at home with ann

The only regret I have about our wedding is that I didn't agree to Jon's request that instead of wedding cake we have wedding pie.  Everyone loves pie, but instead I insisted on a lovely tiered lemon cake that we had to cut immediately because it was a million degrees and the buttercream was melting.  This would not have happened with wedding pie.   Pie is surprisingly easy to make.  The longest part is rolling the crust.  Then all that's left is to fill it up with sweetened fruit, pop it in the oven, and get ready with the ice cream.  My crimping skills are rustic at best, so cutting the top crust into cute hearts was not only seasonal, it was functional.   Cherry Pie Ingredients: 1 recipe pate brisee pie crust  (from the master herself, Martha Stewart) 2 pounds cherries (I used frozen) 1/2 cup sugar 2 Tablespoons cornstarch or flour 1/2 lemon juiced Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Make pie crust recipe in advance. I p...

I made this for our special Valentine's Day dessert.  Yesterday.  February 24th.  We don't go big into Valentine's Day around here, but I did bring out all the red and pink toned crayons and Colin helped me make a home made card.  He also tried to eat the crayons, so all the pink and reds have tiny tooth marks in them now.  I will, of course, take any excuse to make a special dessert, even if it is almost two weeks late. Cherry Pie 1 batch pate brisee  - the best pie crust 3-4 cups cherries (I used frozen, thawed, as it is the middle of the winter and cherries are about a million dollars a pound right now) 1/2 cup sugar 2-4 Tablespoons cornstarch, depending on how juicy your cherries are 1/2 lemon, juiced Make pate brisee.  Follow Martha Stewart's instructions .  They work for me every time. Form into two discs and chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour.  I like to take them out about 15 minutes before rolling, so they are ...

This is the time of year when cherries are on sale at the market.  By "on sale," I mean that you can manage to buy a bag for less than $10.  If they weren't so good, I couldn't bring myself to pay so much for them.  The only problem I've found is that if you don't eat the cherries within 2-3 days, they start to go bad.  And throwing away $8 worth of cherries is not good.  I noticed ours were on the verge yesterday, so I spent a good chunk of the afternoon pitting and slicing them to freeze.  My hands and countertops are stained with cherry juice, but I now have a nice big bag of cherries in the freezer for whenever the mood strikes me. I sometimes joke that I could write a cookbook called "what's about to go bad."  I hate wasting food, so whenever some produce is nearing the end of it's life, I come up with some use for it right away.  Smoothies are great for any fruit that's still ok, but you wouldn't necessarily want to eat on it...