It's Been a while

So it has been a while since I have done a post let alone baked a pie.

I have decided to try again with this idea, and will make a smaller goal for my self... a pie a week.

And I am not limiting myself to just desert pies, I will be making all kinds of crusted goodness, perhaps even a pizza pie or two. Try not to hold me to this just yet, we have a big move this weekend, and my kitchen is hardly set up! As well we are currently sans interweb and will be so for a while, so I will be editing these when I can.

So here is to Pi!

Buttermilk Pie

this is the wonderful thing about baking, especially pies, usually you have everything you might need stuffed away somewhere, and you can usually always find a good substitute if by chance you do not have it!

I did not get to taste this recipe first hand, we had to unload some of the pies I have been making, B and I just cant try that many! So I sent this one to a good home, and tummies, where it was well received! This particular one came feedback reported well. My friends K and R were the lucky couple to enjoy this pie. K said it was nice and creamy with a really good flavor! I think next time I make it will be for Christmas with Egg nog!

Buttermilk Pie

enough pie crust for one bottom

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter

1 1/2 cup white sugar

3 teaspoons all-purpose flour

3 eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1.4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

this is a super simple recipe no need for extra pictures!

just preheat the oven to 350

in a large bowl cream butter and sugar until smooth

mix in flour, eggs, buttermilk and vanilla

pour the filling into the pie shell and sprinkle the top with nutmeg

bake for 60 minutes until golden brown.

it will puff up quite a bit, but as it cools with will settle down.

kind of shake it to make sure it dose not jiggle to much to make sure it is done all the way though

this is a pretty rich pie, but as I am finding out there is no such thing as a pie that is not rich, if there is I will find it and post it... its gotta be out the somewhere!

but this happens to be a nice pie served cold, after a hard week!

Sweet Nothings

So in my never ending endeavor to make my life as full and complicated as possible I added yet another pat time activity! I have decided to sell hair pieces and return to wedding hair styling on the side. I will have a blog dedicated to weddings and hair pieces later, but I thought I would mention it now, and give you a sneak peak at our new store and blog and what you might find!

Here are a few pieces that will soon be up for sale at Sweet Nothings on Etsy:

So please come and visit us, we are happy to take custom orders for any occasion!

I am also booking for weddings coming up, so if you are in the Pacific Northwest let me know and we will see how we can make your wedding hair everything you want!

(I will update you as soon as my wedding hair blog is up and running!)

Got Lemons?

So here is the product of 6 months or patients!

My husband said that being Italian I should know how to make Italian things, i.e. spaghetti sauce form scratch and any other innately Italian things... so I tried my hand at Lemoncello.

The first round wasn't the greatest it didn't set long enough and it was way to sweet. So this time I didn't add the sugar syrup yet, instead added just a cup and half of sugar to the fermenting process.

It taste lovely, but needs to be cut with something, so I did it with Tonic, and it was pretty tasty!

We will be experimenting a bit with sugar water to get the right consistency! But so far so good!

The process is long and requires a lot of patients. It helps that my husband and I are not big drinkers!

It starts with a couple of bottles of liquor as close to Everclear as you can get.

Then skinning the lemons, which is not as easy as it looks! and you can tell I kind of lost patience by a few wedges shoved in the jug!

Pour in the Everclear

and let it set occasionally shaking the jug here and there ever few weeks to make sure all the lemons get soaked!

this is what happens when you include lemon wedges! a full day of straining... literally it took a full day! (NO EXAGGERATION)

then pop it all back in the jug to stew that much longer and then you have a gorgeously yellow drink that tastes all lemony and yummy!

I think the longer it sets the smother it gets, so I am going to start another batch after I bottle all the stuff I have left, I think they will make nice hostess gifts whenever B and I go anywhere! A little gift of love and patients!

I have still been baking!

So a little hiatus, I know, but I have to say I have still been working on many projects just forgetting to post. and after a month long battle with bronchitis, I am up and running again! So to prove it here is a little bit of help I gave a friend for her sisters baby shower a few weekends ago. No pie sadly but there were many cookies and sugary goodness!

So here are some stellar pictures taken not by my iPhone!

Some Vanilla-lime Turkish Delights

(extremely sweet but so good!)

Baby French Macarons with Strawberry Ganache filling

Just another view next to some cake truffles made by Artisan Cake Company and the sister to the mommy to be!

Party favors for all the lovely guests large French Macarons

The pink ones are filled with the Strawberry White Chocolate Ganache and the green ones filled with a Vanilla White Chocolate Ganache.

These are some cookies requested by the mom to be, Oatmeal Chip Cookies, and Chocolate Chip

I have decided to practice making French Macarons as well as my Pies! I fell in love with the bright colors and limitless flavor possibilities!

So here is to many many more days of baking! I hope you all enjoyed your National Pie Day, and had a slice for me!

(all photos were done by Stephanie Quigley of

Your Vivid Moments)

Momentary Hiatus

Good Morning folks,
I apologize for the long distance between posts. Unfortunately I have been really sick for some time now and have some huge projects in the works so my pie baking days have been limited. I plan to pick up posting again come February!
The month of love quite appropriate for baking!
Keep in mind the 23rd is National Pie eating day, so get a pice and enjoy!
I will be back shortly!

~Kretzy

Hot Potato!

I always wanted to try a sweet potato pie, but there are so many recopies to choose from! Unfortunately I do not think I found the perfect one yet! Though it looked pretty the recipe needs some work! (perhaps it is baker error) but the mixer could have been used once again!

I will give this one a few more tries, if anything I am persistent! The bake time was significantly off, the center was super runny right up till the end, and when I was worried of it cooking too much I had to take it out, it set up fine, but resembled more of a gelatin that smooth and creamy! Non the less I will provide you with the recipe and will update you in the future of any changes/successes! Good Luck!

Sweet Potato Glazed Pie

filling:

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons flour

5 oz evaporated milk

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups mashed cooked sweet potatoes (emphasis on the mashed!!!)

glaze:

1/2 cup sugar

2 1/4 teaspoon flour

2 tablespoons evaporated milk

2 tablespoons melted butter

Pre heat oven to 375

First i boiled the potato to get it nice and soft, i probably could have let it go longer. You want to make sure it will produce a well mashed potato! I used i medium sized potato about a pound.

combine the sugar, flour, milk egg and vanilla... I would recommend using the mixer for this friends! And also make sure to mash the potato before you mix it in with the rest of the ingredients!

Stir in the sweet potato and pour the ingredients into the uncooked pie shell

as for the glaze, combine the sugar, flour, butter and milk

drizzle mix over sweet potato filling.

Bake at 375 for 60 minutes!

test my inserting a knife, if it comes out clean then the pie is ready to be taken out!

I will most definitely be trying this recipe again in the near future I have some good ideas involving brown sugar and a broiler!

Once my friend reports back about how it tasted I will fill you in!

cross your fingers for good news!