Greta is doing well and settling into her very important roll of “Official Pie Cottage Greeter”. She is such a sweetheart!

Pie Cottage Greeter, Greta

The remodel is going GREAT! There’s so much more room. Last night my neighbor, Lakota, and seven of his friends popped over and made short work of the Cherry-Apricot Pie I had made just that evening with fruit Farmer Al and Becky sent me from Frog Hollow Farm.

Some cheery cherries from Frog Hollow!

There were nine of us, including Greta and Fez the Cat, and there was still room for nine or ten more! This is so amazing after years of maneuvering around in a teeny-tiny space.

The new natural color bamboo floor is one-third of the way down. It passes all the right ecological and organic guidelines so I’m pretty happy about that, too. Carpenter Jim found a matching set of French doors to the ones I renovated and he installed last year so those will go in after I return from Pie Camp on Whidbey next week. Yup, Pie Camp starts this Friday!

Getting Ready for Pie Camp!

Pie Camp started out as a crazy idea I had one night, when folks asked if there were longer multi-day offerings they might attend.

Pie School? Pie Academy?…Nah, too formal.
Pie Party…not exactly it either.
Then it struck me… Pie Camp.
That was it!

The first Pie Camp was in July of 2012. Here is a gallery of photos from Cathy Grossman of USA Today who attended. And now I have three scheduled this year… in May, August and October! The WA camps sold out in a matter of hours but there’s still some space for the October Upper Crust Camp in Montana.

And, if there’s interest for another Pie Camp in very early November on Whidbey, (hint hint…are you listening?), I might be convinced to do a fourth so, let me know!

OK, I’ve got some more packing and organizing to do before I load my pie-mobile on Wednesday night. So, over and out for me!

I’ve had many moms over the years.
The one who birthed me then gave me away.
The one who raised me and too soon passed away.
The ones who have come to help take her place.
I’m the mom that I am because of them all.

Happy Mother’s Day.

Taking out this wall is something that I have wanted to do since I first saw my sweet little cottage but one thing or the other ($$$) always kept it on the back burner of the stove patiently simmering. The heat got turned up over the last two weeks and I did it.

I had to really search hard to find ANY photo that that would show you the interior wall and living room of the cottage before changes took place. The one below is from a Womens’ Soiree in 2005 that I used to host one evening a month. (Hmmm…maybe I should do that again…) You can see that the interior front wall had a door and window (that opened into a tiny sun room that was once an open porch), and the wall on the left was part of a miniscule bedroom. I’m reminded of the story of the teeny tiny woman who lived in the teeny tiny house I used to read when I was a teeny tiny girl.

Before: The Teeny Tiny House.

The first step was last year…in anticipation of moving home from Seattle after several years of renting out my house…

…before my furniture, grand piano, pie pans, rolling pins and cookbooks were to arrive, I slept in front of the woodstove…

My bedroom

…and each morning I rolled up my bag and moved my dad’s favorite vintage 1963 chair close to it to warm my feet while I drank a cup of coffee. This was rather minimalist living if I do say so.

I’m no stranger to simple living.

I stripped off wallpaper, sanded and painted walls which hadn’t seen a brush for more than 14 years.

Carpenter Jim found a set of reclaimed French doors in a barn 15 miles west of me under a tarp. I bought them for $70 dollars and spent a week or so sanding and painting them white from the dark forest green they originally had been.

He knocked out that old wall, installed them and…

The new-old French doors installed!

I had light for the first time in this room! (Sound Track: Here Comes the Sun)

Then a year later I did what I had wanted to do since first seeing what was to become Pie Cottage in 1999.  I took a deep breath and made arrangements for that left hand wall to come down.

Before I even moved into this house, I had a dream about it. Really! In that dream I saw one big room with lots of light streaming in and views of mountains and water.

When my real estate agent showed the cottage to me all those years ago I had an instant flash of recognition.

This was my house!

I made up my mind immediately to purchase it. (Yah, I’m an Aires and we tend to make lightning fast decisions when inspiration strikes.) But, let’s move forward to present time.

Carpenter Jim sheeted-off the wall with plastic to keep the disruption to a minimum.

Plastic Sheeting Up

We worked around each other for two weeks and sometimes I just needed to walk away from the noise and inevitable dust that lay a little film over everything including Greta and me! Every night I brushed her out and showered it off of me.

Now, it’s shouldn’t come as a surprise to you, but anyone who works or helps out at Pie Cottage can always count on treats and over the years Carpenter Jim has had his share of  homemade pies and little cinnamon sugar rollups with leftover dough.

Pie + Love = Happy

Rustle…Rustle…
Bang, bang, BANG!

I was busy typing away at my computer monitor, my back to the project. I heard the plastic sheeting rattling and a hammer knocking on the wood supports.

And, then I heard Carpenter Jim say,”Wow!”

I turned around and here’s what met my eyes…

Sheeting Down!

The sheeting was down!

We both stood there stunned trying to take in the complete and utter transformation that had just taken place.

Carpenter Jim said he that he really didn’t know what it was going to be like when the whole space was revealed. I had a huge grin on my face and was just about to jump up and down. I’ve known Jim for about 25 years and he was quick to remark that he hadn’t seen me this happy in a LONG time!

He used his shop-vac to get as much dust out as possible, and we moved the big pieces of furniture around to set up a rough workshop space. I had a class to teach the very next day. Cutting it a little close. But, I was so darned thrilled I took him out to our local Gastropub for supper and a celebratory drink!

When I came home I had THE BEST time mopping the floor, putzing around and setting up the workshop table. Here’s what it looked like before I went to bed around midnight.

First Night with Wall Down

And here’s what I woke up to in the morning!

Check out my new space!

There’s lots more to go. Painting this week and a brand new bamboo floor to unify the space will be coming the following. And as if by magic, yesterday Carpenter Jim found another set of French doors in Seattle that come very close to matching the set he found at the old barn a year ago. They’ll open up the room to my back deck and let the outside in!

Am I happy?

Oh my gosh YES!

Life Lesson: Dreams Do Come True!

Pie + Friends = Love (Photo by Stephen Gross)

I help a lot of people with their pie projects—Blog posts, recipe development, wild ideas for pie fillings, odd and innovative doughs that usually work but sometimes not. And, in doing so, I find that there’s less and less time for me to actually get all the reading and writing, and recipe development done for my own projects!   Hmmm…what’s up with that.

Anyway, as time is limited for all of us, I want to make sure that I write about things that you are interested in—things that will keep you coming back for more.

Your comments will help me to know just what that is but honestly, I haven’t figured out what the magic formula is to inspire you to comment.

Is there some catchy phrase I’m supposed to have put at the bottom of the blog post? Or, am I supposed to enter into the whole giveaway thing that many bloggers do?

So, I am asking you to help me by letting me know what would you be interested in hearing about. Some ideas that first come to mind as I’m writing to you are:

• Other Bakers and Authors with Whom I’ve Had the Good Fortune to Meet and Bake
• My Life in Professional Music (yes, I did have another career…or two, before this)
• Building a Post and Beam Dream House; Selling It and Moving to a Tree House; Selling That and Moving to a Small Cottage (a/k/a Pie Cottage).
• Pie Cottage, a Work in Progress (sort of like me, too!)
• Stories of Growing Up in Santa Barbara
• What Pie Has Taught Me About Life
• Living on a Blueberry U-Pick Farm
• How Did I Turn into a Pie Maker
• Rolling Pins I Have Loved
• My Favorite Ovens
• Loves…and Losses
• Pie Disasters
• Pie Miracles
• Pie Recipes
• My Family
• My Dog

Well, the list could go on and on, but now I need to hear from you. Would you like my blog to become a personal narrative or would you like it to be technique tips and recipes only. Do you want more pictures? Are you ok with no pictures?

I would LOVE to know and I need to know, too.

So if you would, leave me a comment below and I’ll leave one for you!

Love to you all from Pie Cottage,
Kate

Jenny Ann Hall Steelquist. September 19, 1952 – April 2, 2013

For three plus years I have been dedicating my pies to my dear friend Jenny. Today she lost her battle with cancer.

Many of you who have taken my workshops will remember me putting an intention for her health and healing into my bowl before placing my hands in to mix flour, salt, fat and water. But, Jenny was the most important ingredient of all—LOVE.

Jenny’s Pie

I miss you sweet friend…may you stay forever young.

Jenny

Here is the recipe for the one that I love to make for my family and friends and teach at my Art of the Pie Workshops and Pie Camps. It is especially good when local heritage apples from the farmers markets are available and just bursting with flavor.

Beautiful Apple Pies made at an Art of the Pie Workshop (Photo Credit: Rebekah Denn)

Art of the Apple Pie

 

Author:

Kate McDermott-Art of the Pie

Recipe type: Sweet Pie

Cuisine: American

Serves: 8

Prep time: 45 mins

Bake time: 60 mins

Total time: 1 hour 45 mins

Print

 

This is a classic All American Apple Pie. Use both tart and sweet apples and the most flavorful ones that you can find. This recipe is sized for a 9” Deep Dish Apple Pie. For information on Art of the Pie Workshops and Pie Camps, please visit http://www.artofthepie.com

Ingredients

• About 10 cups heritage apples (skin on), quartered and cored.
• ½ cup flour
• ½ cup sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 gratings nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon allspice
• 1 tablespoon of an artisan style cider vinegar or fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 1-2 teaspoons butter chopped into little pieces
• 1 recipe double crust pie dough
• Egg Wash: 1 egg white mixed with 2 T of water
• 1 tablespoon sugar

Procedure

1. Slice apples in ½ inch slices or chunk them up into pieces you can comfortably get into your mouth!
2. In a large mixing bowl put all ingredients except butter and mix lightly until most of the surfaces are covered.
3. Pour into an unbaked pie crust, mounding high and dot with butter.
4. Roll out second crust and place on top; crimp edges with a fork.
5. Cut vent holes.
6. Paint with egg white wash.
7. Sprinkle sugar on top.
8. Pre-heat oven to 425F and bake for 20 minutes.
9. Reduce heat to 375F and bake for 40 minutes longer.
10. Cool for at least 1 hour before eating if you can.

Notes

Heritage or Heirloom Apples are those that are regional to specific areas and are many times grown by small farmers and then brought to farmers markets. You can also use a good mix of apples from your local grocery. I like to use both sweet and tart apples in a pie for flavor. If peels bother you, remove them.

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Whether you are Gluten Free, Vegan, Dairy Free, or Vegetarian, I have created a number of pie doughs so that everyone can enjoy a piece of pie. I’m so happy to share these recipes with you here.

Be Happy, Make Pie!

After a spending the night with some dear friends in Seattle early last month, I hopped on the mid-day flight to Chicago.

I traveled light:

• A day-pack with a change of clothes, toothbrush and warm outerwear
• Puget Sound oysters and T-shirts from Taylor Shellfish (my day-job)
• And, the hopes and dreams in great anticipation of meeting a soon-to-be new four-legged friend, Greta.

Travel day was beautiful. I looked out the right-hand side of the plane and saw the volcanoes out in all their glory; Mt Rainier, Mt Adams, Mt St Helens. The views in the NW are incredible!

My reading material for the trip was John Steinbeck’s “Travels with Charlie”. Very appropriate for this journey, I think. If you haven’t read it, you’re in for a treat!

When I arrived in Chicago it was a chilly 12 degrees. Brrrrr! I could feel it as soon as I set foot out onto the jetway after being in a warm cabin. I pulled my hat, gloves and scarf out of my pack and followed the arrows for the exit to the baggage area.  Annie and Michael were hovering in their car waiting for me. I hopped in and off we went.

We went straight to their house, chatting all the way. I couldn’t wait to get there to meet her. And, then I did.

Michael brought Greta up on her leash. I sat down on the floor and it was love at first sight. She climbed up into my lap and gave me the sweetest puppy kisses EVER!

Over the course of the next two days, we were literally tethered together. Everywhere I went, she was by my side. Michael and Annie said that this would be the best way for Greta to get totally attached to me… and me to her, too.  Eating, sleeping, brushing my teeth (and hers), chatting in the kitchen. You name it, we did it together.  “Me” had once again become “We”.

By the time I left on that Sunday to fly back to Seattle with her, she was gazing at me with her big brown almond shape eyes, which of course I think are absolutely adorable, and letting me know that she and I are indeed now a pair.

She flew right in the cabin with me, tucking herself under the seat in front of me, and fell asleep almost immediately at my feet. She woke up twice to turn around and settled right back down for some more zzz’s. This girl really knows how to travel and to sleep both on the road and at home.

Pie Cottage pals, Greta and Fez snoozing.

We’ve been home for a bit over a month now and I simply cannot imagine life without her. Annie gives me training tips via text messages. And, I know that when next they come to visit at Pie Cottage, they will see for themselves, just how perfect we are for each other.

Greta found her morning sunny spot at Pie Cottage.

On a very personal note, this Fall and Winter have been very hard for me. I experienced loss that affected me deeply sending me into a time of  great retrospection as well as introspection. Greta has been a blessing each day. She plops her head down on the side of the bed every morning, licks my hand and wags her tail with a big “I love you wag”.  Oh and let’s not forget her ears which are ever so soft! This girl always brings a smile to my face.

I hope to find more balance as we turn towards the sun and that all who have experienced the sudden and unexpected loss of deeply loved ones will be able to find peace and understanding, too.

Greta is waiting for you to come visit!

Jerry

If you’ve been following my blog for a while you may remember that my step-dad Jerry took a bad tumble in late 2011 just after I returned from France.

I received word that he passed away early this morning.

He was ready.

My mom and Jerry married after both of them had been widowed. They had a brief but very happy 2.5 year marriage before she passed away in 1982. He outlived her by 30 years and during those years, he enjoyed a third very happy marriage. We kept in touch over the years. He was grandpa to Sara and Duncan. I am grateful to him for the many kindnesses he showed to me and my family through the ensuing years.

I remember his words to me on one of my last visits to see him, “I know there is something else out there. I’m ready.”

As he was my last remaining “relative” of my mom and dad’s generation, I asked him two years ago, if I might be able to ask him questions, now and then, about what he had learned in life.

He laughed and said, “Of course!”

So one day, I called him up and said, “Jerry, you’ve had three very happy marriages. What is your secret?”

He chuckled and then gave me these simple points:

• Have your own individual interests as well as some interests in common.
• Have your own friends and have friends in common.
• Speak kindly to one another and have respect for each other.
• And, never ever go to bed angry.

Thank you for everything, Jerry.

Apple Pie with GF Vegan Crust

Pie Day is January 23! To celebrate many of you will be turning to your tried and true recipes for dough and filling to bake a pie to share with friends and family. My GF friends will enjoy this dough. But, some find a day like Pie Day brings memories of a baked treat that they no longer are able to enjoy. I want everyone to enjoy pie so I worked long and hard on a GF Vegan Dough Recipe this winter. I learned alot in the process…some of it really bent around my thoughts.

Here’s how the project started. In the Spring of last year I unexpectedly was able to attend BlogHer Food ’12 when it held its conference in Seattle. The first evening I sort of half-invited-myself/half-was-invited to join a group of food bloggers from other parts of the country. Among them was Tess Masters who blogs as The Blender Girl.

Tess and I hit it off famously and two things came of our meeting. The first was a workshop in fall of 2012 at the home of Simply Recipe’s Elise Bauer and the second was a personal challenge from Tess to create a GF-Vegan dough. The first was a piece of cake, I mean pie, as I love to teach and well over a thousand folks have come to my workshops.

But, the second took quite a bit of thought, testing and re-testing. The challenging part for me in GF-Vegan is that there is nothing in the way of protein like egg that will bind things together. And, I couldn’t use my beloved butter and lard. But, always up for a little adventure and discovery, I jumped right in.

I used the GF Flour Mix that I wrote about here. That part worked out just fine! You’ll want to print that out from the link.

But what fats to use?

I tried coconut oil, Earth Balance Buttery Stick, Spectrum Shortening, and…drum roll…you’re not going to believe this…the stuff in the blue can which has heretofore remained nameless. That’s right, I tried Crisco! I’ll get back to that in just a bit.

But, then how to hold it all together?

Now it was really getting interesting.

My experimental doughs included applesauce, flax seed whole, flax seed ground, flax seed ground and mixed with water, ground chia seed, and psyllium husk powder. And, it was the brilliant GF baker Jean Layton who showed me the way.

Jean has created something she calls Pixie Dust; a combination of golden flax seed, white chia seed and psyllium husk powder all mixed up in the proportions she sets out here and ground together. You’ll want to print this out from the link, too. Once you have it made up, it can happily wait in your freezer until you need it. And believe me I gave it a work out!

I won’t bore you with the details other than to say, that I have a video of my son, Duncan, and some of his friends tasting the early experiments. One commenter said, “This is the best GF-Vegan Pie I’ve ever had!” When I asked him if he had ever had one before he said, “No, this is the first.” You gotta love these kids. They did not want to hurt my feelings or let me know that the pie was not up to my usual tender flakey standards until after I tasted it. When I said “Oh, this is way too tough!”, they let out a sigh and agreed. So, I kept making pie after pie after pie.

Just after Christmas I made my umpteenth GF-Vegan experiment and low and behold, I feel like I nailed it! It was the combination of the GF flours, Jean’s Pixie Dust, Crisco and my own tenacity that got me to this place.

And, now, here it is for you. Share it with your GF-Vegan friends and let them know that everyone can eat pie on Pie Day (January 23) and everyday!

 

Prep time: 45 mins

Total time: 45 mins

Print

 

Ingredients

• 2-1/3 c Art of the Pie GF flour mix #2
• ⅓ c sorghum flour
• 1 Tbs sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 2 tsp Jean Layton’s Pixie Dust
• ½ cup Earth Balance buttery stick
• ½ cup Crisco
• 1Tbs Bragg’s apple cider vinegar
• 5-7 Tbs Ice Water
• Mochiko rice flour for rolling

Procedure

1. Mix dry ingredients together.
2. In a food processor, add fats cut up into large pieces (about 1Tbs size) and pulse 15-20 times.
3. Add vinegar and pulse 5 times more.
4. Add water, holding back a Tbs or so, and pulse 10 times.
5. Add more ice water if needed.
6. The dough should feel very soft and somewhat sticky.
7. Scrape the dough out of the food processor and quickly pull it all together into a large ball about the size of a softball.
8. Divide the dough in half and wrap each half in plastic and form into a chubby disc about the size of a hockey puck.
9. Chill dough for 2 hours or up to 2 days.
10. Remove chilled dough from fridge.
11. Roll gently between two pieces of plastic wrap sprinkled well with Mochiko flour until it is about 1 inch larger than your pie pan or plate.
12. With the plastic still on, place the pin in the middle of the dough and drap the dough over the pin until both edges meet.
13. Carefully peel what was the bottom piece of plastic off.
14. Place the pin with dough in the center of the pan/plate and roll it off to the other side. You may need to help it along with your hand.
15. The remaining piece of plastic will now be on top.
16. If there are any rips or tears, carefully move them back together with your fingers on the plastic.
17. When all is relatively one, carefully remove the remaining piece of plastic.
18. Place prepared filling into pan and roll out the 2nd dough disc if you are making a double crusted pie.

Notes

You can substitute a mix of shortenings that add up to 1 cup. I have the best results with Earth Balance Buttery Stick (for flavor) and Crisco for tenderness. 45 minute prep time does not include 2 hours chill time in the fridge.

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Be Happy, Make Pie!

But, I got through it…as best I could…battered, bruised and hopefully a little wiser.
(Note to self: Never again date someone you meet on FB.)

So, after more than a year without a 4-legged friend, I was hoping that the right dog for me would come once again. I didn’t know when or where… just that I would be ready when the time was right. I wrote about this here when I told you about pie grads Annie and Michael from Chicago finding Greta for me. She’s been in training with them now for 6 weeks and…

Greta

…today I just made my travel plans to go to Chicago, meet her and bring her home to Pie Cottage!

I’m leaving Feb 1st and counting the days until then!