I’m just now getting to this.. It’s been a busy week. Anyway. The pie-off went really well! Let’s see if I can remember all of the pies that were there. I brought a hideous looking smoked salmon cheesecake, David brought a very tasty broccoli pie, Amy brought a very labor intensive (and so worth it!) risotto pie, Bethany made a cottage pie and a banana cream pie, Jenny made a strawberry pie (which was her first American pie – great job!), Eve made a bumbleberry pie and Melissa brought a pumpkin per Mel’s request and a german chocolate pie. Oh, and last but not least, Jay brought a blackberry pie. The hostess kind. Amy I missing any? We ate like kings, if I do say so myself. Bethany even had the neat idea of making mixed drinks that were pie inspired and she even had some recipes but I think everyone was just too full to fit anything else in!

Now I’m trying to think of another themed dinner. Any ideas? All recipes from our mothers? All slow cooker foods?

More photos of our pie fun can be found here.

We (here in Seattle) have hatched a plan for an all pie meal that’s going to be happening on Sunday. Am I a total nerd for being excited about this? I can’t wait to see what people bring and I’ve been totally obsessed looking for recipes for savory pies. There are so many options, it’s hard to narrow it down. Nothing so far has jumped out to me as the perfect savory pie but I’m hoping to find a good one especially since this is supposed to be a whole pie meal. For my first attempt at this I figure I probably shouldn’t just make something up.  A few people are doing sweet pies so it’ll be a whole meal!

On Tuesday I ate a mushroom. I didn’t mean to, it just kind of happened. Slanky and I had grilled some leftovers from the weekend skewers (which had some mushrooms for the non-haters at the bbq) and there was a grilled one that looked just like the beef and I popped it off and ate it before I realized it wasn’t meat. It definitely didn’t taste like anything except the marinade and the texture was a little lighter than meat but overall it didn’t kill me. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I can now eat mushrooms because when I actually put thought into the prospect it still makes my stomach turn. However, I didn’t vomit after realizing my mistake so perhaps there’s hope for me yet. At this rate I should be able to eat them with wild abandon by the time I am 80.

after walking past these bruised looking apricots for a week or two, i decided to stop and give them a try. turns out, they are not apricots, but (as evident from the title of this post) a strange fruit called nefles. that was a bit of a “duh” moment, because it is not apricot season. and they were even displayed with the other seasonal fruits. i’ll blame it on usually trying to get in and out of the store as quickly as possible due to cranky muchkins. i did a google search on them once i got home and wasn’t able to find much info, but did come across this blog entry that talks about them (scroll down a bit to the pic of the nefles). the ones i got are not nearly as juicy as the orangette blog person (who incidentally seems to have her priorities straight as far as traveling goes) describes, so i will have to get some to sit around and ripen a bit. wonder of wonders–even picky niamh liked them!

i made a new food discovery today. it is not swiss, but since it is the best tasting thing i’ve eaten since that tuna sandwich went down so well 3 weeks ago, i am going to post about it.

tried this quesadilla looking italian thing called piadina today for lunch (from the frozen food section at the migros on the corner). lo and behold it WAS just like an italian quesadilla. really really tasty. it was stuffed (in quesadilla shape) with herbs, mozarella, ham, and tomato sauce.

and then to find out more about this new taste sensation, i did a google search and came up with this cook & eat blog entry: http://cookandeat.com/2008/02/21/more-piadina-please/ (why the $%&* can’t i link it?). oh cruel world!!! et tu google? not a nice thing to do. so everyone please go down to la spiga and try it out and please take pictures so i can live vicariously through you all. or does everyone already know about la spiga and piadina? i suppose while i’m at it i could stop feeling sorry for myself and find a good italian restaurant here that has piadina. maybe finally call up that nice american high school girl in the building next door and get a babysitter for an evening.

on a side note, does anyone else think it’s funny that both italy and mexico, oceans apart physically as well as culturally, have both developed a food item so darn similar? cool. though for some reason italian food and mexican food remind me of each other in an odd way. maybe it’s the salsa and the tomato sauce?

on another note, my morning sickness is almost gone, which is helping a lot with the homesickness. so that’s good.

The pastry on the left is called a vermicelle. it is some sort of chestnut/sugar paste. i’ve seen them made a bunch of ways. almost always have whipped cream. sometimes just the whipped cream, and the chestnut paste. sometimes have a cookie/shortbread like thing at the bottom (like the one pictured here). this is the first place that i’ve seen incorporate chocolate (the cookie crust is coated with chocolate, but the cookie itself is…i don’t know. plain and white. and not really cookie and not really shortbread). i do not really like them. i have tested from several bakeries, and the grocery stores, but they all taste pretty much the same.

the green pastry on the right is a caraque. it is delicious! it’s basically a chocolate tart with green frosting. the chocolate is really thick and dense. maybe a ganache? caraques are also sold in every bakery and grocery store. yum yum yum!

these are also really popular over here. several varieties and brands sold in all the grocery stores (cheese flavor, salt flavor, butter flavor, etc), and all of the bakeries sell their own flutes too. i feel like these are something i’ve had in the states, but can’t recall specifics. anyway, if you don’t know, they’re basically like really buttery, crispy, flaky, breadsticks. yum!