These are the strawberry pies I made for Nathan's teachers. I made a little pie for Bill and Nathan with the leftover dough and filling.
I like to think the pies represent my family. Two big pies, one little pie. No cat pie, though.
I wasn't sure if I liked the pies photographed on the bare table or on a tablecloth better, so I'm just including both versions:
Close-up:
Extreme close-up!
I packaged the pies and tied bows on them, with cards for the teachers. The cards have Target gift cards in them. I mention the gift cards because I know a lot of people need to get teacher gifts in the coming weeks, and I want you to know that when I was a teacher, I loved to get gift cards from the students. Starbucks is a favorite for gift cards, especially because Starbucks is a place where a gift card in a small amount is still useful. (I know when you have many teachers to buy for, the cost of gifts really adds up.)
And just to make this a nutritionally-balanced blog post, here's a picture of a veggie tray I made for Nathan's end-of-the-year class party:
Hey, Marzetti's, let's work out an endorsement deal! E-mail me.
I used this recipe for the pie filling. This is the recipe I always use for pie crust. People seem to like the pie crust recipe. Then again, I have used store-bought frozen pie crust, and people have liked that too, so that's always an option.
While making this recipe, I learned about blind baking, which is when you bake an unfilled pie crust. Basically, you poke several holes in your crust, cover it with foil or parchment, dump some dry beans on top to weigh down the crust, and bake. That link about blind baking said you could use wax paper, and that wax paper was vastly superior to foil, so on my first shot I tried wax paper. About a minute into the baking, smoke started pouring out of the vents in the oven, and there was a terrible smell. Then came the smoke alarms. The wax paper was melting, and since I didn't want to serve my child's teachers pie with melted wax leached into it, I had to dump the crusts and start over with another batch. So, even though that link says you can put wax paper in your oven, you cannot put wax paper in your oven.
(Not pictured: the part where I was cleaning up and my kid decided to coat himself, the table, the floor, and chairs in flour, because he "wanted to look like a ghost.")
Oh, and regarding the veggie tray, I signed up to bring a veggie tray because of my mom's Weight Watchers axiom: Always bring something to a party that you can eat. (Note that the presence of veggies did not stop me from eating a bunch of other crap that I shouldn't have eaten.) So, I went to the store on Tuesday to purchase the dip and a bunch of vegetables to cut up. I went to Party City and spent $4.00 on a cheap plastic tray so that none of my good trays would get lost or broken. I noted that the grocery store was selling an already-assembled veggie/dip tray for $8.00, which was probably like half of what I spent when all was said and done. And I just thought, Why am I not going with the store-bought tray? But there was something about me that just couldn't do it. I had to assemble my own tray. Why!? When did I become that person?
The thing is, being that person doesn't totally suit me. There are the Martha Stewart-types who actually enjoy making things from scratch. I find that making things from scratch totally stresses me out. And, in the case of the vegetable tray, sometimes the DIY option actually costs more, so there isn't even a financial argument for putting in the extra effort. (I realize I can't totally call that veggie tray from scratch, since obviously I bought the dip at the grocery store. I figured a commercially-produced dip would be safer in terms of potential allergy issues.)
Anyway, after the veggie tray experience, I have come up with an axiom of my own: Always bring cookies. It even has a fun mnemonic acronym: ABC. With cookies you can just throw a package of Oreos in your cart at the grocery store, and everybody's happy. It's easy to transport a package of cookies versus, say, an awkward and heavy tray of vegetables. And Oreos are cheap. And everybody likes Oreos.
Always bring cookies.
While making this recipe, I learned about blind baking, which is when you bake an unfilled pie crust. Basically, you poke several holes in your crust, cover it with foil or parchment, dump some dry beans on top to weigh down the crust, and bake. That link about blind baking said you could use wax paper, and that wax paper was vastly superior to foil, so on my first shot I tried wax paper. About a minute into the baking, smoke started pouring out of the vents in the oven, and there was a terrible smell. Then came the smoke alarms. The wax paper was melting, and since I didn't want to serve my child's teachers pie with melted wax leached into it, I had to dump the crusts and start over with another batch. So, even though that link says you can put wax paper in your oven, you cannot put wax paper in your oven.
(Not pictured: the part where I was cleaning up and my kid decided to coat himself, the table, the floor, and chairs in flour, because he "wanted to look like a ghost.")
Oh, and regarding the veggie tray, I signed up to bring a veggie tray because of my mom's Weight Watchers axiom: Always bring something to a party that you can eat. (Note that the presence of veggies did not stop me from eating a bunch of other crap that I shouldn't have eaten.) So, I went to the store on Tuesday to purchase the dip and a bunch of vegetables to cut up. I went to Party City and spent $4.00 on a cheap plastic tray so that none of my good trays would get lost or broken. I noted that the grocery store was selling an already-assembled veggie/dip tray for $8.00, which was probably like half of what I spent when all was said and done. And I just thought, Why am I not going with the store-bought tray? But there was something about me that just couldn't do it. I had to assemble my own tray. Why!? When did I become that person?
The thing is, being that person doesn't totally suit me. There are the Martha Stewart-types who actually enjoy making things from scratch. I find that making things from scratch totally stresses me out. And, in the case of the vegetable tray, sometimes the DIY option actually costs more, so there isn't even a financial argument for putting in the extra effort. (I realize I can't totally call that veggie tray from scratch, since obviously I bought the dip at the grocery store. I figured a commercially-produced dip would be safer in terms of potential allergy issues.)
Anyway, after the veggie tray experience, I have come up with an axiom of my own: Always bring cookies. It even has a fun mnemonic acronym: ABC. With cookies you can just throw a package of Oreos in your cart at the grocery store, and everybody's happy. It's easy to transport a package of cookies versus, say, an awkward and heavy tray of vegetables. And Oreos are cheap. And everybody likes Oreos.
Always bring cookies.
2 comments:
Sounds like we had a similar cooking experience yesterday. I bought a chicken to cook for dinner and had to reach inside to remove the gross parts. While doing that and trying to keep the chicken juices contained, I turned my back on my son for a minute, who had opened a drawer, taken out an ice cream scoop, and banged it about 100 times on 3 of my kitchen drawers, denting them and chipping the paint off in about 100 little places. Then when I went to cook the chicken, the oven started smoking like crazy due to the oil/juices dripping in the pan. Fire alarms, etc. went off until I added some water underneath. Then I had the pleasure of cleaning the paint chips off the floor while bracing to tell my husband about his new cabinet refacing project.
A.B.V. Always bring veggies.
They taste better; they're healthier; they teach the kids that healthy food can be party food too; they're pretty and colorful; they have less allergens; people appreciate them; there will always be more than enough sweets and no, not everyone likes Oreos.
Your homemade tray looks beautiful.
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