random amusements

Friday the 13th got me, sorta…

I was planning on making lemon chess pie—for the first time ever—and while transporting my crust to the fridge to chill while I combined the filling ingredients, I tripped on my slipper and almost fell.

The tart pan went flying and although I caught it in one hand, it is the pan with the lift-out bottom, so the whole thing just toppled to the floor.

Much swearing. Stupid slippers!

Bravely, I looked in the pantry but there was no more Jiffy pie crust mixes so I gave up on the lemon chess pie. However, I still had some reserved dough because the Jiffy mix makes two 9-inch crusts, and the tart pan isn't big enough to utilize the entire amount of pie dough.

What to do…what to do…

My (brilliant) idea was to make two little tiny pies, using my grandma's mini pie dishes. So I rolled out the dough and fit them into the pie plates. Filling? Hmmm…

Casey loves chocolate, and we've sorta been on a nutella kick, so I combined a leftover partial box of cook & serve chocolate pudding with a little milk and mixed in about, I dunno, maybe a tablespoon of nutella. Filled the deeper pie dish and popped it into the oven, which was still heating to 325˚. Set it for 20 minutes, having no idea how long the pudding would need to cook in the oven. Guess and check.

Meanwhile, I started on my other mini pie, which I had decided would be strawberry. Grabbed a small sauce pan and dumped about 1/4 cup of strawberry jam into it, 6 or 7 frozen strawberries, and a little water. Cooked to thaw out the berries, blend in the jam, and boil it down. Added a smidge of flour to thicken it. Poured into pie crust. Set it aside.

Then I began working on my next project: almond coffee cake. Recipe to follow tomorrow, because I actually have to jump in the chowder* right now. Sorry!

BTW, the chocolate pudding pie took a total of 35 minutes, and after the first 20, I had to turn the oven up to 400˚. Then the strawberry pie went in for a total of 25 minutes. Both are cooling, and look to be setting up well.






NOTE: "jump in the chowder" = take a shower