oh sweetie pie, my sweetie pie
Wednesday morning while I ate my less than appealing oatmeal (had run out of Quaker Oats and settled for instant oatmeal in a bag) I flipped through Sweety Pies. Admired it for a while, and then saw that a Nova made her rice pie, and decided then and there that I ought not be without this book. I read several types of pies aloud to Ian, along with their ingredients. Soon, he laid down the book he was reading and took up Sweetie Pies to browse it's colorful pages filled to the brim with photos of pies.
He picked up pie crusts and berries for me at the grocery store a few days ago because I told him I wanted to make a pie. This was before we both looked at the book. I'd planned to make some type of fruity pie, much along the same lines as every other fruity pie I make. This one had 5 nectarines, a pint of blueberries, a Gala apple, and maybe 2/3 cup of bing cherries. Besides that I added about a 1/2 to 2/3 cup of sugar, and about as much flour to make the juice a bit thicker. Maybe a teaspoon of cinnamon, which I don't normally add, a pinch of salt, and ginger. I love ginger flavoring in a pie. Probably added about a teaspoon and a half. Then baked for 40 minutes at 350 (F) degrees.
It baked that morning while I showered. Then waiting until I got home from a late late night at work to sample it was devilish, really. Ian wondered why I didn't taste it after baking it, but it had to cool. Anyway, I sliced it into several small pieces and had a bite last night. Pure heaven. Yum. Love me some fruity pie.
Besides its fabulous recipes, Sweety Pies includes the author's anecdotes. She can make anything relate to pie. Seriously. She is talented. She talked about her mother, or maybe it was her grandmother always painting her toenails red. She thought her husband never noticed that extra step she took to keep herself looking purdy. She stopped painting her toenails. Wouldn't you know, that her husband, who never said the first word about how nice her toes looked, suddenly commented on the fact that her toenails weren't looking so lovely anymore. All this was a segue into a cherry pie recipe.
Something I really like about her book is that the flavor combinations excite me. They're not run of the mill. They don't disappoint the palate, at least, at the level of contemplation or anticipation. So yeah, I'm dying to try the same rice pie that Nova made. And there's an oatmeal, pecan, and coconut pie that Ian and I are slobbering over. There were more, many more. It's just that my memory is failing me since I don't have the book before me. She's tempted me to make my own pie crusts. I don't bother with that. Those Pillsbury roll up pie crusts do the trick for me every time.
