Category Archives: Challenge Recipes

[38] Butter and Tomato Sauce

Cover of The Complete Book of Italian Cooking, edited by Anne Hildyard

Confession time: I picked this recipe after the tomatoes were already peeled and seeded.

I had been trying to find a recipe for a tomato sauce that used fresh tomatoes, preferably one that could easily be frozen or canned. Mostly, though, I’d been trying via a new website I’m a member of called “Eat Your Books”:http://www.eatyourbooks.com/ and not having any real luck.

Eat Your Books is pretty awesome in a lot of ways, but most of my cookbooks are not yet indexed on the site. So when I do a search, I end up with a lot of suggestions for recipes out of the two Bittman books I have. Of course, I love my two Bittman books, but I already look to them fairly often if I don’t know what to do.… Continue reading →

[37] Peaches & Crème Brûlée French Toast

Cover of Virginia Bed and Breakfast Cookbook by Melissa Craven

Did I mention I love peaches at any point on this blog? I’m sure I haven’t.

Oh, man, peaches. Peaches, peaches, peaches.

Unfortunately, the farmers at the farmers’ market tell me that peach season has basically ended. I might see another week of them, but I probably will not unless I go to a market tomorrow or Tuesday (basically, markets I don’t normally go to). So, I have some peaches I’ve frozen and a few fresh ones left with which to make this recipe again.

Which is good, because this recipe is a winner. Probably. It actually hasn’t quite worked out in my kitchen yet, but it’s getting there. We’ve made it twice, and both times it was quite tasty, but the texture left something to be desired.… Continue reading →

Cherry Pie (For Michelle)

This is the final pie we made for the rehearsal dinner. Dad specifically wanted cherry pie, so we made cherry pie. Frankly, as the father of the bride, he’d done a lot of work and had a lot of stress (and helped mom bake a LOT of cookies), so there wasn’t a chance we’d say no to any pie he wanted at this point. If he’d asked for the Zucchini-Apple Pie in the Pie Town Cookbook, he’d have gotten it.

Luckily, he asked for cherry pie. Lots of people (myself included) love cherry pie. And, assuming you do not decide it’s imperative to pit the cherries yourself, it’s also dead easy.

h2. Ingredients

2 pie crusts for a 9″ pie
2 cans cherry pie filling
1 egg white, beaten (Man, this is TOTALLY optional)

h2.… Continue reading →

[36] Peach Crumb Pie (pg 170)

I love peaches.

I love them straight, I love them in jam, I love them in pies, I love them in crumble, I love them in cobbler, I love them in main course meals.

I don’t think I could love peaches more if I had the Platonic Ideal of “peach” in my hand right now. But I’d try.

Also, my Grandmother L. loves peaches (in fact, we had a peach canning session days before this pie occurred). My mother’s favorite pie is peach pie.

Hence, making a peach pie was a no-brainer. (Actually, I was going to make two peach pies, but the peaches I had didn’t ripen fast enough, and then we ran out of pie crust dough, and we said, “Four pies is enough!”)… Continue reading →

[35] Blueberry Pie (pg 132)

The awesome thing about being the pie boss? You get to pick the pies for the day!

Blueberry is probably my second favorite kind of pie, so it definitely made the list of pies to make for the rehearsal dinner. I also chose it because of the simplicity of the recipe (yes, that’ll be a running theme), and the fact that I suspect many people like blueberry pie.

You guys have to understand. I was making pie for a bunch of people, some of whom I barely knew. Then there was the groom’s family!

Okay, I’m just joshing. I know most of my own family fairly well, but not their pie preferences, oddly enough. Of the groom’s family, I mostly knew him. I’d met his mother and brother once each, and we did not discuss pie amongst the three of us (a tragic failing of our conversation, I can see now).… Continue reading →