skimpy here compared to much of the Washington to New York megalopolis. Last night we had the Perquackey folks over for dinner and a roll of the cubes. Karen made pasta and meatballs while I put together a couple of pies. Gracious guests provided appetizers and salads and beverages.

The first pie was an apple pie, again made with the apple brandy crust. I am ready to give up on this technique. Working with the dough is not very satisfying, it falls apart with little provocation. But the results on the dish are quite acceptable, or so I am told.

With a big meal, I went with but one slice of pie for dessert. And that was a slice from the Shaker Lemon pie from a recipe from a new pie cookbook "Pie Pie Pie: Easy Homemade Favorites" received from Jeff and Sue at the holidays. Sue and Jeff, if you are reading, I promise you a pie when (if?) you visit. This lemon pie's filling has slices from the whole lemon, rind and all. Jen was askance, but the reviews were generally good, and I enjoyed it.

Oh, and no surprise. Bert was the evening's Perquackey winner.

Our good friend Joy invited us to her Christmas Eve party in Gloucester. There was a magnificent pot-luck spread to enjoy. Our contribution was this apple mincemeat pie. For style points, I took a couple of cookie cutters to some excess dough and stuck them on with a glaze made from the reduced apple drippings. It looks good.

Merry Christmas to all.

Jen & Jordi & Josie dropped by yesterday after doing some shopping. After doing some visiting inside and out, we got dinner together. Dinner itself was easy, store-bought Caesar salad and pizza. Jen also brought along Braeburn apples for a pie. I made a crust while Jen peeled, cored, and spiced the apples. The pie was pretty tasty, and with her hand on the spoon, Jen got enough sugar into the filling to suite her taste.

A month or two back, our DVR caught Alton Brown's Good Eats episode from 2008: Super Apple Pie. Last Sunday, I got around to making an apple pie and incorporated a few of the ideas from that show.

The major novelty was to use grains of paradise in the recipe. Grains of paradise is a spice not typically found in the local supermarket. Indeed, I didn't find it at Wholefoods or online at Penzys. A web search, of course, did find The Spice House, and they lured me into ordering a spice grinder (see photo) as well.

Alton also touted using apple jack as a replacement for the half dozen tablespoons of water that go into making the dough for the crust. There was less medicinal odor compared to the vodka I had tried back in April. But rolling out the dough was a chore and the end result wasn't noticeably superior. Perhaps I didn't leave the dough sit long enough to allow the gluten proteins to develop.

Grains of paradise is described as peppery. It is a nice taste that lets the apple flavors come to the fore. Jen was underwhelmed, I will attribute that to the absence of the traditional cinnamon and nutmeg. Still, the pie did not last long. And although Josey was pleased with the pie, she really likes the accompanying vanilla ice cream!

Other recommendations from the TV show had to do with paraphernalia. We have a cheap apple combination slicer and corer of forgotten provenance. It cuts an apple into eight wedges. It is thought thinner wedges lead to the ideal size, so I have been looking at twelve wedge slicers. That should go on my holiday gift list. When searching on Amazon, they like to offer up likely shopping combinations; suggested were pie birds, grains of paradise, and removable bottom tart pans. All of which appeared on Good Eats. Methinks there were a lot of folks watching that show.

As for pie birds, I had one at the old house, but haven't seen it since moving. Too much stuff!

We got together for Fathers' Day and spent the rainy afternoon doing some cooking and playing. I was looking forward to baking a pie with Jen's help, but Jen has not been feeling 100% the past few days, so my help came from Josie. She caught on pretty quickly how to work the apple peeling machine, although she was more interesting in exploring what-ifs: what if I move the crank back and forth? what if I try to grab the sharp thingie?

The two dads in attendance got some nice presents. We did Skype with the Suozzos in Albany. And we had a very nice vegetarian meal that Karen put together. Jen has been pretty careful about introducing foods during Josie's first year. By now, all the ingredients in apple pie have been vetted, so she got a taste. Yum! Still, shoulda had some ice cream to go along side. Right, Jen?

The youngsters took a well deserved break and were away for the weekend. I am sure a posting will be on their blog real soon now. Karen and I dropped by to look in on the cinco gatos. They were in fine fettle (fettle?) and lurked around as we ate. There was a recent issue of "Cooks Illustrated" on the table, and it offered a suggestion for battering shrimp: use vodka to make the batter.

The science behind the idea has to do with reducing the water content, thus reducing the amount of proteins formed from the wheat gluten. The note referenced an earlier article that raised the idea in an article for making pie dough. We had just come away from Wholefoods with a bunch of discount South American blackberries. It must be fate.

All in all, I am not wowed by the result. The crust is just o.k. but the kitchen smell is more medicinal than homey. Still, I have a pie, so how bad can it be?

Dilbert.com had an "embed" button, so I am assuming posting this doesn't ruffle any copyright feathers. But my blog page clips the last panel. Ironically, it says "That worked too well." Click through to see the whole strip.

It has been a while since I've made a pie. The afternoon was open today, so after a trip to the store for some Empire apples, and candied ginger, I prepared the crust and the filling and got it in the oven. It looks like it came out well. We'll eat dinner first, of course, and then dessert. I thought I would make a quick posting just in case I could taunt any blog viewers who are unable to pop in tonight or tomorrow. These don't last long.

As an aside, note the bag of Heckers flour. What caught my eye in the store was the young boy pictured on the label. As this young fellow is hacking off a slab of bread, he appears a moment away from slicing off two or three fingers. Is this some old-timey picture from back when kids learned fast or didn't survive? How does this help sell product?

My sister, Diane, clues me in that today is National Pie Day. So proclaims the American Pie Council. This sight has been unresponsive, perhaps slash-dotted. With ingredients on hand, Diane and Ally whipped up a Lemon Sponge pie. Alas, I am too remote to take a taste or to take a pic.

I have been fighting some kind of stomach bug the past couple days and have come up empty handed (empty forked?) in regards to getting a pie made. I'll probably not have my suit ready for National Gorilla Suit Day at the end of the month either.

The MIT Perquackey Federation's tradition of an annual New Year's Eve celebration has fallen on hard times since the sale of Talbot House. Dave and Trish graciously offered to host the get together this year at their place. Everyone was surprised at the good turnout given the last minute nature of the arrangements and the 3" to 5" of new snow falling on the 31st.

No one was surprised by the excellent meal prepared (forgive the Americanized vocabulary): Cuban pork, red beans and rice, plantains, and more.

The day before I prepared a berry cherry pie based on the recipe from Killer Pies. Pie gal Trish offered up a delicious key lime pie. Trish did show me a recipe for Brazilian Pie from an old Better Homes and Garden cookbook. She tells me the current edition no longer lists the retro recipe for this instant coffee based cream pie. I hope she sends the recipe along.

All of the oldsters (and lone young pup, Richard) even managed to stay up past midnight. Woo hoo!

Sue and Jeff surprised me with a gift of a personalized ceramic pie plate from Korff Ceramic Originals. I quickly picked up some granny smith apples and a bag of frozen cherries. I added some maple syrup as a sweetener. With the grannies Jen says it could have used more sugar.

The weather prognosticators called this one right. We got a storm late Friday afternoon and through the night. Another storm was called for Sunday, and as this is being written, the NOAA has us down for "Freezing Fog". This all got us to do our gift exchange a day early, on Saturday.

The supermarket had a good price on blackberries. Not very traditional, but sounded appealing, especially when imagined combined with something like lemon sans meringue. A web search turned up a recipe. This also gave me an opportunity to try out Jungle Shortening. The resulting crust was well received, but it was more cake-like, than classically flaky.

We had a nice time exchanging presents. Josie has the knack for ripping the wrapping paper off any gift, but had to be distracted from eating the paper so convenient there in her hand. She got a big kick out of her new Push and Ride Racer. It needed assembly, and I only broke it a little bit getting it together. Still a lot of fun!

Before Thanksgiving, in the lunch room at work, someone brought up the topic of mincemeat. Is there meat in mincemeat? I suspected the modern store-bought ready made would be meat-free and I brought home a jar from the grocery. Turns out the ingredients did list beef. This pie then, is not for vegetarians.

I made the pie last night, and there is not much left. The crumb crust is a repeat of the recent apple walnut pie. There is still half of the jar of mincemeat remaining. Repeat again?

We had a pre-Thanksgiving get together yesterday. It is not a feast unless we have pie, so making the pie occupied our afternoon. I made a crust while Jen and Josie worked on the filling. Jen brought the apples; the guest ingredient on hand was chopped walnuts. A quick Google found us this recipe from recipetips.com

Here is Jen using my apple machine, and Josie trying out her new clamp-on seat.

The filling and crust both received a pre-baking cooking. I screwed up with the pie weight beans, and had to toss the first attempt. After a trip to the supermarket for other dinner fixin's, I prepared another crust, laid on the topping and popped it in the oven.

The recipe has the temerity to suggest "Cool several hours before cutting." Well, we did wait a little while, but the pie was still warm and runny when we attacked. Yum! Today, the pie slices are much more Euclidean, and still delicious.

The jellied cranberry was added to the picture for a little color and interest, but did not go in to the pie.

We got together for dinner last Thursday to observe Yom Kippur. I put together an apple pie starting with a sack of Empire apples and pre-made Pillsbury pie crust. The ingredient of note was a spoonful of Ceylon cinnamon from Penzeys Spices. The pie went fast.

Here on the Labor Day weekend, we invite a couple neighbor couples over for burgers and dessert. I had laid in some supermarket peaches in anticipation of making a peach pie. But the dang supermarket peaches go bad before they go ripe. Guess we will have to try hitting some of the local farm stands or orchards for some local produce. Although, maybe we need to head down to South Carolina or Georgia to do it properly?

The fallback turned out to be another Killer Pies selection. The crust carries the substance here, loaded with finely ground walnuts. After the crust takes 15 minutes in the oven, the remainder is done in the freezer. The result is good for these, still warm, late summer days.

August is a birthday busy month for our family. Karen asked for a blueberry pie for her day. She anticipated if she asked for a cake, it would be store bought, not homemade. Pie is almost certainly going to be homemade, and I even found some pie-friendly candles at the grocery store.

J & J & J were unable to join us and Ruth for pie on Saturday night. On Sunday they brought along a store-bought "paddy cake" (as in "Paddy cake, paddy cake, bakers man"). I always heard "patty cake" and google backs me up about 2 to 1. A few candles went on the cake and Karen gets a second wish.

Fourth of July, for us, means an invitation from Dave and Trish for a swim and a cookout at their place on Foster's Pond. The weather was, and has been, blah. Cloudy and threatening, and many days delivering, some thunder showers. No rain on the 4th, but it did scare off anyone from swimming.

We arrived late, too late for Steve's allergic reaction excitement. Dave fired up some more coals on the barbecue for grilling our sausages. Pleasant conversation and just general hanging out filled the evening.

For dessert, I made and brought a shoo fly pie. Curiosity about the etymology of "shoo fly pie" led to a session with google and digression to other "make do with what is on hand" recipes: vinegar pie and funeral pie.

The recipe was taken again from the Killer Pies book. The generic crust recipe at the front called for 2 cups of flour for a single crust pie. Maybe that is a misprint, unless you like a really thick, thick crust.

June is often a busy month for us. There is a birthday, Father's Day, and my sister, brother-in-law, and nieces come for a visit. For Father's Day, we went out to a nearby driving range. This was a new one for me. A bucket of balls went screaming off, most with a serious slice. A few of us were kink-ified the next day.

Renovation is ongoing during all of these other activities. We had some wet concrete and someone thought it would be the thing to do to immortalize our hand prints. We didn't jump in right away, the concrete was somewhat far along, too far along to get more than a faint impression of Josie's toesies.

We played tourist with the Graybills. We played some mini-golf up on Route 1 and visited the ocean at Halibut Point and Good Harbor Beach. We walked a bit of the Freedom Trail and sampled some micro-breweries. A whirlwind visit and a lot of fun.

I tossed together a peach pie, too. Mea culpa, with a Pillsbury crust. You cannot cut corners with a pie (it has no corners).

Our new house sits at the crest of a hill. This fact serves to explain why, when I return from a run, I no longer finish strongly. Indeed, the last quarter mile is often walked, sometimes with gasping, bent over, hands on thighs, breaks.

This posture does give me a chance to inspect all sorts of interesting features found along the sidewalk. Recently noticed is a small U.S. Coast Guard and Geodetic Survey marker right across the street from home. Geodetics is a branch of Earth sciences that deals with the measurement and representation of the Earth, including its gravitational field. The placement of this marker almost certainly denotes a gravitational anomaly. We sit at an elevation of 312.39 feet and the gravity here is freakishly intense. This surely is a better explanation for my lethargy, than some half baked I'm getting older speculation.

Pie note: my recent birthday was celebrated with a cherry pie from Wholefoods. Thumbs up!

Josie is too young to appreciate pie. However the three day weekend provides enough time, for the first time since her arrival, to go back to "Killer Pies" and choose a recipe. Rhubarb is in the market, but I figured on going with a non-fruit pie. I settled on Lemon Chess Pie.

This was the first use of a new metal pie pan. The crust is baked before filling, and the pan has a few vent holes in the bottom to let the steam out. It takes a little faith to believe the filling won't ooze out these tiny holes, and while the filling was not a problem, the butter in the crust did drip and smoke a little. The ends justify the means (and the cleanup).

Josie & Jordi & Jen were here for our Memorial Day cookout. We had a nice meal and dessert. The pie gets a thumbs up, but Josie was fussing, maybe because she wasn't offered any?

We used the occasion of leap year to host Perquackey. This is the first sizable get together we have hosted after most of the renovations here have been done. The space proved to be hospitable for our friends. We had a pleasant dinner and settled down to play. Daniel (second from right, mugging for the camera) claims the title of Leap Year Champion until the next Leap Year.

For those of you who have been following along, you know there was pie involved. I made the coconut creme pie from the recipe from the "Killer Pies" cookbook. Yum.

.. or so says the proprietors of the Pie Bakery & Cafe in Newton Centre. Karen and I stopped in after visiting our tax accountant on Thursday. Jen had given me the tip after seeing a blurb in the Boston Globe.

The fare was quite tasty. It was a mite early for lunch so we did take-out. My quiche was rich and delicious, as was my slice of coconut creme pie. I may have to see if some homemade can compare.

It came time tonight to make the foreordained plum pie from the Killer Pies cookbook. Blackberries from Chile were in the supermarket for a good price last week. They substituted well for the strawberries in the Verrill Farm recipe. Killer.

We were invited to a board game party at Daphne and Joel's last Saturday. Time got away from me and my intention to bake a pie came to naught. I did pick up a razzleberry pie at Wilson Farm. The maker goes unremarked, I am not a huge berry fan, and this pie was a bit heavy. I played some Perquackey and Settlers of Catan.

Sue and Jeff's Christmas gift for me was Stephanie Anderson's "Killer Pies, Delicious Recipes from North America's Favorite Restaurants". Three of the recipes in the North East chapter come from establishments known to me: Petsi Pies (featured in this entry), Verrill Farm (mentioned here), and the Famous Dutch Kitchen Restaurant, an hour's drive east of Harrisburg on I81. We have passed by this restaurant on almost every trip back to visit my family, but they don't have much to offer vegetarians; we have not stopped there recently. A couple of recipes in the book feature plums, that may be the next pie I attempt. There are a lot of good looking pies here, and a lot of restaurants to visit. And yes, one recipe includes spicy green chiles.

In other pie news, Karen and I caught the movie "Waitress" on NetFlix. A pleasant pie-themed date movie. The movie's tag line serves as our entry title.

In an unrelated bit of catch-up randomness, the BUDA 2007 season t-shirt images are posted.

The entry's title is, of course, ironic. I came back from Spain with "only" 140 or so pictures, a total of about 1/3 GB, but the old laptop where I manage all of that is touch-and-go with free space. With a long weekend, I picked up the long neglected project of getting XP installed on the workstation I purchased after Intrusic cratered last January.

After putting in more time than it really should have, I now have sufficient functionality on the new PC to load the pics and start to sort through things.

That does mean that other things are late. This note is being written on the 27th, but the pie was made on the 22nd, and that's where I will set the posting date.

This recipe is one of sixteen apple pie recipes from my company's internal web site. It is a traditional apple pie with a twist: a tablespoon of hot green peppers. The recipe originates from Señor Pie, an Albuquerque company. The recipe was featured on Weekend Edition on Saturday, January 8, 2005. Less amusing, it appears the company's owner has gotten himself in serious criminal legal trouble (non-pie-related).

The verdict on this pie was mixed. Jen says "no". I find the gimmick to be a nice break from the onslaught of holiday treats. It goes well with a melted slab of cheddar cheese.

There should be more postings over the upcoming long weekend on my trip and the holidays.

Thanksgiving this year was with my sister and family. We arrived late Wednesday afternoon. That evening, I was presented with the task of making two pie crusts while Diane made the fillings for an apple pie and a pumpkin pie. The pies were a nice dessert for our Thanksgiving feast on Thursday and did not linger long in the leftover category.

Glenn and Shirley joined us for Thanksgiving. The following day we were invited for another excellent meal with Jeff and Sue. A whirlwind trip, but a great time.

Garrison Keillor proclaims: the best pumpkin pie you ever have had is not all that much better than the worst. I don't know, I am fond of pumpkin pie. Surprised myself when I checked this entry into the blog and discover that it is the first representative here.

This pie was snapped with a newly acquired accessory, a 0.7 wide angle adapter.

It has been a while since I last posted. The following should have appeared at Halloween. No relation to today's featured pie.

We were cat sitting while J & J were away. They left behind a bag of apples from an apple picking outing and invited us to take 'em. What better use of apples then, than to make a pie?

As a guest in someone else's kitchen, I kept it simple. Store bought crusts and just the basics: apples and a bit of sugar, molasses, spice, and egg whites to glaze the top. With no ham in the list of ingredients, there was no company for me during the preparations.

I'll backdate this post to reflect when the pie was made. Pic snapped with the cell phone.

We threw together a couple of pizza pies for tonight's "watch the Angels vs the Red Sox" game. "Hey!", I says to myself, "a pizza is a pie". The sauce and dough was store bought, but still give us an above average grade for effort. Tasty, too.

Best of all, Josh Beckett tosses a shutout and the Red Sox start the series with a win.

Yup, you read right, parsnip pie. Just happened to browse past this recipe in my old, falling apart, copy of "The Fannie Farmer Cookbook". The pie is in the pumpkin pie family, being a vegetable and all. The recipe calls for honey as a sweetener. It is pretty good with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream. But then, what isn't?

This pie came out of the broiler looking pretty fine. But apparently I was too hasty on heating the lemon filling, it never set satisfactorily. Still, no one turned down a piece or seconds even. Karen had expressed a desire for lemon meringue when she was in the hospital, and with Jen, Jordi, and Will visiting, it seemed like the time to slap together the ingredients.

A tip o' the hat to Carolyn for dropping off some groceries, including the requisite lemon juice.

For the Fourth of July holiday, we enjoyed Dave & Trish's hospitality at Foster's Pond. This quickly thrown together (like my tardy blog postings) raisin rhubarb pecan pie sufficed. Now, I think, the rhubarb obsession has passed.

My recent birthday went unheralded here in the blog-o-sphere. J & J commute twice daily past Petsi Pies in Somerville. And they graciously indulged us with two good pies from Petsi's: one apple pie with crumb crust, and for my b-day, a chocolate pecan pie. No pics - they went fast! Recommended.

And while we are talkin' pie, we brought another bought pie (Trader Joe's key lime) over to K's friend, Carolyn, for her birthday.

Karen suggested she would like a blueberry pie for Mother's Day. And fortuitously there are fresh blueberries in the stores now. At around the third itsy-bitsy four oz. pack of blueberries, I start to get galled by the accumulating price. Rhubarb, too, has made its spring appearance. I add three stalks to the cart so I can get by with fewer than four containers.

I am confident that a search on the web for blueberry rhubarb pie will be successful (300,000+ Google hits). The winning recipe comes from a rhubarb enthusiasts site: rhubarbinfo.com

Still living with our temporary replacement kitchen, I didn't have the means to roll out my own crust. The Pillsbury pre-made served adequately, although I was rushed for time and did not include the called-for lattice top.

The rhubarb concept was met with skepticism, but no one refused their slice. Not being a berry fan, I found the combination to be very nice. Good pie.

Just after observing that there had been no "new job" celebration pie, I got my first introduction to our company's president last Wednesday. Without fanfare or explanation, she circulated through the office, distributing an apple pie to all. Shades of Oprah: "You get a pie! You get a pie! You get a pie!" Okay, well, it was not quite that hysterical. Still, free pie!

We were hosting the MIT Perquackey Federation, so the only civilized thing to do was to bake a pie. I got a bunch (flock? swarm? pride? what do you call a collection of pears?) of crimson pears and surfed around the web for recipe ideas. Nothing from the web world offered inspiration, but another visit to the supermarket had me bringing back some raspberries. This turned out well.

The Perquackey cubes were kind to me early in the match, but I didn't take adequate advantage. It seemed to be a night of cold dice for most of us. Tuna won the evening in five rounds.

It was a quiet, rain soaked Thanksgiving. It was just Karen & me for a turkey dinner. I made an apple pie, trying a tip I heard on NPR a couple of days ago.

This may just be one of those non-problem problems, but when you make a deep dish, two crust, apple pie, the apples cook down. The upper crust starts out resting on the apples, but at the end of baking, the apples have retreated, leaving an "air plane hanger-sized void between the apples and the crust.

The solution: cook down the apples before baking the pie. I made the filling first, adding a few bits of chopped candied ginger and a small handful of craisons. Throw this in a crock pot and let it cook while making the crust.

This didn't result in a lot of cooking. The results of the filling-crust void were inconclusive, but the pie turned out pretty good. Catching the afternoon light through the kitchen window, I am happy with the picture too.

It is hard to buy ripe peaches here in New England. Maybe it is hard everywhere, I am not an accomplished traveller so I really couldn't say. So you do what you must do, you buy some peaches and wait for them to ripen. And when they do, you must spring into action.

My peaches came due today. Tonight's effort comes from Pillbury's "The Complete Book of Baking", Georgia Peach & Pecan pie. It is quite tasty, especially when warm. Feel free to envy me.

The idea of my participating in a pie race was solely high concept. At my age and after a summer of not riding, it makes no sense, unless you like pie. Besides, who could be serious about a pie race?

The MassBike Festival and Pie Race was held this Saturday. They sponsored a number of rides on the pleasant back roads of Concord and surrounding towns. Karen & I headed out in the morning to get me registered. I wanted a gentle warm-up to see how my cranky knees might do, so I joined up with the shortest ride: the six mile Family Ride.

It was a good choice. There were a couple of tandems, couple of tykes in trailers, a couple of kids on their own bikes, a couple of parents and a couple of volunteers to keep the group together. And we only got a little lost, bearing the wrong way at some fork. But it didn't really matter, it was a perfect day and the scenery from all the roads looks pretty much the same. Six miles is six miles.

Rejoining Karen at the Festival, we had three hours to wait until the pie race. The festival is really about riding, so we bailed back home for lunch, with just me returning later.

Karin, the festival honcho, gathered us together for the pre-race meeting. There were maybe fifteen folks signed up, and my assumption about how serious this event might be was looking mistaken. Everyone else was outfitted in aerodynamic lycra, and with tricked out racing bikes. My bike is not a junker, but it is a mountain bike with fat tires. Not that I need an excuse. There was talk about whether last year's winners could repeat.

The course was the Family Ride route. Or it would have been had the Family Ride stayed on course. Oh well, it is not like I am going to be in the lead, I'll just follow the pack. Wait - no pack, the race is run time-trial style. Racers leave at half-minute intervals. There are pie stops at two miles and at four miles where you dismount, eat a piece of pie, demonstrate to the race volunteers that you have finished your pie by saying a provided "pie phrase", and back on your way. There is a final piece of pie at the finish line when you return to the festival.

Karin calls the assigned numbers for the racers. Luck of the draw gives me number 2. Some other kind of luck results in the rider assigned number 1 disappearing. I will be first off the line. D'oh!

A wave to the crowd and off I go. Knowing it is easy to stray off course, I pay close attention to the pie markers spray painted on the asphalt. A mile or so in, the next racer to leave passes me. A couple more pass before I reach the first pie stop: peach pie! I have gone out a little too fast. My legs are a bit rubbery. The serious racers are wolfing down their pie and heading back out on the course. Yum, this good peach pie, we are told, comes from Verrill Farm where the Festival is located. Kudos! Stop 1 phrase: "3.14159..."

Looking at the map later, pie stop 2 probably got mislocated. It is right beyond an intersection, as you whip around the right hand turn you are almost past when someone yells "pie!". Here I have a piece of apple pie, but the race volunteer has not prepared a phrase. I suggest "rubber baby buggy bumpers", but this is not well received.

There are open fields around Verrill Farm so you can see the festival and finish line from quarter mile away. I am pacing myself a little better and feel good as I brake to the finish line for more pie: mixed berry. The phrase: "may I have another piece of pie, please?" Of course you may!

I may post again if MassBike gets the race results online. Jeff, you missed a good time.

There are many, many things to be done about this new house. The Unpacking and organizing have not gotten much attention of late. But I have come across most, if not all, of the pie making apparatus. It is the fifth or sixth rainy day and I do not have much ambition for house work. So it was pie time. Rhubarb makes its appearance in early summer, but who knows where the supermarket gets their produce. But there it was. Combine the rhubarb with some Empire apples and we get apple rhubarb pie. It made a nice dessert for our Mother's Day dinner.

You may have noticed the lack of mention of any homemade pie since the move. The reason is part lack of time, and part lack of zeal to uncover the whereabouts of the pie making paraphenalia. For instance, this past Saturday was spent in the office working a customer (they are always right!) issue.

One bit of texture to an otherwise bland day was the sentry waiting me at the building entry. We had seen a pair of wild turkeys in the parking lot earlier in the week, and on Saturday the female was lurking by the revolving door, no doubt looking to take a few spins 'round.

This is not to say there has been no homemade pie at 2300. Fred came for dinner a few weeks ago and brought along a scrumptious blueberry pie he had made. He left us the leftovers, we really ought to get the pie plate back to him.

And I am exercising my pie hole right now with the leftovers of a carmel-apple pie Jen got at Costco. Scoff if you will, but as Jen says, "they do have good desserts there!"

Karen & I were invited to Joy's Christmas eve party in Gloucester. A few days prior, my eye was caught by a tub of cranberries at the market. It sounded plausible to mix that in to a pecan pie. A subsequent google confirmed my intuition. Make one pie, might as well make two. One was taken to the party, and one stayed home.

After Thanksgiving, I am still in the mood for pie, so Saturday night is pie night. A day later, this is all that is left:

Jordi & Jen hosted Thanksgiving this year. We had a delightful dinner with good food and good company. A feast for the palate as well as the eyes.

As we prepare to move, not that it is that immediate, I am of a mind to go into the cupboards to run down supplies. Key lime juice, sweetened condensed milk, and a graham cracker crust can mean only one thing: key lime pie!

We spend our third weekend doing an open house to sell our home of twenty-some years. Weekends one and two saw very nice weather, but yesterday was rain and rain is forecast for most of the rest of the week.

Dave & Trish had the inspiration that if their annual Fourth of July party was not actually on the Fourth of July, they would get a better turnout. Yesterday was this year's day, an ideal day and a very, very good time.

Our contribution was this blueberry pie. It was "criticized" for being too small, but all in all, there was no shortage of good food.

Jordi and Jen come over for an impromptu cookout. Just enough time to schlep to the store for a pre-fab graham cracker crust and a carton of cream.

Jordi is now off to meet up with friends to see the Aquabats. Ah, these youngsters and their music.

Last week's pie resulted in enough leftover cherries to throw together another pie. The market today did not offer rhubarb, so I picked up a bunch of blackberries.

We had a pleasant time tonight at the Newton Open Studios party.

Sunday's pie plate was very quickly emptied and washed. Lemon meringue makes a very good summer pie. Go with the season. At the supermarket, I see rhubarb on the shelf; it is time to make a strawberry rhubarb pie.