A Spontaneous Pear Jalapeño Pie

A very fun dinner and game party for 7 at my friends' place back in the old neighborhood prompted me to do a fun eccentric pie last night to bring to the pot-luck. Never had this one before, but having lived in Mexico I am excited to try out the spicy-tart-sweet flavor combo potential of pears and jalapeño! We had some pears and lemons from our backyard which made this particularly special. Just using Jalapeño Jelly melted with butter, poured over fresh fruit and some lemon juice, sugar, and nutmeg, cinnamon, and turned into a double crust pie. Made just like a traditional apple pie - just substitute pears and a 1/2 cup of the Jalapeño Jelly. It was gone in 5 minutes. We didn't need the vanilla ice cream but of course that would have put it 'over the top'. This pie could be a good one for next Thanksgiving, with flavor that pleases the apple pie lovers but is a new twist that people will want to test!

Sweet Peach Pie in Alaska

This summer I went to visit Alaska for my cousin's wedding, (wonderful and gorgeous!) and it also was an amazing experience of stunning wilderness and adventuresome spirits. What did not prevail was the dining experience, I found that culinary adventure is not really a part of what Alaska has to offer (coming from San Francisco and being on the other side of the culinary spectrum, this was not really a big surprise) Yet I tried the reindeer sausage and various forms of halibut, (hmmm, not exactly my favorite).
The BEST place to eat in the Kenai region I traveled was, by far, Gwin's Lodge in Cooper Landing. Their menu was printed up like a newspaper with some local info and tidbits of history. We were happy: The salmon burger was tasty. The root beer was refreshing. The burger and fries was thankfully received as a familiar relief after a week of less satisfying but exotic choices.
The staff there was welcoming and kind and we were happy to find this little road house because we were HUNGRY! "Care for desert?" Oh yes - a list of many pies to choose from! Happily taking the server's suggestion to go with the peach pie, we tried it - and suddenly we could have been all the way down south in Sweet Georgia sampling a country fair's greatest pride and joy.

Cowabunga's Mud Pie

It's late August and the kids are back to...working at the Cowabunga Creamery. I walked in to try the Mud Pie and was surrounded by children herding the adults in. Dogs outside, but longing to come in. Behind the counter, it must be 'girls' day because it's all pre-teen young ladies...a few days ago it was 'boys' day and I had a coconut mini shake. I noticed how the girls and boys do not work the same shift. Is that planned? Are they so pre-teen paradise that they can't handle the love? I love how it's a total pre-teen scene, they have surfboards on the walls and cool surfer videos playing on the HD screen.. but I still feel short there. I tried the pie. I photographed the pie. I decided to pour tequila on it. There, I'm an adult again. That was tasty.

All-Strawberry Pie

All-Fresa Pie

We had a party, to celebrate the birthdays of July and our kitty, and our being here a year. The Pie Blog has been going over a year now, too!
This pie got eaten up faster than I could take a picture of it. My first All-Strawberry pie: it was amazing. With large farmer's market strawberries, cheap, ripe and plentiful here. I used a little fresh mint in the mix, with nutmeg and no other berries but strawberries...

Key Lime Pie Time!

Tropical heat wave? Key Lime Pie is the natural pie solution.



Almost summertime!
Refreshing and sweet-sour flavors were quite bold for me (and I found it zingy!) We served this to some dudes who were dressing up to go to a wedding at our casita. A picture of springtime elegance it was!
There's a little song I made called Key Lime Pie, too. It's not easy to put an mp3 on this site so just comment to me if you wanna hear it.

Superbowl Pie, Part Two

If you watched the NFL Superbowl tonight you will agree with me that it was a truly stunning football game. A Batch of Personal Sized - Banana Cream Pies (with Coconut!) came out at halftime and at the end of the game, where a small crowd had gathered in my kitchen for some prime time pies in HD.

A little game in the street, to work off some of the extra calories today! (There was plenty of other snacking going on, as is tradition! Organic Turkey Chile, Chicken Apple Beans by L.J., Hot Wings by MexiSub, Middle-Eastern-Delite by G. and flores by L-Bill) My thanks everyone for the yummy and interesting viewing this year!

Superbowl Pie, Part One

The Strawberry Rhubarb Nopal Pie

For our Superbowl this time it's the Super-berry Rhubarb and Strawberry Pie with Cornmeal crust and Nopal Cactus Liquor. I made this recipe, as I do every year and I think this one -of my rhubarb family- really turned out the best, made with organic ingredients. The Nopal Liquor of course made sense since the flavor is much like a red berry. It's a good candidate for ice cream or breakfast! I reserve some of the fruit syrup to pour on other things - so I don't cut into the pie too early. Well, I admit, we had some as soon as the blog posted.
Stay tuned, for the big sport event there will be warm personal sized banana cream pies!