Filthy Fifty #4 Friday-Pie-Day

Filthy Fifty #4 is all for you, my faithful readers. Based on your requests for my recipes...once a month I'm hosting Friday-Pie-Day. Although Dean suggested I have Pie-Day-Every-Friday. The plan is to share 10 pie recipes with you throughout the year. I gave myself December off because I already made TOO many pies during that month.


First up...Coconut Creme Pie, oh yes! I have been making this pie for a bazillion years. You are going to love it.


Combine in a medium saucepan
3/4 cup sugar
3 Tbl Cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt


Gradually stir in 2 cups milk. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is thickened.

Now you can use 1% or 2% milk if that's all you have. But if you REALLY want a velvety delicious pie then you should make a trip to the grocery store and buy yourself some good old Vitamin D whole milk. You really can taste the difference.


Beat 3 egg yolks until thick and pale.

See the color of those eggs...nearly orange. Those are farm fresh eggs supplied by Mother Clucker, Red, and Nuggett in the Garlick Press coop.

Gradually stir about 1/4 of the hot milk mixture into yolks tempering the eggs; add to remaining hot milk mixture...stirring constantly. Cook over medium heat 5 minutes, stirring constantly. And I mean CONSTANTLY. This is important unless you like chunks of burnt custard in your pie.

Remove from heat.

Stir in 1 cup coconut, 2 Tbl butter, and 1 tsp vanilla.


Spoon into 1 baked 9 inch pie crust. Don't worry I'll cover pie crusts in one of my next posts.

Beat 3 egg whites, 1/4 tsp cream of tartar, and 1/2 tsp vanilla at high speed of an electric mixer until foamy.


Gradually add 1/4 cup plus 2 Tbl sugar, a tablespoon at a time, beating mixture until stiff peaks form and sugar dissolves (2-4 min).

Spread meringue over hot filling, sealing to edge of pastry crust. Sprinkle with coconut.

Bake at 325 degrees for 25-28 minutes or until golden. Cool on a wire rack.

Now if you'll excuse me...Izzy and I have a slice of pie to eat but we do hope you enjoy this recipe!

Night of Pie 2012

The invitation went something like this...


Deck the dog and come to Pie Night and included this adorable shot of my cooperative yet pouting pooch Izzy.

Our 11th year of Pie Night starts out very early in the morning. Here's a peak at my blackberry pie that just went into the oven.

Ridiculously, homemade pie crusts generally scare people silly. I can honestly say that I have NEVER bought a prepared pie crust. I wouldn't even know where to find one in the grocery store. I make every single one from scratch.

Now you might say "well that's easy...because you have been baking since before you were two". Truthfully I was the world's worst cook when I was in college. About the only thing I could prepare was a bowl of Lucky Charms...just ask my roommates. The first few years of my marriage weren't much better in the baking department either. The point is...if I can learn to make pie crust from scratch, so can you!

I currently use several different recipes, depending on what type of filling goes in the pie. This one will be a banana cream.

For this Dutch Oven Apple Pie, I mix up a yummy butter crust. Made with cream and egg, it is a perfect companion to the apples. Sometimes I'll get creative, like this snowflake cut crust. The apples are roasted in a dutch oven before going into the crust. Add a little egg wash and it's ready for baking.

I don't know if this is your tradition, but my mom taught me all leftover crust pieces should be sprinkled with sugar and baked...little pie crust cookies if you will. Chet ate them for breakfast. Since his mom was preoccupied.

No matter how much I try to stay organized...by early afternoon I'm knee deep into a kitchen nightmare. I own 5 sets of measuring cups and spoons so as to avoid the "everything is dirty" problem that comes with making a billion pies in a day. What I love about this photo...

• Dueling Kitchen Aids (genius)
• Stacks of recipes/books/magazines
• My cupboards are open...yet again
• Diet Coke-absolutely necessary

After an episode involving the neighbors dog, my backyard chickens, and an over baked Coconut Cake...I'm finally ready for the party.

Fifteen pies/deserts made the buffet this year. I had planned on making Isabel's Chocolate Silk Pie...but the chicken-dog-cake episode eliminated that one.

Thanks to Cassandra, one of the best new pies this year was a Lime Blackberry Italian Creme. Wow! If you missed getting a slice of this one...you really missed out!

Slicing and serving is what I do...thanks to my friend Joni for coming to the dark side and shooting these last few photos with my Nikon camera even though she is a Cannon girl.

Autumn and Sid have been coming to pie night for years.

Somehow Susie convinced her adult kids to drive all the way from the big city for Pie Night. I wonder what she really promised them...it couldn't just be a slice of homemade pie. But what a treat it was to see them all.

Gavin and Chet are discussing important stuff like his pictures of "no snow" at Snowbasin.

Milling around, chatting, and eating pie...that's pretty much what Pie Night is all about.

After all the guests had gone, and all the crumbs swept away...we found this note. Whoever left this has beautiful handwriting and a very sweet heart.

Just what I needed to complete the evening...and then I collapsed into bed.

Fakes-giving

My absolute favorite part of Thanksgiving is cooking and baking with my daughters...I think they both feel the same. Since Cass will be celebrating the holiday with hubby's family this year, I thought it would be fun if we had our own early "Fakes-giving!"


Discussing pie recipes, Dean jumped into the planning details and suggested we make a pumpkin pie completely from scratch. He's always FULL of good ideas and so helpful when it comes to pie!

Surprisingly...though I am known as the pie queen, I have never made my own pumpkin pie puree. Cass and I did some googling where The Pioneer Woman assured us it was super easy and totally worth the effort!

Ugh...I always inadvertently leave my cabinet doors open when I cook.

Grown specifically for baking, we carefully cut the perfect pumpkins into halves...

maybe enjoying the cutting part a little too much!

Convincing Dean that this is the part he's always good at, he helped us scrape out the pumpkin guts.

This was probably our least favorite part. I use the word "our" loosely since clearly I am behind the camera and not elbow deep in pumpkin guts!

Ready for roasting!

After roasting the chunks for twice as long as The Pioneer Woman instructed...the pumpkin was finally fork tender and ready to puree.

Puree...and puree...and puree some more!

We were so proud...practically Pioneer Women ourselves!

As for the results...yes! One Hundred and Ten Percent yes! The flavor, the texture, the pie! Absolutely worth the effort and I would do it again!

Thanks a bunch Dean...that just made Pie Night more intense and complicated!

The Distinguished Advocate

So herewith let it be stated...that this post must be read with a pompous fake accent.

It was with great honor that we welcomed the distinguished advocate Lawyer Girl home for the holidays. Her visit consisted of movie watching moments, piano playing, pie making lessons, puzzle solving, skiing of extreme terrain, and sheer madness.

Using deliberate finesse (acquired during her first semester of law school) the distinguished advocate kicked off her winter break with a desire to expand her culinary skills and prowess. Setting her MacBook aside she donned the task of pie crust mastery. Nothing but success for the self titled "Pie maker's apprentice" would be acceptable. Precise rolling of the delicate pastry was involved.

The distinguished advocate was  sufficiently careful to use the tool only as a means to make a lattice crust so as not to be construed as assault with a deadly weapon.

It seems evidence points out that the distinguished advocate shows great promise in pie making as well as lawyering skills.

All parties involved had a mutual agreement to have an extensive fabulous time together.

It is implicit that all parties acted in good faith.

It is the court's opinion that the distinguished advocate's father entered into an implied employee contract with the advocate as Jiggy Sticks were made on the premise during the visit.

Furthermore let it be known, that the pooch Izzy may have been under duress when ordered by the distinguished advocate to wear fine Italian leather boots.

The advocate used all manner of cajoling and coercing the court into finishing the aforementioned puzzle until ridiculously late hours on the evening before her departure.

We the jury find that the distinguished advocate is guilty of being sorely missed by the court.