Pig Nose And The 2016 Pie Social!

Ten years ago I held my first Pie Social.  I had to skip 2013 because we were moving in to this house and a lot of remodeling was going on.  This year my sister Diedre, or Dede, or more usually called Pig Nose by me (by the way, she calls me Weasel Nose - taunts that used to hurt when we were young but now they are used affectionately), came to experience it and help me have all this fun.   After all, she attended Pie Camp with me a few years ago and she needed to put her pie skills to work.  Since I make around 45 pies from scratch, homemade ice cream, four batches each of homemade brownies and cookies for the event, I am often asked how it all comes together.  Back in the early years when I was working a lot of hours, I made all my crusts on Friday night after work and then I baked my brains out from dawn until after midnight on Saturday.  I don't and can't do that anymore since the number of pies I make has doubled and I need to respect the crust more than I used to.  So, I'll explain the schedule and then a bunch of photos from the wonderfully successful event.

 First, the big shop at BJ's to buy lots of butter, sugar, fruit, chocolate and flour!  And other necessary life things to have on hand.

 Chubbies!  A couple weeks before the pie social, I make the dough "chubbies".  I needed 42 single crusts so I made 21 two crust recipes or 21 chubbies.  The chubby is a slightly flattened disk of dough that I wrap tightly and freeze.  I made the 21 chubbies over two evenings.  The third evening, I made all the graham cracker crusts (freshly pulverized crumbs, sugar and melted butter) and then put them in to single pie serving baggies and in to the freezer.

Graham cracker crusts

Homemade vanilla ice cream - I made 4 gallons of it three weeks before the social. 

 Five days before the event, I put all the frozen chubbies in this cooler that I needed for bottom crusts and I let them soften just enough to roll out.  My hands hurt for a couple days after that marathon rolling of very cold dough.

I came upstairs where Dan was doing his physical therapy exercises to tell him that I wouldn't see him for a few hours because I had 31 crusts to roll out, stack, wrap and freeze.  And I needed a bandana to keep my hair out of my work space.

On Wednesday before the Sunday event, I rolled out the crusts, separated them with wax paper and then stacked them by sixes.  I froze them again.  When it came time to make the fruit and pecan pies on Friday, I pulled out a frozen crust as I was making the filling and then piled in the filling, added the top crust if called for and baked the pie.  The crust would still be nice and cold as it should be so it's flaky when done.  

 Thursday night, Dan, PigNose and I cut up all the fruit.  I mixed the apple and peach fillings up and chilled them.

 Friday, Dede and I prepared and baked all the fruit and pecan pies.  We also baked all the graham cracker crusts and cream pie dough crusts and left them out at room temperature so they would be ready to fill the next day.

 Pig Nose!

 Baked crusts for the cream pies.

 On Saturday morning, my son Heath and his wife Emma came over and with them, we prepared all the cream pies and fresh fruit and cream tarts.  This took just until early afternoon with all of us working together. Then Dan, PigNose and I went to see a movie to decompress.

The next day, Sunday, we went to church as usual and when we came home, we ate a light lunch, and then PigNose went out in to the garden to pick flowers for the tables and I brought all the pies upstairs in to the kitchen and dining room - they had all been down in the cellar in the refrigerators to stay cold.

 This was a fresh blueberry glaze topped cheese cake type filling on a thick walnut graham crust - it was a new recipe to the pie social repertoire.

An hour before the pie social begins, 12 quarts of heavy cream are whipped to frost all of the cream pies and some is set aside in bowls for pie topping on the tables.  While the cream is whipping, sons Dane and Heath, and Emma and Dan are setting up and putting cloths and flowers on the tables outside.  PigNose is heaping platters with flourless peanut butter chocolate chip cookies and brownies.  At five twenty five, the ice cream and ice water goes outside to the tables.  We are ready to eat and socialize!  And it's sunny, low humidity and around 82 degrees.

 The line is forming with early arrivers!  The grass is dry and dead looking from the drought!

An hour and a half later, there is no pie left, not one cookie or brownie, no ice cream, no whipped cream - nothing left - hooray!  Over 200 people leave with bellies full of pie - happiness.

 A couple other tidbits - Dane came home from college for a couple weeks this summer - he was home for the pie social.  Here he is with Heath as they get ready to head to Boston to attend the Temple and then pick Pig Nose up from the airport.

I was thrilled to see Dane's clothes in his drawers he had unpacked from his suitcases - he is still folding his clothes the "joyful" way I taught him back when he started college and after I read the book about joyful tidying - I can't remember the correct title.   After all the hard work of the Pie Social, the following day, PigNose and I and Dan went up to the Lake Winnipesaukee area.  We drove on routes 16 to 153 so she could see several adorable villages like Wakefield and the Effinghams.

 Dan waiting for us while we browse antique shops.

 Thanks for coming and helping sis!

Pie! Cream, Fruit, and Spaghetti.

Last Sunday's Pie Social was a big success!  Over 200 guests, 42 pies, 3 double batches of homemade brownies, 3 gallons of homemade ice cream, the rain let up enough for many to go sit outside on porches, stone walls, and stairs.  We had to set up inside because, in spite of a fairly optimistic forecast for mainly clouds, it drizzled all day.  And it was very warm and muggy.  Thank goodness the drizzle abated and most, especially the children, could disperse all over the property outside.  At the end of the evening, there were just enough pieces leftover from a few pies to equal one pie and we gave that away the next day to a friend who is housebound and a big pie lover.  The brownies were all gone as was every drop of ice cream.

Good butter marbling means that crust is going to be flaky and crunchy - yum!

 On Saturday, the day the cream pies were made, my sons and daughter in law pitched in.  We made such good time and got done way earlier than ever that Dan took us all out to dinner for seafood at Petey's

 Peanut Butter Cream without its topping

After, I immediately made notes of what I will and will not be doing next year if I do this again, which I probably will.  Here is a list of what I made.
6 Chocolate Cream
3 Banana Cream
2 Coconut Cream
3 Peanut Butter Cream
4 Key Lime
4 Strawberry Tarts
3 Dutch Apple
2 Strawberry Rhubarb
2 Blueberry
2 Blackberry Crumb
4 Pecan
2 Peaches and Cream
2 "The gods" Raspberry
3 Lemon Meringue

I won't do the Peaches and Cream again; it wasn't bad and both were totally eaten but I've made better peach pies.  I will make more of "The gods" raspberry as it was the hit of the night.  It's a fresh raspberry pie with a pastry cream/whipped cream "frosting".  Sadly, it was the only one I didn't get to taste as it went so quickly - people were raving about it.  I will do strawberry rhubarb but I'll go back to my old recipe which I think is better - it was still tasty but not quite as wonderful as my tried and true.  I'll make one additional blueberry as those went too quickly and make my more traditional blackberry pie instead of the crumb one which had more of a cakey crumb consistency than I expected.  The peanut butter pie (which I renamed White trash Peanut butter pie) was also a huge hit, my first time making it this year and I will definitely make it again.  Even with these cons I'm listing, the pies were all really good but some recipes I've used over the years of doing this I have liked better.  You'd think I would use the same tried recipes every year because they are good and they work but I am always searching out new variations and I love to experiment.  As for pictures, I took several befores but no during or afters!  I was too busy playing hostess and forgot.  Oh well.

 The fruit pies in the dining room

 Cream pies in the kitchen

 Heath being silly!

 More Heath silliness.

And Heath's hand going for the brownies!

Now, a couple days before the Pie Social, I was listening to the Today Show in the background and Matt Lauer was raving about a Spaghetti Pie that a chef had made on the show the day before that he thought was so good he said he could eat it a couple times a week.  And he added that after saying that, the recipe was the most hit on the show's website ever so I knew I had to try it.  The chef had been demonstrating recipes for the show that kids would love as they get back in to the school year - food for fuel.  I made it the day after the Pie Social and we loved it too!  Here is the recipe.  It's so simple, so basic, you, your children, anyone who loves pasta and cheese will love it.  And I think it can be taken up a notch as well with herbs, veggies, whatever.  Try it!

SPAGHETTI PIE

12 oz spaghetti cooked and drained - save 1/2 cup of the pasta water.
1 small onion finely chopped
1 lb ground turkey or ground sirloin - I used half lb of each in mine
1 cup tomato paste (I used the whole 12 oz can - who wants to save or throw out 4 oz?)
3 large eggs
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
2 T olive oil (use 1 T for the onions and 1 for the pie plate)

Saute onions until soft, add the meat and brown then add 3/4 of the tomato paste and the reserved pasta water.  Stir well and cook through.  Season with S&P - it should have the consistency of a thick bolognese.  Set aside.  In a large bowl mix together the rest of the tomato paste with the eggs, parm cheese and 1 cup of the mozzarella.  Mix in the cooked spaghetti noodles.  Now, grease your pie plate with the remaining olive oil.  Layer on 1/2 the meat mix.  Add all the noodle mix and press down on this then top with the rest of the meat.  Sprinkle on the remaining mozzarella cheese.  Bake 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.  Cut like a pie and eat it hot!  Delicious!

 One spaghetti pie was made for us and the other for a young friend that just had a baby.

And to end, a few more pictures of pie delight!  These apples are from our Rye tree, not for the pie social, but just because we want to know how our own apples taste when baked.  I made this just tonight - it came out of the oven as I finished this post.  Breakfast tomorrow!