Fun; con't.

 

Phyliss Madonna's Cheese Pie.

Dear Fun-Loving,

How is your summer of fun progressing?  Does it feel like a habit now, to have your twice weekly dose of fun?  Is it too little?  Too much?  Can you tell the difference?  I think too much would be if you need to stay in bed all day the day after the fun, and too little is when you want to stay in bed all day the day of the appointed fun.  Alles klar?

Here are some suggested funs for week four of summer fun!

Build a tiny home.

Bake a (cold set) pie.

Dance music, and again.

Turn some resin.

Draw a pastel still life.  Part two.  Part three.

See you next Tuesday, for more fun!

Identity Pie

 

Dear Friends,

Today I shall be sharing my secret recipe for Identity Pie.  It's a no recipe recipe, I guess, but as I said before, I want you to enjoy making yours, so feel free to measure exactly, or find another recipe for it.  In any case, this pie will only feed one, so you will have to get together with more folks if you want to make a dinner party out of it.  If it doesn't seem like much more than a list of things, that's because I am trying to include all the things that I did not when I was asked to make it before.

sitting around with a cup of coffee

watching birds, animals, plants, the sea

sewing things like clothes, pillows, stuffed mice

other needlework like knitting, crocheting, quilting, embroidering, weaving

baking bread each week

making fermented hot sauce

being in open spaces

buying lipstick

loving shoes and clothes and temporary tattoos

singing and playing guitar

speaking Spanish & French

writing

drawing

painting

taking photos

shopping

baking

cooking

looking up words

playing solitary games

watching junky, old, television, with questionable white, male protagonists

liking chrome

hating cleaning

liking wine

smoking

considering

apologizing

cutting my hair

appearing knowledgeable

appearing interested

appearing polite

appearing

dessert à la Dodo

 

Claes Oldenburg, Pie à La Mode 1962, 

Muslin soaked in plaster over wire frame painted with enamel

50.8 x 33 x 48.3 cm

Courtesy Museum of Contemporary Art, LA. The Panza Collection © Claes Oldenburg

 Dear After Dinner,

This is just too delicious an article not to send you to!  If you aren't already on the Atlas Obscura and Gastro Obscura email list, you should consider adding them to your inbox- the are always interesting!

The Hub.

Dear Darlings,

As it has been in many homes in many eras, the hearth is taking the place of prominence:  The kitchen is the hub of sheltering in place.  Students are doing their chemistry lab assignments there, and humans are busily baking wild yeasted breads there also.  I know, because I talked to someone, that I am not the only one who is now in the luxurious position of not having to put all the cookbooks and recipes away on their shelves and card boxes, because no one is coming over, and I am going to need it again soon anyway.

Any excuse to make a list, and stacking books is a great one, so here is a list of the cookery books I have out on the table, coffee table, and kitchen counter (two locations!) right now:

Everything I Want to Eat, Jessica Koslow
The Rancho de Chimayo Cookbook, Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison
Joy of Cooking, Rombauer and Becker
Tartine Bread, Chad Robertson
Celebrations Italian Style, Mary Ann Esposito
The Fanny Farmer Baking Book, Marion Cunningham
No Need to Knead, Suzanne Dunaway
Gourmet, Ruth Reichl, editor
Hot & Spicy Sauces & Salsas, Sally Griffiths
Tartine, Elisabeth M. Prueitt & Chad Roberston
Desserts by Pierre Hermé, Dorie Greenspan
Nothing Fancy, Diana Kennedy

The other day I also had out TV Dinners, Emeril Lagasse, so I could make Chicken Pot Pie with a friend via video conferencing.  Next week we plan to meet again remotely (she wrote, oxymoronically) to make this pie.  Maybe you will make one too.







PS
Minutiae:  The Salted Maple Pie is a Chess pie, a Just pie, a Sugar pie; meaning that it's like pecan pie with no nuts; it is Milk Bar's Crack Pie; a custard type pie with eggs and sugar, butter, sometimes milk or cream; but no fruit, no nuts, no nothing: Just pie.  Here's one that I adore with chocolate chips.  If you get all into antediluvian pie recipes, check out Shoofly pie, a breakfast pie.

Pie, Mr. Tweety.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear A. M.,

 

Today I offer you a Breakfast Pie.  The Fannie Farmer Baking Book, by the charming Marion Cunningham, says that Breakfast Pie used to be very common among the early rising agriculturalists of our nation.  Around here, much more recently, a prominent Dodo-ist remarked:  "Breakfast Pie!  What a great country this once was!"

 

Make it and bake it and decide for yourself what you think about our country and breakfast pie.

 

 

 

 

 

Creamed Oatmeal-Walnut Pie

      (Adapted from The Fannie Farmer Baking Book, by Marion Cunningham, 1984, Alfred A. Knopf, NY.)

 

Oatmeal pie crust:

 

3/4 cup flour

1/4 cup rolled oats

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup vegetable shortening or butter

2 - 3 tablespoons water

 

Mix the dry ingredients and cut in the shortening,  or toss everything but the water into the food processor.  Add the water slowly.  Roll it out, and patch it, because the oats make it very fragile, so it will break frequently as you fit it into a 9 or 8 inch pie pan.  Prick it with a fork.

 

Blind bake the crust partially- use pie weights, or another pie tin, or beans on parchment to prevent the crust from rising in the oven.  Bake it for 6 minutes at 425 degrees, then take out the weights and bake it for another 4 or 5 minutes. 

 

Filling:

 

1 1/2 cups milk

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup oatmeal

1/2 cup raisins

3 tablespoons butter

 

2 eggs, lightly beaten

3/4 cup chopped walnuts

 

Combine the first 6 ingredients in a saucepan and cook over medium heat until it begins to bubble and thicken.  Remove pan from heat and temper the beaten eggs a bit before adding them, by mixing half a cup of the hot porridge into the eggs, then stir the eggs into the pan of porridge.  Add the walnuts, fill the pie shell, and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.  The center will be shiny, while the edges will look dry.  Let your breakfast pie set for 30 minutes and then eat it warm, with heavy cream, if you have a cow, or even if you just have a pint of it from the store!