This weekend I returned to Wayfare Tavern for a wonderful dinner with Corey, our friend Chava and my sister-in-law, Michelle. Unlike my previous visit, I didn’t share an intimate moment with Tyler Florence – but the food was almost as delicious as the chef himself, and that’s really what matters, right?

Our dining companions are both vegetarians, so they shared two meat-free options from the Wayfare menu. The one featured at the top of this post was almost too beautiful to eat…but somehow, they found a way. Homemade ravioli stuffed with ricotta cheese and surrounded by a roasted summer squash puree, jack cheese and crispy “blossoms,” which we assumed were squash blossoms. Aren’t the colors fantastic?

Alongside their pasta, Chava and Michelle shared this tomato salad with heirloom tomatoes, black-eyed peas, feta cheese and a delectable aioli. I had a bit of salad envy when I saw this combination.

Corey and I took a decidedly non-vegetarian route, agreeing to share two meaty entrees that caught my eye the last time I dined at Wayfare Tavern. First up: this smoked pork chop, adorned with a grilled peach (yum) and marcona almond butter (double yum). The combination sounded so intriguing, I had to try it. The peach was a perfect complement to the juicy pork, and the almond butter was so unexpectedly good. The pretty stuff on top is shaved fennel, which doesn’t really do anything for me. But the brown stuff on the bottom is some sort of honey/brown sugar glaze, which does quite a bit for me.

Our second entree was the reason I specifically booked a table on a Sunday evening. Sunday’s blue plate special is chicken pot pie filled with yummy vegetables and encased in a wonderful buttermilk crust. I almost changed my mind about this dish when the woman seated next to us started babbling about it being too dry and too heavy on the tarragon…but Corey convinced me we should try it and form our own opinion.

And that opinion is that it is both delicious and beautiful. Love the pea pod served on top.

The filling was not overly seasoned, as our neighbor implied. It was delicious, as was the crust.

Dessert seemed necessary since our tablemates ordered such light entrees. I mean, we pretty much had to get a few desserts to share…right?

You may remember the pineapple upside down cake from my previous visit.

I let Chava and Michelle enjoy that one so I could try a few bites of banana pudding (which was good, but not nearly Southern enough for my tastes – only one vanilla wafer, Tyler?! really?!).

And then…this appeared in front of me.

It was simply described as peach pie with vanilla goat’s milk ice cream and rosemary sugar. I was expecting a nice piece of pie for the four of us to share. Instead, we had enough pie for four or more to share. Can we talk about how beautiful this rosemary sugar looks? I love rosemary, but admit it can be a bit harsh. Rolling it in sugar certainly makes it more palatable.

Once we broke into this bad boy, it was all over. Oh. Em. Gee. Perfect filling. Perfect (and I do mean perfect) pie crust. I could not ask for a more delicious dessert.

Pie for dinner and pie for dessert. It really doesn’t get any better than that. Well, unless those pies are hand-delivered by Tyler Florence himself. Can someone make that happen?

Foe.

Peace summit.

I’m not sure what possessed me to make a pie on a particularly hormonal pregnancy day. My mind was reeling after hours of nursery furniture research (not as fun as it sounds) and if you’ve ever made a pie from scratch, you know it’s best to have a clear head when you embark on the challenge that is pie crust. But summer fruit…it calls to me. It begs to be cradled in pastry and consumed with a wide assortment of sweetened dairy products. I made a quick blackberry pie (with store-bought crust) last week when I visited my brother and sister-in-law in Oregon, and once I had a taste, I knew more fruit pies were in my future.

The filling was a no-brainer. California peaches are spectacular right now, and this recipe is a nice twist on a traditional peach pie. And unlike most fruit pies, it only requires one crust, using a streusel topping in lieu of the usual top layer of pastry. I accepted the challenge and embarked on a crust making adventure that landed my first attempt directly in the trash. Why? Well, it combined butter and shortening, and I have come to the conclusion that because the two fats are different textures, it’s hard to mix them together and get a uniform consistency (i.e., those “pea-sized crumbles” of fat coated with flour). Consequently, rolling such a crust is a giant pain in the rear. I nearly turned to a frozen pie crust when I remembered my mom’s technique: use only shortening, and don’t chill the dough before you roll it out. It goes against most recipes you see for pie crust, but it’s how she learned to make it, and hers is pretty darn tasty. You can see my finished product, above, and while it’s far from perfect, I have to say it rolled out MUCH easier and tasted good, to boot.

So despite my love of butter, I may be a Crisco convert. And once again, mother knows best.

Making Christmas dinner for two is easy, but boring. It’s hard to scale traditional holiday classics down to size. Corey and I debated going out to eat for Christmas, but the holiday menus we perused were overpriced and uninspired. I knew I could do better than that! We threw a few ideas around and finally settled on something I’ve always wanted to try: cornish game hens. They’re little, they’re quick to cook, and they’ve got that Dickensian holiday flair. Plus, it’s pretty cool to present your husband with his own personal mini-bird.

These were less than 2 pounds each, and much of that weight was in the bones, so the end result was a nice serving of meat per person with minimal leftovers. The flavor was pretty interesting – sort of like a milder roast chicken. Considering how much I love roast chicken, I’m not sure I’d consider these a substitute, but they were a nice alternative considering they cooked in less than an hour and made a significantly smaller mess of the inside of my stove. You don’t really need a recipe for this one – simply take two small hens, rub them with salt, pepper and olive oil and stuff them with wedges of onion and your preferred citrus fruit (I used an orange). Place them on top of assorted vegetables (I used potatoes, carrots, celery, parsnip and onion) that have been drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast the whole kit ‘n’ caboodle at 450 for 45 minutes. Perfect one dish meal!

Oh – and about dessert…

I definitely made my best pie crust to date! It was light. It was flaky. It rolled out decently well. And I attribute my success to my trusty pastry cutter! I finally pushed aside my desire to make a high tech crust with the food processor or Kitchenaid mixer, and did that mamma jamma by hand. The pastry cutter worked BEAUTIFULLY. My mom (who told me to use the pastry cutter to begin with) explained that doing it by hand allows you to get a greater feel for the ratio of dry ingredients to water. Adding the proper amount of liquid ensures the dough isn’t too dry and crumbly to roll out, which had been my Achilles heel up to this point. SCORE! The crust is an old Joy of Cooking recipe (which I can post if anyone is interested?) and the filling is from fellow blogger Joy the Baker – check out her recipe for Sweet Potato Pie.

When I last conquered my culinary fears, I promised you a second installment of this adventure -  In Which Beth Blows the Cobwebs Off Her Rolling Pin and Overcomes Her Fear of Pie Crust.

Let’s talk about pie for a moment. I. Love. Pie. It’s probably my favorite dessert. Fruit pies are my preference, but I certainly won’t shy away from a cream pie, custard pie or chocolate pie if it’s presented to me. The filling is actually less important than the crust, which has to be flaky, buttery, and that perfect combination of crisp yet tender. I come from a long line of fantastic pie makers; my mom, my aunts, my grandparents, and my great-grandparents  all turn(ed) out perfect crusts with perfect fillings. It should be in my genetic makeup, but piemaking is a skill that seems to have skipped my generation. Previous attempts at homemade pie crust have been fairly craptastic, and the perfectionist in me hates attempting anything that I know will turn out ugly or messy.

I know I could buy pie crust and pass it off as my own. But piemaking is a culinary status symbol I’m bound and determined to achieve. As my friend Leslie aptly described it, pie is the unicorn of baking, an elusive skill that may take years to find and perfect. My most recent trial resulted in quite a few errors, but hey, it tasted good, so I guess that’s half the battle.

So what went wrong with this cherry pie attempt? First of all, you’ll notice that the crust is not evenly browned. That’s due to the haphazard egg wash I brushed over the top…apparently I missed a few spots. Therefore, it has a lovely Michael Jackson-esque skin condition that sort of detracts from the homey deliciousness. You’ll also notice it sprung a leak along the edge of the crust. That’s because I had major problems rolling it out to the proper size. My dough was fairly dry and crumbly, and while I know you can add more water to it if this occurs, I’m scared to death of adding too much. That’s my problem with pie: I know how it should look when it’s baked, but I’m clueless about how it should look and feel in its raw state.

The final bump in the pie road: filling spreadage after the pie was cut.

My mother (= piemaking idol) says this happens quite frequently with canned cherry pie filling unless you do something to thicken it (tapioca? cornstarch?). But even she doesn’t do that, so I didn’t feel like quite as big of a failure when I cut my pie and it sort of exploded on the plate.

This was an important first step in conquering my fear of pie crust. I knew it wouldn’t be perfect, but I threw it in the oven anyway and made some notes for next time. It didn’t look pretty, but it tasted good. It isn’t photogenic, but I took a picture anyway and posted it here. I’m making it my personal mission to churn out palatable, passable, pretty pie crust in the next few months. I’d like to say I’ll make a perfect pie by Christmas, but I’m seeing my mom in January and may need an in-person tutorial before that happens. I used my Kitchenaid mixer (and accompanying recipe) for this attempt, but on the next one, perhaps I should try doing everything by hand? If you’re reading this and you, too are a piemaking expert, leave a comment with your best tips and tricks to help me achieve my mission and find the damn unicorn!

Pie Crust Attempt #1

adapted from the Kitchenaid cookbook; makes two crusts

2 1/4 c all purpose flour

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 c Crisco, well chilled

2 tbsp butter, well chilled

5 to 6 tbsp cold water

Place flour and salt in Kitchenaid bowl. Attach bowl and flat beater and mix on Stir speed for 15 seconds. Cut butter and shortening into pieces and add to the flour. Mix on Stir speed until the shortening and butter are the size of small peas, 30 to 45 seconds.

While the mixer remains on Stir speed, add the water, 1 tbsp at a time, and mix until ingredients are moistened and dough holds together. Divide in half and pat each half into a smooth ball, flattening slightly. Wrap each half in plastic wrap and chill for 15 minutes.

When chilled, place one half between two sheets of wax paper and roll out to 1/8″ thickness. Fold pastry into quarters and ease into 8″ or 9″ pie plate. Unfold and press firmly into  bottom and sides of plate. If making a one-crust pie, fold edge under, crimp as desired, fill and bake as directed by your recipe. If making a two-crust pie, trim bottom crust to fit pie plate and roll out the second ball of dough. Add filling to pie pan. Top with second crust, seal and crimp edges and cut slits in top for steam to escape. Bake per recipe instructions.