#8: Mrs. Salter's Peanut Butter Pie

So for our 2013 Oscar Dinner Party, I decided to go with Mrs. Salter's Peanut Butter Pie, courtesy of Paula Deen.  If you're keeping track of my Oscar reasoning...well, here's what was going through my mind...

• Life of Pi:  It's a pie.  Yeah, it's a cheat but for a move about the lack of food...this was better than a raw fish and rice crackers pie.
• Beasts of the Southern Wild:  This is a recipe from the South's own Paula Deen, who I'm wild for.  (Was that a groan?  Well, it's only downhill from here so hold on to your seats.)
• Argo:  I went with peanut butter for the Carter (a peanut farmer for you young-ins) era setting of this movie.
• Zero Dark 30:  I added a layer of dark fudge to this recipe to represent this movie.  (I was going to do a chocolate cookie crust but I forgot to get the chocolate wafers.  That ''inspired'' me to make my own, which then went south...unfortunately, not very quickly.  However, I'm sure I'll talk more about that later when I decide to tackle that hurdle again.)
• Silver Linings Playbook:  The Philadelphia Cream Cheese used for this pie represents the setting of this movie.
• Django Unchained:  Dare I reference the whipped cream?  It's either that or pepper the reference with N-words like "nice", "nostalgic" and "nummy".
• Lincoln:  (I'm going to start hitting bottom very soon here.)  Well, as mentioned in my earlier post...this pie goes great with coffee (Lincoln's favorite drink).
• Amour:  Did I mention this goes great with coffee?  (I could have gone with "After one bite, you'll want to have...uh...more. Get it? Sounds like ''amour''.)
• Les Miserables:  I'm sure this would go well with a glass of red wine or a side of french fries.

OMG!  You made it!  Thank goodness the Oscars is only once a year.

As for the pie.  It was delicious, of course.  This is the first time I've made a mousse (and a peanut butter on, nonetheless) so of course I was afraid it wouldn't remain light and fluffy. As you can see, no need for me to fret.

I'm happy that I decided to add a layer of fudge for Zero Dark 30 because the pie wasn't super sweet and (I thought) it could use the extra ZING!  Hello...you can never go wrong with chocolate and peanut butter.

BTW, if you're wondering about our entire 2013 Oscar menu, here it is:

• Appetizers:  Crabby Snacks (Silver Linings Playbook)
• Main Course:  Persian Roast Chicken (Argo/Zero Dark 30)
• Sides:  Hushpuppies (Beasts of the Southern Wild), Roast Vegetables (Lincoln), Pita & Hummus (Argo/Zero Dark 30)
• Desserts:  Peanut Butter Pie (Life of Pi) and White Cake (Django Unchained)
• Beverages included Champagne (Amour and Les Miserables)

Life of Pie

So, like many people, tomorrow we're having an Oscar themed dinner with friends and I've been tasked to make a pie -- "Life of Pi", right?

So here are the ideas going through my head:

• Amour:  Okay, I didn't see this movie but I hear it's about someone who doesn't eat.  <sigh>  This isn't going to be easy but maybe I can cheat with something French influenced.  Maybe this is my chance to hit a savory pie and do a French Leek Pie or maybe just do something with ''French'' in the name..like French Silk Chocolate Pie.
• Argo:  Geez!  What can I do here?  Well, I can always riff off of the time and do something related to Carter and peanuts.  I've wanted to try to recreate the peanut butter pie served at Pasadena's Pie and Burger so maybe this is the time to do it.
• Beasts of the Southern Wild:  Hmmm, I already did a Bourbon Pecan Pie.  Is there a way to combine birthday cake and pie?
• Django Unchained:  ...or even white cake and pie?
• Les Miserables:  Oh boy, another movie with French people who don't eat.
• Life of Pi:  For a[nother] movie about the lack of food, I'm hoping the ''pie'' itself will cover this theme.  Otherwise, I'm looking at some sort of fish pie (which makes me think of a tuna casserole) or Tiger Pie...hmmm, the latter sound interesting.
• Lincoln:  Okay, it's become evident that this year's Oscars definitely seems to have a theme around not eating.  From what I read, though, Lincoln (as I mentioned in a previous post) drank a lot of coffee and liked apples.  I already made an apple pie but maybe I can come up with a variation like Mini Apple Pies or Brown Butter Apple Cheddar Pie.  Or I could run with the coffee theme...of course, serving my kids coffee pie would not make me happy later when I want them to go to sleep.
• Silver Lining Playbook:  Not aware of a pie that Philadelphia's famous for but maybe there's something that can be done with Philadelphia Cream Cheese.  Maybe a variation of the Cherry Cheese Pie from a couple weeks ago.

And lastly...

• Zero Dark 30:  Like Argo, maybe there's a Middle East take I can roll with here.  Maybe I can riff on milk and honey or something.

Well, I have a lot to think about here.  Whatever I end up with, though -- whether it takes into account all movies or just one or two -- I'm sure will be yummy.  :o)

#7: Minny's Chocolate Pie

Yes, two years later and I finally get around to watching ''The Help''. What a great movie! But one can't walk away without wondering about Minny's Chocolate Pie. Luckily for me, Food and Wine had the same questing and sought out Lee Ann Flemming, the food stylist from the movie.

The pie itself was uber-simple.  You just need a handful of ingredients -- all of which are pantry staples.  The filling then comes together in minutes.  All you need to do next is kick up your feet and wait for it to bake.

I used dough scraps to make decorative hearts for the top of the pie.  I bet a stenciled powdered sugar design would also be fun.  Or, you can also serve it like Minny with a dollop of whipped cream.

#6: Cherry Cheese Pie

It's February so it seem right to find something for Valentine's Day or Presidents' Day or BOTH!

Valentine's Day is easy...just pick something red.

Presidents' Day, on the other hand, can be trickier.

I haven't seen the movie ''Lincoln'' but I asked a friend who did. ''What did Lincoln eat in the movie?'' Nothing. All she could recall was him drinking coffee and his wife complaining about how he didn't eat. (No wonder he was so thin.)

Okay, well Washington is easier -- cherry. But cherries aren't in season and I really wanted to keep the fruit seasonal and fresh.

So here's my compromise -- Cherry Cheese Pie. It's red for Valentine's day. It has cherries for Washington (canned yes but I can then save the fresh cherry pie for later this year). And for Lincoln? Well, it goes great with coffee. :o)

And for those of you who think this is actually a cheese cake.  Well yeah, I guess you're right.  But it's easy AND delicious so I think it can be easily overlooked.

Sloppy Is As Sloppy Does

 So how hard can it be to make a graham cracker crust?  I mean, it's the "easy one"...right?

Wrong.

As you can see from the picture, I figured I'd save a few steps by measuring my cookie crumbs in the same container I'd use for mixing.  (Mistake #1)

Then I dumped entire contents into a pie dish (Mistake #2) and tried to form it.

And this is what I ended up with.  The mixture was dry and wouldn't hold it's form.  Plus I had a crust that was about a centimeter thick.

I was planning on making a pie that day but this ''crust'' was absolutely sole crushing.  If I continued forward, I knew it would just get worse -- I mean, there was barely room for filling.  I could see this bubbling over into my oven and, if it made it past that, it would break up at the time of service.

To paraphrase ''Forrest Gump'', Sloppy Is As Sloppy Does.



So I decided to redo the crust, taking advantage of the fact that I can re-purpose the old crust.

When I originally created the crust I used two packages of graham crackers, which left on unused package in the box.  So I decided to grind up the remaining package in the food processor then add the recycled crust on top of that.  Since two packages appeared to be very generous for a single crust I figured by grinding up all three I should have enough for two crusts.

Once ground, I scooped the crumbs into a measuring cup and scrapped the excess from the top.

Then I followed the rest of the recipe but used my pastry knife to combine the ingredients, which was a lot easier than using a fork.

One noticeable thing this time around, the consistency was much better, less crumbly.  This made me feel better.  So much so that I accepted ''help'' from an eager assistant, who I let butter the pie dish and even form the crust.

Once the dish was buttered, I then added only half the crumb mixture to the pan and focused on forming the bottom.  When that came together, I then spooned in the remaining mixture, little-by-little, and formed the side walls.

To finish the crust, I took my measuring cup and used it to flatten all surfaces.

The end result -- perfection.

#5: Coconut Cream Pie

This week I decided to bring together two of my favorite worlds -- pudding and pie -- with a Coconut Cream Pie, based on an America's Test Kitchen recipe.

The coconut custard part was pretty straight-forward.  The hardest part was probably not eating the filling before it hit the pie crust.

Skipping the pie, you could probably layer this filling with shortbread or other "plain" cookie and top with whipped cream for a yummy dessert.

Instead, per instructions, I placed a layer of plastic on the pie and allowed it to chill for four hours.

At that time, I checked in on the pie and was bummed to discover condensation under the plastic.  Slicing the pie, later, I also encountered a lot of moisture, which would make me not want to serve this pie to guests as it didn't look too appetizing.

Normally, I would attempt a second pie but, to be honest, this is a heavy pie and consuming two of them in a week...well, a girl has to have her limits.

However, I will return to this pie later this year.  A couple things I may try -- 1) using something other than plastic wrap, which I believe is just needed to prevent a skin from forming on the pie, 2) creating the pie without the plastic wrap (or other layer) and see how bad the skin really is, 3) use a different crust (the original recipe used a graham cracker crust, which possibly absorbed some of the moisture