Eating Healthy Resolution? Skip this post.

I've had a long-term goal to eat healthier this past year, so making a resolution of the same thing for 2012 didn't make any sense. Of course, if you are part of the large group of people who wish to go on a healthy eating path for the next few weeks, just pass over this post. It's not going to help you. Come back later.

But, if you've already done your cleanse for the year and are ready to satisfy your chocolate cravings, join me.

On Wednesday, I got a call that an interlibrary loan of Martha Stewart's "Pies and Tarts" book had arrived. Just like "Cookies" and "Cupcakes," it is filled with those delightful photos that make you think that anything is possible. I flipped through it, mentally marking the pies I could try in the Breville pie maker. But, the book kept opening to Crisp Coconut and Chocolate Pie on its own (obviously very popular with other readers).The pie was really easy to make. It only has four ingredients: Coconut and butter for the crust; Heavy Cream and bittersweet chocolate for the filling. It goes together rather quickly, though the cooling period for both the crust and filling does take some time. It would be perfect to make to bring to a party, or even after work if you have to entertain.

You can find the recipe on many other sites, so here is a link: http://gourmetfood.about.com/od/dessertrecipes/r/Crisp-Coconut-And-Chocolate-Pie.htm

Just so you don't think I ate a whole half a pie myself, I did share the missing half with my mother who was having guests for dinner. In fact, here is an email I received:

"I'm not normally a fan of chocolate pie, but yours was great. So good, I made your mother send the leftover piece home with me. OK, I ALLOWED her to send it, but I would have resorted to force."

Happiness is a Mini Pie!

My mom got a Breville Mini Pie Maker for Christmas. The thing is, I really wanted a mini pie maker, so she got a Sunbeam one for our family's grab bag with the hopes that I could grab it. Now, I don't have to discourage everyone from grabbing the largest, heaviest present in the bag when we get together on Friday. In fact, I have decided that we are going to be bringing mini pies to the get-together.Tonight, we tried out the pie maker by making two turkey pot pies and two apple pies. It is necessary to cook all the filling ahead of time, but that's good because you can have everything ready to go well ahead of time. My mom also makes the best pie crust, so she always has extra crust in the freezer.

The pies only use 1/3 cup of filling. We made a lot of extra pot pie filling to use for our party pies.
The pies only took 10 minutes to bake. The crusts were perfect and crisp on both the top and bottom.


This is one of the pot pies made with the chicken pot pie recipe blogged about earlier. The apple pie filling was found at Baking Bites.

I may have found my new baking niche. I am going to really get in touch with my English heritage and start making all sorts of meat pies. I am so excited!

Happy Holidays! Here's a log.

The life of a musician is a busy one at Christmas time. I have been practicing and performing for two weeks straight and still have two more days to go. And, right in the midst of all this, my car DIED right as I was getting off the highway. Luckily, all the stars were aligned and a 2008 Volvo XC70 appeared on the cars.com website just as my car was being given last rites. Ah, life is good.

Despite my complete lack of time, I would really like to make a bûche de Noël. I hope this photo will do until I have the time to make my own.

Photo from bbc.co.uk/food. Yum!

Too many cranberries!

I had an extra bag of cranberries and decided to make cranberry bread today. However, I was distracted and didn't read that I was only supposed to use one cup of cranberries in the recipe and ended up using the whole bag (12 oz). Now I have this very cranberry-y loaf of bread.

Here's a re-post of the recipe that I use:

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup whole cranberries
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 tablespoon orange zest
1 egg
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3/4 cup orange juice

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Grease one 9x5 inch loaf pan.
2. Combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Add the cranberries and chopped nuts, stir to coat with flour.
3. In another bowl, combine the egg, oil, orange juice and grated orange peel. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan.
4. Bake for 50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let bread sit for 10 minutes and then remove from the pan and place on a cooling rack.