It's Pie Style Jack II: The Em"pie"re Strikes Back!

If you're like us, you've probably spent the week after Thanksgiving eating nothing but leftover turkey and side dishes.  In an effort to not just recreate our Thanksgiving dinner plates, we got creative and turned our leftovers into turkey pot pies!

We started by quartering a few potatoes and peeling a few leftover carrots, and popping them into the oven to roast them for about 15 minutes.  Since they typically have a longer cook time, roasting them first helps minimize the time your pot pies need to be in the oven.  Plus, it gives them a nice roasty flavor.

While those are roasting, you can make your dough to top your pies.  We kept it simple by combining 1 cup of flour with 1 cup of chilled butter, and a splash of vodka.  Try not to overmix the dough, as you want the butter to stay as cold as possible.  Once our dough came together, we wrapped it in some plastic wrap, and stuck it in the freezer to get it cold again.  This will help give you a nice, flaky crust.  If you're making your dough in advance, you can just keep your dough in the fridge.

Once the dough was chilling, we started building our pies.  We chopped up some fresh onion, and dropped them into our little bowls.  Then, each bowl got a healthy spoonful of our leftover green bean casserole.

Then we chopped up some turkey meat, and added those to each bowl.  At this point, the potatoes and carrots were also done, so we chopped those into smaller pieces and tossed them in the bowls as well.

The one thing that was missing was a bit of a gravy.  So we added in a few spoonfuls of our turkey stock, as well as a splash of milk.  Then give everything a little toss and turn in the bowl so it's all mixed up and coated in the stock and milk.

Then, just role out your dough, cut it into circles wide enough to top your bowls.  Make sure you cut slits in the top to so the steam can escape (clearly the 2 on the right were our first crusts).  You also want to beat an egg and brush each crust with the egg wash.  This will give you a nice, golden brown crust.

Be sure to place your pies on a baking sheet to catch any gravy that may spill out of your pies.  Pop them into a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes, or until your crusts are cooked through, and golden brown.

The crust was buttery and really flaky, almost like a biscuit.  It was the perfect topper for our pot pies, and a great way to repurpose our leftovers.

It's Pie Style, Jack!

About 2 months ago, Justin decided that I should bake him weekly pies.  I'm not really sure where he got the idea that I would agree to this, especially considering my aversion to baking, but every time we get berries in our share, he suggests I bake him a pie.

On top of this, we've been watching Next Food Network Star, and a Baltimore/DC local, Rodney Henry, owner of Dangerously Delicious Pies, is on of the finalists.  He's spreading his love of pie, and "pie style" across the country, and if you haven't already, you should cast your vote for him to get his own show.  He's quite entertaining.  So not only was this dessert to curb Justin's frequent request for pie, but it is also an ode to Rodney Henry!

I came across this recipe for individual cobblers, and thought they would be much easier than a pie.  There's only two of us...and we don't need an entire pie...so why not make individual desserts?  With a little sweet talking, Justin agreed.

Since we'd already used our blackberries in our pancakes, we used blueberries for the cobblers. Just toss your blueberries with a bit of sugar, and let them sit in your ramekins while you mix up the topping.

For the batter, whisk together your dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder & salt), and then gradually add in your wet ingredients (egg, milk, vanilla, & melted butter).

You'll end up with a pretty thick batter.  You'll want to pour this over the top of your berries.  We also added a dash of sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg on top.

Then just pop them into a 350 degree oven for about 35 minutes, or until the crust gets golden brown.  Now here's where things started to go a bit awry.  We got a little greedy when it came to filling our ramekins, and we'd formed a little mound.  So when the batter started to cook, instead of forming a nice crust on top, it just melted down into all the crevices between the berries.  So our cobbler turned into more of a baked berry compote.

With a dollop of ice cream on top, it still ended up being a tasty dessert.

Happy Pi Day!

It's not too late to go out and celebrate Pi Day!

We took advantage of Dangerously Delicious's Pi Day Happy Hour tonight...slices of their sweet pies were only $3.14, and we made it in just under the wire.  But first we started with a slice of BOG (bacon, onion, gruyere) quiche, and a slice of STF (sausage, tomato, fennel) pie.  Each came with a little salad with balsamic dressing.  So we started off with a pretty tasty, savory slice of pie, and we highly recommend both.  For the sweet slices, we went with a slice of mounds (coconut & chocolate), and their famous Baltimore Bomb (crumbly,melty Berger cookies & vanilla chess).

So, before the day is over, go grab yourself some pi(e)!