Pie times

Posted on | September 14, 2008 | | Printer Friendly

apple pie

Maternity leave + no baby = baking.

To keep myself busy until this baby decides to make an appearance, I’ve been keeping busy (and on my feet) in the kitchen.  I’ve had pie on the brain since Robyn started posting photos of her yummy looking pies.   The only obstacle?  We (I) didn’t actually own a pie plate.  The “quest” for the perfect pie plate was an additional welcome distraction from the whole “when is this baby coming” thing and a little more legwork.  Sadly, our pedestrian lifestyle and hoofing around town isn’t sending the message to baby that’s it’s time to pack up and vacate.  I think it enjoys the ride.  Sidenote:  grrrr.

Saturday morning I decided it was going to be pie day.  I packed up my trolley and shuffled to the bus for a trip to the market.  Since I started reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle I just couldn’t deal with supermarket fruit.  No, this pie was going to be made with local (or at least Ontario/Quebec)  fruit.   The only problem, I took the bus to Lansdowne Park for the Farmers Market…  on a Saturday.   I arrived at an empty parking lot.  Pregnancy brain strikes again.  The market is on Sunday.   Sidenote:  grrr.

Since I was in the Glebe, I stopped at the home stores in search of pie plates.  None fit the bill - too expensive, too cheap, too blue, too white, too small, too big.

Defeated, I got back on the bus (thank you OC Transpo driver for your “whoa” comment on the size of my belly - that wasn’t embarassing AT ALL in front of a bus full of passengers) and headed to the Byward Market.  I have to say, I really don’t like the Byward Market experience.  Too busy, too many tourists, too many strollers, too many stickers.  Sidenote: grrr.  It’s easy to complain when you’re the size of a small whale.   I trolled the market as quickly as possible - stopping at the booths with green dots (green dots = local) and high-tailed it out of that food zoo.

On the way home, I stopped at @home on Elgin to pick up the pie plate I deemed to be the worthiest of all the pie plates in the Centretown area - the Maxwell & Williams “quiche” dish. I hoofed home, trolley in tow, pie plate in the other hand.  And we walked and shuffled our way back home, carried the loot up the flights of stairs, and started to prep the goodies for the pie.  Stubborn baby - none of these actions got things moving along, but at least the story ends with a nice pie… though a nice pie with a side of baby would have been MUCH better.  Sidenote: grrr.

So began the first of many pies.  Using the recipe from Smitten Kitchen, I made and rolled the dough with a wine bottle.  I chopped the apples “armadillo style” and arranged some fresh strawberries on top for a bit of colour..  and extra awesomeness.  Strawberries make everything better.  And in the oven it went.  End result: total awesomeness.  And we didn’t even serve it with ice cream.

Boyfriendly rating:  1,000,000,000   Yes.  That good.

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Category: Bakery, Sweets

Comments

One Response to “Pie times”

  1. Tamara
    September 16th, 2008 @ 7:48 am

    The pie is gorgeous but I am definitely covetting the pie plate. Mental note made.

    Come on baby, we all want to meet you!

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