Open Faced Pie In Your Face

So, half way through studying for my fluid mechanics final, I realized I needed to write a blog post. And the only thing in my fridge is a jar of pickles, a bag of dried out baby carrots, and half a bottle of wine.

I did however have three very ripe pears...

Pear Tart

(yup, that's all the intro you get; it's finals time)

What you need:

• 1/3 c butter
• 1/3 c sugar
• 2/3 c flour
• 3 pears
• 1 tbsp wine

Okay, I thought I was being extremely clever with all of the threes until I realized I'd managed to lose my 1/3 cup measure. How the hell does someone lose a measuring cup?? And no, it's not buried somewhere in a stack of dirty dishes. I actually washed them all yesterday. :P

What you gotta do:

Preheat the oven to 400.

Make sure your butter is very soft. Cream it with the sugar.

If you wanted to do some fancy tricks with this, try a bit of lemon or lime zest in here. You could also replace up to half the butter with cream cheese if you have any. I didn't.

I really hate measuring dry stuff in my liquid measure. Liquid measuring cups are made for liquids. No, I'm not just being fussy. They're designed to account for the surface tension of liquids and how it affects how we see and perceive the level in the cup.

Mix in the flour until just combined. Your dough should be soft and sticky and you should need a bit of flour on your hands as you press it down onto the parchment.

Mine was a bit too dry. I'd like to blame it on the cup, but I may end up having to cut the flour down to 1/2 cup. Try it that way. Let me know how it works.

Peel and slice your pears. If you want to be all fancy with them, and try to segment the to get all the wedges the same size, that's your choice. Me, I'm okay with different sizes. It's "rustic". Yeah, rustic. We'll call it that.

Toss the pear slices in a bowl with the wine, or lemon juice, or lime juice. Lemon juice on the pears and lemon zest in the crust would work nicely, I think. I didn't have lemon. I had booze.

Pile the pears on the crust in as artful, or as "rustic" (not messy, rustic) a manner as you want or have patience for.

Bake this at 400 for about 20 minutes. The crust will be nice and browned, the pears soft and juicy and just starting to brown a bit on top.

Pull the parchment off the cookie sheet and onto a cooling rack. This giant pear covered cookie (really, that's kinda what it is) will be very soft. Let it cool to room temperature before you even think about cutting it.

(do some calculus while you wait)

If you don't have any cream to whip, a bit of thick vanilla yogurt works just fine.

What's your favourite kind of pie?

A Little Somethin' Froggy on the Side

When I mentioned to Seeley that I was thinking about making frog eye salad, she made it quite clear that she wouldn’t be eating anything with frog eyes in it.  Perhaps she’ll come around when she sees that the ‘frog eyes’ in this recipe are actually just pasta.  Traditionally, it’s made with canned fruit and marshmallows and coconut, but as you know by now, we don’t really do traditional around here.  I decided to use the basic recipe, but to put in my favorite fruits.  You can put whatever you want in it, and it’ll be sure to make a fabulous side to go with your Easter ham.  And speaking of Easter ham, be sure you save the liquid that cooks off and the bone and extra meat, and next week, I’ll show you a fabulous way to use them.  Now, onto fruity, creamy, delicious frog eye salad. 

Here’s what you’ll need:

1 cup acini de pepe, uncooked
¾ cups sugar
½ teaspoon salt
3 Tablespoons flour
1 ¼ cups pineapple juice, drained from canned pineapple
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
2 eggs

Whatever fruit you want to put in.  I used strawberries, kiwi, blueberries, and mango.

Drain your pineapple.  I used all of the juice from a big can of tidbits and a small can of crushed, but used only about half of the actual tidbits.  If you don’t have quite enough juice, you can add another kind of juice or even water to get you to 1 ¼ cups.  Put the pineapple into a container or bag and into the fridge until you need it later. 

Cook your pasta for the least amount of time on the package directions. 

Drain it, and stir in a tablespoon of butter.

In a medium saucepan, whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt.

Whisk the eggs and lemon juice into the pineapple juice. 

Pour that into the dry ingredients and whisk them together over medium heat. 

Cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture becomes thick.  If you run your finger through it on the back of the spoon, it will not run back together.

Pour that over the cooked acini de pepe and stir them together. 

Cover with plastic wrap directly on the surface and refrigerate overnight. 

The next day, it’s time for the fruit.  This is how I like to cube a mango.  Cut both sides off, avoiding the pit. 

Then run a knife along the inside, not going through the skin, making little cubes. 

Turn the whole thing inside out, and then you can just scrape them off with a spoon, or even your fingers, into a bowl. 

Dice up the strawberries. 

Blueberries just have to be rinsed.

And last, but not least, is the kiwi. 

Cut off both ends and stand it upright.

Cut down the sides, removing the peel in strips.

Quarter it and dice it.  (I used 2 kiwis)

Look how pretty that is!  Lovely colors for springtime. 

Add your pineapple to the bowl and stir all the fruit together. 

Pull your pasta mixture out of the fridge.  It should be quite solid. 

To 2 cups cream, add 2 teaspoons vanilla and 3 Tablespoons sugar. 

Whip until… voilá!

With a spatula, loosen up the pasta mixture a bit.  It’s pretty solid, so you’ll kind of have to chop and smoosh. 

Fold in the whipped cream in batches.  At first it will be more stirring/smashing than actual folding. 

But eventually, the mixture will start to come together, and you’ll be able to fold properly. 

Now, add your fruit.  Oh dear.  Do you see the same problem I do?  Obviously my bowl isn’t big enough.  Oh well, I have confidence in my abilities! 

Fold in your fruit until everything is incorporated.  And there you have it!  Frog Eye Salad.  It’s sweet, creamy, fruity, and delicious. 

Don’t you just love all the beautiful colors? 

What’s your favorite springtime side dish?

Update on Thursday, June 21, 2012 at 11:55AM by Taneasha

I made a lower fat version of this dish this week and it was fabulous.  Simply substitute 2 cups of nonfat, vanilla, Greek yogurt, for one of the cups of cream.  Stir the yogurt into the pasta mixture first, and then whip 1 cup of cream with 1.5 Tablespoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla and fold it in before adding the fruit.  That cuts the fat content of this just about in half, and it's every bit as delicious.