Tiny Pies and Cake Pops

Dad's Tiny Pie, Raspberry 2011

That's a truly tiny Pie!  Dad doesn't bake much...but when he does, he is using an Emeril Pie and Cake Maker.  'I found it in the Hammacher Schlemmer catalog," he said, proving you could have your cake and eat pie too.  (Eat Pie!)  Tiny bites and personal sizes are in favor right now.  Check out these customized cake pops - designed especially for a fiesta with musical alumni and my dogs, who are the inspiration for these cake pops pictured...once getting past the sculpted sugar, there's delicious flavors of cake under there like s'mores and red velvet and german chocolate cake!

Mini Aussie and Musical Notes 'Cake Pops' October 2011

π San Francisco lives up to the Reputation: A Review

...π San Francisco.  A Place for Pizza Pies...if you aren't familiar with this Pie Blog, you may not have realized that, included, are pizza pies ... most welcome and fabulous topics for pie discussion.   

This is a Rare Pie Blog Restaurant Review.

A gentleman friend and I went to sample the Pie, of the now locally famous π Bar on Valencia Street, San Francisco.  The joint opens at 3:14 pm daily and is a few blocks from my office.  Perfect!

I was excited to see right away there was a White Pizza on the menu for $13;  I'll have to get that another time (when I can have it to myself.) The π Bar features a sophisticated array of delicious beers on tap, and the friendly wait staff gave us lots of tastings.  The Gentleman had a Beligian White (refreshing and delicious!) and the Lady had the Pinot Noir from Sonoma (another story later on my journey through Pinot Noirs of Sonoma...) 

Then came the pie:  a perfect flaky thin crispy crust, just the right amount of sauce, and just how we liked it!  We tried the Italian sausage, portabella mushrooms, green pepper and onions, and all the ingredients were as perfectly cooked, as they were when my mom took me as a kid to get a slice up in NYC, except here I got to order a nice California wine and hear some excellent live jazz (and accordion guest appearance!) ...for a casual after-work meal on a budget, I was impressed.  Certainly this is the best NYC style pizza in the Mission.

These folks even have a Manifesto, check it out.  The π Bar SF can be found on Valencia Street and Pi Bar SF.  They get a tip of the hat and some love from ...The Pie Blog!

Here's a little retrospective of the Indian Summer moments ...a precursor to the fall parade!  The Pie Blog is gearing up to finish the year 2011 with amazing pies.  ...Eat Pie!

San Fran-Berrylicious Pie and homemade crust...raspberries, blackberries & blueberries

Lila's Mojito Pie for Ben's Fiesta in Berkeley

Stone-Plum Pie, comfort at home.

Pies for the Festival Season

Brown Sugar Sparkles

A fantastic summer it has been with Pies showing up everywhere.  Most recently, pie was partaken of at the magical Outside Lands Music Festival, in San Francisco, August 12 - 14; where over 40 world class musical acts converged in Golden Gate Park for an extravaganza of good sound and a big party.   Friends came from as far as Guadalajara to join in the festivities and good food, wine tasting tent, and music.  Pecan pies were on sale at the festival along with southern style food, cocktails and local California wines.  I liked the wines from "Field Recordings." We certainly had many good festival moments and picnic goodies while listening to Muse, The Black Keys, OK GO!, Phish, Ximena Sarinana, and old friend Sonny Smith on the Panhandle Stage.

A true hit this season was a revisited D'Angelo Pie Duo (If you recall from previous articles, that's what we call the peach-blueberry oatmeal crumble top around here...) and those appeared, most notably, at 'T4' 4th Annual Thong Festival Celebrating Independence in Joshua Tree, California July 1-4, 2011 The two particular pies I speak of were among those that were gone too fast for the "Chairwoman" to taste, so I had to judge from the reports that it was simply awesome.

Messy, though Delicious

In July there were many fruit pies and celebrations of ice cream-on-top.  In August, blueberries being abundant, the Pie Blogger branched out into a Blueberry-Cheesecake-Pie for the "Brett-est Birthday Ever" at Donner State Memorial Park, Truckee, California.  (This pie was made by the friendly folks at the Truckee-Donner Summit Safeway, a prototype for something I'll make later--)  Again, this yumminess was eaten by 12 dirt-biking, river-rafting, roller-skating freaks on the riverside camp before photo ops could be arranged.  Good times!!!

My Very First Baked Alaska

So, I really didn't know what to expect when I looked up 'Baked Alaska'.  I wondered if I could attempt this recipe, and wondered if Baked Alaska could even be considered a pie dessert.  While researching I looked at other people's versions on the internet.  I had never had it before - and I just imagined a Denali sized mountain of baked egg-y deliciousness sitting in a pie shell.  (Baked Alaska is the type of old-school restaurant dessert item that one doesn't see every day.)

Well, I decided to take on 'Strawberry Baked Alaska'.  This turned out to be easier than expected, and very much a mountain of egg-y deliciousness sitting in a pie shell atop of fresh made strawberry ice cream.
Yes, you do bake the ice cream!  It really does work.

This is amazing as a presentation and very good, winning the approval of my nephews because it has ice cream involved in it as well as the mountain of fluff...  Here are some photos, pre-baked.  The soft strawberry ice cream molds into the pie shell, with fresh strawberry slices on top, all in a pre-baked pie shell.  Then, the meringue is piled atop high like a mountain before the 30 second broil that toasts the whole thing like a marshmallow! (Picture not available, the subject was eaten.)

D'Angelo's Pie

After baking a deep dish blueberry-peach pie on the night of the Fiddlers' Fest, a quick late night reference to pie was made via DJ... a Pie song from D'Angelo, recorded over a decade ago.
The lyrics follow, to a tune which has a typical groove heard on this album Voodoo. 6 people tasted this pie and danced to this particular groove.  An outstanding pie.  An outstanding groove.
Peaches were purpled by the berries, so lovely a color combo.  As for the groove, listen for it or look it up on your favorite internet radio service.  Amazing how that groove had people eating and grooving to the unique rhythm.

"Devil's Pie"

[CHORUS]
F*ck the slice we want the pie
Why ask why till we fry
Watch us all stand in line
For a slice of the devil's pie
Drugs and thugs women wine
Three or four at a time
Watch them stand all in line
For a slice of the devil's pie

Who am I to justify
All the evil in our eye
When I myself feel the high
From all that I despise

Behind the jail or in the grave
I have to lay in this bed I made
If I die before I wake
I Hope the lord don't hesitate
2 get 2 heaven done been through hell
Tell my peeps all is well
All them fools whose soul's 4 sale
Sitting next to the Jezebel

Demons screaming in my ear
All my anger all my fear
If I holler let them hear
In this spinning sphere

Main ingredients 2 this dish
Goes like this
Here's the list
Materialistic, greed and lust, jealousy, envious
Bread and dough, cheddar cheese, flash and stash, cash and cream
Temperatures at a high degree
Wheres niggas come 2 feast
Hell's this all about
Apocalypse ain't no doubt

Everbody's ho'ing out all the loot all the clout
Right or wrong
Do or die
Only the vengeance will pacify
Watch your back
And so will I
In these days and time

Aint no justice
It's Just us
Ashes 2 ashes
Dust 2 dust
Time has come for most of us
2 choose in which God we trust
I know I was born 2 die
Searching 2 find
Piece of mind
With eighty five dumb and blind
There can be no compromise
 ...
*by most groove I mean groove in a cool dark swing, get it?

The Great Pine Street Pie Debate

The Great Pine Street Clinic Pie Debate happened on a recent Saturday morning, where I, along with a collection of Bay Area acupuncture all-stars, and cancer detecting poodles, were semi-secretly meeting to put teams together for the 1st Annual Chinese Medicine Debate Tournament. 
Our topics will be subjects of TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) and health care in the United States.  We would learn about debate by doing a mock practice round, which would be about PIE (the actual TCM Tournament will be held at a location TBA to the public on June 11th, 2011...keep in touch for details) What more exciting for the Pie Blog than a Pie Debate to emerge!

The Debate Prompt: That Apple Pie is Superior to Cherry Pie.  Arguments were heard;  A Cherry Team, An Apple Team...What more exciting for the Pie Blog than a Pie Debate to emerge!

My good friend and team captain was asked by the deli check-out person earlier that morning, 'where she was headed out, so early?'
"To a Chinese Medicine Debate Meeting," she replied.
"...Sounds like a Ninja Warrior Fight!," the cashier exclaimed.

Dr. Ashby with Opening Statements Pro-Apple Pie: All-American Ancestory, Economical,  and TASTY with tradition

Pie of Apples, we argued, is the All-American Family Pie in season all year.  It is the Pie's Pie.  It even has medicinal uses, and can be combined with cinnamon and other wonderful spices and aromatics.  It's cheap to make an Apple Pie, and that's a plus in this economic environment!  There's also the lore and story of Johnny Appleseed, walking across America, giving rise to the great diversity of the apple in North America.  The Cherry Pie Team dismissed Johnny Appleseed as a hoax, arguing that their pie was simply the more luxurious, erotic pie.  Cherry Pie was fragrant of spring and love.  Cherry Pie supports Wisconsin.  The elegant Cherry Pie had George Washington somewhere in their history, too (an minor point about chopping down cherry trees...)  Our Apple Team argued back that often there are animal products and gelatin materials made to make the Cherry Pie set correctly, which was not erotic or luxurious.  Apple Pie needs no animal products and can go vegan quite nicely.  Cherry Pies are messy and who wants to pick all those pits anyway?   The Cherry Team bounced back, noting that Apple Pie needs vanilla ice cream to be great and can't stand alone.  Oooh! Pow!
In the end, the Apple Team, with our passion for The Pie and confident debate, won the contest!