If you could look inside my heart, it would look like this pie shop…
and of course John is there too.
um, yes, that is a pie flight I am about to eat.
orange cream, cranberry, and apple quinceand then after that, I ate a piece of oatmeal pie...yes, I did.
(my soul looks like Shakespeare’s Globe, if you’re curious…not that you are).
If you don’t know, I pretty much eat like a hobbit.
Every fall I want to watch Fellowship of the Rings. It’s my favorite Lord of the Rings and I love all the autumn imagery, so it just seems fitting to watch it when the leaves are turning outside.
John and I spent two Sunday nights watching the extended edition of Fellowship and eating dinner. Here is what we had for supper…
Dinner: Disc 1 Vegan Jambalaya with Spicy Chorizo Sausage.
We made seitin to add to the jambalaya instead of beef.
Sauteeing the peppers, onions and spices.
Tomatoes, rice, and broth and we are in bubbly business.
Spicy Sausages!
Homemade potato chips are good for a side, right?
It's always good to have something green when everything else is red.
It's ready! And vegan believe or not!
TV dinner!
And for dessert I had a giant sugar cookie...
John finished off the dirt pie in true Gollum fashion.
Disc Two (or Secondises): Drunken Cheesy Bread, salad and pudding.
I had to have mead in my Renfair pottery mug for the continued viewing. Yes, I am a total geek.
I'm on this crazy pudding kick these days. Whipping up homemade vanilla pudding in the double broiler while dinner is baking!
Walnut salad
Drunken Cheesy Bread. This is probably my favorite dish right now. I"ve made it for years. Apples, melted cheese and wine all baked in chunks of bread and onion with a little veggie sausage. Any hobbit would love it!
Homemade pudding with pie crust cookies for dessert!
Which sister made which cone?
Lynley or....
Stephanie?
Pre-Potato Chip Making- Front Yard Happy Hour!
Champange with bitters and a sugar cube, (bubbly, sweet and only slightly bitter, just like the Farris girls)
Potato Chip Making
Slicing the unpeeled potatos paper thin...
Jessica eating raw potato slices!!
Raw potato chips (sweet potato too) soaking in salt water.
Giant sauce pot turned into homemade fry daddy. The chips need to float!
You fry a ladle full at a time. Which takes a while, so that leaves plenty of time to...
...bust a move.
Fry those chips until they are good and brown!
4 rounds of chips later...
Puffy two-sided chips make Stephanie very happy.
Veggie burgers and homemade chips! Huzzah!
John's all yellow plate (do not show the food pryamid this!)
Dinner and movie (who needs a table?)
Post- Potato Chip Making
Our out-of-season coveted French Silk Pie Concretes (kept safe in our deep freeze.)
Once Lynley was out of custard, she was ready to be shipped home to Tenessee!
Yes, this is what two sisters eating pie for lunch look like.
Lynley's Upper Crust Coconut Cream Pie
Stephanie's Upper Crust Pumpkin Pie Lunch
Stephanie's clean plate
Lynley's almost clean plate.
Crown room blueberry pancake
Veggie hummas sandwich and vanilla cupcake with SPRINKLES!
Giant glass of wine
John's Space Age Chocolate Twist donut
Steak 'n' Shake grilled cheese with pickle and tomato AND fries
Light night slice of cheese
Lemon cream pie
Pecan pancake with a sad looking egg and lonely biscuit
Chocolate peanut butter pie
I don't remember, but...
Smells like Elvis.
Veggie omelette with biscuit and grits
This is what a regrettable pecan pie looks like...beware.
AMAZING! Lynley's chocolate cherry pie with custard
Who's on the road again? Another Steak 'n' Shake grilled cheese and fries
Cheesy Pirate Booty...yeah, well...
Cheese pizza from Pizza Shoppe
All the snacks I ate in the car...
Sauteed vegetables with rice and salad
Berry-Banana Smoothie
Taco Night! Veggie tacos with mexi rice and corn
Crown room pancake (the best of September)
Lentil loaf with Amy's cheese shells, carrots and pan seared garlic brussel sprouts
Sheridan's French Silk Concrete-- oh my lord!
P&G Tea with dry cereal
Italian vegetable and bean soup with homemade bread
Loose Pizza- over-roasted tomatoes with garlic, fresh mozzarella, and multi-grain pizza dough
Leftover Indian food!
Farris Slush
Veggie dog with baked potatoes, corn on the cob, snap peas and deviled eggs
Malt Cup from the ice cream truck
Pasta with oven roasted tomatoes and fresh mozzarella
Giant happy cup of British tea
2nd giant cup of British tea, still happy
Grilled marinated tofu with chedder, deviled egg and blue/green fruits and veggies
Pizza from pizza bella
Veggie tacos!
Crown room pancake
Sci-fy Drive-in Night: Hilary's veggie burger, homemade french fries and John's chocolate peanut butter shake
Leftover grilled tofu sandwich with baked Cheetos
Egg salad sandwich on homemade bread with sugar snap peas and Crown room chocolate pudding
All that was left of a Cascone's dinner.
Cinnamon roll dippers
Dose Reales huevos rancheros
Homemade pizza with lentil loaf and breadsticks
Toast and tea!
Hillbilly Shepard's pie with biscuits and carrots
Mini pie tasting
Leftover pizza on an Edward plate
Jamie Oliver's Chow Mein Noodles and salad
Cheese grits and a biscuit
Grilled provolone cheese, Italian vegetable soup, apple slice and two fries
Salad with apples and cheese
Veggie tacos strike again!
hmmmmmm....
Autumn Solstice Sweet Potato pasta with garlic and maple sugar pecans
Soup at Carol's
Tart-ling apple, apple butter pie with Julie's ice cream
V's pasta with olives and tomato sauce
Half of a chocolate croissant and tea
Black beans, rice and corn tortilla's
Drumstick!
Harvest rice
Corn on the cob
Apple caramel pie
Beer (after digging up sweet potatoes)
Nutritious nuggets, Amy's shells' and white cheese, peas and carrots and milk
Jason's Deli Salad
Free swirl ''tiger tail" cone
Ramon noodles, veggie chik nuggets and honey
Golden Crown Room Pancake
Red bean and roasted califlower soft shell taco with rice
Homemade bread with peanut butter, raisins and strong tea
After making 7 pies on Saturday (I’m testing out recipes for a pop-up holiday pie store – be on the look-out!)
Making something easy on Sunday night sounded like a really good idea. This also involved a pre-cooking glass of wine. Cooking and drinking don’t usually work out well for me…I tend to get a little reckless.
BUT this dinner was practically going to cook itself.Our friend Emily was coming over, so I opted for the crowd pleaser – lasagna. I’m obsessed with cherry and grape tomatoes lately (if you hadn’t noticed).
So I decided to sprinkle them on top of our traditional cheese and spinach lasagna, along with a few portobello mushrooms.
I was hoping they would oven roast (which just tells me I need to make oven-roasted tomatoes again soon), and they sort of roasted.
I, of course, used my cooking God Paul Newman’s sauce (the Cabernet, one of my favorites). Emily brought a lovely cesare salad (one of John’s favorites)…
…and I bought pretzel bread at the store. I don’t know how to make pretzel bread, so I felt ok buying it. Yeah, that bread was really good. It’s on the bread learning plan.
We were going to see silent film shorts at the Glenwood Movie Theater after dinner, but that didn’t stop us from having some pre-movie dessert. John requested that we sample the Oreo Chocolate Pudding Dirt (or Pumpkin Patch) pie that I made. Do I even have to tell you my honey gets whatever sweets he wants (expect the British Montazuma Chocolates, sorry, but them’s the rules).
Emily with her pie!
The first movie we saw at the silent film screening was The Dream of the Rarebit Fiend. John and I got so excited because, 1) That’s the title of some comics he loves and 2) John had rarebit in England, so it’s something we talk about quite a bit. They, in fact, showed 2 silent films all about rarebit eating.
John's rarebit at Betty's in York
Did the rarebit (which is essentially melted cheese and bread) give John fiendish dreams like the movie we saw? You’ll just have to ask him yourself!
After a trip to the Plaza Art Show and a failed attempt to have our pictures taken with the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival’s “Good Will” Mascot, we started this Sunday night dinner off with a happy hour of Champ Ice Cream Cones (or Drumsticks).
Next we moved on to dinner. I’m a big solstice celebrator. During my 6 month sabbatical I learned, at least for me, that it’s so important to acknowledge the changing of the seasons– and off course, I like to celebrate it through food. That Friday night was the Autumn Solstice so we had a special meal with our friend Suzanne.
I baked a European rustic loaf of whole grain bread. It always turns out huge, fit for a giant really.
We ate sweet potato pasta with butternut squash and maple sugar pecans.
To truly celebrate the solstice, I cooked up some of our own harvest-
home-grown lima beans.
and mixed them into a cumin roasted corn salad.
So to continue the fall vibe we had Harvest Rice on Sunday night. This is kind of like a fall stir fry with honey crisp apples, green onion, carrots, raisins, and pecans. I tossed in some red kidney beans for protein and color.
We had leftover rustic bread with apple butter, green beans and corn on the cob.
For dessert we had a caramel apple pie experiment that I baked up. Please note the difference between John’s piece…
and mine…
Who’s stocking up for those winter months I ask you?
Menu: Nest of pasta (spaghetti with ravioli in the middle) with homemade vodka sauce, salad, ciabatta bread and the best pie in Knoxville.
Steph: We showed up at Lynley’s apartment to find her taking a cherry chocolate pie out of the oven.
Lynley: this pie was totally an experiment, and probably the fastest pie i ever put together.
Steph: I said hello to Lynley’s friend Alana and strapped on an apron. I was put in charge of washing and blending the tomatoes.
Lynley: How many people can we fit in the kitchen!!!!!!
Steph: Then I sautéed the tomatoes, garlic, onions, and peppers.
Lynley: I believe this also involved an in-depth discussion of the cast iron we should have purchased that day at the factory outlet.
Steph: Then I moved on to salad.
Lynley: I had to keep washing my hands because I made the mistake of de-seeding peppers with my fingers and not a knife, slight burning sensation that wouldn’t go away. IT BURNS!!!!
Steph: We threw in some grape tomatoes whole and uncooked to add an interesting texture and look. Eggs in our nest of pasta as Alana said!
Lynley: The master plan was to have the slightly burst open, it didn’t work. Think we got to do it earlier next time. I now always want eggs in our nest of pasta.
Steph: this is my favorite picture of us (next to the tap dancing from Thanksgiving 2009)
Steph: John took pictures of Dottie entertaining herself. He’s a good Uncle even to the furry nieces.
Lynley: I think he as a secret crush on Dottie.
Steph: Lyn dished up the spaghetti.
Lynley: The nest of pasta thank you Zios for this wonderful concept….spaghetti with ravioli on top, yum.
Steph: While I dished up the ravioli and sauce.
Lynley: We need to have another marathon of ravioli making, I think we can do so much better than what we purchased.
Steph: I tried to get a picture of the “nest” but the sauce was so thick (and AMAZING) you couldn’t really see the ravioli on my plate.
Lynley: Looking at this makes me HUNGRY!
Steph: After I added the rest of the meal to my plate. Lyn, do you remember what we talked about? All I remember thinking was how it was the best meal I ate all weekend.
Lynley: No I really don’t remember to well. I do remember us describing dad as a totally wimp when it comes to anything scary, movies, stories, etc.
Steph: That pie was wonderful Lyn. I loved it with all my heart. Cooking with my sister is one of my favorite top 5 things to do!
Lynley: and the sherridan’s that traveled 12 hours to go with it, pretty freakin amazing.
You would think I would learn, but no, pretty much that doesn’t happen. I spent a crazy day in the kitchen on Saturday testing out several kinds of pumpkin pie recipes, so Sunday I just decided to take it easy in the afternoon and read. I lounged for too long and found myself scrambling at 7:30 trying to get homemade biscuits and hillbilly shepherd’s pie made all at once.
THANK GOD John stepped in and helped make the biscuits and do other prep work. He is an excellent chef and partner. The biscuits turned out very tasty. Good job honey!
On to the hillbilly shepherd’s pie. Tennessee rubbed off on me a bit and I got the wild hair to make vegetarian shepherd’s pie (and here’s the hillbilly part) and top it with cheesy grits instead of mashed potatoes. A traditional shepherd’s pie has a buttery mashed potato topping, and trust me there’s nothing wrong with that, I heart mashed potatoes. I just thought buttery, cheesy grits might be a good twist.
Hillbilly grits with a pad of butter- pre-baking
Post-baking
I made John some unfortunately lumpy mashed potatoes (sorry sweetie) since he doesn’t dig on grits. In the end the veg filling which used tempeh and a homemade mushroom gravy need more kick and spice in the gravy– so I’d judge it as only ok. The grits were good though. The whole thing was super rich and filling.
Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie with corn, mushroom gravy and tempeh
My plate.
We also had brown sugar carrots on the side– how can you not?
Mixing it all together!
We talked about our upcoming work week, the movie we saw on Friday night (Our Idiot Brother), Dr.Who, and my longing to study astronomy (I was told the math was too hard for me) and John’s college class with Dr. Wolf.
For dessert, we taste tasted all of my new pie recipes: buttermilk pie, pumpkin buttermilk, cinnamon sugar top crust pumpkin pie, harvest moon pumpkin pie, and 2 different versions of spiced whiskey nut pumpkin pie (I tested those, not JY- teetotaler).
We both really enjoyed the buttermilk pumpkin pie which was a Steph original recipe I’m proud to say! But they all were good. Guess we were getting into the fall spirit (and thinking about a pie business!)
Hearty Eaters 