My Pie Quest

So, I have decided that I want to banish my fear of pie making....namely making the crust for pies.  I'm absolutely terrible.  I'm not a bad cook, actually I'm a good bread maker, but as for pies, well.....I stink!

I'm reading a book called American Pie.  In there are some yummy sounding recipes.  I'm going to try them.  I think I'll try a sour cream raisin pie tonight.  Once my rhubarb is big enough I'll try a rhubarb custard pie.

I'll also make savory, dinner type pies.

I've found a bacon, cheddar, tomato pie that I can't wait to make once my garden is producing tomatoes.

I've had a mexican type empanada meat filled pie before.  I want to find a recipe for that and try it again too....but I don't really know what to do with the crust making.

My mom has a great crust recipe using Crisco (only name brand will work), she does a great job but I'm not able to make it flaky like she does.

.......a few hours later
I made the tomato and the sour cream raisin one today.  They tasted good....not great.  The crust wasn't flaky like I want it and the filling didn't set properly....I guess that means I'll just have to make another one next week.

Final Grade:
Crust: C
Filling:  B-
Taste:  B   The family loved it....but they love me and they love sugar, so who really can tell what they thought.

My goal is to make at least two a month, more than that and well have a few problems getting dressed in the morning!

 I found a recipe for the crust from a site called "The Art of Pie".  They swear by the fact that if all the ingredients are cold, then all will be well with the crust....so I did as they suggested and made put all the ingredients and the bowl in the freezer.

 I used canned garden tomatoes for the savory dinner pie.  Bacon was added to the crust....if I could keep Connor from eating it!!

 Mmmm, it was sooo good, but quite rich.  I will try this again except I will add the bacon to the tomatoes, use a regular crust (this one was quite high on real butter) and use fresh tomatoes from the garden.  This filling was sooo good that I may even experiment with using it layer between thin slices of potatoes for a bake.

 It sure makes this one happy