TWD: Twofer Pie!

For your consideration: Twofer Pie from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 321 featured this week on Tuesdays with Dorie which is actually Wednesday/Almost Thursday With Dorie this time around.

I still have tons of cooking and baking to do for Thanksgiving tomorrow. I've been hard at work since 4:00 and it's 11:00 now - you should SEE the kitchen. It's trashed, but I've completed the majority of things I needed to get done. I am so thankful for my DH who cleans while I cook. This pie is one of the deserts. I had help with it - The Messy One was all excited to get into the kitchen and make this with me. We had fun doing this together and it was definitely a learning experience for him, especially reading directions and learning how to measure and pour things. :)

I’m making another Dorie pie, the Sour Cream Pumpkin Pie at the same time – that one is in the oven, but as you can see, the Twofer Pie is finally done. It took over an hour to cook and I finally decided that I couldn’t wait around anymore and jacked up the temp to 350 from the prescribed 300. No harm done that I can see, but I’ll let you know after tomorrow how it tasted. (Preparation update: that one took a long time too. I turned it down to 325 from the 450 and it still took about 25 minutes longer. Next time I'll just drop both to 350 and watch the clock.)

Thanks to Vibi from La Casserole Carrée for choosing this recipe. To see what all the other TWDers did with it, check out the blogroll here. If you'd like to try making Dorie’s version of Twofer Pie for yourself, you can find the recipe on our hostess’s blog, or in Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours.

Update: Definitely not a keeper for us. I left this one behind at the inlaws in almost it's entirety. :(

“Quick” Quiche

I can only assume they were referring to the prep time. That was a snap. Cooking/actual time from oven to plate was 45 minutes to an hour later. The name is definitely misleading but very tasty and so well worth making. I made two so the next time I needed a "quick quiche" I could have one almost instantaneously.


Quick Quiche Recipe
courtesy Elizabeth Gilroy, Food Network

4 eggs
1 cup half-and-half
1/2 cup real mayonnaise (aka Hellman's :))
2 tablespoons flour
1/3 cup minced onions
Salt and garlic powder
8 ounces shredded Swiss or sharp cheddar cheese
1 package frozen chopped spinach
1 (9-inch) unbaked pie shell

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Hand whip eggs, half-and-half, mayonnaise, and flour in a medium mixing bowl. Add remaining ingredients. Pour into an unbaked 9-inch, deep pie crust. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until the top is golden brown.

makes 1 quiche

Key Lime Pie and a Limeaid Flashback

There are more than a few oddball ingredients lurking about my kitchen pantry and freezer that I really need to use up. I decided that I was sick of rearranging the pre-made graham cracker crust from here to there and then balancing it on top of this then that and why did I ever buy this thing but I can't just throw it away (you get the drift) as well as a lonely can of limeaid that was tucked into a cubby of the freezer door shelf.

Flashback: Limeaid.... About four years ago, when the Big Ones were 5, we had a playdate with a kid from school. We were brand new to each other, and were in the initial "getting to know you" stage. He came over for the first time and my guys and he were all playing fine, but maybe getting a little more wound up than I'm used to. There's a lull in the action (you know when it gets really quiet, that's not a good sign) so I go to into the kitchen to investigate. My kids are standing looking at him, mouths agape, frozen with horror and disbelief. This kid went into my freezer, rummaged around and then way up on the top shelf, found himself a (lonely) can of limeaid. He then proceeded to go through my cabinets, found a pitcher, opened the limeaid using a pair of pliers from the junk drawer(!) pulled up a chair to the sink (because he couldn't reach the water) and was in the process of making himself a cool refreshing drink. At age 5. My kids weren't even supposed to pour their own milk at that point much less rifle through a hostesses serveware and fix up a cold one! Obviously, years later this has still made an impression. That child will go places one day, mark my word.

Back to the Land of Misfit Ingredients:
So, there's this pie crust and this limeaid and they walk into a bar... oops, wrong story. So I have two things that I know I can combine and get rid of use to the delight of my family.

I grabbed this recipe from Real Simple magazine (love Real Simple, maybe because I am sometimes) and two things bite the dust. (Yes, I know you’re wondering; after the boy wonder knocked back his frosty beverage, I bought more because, well, that’s just what I do). The pie was a little softer than I would have liked, but I think that if I had beat it longer than “fluffy soft peaks” and into “stiff peaks” that it would have been a little more firm and less jiggly, or froze it a little before serving. Messy Boy who {{hearts}} pie, (and Key lime pie even more) gave it 2 thumbs up.

Easy Key Lime Pie
From Real Simple Magazine, June 2008

1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 6-ounce can frozen limeade concentrate (not thawed)
1 cup heavy cream
1 6-ounce graham cracker piecrust
Zest of 1 lime

Place the condensed milk, limeade concentrate, and cream in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment.

Beat until fluffy and soft peaks form. (whip it, whip it good)

Pour the filling into the piecrust and smooth the top.

Refrigerate until chilled and loosely set, at least 4 hours (and up to overnight). (but possibly pop into freezer shortly before serving)

Sprinkle the pie with the zest before serving.

Yield: Makes 6 servings