Pi Day Pie

For this year's Pi Day I created two (count 'em two) beautiful pies. Keep in mind, I've never made a pie before in my life, let alone made two different ones.

The first pie is cherry, made with frozen cherries. That's the one with the lattice over top. The second pie is mixed berry, with blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries. This second pie I covered with cut-outs of leaves. In both pies I increased the amount of almond extract to be equal to the vanilla. Not entirely sure why I decided to do that -- I think it has to do with the smell of it.

SHF #28 Food to Seduce

I absolutely couldn’t help myself — when I saw the theme for this month’s Sugar High Friday (food to seduce) I immediately had two great ideas: a Raspberry-Clementine Trifle and Raspberry-Prosecco Gelatin. The first recipe comes from my darling sister-in-law Tessa, who made trifles for our family’s winter solstice dinner. We called them “Get Laid” trifles — because they are so good and so tasty. The second is a recipe I love because it involves my favorite type of wine: prosecco. They’re an adult take on traditional jello and because the fruit is frozen while the gelatin is only cold, it creates a pleasing set of different temperatures in your mouth.

Clementine-Raspberry Trifle

Raspberry-Prosecco Gelatin

Clementine-Raspberry Trifle
Makes 6

The day before:

2 Pt. Raspberries
1/4 C. Sugar
2 tsp. Lemon juice
1″ Fresh Ginger, peeled and thinly sliced

Combine and toss, let sit two hours then refrigerate overnight. Discard ginger and reserve juice.

The day of:
3 Clementines, segmented and peeled
2 sprigs Mint, torn or chopped
2 tsp Honey
½ Vanilla bean, split and scraped [couldn’t find the beans, so I used Vanilla extract, which worked fine]

Combine all ingredients in small bowl and set aside

1/2 C. Water
1/2 C. Sugar
1/4 C. Clementine juice

Combine in small saucepan, bring to boil. Cool. Add optional splash of raspberry syrup

1 1/2 C. Heavy cream
2 Tbl. Sugar

Whip together to soft peaks.

1/2 C. Gingerbread cookies, crushed [or Shortbread cookies - I couldn’t find the gingerbread]
6 Lady-fingers or Italian coffee cookies

Garnish:
6 Gingerbread cookies
Sprigs of mint

To assemble, in six parfait/wine glasses:

Soak one half of lady finger in syrup for a few moments, place in glass
Top with spoonful of raspberries
Top with spoonful of clementines
Spoon in some whipped cream
Top with some crushed cookie
Repeat each layer and garnish with mint and a cookie.

Raspberry-Prosecco Gelatin
1 (6-ounce) package raspberry-flavored gelatin
1 cup boiling water
2 cups Prosecco or other sparkling wine, chilled
1 1/2 cups frozen raspberries, not thawed

Whisk the gelatin and boiling water in a medium bowl until the gelatin is dissolved, about 2 minutes. Refrigerate until lukewarm, about 25 minutes. Stir in the Prosecco. Cover and refrigerate until the gelatin thickens but does not set, stirring occasionally, about 1 hour. Stir in the raspberries (bubbles will form in the gelatin mixture). Divide the gelatin among 6 Champagne flutes or individual dessert bowls. Cover and refrigerate until the gelatin is set, at least 2 hours and up to 2 days.

first spinning

My very first skein of spun wool. Very exciting.

granny square blanket

The cat sortof throws the scale off — because he’s a very large cat on a relatively large almost-blanket. I made this blanket by simply making a really large granny square. The yarn is a really soft boucle, and it tends to bind to itself, creating a very flexible, soft fabric. Because it’s binding so well the checkerboard holes from the granny square pattern aren’t as big as they normally are in a granny square — so I think this will be a pretty warm blanket even with all the holes.

Almost Samosas and Couscous

Dinner tonight: fake samosas and couscous. By fake samosas I mean pie crust pockets filled with curry-cumin-cayenne flavored potatos, peas, carrots, onions and garlic. Next door to the samosa imposter is a box couscous flavored with mushrooms and herbs.

Almost-Samaso Recipe

Ingredients:
Pillsbury Just-Unroll Pie Crust (or store brand)
1 Large Yukon Potato
Mix of Frozen Peas and Carrots
Half an Onion
Teaspoon Minced Garlic
Teaspoon of Veg. Oil
Cayenne Pepper
Cumin
Curry Powder

Cut potato into small chunks, put in a pot with water to cover, and boil for about 20 minutes. Saute chopped onion and garlic in the oil. Add spices and mix. When the onion is cooked, remove from heat and add peas-and-carrots mix to the pan. When potato is done, add potato chunks to everything else. Possibly add more spices if the mix looks a little lonely. Take the pie crust, roll it out a little thinner than to begin with, and cut out six rounds. Take the scraps, squish them together, roll it out, and then cut another two or so rounds. Fill each round with a small amount of the mixture. Fold the dough over to create half-circle shapes. Use a fork to squish the edges together. Arrange on a baking sheet and bake at 425 degrees for twenty minutes. Yum.