Cherry peach pie is my all time, hands down, no questions asked, very favorite variety of pie. Growing up I loved cherry pie the most – the kind made with canned cherries that are so sweet, tart, and a vibrant shade of red that it’s a little unsettling (there’s just no way they can have an ounce of nutritional value). It wasn’t until last summer that I ventured into making a cherry pie with fresh cherries.
My life has never been the same. Continue reading
Chocolate is magical. The cocoa industry is not. There are hordes of dirty, dirty skeletons in the closets of many in the chocolate industry, and most people haven’t got a clue what really goes on behind the scenes. Hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children work in hazardous conditions, live well below the poverty line, and are often working in forced labor situations (yeah, as in slavery) to bring the world its favorite treat.
It is never cool to pay unfair wages and enslave workers. Universal truth. It is even less cool to sit idly by while this happens. So whether it’s a rally demanding Hershey, the largest chocolate manufacturer in North America, to be more responsible in sourcing its cocoa, or reaching for that Fair Trade Certified chocolate bar at the store, to simply educating ourselves about where our stuff comes from and at what cost, the reality is we can all stand to be more responsible consumers. Continue reading
This is the first strawberry rhubarb pie I have baked. It may even be the first strawberry rhubarb pie I have eaten. And it’s definitely the first time I have ever touched a stalk of rhubarb. This bizarre red vegetablefruit with poisonous leaves that seems to have been miraculously designed by the pie gods to blend harmoniously with strawberries to create what so many consider to be their favorite kind of pie.
I’ve had a somewhat strange association with rhubarb since the time I lived and interned in Paris for the summer after freshman year of college and stayed with an eccentric, over-bearing french “maman” named Maïtou who ate rhubarb preserves out of the jar while telling me about how the neighborhood was being taken over and trashed by the Algerians. As if letting me in on a big secret, she shared with me that rhubarb was her all-time favorite treat, and that the best brand was Bonne Maman, whose high-quality jams and preserves were some of France’s finest products. With each spoonful of the bitter jam she would grin with delight like a kid on a sugar high licking the frosting off a spatula. Continue reading
About 6 months ago a friend of mine made a proposition to me.
“You should do a triathlon with me,” she said.
“Hey that sounds cool, no way!” I replied, quite set in my refusal.
“No really, you should. It’s no big deal at all, and we can train together. I did one this summer right after going to Burning Man, so I’m pretty sure you would be 100% fine.”
And that was that. Continue reading
When I was growing up in sunny Southern California, we had a massive, sprawling blackberry shrub in the backyard that I would spend hours in the summer sifting through for its precious, juicy treasures until my fingers were raw from the tiny thorns riddling its leaves and stems. This was my first foray into home gardening. Each summer I would wait in eager anticipation till those first under-ripe berries appeared shyly on the vine, and then I’d check each day to see if they’d attained the plump fullness that would indicate they were ready to be harvested. There was nothing so exciting as filling my bowl with such delicious home-grown beauties. Continue reading
Happy Earth Day! I am a humongous fan of the earth and although I think it ought to be celebrated every day, I’m glad it has its own special day around which the world can rally and collectively express love for this blue planet we call our home. In a happy coincidence, this week’s Friday Pie Day features a dish with a hue much resembling that of our fair planet. Blueberries and lavender join together in a flavorful arrangement that is just unique enough to be memorable yet normal enough to be addictive. In fact, this pie is so great I would hereby like to dedicate it to Mother Earth. Continue reading
Welcome to the second installment of Friday pie day. Friends, this is a good one. Though I don’t normally think of pecan pie outside of Thanksgiving and Christmas, a pie as delicious and easy to make as this ought to be enjoyed all year round. I originally set out to make pecan pie with homemade sugar cane syrup, since I wanted a recipe that was corn-syrup free, but that little experiment failed miserably. So I was delighted to find this quick and easy recipe that calls for maple syrup, molasses, egg, cream, and brown sugar as welcome replacements for the processed alternative of corn syrup. Continue reading
For the month of April I have decided to bake a pie a week, so consider this the first of four Friday Pie Days. In an effort not to have April also be the month I gain 50 lbs, I will be giving away all of these pies. If you are within pie-getting distance of me, please let me know if I should put you on the list. Continue reading
Spring has sprung in San Francisco and I couldn’t be more excited about the implications of this fact: backyard bbqs, soccer games in Golden Gate Park, and baked goods in the sunshine. Oh, and the inevitable layer of tempestuous fog that is sure to creep up on many a glorious sunny afternoon. Don’t get me wrong; that’s not a complaint. This city gives its dwellers plenty to love and with so many beautiful outdoor spaces just a stone’s throw away, I figure why not add to their charm by toting a delicious baked good to share whenever venturing out into the great outdoors. Continue reading
For anybody lucky enough to have grown up in a country where girl scouts dutifully take to the streets each year and sell their brightly-colored boxes of cookies, these pies are the answers to a question you may have never thought to ask. It wasn’t until very recently, when girl scout cookie fever overtook the nation, as it does each year in the early spring, that the thought crossed my mind that perhaps, just perhaps, something as wonderful as a girl scout cookie could somehow be incorporated into something as wonderful as a pie.
A quick Google search later confirmed my suspicions that others had also seen a natural synergy between these two delightful types of dessert. So for any of you who haven’t already eaten your weight in Caramel de Lites (aka Samoas) or Thin Mints and become sick at the sight of one of these boxes boasting smiling young faces and girl power, the following recipes are for you! Continue reading
the patron saint of pie 