It’s good to be back in my kitchen after winter break at my parents’ and then the mini-break last weekend of a 4 day trip to Florida. Though it’s taken time to restock the fridge and plan out meals, I’ve managed to try a few new things and make some permanent additions to my commonly used cycle of recipes.
I caught a cold on my flights back from home and so made myself cream of tomato soup and grilled cheese pitas one night as a kind of warm, comfortable meal. Sadly, I couldn’t taste a thing. Gene tells me the soup was good so I believe him and plan on making it again soon.
This week I tried making three new things – roasted broccoli and cheddar soup, lentil balls with lemon pesto (sounds gross, actually was quite delicious), and my very first pie from scratch. I also made two old favorites – kale chips and beer bread (from Joy of Cooking).
Yes, I tried making a pie. A berry pie with frozen berries, following a recipe in Joy of Cooking. It came out very juicy. Like pie soup. Tasty, tangy sweet raspberry, blueberry, blackberry pie soup, but soup all the same. All things considered, I think it was a success for a first try. The crust wasn’t rock hard, the flavors were correct and the berries a nice treat for midwinter.
I’ll need to do more research before I try it again, but first, I need to finish this slice of pie.
Gossycrafts 
Add a teaspoon of corn starch to the pie filling the next time you make the recipe, that should make it a little less soupy.
Sounds good. I added flour as a thickener, but I guess not enough. Between corn starch and some larger vents in the top, I think it will turn out better next time.
key to good crust: Lard.
Bought some yesterday and made a cake for church. Everyone liked it, even your mother, who didn’t know what was in it.
Still have a lot of lard left. Maybe I’ll make some pies.
Pa
Lard, as in, pig fat? Ew. I’ll stick with butter, and maybe vegetable shortening (which the recipe also called for but I didn’t have on hand).
Also, if Mom still doesn’t know the oatmeal cake had lard in it, she will when she comes back here to look up the tomato soup recipe that I encouraged her to try!