Chocolate mint mousse.

Homemade vanilla ice cream with Andes mint chips mixed in and a chocolate cookie crust.

All is happy in the world of pies right about now.

This one came from the back of the Andes Mint Baking chips bag, my usual last-minute panic recipe grab. When faced with surprise company or just the fact that I simply forgot about dessert when having someone over for dinner, I usually run to my pantry and start reading the back of recipe bags. If I have said it once I will say it again: these recipes are generally no fail. When you are having people over the last thing you want to do is try out a new recipe.

Even if it’s your brother. He counts too as company.

So I came across this recipe on the back of their bag, my lovely little Andes chips that I picked up in the States, I am almost out of them, good thing I am headed to Salt Lake city in a month.

Anyone wanna foodie up in Salt Lake? Let me know!

I digress as usual.

This was one of the best frozen desserts I have ever made and I think it’s mainly because I used my homemade vanilla ice cream. It just sent it over the edge to awesome. Plus in my books, mint and chocolate is tops for dessert.

Also, as delicious as some of the frozen dessert pies are, there is a lot of fake whipped goods in them. Now don’t get me wrong, I do like those desserts! It’s just sometimes the fake oils products get a little overdone.

I was so  impressed with Andes, you make a real chocolate mousse for the topping – not just mix in chocolate with fake whipped oils.  They took the time to create a recipe that you can easily make without using fake ingredients.

Ingredients Needed:

2 cups of softened vanilla ice cream
2 cups of Andes Creme de Menthe Baking Chips
1 1/2 cups of whipping cream, to be divided
2 egg yolks

 Homemade Chocolate Wafer Crust

1 1/4 cups of chocolate baking crumbs
1/4 cup melted butter

You can pre-buy a crust for this, but  the only thing I didn’t quite understand is how this recipe would fit into those shallow pre-made pies. I used my 9 inch deep dish pie plate and this fits perfectly. So in my version, make your own crust.

Take the crumbs and melted butter and combine. Press into your 9 inch pie plate, creating a bottom and sides. Put into the fridge to firm up while you make the rest of the pie.

Take 1/2 cup of the chips and mix into your softened ice cream then spread onto your pie crust. Place this into the freezer.

Melt the rest of your baking chips in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and then stir in the egg yolks well. Place back onto the stove and heat for another 3-5 minutes, until the mixture started to thicken, stirring it every now and them. It’s really important NOT to let this mixture boil at this point.

Remove from the heat and cool to room temperature.

Whip the last cup of whipping cream until stiff peaks form and then fold into the chocolate mixture. This is why you absolutely cannot have that mixture warm but still need it fairly fluid, you have to incorporate it but if it’s the least bit hot, it won’t work and things start melting and it’s so very, very sad so don’t do it.

Once it’s folded in all beautifully, you have completed your mousse! Spread over the ice cream in the crust and then place it back into the freezer for a solid 4 hours.

When you are going to serve it, let it stand at room temperature for 10 minutes, but this depends on if you use homemade ice cream or not. My homemade ice cream softens MUCH faster than store-bought.

This was in my husband’s list of the top desserts that I have made, it is that darn good.

So Happy PieDay everyone! Batten down your hatches for that dump of snow we are supposed to get tomorrow. The irony of posting an ice cream pie recipe the day before we get a ton of snow is not lost on me.

Listen.

We’re Canucks. We have snow 8.5 months out of the year. Do we really want to limit our ice cream intake to our 3.5 months of summer?

That’s what I thought.

Go. Make this now.

Love,

The Mint Loving Magpie

Oh, I do look forward to Edmonton’s Downtown Dining week. It gives me an excuse – not that I need one- to go out for lunch with Mike endlessly. It’s a requirement, you know, what kind of food blogger would I be if I didn’t check out what’s going on downtown food-wise?

I..ah.. must admit that I have already booked in 2 lunches that week, I’ll be trying Niche and The Hardware Grill. I couldn’t resist going back for the Hardware’s duck leg confit, it changed my world last year, so I was very happy to see that it was a lunch dining option.

I also must admit we most likely won’t stop at two lunches, I just haven’t decided where else we are eating that week. Perhaps a dinner….

Or I just got distracted, went and looked at Zinc’s menu and totally booked in lunch there as well. You had me at perogies and pork tenderloin. Holy smokes I just made myself hungry looking at all those menu’s!

Ok, I am stopping at three.

For now.

Go and have a look at what’s being offered, book a romantic dinner (or three) and enjoy what I think is one of the most fun weeks out there!

Save the Dates!

9^th Annual Downtown Dining Week:  March 2-11, 2012

Media Launch: Friday, February 24, Art Gallery of Alberta, 4:30pm to 6pm

 Ten Days. Three Prices. Dozens of Delectable Meals.

The Downtown Business Association Presents the 9^th Annual Downtown Dining Week

 Edmonton’s most creative chefs are sharpening their knives and ordering  the finest  ingredients for their most inspired menus,  all in preparation for  the Downtown Business Association’s 9th Annual Downtown Dining Week,  March 2-11.

 For 10 days downtown’s best chefs will create delicious, multi-course meals to tempt your taste buds and delight your senses – all for a fixed price of $15, $25 or $50.

 More details to follow within the next few days, but for now, Save the Dates!

For a list of participating restaurants visit edmontondowntown.com

I’d like to welcome back Sam Peter’s as a guest poster, her granola clusters recipe was a hit with everyone and now she’s back with Banana Bread Pancakes! Who knew tomorrow was National Banana Bread Day?? Who’s making me some banana bread? Enjoy her recipe!  ~ Magpie

In just a few short days, National Banana Bread Day will be upon us. That’s right, you read that correctly – National Banana Bread Day is a real national holiday and is on February 23rd. The day stands to honor a favorite baked good of many Americans, one that is almost as synonymous with the U.S. culture as apple pie, and what better way to celebrate it than with a delectable banana bread recipe

However, instead of baking your grandmother’s banana bread recipe, consider spicing things up a bit by whipping up these whole wheat banana bread pancakes. They are a nice treat to have in the morning, as it is nearly like eat cake for breakfast, and your whole family is sure to love them:

Ingredients:

2 Cups of whole wheat pastry flour
2 Teaspoons of baking powder
¼ Teaspoon of salt
¼ Cup of brown sugar
1 Teaspoon of cinnamon
¼ Teaspoon of nutmeg
2/3 Cup of milk
1 Tablespoon of vanilla extract
3 large ripe bananas, mashed
2 Tablespoons of melted butter

Directions

In a large bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients. Once thoroughly mixed, add in milk and vanilla. After these ingredients are combined, the batter will still be fairly dry. Add in bananas and thoroughly mix again. Once these ingredients are combined still in melted butter, and mix until batter is fairly smooth.

Once the batter is mixed, heat a skillet to medium heat. Spoon batter onto heated skillet using a 1/3 measuring cup. Allow pancakes to cook until bubbles appear on top, generally around 2-3 minutes, and then flip, allowing the pancake to cook for another 2-3 minutes. Then serve hot with your favorite syrup. They are also great with fresh bananas and whipped topping.

  This is a Guest Post written by Sam Peters

Oh, delinquent blogger, thy name is Magpie. I simply can’t believe that it has taken me two weeks to post about my little escapade on Breakfast TV on February 7th, usually I would have posted this the very next day.

Oh, it’s just been too busy, flitting around Edmonton, meeting chefs, lovely local celebs and partaking in so many food events to boot. La, so hard to be me.

And as glib as I just made that sound, what is WITH the explosion of food events in Edmonton? I had the pleasure of attending WineFest Edmonton with Kevin and his wife, which was as fun as it sounded. More fun. Too much fun. Yes, let’s just leave my coverage of WineFest as too much fun. Take what you will from that sentence. I would attend WineFest and pay for tickets next year, it was that much fun. However, I’d like to say thanks to the promoters for treating me to a fantastic afternoon of snackage whipped up by Shaw and wine…oh, so much wine. I also learned a few things from Kevin, who is very passionate about his wine and had fun picking up swag with his lovely wife Pam. My kids now have Tequila branded water pouches, I can’t wait to send those to school with them.

Then we have Downtown Dining week coming up and I will be posting about that later today. That kicks off with a wonderful Dining Week Reception for those in the industry, a lovely couple of hours at the Art Gallery with tidbits and cocktails. Hard work for Magpie once again.

Then Sunday, we are off to Blink! which I am incredibly excited for. Now this one wasn’t an industry invite so yes, I chose to add this onto my food event plate, but how could I resist?  The pedway between Scotia Place and Commerce Place in downtown Edmonton is going to be transformed into a 60 seat restaurant called Blink. A six course menu was created by Chefs Paul Shufelt and Tony Le of Lux Steakhouse, inspired by local ingredients.

There was just no resisting Blink. I bought the tickets without even consulting Mike if we had plans. It sold out so fast that if you hesitated, you lost out.

To make my long story short, the food events have been keeping me hopping, nevermind planning the Culinary Arts Cook Off, which is going so fantastic I can hardly sleep from excitement most days. I can’t wait until March 17th!

Part of promoting the Culinary Arts Cook Off was participating in a segment on Breakfast TV here in Edmonton. My partner in culinary cook off crime, Chef Shane Chartrand, is a pro at Breakfast TV, having been on it many, many times.

But me? Not so much. This would be my Facebook checklist from the night before.

Checklist for tomorrow morning on BT.
1. Remember to wear all pieces of clothing.
2. Remember name.
3. Don’t screw up.
4. Try not to embarrass self. (As. If. )
5. Try not to embarass Chef Shane Chartrand (I repeat: As. if.)
6. Try not to screw up school principals name, name of school or again, forget own name. 
7. Write name on cheatsheet. Better yet, wear discreet nametag and wear it upside down so I can read it.
8. Again, clothing is NOT optional, Karlynn.
9. Recite what I need to say over & over till family flips out.
10. Give up on checklist and drink wine.

And #10 was definitely adhered to, in a small amount because the very next morning I was up at 4:30 am. Four. Thirty. AM. Oh, I don’t know how TV peeps do it. Nothing is awake at that time of day, especially not my brain.

So for our segment around 7:30, I arrived at the studio around 6:30 that morning and was directed to the green room, pictured at the beginning of the post.

And proceeded to wait. And wait. And chew my nails from nervousness. And wait some more.

I did have a lot of lovely company there in the green room. Chef Omar from Zinc and Chef Lindsay Porter from 4th and Vine , both who are amazing, awesome, fantastic, super duper people because they/their restaurants are participating in my cook off.

Yes, you can totally buy my affection, I’m easy like that. Participate in my event? I’ll love you forever.

I also have an affinity for talented people who cook. Feed me amazing food and I’ll love you forever as well.

They also happen to be really nice people in real life too, so that helps.

So we did the Breakfast TV segment. Click that link to see us in action.

After that was done, I could finally relax and take some pictures. The weirdest part is that you know the show is still going on, but it’s being filmed elsewhere like the news desk where Stacey Brotzel -who is the news anchor for Breakfast TV – does her stuff. She popped in to meet me since we chat on the Twitter, yet hadn’t met in “real life” yet. She also came in to calm my nerves, which was appreciated because I swear to the Lord above I was vibrating inside. So thanks Stacey, especially for telling us how great we looked because that’s exactly what a woman needs to hear before she goes on live TV. Not that she’ll do great or that she’ll remember everything, she just wants to hear that she looks great.  No matter how many times you thought about your words, how you wrote things out, how smart you are and feel, there will be a dang inner voice that’s screaming “oh my god. what am I going to look like on tv?“. Inescapable and inevitable. It’s human nature..

So they film here, their famous couch area.

Then they can possibly zip over to something on this little stage.

Then they most definitely head over to the BT kitchen area, where we shot the segment on the Culinary Arts Cook Off. It’s almost surreal that one moment, you have cameras literally staring you down, you’re chatting with the host,  lights are blazing and there’s utter silence from everyone in the background, then BAM.

Done.

And then everyone proceeded to attack the Mac N Cheese that Shane whipped up. So you know that somewhere else, filming is going on, because Breakfast TV doesn’t just come to a screeching halt once you are done, but in this part of the studio you are done. Everyone is loud, chatty and eating.

The orchestration and timing behind everything amazed me, as you can probably tell.

And Chef Shane Chartrand, cleaning up. Someone else who keeps me sane and stops me from panicking, Lord, if he only knew what he was getting into when agreeing to partner up on this Culinary Cook Off, he might have changed his mind.

He’s the calming Ying to my spazzing Yang. He doesn’t freak over anything while I freak out over everything. Poor guy. Everyone should be sending him condolences from having to work with me.

If you want to express your condolences in person, he’s now the head chef at Murieta’s on Whtye. I am excited to see what changes are coming, if there’s one thing Shane is amazing at, it’s charging forward with bold change and innovation.

Another thank you goes out to Ryan Jespersen, the host of Breakfast Television. He’s just as awesome in real life as he is on TV, funny, charming and he manages to put you at ease even though your inner voice is screaming at a frequency only dogs can hear.

Thanks again to the great crew at Breakfast TV, what a great experience this was!

More posts coming today, I’m in a posting kinda mood!

Love,

I Survived TV Now I Can Survive Anything Magpie

I would like to point out that I am  writing this after an afternoon at WineFest Edmonton so this is short, sweet and possibly full of spelling mistakes.

In retrospect, leaving my pie post for the evening after I partake  in alcoholic beverages for three hours wasn’t the wisest choice ever, but let’s face it, you aren’t here because I’m normal in any way, shape or form. So I am going to get this recipe out and proceed to go to sleep. Three hours of drinking wine was really, really hard work, let me tell you. I deserve lots of sympathy and admiration for all my effort and determination.

But seriously, what fun Wine Fest is! The husband and I decided that it most definitely was an event that we would purchase tickets to, the wines available to taste were amazing and Shaw put on some yummy appetizers and desserts to go alongside your wine consumption.

But now. let’s get back to pie.

Blueberry pie has to be one of my favorite pies ever. I decided to jazz the pie up a bit and go hard on the lemon flavor, something I have done before but wasn’t smart enough to actually write down what I did. I made this lemony supreme blueberry pie last summer but didn’t write down a single thing. This time, since I decided to punish myself with a weekly PieDay, I wrote it down.

I add a lot of lemon and it rocks my socks.

Ingredients Needed:

3/4 cup white sugar
4 tablespoons cornstarch
1/3 teaspoon salt
2-3 tbsp lemon zest
1 tbsp lemon juice
4 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
1 recipe pastry for a 9.5 – 10 inch inch double crust pie
2 tablespoons butter

1- 2 tbsp coarse white sugar

 Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

Prepare your crust and place the bottom into the pie dish. Combine 1/2 cup of the white sugar, cornstarch, salt and cinnamon then toss with the blueberries. I leave out some sugar and sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup on the bottom of the pie crust, supposedly it keeps the crust from getting too soggy and it seems to work. The big blueberries from the store are very large and full of water, so I try to do as many tricks as possible when using them to keep the pie from getting soggy.

Another trick is to make a lattice top on the pie. This helps the moisture evaporate out more so than a normal full crust will.

I also wanted to make my lattice top more lemony, so what I did was take the lemon zest and press it into the crust before I started cutting the lattice strips out. Roll out your top crust, sprinkle 1-2 tbsp of lemon zest on it, followed by coarse sugar if you like. Press gently to “set” them into the pasty and cut your strips.

If you look closely below, you will see the lemon in the top crust. You know me, I add lemon to everything I possibly can.

Place your blueberry mixture into the prepared pie plate, sprinkle the lemon juice on top, dab the butter on top and sprinkle the lemon zest all over. Top with your lattice – or full- pie crust. I do really recommend that you use coarse white sugar on top to offset the tart lemon we have added to the pie. It gives such a great flavor but those store-bought blueberries aren’t exactly the sweetest, so we need to counter that tartness from the lemon.

Bake at 425 for 40-50 minutes, most likely covering the pie edges like I do so they don’t get too browned, until the top and bottom are browned beautifully.

This pie has to set, so it must sit for a few hours before serving, otherwise blueberries will be running amok.

Happy PieDay everyone, have a fantastic weekend and for those who are heading to Wine Fest, oh boy. Enjoy!

Love.

If I Ever See Wine Again It’ll Be Too Soon Magpie

Yes, I just said simple in the same sentence as “elk” and “morel”. It’s true. Just because you had this instant vision of a majestic elk bugling in the crisp fall morning, it’s warm breath fogging the air when I said the word “elk” doesn’t make this stew complex.

Yes, elk are in the wild and you can hunt them. They’re also grown on farms and you can buy the meat at farmers markets. Yup. Grown just like carrots.True story.

Now, you say morel and I say (insert random inappropriate cuss word here). Those delicious mushrooms evade me every spring when I find time to look for them. They always have, they always will. They are my little wrinkly nemesis, I love their taste, their texture, how there is no real poisonous alternative when picking them (really, the false morel is not even CLOSE to looking like a real one) and in essence : I love to hate them.

What I do love in that you can buy them dried in so many places but I like to pick mine up at Mo-Na Foods here in Edmonton. That little place is a mushroom lovers delight. Oh, what fun it is to stop in there and see what beauties are in season and what they have in stock!

And as you can see, I don’t get out much.

This recipe is also gluten-free very easily, just leave out any flour you might use to coat the elk cubes before browning and Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce is cholesterol free, fat-free, preservative free and gluten-free. I’ll show you how to thicken it without flour later on.

Ingredients Needed:

3 carrots
4 cloves garlic
3 bay leaves
2 tbsp Worcestershire
8 cups of hot water ( use 1 1/2 for soaking the morels)
1.5 lbs cubed elk meat inside round steaks
1 leek diced
1 onion diced
1-2 russet potatoes diced very small
3 russet potatoes cubed (1 more if gluten-free)
salt
1 tsp paprika

The elk I picked up is from Shooting Star Ranch and is very mild tasting, I would highly recommend their elk- or any ranched elk- for someone who is trying elk for the first time or has vivid recollections of very gamey meat from their childhood. You will notice that it smells stronger and you most definitely want to trim all the fat off when cooking it. The fat will add taste you do not want same with connective tissue, etc. Clean ‘er up.

I was very impressed that two gorgeous steaks were only $12 from these guys at the city market downtown, until my smarty pants friend Kevin remarked that his was free. Plus the cost of a tag. Indeed, that spurred me to think about doing a comparison flavor-wise between ranched elk and wild. I know the ranched is milder already but would love to take on one VS the other at the same time.

Ranched VS Wild Smackdown.

So cube up your elk meat nicely, look at how clean it is. If you aren’t going gluten-free, you can toss them and coat them with flour then fry them up. If you are gluten-free, skip the flour and just fry them up until the meat is browned on all sides.

Soak your morels in hot water for about 30 minutes, I used about a cup and a half. See all that beautiful brown liquid there? DO NOT THROW IT OUT. You are going to put it into the pot.

I left my mushrooms whole so that not only could my daughter could pick them out but it just makes it that much more decadent. They are expensive and when I eat them I like to really enjoy them, a whole bite of them at a time. They were small ones though, a perfect spoon size.

This was done in the crock pot and came out beautifully.

You may be wondering why the potatoes are cubed in different sizes. The smaller cubed russets are going to dissolve much faster than the large, and by using russets they are going to give us a creamier soup base, which is really important if you are skipping the flour. I skipped flour in the entire recipe and you can see how beautiful it looks.

Sautee the onions, leeks and carrots quickly and then toss into the crock pot. Add in the rest of the ingredients and cook for 4-5 hours on high in your crock pot, again, this depends on how hot your crock pot gets. The elk meat needs to be almost falling apart tender and the potatoes/veggies very soft.

Taste your stew a few hours in and season accordingly. I like a lot of Worcestershire in mine so I added more in later on.

When the stew is ready to rock, take out a couple of cups of stew, heavy on the potatoes. This is why if you are going gluten-free you add in an extra potato.

Puree those bad boys up. Looks like thickener, doesn’t it?

And it is. The simplest way to go gluten-free in a stew is to use potatoes as the thickener. I cannot stress enough though how you must use the right kind of potato. Yukon Gold are fabulous as well as any russet. If you use the wrong kind, you will get glue.

Stir your pureed mixture back into the stew to thicken it up , then serve and enjoy!

My kids ate this like starving feral dogs. My son, who doesn’t like any beef, scarfed it down for dinner – two helpings-  then proceeded to take it to school the next day for lunch.

Yes, my poor kids take elk and morel stew to school for lunch. I sometimes think I am spoiling them for real life later on. They better start learning the cooking ropes even more so they can cook for themselves, because this Mama ain’t coming over to their apartments to cook them meals.

I’m creating monsters with appetites for fine food.

No, wait, they were monsters long before I started blogging about food. Never mind that theory.

I also liked how it took stew to a “nice” enough level for company. This is on my list of easy dishes that impress, between the elk and the morels it becomes a stew that’s perfect for a dinner party.

I also like how it only took me approximately 5 weeks to finally get to this post. Five. Weeks. Later.

I uh, got nothing but excuses for you.

I do have so many delicious recipes stashed away, photos to be edited, posts to be written up and that’s not even including my PieDay ones. I’ve yet to blog about my reading room – and that was second in my poll of posts that people wanted me to do up- and  um…Christmas.

Oh Lord.

I came across pictures from Christmas that I edited up all purty for everyone to see.

And didn’t post them.

So, who’s up for Christmas in February? That might be a nice No-Talkin’ Tuesday post.

I also didn’t write up my usual Thanks Be year in review post. I started it and didn’t finish it.

I don’t understand how I drive a car, remember my name or feed my children most days.

Love,

Really You’re Getting Christmas In February Next Week Magpie

Today’s pie post is brought to you by the letter F, the color red and a computer meltdown.

Just think on that sentence for a while. You’ll get it.

While typing out the latest Culinary Cook Off post, announcing the awesome fact that we are raffling off the 4th judges position, my computer, without warning, literally died on the table. No amount of thumping, cursing, button pushing or electric paddles could bring it back to life.

My husband assures me that by tomorrow night we’ll have all the data off of it. My pictures (thousands), my documents for the Cook Off (important) and my emails. (makes me weep just thinking about them). But for now, I am typing away on his Mac, very grudgingly, and only because I have to get my PieDay post out.

The lucky parents at last week’s Culinary Cook Off meeting got to taste not one, but two different pies at the meeting. What better place to get rid of my pies, on completely willing tasters.

The one that I enjoyed the best was my apple pie, because nothing beats apple pie. Actually, let me rephrase that, nothing beats a great apple pie.

In my books, great apple pie is bursting with cinnamon, the apples are cooked properly, a hint of vanilla needs to be found in there somewhere -which most recipes actually don’t include, but we always match it with vanilla ice cream, so why not in the pie too?- and sweet. Sweet as pie.

So this one is aptly named Sweet Apple Pie and if you’re a smart cookie, you’ll realize that one day soon, a more tart apple pie will be on its way.

I tried out McIntosh apples this last pie and was incredibly pleased with the results. Because they are a naturally sweet apple and not the usual pie fare, you are able to cut the white sugar by quite a bit compared to a lot of recipes and use brown sugar. My apples pies have to have brown sugar in them, it adds that caramel quality that I love so much.

Again, this is a large pie plate recipe. I have 9.5 inch pie plates that I use.

Filling:

9-10  McIntosh apples
1/2  cup  white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar rubbed with 1/4 tsp vanilla
2 1/2  tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tbsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp lemon juice
1/8 tsp salt
3 tbsp butter, softened

One 9.5 -10 inch pie crust recipe, top and bottom

Prepare your pie crust then refrigerate until needed.

Peel, core and slice your apples to about 1/4 -1/3 of an inch thickness, sprinkle the lemon juice over them and set aside in a large bowl.

For the brown sugar that I mentioned needed vanilla rubbed in it, you take the 1/4 cup, pour the vanilla onto the middle of the sugar then rub the sugar and vanilla between your palms until the vanilla is mixed through. This is the only way you are going to get that vanilla through the recipe, there is no real liquid to combine it with. It worked perfectly to get the flavor throughout the pie Once that is done, combine the sugars, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a smaller bowl.

Toss the apples with your sugar mix until all the apples are coated nicely.

Take out your pie crust and pour the apple filling into the pan, there should be enough apples that there is a hill in the middle of the pie, thus why we need 9-10 apples for a larger pie pan. Dot the butter all over the top of the pie.

Place your pie crust on top, I did a lattice top which is my favorite way when working with a lot of fruit that needs baking through and through. It also helps to dry out fillings, so beware of this fact. It’s great when working with big, grocery store blueberries that seem to be mostly water, but can dry out a pie filling that you really didn’t want to.

Find your magic pie shelf in your oven, I’ve lectured about this before. It will be in the bottom third of the oven and all ovens are different, so this is something you have to figure out. Cover the pie with tinfoil lightly – as in just set it on top gently-  and bake in that magic bottom third at 425 degrees for 10 minutes. This is going to heat up the filling and get things going, but as we all know, the crust is going to start baking far too fast, this why we need to cover it up with tinfoil. Reduce the oven heat to 350°F , remove the tinfoil (but I always cover the edges of the pie) and then bake for another 55-60 minutes until bottom is deep golden brown and the apple filling is bubbling and thickened. Let cool on a rack and resist snacking!

My honey bunny and I are heading out to Zinc restaurant at the Alberta Art Gallery on Saturday for our “first date” anniversary and I can’t wait.I haven’t had the pleasure yet, it’s on my list of “to try’s” and I love knocking one place off that list.

We celebrate February 11th instead of Valentines Day, which always works out so much better for us. I’m a Valentine’s Day Grinch, I guess, if you’re not giving me flowers the rest of the year, why bother on one commercial day that forces you to? I deserve a good 300 days of being spoiled because I’m awesome. The rest of those days, well, I’ll give you 65 days a year when I don’t deserve more than a kick in the…

Ahem. You can just guess.

That said, I look forward to February 11th like most people look forward to their anniversary. Mainly because we usually forget our actual wedding anniversary and if you think I’m joking, I’m completely serious. We’ve started the month of August only to realize that somehow our anniversary  on July 29th passed without fanfare or  recollection at all. I can truly say we never forget February 11th, thanks to good ol’ commercial Valentine’s Day reminding us.

Enjoy the recipe, enjoy your weekend and send my poor broken computer some good vibes.

Love,

13 First Dates Later & I Still Think He’s Awfully Cute Magpie

]]> http://www.thekitchenmagpie.com/homemade-sweet-apple-pie/feed 1 http://www.thekitchenmagpie.com/homemade-sweet-apple-pie http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/kitchenmagpie/~3/J4ykW48g5Os/happy-pie-day-featuring-tims-lime-pie http://www.thekitchenmagpie.com/happy-pie-day-featuring-tims-lime-pie#comments Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:00:21 +0000 Karlynn http://www.thekitchenmagpie.com/?p=17972

Happy PieDay to all of those who have been nagging strongly encouraging me not to give up on my PieDay’s just because I took on planning the Culinary Arts Cook Off and a double thank you to those who remained silent and didn’t send emails.

Just kidding. I am ignoring my inbox completely lately. It’s time for another music playlist to get my inspired to clean my house, do laundry and all these other menial things that just don’t take precedence. I’m wondering what era of music really screams ” I don’t care and I don’t want to do this”.  Would that be 90′s grunge? 80′s rebel yelling? I’m going to have to think on that. Think with me, suggestions are always appreciated.

Speaking of not taking precedence, thank you to everyone for their patience with me. I’m not super stellar at returning emails lately, I’d like to blame the fact that I am fielding upwards of 40 a day sometimes but I do need to watch out for my friends names in those “from” areas. Just email me twice if you haven’t heard back from me, making sure to call me a name or two so you feel better.

Some friends, as only the best of friends can do, just simply like to mess with my scatterbrained head when returning emails. The pie recipe this week came from friends of ours that attended the Great Pie Party and I am finally getting around to posting it.

When I asked – for the second time mind you because I lost her first response- this is what I got:

9″ graham cracker crust (we used purchased ones)
250g cream cheese
1 can (300 ml) sweetened condensed milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 to 1/3 cup key lime juice
2 tbsp anchovies

Filling:
Beat cream cheese until soft.  Then add remaining ingredients.  Pour into shell & refrigerate.  Wonder why fridge has a d in it but refrigerate does not.  Top with whipped cream, sprinkled with the anchovies.

Recipe courtesy of Marcel Van Woensel (whoever that is).

I dare you to follow the recipe exactly. Actually I double dog dare you and let me know how it tastes! I think however, that one can decipher the true recipe from within those lines of prose? And it’s very tasty, whippy and limey.

But that’s what good friends are for. Forgiving you when your can’t remember your own name,  tracking you down when you haven’t emailed them or booked a date in a while and trying to get you to post recipes on your website that include putting anchovies on top of pies. I’m pretty happy that I actually noticed it and had a little sigh of relief that my mind isn’t that far gone. Yet. It was a good Jedi mind test.

Today I am off to see the delightful Amanda Rose at D’Lish about the cook off followed by a two hour meeting at the school regarding that same fabulous event. As much as my life is completely, utterly in every single way engulfed by this event, I am also having an amazing time.

I am finally meeting people that I have been meaning to get together with, but never seemed to be able to make the time. Like Teresa Spinelli of the Italian Center, she and I have been trying to get our schedules to collide in one place for months upon months.  Now because of this event, we managed to get together for a coffee and one of their amazing chocolate breakfast croissants. Try one, I promise it’ll change your life. One word : Nutella.  My children get the chocolate croissants every time we go for breakfast at the Italian Center and do you think they ever shared this with me? That the center has Nutella in it? Not a peep out of them that there was a delightful hazelnut taste to it. Ever. Smart, evil little devils, those children of mine.

This list of people I have been meaning to meet also extends to all the chef’s I am seeing and talking to, the restaurant owners,  those people that I “see” in my social media life yet never truly met.

But that means with meeting all these new people, there’s little time for the regular people in my life. So thank you, my regulars, for putting up with me, for supporting and understanding, the mental slaps once in a while,  for the encouragement and kind words. You really, really can tell who your truest friends are when it comes to times like these, so don’t think I haven’t noticed all of you standing there behind me, beside me, supporting me all the way. You’ll know who you are by the simple fact that my words made your heart feel lighter than it was 5 minutes ago.

And just so you know, I love you more than pie.

The Getting Too Sappy So This Post is So Over Now Magpie

Wine is poured. Food is served. Strangers no more, the laughter of a small, intimate gathering echoes through out the cavernous building. Friends are made. Stories are shared. The producers of the food featured on the menu are seated at the exact same table as the guests,  their eyes drinking in the sight of these strangers enjoying the literal fruits of their labor. One hopes their hearts are close to bursting from well-earned pride in their work. The chef, done her creating,  joins the table for a well deserved break and mingles with her guests, creating an intimacy rarely found in a dining experience.

Tired yet sated at the end of a satisfying night, the guests start finding their way out, shaking hands, exchanging goodbyes and heading out to all corners of the city and beyond.

A meal, some wine and company, yes. But all who are leaving exit with this tingling, innate knowledge that they have been fortunate enough to have  just experienced something quite out of the ordinary.

End Scene**

It’s amazing what trouble one can get up while they are purposely avoiding getting any productive work done. With the new Culinary Arts Cook Off, my workload has tripled in volume. And it’s ok. I have wine and I have chocolate, what more does a girl need?

But Thursday night I needed some major motivation, I took one look at my Inbox, thought of PieDay and how I hadn’t written up the post yet and crumpled into a defeated, sad Magpie. And when I’m overwhelmed and need motivating, music is what does it. I always go for some nice retro rock. Ah, you would think I was a true child of the 70′s but much to my glee I am still a young ‘un and was born in 1976, so missed the rock of that era. Yes. I’m 35. I’ll save you the counting backwards.

I did however, manage to be 3 or 4 years old and have a massive crush on Glen Campbell, Mr Rhinestone Cowboy himself. I also was in love with John Schnider- aka Bo Duke- from the Dukes of Hazzard and the hot doctor from Trapper John MD. Oh, and does anyone remember the show Emergency! because I crushed on someone on that show too. Some paramedic dude. There are tons of embarrassing family stories about how I used to kiss these guys on the TV when I was little.

Oh! But I sure did get to meet one of the paramedics from Emergency when I was little and give him a smooch on the cheek.

Oh come on, look at this seventies honey! You’d kiss him too.

(photo from emergencyfans.com)

Apparently if you look at my track record, I crush on good-looking men who are daredevils or adventuresome lifesavers. I really want to know what this says about me. Truly, I admit, I still wink at firefighters when I catch them in Save On.

What? You don’t?

Awkward. Never mind then.

As per usual I have strayed far off track, the point of my post is lost almost completely after reminiscing about my childhood crushes. The point of this post is that thanks to a TweetAThon with a couple of awesome ladies, I have a fantastic list of music to get inspired by when I need to kick myself.

I would also like to share with you some of the awesome quotes from that TweetAThon:

And that’s what a bunch of women get up to on a Thursday night on the Twitter, now you’re totally “in the know”. I gave away our secret.

That was the most fun I have had in a while, that’s only about 1/50th of the tweets that went on that night. Song titles and band names were flying around, some awesome 70′s music was played and I built a truly awesome list consisting of my 20 favorites songs. My favorites from that night, at least. I know there are so many more out there but these ones are up there in my faves.

Without further adieu, ze list!

1.Black Betty – Ram Jam
2. Radar Love – Golden Earring
3. Carry On Wayward Son – Kansas
4. Fortunate Son – CCR
5. Have You Ever Seen the Rain – CCR
6. American Pie- Don Mclean
7. Bang a Gong – T-Rex
8. Foreplay/Long Time- Boston
9. Paradise by the Dashboard Light – Meatloaf
10. Listen To the Music- Doobie Brothers
11. A Horse With No Name- America
12. Rhinestone Cowboy- Glen Campbell
13. Long Train Running- The Doobie Brothers
14. Highway to Hell – AC/DC
15. Don’t Fear the Reaper- Blue Oyster Cult
16. Can’t Get Enough – Bad Company
17. Rocky Mountain Way- Joe Walsh
18. Go Your Own Way- Fleetwood Mac
19.. Blinded by the Light – Manfred Man
20. Piano man – Billy Joel

I think music says a lot about a person and I don’t quite know what my list says about me, that’s open to interpretation.

I can say that I think Piano Man is one of the most beautiful songs ever written and performed, that American Pie is genius and I can sing every word and that the world is a better place for having Fleetwood Mac in it.

So there you have it, almost 100 minutes for you to go and download and enjoy. Think of me singing incredibly off-key when you play it -there’s a reason I send my kids to an Arts Core School ’cause this Mama can’t sing . And yes, the next one is going to be Hair Bands of the 80′s. We can hardly wait!

Happy Saturday everyone!

Can’t Stop Singing Blinded By the Light Magpie

This would be my first guest post for PieDay, my friend Pam was kind enough to ante up a coconut cream pie that she made this week. I met Pam while taking the mushroom course at NAIT this fall, when I tweeted asking anyone if they wanted to come with me, she jumped on it like white on rice! We proceeded to have a blast trudging through the bush looking for mushrooms then cooking up a storm in the NAIT kitchens with our lovely finds.

This was a very, very good week for my to have a guest post for my Friday PieDay.

This was adapted from an Anna Olsen recipe, according to Pam and she also added that she thinks a coconut alcohol in this pie would be an amazing addition. I concur. A little Malibu helps everything out.

Malibu would have helped me this week. It was all so very good until my daughter decided to pick up the stomach flu and only allowed this mom about 3 hours sleep in total on Tuesday night. Three horrible, broken hours of sleep. Of course, because children just know these things intuitively and decide to get sick right when you need the most energy, it was the night before Chef Shane Chartrand and I trekked around  downtown for hours and talked to places about the Culinary Arts Cook Off. I was impressed that I made it all day on those three horrible hours.  That I spoke English in semi-complete sentences – I hope. Perhaps no one was mean enough to tell me I wasn’t making any dang sense.

There’s most likely a rumour going around now that Magpie likes a little “tipple” of something in her morning coffee. I swear to all that’s holy, any slurring was sheer lack of sleep.

Sigh.

On the bright side, even though I didn’t make any sense, people are eager, excited and signed on to participate in the Culinary Arts Cook Off!  What an event this is going to be.

I expect you will all attend.

Ahem. That means YOU reading this. The only exception I will make is for my American readers.

Enough digressing,time for pie!

CRUST

• 300 grams crushed up gingersnaps
• 1/3 to ½ cup melted butter

Combine in a bowl using enough butter to make it stick together.  Then press into a 9” pie plate or spring form pan. Place in fridge to cool.

 

COCONUT FILLING

• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/4 cups coconut milk,   about a can and a half. Use left over for curry next day….
• 2 whole large eggs
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
•  1 cup unsweetened coconut, lightly toasted (optional toasting, I did not toast it, and I used long thread sweetened coconut because that is what was in the house. )

For the filling, stir the sugar, cornstarch and salt together in a heavy-bottomed saucepot. Whisk in the coconut milk, whole eggs and egg yolks, making sure there are no lumps.

Heat up the custard on low heat, whisking constantly for 5 minutes. Increase the heat to medium and continue whisking until the custard thickens and becomes glossy, which takes about 5 more minutes. Remove from heat and strain through a sieve.

Stir in vanilla, butter and coconut and stir until the butter has melted. Pour immediately into the chilled pie shell, let it cool on the counter for 15 minutes, then chill completely before topping with cream, at least 4 hours.

Whipped Cream Topping

• 1 ½ cups whipping cream chilled
• ¼ cup sugar
•  1 cup toasted coconut, I used long thread sweetened cause that is what I had.

For the lovely and must-have cream topping, whip  the cream to a medium peak, and whisk in the sugar . Top the coconut custard with whipped cream, and sprinkle remaining toasted coconut on top as garnish.

Keep pie in fridge if there’s any left over…lol!

So thank you Pam, so very much, for this lovely recipe and pictures! It saved my bacon. If anyone else wants to share a recipe, go on ahead!

I hope everyone is having a lovely Friday. I am so looking forward to cleaning my house and catching up on laundry from having sick kids. Oh boy!

Love,

Really, I Don’t Have a Tipple in the Morning Magpie

Pizza dough is the winner.

In case you are a little confused about that first sentence, I shall make everything crystal clear. I asked everyone on FB and The Twitter what they wanted me to post about, elk stew, pizza dough or my reading room. Pizza dough was the definite winner of the day, with my reading room pictures coming in a close second.

I was introduced to this very simple, fast and super tasty pizza dough recipe back in October when I was hosting an open house for Halloween. I needed a good pizza dough recipe STAT and was sent this one.

I have now been using it for the past few months and it gets better every time. Soft, fluffy and tasty and look at how I stuffed that crust with cheese! It’s such an indulgent pizza crust, I still like my whole wheat pizza dough recipe, but something is so wonderfully decadent about a good, white bready pizza crust smothered in cheesy toppings.

 Ingredients Needed:

First you need to proof your yeast, something I never skip doing. Nothing is worse than inactive yeast. So combine the water, yeast and sugar in your mixer bowl and leave to the side for 5 minutes or until you can see the yeast is foamy and active.  Add in the oil. Get out your dough hook and attach to your mixer.

When working with my mixer, I always put the liquid ingredients into the actual mixing bowl that I am going to use and pour the dry into the wet. My mixer leaves less dry material on the bottom and sides this way.

Whisk together the flour and salt in a large bowl, turn your mixer onto low and start adding the flour, slowly, until the dough forms a ball around the dough hook.  Keeping the mixer on low, let it knead the dough for 10 minutes until it’s elastic and smooth. Add in a wee bit of flour if it’s too sticky, the dough should just barely stick to your hands when it’s ready.

Oil the bowl that you are going to let the dough rise in slightly so the dough won’t stick. Place the dough into the oiled bowl, turn it so that all surfaces are oiled and cover it up with tea towels or plastic wrap. I prefer a damp tea towel still and yet to any other method.

Place in a warm, draft free area and let it rise for about 30 minutes or until it’s doubled in size.

This makes about 5 personal pizzas, depending on if you make stuffed crusts or not.

To make a stuffed crust, roll a larger circle than you actually need. Take cheese – and low fat cheese actually gives you a nice, stringy filling which is what you want- and place slightly inside the circle then fold over the dough and seal shut. Like the picture below, which is from my whole wheat recipe. Continue until the crust is stuffed!

I always place my pizzas on oiled, cornmeal dusted cookie sheets to rise and cook. Let your pizza crusts rise again for another 10-15 minutes before you put any sauce or ingredients on top, this will prevent soggy bottoms. Pre-heat your oven to 450 while it’s rising.   Once it’s risen a bit, start creating!

Cook your pizza for 10-15 minutes, you want to cook it hot and fast to prevent soggy crust. This is also why you let the crust pre-rise again, this allows for this fast, extremely hot baking.

It will be done when the crust is beautifully browned with lovely melted cheese.

Try it out this weekend and let me know what you think!

Things have been incredibly busy planning the Culinary Arts Cook Off and my life is going to be consumed by this until March 18th. It’s so fun, so exciting yet very time and life consuming. I still will be posting here as regularly as I can, but please forgive me if I cannot return your emails, recipe requests, respond to comments or the like. Just nag me a few times and I will be sure to get back to you!

And of course, there will be pies all Fridays! There’s another one coming this week, perhaps not the one I intended but I think it’s going to be my first guest post for PieDay!

Now, get out there and start enjoying this amazing weather we are getting here in Edmonton. In January!

Love,

The Kitchen Magpie <—– can’t even come up with a witty ditty to put here